Thread: Hysteria  [Father & Forbidden]

Heidi Kohler. The thick German accent complimented her German name nicely. A throat dry as a rock rendered her voice akin to a whisper as if she was embarrassed by her name. Her raven-colored hair fell past her shoulders in lazy waves losing itself in her checkered red and black shirt. Circles with shades of grey gave her icy blue eyes the look of an orphaned puppy, and matched the grey tank top whose neckline exposed the best angle of her cleavage. Her skirt was dark black with white dots that fell an inch shy of her knees. Her entire outfit seemed more befitting a college girl than for a widowed woman in her late twenties. Take a seat, Mrs. Kohler. The judge seated in front of her said, then gave her a coy smile and took the papers from Heidi's hands. The German took her seat in the courtroom filled with witnesses and jury members. Her eyes moved nervously from one corner to another like an amateur thief facing accusation, and her lips trembled as she watched them move around her and point and whisper. They won't stop talking , she quickly came to realize, and covered her ears in frustration. The more she covered, the louder the words were. Whore one woman from the jury bellowed at her. Murderer! another old man roared while pointing at her and looking at the judge. A psycho, that one one of the witnesses hissed to his friend, she heard. Sweat started to accumulate at her forehead, and she was on the verge of tears when she heard her name again. The voice was warm and welcoming. Like a kindergarten teacher telling the kids to play outside. When she looked up at the man, the room changed around her. It was now a dark space but for the candle she was holding. It illuminated the space well enough for her to recognize. My kitchen she thought, and her heart beat started resting. The man calling her was her husband, and the realization drove her heart to skip a beat. Francis.. she muttered loudly, you're alive.. . She sat the candle on the table and walked towards him. He was walking away from her she couldn't even see his face. But it is Francis.. I'm sure she kept telling herself as she walked behind him. The faster she walked, the faster her husband moved further from her. Soon her shins were sore and a headache invaded her head like an army of piranhas devouring a mouse carcass. He walked through a door, and then turned sharply to the right. She followed him and fixed her eyes on his figure which was now growing darker than a shadow. The floor beneath her was now wooden, and on her right was a audience looking at her silently. I'm on a theater stage she realized when she spotted the red curtains on the sides. Francis didn't seem to stop, so she walked behind him. He walked into a door then turned to the right, and then crossed a tight corridor. The lighting around her seemed to get brighter, and slowly the place around her became recognizable. A.. clinic? The man entered a room on his left and she followed him and took a seat as per his command. That's not Francis... It took her ten seconds of slow breathing to calm the headache that made her head pulse and spin like a washing machine. My name is Heidi she managed to mumble. She twitched her nose and rubbed her forehead, then her neck, and continued. I-I lost my husband, Francis, a few years ago. Heidi paused. Her blue eyes studied the man in front of her, and when she decided he was indeed a doctor, she began to study the small room the two were in. When it struck her that she had paused for ten seconds, she spoke again. Um, the usual. Depression, trauma, short term memory loss, hallucinations. This time her pause was abrupt, as if she had decided to cut the list prematurely. She looked around for a second, then started rubbing her hands together and then her knees. Her body muscles were tensed, and even her ankles were in pain. No doubt from all that walking she reasoned, but the pain was going away the more she massaged, and her grip of reality seemed strong - for now.