The Phase

"Run, run, don't look back, don't stop..." "these are the words I hear in my head whenever I'm about leaving the house" Ciara said to her psychologist, Dr. Terry. "What I find very confusing and amusing is that I always seem to find myself in the middle of nowhere when I stop hearing those words." Ciara chuckled.

"Ciara, do you for any reason, ever feel like running away from home?"

"Doc, truthfully, sometimes I really wish I could disappear" Ciara's face went pale as she spoke.

Dr. Terry noticed the color switch on Clara's face, and asked, " Could it be due to your parents... "

"no, no, it's not that. They might be divorced, but they're still very sweet to me." Ciara cut in.

Dr. Terry knew that the only thing that would make Ciara feel that way is her boyfriend, whom she thought a good-for-nothing human being. Yet she decided to ask just to be certain. "Then does it have anything to do with Jim?"

On hearing that name, a feeling of bitterness, pain and love mixed together, overwhelmed her and it all came out in form of two drops of tears." Doc, he used me!!" As she spoke, the tears kept rolling. "He used me for 3 whole years!! He made me believe he was born to love me, he...he gave me all I ever craved for in a man." She took a pause to wipe her nose. "why would he just decide to leave me?..."

Dr. Terry stood up to get her a glass of water as she spoke, not wanting to interrupt her, but to keep her going as she poured out her bottled pain.

"He didn't just leave me, but left me humiliated in the midst of high class socialites and not... " Clara went mute. She felt she had said more than intended. Dr. Terry clearly understood the reason for the abrupt stop, held her hands and looked into her eyes "there's nothing to be afraid of darling, keep going"

For some reason, that statement seemed so familiar to Ciara. It reminded her of someone she dreaded so much, someone she never wanted to be reminded of. At that point she started feeling dizzy, sick, nauseous all at once. To her, in a matter of seconds, everything changed from her psychologist's office, to a hospital. Her mum and dad were by her bedside.

What amazed her firstly was the realization that for the first time in fifteen years, her parents were looking at her, together!!

"Oh my dear Ciara, I never lost hope in you, I always knew you would wake up one day!" Mrs Raldy cried.

"Mum, what's going on? "

"Sweetheart, you've been in Coma for 3 years now." Mr Raldy explained.