"Teresa, why don't you tell me what is troubling you."

Those ten words flowed off Archibald Hopper's tongue with fluent grace, dripping with a compassion that never seemed to waver. The man had recited such words with many patients before, but he had never dealt with the infamous archer herself. He knew that it was going to be a rather arduous task to get Teresa Holmes to open her heart to him and share her innermost thoughts, but he had never backed down from a challenge before and he wasn't about to start now. No matter how long it took for him to crack open her heart, the former cricket knew that she was in pain and he was going to do everything in his power to help her.

The platinum blond released an irritated sigh. "This is silly, I'm fine," Teresa insisted.

"Really?" The former cricket arched a brow, as though challenging her to admit that what she said was a lie, but the girl's face remained irritated as she sat across from him on the sofa with her arms crossed over her chest. "Because, to me, it appears something does bother you. Your friends are very concerned about you. Henry, most of all."

"I'm aware of how they feel," Teresa replied, her words sounding more harsh than she meant, something that didn't go unnoticed by the therapist.

"I see," Archie nodded. He stared at her for a long moment, watching as she kept her composure so she wouldn't crack under the pressure of his questions and gaze. He pushed his glasses up his nose while leaning back in his chair. "Teresa, let's not beat around the bush anymore. Something happened to you and it was... horrible."

Teresa scoffed. "Understatement of the century."

"You died," he deadpanned, and the flinch that her body gave did not go unnoticed. Archie frowned, licking his lips before speaking again. "I cannot even imagine what that must have felt like. For a child... for anyone... that is too painful of a memory to carry with you."

The room was silent. Teresa refused to meet his gaze and Archie sat there observing her body language, her expression, trying to decipher what the teenage girl was thinking about and if he had cracked open her shrouded heart. But alas, he did not, for the girl met his eye after a moment and she glared.

"Is that all? Can I go now?"

"You can do whatever you want," Archie told her. "I cannot make you stay here when you don't want to be here, that would be against my oath."

"Good." Teresa's irritated expression morphed into one of relief, a smile of the same emotion spreading over her face. To Archie, the smile seemed anything like relief and almost appeared forced, as the girl rose from the sofa and began making her way toward the exit. "Then I'm leaving."

"Teresa," he called, halting her in her footsteps. Her hand paused on the doorknob, but she did not turn around to face him. Archie rose from his chair, voice soft and even as he said, "As I have already told you, everything said in this room is said with confidence that will never leave these walls. I will tell no one about what we discuss. You also have absolute freedom in this room. You can stay, you can leave if that is what you want, but think about this before you leave," he paused momentarily, as though for a dramatic effect. "Do you want to get better? Do you want whatever is eating away at you to keep on eating until it consumes every bit? Or, would you rather talk, lay everything out on the table and heal?"

Teresa let her eyelids flutter shut as she clenched the doorknob so tight that her knuckles went white. She could feel her body grow cold with the power she possessed, but she pushed her magic down, burying it beneath heaps and heaps of snow so she wouldn't unleash it within Archie's office. She wasn't in the mood to clean up a winter storm.

After a moment's hesitation, Teresa released the doorknob with a huff and plopped back down on the sofa. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked out the window with a shake of her head. "Let's just get this stupid thing over with."

A gentle smiled curved onto Archie's face. Finally, they were making progress. Even though she could leave at any point, she had stayed. Deep down, the troubled teenage girl feigning irritation sitting before him wanted to heal and was just too stubborn to admit it. He's seen enough Sherlock Holmes films and has read the novels to know that she inherited such stubbornness from her father.

Archie sat back down in his chair, his movements slow to give the girl a moment with her thoughts and so she could ease her emotions and keep them that at bay, for he had seen the beginning of white flurries that had encircled her platinum head like a crown when she stood at the door. They were long gone now though, for she had gotten rid of them before he could see, though little did she know they were all but too obvious.

Archie cleared his throat after a moment. "Why don't we start with what concerned everyone so much?" he suggested.

"Nothing happened. They're just concerned, that's all. It's like you said: I died. That kind of thing concerns people, especially the ones that care about you most."

"But that's not true... is it, Teresa? Surely, something must have happened that concerned her and made her want to bring you here to talk with me."

Teresa tore her gaze from the window, looking upon the doctor. She opened her mouth to speak, but it was like her words had gotten caught in throat, constructing her airway, making it hard to breathe. Her chest rose and fell heavily.

Archie offered her a comforting smile. "It's alright, Teresa. This is a safe place. You can tell me anything you want."

She released a slow breath, swallowed, and wet her lips before saying with a shaky breath, "It began this morning..."

Teresa Holmes' eyes fluttered open, gentle like the wings of a butterfly. She was expecting to see the beige ceiling of her bedroom, for that is where she had fallen asleep last night, but she was instead met with the crystal clear autumn sky. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, for she didn't even remembering venturing outside after nightfall. The girl remembered falling asleep tucked beneath the comforter in her bedroom with Henry sleeping on her floor, having yet again refused to leave her side since she had returned to the land of the living. Curious about where she was, the girl lifted her head from the ground, only to let out a shuddering breath.

She couldn't move.

It was as though she was paralyzed.

Teresa's breathing grew more rapid as she fought hard to move anything; her toes, her fingers yet to no avail. She was trapped, still as a corpse, frozen in time, with only a wide open sky for her to look upon.

"Having trouble moving, are we?" came an all too familiar voice that made her gasp for breath like a fish out of water. Then came his taunting laugh and the sound of his footsteps colliding with the wood of the docks. And that's when she realized where she was. "Now you know how my Lavender felt when she could not move. When her body convulsed in my arms and she lay there with no control over her own movements."

A pain blossomed in her chest as Teresa's eyes went wild, searching for the man she knew to be dead.

"Over here," he taunted, repeatedly saying the same words like a broken record, until a tear fell down her cheek and her chest was rising and falling so rapidly that it was as though her heart was fixing to burst.

Inman laughed again, his relentless taunts bounding against her eardrums and making her want to cry out. And yet, she couldn't. Her sealed lips, which she fought hard to open to no avail only muffled every sob and scream that she wished desperately for someone to overhear.

More tears fell, streaming like an endless river.

The man sauntered around her still form that wasn't even able to tremble, while twirling her arrow in his fingertips. "I know what thoughts are going through your head," he said. "But some things never stay dead. You're proof of that, Teresa Holmes."

Inman stopped walking then, bending down at her side. Slowly and to taunt her further, as though he took pleasure in doing so, the man reached out a hand out and the sound of her muffled sobs and screams filled her ears. He lifted her shirt, and she tried so hard to move away from his familiar touch that stirred the most painful of memories, but she was remained frozen, paralyzed, unable to move and only able to blink hot tears down her cheeks. At the sight of the scarred tissue, Inman grinned, as though taking pride in what he had done.

Then, in one swift movement, he brought the arrow back, raising it high above his head with a steady hand. Her cerulean eyes widened at the sight, knowing what he was about to do. She slammed her eyelids shut so she couldn't see when the arrow would come flying down upon her.

Moments ticked by, but the pain of the arrow never came.

Or, at least if it did, she didn't feel it.

Instead, she felt a pair of hands shake her and a voice call out her name with desperation and concern and love.

"Teresa!"

The girl dared open her eyes, breathing rapid and uneven, tears spilling down her cheeks. Above her, kneeling down on the docks in their pajamas, were the concerned faces of Henry, Emma and David.

"Teresa, can you hear me?" Henry asked, reaching out to take her hand, which fell limp in his palm, causing him to frown. Heavy, panicked breathing is all he got in response, as his girlfriend's eyes darted back and forth around them, as though she were searching for something — or someone. He looked to his mother and grandpa in concern, asking, "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know, kid," Emma frowned.

"I think she's in shock," said David. He hooked his arms underneath the limp yet awake girl and lifted her up into his arms, where her head fell against his shoulder and her eyes closed shut, for she knew that she was safe and far away from Inman in their presence. "We should get her to Dr. Whale just to be safe."

"How is that you ended up on the docks?" Archie asked when Teresa finished telling him about what occurred this morning.

"After David and the others brought me to the hospital, I could finally move, to speak. I wasn't paralyzed anymore. It was like... it never even happened," Teresa continued to explain. "Dr. Whale said that since they found me on the docks wearing my pajamas, I had likely been sleepwalking and that I had experienced some sort of sleep paralysis and that's why I couldn't move. Apparently, it's caused be severe trauma, which I guess makes sense."

Archie nodded, accepting Dr. Whale's diagnosis as the correct assumption for what had occurred this morning. "Your thoughts had led you to the last place you interacted with Inman and then you woke up on the docks."

A tear slipped down her cheek, but Teresa was quick to wipe it away. "But that's the thing... when I woke up, he was still there. If I was awake, how could I still see him? Am I seeing things that aren't there now? Am I somehow cursed because I've cheated death?"

The former cricket shook his head at her words. "No, Teresa, you're not cursed nor are you hallucinating. Night terrors paired with sleep paralysis can continue even when you're awake."

"I can dream and still be awake?"

"Sometimes, yes," Archie nodded. "It is not very common, though it can lead to potential harm toward yourself and others."

Her eyes widened. "You're saying that I can harm someone?"

"It is possible," he replied. "You say that you saw Inman standing over you, holding that arrow in his hand, but when you opened your eyes again, it was David in his place?" Teresa nodded. "Now, let's say if you weren't in a paraplegic state... what would you have done to Inman?"

The girl thought about it for a moment, her eyebrows furrowed. Truthfully, she didn't know what she would have done. She had been too scared to think straight. "I... don't know."

"Would you have used your magic in your defense?"

"I was too in shock to do anything the first time," Teresa replied. "I'm not sure what I would have done this time. I just knew that I was scared, that I wanted to runaway but I couldn't."

"Let's say that you would have used your magic in your defense," Archie spoke hypothetically. "If you had used some sort of defensive spell against Inman, it could have harmed David."

Teresa frowned. She knew what he was trying to say to her. And to think that she could hurt someone she cared about scared her. She didn't want to hurt anyone. "So, what do I do, then? How do I stop the sleep paralysis from happening again?"

Archie's expression morphed into one of sadness, for he could see the pain swimming in the pools of her cerulean eyes and it made his chest ache. There was just so much pain in such a small girl. "Unfortunately," he said, "there is no cure for sleep paralysis. It comes and goes. However, there are ways that I can help you control it."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Control it?"

"Next time you wake up with sleep paralysis and you see Inman standing in the room," Archie began, "I want you to close your eyes and tell yourself that he isn't real, that he can't harm you anymore. Will him to go away and when you open your eyes and he is gone, try to move. Command your limbs to move, tell your body there's no reason to be afraid. Do you think that you could do that for me, Teresa?"

"Yes," the girl replied.

"Good," Archie smiled. He scooted to the edge of his chair. "Teresa, you've made excellent progress today. I am so proud of you for opening up to me today. That is the first step in healing. Before we end this session, I would like to ask you just a few more questions. Are you okay with that?"

Teresa nodded.

"How do you feel now that you've gotten everything off your chest?"

The girl thought about it for a moment, biting down on her lip. She gave him a shrug. "I... I'm not sure."

"Does speaking to someone about what happened to you bring you a sort of relief?"

"I suppose it does," Teresa replied.

A soft smile curved on Archie's face. "That's good, Teresa. How would you feel about coming back tomorrow so we can speak again? In fact, we can talk however many times a week you prefer."

"That's fine."

Her words were simple, but Archie knew that Teresa wanted help, that she was using the vaguest of answers in response to his recent questions so she wouldn't appear too desperate for his help. Not that he would mind if she did sound desperate, he would help her no matter what.

"I will see you tomorrow then." Teresa gave him a nod, flashing him the smallest of smiles as she rose from the sofa, prepared to leave. His voice, however, stopped her in her tracks once more. "But before you leave," the man went on, "I would like to prescribe you something if that's alright?"

She turned to face him, a look of confusion on her face. "You want to give me medication? How is that supposed to help me?"

"You'd be surprised at what modern medicine is capable of," Archie smiled. He scribbled on his prescription pad for a moment before rising from his chair and crossing the room. "One will help you with the anxiety, the other are antidepressants that will help ease your sleep."

Teresa cleared her throat. "Thank you," she replied quietly, as she took the pieces of paper from his outstretched hand. "I, uh... I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Archie. Goodbye." She slipped out the door, closing it in her leave, and found Snow White and Neal waiting in the chairs outside his office. The girl sighed. "You didn't have to wait here, you know."

"Of course I did." Snow White rose from the chair, repositioning Neal on her hip. "How did it go?"

"It was fine," Teresa replied, not wishing to talk about her session.

Snow White smiled as she wrapped an arm around Teresa's shoulder. "That's wonderful. Now, why don't you say we go home?"

"I'd like that," Teresa smiled.

And this time it wasn't forced.

.･:✦ ────────────── ✦:･.

a/n: so this chapter was kind
of boring compared to the one
before it, but it was necessary.
You guys needed to see that
Teresa isn't okay. She's far from
it. She's struggling with a lot
right now and it's going to take
some time for her to heal.
Hoped you liked the chapter
regardless of how short and
different that it was!