Chapter 6 - The Second Voice
The smell of Dr. Keating’s office was a comforting blend of old paper, floor wax, and the faint, sterile scent of antiseptic. It was a space designed to be a fortress of calm, a place where the chaotic edges of the world were filed down into manageable, psychological shapes.
Emily sat on the edge of the plush, sage-green sofa, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. She had spent the drive over rehearsing her opening line, desperate to sound like the competent, single mother she tried so hard to be. Sophie sat on the rug, coloring with intense, jagged strokes.
"Everything feels... heavy," Emily said, her voice trembling slightly. "She’s scared to sleep. She’s scared to be alone."
Dr. Keating, a woman with kind eyes and a posture as rigid as a soldier’s, nodded slowly. "That’s a lot of responsibility for a little girl to carry, Emily. But we’re going to unpack this. We’re going to figure out where the fear is coming from."
Sophie stopped coloring. She looked up, her eyes wide and glassy, before returning to the paper. She drew a house. It was a square, drawn with a steady hand. A sun hung in the corner, yellow and bright.
"That’s a lovely house," Dr. Keating said softly. "Who lives there?"
Sophie didn’t answer. She added a second figure to the drawing—a small stick figure standing in the corner of the yard. It was colored in a deep, bruised shade of red.
Dr. Keating leaned forward, her voice dropping an octave. "Sophie? Who is this person in the red?"
The silence in the room stretched, taut as a guitar string. Emily held her breath, waiting for her daughter to say it was a monster, a ghost, a nightmare. Anything but what seemed to be coming.
"He's quiet," Sophie whispered, her finger tracing the red line. "He doesn't talk. He just watches."
Emily felt a prickle of sweat break out on her upper lip. "He's just a drawing, honey," she said, forcing a smile. "It's okay. We can erase him."
Sophie shook her head violently, her curls bouncing. "No! He's real. He's here."
Dr. Keating exchanged a concerned glance with Emily. "Do you know this man, Sophie? Is it someone from school? A neighbor?"
Emily shook her head. "No," she said, the word coming out sharper than she intended. "There’s no one. She’s just... she’s imagining things. She’s been watching too many scary movies."
Dr. Keating turned back to the girl. "Sophie, tell Mommy if this man is scary. If he’s hurting you, we need to tell the police."
Sophie looked at Dr. Keating, then at her mother. The fear in her eyes was absolute. "He's not scary," she said, her voice trembling. "He's just... quiet."
Dr. Keating sighed, making a note on her notepad. "This level of dissociation, seeing figures that aren't there... it suggests a severe response to trauma. Have there been any recent changes in the household? Any new men in Sophie's life?"
Emily felt the blood drain from her face. She looked at Sophie, then back at the doctor. The words felt like stones in her throat.
"No," Emily said, her voice hollow. "No men. Just... Mark. But he hasn't been around lately. He’s been away."
"Mark?" Dr. Keating asked gently. "Sophie’s father?"
Emily nodded, though her stomach was twisting into knots. "He visits on weekends. But... he’s not here right now. There’s no one else."
Sophie let out a small, choked sob. She pointed a shaking finger at the red stick figure in the corner of the drawing.
"Daddy's not my daddy," Sophie said.
Emily froze. The air in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. "What did you say, sweetheart?"
Sophie looked up, her eyes filled with a terror that made Emily’s blood run cold. "Daddy's not my daddy. That man is."
Emily stared at her daughter, the words echoing in her mind like a gunshot. She had been the only constant parent for six months. Mark had been gone. He was just a visitor on weekends. There was no one else.
May you like
But as Sophie looked back down at the drawing, the red stick figure smiling up at them, Emily felt a cold, creeping dread settle in her bones. The quiet man. The shadow.
If Mark wasn't her father, and there was no one else in her life...
