After Image

They had given her a sedative once her panic attack had come on. Hours later she found herself lying in a bed staring at a white ceiling. At least I am not in a padded room., she thought to herself as she got up from the bed. She was clearly in isolation; the way she had been acting that morning it was the rational thing for the doctors to do. Alone for the moment, she took the time to assess her situation.

Last night someone broke into my house and used a dart gun to introduce a sedative in to my system. I have no idea what happened to Eli. I am locked in the Psychiatry Unit in the hospital and the only story I have is going to make me sound crazy. How do I get out of here? I need to stick to the facts. Don’t give more information than I need to. If worse comes to worse I can show them my Imaging. Okay, dealing with the doctors is going to be fine. But who broke into my house? What did they want? The only thing that has changed is my ability to Image. So I have to assume the break in and attempted abducting has something to do with that. If that is the case, how did they find out so quickly about my power? Simple, my house is bugged. Okay, bugged house, tranquilizer darts… professionals of some sort. Government professionals? Wait, how did they even know to bug my place? It has been too short a period of time for me to have blipped on someone’s radar.

Viola rubbed her eyes under her glasses, frustrated and confused. First off, get control of yourself, any more panic attacks and you are never going to get out of here. Second, has the sedative affected my Imaging, because I had a massive dose of pain when I Imaged the glasses last night. She stopped her monologue and instead looked at her hands. Image something. You can feel the energy build up. Just image a brush. Staring at a fixed point in space above her hands she tried to Image a hairbrush. She could see if forming like static in the air, a hazy image. When she went to touch it, however, pain lanced through her head causing her to swear loudly and vomit. The lancing pain in her head was overwhelming, the worst ice-pick headache she had ever experienced as every nerve in her head decided to misfire, signalling pain. She let go of the Image and watched it instead be replaced by palinopsia.

Okay, so whatever they did to me last night make me unable to Image. I still feel the quantum energy building up though. Great. That means to release the energy buildup I have to write. I have no writing utensil so that means looking crazy, making strange gestures with my right hand. This is not helping my situation. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the door to her room opened and Dr. Olm-Hauer appeared trailing a chair behind him. He also held a clipboard with notepaper and a variety of writing instruments.

“Good morning, Viola. How are you feeling?”

“It’s morning? Morning the day I got here or morning the next day?” Viola asked ignoring the doctor’s question.

Dr. Olm-Hauer positioned his chair in the room and closed the door. He sat calmly in the chair staring at Viola who was still sitting on her bed holding her head in her left hand, trying to hide her other hand behind her as she wrote nonsense in the air.

“This is the morning of your second day with us. You responded a little too well to the sedative from yesterday. Sorry about that.”

Second day. Whoever is hunting me has the advantage. “Do you know how my cat is?”

“Your cat?” Dr. Olm-Hauer asked jotting notes down on his paper.

“I have a cat named Makoto. I’m not sure if there is anyone at my place to take care of her. Would I be able to phone around and check? Or am I going to be released today and not have to worry?”

“Let’s have our interview first and then we can discuss release,” Dr. Olm-Hauer replied.

“So my cat, Makoto. Can I make sure someone is taking care of her?”

“You said you didn’t know if anyone was there to take care of her. Does that mean that there might be someone at your house?” Dr. Olm-Hauer pressed.

“Possibly. My cousin, Eli, has been staying with me the past week. I’m not sure what happened to him after my house was broken into and someone tried to abduct me,” Viola replied, trying to keep her irritation at a minimum.

“Let’s talk a little bit more about that,” Dr. Olm-Hauer replied.

Viola took a deep breath still rubbing her left temple. With the air writing she was doing she was starting to feel less likely to explode from excess quantum energy. She relaxed a little, trying to make herself look less agitated and paranoid.

“All right,” Viola paused and began speaking again with a wry smile on her face, “Sorry about last night. I sounded really crazy. When I fell onto the snow pile below my balcony I was shot with a dart of some sort. Whatever they put into me made my head pretty muddled.”

“Who are they?” Dr. Olm-Hauer asked. He was tapping his pen against the side of his clipboard, examining her behavior. She felt uncomfortable under his gaze. He seemed to be noticing everything. Everywhere he looked suddenly made her feel like she was giving some telltale sign that said “crazy.” She clasped her hands in her lap and willed her leg to stop vibrating.

“I’m hoping the RCMP will be able to figure that one out. I didn’t get a good look at them. I didn’t put my glasses on until I fell off the balcony.”

“Let’s talk about that. When you came in you said that you had made your glasses when you were in the campground.” Dr. Olm-Hauer looked at her with a calm demeanour waiting for a response.

“That’s funny. Must have been whatever was in the dart making me babble. I had glasses in my hands. I put them on after I got out of the snow pile I fell in.”

Dr. Olm-Hauer shuffled in his chair and put the clip board down on his lap. “Now, Viola, I know you are scared because you think that people are chasing you, so please don’t get upset with what I am going to tell you, all right?”

Think people are chasing me? “I’m fine,” Viola replied.

“We took a blood sample when you were brought in. It was clean of any sedatives, intoxicants, narcotics, etc. There was nothing in your system when the RCMP brought you in.”

Viola looked at him incredulously. “My blood test was clean?” What? “But I have a puncture mark on my neck from where they shot me.” Viola moved her matted hair aside for the doctor to see. He leaned in closer and examined the spot where she had pulled the dart from her skin.

“Yes, there is a puncture mark there. Are you sure it’s not a bug bite?” Dr. Olm-Hauer leaned back into his chair and started jotting notes again on his clipboard.

Viola inhaled deeply and let it out. “I am sure that any puncture like mark on a person’s body could be a bug bite. However, I was shot with a dart filled with some sort of chemical that the lab obviously did not screen for.”

“Viola, I also want to mention to you that there were no signs of forced entry into your home. And the only tracks in the campground seemed to be the ones that were made by you.”

Viola tilted her head to one side, looking at the doctor like he was the one insane. “That is what the RCMP told you?” Dr. Olm-Hauer nodded.

“Did they see anyone else in my house? Was my cousin there?”

“There was no one at your house, no.”

“Okay, so that means that whoever was trying to abduct me took him. I mean it was clearly obvious if they looked around my library that I had a house guest. His clothes were all over the bookshelves and I had my extra mattress and blankets in there for him to sleep on. We should be filing a missing persons report.”

“There was absolutely no sign that there was another inhabitant in that house, Viola. There were no clothes. There was no spare bed made up.”

“What are you saying? That I imagined the whole scenario? That I made up Eli and that I only thought someone was breaking into my house when in fact it was all in my head? Phone Jerome, my boss at Tytonidae’s Codex, he met Eli. Eli was actually working at the store with us.” Viola could feel her tone getting higher pitched as her agitation rose. Keep control. You are not crazy. Obviously whoever is chasing you wants everyone to think you are crazy.

“Do you have a history of mental illness in your family, Viola?” Dr. Olm-Hauer asked.

Viola clenched her hands together, her answer forced as she tried to remain calm. “Yes. My grandfather is bipolar and I have a cousin with schizophrenia.”

Dr. Olm-Hauer nodded and put his pen down to look up at Viola.

“All right, Viola. This is a complicated matter you are in. I am going to phone your boss, Jerome, and find out about your cat, okay? I’ll come back in and talk with you when I have found out a few more things.” Dr. Olm-Hauer got up out of the chair and Viola stood up from the bed.

“I can write the phone number for Jerome down for you,” Viola replied. Dr. Olm-Hauer handed her the pen and she wrote down the phone number on the top of his notepaper. Once she was done, she carefully concealed the pen in her hand and opened the door for the doctor to step through. Once it was closed behind him, and she was once again locked in the room, she sat back on the bed and stuffed the pen under the mattress. Jerome will set everything right. Then he can get me out of this place and we can figure out who is after me, where Eli is and what we can do about it. She felt her ice-pick headache flaring up again and grabbed the pen she had taken from Dr. Olm-Hauer. Moving the night stand, she began to write on the wall.

Viola felt a lot better after she had a shower and had relieved the pain in her head with cathartic writing. The nurses had given her some medication that the doctor prescribed and instead of flatly refusing to take it, she had instead pretended to take it and later discarded them under the bed. They were sure to find them eventually, but she hoped that she would be far away from here before that happened.

Dr. Olm-Hauer reappeared in Vye’s room in the early afternoon looking concerned. By the look on his face, Vye could tell that he was even more convinced of her psychosis.

“Did you have a talk with, Jerome?” Vye asked without waiting for the doctor to get settled.

“I did,” Dr. Olm-Hauer replied and paused to collect his thoughts. “He informs me that you had an episode at your home of hysteria where he had to come in the middle of the night and calm you down. He mentioned that you were frightened that you have schizophrenia because you were seeing someone that wasn’t there, a man named Eli?”

Viola took a deep breath before responding. “Yes that did happen, but Jerome must have told you that he did in fact see Eli and I wasn’t imagining his existence and that he was real.”

“Unfortunately, that isn’t what Jerome said. He said that he calmed you down, got you back into bed, mentioned that you should see a doctor the next morning and that this Eli wasn’t, in fact, real at all.”

Viola stared at Dr. Olm-Hauer calmly. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe a word you are saying. I clearly remember that night. When you have a history of mental illness in your family you tend to question everything. When Jerome came over he confirmed that Eli was really there.”

Dr. Olm-Hauer sighed. “I know that what you see and hear seems very real, Viola, so it is hard for you to come to terms with this. Just remember that it’s like any other sickness and can be treated.”

“I would be more convinced that this was all in my head if I could speak to Jerome directly.” Who was he talking to? Obviously not Jerome. But how did they know about my mental breakdown at home? She rubbed her temples, her palinopsia was re-surging and she was afraid that the ice-pick headache was soon to follow. She needed to write some more.

“I’ll talk to him and see if he can come in, if that will help ease your paranoia,” Dr. Olm-Hauer replied and left Vye alone once again.

As soon as he had left, Vye grabbed the pen she had stolen and began writing. Her concern over her inability to Image was growing. Whatever those abductors put in my system is obviously hindering my ability to Image. Did the blood tests get doctored or is in undetectable? Those are the only two things that could be possible with a clean blood test from when I came in. Did they know that would happen? If they did, does that mean that there are other people out there that can do this same thing? How would they know what to do otherwise? Questions kept bubbling in her mind with no answers. She wrote them all on the wall, along with bits and pieces of dreams and stories that were coming unbidden to her mind. I wonder if they know that not Imaging is making me sicker by the minute. What if I explode? She stopped momentarily as this thought played out in her mind. She shuddered and shook her head to get the picture out of her mind. She was not going to explode. She was going to write and write and write until the quantum energy became containable again. Another thought came to her. She had never before had to write with such constancy to keep herself from feeling overwhelmed with this energy before. Was it possible that pulling Eli into this world had actually broke the dam that had stopped up this power before? It only made sense that what she felt now, the brimming energy inside her, was because of that. A broken dam. Hopefully that meant that the flow would only rage for a while and then even out. Until then just keep writing.

Insomnia plagued Viola that night. With the lights off in her room she just kept writing on the walls, using her uncanny ability to write straight in the dark to her advantage. Her head wouldn’t stop buzzing and occasionally throughout the night she would stop writing and see if she could Image. Every attempt brought a resurgence of ice-pick headaches and an increase in the quantum energy. Obviously the flow of energy wasn’t the problem. It was as if the energy was flowing in and being blocked at the moment of accessing her power. Instead she kept channelling it elsewhere. She decided in the early morning hours to stop trying to Image until the drug passed through her system, because the increase in quantum energy every time she tried was threatening to break her apart. She was vibrating and buzzing with the amount of it coursing through her, almost unable to write fast enough to keep up with the flow. I was supposed to be in their custody by now. I’m sure if they know this much about my power they would have a way to fix this. If they knew this would happen when they injected me it means they know that I’m in trouble. They will be coming soon.

With the morning came Dr. Olm-Hauer. Viola was so overwhelmed by what was happening inside of her that she couldn’t think straight anymore; combined with lack of sleep and the massive amount of writing on the wall – which had half way in the night turned from ink on the wall to impressions of the pen indenting the wall after the ink had run out – she was completely unhinged. She could see the nearness of her capture looming and it was making her desperate.

“You have to let me out of here,” she started as soon as the door opened and Dr. Olm-Hauer stepped into view. He surveyed her handy work with the pen, the walls embellished with handwriting.

“I am thinking I forgot my pen in here the first time,” Dr. Olm-Hauer replied.

“Never mind that. I am going to tell you what is really going on and you need to let me out of here.”

Dr. Olm-Hauer made a quick assessment of Viola’s state, circles under her eyes indicating lack of sleep and she was holding the pen in her right hand still making motions of writing despite the fact that there was no wall or paper nearby. “I’m listening.”

“This is going to sound completely out there to you, but I swear it’s the complete truth,” Viola said and sat down on the bed. “Last week I stopped writing. I’ve been writing since I learned how and have never stopped. I made the decision to stop and suddenly this power exploded within me. I was having a bonfire and I pulled Eli, who is me but a boy, from an alternate reality into our reality. I’ve been pulling things from other realities into our own ever since. But when those people were trying to abduct me, they shot me with a dart that contained something that seems to inhibit that power, but the thing is the energy that I use, quantum energy, it is still building up inside of me. I’ve been writing all over the walls trying to release that energy, but whatever they drugged me with is completely messing with my system. I feel as if at any moment the energy inside of me is going to tear me apart. I’m sure they realize what is happening and are coming for me. You need to let me go before they get here.”

Dr. Olm-Hauer, while Viola had been ranting uncontrollably had gestured for some orderlies to come into the room. Viola noticed the movement and backed up against the wall.

“Please believe me. I’m not crazy!” Tears were brimming in her eyes as she realized that this whole situation was completely out of her control. It had been since she had been chased out of her home and it was only right now that she realized it.

“I had a phone call recently from Dr. Czernicki, does that name sound familiar?” Dr. Olm-Hauer asked in a calm voice.

“Czernicki?” Viola asked her mouth gaping open. “Will Czernicki?” Dr. Olm-Hauer nodded. The man I met delivering parcels to Tytonidae’s Codex. The Will who I invited to my house the same day someone tried to abduct me. The Will I was having feelings towards. “He’s not a doctor,” Viola replied firmly. I haven’t a clue what he is, but he is no doctor.

“Viola, he is your psychiatrist. He just informed me of your history and is coming to pick you up. You’ve been staying at the Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam. He has been phoning hospitals fanning out from there trying to see if someone knew something about you. He is going to take you back there now, so you can get the treatment you need.”

“Will Czernicki has been delivering parcels to Tytonidae’s Codex, where I work, for the past week. He is not a doctor. Obviously he is a spy of some sort if he can just make up information like that and have a doctor believe everything he says. I live in Fort Steele, I have for many years. I do not live in a Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam. I am not an escaped patient. This is insane. How can you believe this?” Viola made a feeble attempt to bolt for the open doorway and was immediately caught by the orderlies. She sagged in their arms trying not to tremble. Do not have another panic attack, Viola. You’re stuck. You have been since they came for you. She managed to keep herself from having a panic attack, breathing deep and slow. She felt a prick as a needle injected a sedative into her arm and she was lowered gently back onto the bed. She looked at Dr. Olm-Hauer with tear filled eyes and whispered, “I’m scared,” before she drifted into a deep dreamless sleep knowing that when she woke up, life as she knew it would be completely changed.