UNSEEN

FIVE

 She doesn't react the way I was expecting. I imagined her leaning ahead with interest, helping me crack the code to my imagination, explain to me what 'It's time now' meant, helping me figure out why my imaginary mother did what she did.

She doesn't do any of that. She seems shocked, and mildly irritated. I tell her I now understood why she wanted me to stay on my pills.

"Reece," she says, confused. "The pills you take are antidepressants. They're not meant for hallucinations. How come you never told me you saw things like these?"

This is when I figure she was the wrong person to talk to about my weirdness in the woods. Nobody is the right person to talk to about that.

"Because I've never had one like this before." It's not a lie. I see things, indeed. Never, however, have I seen one so real, so terrifying, so scarring. Silence fills the room. She's thinking of something. It looks like she's figuring out a way to tell me something I'm not ready to hear.

"At this point, I should inform you that schizophrenic behaviour is not my specialty."

I can't even keep my eyes open after the words leave her mouth. She thinks I'm crazy. I wonder, for minutes, what I did to deserve this treatment. I know the answer. When people ask you about your feelings, they don't mean your actual feelings, for they can't deal with what goes on in that fucked up head of yours. What they wish for is a simple "I'm fine", so that they can move on with their pathetic little lives. For reasons, I know I'm soon going to regret this.

The light dims out. She's asking me questions I don't want to answer.

"Don't worry, Reece. I'm going to be there with you. We just need some consultation and proper medication for you. I have a friend, Dr Tressman. Maybe, if he's free, he could....."

She picks up the phone and begins to dial. I know who Dr Tressman is. He's a psychiatrist. He gave a speech on the common mental disorders at school once. He legit treats crazy people, and Megan Lancaster intends to make me one of them.

I feel threatened. I pounce at her and grab the phone from her hand, disconnecting the call. She looks at me in horror, making me realise I have cleared all her doubts.

"I remember! I think it was a dream. I don't know, Miss Lancaster. I'm probably just really tired. There's no need to call anyone, I swear."

She didn't buy a word of it.

I don't want them to lock me up in a room, inject me with drugs and brainwash all that's in my head. Just the idea of ever being in a mental health facility destroys me. And anything that leads to it is a problem.

She's looking at me differently. She thinks...- knows I'm crazy. I've freaked out the only person who could've potentially cured me of my craziness. I've lost her. I can't come back here. It's either that or Tressman's lunatic asylum.

I shouldn't have talked. I should've done exactly what Liv asked me to do.

I should've.