Dreamer Dreamed - Part One - Betrayal

"He said he loved me." she said.

Terpsichore, his assigned head doctor, clasped her pail fingers over his file. "I see." she replied.

"No." Valkerie looked up at her through a filter, "no you don't see." She was trying to break passed Terpsichore's detached demeanor by baring a small piece of her soul in her eyes.

But she clung too tightly to it. Her own sanity required that she not venture too close to her patients because most of them would never recover. Most of them would live out their lives trapped inside their delusions, never knowing reality.

"You don't understand at all," Valkerie continued, "he's never said 'I love you' before - to anyone - ever."

Caught off guard, Terpsichore leaned back in her tall chair. "Not once?" she asked, "Never to a girlfriend, he must have to his family, his mother?"

Valkerie remained still, though her eyes betrayed more of her soul than she had intended.

"His mother." said Terpsichore, "He loved his mother."

His best friend since preschool, Valkerie had known him longer than anyone. He had never been right with himself, always tetoring on the edge of sanity. She was the only one ever able to get close to him. And her belief of his love for her was satisfied only a few days prior to his commitment into the Scarlet Glide Mental Hospital.

"I swore an oath to him," said Valkerie, "never to tell about his mother."

"Please." pleading was unlike the detached doctor, but this was important, "This could be a piece of the puzzle. It could really help him. This is why I have these consultations."

But Valkerie had her own rules of engagement. Never betray a friend. She had broken that once already. She tried to tell herself that it was for his own good, but was having trouble convincing her conscience of it. Until she was decided there would be no more betrayals from her.

"This much I can tell you," she said, but only because he had never been shy about revealing it, "Tyr did not love his mother, nor did he ever tell her that he did. He hated her, hates her, with every thought. Every breath that he takes is in spite of her."

There was a long pause before either of them said anything.

Finally Terpsichore broke through the emptiness, "Maybe we can get back to that another time. Why don't you tell me what he said to you that day besides, 'I love you.' What does he mean by 'living inside of a dream'?"