Rachel was very peculiar from the start. Not only had she been in hospital but she had been claiming that she had developed some supernatural powers no one but us could know of. I tried telling her on several occasions that I too had problems of my own but instead of creating an alternate reality to my problems I had chose to come to this hospital and get better. But no, Rachel was vehement about her so-called supernatural powers. She did show me something once that kind of blew my mind.
We were sitting outside, in a sunny yet cold autumn day, leaves were falling from the trees, people were rushing on the street and past us, two strangers to them . She told me in a high pitched voice:” One day they will come for you Robert just as they came for me and I won't be able to protect you then. Look, I can show you a glimpse into what my powers are like but you have to swear to me that no one, absolutely no one will know of this. “
“Trust me Rach, no one will believe me even if I tried.”
“Ok then: think of a memory you hold very dear.”
“Ok”, I said, and then started thinking about the first mother-son bonding moment I remember having with my mom back when I was 12. We were in the park on a sunny yet cold day, similar to that day, and I was happily munching through a chocolate muffin she had bought me earlier.
“Is that sweet enough Robbie? “
I mumbled a silent yes as I continued munching through my muffin.
“Ok”, I said, memory recollection done.
Rachel looks me straight in the eye and says: “Ok don't get scared but I can read other people's minds.”
“You can what?”, I said starting to laugh as hard as I could.
“ Ok Hippy you don't believe me , that’s fine but then how come I know for a fact that your fondest memory of you and your mom was when you were 12 and she bought you a chocolate muffin that you ate on a bench in a park on a day similar to this one ?”
That was my last memory of Rachel. I haven't been to visit her since the hospital staff found us sitting outside after we had ran away. Needless to say they didn't go so soft on Rachel. The poor girl had to go through electroconvulsive therapy as a punishment. I wonder how she's doing. I wonder whether she's ok. Just the mere thought of what she must have gone through throughout that whole time when she was locked up just gives me the creeps.
“Robert! Robert! Are you okay? Your face just turned pale. Better if you two come inside before you freeze to death in this rain.”
“It's about time you asked us to come inside!”, CC said visibly irritated, “Someone might see us standing here with Hippy all dead and all.”
Oh, another small detail I forgot to include: these two have hated , hate and will probably continue hating each other until the end of time. Meet my best friend, Freya, and the girl I've always wanted to be with, Cecilia.
Chapter Nine
Nate
Ok so now that Robert is gone I don't really know how I feel. Relieved? Sad? Depressed? Resigned?
Strange. That's right. I feel strange. I mean we hadn’t been in touch for about five years when his mother called my mother and told us that he had died. Suddenly. Out of the blue. Just like that. Without any goodbyes without any anything. Poor guy! What a life he had had! First, they kept moving around the country with his dad being a UN Diplomat and all of that, then he got hospitalized into a mental health facility with bipolar and ADHD and now I find out that he's gone. Forever. Just like that.
I hear my phone ringing. This must be a joke. I check my phone screen again. Robert’s name appears on my phone screen. You must be kidding me. Who is this person pulling this sadistic joke on me?
I answer quite hesitantly :” Hello?”
“ Hi”, a very familiar voice says on the other side, it's me Robert. I'm at Freya's house. You must come now. Something bad is about to happen. I'll explain everything when you get here. Bye!“
I look at my phone again in disbelief. It cannot be. I just heard Robert's voice. This cannot be happening! Without thinking I pull myself back together, grab my jacket and head off to exit my house. Whatever is happening I must get to the bottom of this. I’m going to see Freya. I wonder what she has been up to all these years. I wonder whether she's still as beautiful as I have always imagined her.
Chapter Ten
Freya
As soon as Hippy put down his phone, I knew something was up. He had called someone from his past, someone I had longed to see and hear from all these years. Now I couldn’t stop wondering when Nate would come in. Should I go and fix my dress? Should I go and fix my makeup? Or should I stay the way I am and just hope that Nate will still find me as beautiful as I once was to him? Decisions, decisions!
But why bother? He's probably been over me since we broke up three years ago. In any case no time to wonder about Nate now. I must attend to Hippy and Cecilia. God she was excited to see me ! She could have at least tried to hide her irritability when I first opened the door!
“Is there anything I can get you guys? “, Freya said while she was also trying to clean up the red wine she had spilt over the floor. “Also I cannot tell you guys how in shock I am about you being alive and all, Hippy. What did you do? How did you manage to fool everyone?”
“Well, it wasn't that hard”, Hippy said, whilst sipping through the orange juice Freya had handed him.” I mean you know how my mom's cabinet is always full of interesting, experimental, new drugs on the market sort of thing? Well I did some research and turns out if you mix three of the drugs my mom kept in there then you go into a deep , deep sleep that resembles death. I mean all your senses are awake and all”, Hippy said while thinking about how he could smell and hear what CC had said to him at his funeral, “but if a doctor was to consult you then you would appear dead. Pretty sick, right? “
“Yeah, trust me , faking your own death isn't something you should be proud of!” , Cecilia began saying. “I mean think what you've put everyone through! Your friends, your family, we were all devastated!”
“ Really now? Since when do you care that much? I thought your life pretty much revolves around Greg these days!”,Hippy said with a sarcastic grin.
CC couldn't help herself anymore and threw a reply that she was almost sure she would regret saying afterwards :”Well I'm sorry for still caring about my first love. And leave Greg out of it. He has been nothing but a proper nice and good friend and then boyfriend to me after you and I broke up. “
“ I guess in this situation good means he couldn't wait to comfort you after our breakup!”, Hippy angrily added.
“ Whoa! Everyone needs to chill the fuck down! We're here because we're all happy that you're alive Hippy and really guys I don't want to get mixed up in whatever sick, not fulfilled romance you've got going”, Freya said. As soon as she had finished her sentence everyone heard the doorbell ring.
“ This must be Nate!”, Freya exclaimed a little bit too excited.
Hippy rushed to the door and opened it wide and large for everyone to see handsome Nate come in looking extremely as in shock as Freya had been earlier.
“ Nathaniel, my friend, welcome to Freya’s humble abode! Oh but wait I keep on forgetting you guys dated a while back. Well then welcome back to Freya's abode fullstop.”, Hippy said.
“ Common dude, cut the jokes, the poor guy looks like he's seen a ghost!, Freya quickly added to change the topic.
“ Ya think?”, Nate was barely able to mumble.
Chapter Eleven
Rachel
Damn it Hippy why won't you answer me ? I wonder if going to his friend’s house Freya would lead me to him. After all he gave me her address for when I needed it the most.
“ Take this address and when you leave hospital if you don't have anywhere to go, then go to this address. My best friend Freya lives there and she'll be able to tell you where I am. I might not be living at home by the time you get out of hospital so take her address instead.” , Hippy had said that night just before he was discharged from the hospital we had both b
een in.
Well, Freya’s house it is then.
Chapter Twelve
Dr. Eleanor Schultz
I was in shock to find out that Robert had passed away. I mean I had only met him briefly when he was in hospital and I briefly treated him for his bipolar diagnosis.
Wonderful guy he was, Robert, or as he referred himself as, Hippy.
Robert had many behavioral issues: lack of self esteem which then prompted negative thoughts, his constant moodiness which was a side effect of his ADHD and bipolar diagnoses, the fact that he kept on talking about how he had disappointed his parents throughout his life and how they don’t love him and never have and lastly, his obsession with this girl named Cecilia who had been his first love. He seemed like he was going through an existential crisis when he first joined our hospital. He didn’t know what to do with his life or his thoughts. He was heading towards self-destruction.
I tried to help him as much as I could but as it goes with therapy, it usually happens that the patient needs to find their own way to cope with things and move on. We, as therapists, only serve as guides who try and lead patients towards the road of happiness, self-fulfillment and peace.
Whilst he was in hospital, I was surprised to find that he had bonded quite heavily with another patient of ours, a girl with severe problems who thought she was a supernatural being, Rachel. They had remained closed friends until Robert’s very last day. We, are still on the hunt for her, for Rachel that is. She has escaped the hospital a mere few days ago. We have searched for her everywhere, even went to Robert’s house but she was nowhere to be found. Today some very looking official men came looking after her. Said they were from the Government. It shocked us all. We had no idea Rachel was that important. They said we have to give them a call as soon as we find her. They were also talking about something to do with moving her from the hospital. This sounded all very interesting but bizarre at the same time. Right at the very moment when the Government officials were about to leave, my phone started ringing.
“One second, this is important”, I told them. Ten minutes later I was telling everyone how a policeman had called me. Telling me that he had seen Rachel running towards a park in the downtown area.
“Careful”, I had warned him, “She might be armed and dangerous.”
Chapter Thirteen
Rachel
Phew , they almost caught me running towards Freya’s house!
OK, so it’s time now for me to call her buzzer. God, I hope she answers!
Oh but wait, I can see the light is on downstairs and I can hear voices from the inside! Wait a second, I hear someone’s voice that sounds very familiar to Hippy’s!
But no, that is Hippy’s voice! Oh my God, he is here! Just like I thought he would be!
Chapter Fourteen
Cecilia
Oh my Goodness! What is Nate doing here, on top of everything? Hippy must be crazy involving everyone in his so-called death! And to come and think of it, how will I ever be able to explain all of this to Greg? Maybe I shouldn’t tell him anything about what’s going on.
We all stop talking when we hear a knock on the door.
“Come in”, Freya says, “this must be Zara, our cat.”
“You tell your cat to come in?”, I ask surprised as hell.
“Yes, of course, she’s also a member of our family too.”
Goodness gracious, this girl is out of her mind. Of course, she’s Hippy’s best friend. They blend perfectly together in their madness. Thinking back on it, I think that’s why I and he never worked out. Because of his friendship with Freya. They were so close that it made me mad with jealousy. Nevertheless, I still wonder how we would have ended up should we have stayed together all this time.
Chapter Fifteen
Nate
Ok this isn’t as weird as I thought it would have been. Hippy is here. He is alive and well. He just told me the story of how he mixed some of his mom’s drugs to appear dead, why he wanted to “die” and how he wants to lead his life from now on.
“Florida”, he had said, “I want to move to Florida and become a writer. I want to inspire hundreds of thousands of souls . North Dakota was becoming increasingly gray for me to live in. No inspiration, no nobleness and no humanity can be found here anymore.”
“And you just realized this at the age of 25?”, I ask matter-of-factly.
“Yes and no. I have been realizing it since I was 12 and my dad told me that I have to start getting good grades to be able to go to a good school so then I could be able to go to a great college, get a great job and marry a great woman and have great children. It was all planned out for me. It was difficult to be able to breathe with all this pressure from my parents. I just wanted to escape the ordinary, I wanted to become someone I will be proud of when I look back when I’m like old and stuff.”
“Hippy, no offence or anything but we’ve all been there. In the same situation as you have. But honestly trying to run away from it all by faking your own death is cowardly. You should have just told your parents where you wanted to head off in life and hope for the best. Imagine if all of us in this room would have tried to pull the same prank as you did. We would have broken our parents’ hearts. It’s just not a responsible thing to do, what you just did., I answered quite hesitantly. I wasn’t sure I believed my own words either when Freya intervened.
“Well, not matter if it’s cowardly or not I support your decision entirely. I wish I had the balls to do what you did.”, Freya said.
“But it’s not about having the balls to do it Freya”, I added, “It’s about being responsible enough to face your own demons. By the way are you still taking your meds?”
“But of course, my fierce Nathaniel.”, Hippy answered. “Not taking my medication is a mistake I will never ever commit again. I cannot function without my meds.
After having said that we hear a knock on the door and then Freya’s comment for her cat to come in. The last thing I heard before meeting Rachel was Cecilia’s rude reply about how weirdly Freya treats her cat.
…………….
This amazingly-beautiful girl then comes in as if she had no care in the world that she had just entered a stranger’s house.
“Blimey! It’s Rachel! Oh My God! How did you find me here, Rach? How have you been?”
Chapter Sixteen
Robert
I couldn’t believe my eyes the moment Rachel came in. It was surreal. How did she find me? I had so many questions I wanted to ask her but then it happened. Out of the blue. Out of Nowhere. We heard gunshots coming all over the street aiming towards Freya’s house. Each of us started running towards a place of refuge. Somehow Rachel got a hold of us all and loudly said in a strange voice: “ Akamara Verdana!”
I quickly noticed she had a strange looking rune in her hand and then without any of us knowing what was going to happen a blue light emerged from the rune and sucked us all in. We were all gone out of this world. Or so we thought.
After what seemed like a billion years, Rachel smilingly announced: “ My dear friends I have yet to meet and greet, excuse my sudden arrival into your house. But welcome to Canada.”
We all looked around in disbelief and shock. It was true. We were all sitting outside in the middle of a snowed-down road, near a sign that read Quebec, Canada.
TO BE CONTINUED
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