Enid glanced around the front office of the psychologist who was going to do her assessment for the upcoming court case. She hung her heavy winter coat on the provided hangers and pulled off her snowy boots and sat down. She was wearing a black sweater and a kilt today, along with thick black leggings, her hair was in a ponytail. Tamed for once. Around her neck hung a silver crucifix, a gift from Mariana. She had almost refused it, but her sister looked so happy to be giving her something she’d bought with her own funds she couldn’t say no. She hadn’t taken it off since. She had decided to put in silver stud earrings as well. She crossed her legs and pulled out her phone. She sighed.

Two thousand years of sitting around with nothing to do and being content with that and here I am needing to wait ten minutes and can’t wait to look at my phone.

She flipped through the current in app for social media. She had been marveling at the need the humans had to post selfies, cat pictures and just random, useless updates about their lives. The ones that surprised her most were the idiots who risked their lives for views.

I wonder how many views me throwing a car would get. Surprised some idiot pugmentia hasn’t tried to pull that shit yet.

She heard her name called and she put her phone in her school bag and walked into the indicated door. Inside was a woman in her thirties. She wore a crucifix and looked every bit the bible hugging catholic she had expected. She was blonde, average looking. She had blue eyes that Enid felt assessing her. She felt rather uncomfortable. She wore a wedding ring. Enid frowned.

Probably trying to kick up business after conversion therapy was banned. By being an expert witness.

“I know you are not happy to be here, teenagers rarely are, but I don’t bite.”

I do.

“Well then, let’s get this over with.”

“I want to assure you the actual conversation we have is strictly between us. Only my overall assessment will be released to your lawyer and the courts. I’d like to start by getting you to go through some base tests here.”

She offered Enid a tablet. Enid went through the different psychological tests. Some part of her wanted to just game the system, she was certain she could since she’d studied psychology in university twice, but she didn’t curious to see how nuts the humans would think she is, she answered honestly. At least this was not her fifty years ago, they would have locked her up and thrown away the key. She smiled at the thought of how that would work out for them. She finished and handed the tablet back to the woman. She went through it, glancing at Enid every so often.

“Well, good news according to all the standards we’ve decided to put in place, you’re sane. No autism, you do possibly have ADHD. They also tell me you are an independent thinker. Have your own way at approaching problems.”

No shit.

“Now on to why you’re really here. How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know, annoyed at being here?”

“Fair enough, fair enough.”

“I see you’re wearing a crucifix; Do you go to church often?”

“Every Sunday.”

“How do you feel when you’re there?”

“Bored.”

“Also, fair enough. Why do you go then?”

“My mother does.”

“Why do you feel you need to lie about the reasoning?”

I fucking knew it she has the gift.

“I didn’t lie about the why, just the who.”

“Why?”

Because if I said daughter you’d be seriously freaked out.

“Because you seriously wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

She blinked at the answer and leaned forward in her seat.

“How do you know that?”

“Look, I will be as honest as I can be, some of the things I am not honest about would put your life at risk if I was honest, so let’s just leave it at that.”

She nodded, jotted down some notes.

“I’m not paranoid, yesh it’s just a fact. No manner of doctor/patient privilege will save you.”

“So, who would I be putting my life at risk with?”

“You aren’t very bright, are you? Do you know why I am here? What I did?”

“I read the file. You put six police officers in the hospital.”

“That is not correct, I put four in the hospitals, the other two is on themselves they shot each other. My point is, what chance do you have against someone who can do that?”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No. Wow. Look just get on with this, I told you my boundaries. If I’m not being truthful it’s for yours and my protection. Or I’m out of here and I tell them to find me someone who isn’t a human lie detector. Look you know I am being honest, I know you’re being honest, we both have the gift, let’s just get on with this.”

“What do you mean gift?”

“You can tell if someone is lying to you, you know it in your soul, even if they are lying to themselves, you can see right through them. You can tell I’m not paranoid and that what I’m saying is the truth. Sometimes you react before you know what’s going to happen because you subconsciously already know what’s going to happen. That’s what makes you such a good psychologist isn’t it? You can look at someone and take a measure of them. I can look at you and know you’re Catholic, you want to be a mother but cannot conceive, you’re worried your husband is going to leave you because he desperately wants children and without some form of miracle you aren’t going to have any. Your faith won’t allow you to seek a scientific solution. Am I close?”

She nodded her hands shaking, tears started dripping from her eyes.

“And when you look at me, when you really look at me, not just my clothes and appearance. The way you started to when I first entered the room but turned away because your mind refused to believe what you were being told. That I’m old, so old, but you can’t place a finger on why. Something is different about me, but you cannot tell what. Why do you feel insignificant sitting across from me? Like a minnow brushing against a whale. You can tell I’m not a threat, that I’m not going to hurt you but something about me frightens you in your core. You see flashes of death, and glory, but you can’t focus on any of it. And when you’re out at night you see things. Things no one else notices, the things they don’t want to notice, but you see it, and you turn away because it couldn’t be true, shouldn’t be true but you know it’s true. So, you go to church, and you pray, but it doesn’t stop you from seeing these evil things. I know because I see them too. You also know every word I just said is one hundred percent true. Because you have the gift.”

She was shaking by now, looking like she is about to bolt.

“Should I stop now? Do you understand why I am keeping some insignificant details to myself?”

“Y..yes.”

She took a deep breath and sipped her water.

If the sun wasn’t streaming through the windows, she probably would have fainted by now.

Enid sighed.

“I’m sorry that was uncalled for.”

The doctor’s voice had a quiver to it as she spoke.

“No, it is alright. You are right, everything you just said is true.”

Enid could tell the woman wanted to ask more but was frightened.

Too bad she’s so old and set in her ways, she probably couldn’t hurt a fly. Too old to recondition to be a seer.

“Look, ask what you want if I can answer I will, then we can move past this, and you can do my assessment so I can go to the mall with my friends.”

“How do you know?”

“I always have. You need to keep it quiet; People will abuse it. My father used my gift for his own advantages when I failed or resisted, he’d beat me or burn me, when he was satisfied, he’d rape me as a reward.”

“Your father sexually abused you?”

“Since I was three, up until I was rescued.”

“Have you received counselling?”

“No, why? It’s how things were. You can’t fix it or change it.”

“Yes, but that causes all kinds of different trauma, intimacy issues.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I’m not built the way other people are, I just get over it.”

“You’re lying to yourself. You are still angry about it, the powerlessness.”

Enid frowned she knew herself.

“You’re wrong. I’m not angry.”

“Sometimes we get used to feeling a certain way. It’s like when your nose adjusts to scents. If it’s just there all the time, it fades into the background. Emotions are like that too, if you’re always angry, it’s always there and you lose sensitivity to the anger. But it still colors your behavior.”

“I’d know if I was angry, when I’m angry people get hurt.”

“Rage is different than anger. Why is your first response to situations violence?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You attacked six armed men. That is not a normal reaction.”

“That is because most people alone wouldn’t be able to take down six armed men without dying.”

“But you almost did. It says here they had to give you four pints of blood. To me that says you were almost dead, by some miracle you survived. But still do you have no sense of self-preservation? Do you want to die?”

“No, killing myself has only crossed my mind once and that was when it was the only escape from my father. I’m the exact opposite I want to survive. I have always done everything I needed to, to survive it is one of my guiding principles.”

“What about love?”

“What about it?”

“Do you have space in your life for love and survival?”

“Yes, I love my family, they are the one thing I’d say is more important than myself.”

“Well, if you want to survive so badly, why did you charge six armed men.”

“There were five armed men and one woman.”

“It doesn’t matter, why did you charge at them.”

“Honestly, I thought it was the same people that kidnapped me.”

“Wouldn’t it have been better to run?”

“No, there was someone else in the house I had promised I would keep safe.”

“Was she family?”

“No, but she is my responsibility.”

“So, the thought of running never crossed your mind?”

“No, I have only run from one fight in my life, and it was to protect people I loved.”

“Did you ever run from your father?”

“No, he’d just beat me worse.”

“Did you ever fight back against him?”

“I stabbed him once. Told him I cut it off. He beat me half to death.”

“I can hear the anger in your voice when you talk about him. Your hands are shaking. Did you think of him when you were attacking the police officers?”

“No, that had nothing to do with him. If I saw him today, I wouldn’t kill him, there are so many more things I could do to him to make it last longer than that. I would try to make sure I did all of them.”

The psychologist blinked.

“Did you just hear yourself there? The tone of your voice. You still hate him.”

“Of course, I hate him, he was supposed to take care of me, love me!”

Enid realized she was almost shouting now; Tears were dripping down her cheeks.

“Where was your mother in all this?”

“Dead.”

“Did you have anyone?”

“A woman, she treated me like I was her own, but she never protected me from him. She just let him do whatever he wanted to me and the put me back together again afterwards. She was just as much as monster as he was. Finally, I made him so angry I knew he would kill me and then I was free. I should have been free. I was free.”

Enid’s hands here clenched into fists tears dripped streamed down her cheeks.

“But you lived?”

“Yes, my adoptive family saved my life. Gave me a sister a brother. Gave me a purpose. But even then, my adoptive father used me for his own purposes. And even now he’s reaching out from his fucking grave to make me something I’m not.”

“What do you mean?”

“He wants me to be something I’m not, and I hate him for it, but I know I am the only one who can do what needs to be done.”

“Why does it have to be you?”

“Because my brother is a psychotic mad man, my sister is supposed to be dead and I’m the only one strong enough to put the narcissistic assholes in their place.”

She nodded. She hadn’t written anything more down at this point.

“What about your adoptive mother?”

“She’s dead.”

“So again, you’re alone. With no one.”

“I have people. My current legal guardian, a girl I promised to protect and my sister.”

“You feel like they depend on you.”

“Yes, for the most part they do. I suppose Eyre has grown up enough she doesn’t so much need me as much as she likes to have me around, so she has a support structure if she needs it.”

She nodded.

“How do you feel when you realize people are depending on you?”

“Part of me resents it, another part of me is happy to do it because I care about them.”

“That is a very mature way of looking at things. Do you feel like you didn’t have a childhood?”

“I had a childhood it was just really shitty until my sister, then we would play together every moment of the day when we weren’t in lessons.”

“You care very much for your sister; I can hear it in your voice. Do you have any feelings for your brother?”

“I love him with all my heart. But he’s not who he used to be. He’s dangerous now.”

She smiled.

“The father at my church loves to say: love the sinner, not the sin. I’m encouraged that you seem to understand the meaning of that statement.”

“I will admit priests have something intelligent say on occasion.”

“Back to the charging six armed men, what was your intent when you charged them? Was it to harm them?”

“No, my only intent was to stop them from harming me.”

“So, you had no malice towards them?”

“No, having malice indicates I have lost perspective on the battle, if you lose perspective in a battle and put emotions into it, you’ve already lost.”

“Battle?”

“A conflict between two sides everything is a battle. Or Game if you prefer. Emotions interfere with actions, choices. In a fight, if your emotions make you hesitate, or act too quickly, you lose.”

She nodded and wrote something down.

“Do you often look on life as a battlefield?”

“No, but if someone is going to shoot me, I’d consider that a battle of some description.”

“Ah, so what went through your head when you realized people were about to invade your home?”

“I assessed the situation with the available intel. I knew my back door was being entered. Tactically if they were there to kidnap me, or harm me they would make multiple breaches to stop me from escaping. I went through possible scenarios. Getting a weapon was out of the question, not enough time. The back door was the best possible location to escape from. If they were armed, which would be a good assumption based on the last kidnapping, then any firearms discharge would be away from the road and sidewalk, that would minimize possible innocents being hurt. They wouldn’t try to shoot me if I was in the middle of them, they’d hit each other. Also, our house faces east, the sun was coming up it would blind the attackers at the back door, it would hide that I was the only one there and give me an advantage on being able to ambush them.”

“That is what went through your head? Not fear? Not the urge to run?”

“No, fear was pointless at that point, they were at my home.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, after the kidnapping attempt and being clipped by a bullet I was scared to go to school. That is fear. They were already at my house; It was happening being frightened or worried about it at that point was useless. There were only four outcomes, they succeeded in whatever they were after, I succeeded in escaping and getting them to chase me, I inflicted enough damage to make them back off, but didn’t escape, or they tried to negotiate before the fight started.”

“You have a fascinating way at looking at things, why did you choose the option you did?”

“Game theory. I did the math; The math said my best chance was to engage immediately. So, I did.”

“You have a very tactical way of looking at things.”

“Yes.”

“So, in the end you did what was logically the safest choice for you based on what you knew at the time.”

“Yes.”

“Would your response have changed if you knew they were police?”

“Yes, I would have just let them do their thing. I agree with Sun Tzu there, the best victories are the ones that require no battle.”

She laughed.

“Of course, you’ve read the Art of War. Do you live by it? In your day-to-day life? Do you think like this all the time?”

“No, not really. I don’t approach every conversation like it’s a battle for supremacy. In general, when I’m not in a life-or-death situation I tend to think what would Eyre do? Generally, I end up doing the right thing.”

“You have a lot of respect for Eyre, she’s your legal guardian, isn’t she? What do you think of your relationship? Is she good for you?”

“It’s like an adult daughter, mother situation. We are very close, we annoy the crap out of each other, and we make each other better. Before Eyre, I was not a good person. I’m still not, but I’m getting better.”

“So, you feel because of Eyre coming into your life, it has improved?”

“Yes, she’s an amazing person. Our lives kind of paralleled. Her real mother was kind of a bitch who didn’t really want children at that point in her life, she still loved her but knew it wasn’t the best situation for Eyre. Eyre’s stepmother was an amazing woman, bright, compassionate. Luckily for Eyre her dad wasn’t an abusive piece of shit.”

“So, you look up to her?”

“I admire her, it’s hard to look up to her. I mean not that hard she is five eight. And I’m what five?”

“So, there is a sense of humor in there.”

“Usually a very dark one.”

“What do you admire most about her?”

“Her compassion for others.”

“What is her worst quality?”

“Her lack of self-confidence.”

“Hmm, that’s something you don’t lack?”

“No, I’m very self-confident.”

“What makes you think she lacks self-confidence?”

“She loves to sing, she has an amazing voice, and she disguises herself when she performs. She’s also very charismatic. She could sell sand to Saudi Arabia in bulk, and they’d thank her for it because they’d think it was their idea to buy it. She always second guesses herself. If I had half the emotional and social intelligence, she does I’d probably be Prime Minister. But whenever she is succeeding, she’s wondering if she’s just faking it. Such wasted potential.”

“Where does this come from do you think?”

“Her mother is larger the life, famous and she doesn’t think she’ll ever live up to her heritage.”

“Thanks for talking about her, I was just trying to get a feel for your living conditions.”

“Okay. Why?”

“Well, you’ve been involved in two police investigations, child services are concerned you aren’t safe.”

“Tell them to try and come take me, I’ll show them not safe.”

“There’s that temper again.”

“Well, they should keep their noses in their own business.”

“They are just concerned for you, but I’ve spoken with Eyre, and now you, I have no concerns about your development with her. Your school marks are top of your class. You are involved in extracurricular activities. Your sense of identity, your self-discipline, your self-confidence is all above average for a teenage girl. Based on speaking with your teachers and guidance counselor you are the first to help your classmates, you stay away from drugs, you never bully anyone, there were some complaints about your use of colorful language, but you seem like a well-adjusted if traumatized teenage girl. I spoke to the Boys and Girls club that you teach martial arts for after school for free. They say the children love you. They also said they have not had a single complaint in the six months you’ve been with them. In fact, they have received several thankful calls and emails from parents telling the club that their children are more self-confident, more self-assured than they have ever been. You also volunteer at the church assisting English as a second language students because you speak several languages. And you are also a sponsor for RCIA. And your local priest you have assisted in translating his sermons into five different languages every Saturday afternoon so it can be printed for Sunday Mass. I think moving you away from Eyre would be a grave injustice to yourself and the community. I do have one last question, why do you do all that volunteering?”

“I promised my Sensei I would teach others what he taught me, and I think kids need self-discipline and self-confidence, that’s how they will make the world a better place. I help with English as a second language because the church admin asked me if I would. I’m sponsoring the RCIA candidate because the church admin asked me, and I do the translation because Father Michael asked if I would.”

“So, in all cases you were asked to, and you said yes. Do you ever say no?”

“You said one more question. I’ll say no and I won’t feel guilty about if that’s what you’re asking. I have only so much free time, and I do like to do my own thing sometimes.”

“So, no other reason than you were asked, and you were available and could keep the commitment?”

“That’s two extra questions. What other reason would there be? I don’t go looking for volunteer opportunities if I can help it.”

“Thank you.”

“Good-bye.”

Enid picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder and left the office. She could the sound of a keyboard clacking behind her she pulled her coat on and left.

*****

Psychological Assessment of Enid Aurelius

Enid is a well-adjusted and very mature young woman. She exhibits no signs of mental illness. She exhibits self-discipline, self-control and self-confidence. Based on a thorough review of her files, interviews with her teachers and her legal guardian I have come to the conclusion that she believed her life was in danger on the Morning of December 4th, 2026. She provided a thorough assessments of her feelings and thoughts at the time of the home invasion and acted based on that information. Her behavior is consistent with that of a reasonable person under the circumstances. I do recommend she receive counselling for these traumatic events, and also to deal with some trauma from her childhood.

Dr. Emma Anderson