Forces Beyond The Grave

6.4

"Jay!"

Jay turned to the direction he heard his name, seeing Will walk over to him and Patrick. 

"Hey, are you finished?" 

"How did it go?" Patrick asked. 

Will sighed as he stopped in front of them. "I just finished up with Dr Monroe, long story short he's sticking with his diagnosis." 

"How did she do with the test?" 

"Not good, I actually think we have a bigger problem than we realised with her brain function." "What? Why? What happened?" 

"Basically speaking, there's a system inside the brain called the paralimbic system, it houses the amygdala, it's where all emotion is processed and acted upon, and for every question we asked that would usually elicit an emotional response, her paralimbic system didn't even light up. I talked to Dr Monroe, we don't think it's just sociopathy, usually sociopaths can still feel things like anger, upset, irrationality, things would trigger the paralimbic system. Honestly we don't even think hers is working, there was no sign of brain activity in her amygdala. When she was asked about her feelings for you Patrick she said she loved you and you get under her skin sometimes but you're all that she has left, and she gave a perfectly emotional response to being asked if she misses her mother, so she knows what to say, but there was no emotion present in any of her answers."

Will watched Patrick pace back and forth as Jay's eyes narrowed. "So...what, her brain is broken? She can mimic emotional responses and she knows what she's supposed to say, but there's no feeling going into any of it?" 

"Pretty much. And to be honest, it doesn't look like there's been any activity there for a long time, that part of her brain is slightly smaller than it should be for a girl of her age, and since we know that she could feel everything before," 

"Then we know that there was no developmental problem and an external source has caused her amygdala to shrink." Patrick interrupted, Will nodding in agreement. 

"Exactly. We don't know if it's gonna get progressively smaller, I guess we'll just have to keep checking every few months or so, but everything else is functioning fine, and she doesn't seem to be having any adverse effects in her physical ability, it's just the emotional ability that's lacking." 

"So you don't know if it's permanent?" Jay asked hopefully. 

Will shook his head. "Only time will tell."