The Frozen Ground flaws

Ⅴ 雨水 [1] / [35]

"Alex! wake up! you're dreaming!"

He was still screaming when he opened his eyes wide. Cynthia was waking him up by shaking him vigorously. She looked so worried. His body was covered in sweat and he looked so shocked by something. Cynthia handed over a glass of water, but he rejected it. He moaned and covered his head. Severe headaches dominated him for the rest of the morning.

When Alexander felt better, around mid-afternoon, Cynthia knocked on his door, and brought in some coffee and biscuits with clotted cream, an English tea accessory that both took a liking to in university as a comfort food in-between studies.

"Do you want to talk about what happened this morning?"

Cynthia asked as she handed him a mug of black coffee. He always drank his coffee black.

"What is there to talk about? You said it yourself, it was just a bad dream. That's all,"

finished Alexander emphatically.

"No, that isn't all. It's still affecting you, isn't it? What happened at that house."

"It's not just Sarah, or whoever she is. It's a lot of things bundled up into one. That experience. This job. Things from the past. It's just all starting to come to the surface for me, that's all. I just need a vacation."

"What can I do to help?"

Cynthia sighed and asked.

"How about an all-expenses paid vacation to Honolulu for a couple of weeks?"

he tried to make light of his grave mood.

"Come on, be serious.”

She wasn’t diverted by his joking. She observed his face, and noticed that it was covered in cold sweat. It seemed much more serious than she had expected. She cautiously began to speak.

“I think you need medical care first, and, if needed, maybe some psychiatric care or therapy. If what's harassing you now is related to your past, I'm guessing that trauma has deeply effected you in more ways than we think. You can run away from your problems temporarily, but that cannot be a fundamental solution.”

“Maybe, but I don’t want you to get involved in this. Why should you take on such a burden because of me?”

You’re not my girlfriend or anything, he swallowed that phrase. He didn't want her to be burdened because of him. Cynthia looked like she wanted to tell him something, but she didn’t.

After a while, she just said this.