Doctor, Doctor!

"So, what's next?" I asked. "The next part of the training? You made me curious like I was when I first came here."

I got no reply to that question.

"You don't... know... what is going to come?"

"..."

If I wasn't so high up from the forest and so far down underground, I bet I could hear crickets taking over the conversation I was having... with myself, apparently.

"Why did you go silent?" I asked, and as a response, I ended up listening to the constant ringing in my ears.

"You are not being such a helpful guide."

And another moment of silence.

"Ugh, fine." I said. "I don't know what you are trying to do, but I'm sure that-"

I paused and thought.

"Maybe I DO have schizophrenia after all." I whispered. "Maybe, just maybe, I do have schizophrenia..."

Even the thought of such thing was awful, but for once in my life, it seemed like it was the most realistic explanation of everything. Perhaps it was time to admit it to myself.

"I broke out of it." I said. "I must have broken out of it. I am a sane person like I have always been!"

I looked around. Nothing had changed noticably.

"I need help." I said. "I admit that I have a mental disorder, please help me! Someone, help me!"

Tears formed in my eyes, and my voice cracked. I fell on my knees, crying.

"But it all feels so real..."

Everything was blurry through my wet eyes, and I was no longer trying to focus on seeing anything. I dropped down to my right side to lay down on the ground. My body was getting numb. I pulled my legs closer to my stomach and buried my face into my arms.

"It is cold."

It was feeling like my tears were going to freeze on my face. My muscles started twitching randomly, my jaw was trembling. I closed my eyes.

"Help me!"

- - - - -

I woke up. I was still sleepy, and my warm bed was trying to pull me back to sleep again. No wonder, because it was the middle of the night.

My daughter was poking me by my shoulder.

"Wake up, dad!"

I opened my eyes slowly. In the dark, I could barely see her. She was looking into my eyes, expecting me to get out of the bed.

"A man came to see you. It was urgent." she said.

I got up and sat on the edge of my bed, rubbing my eyes. After yawning, I responded.

"I am coming."

My daughter walked out of the room. I glanced back at my bed, half-expecting to see my wife sleeping on the other side. As a doctor, I had seen many people die; but getting over my wife's death was not as easy - the idea was incomprehensible. I could remember every detail of her funeral, but I couldn't just accept the fact that she was permanently gone.

"I should get going." I said to myself. If someone was paying a visit to my house in the middle of the night, it was probably something important.

I quickly changed my clothes in a minute and got out of my room. In the large room that my bedroom was connected to, there was a man laying on the couch. A woman, who was probably around her fourties, was waiting anxiously by his side. When she saw me, her eyes lit up.

"Doctor, thank God!" she said. "Please take a look at my husband!"

I lit up the lantern hanging on the wall near me before walking towards the couch.

I looked at his husband's face. From what I've seen, he was in pain. He wasn't making noises or trying to comfort himself, but his agony was clear.

"Hello." I said, waving my hand in front of his eyes. Then, I turned to his wife.

"Can he talk?"

His wife couldn't come up with an answer to that yes or no question.

"He has been complaining about his stomach for a while, but only now his pain became so intense." she said.

"Did he eat anything weird?" I asked his wife.

"No, I made the dinner and we both ate the same things." she said.

"It can differ between different people." I said. "What did you eat?" I asked while I stripped the man's clothes to visually examine him. The moment I saw his stomach, his wife cried and moved away a little bit. The man's stomach was covered in red spots and small holes. There was little amount of blood still pouring out.

"Aya!" I shouted. "Bring me my stuff!"

My daughter came running out of one of the rooms.

"Which one?" she asked.

"The one on top of the, uhm... You know what, just bring everything."

"Yes, father." she said and ran into my room.

"Is he okay?" the man's wife asked me. I looked at her.

"You tell me. Does he look okay?"

She went silent.

Aya came back with a box containing lots of material I used for small medical treatments. I took a piece of cotton, wet it with a special solution and pressed it against the man's stomach. The man groaned a bit.

Both the man's wife and Aya were watching me from afar.

The bleeding stopped in a while. I cleaned the man's stomach thoroughly to examine him.

His skin was damaged really badly. The red spots and tiny holes have covered his stomach. I took an iron stick to slightly enlarge one of the holes for further examination, because this was not something I've seen before.

I put the iron stick on one of the larger holes.

"Easy now, stay calm." I said as I tried to carve a larger hole. The man's muscles stretched tight in pain, a pain I have actually expected to see.

"Good, you can still feel it." I said, while examining the small hole. That hole was going all the way down through layers of skin, to the point where I could just see flesh.

"What took you so long?" I asked. "This seems to have taken quite some time. Why didn't you find me earlier?"

"He didn't complain much until now." the woman said. I sighed.

"Did he cut himself with something?" I asked.

"No."

"Was he working in a farm?"

"Yes."

"What was he doing, and where?" I asked.

"He was feeding cows. We live in the Topraktepe village, that way-"

"I know where it is." I said. "Feeding the cows, you say... Anything else?"

"I don't know, there is not much to do in winter, it is all snow." the woman said. "Can you help him?"

"To be honest, I don't know." I said. "Let me take him to the cottage hospital, maybe they will know better."

The man's wife didn't say anything to my offer, and just looked down.

"What are your names?" I asked.

"Valide Hilal, and he is Yunus Hilal."

"Okay, Ms. Valide." I said. "If I don't bring him back here with me tomorrow, it means they are taking care of your husband."

"Okay."

"Aya, you will be on your own." I said. "Lock the door well. There should be enough food and everything. You know what to do if you run out. Take care of yourself."

"Don't worry, father."