𝗣𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 (𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗰𝘆 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗵𝗮𝗺)

Chapter Two.

The cold air moved swiftly around Darcy as she stood in front of Dr. Lecter's office. The sun had set and the shadows began to lurk. Darcy's mother hadn't showed up to take her home, which left her standing near the front door. She would've walked home if she weren't so afraid of the dark- something that haunted her all throughout her childhood. Even at 19 years of age she still believed that there were monsters under her bed and evil shadows that wandered in the darkness around her, but maybe there were, and still is.

She glanced down at her watch, 7:58pm it read. It had been nearly three hours since her session. She watched as many other patient's entered Dr. Lecter's office, and she watched as they all left; except for one. She noticed that one man in particular had been in the office longer than a normal session would go for, or maybe he had come early like she had done herself. As those thoughts ran in her head the door to Dr. Lecter's waiting room had opened and the man stepped out. He reached inside his pocket and withdrew his glasses, then quickly pushed them onto his face. He walked past Darcy without a care in the world, like she wasn't even there. But that's how everyone views her; invisible.

"Miss Reid, I would've thought you left after your session." A low voice came from behind her. It was Dr. Lecter without a doubt. She turned around fast and stood face to face with the gorgeous psychiatrist, their eyes locking instantly like they did once before. Darcy bent down and began to trail her fingers in the snow, writing what she wanted to say.
Mother. It spelt in the white illuminated snow. Dr. Lecter watched closely as she stood up straight and waited for his response.
"Your mother was meant to come fetch you, wasn't she?" He asked her, although he already knew the answer.
She nodded in reply.

They both stood in silence. The cold winters air burned Darcy's nostrils as she breathed in, and it stung her nose; feeling a tingling sensation in it. The silence only lasted a few seconds, but she felt as if those seconds were hours long.
"Come on, I'll take you home." Dr. Lecter kindly offered and took a step closer to her. Darcy shook her head vigorously. She bent down once again, wiping away what she had previously wrote so she could write another. Her delicate index finger danced around in the painfully cold snow until she had formed another word.
Walk.
His eyes scanned the word quickly before he declined her request.
"I'm afraid I must insist, you can't be walking home this late. Bad things happen in the dark, Miss Reid. Besides, if you were going to walk you would've been gone by now."
She saw his logic. He held out his arm for Darcy to take. She carefully examined his arm, then shyly took ahold of his forearm in a formal manner. She didn't want to be impolite or sloppy.

This kind of treatment was all new to Darcy. She had gotten used to people disliking her, probably because of her extreme shyness and refusal to speak. It's not because she refuses to talk on purpose, she suffers from bad social Anxiety and has been ever since she could remember. She has never said a single word in her life other than mommy, when she used to scream for her mother late at night when she had nightmares.

They had reached his car which looked expensive in Darcy's eyes, and being the kind man that Dr. Lecter is, he opened the passenger's door and stepped aside so that Darcy could get in. She let go of his arm and tugged at the ends of her sleeves like she had done earlier, looking down the street as she wondered if this was the right thing to do.
"It's okay," Lecter voiced, his lips hardly moving as he did so.
"I'm not going to hurt you." He added. He could sense her fear, it was quite adorable how her face softened and how she stared off into the distance, almost as if she were talking to him in her head. But what he didn't know was that she was talking to him in her head, although she knew he'd never reply to her thoughts, she still did it. It had become a strong habit of hers that seemed normal for someone in her situation.

Darcy smiled reassuringly and took Dr. Lecter's words into consideration, carefully entering his car, and he closed the door once she was in. Every nerve in her body jumped, screaming for her to get out and run. It made no sense to her, she couldn't figure out what had happened for her to be so edgy. Maybe it was the fact that she was in a car with a man she hardly knew, or maybe because she felt a slight ping of excitement for him even though she'd only just met him. Darcy couldn't believe it, at just 19 years of age she'd already developed a stupid teenage crush on her psychiatrist whom she'd met only three hours ago.

The sound of the driver's seat door startled Darcy. She whipped her head to the left and watched as Dr. Lecter pulled his seat belt around him and clicked it into the clicker. She didn't realise she was staring until Lector's voice pulled her back from dreamland.
"Aren't you going to put your seat belt on, Miss Reid?"
Darcy blushed with embarrassment and looked away as she pulled her seat belt on. Something soft rested on Darcy's thigh, she thought it was Dr. Lecter's hand until she looked down and saw a familiar sight, the notepad.

"I need your address." He spoke firmly. Darcy's face widened with realisation and she opened the notepad at his request. She quickly jotted down her address with the pen that he had given her, and she gave both items back to him. The car pulled away.

"Not long now."