Lost Echoes

Close to an hour later, James stepped out of the room, looking quite exhausted.

Nothing had worked to the effect that he was hoping for, in spite of him having doled out every trick in the book that he knew of just to coax some manner of response from Estella.

“How did it go?” Lucian inquired anxiously.

James shook his head. “Essie has completely shut herself in. She has refused to communicate with anyone and is resistant even to me. My guess is that she must have been triggered by something. The only way to resolve this is by identifying the source of her trauma.”

Lucian’s expression dimmed when he heard that.

Seemingly unaware of the change in his friend’s mood, James continued to ask of the latter in earnest, “Has Essie encountered any situation recently that might have brought about this change in her emotional state?”

Memories of the kid breaking her silence because of Roxanne came flowing back to Lucian. The answer thus became obvious to him.

After a moment’s pause, Lucian recou