First off this chapter is dedicated to mercurous for all the help you've given to this noob and for making me a great banner for my story. Thanks a bunch and keep helping us little guys.
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When Max's eyes opened he saw that ever present bright white light again. He dimly noticed wires jutting out from all angles, they made him feel like a fly stuck in a spiders web, he also felt similarly restrained. The normal confusion had faded to a dull lethargy. He look up the best that the contraption strapped to his head would allow and noticed two shadowy figures at the foot of his bed.
Max blinked a time or two and realized it was Dr.Willis and Dr.Ellsworth, they hadn't notice he was awake, they were deep in conversation. He lay his head back and feigned sleep so he could focus on their words which were thick and muffled in his ears.
"That session went very well. The combination of my drugs and your machine, cranked why down by the way, have shown very positive results in the post traumatic stress he was suffering." Dr.Willis said handing a slim profiled tablet to Dr.Ellsworth and pointed at something or other on the screen. "See, the scans here shows the activity in this section of his brain have slowed and I believe that his eval will show a complete reversal of his P.T.S.D."
"Yes, Eva, but we still have his anger issue to address. Its his anger that worries me, it seems to be the most deeply rooted, I assure you this problem goes back way before his deployment or even back to his childhood. It's going to be much harder to dig deep enough to remove that tree stump." Dr.Ellsworth dictated to his colleague, turning now to glance over at Max, who continued to feign sleep. He removed his little half circle reading glasses and sid them into his front shirt pocket. "Deep indeed." He whispered, a distant stared frozen on his face.
Eva Willis walked over to the side of Max's bed and fiddled distractedly with the machine around his head. She stared out the window overlooking god only knows what, Max had yet to glimpse that view, with an almost dreamy look in her eyes. She turned suddenly to face the tall, older man, still standing at the end of the bed and said with an astonishingly tangible vigour, " This is doable, it's almost assuredly going to work. I think with one more dose of the wiltrabsamine and a even smaller dose of this do-dad," she hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the I.D.T machine and continued," We will have a positive human trial. He won't end up like the others." This last part she breathed out, no more then a whisper.
"Well I hope so because if he does end up like the other subjects, not only will we lose our funding and never be able to work in this field again, but more then likely we'll be imprisoned." Ellsworth replied and cleared his throat. When he began again his voice was sprinkled with a health dose of pride. "This is our last chance to prove our Dream Therapy works, the culmination of years of research and many sleepless nights, and to show it doesn't just propel people deeper into insanity or even worse, in the case of subject two, put them into a drug induced coma." William Ellsworth finished his speech by drawing his hand through is white hair, letting out a long coffee scented sigh and returning his gaze to the tablet in his long bony hand and tapping it a few times.
Max was encouraged by the sound of fear and compassion in Dr.Ellsworth's voice. He really seemed to want this to work but, he was filled with emotion and determination at what Eva said next.
She must have notice Max was awake because she lay one hand on this arm and bent to look him in the eye when she spoke. "Hi Max, your doing fine, I've talked to your wife and assured her this was going to go well and not to worry. I believe it too, you were chosen for this because you are strong and determined and you have a reason to want to succeed. This will be the final treatment, so let the sleep wash over you like a slowly rolling ocean, relax this will be over soon."
That made Max think about Sarah on their wedding night as Dr.Ellsworth walked over and punched a few buttons on the machine. Max lay his head back down, thoughts of Sarah and Lucas swam in the slowly rolling ocean of his mind. He winked one time at Dr.Willis and closed his eyes. Just before he fell asleep, it might have been his mind playing tricks on him or maybe his imagination but he swore that he heard the angelic laughter of a little girl mixed with the sole rattling roar of the devil. Then nothing.
YOU ARE READING
Dream Therapy
General Fiction"Dreams have always expanded our understanding of reality by challenging our boundaries of the real, of the possible." -Henry Reed Ex-army Ranger Max was angry and depressed. Mental illness plagued him. Now he's stuck inside his own dreams with only...
