CHAPTER SEVEN: ... and it led me to you.

CYRENE took in a deep breath before opening the wooden door she had been staring at for almost a minute and peeped inside.

Sitting behind a polished mahogany desk in the moderately decorated office was a middle-aged man who welcomed Cyrene in with a broad smile.

The office was not a big one but it had a warm and comforting appearance. The flower vases placed on the frame of the wide glass windows gave the office a homey impression.

Despite the efforts put into making the office appear welcoming, the room did little to nothing in calming the uneasiness threatening to get the best of Cyrene.

As she walked in hesitantly, the man gave her another welcoming smile and gestured for her to sit on the two-in-one couch in the middle of the office.

Picking up a notebook from the drawer of his desk and a pen from the top of the table, he stood up to join Cyrene in the middle of the room.

He sat on the single couch opposite Cyrene, trying his best not to overwhelm her with his presence.

"Miss Bernard, I'm glad you came in today. I was starting to wonder if you have forgotten my address." He smiled at her.

"I don't know if I'm glad to be here or not," Cyrene replied honestly, looking around the office. "I know I have been here many times before but everything seems strange including yourself Mr. Craig."

"I understand how you feel and I hope you will let yourself feel a little more comfortable. I'm here to help you in any way you wish as long as you come to me," he said writing things down in his note.

"Is there any improvement?"

"No, but I have been coping thanks to you," she smiled a little, relaxing on the seat.

"I'm glad to hear that. So, what do you have for me today. Remember you can discuss anything with me and the ball is at your court?"

A few seconds passed and she said nothing which prompted Craig to stand from his seat. He walked towards the cabinet which was positioned at the other end of the room beside the glass windows. He mixed some tea inside a ceramic tea cup and added some hot water from a vacuum flask.

"This is your favorite tea in my office," he chuckled at the memory that occurred to him all of a sudden. "The first time you came here a few years ago, this was the only thing you managed to take from me." He placed the cup on the small table in front of Cyrene.

"Really?" She grabbed the cup and perceived the aroma of the beverage. "Mmmm... I like it already. Thank you, Mr. Craig"

"No, it's Craig for you Cyrene. We've been friends for too long for the unnecessary formalities." He picked up his notebook again and only watched her sip the tea as he made himself comfortable on the seat.

"I was caught. Not really caught but I think my professor found the recordings I have of him in my phone," she paused and took another sip from the cup. "He's not a dumb man and of course, he noticed my strange behaviors a few days ago and vaguely confronted me about it. He wants an explanation, the truth. But I have been avoiding him ever since." She appeared to be unaffected by the situation but Craig knew better.

Giving her a knowing look he continued, "Do you care about this your professor?"

"I don't know if I care about him or not. I just know that I don't like the situation between us right now. I want to tell him about my condition," Cyrene looked at her palms and placed them on her knees nervously.

"But you are not ready to do that yet because it might complicate things in your life and you don't know how to cope with complicated situations," Craig said what he felt that Cyrene was feeling.

"Yes. Yes, that's just it." She looked relieved to know that someone understood her.

"And that's why you came today," he laughed although it wasn't funny.

He sat back on his couch jotting down things in his note. Cyrene continued sipping from her glass without saying anything else. The tension she was feeling the time she walked in seemed to have faded away and she appeared more relaxed.

After a few minutes of the unexpected, not awkward silence, Craig spoke up again. "You are the only friend I have that is suffering from both retrograde and anterograde amnesia at the same time. You are not able to recall the past and neither are you able to make new memories.

I'm not saying this to scare you but to tell you how unique your situation is," he paused to evaluate her reaction to what he just said before moving forward.

"What are you trying to tell me by reminding me of the things I'm already aware of?" She asked with keen interest.

"I have a solution that might bring back your memories. Your forgotten memories,"

"What? And you are just telling me about it for the first time?" She appeared upset.

"Yes, because it's dangerous and might not work for you. The memories that comes back might even be distorted. It's risky." He explained.

"If it's dangerous why did you bring it up?"

"Because you are changing Cyrene. You are showing more interest in relating with other people for the first time since I started treating you. And I see it as a good sign," he gave her a tight smile.

"I sense a but." She looked at the empty cup in front of her wishing that more liquid was still inside it.

"But for some reason, your life being the way it is now might be the best. It is your subconscious that is causing your amnesia. Your past, the past you are after might be dangerous. Those memories you locked away are the key to your cure. That's my diagnosis. I might be able to help you get it back but what would it cost you?" He didn't withdraw his gaze from her as he leaned in towards her.

"I don't know if I want that yet but I think I don't have any options anymore. I have been like this for too long. Each time I sleep all i see is darkness. I'm not even sure if I dream. I only see nightmares of me drowning. I'm always drowning and no matter how hard I try to swim to the surface i just can't get there. I see the light but i can't reach it. So please, help me reach the light Mr Craig." She stared at him with the so much intensity and a look of helplessness.

"The choice is always yours Cyrene. And I will always be here for you as long as you need me" He moved back into his couch.

"Back to your professor..." He tried to relieve the tension in the room with a little humor in his voice.

"... I'm sure you can figure it out. You don't have to tell him the entire truth but you can always find a way around it."

"Can't you just be straightforward?" She groaned and he laughed.

"I'm not going to solve your crush problem for you. I'm not doing that." he closed his notebook.

"I'd like to be kept up to date in that aspect when you figure it out. Oh and remember to always trust your guts, it's like your back up memory most of the time." he gave her a knowing smile before going back to his desk.

"I'm not coming back here ever again." she pouted and folded her arms across her chest as she leaned back on the couch.

"You can leave my office when you finish sulking. My session with you is over for today."

She's making progress. We're getting somewhere.

He thought smiling to himself and looking at her with a glint of pride in his eyes.

He appeared truly happy about her improvement since he last saw her about a year ago.

********

Cyrene sat on the train with her eyes closed as she listened to the music playing from her headphone.

Her thought kept drifting to what her therapist mentioned earlier regarding hypnotherapy. It was a good option but it was dangerous and he gave her the courtsey of choosing whether she should go ahead with it or not.

What a considerate therapist, she thought with sarcasm.

Was getting the treatment what she truly wanted for herself at the moment? It was not like she wasn't coping before Mr craig brought it up in the first place.

She shook her head a little as if she was trying to wake herself up from her thought. She needed to focus her attention on a more pressing issue, the professor and how she would go about apologizing to the innocent man.

Recording someone without their consent was a crime and she felt terrible for doing such . No, that wasn't actually why she felt sorry. She felt sorry because the professor saw the recordings and he obviously wasn't supposed to find it. Maybe they both owed each other an apology. He invaded her privacy by snooping through her personal device without her consent as well. It was almost as if they both offended each other.

"Jesus Cyrene, get it together will you?" She whispered to herself.

As the train approached her stop, she wondered if she should just head back home or to the university which was just a few blocks away from the subway station.

No matter how she tried to convince herself that Jason owed her apologies too, she knew that she owed the man more than just an apology. She needed to give him a tangible reason for her actions and the reason for her actions was something she wasn't willing to just give up like that.

She approached Jason's office along the hallway but paused in her steps as she heard distinct voices coming from the room.

Cyrene moved closer to the office and stopped when she could hear the voices correctly.

"Something is awfully wrong with her and I can tell no matter how hard she tries to hide it. Look, Jace if you know anything I don't understand why you should be keeping it to yourself alone," Cyrene heard a female voice say with a hint of accusation laced through her voice.

"I think you should calm down first. No one knows about anything right now and I don't think Jason knows what you don't know at the moment," A male voice said in Jason's defense.

"I know Jace, Tim and there's never a time when there's nothing he doesn't know. All I'm asking is that..."

"That what June? We all are here trying to figure out what's happening but look at what the two of are doing instead. If you are that curious and desperate for an answer, why don't you try searching for it yourself?"

"I was searching for it and it led me to you."

Cyrene was shocked when she heard the name June. Maybe it wasn't the June she knew.

She peeped through the small opening created by the half closed door and sighted June leaning on the window frame as she glared at someone by the other side of the room.

She could remember June because she swiped through the photos they took together the other day before going to see her therapist.

Even though she doesn't remember anything, she could almost swear that June had never mentioned anything about knowing the professor to her before.

She turned and quietly walked away from the the hallway with the mind set that she showed up at the wrong time.

Cyrene wasn't ready to intrude on their gathering despite the nagging feeling that they were discussing her.