Cracks Within

Chapter 21

Thursday 8th June 2017 (PRESENT DAY)

Everything is black. My Mom's voice fades away. I prepare myself mentally for the end. "Anna!" I hear my Mom shouting my name. "Doctor, help her, she's drowning!"

Suddenly, a pair of hands grasp around the tops of my arms and pulls me out of the bath. My head falls as I splutter. Crying, my Mom runs over to me, holding me. Tightly.

"Mom," I croak. "Get off me, now."

She silently releases me and moves back. I lift my head and try to sit up, using the wall for support. I notice my parents staring at me.

"Wait..." I say, slowly. "Why are you here? I haven't spoken to you since I was nineteen. Why are you here? In my house? WHY?!" I shout the last word, confused at why they were here.

Dr Leway bends down until he's face to face with me.

"Anna, why did you lie in the bath, fully clothed?" he says, worriedly.

I tilt my head. "Marshall, how can you not remember Sam dying? I told you, I found a note and I was the reason he died. I had to pay for what I had done. Now, why are my parents here?! They left me to move away, I haven't seen them in twenty-five years, I thought they were dead!"

My Mom wails in the corner as my Dad holds her for support, his face stony.

"Why do you think that? We've never left you." my Dad says, in a worried tone.

Dr Leway sighs. "Anna, I've told you before. You have the most amazing imagination. Truly, the most creative mind I've ever treated. However, none of this is real. You've been here since you were seven years old. You're now twenty-one. You have to let go of this fantasy that you've created."

I look at him with a confused look. "Are you saying this because my parents are in the room? Marshall, I'm forty-four, they don't care who I'm with." I stand up and walk over to Dr Leway and try to wrap my arms around him. He pushes me away.

"Are you joking?!" I scream. "Why are you acting like this?!"

"Anna!" Dr Leway shouts. "You are my patient, not my lover. You are being treated for schizophrenia, depression and psychotic symptoms. You have dreamt this entire world since you were seven."

"No!" I lash out at Dr Leway. Two strong orderlies grab me as I try to hurt Dr Leway and inject me with a sedative. Everything starts to blur. I see Dr Leway, my Mom and three nurses all staring at me as I fade away into the darkness.

My eyes snap open. Restraints cover me from head to toe. I hear someone breathing.

"I know someone's there." I call out. "I can hear you breathe."

"That, you can. Anna, we need to talk about your deterioration. Recently, you've been worse. You've written down these dates, almost like a diary, and conjured up these tales. I'm impressed. However, why do you think that they're real? That what you've written is your reality?"

"They are real. You know they are. Marshall, we've had an amazing life together. You know we have."

Dr Leway shakes his head sadly. "No, Anna. There's no us. There's no Sam, no Nina, no Amy, no Lee and no children. You've been here for fourteen years and you've made these people up. The past that you've written for yourself isn't real, Anna. The future you created, isn't real. You've been living out of these stories- chapters, even- since you were eleven years old and they're not ending. Each chapter, if you will, is more dangerous than the next. Your story isn't real. It's an escape from your real life. That's why you put yourself through so much pain, Anna. Or, yourself in this book." He holds up a battered notepad filled with ripped out paper. "This book is who you want to be, or what you think you are. This is not you. This is fiction."