Risk It All (Chishiya X You)

therapy

You climbed the all too familiar stairs, one foot in front of the other. At first, you'd loathed the building, the colours ugly, the stairs too small and claustrophobic, the fake plants nothing but an annoyance taking up space but now you'd actually come to enjoy your time here. You'd opted to take evening appointments, the thought of watching a beautiful sunset just before having your session provided something akin to comfort

"Yn? You're early." Himari smiled as she held the door open for you. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well, I've only had two nightmares this week."

"That's amazing news." The therapist congratulates.

The rug in her office was soft under your shoes. "I guess."

"That doesn't sound too optimistic." She points out. "Today is our sixth-month review."

You had remembered her mid-week reminder, entirely dreading the session but still looking forward to the relief you usually feel after unloading your thoughts and feelings. "So..what does that mean?"

"As usual you're free to discuss whatever you'd like but I thought we could recap. We've been having two sessions a week for six months, and we've covered a lot of ground. Sometimes it does us reflect on that."

"I don't know where to start." You scratch the back of your neck.

She makes a few notes before looking back at you. "How about you start with what happened after you left the hospital? How did you feel about the trial? Have you spoken to Kuina and Ann lately?"

"I don't want to talk about after..after the hospital." It had been six months but some wounds were still too fresh. "The trial was a mess."

"What makes you say that?"

You huff thinking back to the entire ordeal. "We all had to give statements and get lawyers. They played clips of what they had recorded, it felt surreal to watch ourselves in the borderlands. I remember being escorted out because I was panicking, Kuina too. There were so many trials, all of the staff had to be tried, some took plea deals, some had claimed they were forced but we only had to diversely testify against Mira and Hana."

"So in your words what happened then? How do you feel looking back on it?"

"Mira was given a mental diagnosis that allowed her to evade being held accountable, she got off lightly, and just required treatment meanwhile everyone who she allowed to be a part of her and her sisters twisted little games was left with irreparable PTSD."

Himari leaned forward. "Understandably, you're angry, do you think that maybe what Mira did was due to her mental diagnosis?"

"No, nothing excuses what she did. Her sister is even worse."

"How so?"

"She was fine, mentally competent, she was 25 and was sick and twisted enough to do what she did to hundreds of people all over the country. During the trial they revealed that Mira and Hana's father had been a scientist, he believed that there was an answer for everything, that he could uncover exactly how and why people make the choices they do, he believed that trauma could be fixed, solved, created and used to shape human beings or whatever I don't even know. That's why she said she did it because of that, to finish what he started. They destroyed us, hurt us, killed us, petrified us and for what? To continue some pathetic family legacy, there has to be something more."

"You feel as though there has to be another reason?"

You throw your hands up in frustration. "Yes! I refuse to believe they did what they did just because of some stupid family connection."