City of Hooks and Scars (Volume 2) by Estelle Laure

Author:Estelle Laure [Laure, Estelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

IT’S EARLY FOR THERAPY, BUT IT HAD TO BE EARLY because Tink has to be at her real job at the Monarch City PD at ten o’clock, and meeting there would be awkward at best.

Drive all you want, Mary. You can’t escape what’s in your own head.

I pull onto a residential block, where the houses are small and run-down, and find a parking spot on the street. Not many cars over here. Boats bob in the water of the bay. This is the most southerly part of the Scar, the end of the line, where the fishermen live side by side with people who would just as soon be left alone as anything. There are no signs here warning of villains and danger, almost like a small, normal neighborhood. I stop and stare into the horizon. It offers nothing, no answers.

I look for the house on the corner of Gossamer and Willowfly with its green roof and brown walls, as described. Like a tree, Dr. Tink said. Then I see her, wrapped in a green sweater and jeans, waving to me from the porch. When I reach her she gives me a short, sharp hug.

“Dr. Tink,” I say.

“Tink is good enough for here. Come in, Mary.”

Inside, everything is made of wood and creaks pleasantly. The ceilings are low, with viny plants hanging from everywhere. The salt air is in everything, even my muscles, which begin to relax.

“Sit down,” she orders. “I’ll get you tea.”

“Coffee?” I say hopefully, and she makes a clicking noise that tells me it’ll be herbal tea and nothing else.

“I’m so glad you reached out to me,” she says. “You missed your last appointment, and then there was the battle and all your friends. . .And then you were—”

“Fired—”

“Yes, I suppose you were. Terrible time to stop therapy, though. You’re a child, and we were in the middle of some very emotional things.”

The last therapy session we had comes back to me in a flash. We had just gone over the last time I saw my sister, the day my parents were murdered, the day I met the chief, who came to help me and promised to catch the killers.

I sink into her sofa, and she hands me tea. It’s like all my skin is bruised just under the surface, like I’m a peach, and if someone pressed too hard, I would just explode out everywhere, and so I’m afraid of her questions, that they will be the equivalent of a thumb pushing in all the wrong places.

“So tell me,” Dr. Tink says. “What’s going on?”

I think about cushioning the reality, telling her half-truths, making myself look more competent than I am, but then I blurt, “Something is really wrong with me. I. . .I need help.”

She takes a delicate sip of her tea and tucks a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “Say more.”

“I’m seeing things that aren’t there, hearing things. And just when I’m convinced I really am delusional, the news confirms some of it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.