Nethersky - Chapter 1

In a cozy but spacious office furnished with expensive coffee-colored decor, there sat a young man who was gazing around the room in deep contemplation. It appeared as though the boy was trying to etch every aspect of his surroundings into his memory, and that was because he was.

However, if everything turns out as he expects, this would be his last time coming to this therapist center. He hopes anyway because it has been a very long time since the incident took place and he feels that he is better now. Surely his therapist will think so too.

Starting from the age of eight until now, it had been ten years since he had started getting therapy. Besides, he could tell that he had improved a whole lot from how he was back then when the incident occurred; this made him confident that the current him didn’t need to go to these weekly therapy sessions anymore.

The therapy did help him in many ways; he had already gained back his ability of speech. Although, since he hadn’t exercised his vocal cords for so many years, his laryngeal muscle had atrophied. This caused him to not be able to speak loudly, but he was just grateful he was able to.

However, there was one thing that his therapy wasn’t able to fix and that was his claustrophobia. Anytime he was in a small closed space, he would have extreme panic attacks. Although these weekly therapy sessions of his did teach him how to cope with it.

Even though he would never voluntarily put himself in a small closed-off space, if he had no choice, he would be able to deal with it by using the method his therapist taught him. He just really hoped that his therapist’s last assessment of him would be a favorable one, and he could finally see the end of these weekly sessions.

“Xao Xao Yuning!” a gravelly voice called out to the young man pulling him from his musings.

Startled, Yuning turned his head towards the voice that was calling out to him, only to see that it was his therapist of ten years, Hu Bing. The older man looked at him with a worried expression, before walking over to the sepia color recliner and sitting down.

“Is everything alright, Yuning?” The older man asked as he ran his hand through his salt and pepper locks. “You seemed to have drifted off into your own little world.”

Nodding his head, Yuning smiled reassuringly and said in a voice that was barely audible in this quiet room, “I’m alright, I just got lost in my thoughts.

“That happens to the best of us,” stated the older gentleman with a gentle smile, while grabbing a thick blue file with Yuning’s name on it, that was placed on the small white table next to him.

Opening the thick file that he had looked through many times before, the older man glanced at Yuning, who was watching him with an expectant gaze. He couldn’t help but think of the cruelty the young man had experienced at such a young age.

It saddened the older man to know that there were such malicious people in the world that wouldn’t even bat an eye at harming a child. Knowing everything that the young man in front of him went through, he couldn’t help but feel contentment, seeing how well adjusted the boy was now.

Hu Bing could tell from the first day they met that the boy was a fighter. The way he had worked so hard in his therapy sessions and the results were clear to see.

The older man felt proud of what the two of them had accomplished together. Although Yuning’s voice would never be the same, and his claustrophobia was still there, he was no longer that scared little boy that came to his office all those years ago.

For that reason alone, Hu Bing discerned that Yuning no longer needed to come for weekly sessions with him and planned to change it to once every three months, but first, he needed to give the boy one last assessment. He wanted Yuning to talk about what happened to him; he needed to make sure that the boy was really over it.

“Yuning, as you know, I think you are ready to stop coming to the weekly therapy visits with me,” the older man started. ” And I want to recommend you for the tri-monthly sessions at my personal office in town, but first, I need an up to date assessment of your state of mind.”

The young man smiled; this was precisely what he wanted to hear. Although he knew he probably would never be able to stop going to therapy altogether, not having to go to weekly sessions meant the world to him.

To him, this meant that he was no longer that damaged little boy from all those years ago. It was like a sign that he finally had let go of the baggage that was holding him back, and he could finally start anew.

“That’s fine sir, give me any assessment you like,” Yuning quietly told him.

Smiling at the young man, Hu Bing thumbed through the file he was holding once more before saying, “I want you to tell me exactly what happened to you all those years ago in your own words.”

Hearing that, Yuning sighed, lowering his head, so his eyes were looking down at his lap. He wasn’t stupid; he understood why Hu Bing asked that of him. During his years of going to therapy, he had only written down the events of what transpired when he was younger, but he had never spoken aloud about it.

Writing down the events and speaking aloud about it were two different things, Yuning knew this. If he could understand that simple fact, he knew his therapist did too. This assessment of having him talk about the event, from what he could figure, was a way for the therapist to see that he was really over what happened.

Clenching his hands together in determination, Yuning wanted to prove that he was indeed over it, not to his therapist but to himself. Taking a deep breath, he begins to gather his thoughts, bringing the memories he tried to repress to the forefront of his mind.

“Take your time, Yuning,” Hu Bing said. “You can begin when you’re ready.”

Nodding his head at his long-time therapist sitting in front of him, Yuning opened his mouth to speak.