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Cassie didn’t blink as she studied the ghost of the young boy standing in the corner of her therapist’s office. She’d only been there a few minutes before he’d materialized, translucent and stoic. He brought a slight chill to the air. She’d been seeing him outside of her own bedroom walls more often as of late, but she still had no clue why. He had only spoken to her once, uttering the name Sarah Lennox, before returning to his silent watch of her everyday life.
His presence had become more comforting than not. After the ghost of Elizabeth Montgomery had replaced him, he had come and gone as he pleased, and she couldn’t help but look for him when he wasn’t there.
Where did he go when he wasn’t watching her? Did he haunt other people? Did he have other objectives to fulfill? She would ask him these questions every once in a while, but he never responded. He’d just stare at her until she went back about her day.
“Cassie?”
The voice of Cassie’s therapist, Dr. Rebecca Greene, brought her back into the present. The woman was in her fifties, with brown hair streaked with gray. She always dressed professionally in a monochrome pantsuit. She had at least three for every color of the rainbow. Her closet must’ve been so satisfying to look at.
Today, she wore a periwinkle blue pantsuit with a white tank top underneath. Cassie had seen at least three other blue pantsuits over the years, but this one was the palest. It made Cassie feel warm and light. It was the exact color of the Savannah sky on a cloudless summer day.
“Sorry,” Cassie said. “What were you saying?”
Dr. Greene’s smile was calm and serene. Her eyes sparkled behind her black-rimmed glasses. “I asked you how you were doing.”
“Oh.” Cassie laughed. “I’m sorry. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”
“What’s been going on?”
“Um.” Even after years of being with Dr. Greene, she sometimes felt strange about opening up. It was her fatal flaw. “I’ve been having this recurring nightmare.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
Cassie shifted in her seat, glancing back over at the ghost of the little boy. Was it for reassurance? She wasn’t sure. “It starts off with me driving a car. It’s not mine.”
Dr. Greene nodded her head.
“It’s nighttime, and I’m on the highway. I can’t steer the car. I keep drifting back and forth across the line, but no matter what I do, I can’t control it. Then I see people in the distance, just standing in the middle of the highway.”
“Do you recognize these people?”
Cassie nodded. “When I get closer, I see it’s my parents and my sister. My parents look like they do now, but my sister is about five or six years old. She’s pretty young.”
“Is your sister often young in your dreams?”
“I’m not sure.” How many times had she actually dreamed about her sister? “I don’t think so.”
“What happens next?”
“I get closer. It feels like the car is speeding up. I keep trying to step on the brakes, but nothing happens. I get so close that I can see the terror on their faces. My sister is crying and screaming. I try to swerve, but there’s no stopping the car. Right before I hit them, I wake up.”
“And how do you feel once you wake up?”
And how do you feel when… Dr. Greene had asked Cassie that kind of question thousands of times over the years, and yet it was always strange to analyze her own thoughts and feelings. She’d much rather keep her head down and carry on with life, but that didn’t fix any of her problems.
“Scared.” Cassie’s laugh sounded nervous, even to her own ears. “Terrified, really. Sad. I’m usually crying or sweating or both.”
“Anything e
lse?”
“Regret.”
“Hmm.” Dr. Greene wasn’t the type of therapist who kept a notepad in front of her to make notes on, but every once in a while, she’d make an affirming noise and pause, as if she were filing the information away in her mind. “Do you know why you feel regret?”
“Not really. I understand the fear and sadness, but not the regret. I tried everything I could to stop the car. It wasn’t my fault.”
Dr. Greene pushed her glasses further up her face. “So, as long as you do everything in your power to stop something bad from happening, you won’t feel any regret?”
