Red Room

8

Meanwhile, Moloch got acquaintanced to the new person in charge of his therapy sessions: a young lady called Agnes Joens. She was nice and young, probably in her early thirties. Moloch got along with her pretty well, but she couldn't be compared to Mr. Ek.

Only after a few days of therapy, Ms. Joens concluded: "I don't see why you're still stuck in here. You seem to have already got over your trauma. Honestly, I have the feeling I'm talking with somebody 100% sane."

It was true that they were actually chatting like buddies during their encounters. The boy had no strange reaction to anything whatsoever. Any further therapy sessions were pointless in Agnes' point of view and he no longer had a reason to stay there. On the contrary, he had to go out and explore!

Moloch was going through mixed feelings about Ms. Joens' conclusion. On one hand, he couldn't wait to experience real life and finally be a normal teenage boy. But on the other hand, being let go in the world was like being thrown to the wolves. He was practically going to be sent away with nothing but the clothes he had on. Where was he going to stay if he had nowhere to return to?

She immediately noticed that the boy was worrying. He wasn't that good at hiding feelings.

"Did I say anything wrong?", she inquired, sounding rather apologetically, "You look uncomfortable."

"No, I'm fine.", he shyly answered.

"The expression of your face tells me something else. Come on, say if I did or said something that bothers you.", Agnes took both of his hands in hers and looked him square in the eye, "I want us to be friends."

He shook his head, "Really, you didn't do anything wrong."

She knew that he was scared about being discharged from the asylum. As a psychiatrist, she had to know her patients well and that included their background. That he'd been abandoned at birth and had lived in orphanages eversince then was no new information to her. But she wanted to hear that from him personally. She wanted him to be completely sincere with her, to show her he trusted her.

"You're afraid to be discharged.", the psychiatrist stated after some time, when she realized there was no other way to get the words out of his mouth.

Moloch nodded, embarassed.

"You see, I have no parents.", he reasoned, "And I have no idea where to go. From what I understood, when you turn 18 you're considered an adult and the orphanage won't acommodate me there anymore and yeah..."

Agnes let him finish talking, although she knew those things very well. She had to show him she was listening.

"I heard you still have one more year until you graduate hogh school. Am I right?", she asked.

"Yup."

"Well, you could move in with me until you finish high school. Afterwards you'll go to university where you'll be accommodated in a kind of hostel, you'll find a job and things will get easier. But until then, I'm willing to help."

Moloch's eyes widened. Somebody pinch him, he had to be dreaming! Agnes had just said he wanted to offer him a home. Him, the weirdo everybody wanted to get rid of! That would surely have a special place in his top of the kindest things somebody had ever told him.

"My God, are you serious?!", he burst out. At that point, he couldn't care less about manners.

The lady smiled warmly and giggled, "Of course, silly! Pack your things tonight, I'll come pick you up tomorrow."

He nodded eagerly.

The process of packing began right after she left and he could barely sleep that night because of the enthusiasm. Moloch couldn't wait to see what it was like to live like a normal 18 years old boy, live in an actual house, go to a regular school and socialize.