「 The Professor & I 」VOLUME II

(287) Hypnotherapy

Charles' POV

I slumped into the office chair, covering my mouth with a palm. My eyes stung from holding back the tears that threatened to rush and my body trembled, wrestling to achieve the same task. My boggled mind, incapacitated by an overwhelming influx of information, failed entirely to function apart from continuously repeating Karen's staggering revelation.

It was found that Lynn's condition was far more complex than all of us had initially anticipated.

During the consultation, she exhibited absolute uneasiness in sharing the explicit details of her daily struggles, not to mention the exact description her confounded emotions. As such, Karen proposed to conduct a mild hypnotherapy for Lynn in order to further analyze her situation and Lynn willingly obliged, recognising a futile trip otherwise.

Although Karen had practiced extreme caution when luring out Lynn's troubled subconscious, the frantic disarray of rage, grief, shame and despair that lurked in an obscure portion of her was still unleashed as an incredibly unmanageable mess.

The countless tragedies of our past emerged as the main bulk of what rambled on from Lynn's volatile confession and the tormenting anguish that invariably accompanied tenaciously flooded out, together with a perpetual flow of tears.

Incoherence rapidly governed Lynn as she was swamped by merciless pangs of misery but Karen successfully squeezed in a brief study before Lynn's composure completely faltered and her findings were unexpectedly pessimistic.

Stryker's brazen abduction, sadistic confinement and evil manipulation, originally hypothesised as the root causes of her disorder, were all determined as mere triggers upon Karen's preliminary examination. Instead, it was the psychological damage Lynn suffered in all previous ordeals that emerged as the true source of her illness.

Tossed autonomously into a secluded part of her brain once superficially healed, the deep wounds, unwittingly suppressed, stayed buried until our recent predicament ruthlessly unearthed them again and they resurfaced crushingly, drowning her in fear too intimidating to handle.

Obviously identifying the precarious environment as items began vibrating in progressively vigorous magnitudes, Karen immediately snapped Lynn back to reality but it did not serve to appease her utterly harassed soul. Her manic hysteria persisted and Lynn wept frenziedly as various objects started to swirl turbulently around the area.

Hurriedly, Karen approached, intending to restrain her, but Lynn violently retaliated and I could only imagine the true intensity of her scream that actually escaped the supposedly soundproof room as a potent shriek.

Without further choice as furniture hovered treacherously in mid air, Karen decisively plunged a dose of tranquilizer into Lynn's blood, effectively dousing her frantic behaviour, and everything that was floating crashed to the floor in the same instance.

Fortunately, Jean had elected to give Karen due warning of Lynn's rampant telekinesis upon my request, allowing her to remain sufficiently calm and the uncommonly tricky scene to be amply contained. Most importantly, both of them were able to circumvent the accident unscathed, albeit leaving Lynn severely sedated.

Despite her drowsy state, Lynn heaved unstable breaths that only further attested the immense agitation that bolted through her and I sighed, an obstinate drop trickling from my eye, as I recalled the wretched sight.

"Mr. Xavier, do you need some time alone?" Karen offered in a cautious tone.

"No, I'm fine," I croaked, hastily drying my eyes.

"And please, just call me Charles," I insisted, flashing a transient smile at her who was sitting on the opposite side of the table between us.

"Alright, Charles. Apart from the source, I've come to understand that intimacy has become a serious problem lately. But I think you'll agree, she's in no shape to learn to cope with that today," Karen revealed in a solemn tone and all I could do was to absorb the painful words as I gave her a cheerless nod.