Diagnosis: Chronic Catharsis

Made for TLC's WDC Birthday Special Contest
Prompt ▼

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It was raining. Mother was sick.

Those two statements went hand-in-hand. Mother never felt good when it was raining. Usually, she would not come out of the bedroom, but those were the good days. The bad days were when she came out, whined and complained all day and expected her family to act as her servants.

This was why Father would go to work on rainy days... even if it rained on the weekend and there was no work to go to.

Welcome to Maria Reldon's life.

Unfortunately, that was not the worst part about Maria's life. The worst part was that the negative emotions of those around her constantly beat away at her sanity.

Maria never remembered a time when she had been without this burden. Ever since she was a baby, guided by instincts, Maria had been the perfect child because she learned that if she was good it sometimes gave her a very pleasant feeling. However, Maria had quickly found out that those pleasant feelings never lasted long. Soon, hateful energy pounded against her again, fueled by regret, frustration, disappointment, failure....

For a time, Maria hadn't realized that the energy came from other people. When she was four, her mother had taken her out to a park with a group of other moms. A storm had come up suddenly and everyone had scattered. In the confusion, Maria had been left behind. Maria had sat on the swing in the rain and waited for her mom to come back. And for the first time, her mind had felt free, calm and unburdened. It was scary, wrong. She had always had that pressure, and even though it was painful, it was supposed to be there. When Mother had shown up, Maria noted that fear, anger and remorse beat against her--almost unaffected by the hint relief she sensed. That was the day Maria discovered she was influenced by those around her.

After that, Maria spent all her free time trying to find a deserted place to hide. Unfortunately, most people thought it was a bad idea for a young child to be alone. So, even now, the eight year old Maria was not very successful.

Maria didn't understand how it worked, or why she was the only one it seemed to happen to. When she tried to explain it to her parents, the best she could come up with was calling it an intense pressure that became pain. It was so painful, Maria often found tears leaking down her cheeks.

Her parents thought there was something wrong with her. They had taken her to doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and even a priest. None of them had known what to do with her. The doctor had decided she must have sinus infections (even though he couldn't find evidence of it) and had give her a course of antibiotics, the psychologist suggested she had "extreme empathy" which should be treated with medication, the psychiatrist decided she had "chronic catharsis" which should be treated with medication and the priest had decided she was possessed by a demonic spirit which needed to be exorcized.

Fortunately, when Maria told her father that the medication made it worse, he took her off all of it. Unfortunately, "it" seemed to be getting worse as she got older. It had been over a month since she had been able to free her mind, and everyday it hurt more.

Maria had been ecstatic that Washington was suffering a rare drought because experience had taught her that stormy days were the worst. It was just because of Mother, storms seemed to bring out fear, impatience, irritation and restlessness in everyone. However, Maria didn't think she could handle staying inside her house where any noise louder than a whisper would result in a muffled scream--and an intense stab of fury--from the master bedroom.

Maria donned her rain boots and her favorite checkered raincoat. Then, Maria waited for a flash of lightening before opening the door, knowing the resulting thunder would cover the sound. The rainy street was blessedly empty, but negativity still pounded at her from behind the closed doors.

Shivering, and filled with hopelessness, Maria pulled on her fluffy mittens and started walking in the direction which she sensed less people.

Maria walked, and walked, and walked farther, until the pressure was bearable.

When Maria glanced around, she realized she had no idea where she was. She was surrounded by huge houses, mansions really. However, Maria was too young to find any satisfaction in the fact that the occupants of these houses seemed just as miserable as those in her neighborhood.

Now wandering aimlessly, Maria tried how many people were in each house based on the feelings she could sense.

There were two people in that house, one was exuding pain and the other frustration. In the next house there was only one, and loneliness came from it. And the next house had four, three were disgust and the other was lust. Maria shuddered and walked faster.

Curiously, in the next house, Maria felt a very strong presence but there wasn't any emotion attached. Drawn to it, she wandered up the large circular drive to the front door. Before she could knock the door opened to reveal a man in a white trench coat. It was wet, as though he had just come in out of the rain. Maria stared up at him but she still couldn't sense anything from him, not even the happy emotions.

Did that make him a psychopath? Maria wondered. Surely psychopaths wore black, though. White was for good guys.

The man squatted down so he could look her in the eyes. He had very nice chocolate brown eyes. Maria didn't move as he reached up and gently touched her forehead.

Suddenly all the presences, emotions and pressure was gone. Maria cried out and would have fallen but the man gently supported her.

"Shh, it's okay, it will all be okay now, youngling." The man continued his soothing monologue until she managed to stand under her own power again.

The man released her and glazed up at her kindly, "What's your name, young one?"

"Maria." She sniffled and rubbed the tears from her eyes. "Maria Reldon."

"Well then Maria, let's get you home, hmm?"

"No! I never want to go back!"

"Ah... why not?"

"I hurt all the time... I want to stay with you."

The man chuckled, "I don't think your parents would like that. However, I can teach you how to control your power and you will never have to hurt again."

"Oh... promise?"

"Yes, I promise."

Word Count: 1,105