The Scars They Hide

Chapter Seven - Avoiding the Truth

Chapter Seven – Avoiding the Truth

By some miracle of Allah, the lifts had been repaired. And the entire building’s tenants could not believe it.

Lutfiyah watched in shock and amusement as a large group gathered by the open elevator doors.

“Oh, is it a dream? What does it mean? Oh is it a dream? What have I seen?” Ally Watts sang, laughing along with Tina as they took selfies with the lift in the background.

Lutfiyah would have scolded them for blocking the space if not for the simple fact that nobody could believe it.

“Five years I’ve been living here, five years! Not once have I seen the inside of this space,” Mrs Malone said, staring in wide-eyed fascination.

“Well, move along then. We can’t gawk all day. It’s not like we’ve never seen lifts before,” Mrs Turner said, turning to give the group a deadly frown. The group broke up, murmuring as if a precious stone had been discovered lying in the lobby, rather than just a repaired lift.

“Do you think it’s a trap?” asked Simone, the one half of the newly married couple on Lutfiyah’s floor.

“No, babe. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe,” replied Chad, the other, more reasonable half.

Nodding, the woman entered the lift, reaching out to press the number five. A few others bustled in with the two young adults, all eager to test out this new development in their building.

Lutfiyah laughed quietly then turned to head out of the door, knowing that Miranda would be there to pick her up at any second.

The week had been stressful. More stressful than most. The group therapy had gone well on the first day and by ‘gone well’ she meant that no one had burst out crying. However, on the second try, there had been a screaming match and one of the girls had almost thrown her chair at another patient.

Lutfiyah would never admit it, but her job took something out from her that she knew would never return. Sure, her own bad experiences had been horrifying on their own, but hearing the stories of others, she realized that things could have been so much worse. And watching as the memories haunted them; their eyes devoid of all hope, Lutfiyah felt that the world was more than just cruel. It was evil.

The ride to work was uneventful and Lutfiyah leaned across to hug Miranda goodbye before closing the door and rushing for the lift. However, she let it take her a few floors below her own office and she took the stairs the rest of the way. Now that her own building’s lifts were repaired, she would need to find her exercise elsewhere.

She turned into the tenth floor, her senses immediately bombarded by the sound of activity and the smell of coffee.

“Lutfiyah. Hi. I was just coming to look for you.”

Lutfiyah smiled at the blond man who matched her pace as they walked towards her office.

“How can I help you, Al?”

The short man shrugged in defeat. “They sent out another email this morning. Apparently there have been complaints regarding the group therapy in a few departments.”

Conan had two psychologists on their staff. Both were there to help ease the stress of the company’s employees, to be the one anxious men and women could confide in, but Lutfiyah was the one who handled most of the pro bono work. The rest of the floor was hired out to the hospital that Miranda worked at, to other medical personnel who worked privately and to government employees. However, they all knew each other because they went to the same conferences and dealt with the same issues.