After being abducted at the age of 3 and held for 6 years by a man she considered family, Mercedes life changed forever. Now at the age of 23, she'd finally gotten her life on track and started to enjoy the good things in life. The success, the mone...
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Sitting across from her therapist, Mercedes fiddled with the pillow she held on her lap while Dr.Wilcox waited for her to patiently start talking. Today was her first day back at therapy and already she was regretting it but she knew in order to get better, she needed to talk out the things that were eating her up inside.
"How about we start with how you been? Let's get you comfortable first and from there we could ease into your struggles over the past couple of months." Dr. Wilcox stared at her.
Mercedes shifted and looked up at her. "I've been struggling mentally and emotionally. I went to see James a few weeks ago and everyday since then I've been asking myself why did I do that? I've been drinking heavily, been having suicidal thoughts, and I've been pushing everyone I love away because I am damaged. I'm hurt because I lost everything in the matter months. My baby, my boyfriend, and the people who I thought was my family." She started to tear up. "I'm tired and I don't think anyone truly's understand how draining this has all been for me."
"Let's start with you going to see James. How did that go and then we can get into everything else that follows. Tell me how that conversation went." Dr. Wilcox coached her.
Mercedes looked down at the floor and thought back to the way James had stared at her. The way his body language was and how confident he looked sitting across from her with a smirk on his face. Mercedes could still feel him eyeing her body when she got up to leave.
"I-I started the conversation with asking him why. Why did he do it? Why did he have my parents killed the way he did? What was his reasoning?" Mercedes spoke as a tear slipped out of her eye. "H-he only started to laugh real loudly before his face just went cold and he'd told me they deserved it. He told me that it was his revenge and he was leaving at that." She frowned. "I'd asked him again only because I felt like that wasn't the answer I was looking for but he'd only given me that same look he'd give me before he beat me and in that moment I'd grew scared. I started to feel like the helpless little girl that was cooped up in the basement all those years."
"I think you need to heal." Dr.Wilcox stared at her. "You'll say that you've healed and that you're okay but every time something goes wrong in your life, you get sent back to the same nightmares and the same suicidal thoughts." She expressed. "You need to heal Mercedes. Really take the time to make peace with the things that have hurt you and caused you trauma. Scream, cry, let it all out until you stop going back to the scared little girl that was hurt her whole life."
Mercedes just nodded and wiped at her tears. "How do I work on doing that? I don't know who I am anymore. I never really knew who I was."
"Start doing things that you think you'd like. Start journaling your feelings, start taking trips and enjoying life. Start living in the present and stop letting life crisis revert you back to the past. That's the only way you'll truly heal."
After breaking down and crying, Mercedes had decided that she had enough for the day and had left. When she got into her car, she took a deep breath and reached under the seat for the bottle of Hennessy. When it was in her hands, she stared at it hard. Thinking about whether or not she should open it or down it.
