Ego's Trap | ✔

41 | Talk

☆☆☆ Chapter 41 ☆☆☆

Talk

I didn't know where to put my hands, and they were getting awfully clammy. Sweat was inevitable, all over. Never in a million years would I have ever thought that a talk with Teresa would make me feel this way. Maybe it was 'cuz of the why rather than the act itself. Maybe, just maybe.

After a second or two, the knob turned. I met her gaze, and quickly looked away. I wanted to leave.

"Ane," she said, almost to herself. It felt like a whisper, but had an immeasurable form of power hidden beneath it. It was strange. "You're── you're here. You're actually here." Her hands hurried over to my cheeks. Using them, she lifted my head, bringing them closer to her face. She looked into my eyes as one would to a lying child, and saw the truth in them. "Ane," she said once more to herself, before squeezing me tight with a hug. "It's good to see you again, however faint it may be."

"Good to see me out of a state of limbo?" I choked out. She pursed her lips and nodded at that.

"It was so sudden. One moment you were at the hotel, and the next, you weren't. When I saw you again, you were so out of it. But... but who wouldn't be, after someone points a gun to your face like that? Who knows what would've happened if Roger wasn't around to call for help. I just... I just wished you had talked to Dr. Connor at least."

Huh, so that's what Roger and Daniel told Teresa. Glad that it's at the very least a half-truth.

"It's not like it's an instinct of mine to talk to others like that. It's a given that I wouldn't even open up to a therapist," I mumbled. "You should know that, out of all people; I never spoke a word 'bout him... and neither did you. Nobody knew. Until now, that is."

Her eyes widened; almost popped out of their sockets, before briefly looking behind to ask her roommate for some privacy. As the roommate respectfully walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, Teresa sat me on her bed, filling her chest with air.

"Ane," she began, biting the insides of her cheeks. "What do you mean by that?"

"I... I told Daniel earlier."

"Everything?"

"Everything," I said, nodding. A sigh came out of her, but that was it. Silence pitched in, the type that could have easily taken over the rest of my stay, but I didn't want that. It would only make me more nervous. "Teresa, why haven't you gone to a therapist, if you're so willing to take your own drug for someone to help you? Why didn't you tell Mom and Dad?"

"I don't know," my sister eventually replied, swallowing hard. "Opening up is hard, even if someone wants to, Ane, which is why I'm genuinely surprised. You opened up. I thought I would be the first to do that."

"Me... me too."

"How do you feel? Are you alright? How does Daniel feel?" I shrugged in response, pinching my legs a bit. My heart felt heavy. I'm sure Teresa's felt the same. Daniel's, too. "Ane, do you plan on telling Mom and Dad?"

To this day, they have no idea. No idea 'bout our whereabouts for the eight days of hell that summer allowed to exist. No idea 'bout him. No idea 'bout anything. Those eight days of our absence, Mom and Dad called the police and reported us missing. They cried and cried. They were so, so very scared. We came back, spoke to no one but ourselves, Teresa and I. No one, not a single soul 'bout what had happened. No idea 'bout anything, our parents had. They were "clueless," but wary. So, so very wary, scared. They still are.

They will never understand why Teresa dropped med school. They will never understand why I lost all hope for my future. They just think we could brush what had happened aside, and move on with our lives, in the blink of an eye. Telling 'em won't make a difference, right?