The Blood of a Nightlock

Chapter Seven

I slowly made my way up the stairs of the administration building and walked down the long stretch of hall to the end. I'd never been down the hallway before and was surprised to see 'Chief Mitchel' printed on the wall beside an open door. I slowly moved past the door, glancing inside. Mitchel was there with his eyes on his computer, his chin resting on his left hand. His office was nice. Dark colored walls and a large black desk. There were two chairs left in front of his desk that sat empty. He had a cabinet in the back of the room that was closed and a filing cabinet on the other side. He casually swung his eyes to the door and caught mine. He did a double take and held. His lips parted like he was going to speak, but I reached out and knocked on Hamilton's door across the way.

"Miss. Grayson," Hamilton beamed at me, "come on in."

I glanced back at Mitchel as he nodded once and returned to his computer.

"Have a seat." Hamilton gestured to the leather couch.

I sighed and dropped down onto the couch. There was a coffee table in front of me and a big chair across from it.

"Would you like water or anything? Coffee?"

I shook my head. "Thank you though."

He sat down, a notebook and pen in hand.

His office was different from Mitchel's. It looked like he spent a lot of time here, but I know he didn't. He came and went a lot like Mitchel did. Even if he was an ass, he was still a very highly regarded doctor and because of that, he moved from place to place. Where Dr. Harden taught, he just did the shrink thing. He helped a lot of people.

"Have you been in a psych eval before, Wren?" He asked as he pressed the record button on a small pocket-sized recorder on the table between us.

"Um," I whispered, "once after my family died."

He nodded. "With Dr. Harden?"

"Yes." I said quietly.

"So you kind of know how these work." He smiled politely.

I shrugged. "I guess. Maybe."

"Well, I'll give you a quick rundown. We just talk. He said. We can talk about your day, your friends, your feelings, your training, your teachers. We can talk about whatever you want."

"So I spill all my secrets and you just eat them up and use them against me?"

"I'm not the enemy here, Wren. I just want to help."

I nodded, but didn't respond.

"How was class today?"

"Great." I said.

"Did you learn something new?"

"I learn something new every day." I said. "The mind never stops learning."

He smiled at me. "You're right. It's constantly starving for new information. It's good you're feeding yours."

I nodded.

"I want to address some things from your past." He said. "I don't know you very well."

"You don't know me at all." I reminded him.

His smile was gentle. "You're right, I only know about you."

"How can you make decisions regarding my best interest if you only know about me?"

"Well, it's my job. I know what you've been through and with a past like yours, seven years isn't exactly enough of a timeframe to be able to let go of what happened."