THE STAIRCASE CODE: Through theMirror Darkly

Doctor's Perspective:

In my forty years of practicing medicine, I have encountered a very peculiar and arguably bizarre case.

As an adolescent psychiatrist, I encounter a variety of adolescents with different psychological disorders on a daily basis.

But what I find most shocking is the case of a brother and sister I met recently.

They had been subjected to serious domestic violence and abuse by their parents for a long time, and they were even beaten up by their father to the extent that they were seriously injured before they were resuscitated.

Both of their parents went to jail as a result.

I was invited by a welfare organization to come to the hospital specifically to do psychological counseling for them.

I have seen many children who have been abused by their parents for a long time, or who have been subjected to domestic violence, cold violence or pua.

They all have psychological problems to a greater or lesser extent.

But these two siblings did not have any psychological problems.

They told me a marvelous story.

I didn't believe it, but I wrote it down anyway.

After returning to the therapy room, I analyzed the story carefully.

In that instant, a coldness rose in my heart.

I realized that what Lucy had told me about her experience in the parallel dimension actually highly overlapped with many parts of her reality while she was in a coma.

The clock on the wall stayed at ten o'clock forever.

It was exactly ten o'clock when Lucy was admitted to the hospital.

If she had made up this story, she had been in a deep coma by then and had no way of knowing the time.

I lit a cigarette and shuddered as I continued to read the story.

The smell of disinfectant that Lucy smelled in that world was exactly the smell of a hospital.

The cluttered footsteps and whispers she heard were the voices of doctors and nurses.

The blinding light that Lucy felt was the doctor peeling open her eyes to examine them.

The name she heard being called was the doctor calling her name.

The pale faces of the neighbors in the hallway were patients in the intensive care unit.

I took a deep breath, my back already wet with cold sweat.

The reason the restroom was safe was because Lucy would hide in the restroom when she was abused by her parents as a child.

The man she met in the elevator was the same doctor who operated on her.

I wouldn't dare to guess, if Lucy had believed that lie laced in the rules and missed the time to get into the elevator.

Then would she really have managed to survive?

This case was so bizarre and weird that I removed a lot of details when I analyzed it for my students.

I only told them that it was a reflection of Lucy's inner world.

The reason why the parents became the image of monsters was because in Lucy's subconscious mind, the parents were monsters.

After the class, a man called out to me.

「Professor Xu.」

I turned my head and it was Lucy.

Lucy was holding an orange cat in her hand and looked at me with a smile.

We chatted briefly.

It turned out that his brother was taking the college entrance exams this year, and his goal was this university that I was teaching at.

「His brother said he wants to become Professor Xu's student and help more people like us in the future.」

Lucy's eyes curved, a gentle light in his eyes.

--END--