Tahlia's surroundings meshed into pure oblivion.

Dark and never ending.

While it all happened to be so poorly illuminated, it was just bright enough for her to be able to make out the small figure that was standing in front of her.

A little girl stood before Tahlia.

As her eyes started adjusting to the darkness, the first thing that caught her attention was the girl's lips, viciously busted at the corner, dredged with remnants of dried blood.

"Whoah, are..are you okay?" She reached out her hand to touch the girl's face, but she drew back in what seemed like absolute terror.

She staggered back, letting out soft whimpers of agony.

And then Tahlia could see it all.

It felt as if her heartstrings were being ferociously pulled by a supernatural force.

The little girl, who couldn't be a day older than eight, had to have at least three different bruises on her cheekbones.

Tahlia could almost feel her pain, as if.

"Hey," She put on her softest smile, taking a step forward towards the girl warily,

"I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl's brown irises burned straight into her own ones, right through her soul.

"You- you promise?"

It felt strange to Tahlia, something about the atmosphere felt..uncanny.

Nevertheless, for the sake of the girl in front of her, she chose to ignore the foreboding aura for the time.

She took a step forward, to which, the girl cowered a step back.

"No, no, no. Don't be scared, I'm not going to do anything, I promise." She raised her hands in surrender, almost.

The girl stilled, still looking at her with an occasional whimper.

Tahlia crouched down to her eye level, the girl visibility flinching.

"What happened here?"

She frowned when the girl stayed silent, letting the palpable tension breed into trepidation.

There was something about the whole predicament that seemed ominous, evil.

She searched the girl's eyes for a sign of hope.

"G-go, she's- she's going to wake up soon."

She finally spoke, sniffling, only adding to Tahlia's confusion.

"Who?" She questioned, to which the girl only shook her head maddeningly.

"Did she do this to you?"

The girl nodded with blurry eyes.

"I-I saw her with..that b-bad powder."

Tahlia stilled, a cold shiver travelling down her spine.

Bad Powder.

A tendril of a familiar feeling coiled it's way around her stomach. Fear.

"Who are you?" Tahlia whispered in a breaking voice, as realization started dawning upon her.

The girl shakily opened her mouth, "N-"

The sound of a door opening with a rather loud creak cut her off.

Tahlia felt the blood evaporate from her face, her breathing morphing into an uneven mess, as a veil of pitch darkness blanketed her vision almost.

The woman at the door smiled crookedly; just like she remembered.

"There you are Natalia."

She woke up with a jolt.

Every expel of oxygen felt like a burn to her lungs, as she lay there, panting unbearably.

Tearing out from under the duvet, she ran quick towards the bathroom.

Her chest felt like it could explode any second, her hands quivering as she switched the lights on and swung the cabinet open, reaching for the pills in a frenzy.

Not even bothering to get water, she swallowed them down dry.

She slammed the cabinet close, coming face to face with her reflection in the mirror.

For starters, she looked like hell.

"Remember to take deep breaths", she recalled the Shrink's voice.

"1, 2, 3

In, then out."

She steadied herself, laying her hands out on the sink for support as she chanted the mantra in her head.

It took a few minutes, before she finally regained control of her mind and body.

As she caught glimpse of her reflection once again, she couldn't help but let her fingers wander over to her neck. Only ight prints of long fingers was all that was left; but to Tahlia, it was as if there was a ghost of a chokehold haunting her ever since that night.

Take deep breaths. In, then out.

Deciding to head back to bed, she turned off the lights. She was careful to not make anymore noise as she tiptoed her way back to bed.

For once she was glad that her roommate was passed out blind after a night of heavy partying and God knows what.

Her body slumped down on the mattress, pressing her fingers against her chest, feeling the accelerated beating for a moment.

She buried her face in her hands, letting everything sink in.

It felt so real.

It was the first time she'd dreamt of her in quite a few years.

Years of intensive therapy had helped to lock those memories away, but now, they were back to haunt her.

First the panic attack, now the nightmares... Things she hadn't even thought of, or felt in almost a decade were now suddenly being pushed up into her consciousness.

Why now?

It unnerved her to a whole other degree, even thinking about it.

But the more her brain tried to connect the dots, the clearer one thing gradually became to her.

It all began after the assignment.

Her alarm went off all of a sudden, indicating that it was the beginning of yet another day.

She collapsed onto the bed.

✴✴✴

"Tahlia Meyers."

Turner stated plainly, while continuing to do the paperwork she had her eyes fixated on.

It was creepy in a way, how she could tell who it was without even looking up.

"Morning, Professor." Tahlia spoke in a low voice.

She waited for a minute for her to say back something. When Turner didn't reply, she took it as her cue to continue.

"You wanted to have a word with me?"

"Sit." Turner still continued to write away.

"We were informed of what happened on Saturday. That was very unfortunate."

She looked up finally, pushing her glasses back on the bridge of her nose, "Have you received an e-mail from Westerly?"

An e-mail? That would be an understatement to say the least.

Tahlia had received six e-mails in total, apologizing for what had happened three days ago.

While all of them reeked of concern for Tahlia's wellbeing and her safety, it was quite obviously an attempt to avoid a potential lawsuit.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Good, you may resume from Monday."

Tahlia's stomach whirled suddenly.

Was she hearing it right? She shook her head,

"But..but Professor? I don't think you understand, I was almost choked to death. " She tried to keep her tone low, but little hints of vexation surfaced in her voice.

"I don't plan on pressing charges or anything, but- but you can't just expect me to waltz right back in there like nothing happened."

Turner only raised an eyebrow, "And why not? We've conferred with the board and we've been assured there won't be any sort of negligence again. Measures have been taken- The guard on duty has been fired, and you won't even be alone for your sessions anymore, you'll have some staff with you at all times. That's a lot of cooperation on their part." She said, turning back to the page she was working on.

Tahlia couldn't believe what she was hearing. But it was Turner, and changing her mind was harder than finding the Zodiac Killer's identity.

She sighed,

"Professor, look, I'm more than halfway through with the profile. Matter of fact, I don't even need those sessions anymo-"

"Miss Meyers, are you suggesting you hand in an incomplete file?" She closed the copy she was working on, inclining her chin up to look at Tahlia sternly. "Because if you are, you may as well not hand in one at all."

Tahlia was beyond words at her indifference. A small gasp of disbelief left her mouth.

"I've never been behind on any of my assignments, I've worked as hard as I possibly can to keep up my grades. I would never ask for a free pass unless it wasn't serious. You of all people know that."

Turner heaved a small sigh,

"Meyers, you may be one of the fewer students who actually put in work and want to be here, but that isn't enough."

She took off her thick rimmed glasses, "If you don't hand in a complete profile, I'm sorry, I will have no choice but to fail you. If you want those perfect grades, you're gonna have to earn it just like every other student in my class."

By this point, Tahlia was losing her patience. This was very unbefitting of her personality, but the thought of going back to that place was something she just couldn't bear.

"Yeah well, every other student doesn't have the Westfield Ripper to deal with." She muttered under her breath.

"Is that right?" Turner tilted her head to the side. Tahlia remained silent.

"I thought you had potential Meyers, I am thoroughly disappointed." She shook her head, "Even the most professional of criminologists would cut their head off if it meant they could catch a glimpse of one of America's most infamous killers. You get to sit across from him and get inside his head."

There was a harrowing silence in the room for a minute. The apprehension in the air was as thick and palpable as it could have gotten.

Tahlia had her eyes cast down, "I thought I could do this, but I- I don't think I can."She shook her head,

"I don't think I'm made for this."

"Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. But you made a decision when you took that scholarship Miss Meyers."

The scholarship.

It served as a reminder to Tahlia, that there was no way in the world that she could afford to fail an entire semester. So she nodded briskly, mumbling a small thank you as she got up to leave.

"This line of work will expose you to things you've only seen in nightmares, things you've only seen in the news and counted your blessings that you weren't in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It's messed up minds that you're going to have to get inside of, the sooner you realize that, the better."

Her head still reeled from the fact that there was no way she could avoid facing Logan Hunt in the very near future.

And to add to the boulder that was crushing her sanity into miniscule fragments, the letter and the key that came with it were still lying in her desk, mocking her existence.

"Oh, and a word of caution Miss Meyers."

Tahlia turned around.

"Getting inside a messed up mind is the easy part."

Tahlia worried her lip, trying not to flinch at Turner's words, as she nodded, exiting the hall with one sharp turn.

One hell of a word of caution.

She couldn't believe her ears.

But then, maybe Turner was right.

Maybe Logan Hunt had indeed messed her mind up.

Maybe insanity was going to go hand in hand with her hollow spirits.

✴✴✴