Contest Entries

#imagerycontests 3

The Progression of Imagination

"The medication you gave her isn't working!" Two pairs of eyes were drawn to the prescription as it was slammed down on the cluttered desk with force. The third pair of eyes, belonging to the man who had performed the abrupt action, were ablaze and could only see the woman who had done this to his daughter. "They make her worse! She's been having... like, hallucinations."

"They're not- I'm not... I know you don't see it but it's real." His daughter gingerly reached forwards and picked up the bottle from among all the papers, the pink pills rattling inside it. "These tablets aren't making me hallucinate."

Alan Regan was doing a good job at converting emotion where he stood. Strong and upright, he had inches over his daughter and feet over the woman who sat, seeming almost to shrink back under his towering figure. He knew how to make himself look big, because over the years those who mattered to him only seemed to get smaller. Inside, he knew it was happening to him too, but he refused to be consumed from the inside out. While he told himself that the darkness around him came only from around him and couldn't touch him, he knew it emanated from inside her. And he hated that it touched him, contorted not only her into something she wasn't, but him too. So he stood unflinching and possessed by rage, because it was better than allowing whatever enraptured his daughter to contort and wilt him. It was strange, though, because it didn't do that to her. It seemed to do the opposite; it put a new liveliness in her eyes which made her brighter, gave her something of substance. Yet that same liveliness scared Alan, because it had complete control of the girl; enhanced all her decisions; made any human emotions she had less human, which allowed her to do things human consciousness shouldn't have let her do.

"She almost- god," he put his hand to his head for a moment, then composed himself and looked the therapist dead in the eye. "Doctor Macey, with all due respect, I cannot have my daughter deteriorating my wife, almost killing herself and forcing me to pay for medication that only intensifies all of the above. I don't think your therapy sessions are working."

"No, Dad-" the girl tried. She knew her dad resented what she was and the pills may not make any difference but he had to know that he couldn't take the therapy from her. Doctor Macey was the only person she could reach who might actually listen.

"Put it down, Liana, and-"

"Mr Regan, if you'd just stop for a minute and sit down-"

"No, I'm sorry, I-"

"Dad, listen to her-"

"That's okay Liana, he'll speak to me."

"No, I'm sorry, I won't. Let's go, Liana."

As he took her shoulder and turned her towards the door, Doctor Macey stood to make one final attempt. "Mr Regan, I-!"

The door burst open and every head turned fast enough for whiplash to be the only thing all of them might have had in common. "Liana."

It took everyone a second to process what had just happened but Liana was first. "Kyle?" Far from the aphrodisia one might have expected to find in her voice, it was full only of doubt.

"Him!" Alan yelled, exploding with desperate anger as all seemed to come to him in a bubble of realisation. "It's him who put all this in her mind!" he exclaimed, turning desperately to Macey. She looked bewildered, to say the least, and didn't seem able to make sense of the situation. Kyle, for a man of twenty-one, did look younger than he was. Maybe it was his hair that had gone too long without cutting, or his big dark eyes. They looked like they'd seen more than a man twice his age, and yet still yearned to see more than a young and curious child strives to see. His plain clothes were always compensated for by his pretty face, and the wild look about him that simply couldn't be ignored. He seemed surprised to find what he deemed as Liana's over-protective father in the room - clearly the only thought on his mind had been her. While her father continued to spurt accusations towards Kyle and profanities that were having no effect, Liana turned to him to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing. Before he could reply, Doctor Macey got a hold of herself and tried to exude some of the authority she was supposed to have in this room.