Desperate sobs mixed with frantic pleas were heard behind me as I reached the top of the stairs.
“Haelyn, wait!” Talia practically begged.
I paused briefly, glancing back over my shoulder.
“Talia, do yourself a favor and calm the hell down. Nobody’s coming to save you. All that screaming isn’t changing anything except my patience. I’ll have you know that the more difficult you become, the uglier this situation can get. And right now, your survival depends entirely on my mood. You don’t want me waking up one day and deciding you’ve become morestressfulthan useful,” I warned softly.
The fear that spread across Talia’s face after that was immediate and raw. Her lips parted slightly while her eyes glossed over with panic.
It was then she probably realized that wasn’t just a kidnapping. At any moment, she could become a problem I decided to stop dealing with.
Good.
Message received.
I shut the basement door between us and locked it.
Afterward, I adjusted my purse and continued on with my day. Sitting around entertaining panic attacks wasn’t exactly high on my priority list.
***
Two days later, I sat across from Dr. Loomis with my legs crossed neatly and my hands resting in my lap while he reviewed paperwork from my release file.
“So,” he said after a moment, finally looking up at me. “How are you settling into the apartment?”
I offered a soft smile. “It’s… quiet.”
He lowered the file slightly and peered at me over the rim of his glasses. “Tooquiet?”
“No. Quiet feels safe.”
He nodded slowly, making a note.
“And how have things been going since your release? Do you feel like you’re coping well with being back in the real world again?”
“I’m managing,” I shrugged lightly. “Then again, it’s only been a week, so I don’t even know if that’s enough time to really answer that honestly yet. But with me not having any family or friends, I mostly stay to myself.”
Dr. Loomis set his pen down. “Haelyn, it’s normal to crave solitude after spending so much time in an environment where you were under constant supervision, rarely felt relaxed, or mentally at ease. But…toomuch isolation can also become dangerous. Loneliness has a way of making unhealthy thoughts sound reasonable after a while. Human beings need some level of connection, even when they convince themselves they don’t.”
My face stayed neutral, but I listened as he continued.
“There’s a difference between protecting your peace and disappearing into yourself. One heals you, and the other slowly distorts reality. I’d really like you to consider finding some form of healthy support outside of these sessions… perhaps a support group, community activities, or even part-time work eventually. Structure and human interaction matter more than people realize.”
With all due respect… fuck no, Dr. Loomis.
I wasn’t a “join a support group and make friends” type of person. Willowgate had already forced enough of that on me.
Sitting in freezing rooms with strangers and talking about my feelings for an hour straight felt less like therapy and more like psychological punishment. Half the patients lied, the other half looked one inconvenience away from climbing the wallslike Spider-Man, and the staff sat there fake-nodding with those little clipboards as if they weren’t mentally ranking us from “doing okay” to “might fight the vending machine by lunch.” You couldn’t tell who was genuinely healing and who was just saying whatever sounded sane enough to earn extra pudding cups and outside time. After a while, the whole thing started to feel less therapeutic and more like a room full of emotionally damaged people auditioning for stability.
If I didn’t think Dr. Loomis would’ve had my pretty ass dragged right back behind locked doors the second I started going off in his office, I probably would’ve told him exactly where he could’ve shoved those support groups and community circles.
Instead, I nodded slightly and forced a thoughtful expression onto my face.
“That doesn’t sound too bad. Maybe a support group or something small to ease myself back into social settings again. I’ll definitely look into it.”
Dr. Loomis’s demeanor turned noticeably stern, as he leaned back slightly in his chair.
“Have you been taking your medication consistently since your release?”
