Ally leaves the room. She heads to her bedroom. As she passes the front door, the bell rings. Ally pauses in front of the door and looks at it. She takes the few steps towards the door and opens it.There is a man standing in front of her. The look of pure shock on his face as he looks at Ally surprises her.“Hello.” Ally says. The man stutters, trying to speak to her. Ally stares at the man as he tries to find himself in his own chaos. He is a little overweight. He wears glasses with a very narrow steel frame. He stands with his suitcase in his hand, still stuttering. Ally looks at his clothes. He seems to be nicely dressed. He is wearing suit pants and a white long-sleeved shirt. The red tie around his neck is neatly tied. His shoes are shiny and his overall appearance is neat and clean.Ally is just about to ask him if he needs anything when she feels a hand rest on her shoulder. Ally turns around to look at Benson. Benson smiles at her and then looks at the man standing in the ope
Ally walks out of the room and heads straight to where Benson is sitting in his office. He is behind his desk, going through documents on his table. Aly stands in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. She stares at him until he notices that she is there. It takes Benson a while before he realises that Ally is standing in the doorway.Benson gives Ally a questioning look and then raises his eyebrows when he sees that there is no other reaction coming from her.“Do you need anything?” Benson asks Ally, dismissing her slightly and attending back to the documents in his hands.“I would like a cell phone.” Ally tells Benson. The defiance is notable in her voice.“No.” Benson answers bluntly. “Whoever you need to call, you can call from the house phone.” He answers her in a short tone.“I want to call Ronald. I want to speak to him.” Ally answers in the same short tone that Benson is using on her.“No” Benson answers again. “Your therapy is finished and you do not need to speak
Ally realises exactly what is wrong the moment she stares into the empty room.The door was unlocked. Whatever was hidden in this room has been removed. There is no sign of anyone ever staying in the room. Ally turns around and looks at Benson. He is staring at her with a worried look in his eyes.“There was a woman staying in this room.” Ally tells Benson. Benson shakes his head slightly.“Where is the woman that was staying in this room?!” Ally yells at Benson. Benson looks at Ally. The sadness is back in his eyes.“I can’t do this again Ally.” Benson tells her. Ally hears a tiredness in his voice that she has not heard before. She stares at Benson and tries to think what he is talking about. What is it that he is too tired to do?“What are you talking about?” Ally asks Benson.“Everything Ally. The voices you hear. The people you see. It is just too much to deal with. I thought we went through this before. Everything seemed better. You went through extensive therapy before and you
“It is good to see you again, Ally. How have you been?” Doctor White says in her sing-song voice. Ally looks at her with a deep frown on her forehead.“I do not remember seeing you before. I cannot update you on anything because I do not know how I was when I saw you last.” Ally tells her. She does not put any effort into smiling or trying to sound friendly.“I detect anger in your voice, Ally. Would you like to tell me why you are angry?” Doctor White says in her sing along voice. Ally blinks slowly and stares at the woman in front of her. She shakes her head slowly and then looks away from her.“I do not wish to tell you anything. I do not know you and I thought I was coming here to talk to my husband.” Ally tells Doctor White. Doctor White looks at Ally for a long while. The smile fades from her mouth and her white teeth are finally behind her red lips. Ally waits for the woman to talk. If she does not start talking soon, Ally will just get up and leave the room.“Well, I can tell
Ally stares at the Doctor. There is a worried look in her eyes. Ally has definitely touched a nerve.Ally looks at each of the buttons on her blouse. She cannot see any sign of a listening device like the one that Ronald was wearing. Ally is immediately terrified for this woman’s sake. Another flash of memory comes to Ally. Ally feels the anxiety of wearing a bracelet like the one Doctor White is wearing right now. She looks at the bracelet again. This is a dangerous bracelet.The doctor quickly takes her seat and opens her file. She scribbles something on a piece of paper and hands it to Ally.DO NOT SAY ANYTHING TO ANYONEAlly takes her seat again and takes the pen from Doctor White. She writes on the back of the piece of paper and hands it back to the doctor. Ally then leaves the room and heads up to her bedroom.Doctor White turns the piece of paper over in her hand.FIND RONALD AT THE FACILITYDoctor white slips the piece of paper into her pocket and puts her things away in her b
“Thank you for meeting me here.”Ronald watches the woman that takes a seat across from him. He does not say a word. He has learnt in the past few months that it is very dangerous to trust any strangers. He nods.“I am Alexa. Most people refer to me as Doctor White.” Alexa tells Ronald. Ronald rubs his index finger on his lip. He still is not sure if it is safe to talk to this woman.“I am a clinical psychologist. I have been treating Ally Ash for the past few years.” Alexa says. She sighs and shakes her head. “I have told so many lies, I am starting to believe them myself.” Alexa looks at Ronald apologetically. “I have seen Ally once. I have been contracted by her husband to treat her, but I have to play by his rules.” Alexa says, raising her wrist for Ronald to see the bracelet sparkling in all its glory.“Listening device?” Ronald asks. Alexa shakes her head. She takes a deep breath and lets it out in a rush.“Bomb.” She tells him. Ronald raises his eyebrows and his eyes grow wide.
“Do doctors not usually book theatres well in advance?” Alexa asks Ronald.“That was exactly my first thought. And when they do book theatres for plastic surgery, they book it at a hospital. They do not book it at a recovering facility that is almost the closest thing you could get to an old age home.” Ronald says in a hushed voice. He sits forward and looks around.“That night, when the patient came in, I was there to see who it was. The curiosity was killing me. It was the same woman I was treating at her home. The one who looks exactly like Ally. When she came out of surgery, she was waiting in the recovery room and I went to check her file. She had no next of kin or anyone who should be called in case of emergency. The only person who knew she was there, was the doctor that operated on her.” Ronald tells Alexa. Alexa has gone one shade paler. Ronald didn’t think that her lily-white skin could go any whiter, but he was wrong.“So, who was the woman?” Alexa asks.“It doesn’t even ma
Ally lays in her bed. She knows that Benson would be coming to bed any moment. She does not want to talk to him but she needs to gauge his mood to know if she can request going out of the house. Her mind has been racing for the last few hours. Ally hates being trapped in this house.Waiting for Benson turns out to be really tiring as well. Ally turns on her side and drifts off to sleep withing a minute.She wakes during the night. Her bedside light has been switched off and the room is dark. She can feel the heat coming from Benson beside her. Ally sits up in bed. Her breath is fast and her heart is racing. Did she dream? It felt so real. Ally remembers the dream she just had.A dark-haired man was standing outside a backside door to a restaurant. Ally was on the phone with Megan, asking her to pick her up after a disastrous date. He invited Ally in so she did not have to wait outside in the dark. He was a chef. The hair at his temples were slightly greying and Ally could not take her