Pandemonium

Athens Behavioral Medicine.

~~

"Hey, mom? Could I talk to you about something?" Mars asks his mother after dinner.

"Sure, honey. What is it?" His mother replies, her voice light and airy.

"I've been um... struggling with something lately." Mars says timidly.

"What do you mean?" His mother replies, looking up from her glass of wine.

"I've been seeing things." Mars answers quietly.

"You've been seeing things?" She responds sarcastically.

"Yes, I um... I've been getting these visions during the day." Mars replies, his voice wavering slightly with apprehension.

"What in God's name are you talking about, Mars?" His mother asks, setting her wine glass down. The loud tink of the glass hitting the granite countertop echoing throughout the kitchen.

"It's nothing, forget I said anything." The boy answers, hanging his head in shame as he turns to walk out of the kitchen.

"No, Mars." His mother replies as she grabs his arm, turning him around to face her again. "You better explain to me exactly what you mean because as it stands right now, you sound like you've lost your damn mind." She says, her usual soft expression gone, a cold glare taking its place.

A tense silence fills the room. Mars looks up at his mother, searching her eyes for even a sliver of compassion. Try as he might, his mother remained stoic, her grip on his arm loosening only slightly. He takes a deep breath before attempting to explain himself.

"I was in biology yesterday morning and all of a sudden I got this strange vision."

"What exactly do you mean by 'vision'?" His mother asks, raising her eyebrow in skepticism.

"It was like I was having a dream... while I was awake." Mars replies hesitantly.

"So, a daydream."

"No, it wasn't like I was getting lost in thought, or imagining things. It felt so real." The boy attempts to explain, his words failing him.

His mother lets an exasperated sigh escape her lips, swirling her wine glass in her hand. After taking a small sip, she addresses her son.

"Listen, Mars. I'm not going to entertain this nonsense. I'm sure you just fell asleep for a moment. I know you haven't been sleeping well." His mother says. Her words considerate to a certain degree, however, the dismissiveness in her voice tells a different story. She's one too many glasses of red wine in and is more bothered by him letting himself be distracted from his studies than his mental distress.

"That's because of the nightmares I've been having. But mom, I'm telling you I wasn't sleeping." Mars reiterates, trying with all his might to get his mother to understand.

"Look, either you nodded off in class, or you were daydreaming about some girl." She says before finishing off her glass of wine with one last swig.

"It's not like that, I-"

"You better hope that's all it was, otherwise, we're going to have much bigger fish to fry." His mother interrupts, her voice swelling with impatience. She then stands up from her stool, tossing her wine glass into the sink, the sound of the glass colliding with the stainless-steel deafening.