Learning to Trust

Chapter 54 - How

Chapter 54 - How

Third Person

"Tris. Listen to me. It's okay. Shh, it's okay dear. We can help you now that we know you can't see." Marie sits on the floor next to Tris who trembles profusely on the small mattress on the floor.

Dr. Norton walks into the room and his eyes widen. Marie found him earlier just as Tris began to break into this panic attack and told him it was bad. He has seen her in bad shape before, but not in a while. She hasn't had a mental breakdown this strong.

"Tris. You have to calm down. Your heart isn't as strong as it should be from stopping so many times in the past few months. You're okay. Just breathe, Tris." Ken gets down to her level on the ground; something they figured out that she is more comfortable with than if you stand over her.

"Is something hurting you, Tris? Are you in pain?" Marie says, lightly brushing Tris's hair back with her hand.

Tris begins hyperventilate, breathing short breaths and wheezing.

"Tris. Tris, tell me what's wrong. You're going to pass out if you keep this up. If your heart stops one more time you might not make it like you have in the past. Match my breathing." Marie says, her voice low as she exaggerates her slow breathing pattern.

"I'm going to call Four. He said he was going to come back later." Ken says standing and leaving the room.

'Why is she in the MIU if whenever something goes wrong, he just calls Four to come fix her? She could get that kind of assistance in my part of the hospital, and have access to heart monitors and oxygen masks.' Marie thinks to herself.

"Marie. Thank you for your help, but now I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Sometimes the best option when she gets like this is to leave her alone." Ken says, reentering the room.

Marie wants to snap on him, telling him he's got everything wrong, but she doesn't. She knows yelling or any kind of abrupt noise would make Tris even worse, so she silently stands to leave.

Tris lies all alone in her room as she shakes and stares at the ceiling. The room has grown cold again because Ken turned off the radiator, thinking that it could've been what set her off.

Feeling to venerable in the open space, Tris scrambles toward the corner by the radiator; the tightest corner in the room. She squeals when her arm touches the still slightly warm metal.

Moving by her front arms and right leg, she moves diagonally across the square room to the corner without a radiator.

She squeezes herself into the corner, trying to bend her leg in the cast to fit her balled-up form. Hot tears stream down her face as she lays her head on the wall, giving up and leaving her leg out straight while her right knee is up by her chest. She looks around, seeing the whole room except for the door which is tucked down a tiny hallway that has a locked bathroom in it.

She sits there for hours, her head on the wall as she stays tightly packed in the corner. Images of someone barging into the room and beating her fill her mind, never allowing her heart rate to slow.

Tobias

I leave the meeting I had at the Main Building and head to my apartment. I'm greeted my Indy as his almost fully grown form jumps up on me to lick my face. I laugh, picking up his fluffy brown and black form as I walk across the living room to grab my phone where it was charging. I don't look at it as I put it in my pocket and grab Indy's leash. I set him down and clip it into his collar, walking down the hall to my mother's apartment.

"Let's go to Mom's, Indy!" I say and his tail wags excitedly.

Indy knows the way as he walks just a little ahead of me.