𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞. | "oh, how you ache for gentle hands and the smooth waves of calming voices. i am no messiah of these things but perhaps my warmth will be the soothing medicine you have yearned for in the illusions of familiar faces."
一 in which...
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07 | seven
THE ROOM SMELLED LIKE FRESH COFFEE AND blooming roses. Floral zing intertwined with smooth, rich coffee beans, and it wrapped the space in a warm, gentle aroma. It was a strange combination, but for Aurora, it was nothing but soft familiarity.
The psychiatrist sat perched in her leather armchair, eyes a set of turbulent skies as they gazed onward, the file of the current patient resting in her lap. Her legs were crossed, and her right foot was tapping the ground slightly as if sending morse code. But unlike the previous days where her eyelids felt as if they were weighed down with cement, her fingertips did not tremble.
It was astonishing how tenacious the humancondition truly was. Truth be told, there was a breaking point to any material or substance in the universe, but unlike them, there was something about being a human being that made our species incredibly able to survive in conditions most unforgiving. While our physiques appeared to be vulnerable to external pain and breakage—which are mostly remediable—, the psychological and internal networks of consciousness were incredibly susceptible to the most intense of ache and utter misery. Those things that weren't so curable with medicine. But no matter the circumstance, there was nearly always a way the human body could heal and mend, recover and live on. Even if the solution was not immediately recognizable.
That was what they said in the medical discipline. But the thing is, they failed to take into account the human spirit.
There was a soft smile tracing Aurora's lips as she spoke with the current figure sitting before her. The soft couch that accounted for her patients during her sessions was occupied by one small frame, one of a twelve-year-old girl, who appeared very calm for her age.
"How was your week, Anna?" Aurora asked, her voice a light breeze.
The young girl before her offered a small grin, showing a set of slightly crooked teeth. Her feet barely touched the ground from where she sat on the couch, and the seating seemed to swallow her whole, but yet there she was. Someone who should not have born any weight on her shoulders, but was sitting in a university psychiatric wing in front of one of the top therapists nonetheless. "Uneventful."
"How so?" Aurora inquired further, the pencil in hand sprawling out a quick not on the file.
"I don't really know how to explain it," she shrugged slightly. "I went to school, did homework. Slept. That's pretty much it.Veryuneventful."
Aurora's gaze did not waver, her expression a perfect balance of easy friendliness and blank professionalism. "And, do you think that's a bad thing?"
It all seemed to be too much to be making up a conversation with a twelve-year-old, but the world worked in ways it shouldn't and Aurora was left with no choice but to discuss such chaos with someone who was not supposed to be affected by such things.
