Session 2: Past History

Now You See Me

“So, Key, your mother told me she’s been hearing you having nightmares in your sleep of late?” Jonghyun asked quietly while the boy in question fidgeted on the same chair he had hidden behind in the week prior. Jonghyun was thankful they weren’t revisiting that scene, though he wasn’t sure if his hope for a calm session would be fruitful.

“Yes,” Key murmured in reply, so soft, if the room hadn’t been entirely silent aside from the slow trickle of water from the corner, Jonghyun might not have heard.

“How long have you been having these nightmares?”

“Months,” same monosyllabic response, Key was only proving his previous diagnosis more and more correct.

“But your mother has only noticed this within the past week. Can you tell me what’s different?” he tried to keep his voice as gentle as possible to coax some form of emotion from the boy.

“They’ve changed,” he replied, same tone, but this time they had moved up to two syllables. Jonghyun silently cheered at his victory.

“How have they changed?”

“The screams,” the whisper was harsh in the room, a croak from a parched throat and Jonghyun was quick to pour a glass of water, watching as Key’s eyes grew round at the sight. When he tried to hand the glass to the boy Key shrank away, curling up into a ball. Now that was something. Was it the act of kindness that had set off this reaction, or the water itself?

“It’s OK, Key. There’s nothing in it. It’s just to make you feel better, look, I’m going to set it on the table. If you want it, you can drink it, but you don’t have to,” he gently placed a coaster down on the polished wood table between them and set the water glass down as lightly as he could. The resulting clack of glass on coaster still had Key flinching despite his attempts. It definitely seemed to be the water. Now, why was this glass a problem, when the fountain in the corner didn’t seem to be? Was it the combination of glass and water? The cogs were slowly turning as he came to a sudden realization, an assumption without proof he was going to have to look into without alarming his patient.

Drugged.

He noticed his own hand was trembling slightly from his discovery, but was quick to hide it. Taking a hopefully unnoticeable deep breath he resumed his earlier topic of conversation.

“About those nightmares, Key. You said there were screams?”

“I scream now. I never used to. I never…could. I wasn’t allowed to.”
“What do you mean by that?” Key was silent and Jonghyun could clearly see that Key had let something slip he hadn’t meant to.

“Why do you think you scream now when you didn’t before?” he tried a different way of phrasing his earlier question, hoping to jar something loose from inside of Key, bring something important to the light. Like mining, knowing there was something there, but having to pick all the way around it before you could see just what it was.

“I have always had the nightmares. Part of the whole horror of them was that I couldn’t scream. I….I…I don’t know why it’s changed,” Key whimpered, lower lip trembling. Jonghyun took a moment to ponder this revelation. Key had just gotten home from his first session and instantly his nightmares began to change. Did it have to do with the session? Or rather, a gradual progression after coming back from the hospital because he’d tried to strangle himself and hadn’t succeeded? For some reason Jonghyun was inclined to believe the latter, they hadn’t exactly made any major breakthroughs at the last session worthy of note. And yet, that didn’t seem quite right either. There was an option here he had yet to find.

While Jonghyun was contemplating his new hypothesis, he failed to notice the condensation on the glass that Key was so fully focused on. Perhaps Key felt he had nothing to live for, and therefore nothing to truly worry about on the earth, and that was why he felt he could scream now. Jonghyun didn’t see the slide of a drop down the smooth surface of the glass and was therefore shocked when  the subject of his thoughts suddenly jumped to his feet. Key was breathing hard, pupils blown wide as he shook, hand clenching around his other wrist, claw like.

“Let me out,” Key rasped, shaking from head to toe like a leaf, and Jonghyun forced himself to remain seated, not to startle the other any more than he clearly was.

“Key, we haven’t yet finished our session. Tell me what’s wrong, I can help,” he tried to give a reassuring smile but it didn’t seem to be working.

“Let me go…please,” why did Key sound l