The Eighth Gate

0 | Little Problem

PROLOGUE

Mary had a little problem

“Mary.”

Little problem

“...Mary.”

Little problem

“Mary."

Mary’s wandering eyes snapped back to the source of the insistent call. “Huh?”

Mary had a little problem

Dr. Dashner expelled a heavy sigh, settling back into her cushioned leather seat. “I really wish you’d pay more attention during our sessions, Mary. You know we only get a limited time together.”

“I’m sorry,” Mary mumbled. “I…”

She was delusional.

A steady silence hung in the air, Mary’s words faltering at the edge of her tongue.

Dr. Dashner sat up once again, straightening her back. She scribbled a few notes onto her clipboard before resting it on her lap, over her slim, crossed legs. The window beside them bathed the psychologist in a soft, golden aura that made her platinum locks shine. Her green eyes, hidden behind the glare of her sun-struck glasses, lifted up to Mary’s.

And everywhere that Mary went

“You...?” she prompted, cocking a blonde eyebrow.

Mary went

Mary bit her lip. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Mary went

“Well, that’s the beauty of our sessions, isn’t it? You have my word that I will never judge you, and that I will never share our conversations with any outsiders, no matter what.” Dr. Dashner smiled warmly. “Go on, try me.”

Mary hesitated, fidgeting uncomfortably in her leather seat.

And everywhere that Mary went

“I think, I…” she began, her eyes darting nervously from left to right once more. “I think I saw a…a—“

She saw a little—

“—ghost.”

lamb.

Dr. Dashner blinked once, pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her slender nose, stifled yet another sigh. A small smile crept up the edges of her deep red lips. “Mary,” she began patiently, a trace of scorn laced lightly into her words, “we’ve been through this already. There is no such thing as—“

“It’s been following me,” Mary rushed out, blue eyes wide. She couldn’t bear to hear her psychologist finish that statement, couldn’t handle being told that the things she heard and saw—the things she had believed in her entire life—were nothing but lies conjured up by the illnesses of her own mind.

It followed her to school one day

School one day

School one day

Dr. Dashner’s lips twisted into a concerned frown, all ounce of playfulness fleeing her soft facial features. “Mary, have you been taking your medication? Be honest, now.” When her patient responded with wandering eyes and trembling lips and stiff shoulders, the psychologist shook her head, evidently disappointed as she jotted down a few more notes onto her plastic clipboard.

Then she added— softly, so as to not harm Mary in her fragile emotional state—, “Your schizophrenia won’t get any better if you don’t take the proper medications, Mary. Neither will your depression.”

It followed her to school one day

“Please,” Mary begged, gripping the edge of her leather seat; her nails, bitten down to the stubs, could hardly latch onto the material. She squeezed her eyes tightly, those ever-present voices whispering incomprehensible words in her ears, threatening to drown out the entire world. “Please. You have to believe me. It’s—he’s been following me ever since that day.”

She thought she was being stalked

A sparkle of curiosity trickled into Dr. Dashner’s irises, catalyzed by a sudden new revelation—a small piece to add onto the workings of a complicated puzzle—dished out by her typically tight-lipped, stubbornly silent patient.

She leaned forwards, interested in what Mary finally trusted her enough to talk about. At last, it seemed that she was going to have something to work with after months of patient conversations that led to nowhere.

“Ever since what day, Mary?” she asked carefully. “Do you think you can tell me who it is you’re talking about?”

Mary dropped her eyes, planting them on the floor, tightening her white-knuckled grip on her seat.

Dr. Dashner leaned even closer to Mary; so close that she nearly fell off her chair. “Mary?” she inquired softly, willing for her patient to meet her steady gaze. “Would you like to talk about it? It helps.”

“He’s haunting me,” she whispered, her unblinking gaze glazing over as she continued to stare down at the polished floor. “He—“

“Who, Mary?” Dr. Dashner was beginning to show signs of frustration—something that was considered completely unprofessional and looked down upon by those in her field. Shame filled her, and she took a steadying breath. Her next statement would be bold, mostly because this subject was an extremely sensitive one to her patient. Yet she had to try. “Is it Noah, Mary? Are you referring to the day he passed away?”

Mary’s eyes snapped up at the mentioning of Noah’s name. Wide, clear as the sky, blue as the ocean—and filled with unmistakable horror. Her twitching lips parted and for a moment Dr. Dashner held her breath, hoping that the look on Mary’s face was one of insight, of understanding, of yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.

Yet the only sound that escaped past Mary’s dry lips was a loud, continuous scream.

The lamb made Mary scream and shout

And Mary screamed—

Scream and shout

—and shouted—

Scream and shout

—and thrashed around in her seat, as if attempting to fend something off. She scratched at her skin, knotted her fingers in her stringy brown hair; her chair slid with a violent scraping noise as Mary sprung off it and crawled beneath Dr. Dashner’s desk, folding her knees up to her chest, all the while screaming and shouting for him to get away, to stay away, that she was sorry that it had happened the way it had.

The lamb made Mary scream and shout—

“They won’t go away,” Mary cried shakily, hysterically, rocking back and forth on her heels with her back hunched, fitted to a tiny corner below the desk. “He won’t go away.”

It never left her side.

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A/N- What do you guys think so far? No vampires, werewolves, witches, in this story but it does have ghosts and hauntings and crazy people :D (and an adorably clumsy, rather funny teenage boy for you JKBS readers)

Please comment if you plan on reading and tell me what you thought of this prologue! Thanks guys! :)