Flashback

Chapter Four: Office Musings

[Jeremy]

As Emma left the room, I started thinking about my newest patient. I thought about the scars and realized that I should have known. It wasn't like I hadn't known what she would be like. I'd dealt with a couple of patients since I first got my degree, and even before as part of projects.

But what was different about her? Maybe I was staring too much and was plainly overthinking the whole situation.

Sure, I'd known that the scars would be there. I'd been told about her before the meeting. I'd been briefed on the case and everything about her, from her whereabouts, to that particular kidnapper gang.

I racked my brain for some flicker of understanding. Something that would point to for once not feeling detached, the way my patients have been. She was, in fact, a new and absolutely different case. It was presumed that she would be like this; skittish, nervous, bruised. The bruises were the first thing I'd noticed when she entered the room.

I was back in my office, back from escorting her to her penthouse room, leaning back in the leather recliner and absent mindedly swinging it occasionally. I closed my eyes and pictured that moment again. I often did that - picturing the way people entered my office. How they reacted to the environment, so that I could later add it to their report files. However, this somehow felt different. I didn't know exactly why, but it just did. I shut my eyes and pictured the newest patient walking through the doorway:

She had poked her head into the office, opening the door just enough to look inside. Her hair was a curly curtain of red around a scared and cautious face, parted in the middle. Her eyes were dark and flitting around to look at the space. She had entered slowly, shutting the door as asked of her. I had kept my eyes focused on the laptop, reading up on her case one last time before our first session would begin. She had then cleared her throat. At that, I had motioned towards the room and the bean bags, and had hoped she won't mind that I kept the space friendly and comfortable. A lot of patients had asked for comfort previously; the entire staff looked down upon it.

After a while, I had looked up to find the girl's eyes wandering over the pictures on the front wall of the office. I noticed she was wearing a blue dress and room slippers. Nothing on her scarred wrists or around her neck. Just plain dressing.

I opened my eyes and took in a deep breath. She was a girl coming into the age of womanhood. Her beauty would have been undeniable, unavoidable even, before her 'leave', as she preferred for it to be called. I could see that. What happened to her should not have happened, but it did, now making her a patient at this institute. It was now my responsibility to bring her back into the real world, help bring back her trust. I began to wonder if she had ever been to a person like me before – a psychologist. The thought was not possible so I set it aside.

A sharp knock sounded on the office door.

"Come in." I called out from my place at the revolving chair, straightening up a bit. A servant entered with a letter on a tray. I honestly considered all this fanciness slightly annoying, considering my own background of frivolities and grandeur, something I'd hoped to escape when I drove off here in the family car.

The letter had a gold and red seal, that of the institute, indicating it was from one of the higher level authorities. I picked up the letter and read it to find that that I was being summoned for interrogation on the first session in the CEO's office immediately, a necessity and rule for all members of the staff. I thanked and dismissed the servant, and followed him out of the office, going my way and climbing the stairs to the penthouse.