Fairview Asylum, October 16, 2014

Ellen didn't speak immediately today. She didn't even look up as the nurse led her in. This was not the animated young woman of previous sessions. No, today's Ellen Hawkes was hollow-eyed and silent.

"Miss Hawkes?" He probed gently. Her eyes were trained flatly and unblinkingly on him now.

"Hello, Dr. Heath." The voice was hoarse and tired, even more so than her appearance.

"Miss Hawkes, I hear have had a rather eventful week." He said with a vague smile.

"I think that visitation is a very bad idea, Dr. Heath." Ellen replied with a quirk of her lips, staring vacantly out of the window now. Her voice was still hoarse.

"Do you? And why is that?"

"Afterwards, I had the most terrible dream that I was in a room with marshmallow walls, of all things. I couldn't move properly either; it was rather disturbing." Ellen was shaking her head now, frowning with contemplation.

"And you think this was because of your visitor?" He could scarce believe that they were so close to making progress.

"Visitor? I didn't have any. Doctor, I'd say you'd gone off your rocker if I wasn't already off mine." Her answer was perplexed and mildly amused.

Benjamin Heath resisted the urge to bang his head on his desk and tried to remember why on earth he had thought this was a viable profession after undergrad.