| Chapter 41 Over the next week Nick continued to improve. He hadn't had an episode in two days, and was only experiencing the nightmares. Dr. McKenna had talked with Nick extensively about his drawings and couldn't get any more from him on who the second person was. Nick adamantly refused to talk about it. Diane and Bob had been in several times in the last few days to visit with Nick, but he was still refusing to see Brian. None the less, Brian was there everyday, just in case he changed his mind. John came by each day and stayed with the group during his regular session time, but never asked to see Nick. He knew Nick wouldn't want to see him, and there was no sense in risking someone seeing something in Nick's reaction to him that would cause question. Dr. McKenna was considering letting Nick go home in the next day or so. There really wasn't any more he could do by observing him, and they could continue his therapy in the office. The doctor knew that Nick wasn't telling him everything and Nick knew he knew. But try as he might, Dr. McKenna couldn't get Nick to open up. Sure he talked a little more freely about his memories, filling him in on several �very bad' incidences that made the doctor pray he never met Tim for fear of what he might do to him. But Nick was a closed book on the ghostly figure in his drawings, leaving the doctor with several unanswered questions. Dr. McKenna put his pen down and leaned back in his chair. He had been combing over Nick's chart since he arrived, looking for some clue as to what Nick was so afraid of talking about. So far, he'd found nothing. He pulled the drawings out again and laid them across his desk, studying each one. Each drawing represented a hopeless, trapped feeling in Nick. And each one contained the shadowy figure. "What are you trying to tell me?" he asked. He heard a knock on the door and looked up to see Brian peeking in, "Am I interrupting?" "No Brian, come in," he said, as Brian wheeled himself into the room and over to the desk. "Sorry to barge in on you like this, but your door was open and I ......" he started, then stopped when he saw the pictures. Dr. McKenna started to put them away, mentally cursing himself for momentarily forgetting they were out. "No, don't," Brian said, "Nick did these didn't he?" "Yes he did. How did you know?" he asked. Brian looked at the doctor, "Because I've seen them before." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John sat in his living room staring at the pictures in front of him. He'd been trying to lie to himself for the last few days, but he couldn't now. Not with the proof staring him in the face. He looked at the old photo, taken when he was eighteen. "Why did it have to be you?" he asked, "Of all the people on that damn tour, why was it you?" He sighed, staring at Brian in the photo, "And you .... you have to good of a memory. I need to put the rest of my plan into motion before you really do remember who I am and it all goes to hell." He tossed the picture back into the box with the rest and got up, moving to the window and looking out at the ocean, "As soon as he's out of the hospital, it has to be then, or I may lose him forever." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "You've seen them before?" Dr. McKenna asked, "How's that possible? Nick just drew these a few days ago." Brian pulled the backpack from the back of his wheel chair and opened it up, "Because he drew the same pictures when all this was happening." He pulled them out and handed them to the doctor. Dr. McKenna opened them up and had to consciously keep his mouth from dropping open in shock. Each picture was identical to the ones he drew so many years before. The only thing lacking was some detail and the mysterious figure. "Brian, why didn't you show these to me before?" he asked. "I promised him that no one would ever see them. They're so personal to him, and I couldn't break that promise," he said. Dr. McKenna sat each one next to its counterpart, noticing when he did that there was an extra one. He looked at it, chills running up his spine. The only thing on the paper was a shadowy figure. He held it to each of the recent drawings, seeing that it was the same. Each line, each smudge that made up the man was exactly as the one in the older drawing. "How'd he do that?" the doctor asked. "Nick's good at remembering his artwork," Brian said, "He's always been able to duplicate a drawing. Sometimes it's hard to tell which was the original." "I see that," the doctor said, looking up at Brian, "Do you remember anything about these? What Nick said about them?" Brian thought for a minute, "Well, I know that the four he did were always his way of expressing how trapped and lost he felt. Like this one," he said, pointing at one that showed Nick in a pit of some kind, with Tim looking down at him from above, "He always said that he felt like there was no escape." "And what about this one?" Dr. McKenna asked, holding up the one with the figure on it. Brian sighed and thought for a long time, "That one was different. He didn't draw it until a few years after everything happened. It seems like he had a nightmare and that was the result of it, but I can't remember what he told me. It was a long time ago, and he only drew it the one time." "You mean he drew the others more than once?" the doctor asked. Brian nodded, "Yeah, he used to draw them all the time. It was before he told me everything that happened. He would constantly draw those four, over and over again. I destroyed them all but these. These are the originals." "Do you mind if I keep these?" he asked. "Just as long as you don't show Nick that you have them," Brian said. "I assure you, he won't find out," Dr. McKenna said. "Alright then." "Oh and if you remember anything about the figure in this drawing, please call me," he said. "I will," Brian said, as he left the room. Dr. McKenna stared at the drawing, "Something tells me that you're the key to everything." Chaper 42 |