The fourth day of this new world was frightening. I woke up from a nightmare again in the same place. The same day, the same nightmare, I woke up with Mrs. Ada hugged me, I was shouting at the ceiling for my parents, trying to reach them. She cherishes my hair. She cares for me like I'm her actual son. Every day. She allows me to feel safe.
Freedom is earned...
In a week, Noah was going to start school. He felt no joy, he felt alone.
He wanted to die. He wanted life to end. He didn't want to continue living happily while his parents never really got a grave where he could cry to them.
The door to Noah's room opened, and a smiling Ada came in. "Hey Noah, there is someone that wants to talk to you. Her name is Anna, she is what people call a therapist." Noah looked at the lady sitting in front of him. His hair fell back, covering his eyes. He saw a mark on her hand that spelled time 時. The woman looked a bit confused about why the woman was carrying about a man. The therapist was confused, but she had a job, and she was getting paid, so she didn't care if it was a man or a woman.
"Noah," the therapist said firmly as she sat down. "I am here to help you. Your mother told me about your nightmares about how you scream at night. You are passing through something that we call PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder. It happens when you pass through something that scares you so much your mind can help but remind you of said horror. Let me be frank with you, Noah. No one can save you from what you are experiencing, but yourself, you are scared of something and if you don't face that fear you will never recuperate from it. I believe you have suicidal thoughts. I believe you feel like something will get you if you close your eyes..."
One of Noah's eyes peaked from behind his hair. "Noah, you can talk to me. There are no uterus motives behind my help. I am here on a contract with your mother. I don't respond to anyone other than your mother, and I'm getting paid, so your secret is safe with me."
Noah finally looked at her and looked at Ada. She looked at him, smile and left the room. Noah took a deep breath tide his hair with the hair tide that his mother gave him.
"Well..." Noah told her everything that had happened on the island. How he held the hand of his mother, how he saw the head of his father roll towards him, how the lifeless body of his teacher slammed on the ground, creating a poll of blood, the fear that he felt the moment he saw his family. The more he thought about it, it felt that it was his fault. He felt that he could have done more.
In Noah's eyes, he failed his family. He let them die, and every time he goes to sleep he is reminded that he was too scared to do anything for his family.
The lady stops writing in a notebook. She put it down and smiled warmly, but the smile was a fake smile. "That is heart-breaking Noah. I don't know where to begin, so let me be frank with you. As a child, you suffer more than anyone I ever treated. You saw hell, and you saw death, and the best way to cope with it is to remember and be able to live with it, and this might be something other people will tell you, but your parents will always choose you over them in a different world. Your parents will always choose to push you away instead of saving themselves."
Noah's eyes started watering. "I — I know, but I still feel guilty. I'm strong. I was supposed to be the hero, the one that saved everyone!" Noah said with tears rolling down his eyes.
"You are a child. No one will blame you if you freeze with fear against something as scary as the skin of a kail. A grown man freezes when they see it. Instead of blaming yourself, try thinking that the parents that love you so much saved the only person that they love more than their own lives." The lady got up and smiled at him this time, her smile genuine and warm. "I'll be back tomorrow. Let's talk again, Noah," she left, and Noah was left alone sobbing like the little boy he was. That was the only thing he was right now: a child drenched in fear and guilt, a child that was as human as he was powerful.
For the first time, Noah said it, in a whisper. He said, "Ma, I'm scared, dad, I'm scared." He said in between sobs and tears falling on the bedsheets. His arms wrap around himself like looking for his parents' embrace, an embrace that he will never feel again.
Noah's eyes shine in the darkness of his room. Then he removed his bedsheets and got up from his bed and started to look at his sword. It was a weird sword. It looked ancient with engravings that went from the top to the bottom where the guard ends and the blade itself started at. The wooden handle with blue and red leather. It was a masterpiece and even if it looked old, it was in a perfect state. Noah grabbed the tools that Ada gave him to do maintenance on his sword and started reading the manual. Ada gave him his eyes, looked into the book and then looked at the tools he had. He cleaned his tears and took a deep breath. "Make sure the stone is wet, make sure it is aligned with the edges and, from top to bottom, create a v shape, never a straight line... okay I think I get it." He grabbed a second book, This time it was about polishing a sword. He grabbed a little bottle and looked at it. "Okay, it says tap the foam, do not put too much and do not put it in the grip... I get it is like animal fat. It makes this slippery... interesting the books in this place are amazing. They are not cryptic, they feel like any stupid person can read it and understand it."
Noah closed the book and looked around. He was finished with reading, and now it was time to work on his sword. He put some leather globs on and started to sharpen the blade. An hour and a half passed and Ada entered and looked at Noah working on his blade on the ground next to his bed, she came to him slowly "tiny ice cube," she said gently. Noah looked at her and took off his eye protection. She noticed his eyes were glowing blue.
"Oh hello." He weakly smiled.
"I know you are busy, and somehow you are working in the dark, but I made you a sandwich. We can talk about anything, and y—you know, we can get to know each other." She was awkward. She wanted to get close to Noah. She didn't see him as a man. She actually saw him as her child. "Well, I didn't make the sandwich the maids did,"
Noah chuckled. He looked at his tools and moved them to the side, took his gloves off and put his sword back in his sheath. "I only need to polish it anyway."
She smiled widely and sat down next to him and gave him the sandwich, and he gave it a big bite. He was starving literally he hadn't eaten in 2 days. "Thanks for everything, M — Ada, it might be expensive to contact a therapist. I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for you, Ms. Ada."
"Money is a luxury, not a necessity. If I need to spend it, I don't think about it, and if it makes you feel better, I see this as an investment not for me," he looked at her, and she tapped Noah's nose, "but for you." She said. Noah, smiling and finishing his sandwich, wiped his face and smiled: "Thanks, Ms. Ada"
Ada grabbed his head and pulled him close to her, and hugged him. "A smile only fades when people die, but for people that knew this person, the smile will never fade even after death, because memories remain. Think of this when you think about your parents, Noah. Your parents' smiles only fade when you stop remembering them."
Noah's eyes opened wide and then closed, then he started crying hard and loudly, just like a normal kid. "MA!" he said, hugging Ada tightly, "DAD!" and within a few minutes of crying, he fell asleep and, for the first time, he didn't wake up screaming in the middle of the night.
In the morning, there was a knock on the door. "Noah, I'm here for another session," she looked at the boy at a table reading. There was a stack of books with at least 10 books and another stack with 2 books. "I see you have gotten better after a session," she said, moving to the chair right next to him and sitting down, taking her notebook out.
"Sort of, I'm not sure how I feel."
"But you feel better. I heard you had a good night last night," the therapist said.
"I guess so, but I'm not sure what change," Noah responded to her.
"You live, you love, that is just the basics of humanity, but why is a therapist talking to you about love? Well, science will say that love is just a chemical that is released into the brain, but I personally believe that love is more than that. I believe love is the bond of people, the bond of beings that can not be broken by simple matters. You loved your parents, Noah, and not even a monster was able to take that away from you. You were not afraid of the monster. You were always looking for a way to save your family in every single one of your dreams," the therapist looked at Noah and smiled.
Noah's eyes opened, and he looked at his books. "That is creepy, you are creepy!"
"What did you say, you little runt!" her smile faded.
Anna grabbed Noah's ear and smiled. Noah smiled as well, "Mrs. Anna is so creepy... thank you, Mrs. Anna"
In eight years of work, she has never felt this happy that one of her patients is doing well and that, once again, they can smile happily is a weird feeling, but she wants to see what this kid's future looks like.
She activates her ability, which allows her to see into the future and sees a man on top of a mountain of corpses with a shining sword in front of the Skin of Kain.
The therapist looks concerned at Noah but hides it very well. She will have to talk to Ada about this.