Nyctophilia 🌪 Reddie

ii

Eddie sat playing with a blue stress ball that the therapist, Jade, had given him when he first started seeing her. She could tell Eddie was the least open to talk to her, so it gave him something else to focus on. Eddie didn't hate Jade, but he was bitter towards some of her questions.

"Where did we leave off?" Jade asked with her familiar gentle smile, pulling out a red notebook where she recorded Eddie's responses.

"We left off with you asking me personal questions that I didn't answer. As I do every single other week," Eddie hissed. He usually was kind to Jade, knowing she was doing her job, but he had been crying earlier and didn't feel like speaking all that much.

To his disappointment, Jade didn't even look phased. "I understand you're not a big fan of these questions. The Hive, as the others have said, was a closed place where no one could leave or talk about themselves. You're resorting back to how you acted when you lived there."

"No I'm not. Don't ever compare me to the fucking Hive," Eddie snarled, throwing his stress ball on the ground in anger.

"I'm not comparing you," Jade said, scribbling something down. "I'm saying that you were taught to be secretive and to hide yourself. You didn't get to be a normal teenager. You're in the mindset of an agent, not a teenager. I can tell you that most teens enjoy talking about their setbacks and getting someone to listen to them. Your friends were all like you when we started this process, but they've began to accept help. You don't want to."

Eddie slumped back in his seat. He liked to believe he was unreadable, but Richie had told him on several occasions that he was an open book, and Jade continuously proved it was true.

"I don't need help," Eddie said, crossing his arms and looking at his lap. "I'm not sick."

"I'm not saying you're sick, Eddie. You have been through a trauma, whether you want to believe it or not and you're constantly stuck in your head, having constant battles with yourself. All of your friends are worried about you. You're the only one who hasn't tried to move on. Even Bill, who went through a similar experience that you did, is trying to move on," Jade said, her expression one of pity.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Jade asked. She knew what he was getting at, but she had a plan to get him to open up.

"Like I'm some wounded animal. I'm not helpless."

Jade nodded, humming quietly to herself. "Does it bother you to be seen as helpless?" she asked, glancing up from her notepad to Eddie.

"Yeah, it does," Eddie answered in a way that showed that he thought it was obvious.

"Why is that? Most people don't mind being seen as vulnerable at some points. Especially when they're secretly asking for help."

Eddie shook his head. "I'm not secretly asking for help. I'm supposed to stay strong. Stronger than the others," he said, picking up the stress ball from the ground and squeezing it.

"They all seem just as capable as you, Eddie. Why do you need to be stronger?" Jade asked, trying to keep a poker face so Eddie felt like he had to defend himself. If he kept talking, he'd be able to trust her a bit more and reveal more about himself.

"Because I was their leader. It was my job to protect them and lead them. I need to be strong," Eddie said with an eye roll. He was surprised with how rude he was being, but he didn't stop being that way.

"Well, you're not with them. Eddie, I know you're hurting. The others have mentioned you lost your father. You almost lost your boyfriend. You thought you were going to be free but instead you're hated by the country and stuck in an underground base and forced to stay here by the government."

"Thanks for pointing out every issue in my life, I do appreciate it," Eddie said with a sarcastic tone. He rolled his eyes again and put his feet up on the couch he was settled on, leaning his head back.

"I'm doing it for a reason. It's my job."

"No offense, but I don't want to spill my guts to someone who's getting paid to sit hear and listen to my problems. I'm only here because it's required and my boyfriend would be pissy if I didn't."

Jade smirked. "I'm not getting paid, Eddie."

Eddie sat up and narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"I volunteered. I worked with soldiers and then I heard about the opportunity to help the survivors and unfairly prosecuted teenagers involved in the country wide explosions. I came here to help you. Not because it benefits me," Jade said, leaning back in her seat.

Eddie glared at her and leaned back on the couch once again. "Fine. You're doing this out of the kindness of your heart. If you're such a good person, why can't you realize I don't want to talk and leave me alone? Give Richie or Bill and extra session?"

"The only one in need of an extra session is you."

"Uh, excuse me?"

"You heard me."

Eddie glared at Jade, his firm, hard gaze only making Jade raise her eyebrows and chuckle, which pissed him off even more. At that point, Eddie decided to shut his mouth and refuse to talk. That'd show her.

Jade only smiled at his reaction. "Did you know that your friend Stan called me 'a useless slut that tries to relate to trauma to feel better about her own fucked up life' the first time we met?"

Eddie snickered at that. "Stan has a way with words."

"He called me that because I tried to discuss his father's betrayal and then suicide," Jade added.

"Makes sense," Eddie said, not understanding why Jade was wasting his time with a story about Stan being Stan. Eddie got to deal with Stan every day, it's nothing special.

"Did you also know that about ten minutes after he said that, he was crying after having told me every detail about his father's death that hurt him?"

Eddie narrowed his eyes, his laughing stopping abruptly. "Bullshit."

"It's true. It happened because he decided he wanted to open up. I know you're probably hurting the most and trying to carry the weight of the world on your back. Next time, can you try to let that go, just for an hour so we can have a real conversation?" Jade asked, standing up and opening the door.

Eddie sighed. "I'm not making any promises."

Jade smiled at him. "That would be too predictable. Have a nice night, Eddie."

"Stuck down here? No fucking way," Eddie replied, walking down the hall to the room with the only person he felt he could talk to.