~Chapter 42~

"Hello?"

"Um…Its, me Rio. Mrs. Roberts is this a good time?"

"Yeah anytime is a good time for you Rio."

"I-I just wanted to make an appointment with you…..I-I think my panic attacks are back….and….I don't have any memories of what happened during it…"

"Hmmm….." the old woman from the other side wrote down what her patient informed her; "...so panic attacks are back and this time you are not having memories of it and what happened during it?"

"Yeah. And it happened recently."

"Okay we'll talk when we meet. I might not be available for the next few days so I'll set you in the next week and my assistant will inform you, is that alright?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Oh no problem dear."

The call was disconnected and the old woman got up from her couch that was placed near to the fireplace. She has warmed up enough. Mrs. Roberts took her memo where she wrote down the symptoms of Rio along with her mobile.

"Callie? Callie! Callie, where are you?" the old woman called out for her assistant. She had been a terrible boss for the past few days to this poor girl. Callie, her assistant has been forced to work overtime due to the surge of patient that have been visiting Mrs. Roberts daily excluding weekends. She knocked at the office door where her assistant usually confines herself to work. "I need you to set an appointment with another patient in three days time. Callie?"

"Y-yeahh I-I'll do it." Came a feeble answer. Callie has always been a soft-spoken child that prevented her from working in any corporate despite having appropriate qualifications.

"Good. Set him up in three days, that is, on 25th December."

"W-we're w-working?"

"Not 'we'. You're on your holiday sweetie." No reply arrived after that which made the old psychiatrist call her name again.

"Callie?"

No answer.

"Callie? What are you doing in there?" the old woman tried to open the door but it was locked from the outside.

"Oh Mrs. Roberts, Please don't open the door because it's soo messy here~. I'll come out when I'm done." Travelled Callie's swift answer from behind the door.

Rio had been discharged from the hospital yesterday evening and his girlfriend has been all over him since. She refused to allow him to return home because it was already trashed by the intruder and currently it is unsafe to go there let alone stay there until and unless the police catch the culprit.

So Rio has been assigned to the guest room at Miss Johannes' house. Emilia pouted and complained that he should be staying in hers with her but her aunt wasn't having it at all.

"No hanky panky inside my house."

"Eww aunt, who uses that word anymore?"

"I do."

"Yes yes I can see that boomer."

"What did you call me?"

"Nothing."

"No you said something to me."

"Golden words are not repeated twice."

"Oh hohoho I think it's anything but a golden word."

Rio smiled at the duo who bickered away playfully during his entire ride home to their house. At first he protested of him staying at his teacher and his girlfriend's house. He didn't want to impose on them, but the aunt and niece duo are really something that they managed to convince him into staying with them, until everything is sorted at his house.

When they stopped at his house to collect his essentials, Rio looked at his house that stood like a corpse bearing the signs of proof of that night of his home invasion. Emilia was right, it was indeed trashed. Items from the fridge, cutleries from the kitchen has been strewn everywhere, even the sofa has been cut open, the chairs of the dinning table were injured. The main door is broken, the wooden door is hanging poorly from one hinge, the glass windows were also broken. Broken glass and specs of wood made the entire living room messy. His home….the place he could consider to be his home, his safe haven—the place that was bestowed to him by his loving grandmother has been more or less destroyed the only keepsake of his grandmother.

What more does he have to lose in order to live in peace?

He lost his dignity at a tender age, the people whom he thought to be his family abandoned him and now the place he thought to be his safe space is no more safe.

As Rio Sanders looked around the house that contained certain muddy footsteps that belonged to the paramedics and police when they transported him to the hospital and collected evidence about this intruder, he could visualize his own memories that he had of his grandmother in this house. How she played with him, them running around the house, her feeding him food, him smiling at her and she looking at him with her doe-like eyes full of affection for her grandson. Her last days too were spent in this little two-storied house as well with her beloved grandson right by her side.

"Rio," He tore off his eyes from visualizing his memories at the blonde girl who looked at him with concerning eyes, "I'm gonna grab your toiletries from the washroom while you should go and pack your clothes, okay? It's downstairs, right?"

"Yup."

She patted his shoulder reassuringly and left him in front of his bedroom on first floor. Rio entered his bedroom that looks strange to him for some reason. The bed had remained the way he has left it; the pillow, the covers and even the sheets of the bed bore proof of his existence of yesterday's ominous night. It was the same room where he studied endlessly to ace examinations, the same room where he slept peacefully, and the same room where he was plagued with nightmares…..

His tumultuous thoughts were cut short due to a vibration in his pocket. He received the call surprised to see the caller id.

"Yes Officer, how may I help you?"

"You were right Mr. Sanders, there is a possibility that yesterday's intruder could be the same person who kidnapped you all those years ago. She was released on parole few months back."

Rio felt his heart drop. He had this crazy intuition that was screaming at him that yesterday's intruder and the foe of his past was the same person. Only that would explain his sudden panic attack.

"She had taken a flight to L.A then vanished without a trace. No further traces were to be found. It was as if she vanished in thin air." The police officer exhaled; "We'll continue to investigate further in the meantime I'd advise you to stay safe, somewhere she wouldn't have any access to as such."

"Y-Yeah." Rio spoke in strained voice. "I'll be staying with my girlfriend for now."

"Does she know about your girlfriend's whereabouts?"

"I-I hope n-not."

"Good then. Stay safe, Mr. Sanders." The call ended.

"Hey I packed up all the things that I could find in the bathroom...….." Emilia stopped mid sentence when she found the standing boy trembling; "Hey are you okay?"

"I-I don't think I can do this…." His green pupils shone with tears as he breathed raggedly.

"Rio, Rio….calm down. You know what? Let's get out of this damn house." Emilia helped her trembling boyfriend travel downstairs and she made him sit on the porch outside. With her aunt's sharp watch from inside the car, he'll be okay.

"I'll go and get your stuffs okay? Stay here." Then she looked at her aunt who had peered out of the window in curiosity. "He's staying here. Please keep an eye on him."

Emilia disappeared inside the trashed house after receiving thumbs up from her aunt. Rio felt his breathing getting steadier after coming out of that house. He didn't know which one triggered his near panic attack, seeing his house in a trashed state or receiving the phone call from police to know that his nightmare has been released early on parole.

"Rio!" Miss Johannes motioned him to sit back in the car.

As he once again settled at the back of the car, he genuinely felt bad for Emilia for making her do all the work which he should be doing. It felt a bit awkward to be with the aunt of the girl whom he's dating, considering the fact he had never studied under Miss Johannes before. He cleared his throat; "I want to t-thank you again for t-taking this big s-step for me, Miss J-Johannes."

"Oh hush Sanders. You are being too formal. You're dating my niece, so we're almost what? A family you could say?"

"Ah." Rio weakly chuckled.

"You see Rio," Miss Johannes turned around her driver's seat to face him; "I know you have a certain past that you find it hard to talk about but so does everyone. I am not demeaning your past or your trauma, don't take it in that way please but I am just saying that like you everybody has some secret about their past or present in their life. But one requires certain people whom he could trust enough to depend on them at the time of his need when their past comes back to haunt them in any form. They develop a comfort zone at the back of their mind that in case something happens, they'll have those people who'll have their back." Rio listened on intently.

"What I'm saying is, in a nutshell, you don't have to go through this alone Rio. You are not alone."