Seeing that she had calmed down, Doctor Charles signalled for the process to start.
As she laid there on her back trying to stay calm, the scanners began to move and stopped on top of her as the bed slid into the circular space. Inside the partially enclosed space blue rays criss crossed along the space and over her face. She gripped the edges of the bed tightly. Her heart was pounding. She was breathing loudly and finding it difficult not to move around. Every minute felt like an hour. Soon she begun to have difficulty breathing and felt pain in her chest.
"Jason!" She screamed.
"Karen! What's wrong?"
"Jason, let me out! Let me out let me out!" She shrieked. She had shut her eyes tightly and was panting.
"Talk to her master Wu! It's only been 8 minutes" Doctor Charles directed.
Jason who had a worried look on his face begun to talk. "Karen, Karen. I'm right here. It's okay. Don't you want to go out?"
"I want to get out right now!" She screamed
"Karen, please calm down okay? I'm right here and you'll be getting out soon. Don't you want to go out playing with me? We'll go out to play. We can go anywhere you want. Just think about it.Think about it and listen to me."
By then Karen who was in tears called back "Okay" she was trying her best to picture going outside like Jason said. She did want to go. Anywhere at all. Karen kept her eyes shut and ignored the pain in her chest as she panted away the minutes, imagining going places with Jason.
"Karen are you still there?" Jason asked
"Mhnnn" Karen answered "Jason, you're right here right?"
"Yes I'm right here. Good girl. You're doing so great." Jason commented as he glanced at the timer that showed 16 minutes had passed.
As Karen laid there, the image before her closed eyes suddenly changed. She stood in a familiar room that was berft with the exception of a bed and books in the corner and a door leading to the tiny bathroom. A person stood Infront of the doorway laughing.' You should just get comfortable Karen, because you're never going get out of here ever again'. Karen could not see the face of the person as the person walked out and closed the door, turning the lock. Karen panicked and screamed " No! You can't do this to me! Let me out! Let me out! I can't stay here."
Jason was alarmed by the way Karen screamed and struggled to get out.
"Take her out right now!" He commanded. Doctor Charles complied and ended the screening by pressing buttons and switches.
In the room, even as the bed slid out, Karen just kept screaming and shouting to be let out.
Jason rushed into the room and undid the straps as Karen kept screaming in hysteria with her eyes shut and tears streaming down her face. Jason was very distressed. He called out to her but it seemed she couldn't hear.
The moment the straps were undone, Jason held her up in his arms and shook her.
"Karen I'm right here, open your eyes" he ordered, placing his warm hands on her cheeks.
Karen's eyes fluttered open. "Jason" she murmured before throwing up on his chest and immediately passing out.
----
Jason sat beside the hospital bed in the VIP room. His hair was messy, his face was drawn and his clothes were stained and stinky with vomit as he stared at the girl lying on the bed in a hospital gown. She had been unconscious for three hours already.
Jason felt guilty and dispassionate. He felt he could have taken better care of her. Doctor Charles had said that based on the way she reacted she must have Autophobia. She had a fear of being left alone in a room or being left without support. He should have realised it earlier. Karen was never left alone at home for even a minute in the day. Even as she used the large bathroom in the next room, there was someone attending to her. And she never went upstairs to sleep if he wasn't home. And even then, Nanny Jo accompanied her to wait. What really made Jason feel guilty though was refusing to let her go out when he had promised that he would. He had obviously deceived her with her ignorance.
As Jason sat there pondering, Karen opened her eyes to stare at him. She remembered the events that had taken place during the day. She was very angry at Jason. He had deceived her into coming to the hospital only to leave her alone in that room. She would have liked to shout and hit him but she held it in mainly for two reasons. Firstly she knew Jason didn't have much of a responsibility to take care of her, this nutcase and feared he might get tired of her and abandon her. Secondly, her body at the moment really felt too weak for such a taxing exercise.
Jason finally realised she was awake when his eyes strayed to her face as she laid there staring at him.
"You're awake?" Jason immediately pressed the call button for the doctor, and took her hand into his. "Are you alright?" He asked. Noting his concern, Karen nodded despite her unwillingness.
Jason sighed audibly.
Doctor Charles came in and looked over Karen passing a light over her eyes and checking her pulse.
He asked her a few questions to which she nodded.
"It's fine, she can go home now. But I hope we can do a proper scan next time but with a normal SPECT scanner so you can accompany her in the room. We'll later try to input the data for the AI analysis." Doctor Charles provided. Jason nodded in acknowledgement.
On the way home, Karen didn't say a word and neither did Jason. He wanted to stretch out his hands and comfort her but felt that he was too dirty.
When they arrived home, Nanny Jo was not surprised that Karen looked unhappy but was very surprised at how Jason looked.
"What happened Jason?" She querried.
"Let me go take a bath first" he answered, heading to his room.