Page 55 of Dark Desires

“I don’t know,“ she replies. She gets into the passenger seat and flashes me a shaky smile. “I don’t think I’m getting them back.“

“Right,“ I say. “Do you want me to take you back to your mom’s?“

She considers that for a second, then shakes her head. “No,“ she says. “I would like to have a shower first and…I don’t know, change. Not that I have anything to change into.“

“I’ll buy you some clothes.“

“You don’t have to do that.“

“I don’t mind,“ I say. She’s about to answer, but I close the car door in her face because I don’t want to hear her protests. I walk slowly around to the driver seat, my legs aching as my head throbs.

I can’t exactly ask her to check herself back in, but this was exceptionally stupid of me. Trine is not my patient, I could lose my medical license and this was incredibly selfish. If she wanted to be in an inpatient situation–and I’m not foolish enough to think that she didn’t do this on purpose–then I should’ve definitely left her alone.

I need to apologize.

I slide into the driver seat, turn the ignition on, and look at her. “I’m sorry,“ I say. “This was impulsive.“

She shakes her head. “No, I’m glad you came. Something happened in there. Something…weird.“

“Seems like the place for it.“

I think she’s going to laugh, but she doesn’t. “I don’t know if I told you, but after everything that happened when you guys went back to Orlando, I needed to go talk to someone to process everything that had happened,“ she says as I put the car in gear and start backing out of the parking spot. “Wait, where are we going?“

“Back to the hotel. You can have a shower and wait there while I go get some clothes for you. Where’s your phone?“

“I don’t know. I haven’t had it since the car accident.“

“Right. Maybe your mom has it.“

She shrugs, twirling a strand of hair in front of her face. “Ugh. This is all so fucked.“

“Yeah. Keep telling me what happened.“

“Right, anyway, so I went to the crisis center and this counselor decided to take me back to his office even though it very much felt like a break in protocol.“

“Was it?“ I ask as I get on the highway.

“I don’t know. You’re the shrink. But it felt like it and he even acknowledged it. Anyway, he told me that I should keep a dream journal and tell him every time I had that sex dream…You know, the one I was talking to you guys about.“

I don’t really know if this is the time to talk about my own dream, but I should probably bring it up later, maybe around the others. Since Luke’s running theory seems to be that possession is insidious and infectious, and Trine’s main symptom is the dreams, then perhaps it’s affecting me, too.

But that’s a conversation for later. Right now, I just want to focus on her.

“Did you?“ I ask.

“Not really, I’m terrible at stuff like that. But, uh, he was there.“

“In your dreams?“

“Yes. No, I mean, yes, he was in my dreams, I’m pretty sure he’s the same person I’ve been seeing in my dreams. What I meant by that, though, was that he was there. He was part of my intake team. He was the therapist interviewing me.“

“Here?“ I ask, glancing at the rearview mirror.

“He said he was a floater and he has to work around the state so it was just a weird coincidence.“

“Okay…“

She sighs. “I would’ve believed him. I would’ve chalked it all up to a coincidence. But Rei, when I have those weird dreams, he’s always there. And when we were talking this nurse, who seemed like a totally normal person, tried to kill him with a pair of scissors or something.“

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