The Ghosts of Hexley Airport by Cross Amy

Author:Cross, Amy [Cross, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-03-11T23:00:00+00:00

***

“Lizzie, calm down!” Doctor Natasha Douglas said, switching the phone to her other ear as she took a pile of folders from her desk. “Lizzie, you're having another episode. You need to focus on the three M's I taught you about in our last session. Do you remember those?”

As she carried the folders out of her office and into the corridor, Natasha heard nothing on the other end of the line except a faint, sniffing whimper.

“Lizzie?” she continued. “The first M stands for Management. Do you remember?”

“I think so,” a sobbing voice replied.

“And the second M?”

Using her shoulder to push a set of double doors open, Natasha headed into the reception area and set the folders down, before switching the phone back to her other ear. She checked her watch, realizing that she was running late for another meeting, but at the same time she also knew she couldn't just put the phone down and leave one of her patients to deal with a meltdown alone.

“Motivation, Lizzie,” she said finally. “The second M stands for Motivation. And the third...”

She waited.

All she heard, still, was a series of heavy, gulping sobs.

“The third M is for Mindfulness,” she added. “Lizzie -”

“I keep thinking about that night!” the woman on the phone stammered suddenly. “I keep thinking about when the plane came down, and all the flames, and about the forest burning and then the tree falling and -”

“Lizzie...”

“I keep thinking about their screams!”

“That doesn't help you,” Natasha pointed out, checking her watch again. “It's natural to think about these things, but you need to remember the techniques I taught you during our last session. Lizzie, are you going to come to the meeting tonight?”

“I don't know. I don't know if I need to.”

“I think it'd be a really good idea if you attended. Phone consultations are one thing, but the group therapy sessions are extremely important. I don't want to pressure you, but will you think very hard and see if you can manage to come? As your grief counselor, I'd really like to see you there.”

“I won't speak!”

“No-one's going to make you speak, Lizzie. You can just listen if that's what you prefer. There are other people at the group who lost loves ones in the Hexley disaster, remember? You're not alone, and -”

Before she could finish, the phone suddenly filled with static and then let out a piercing screech. Pulling the phone away from her ear, Natasha stared at the screen in shock for a moment before the sound suddenly faded.

“- just don't know,” Lizzie was saying, as if she had no idea about the interruption. “On the one hand, I think I'm fine. On the other, it's so hard to say for sure. I feel like I'm trapped, like a yo-yo, bouncing from one thing to the other.”

Natasha cautiously put the phone back to her ear, poised to pull it away if the noise returned.

“Sometimes,” Lizzie continued, “I even feel like someone's here with me. Even when I'm supposed to be alone, I feel like someone's in the room, right behind me.

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