My room was lit only by a single lamp on my desk and a couple strings of fairy lights that twinkled faintly against the walls. I was propped up in the corner on my mattress, cuddled up in a black blanket. I was scribbling in my journal when I heard a faint tapping. I jumped when I heard the sudden sound, setting down my journal and standing up, scanning the room. I heard it again and jumped again. I walked slowly to the window, looking down to the lightly damp grass below my second-floor bedroom. I saw a dark figure standing next to the oak tree that grew next to our old house. I lifted the window and stuck my head out.

"Damien?" I whisper-yelled, as to not wake my parents.

"I need to speak with you." He said matching my volume. I looked around before ushering him up through the tree I had grown up climbing. He climbed it easily, crawling through the open window. He looked around my room, taking it all in. He sat down in my desk chair, his hand indicating for me to sit down. I did as he asked, sitting on my bed across from him, waiting for him to say something else.

"So?" I asked, impatiently. He sighed, looking at the ground.

"You need to know some things." He started. "I'm sure you've noticed that I don't show emotion. It's not my thing. I just can't do emotion."

"You're confusing me," I said, he exhaled a large breath, obviously uncomfortable with the situation.

"I'm a sociopath Dottie." He said, wincing as the word sociopath rolled off his tongue.

"Oh." Was all I could say.


"Well, I was sure I was, my therapist was sure, then I met you. Goddamnit, Dottie. I have no idea what you're doing to me." He was standing, pacing around the room. I could only sit quietly.

"What do you mean "doing to you""? I asked with offense lining my voice.

"I feel something when I'm with you," My demeanor softened, "I haven't felt any emotions for years, Dottie! I don't know how, but it's like they just came back..." He trailed off. He was avoiding my gaze, but I could see the confusion in his dark gray eyes. Any negative feelings I had dissipated when I heard him say that. I had read plenty on personality disorders in my AP Psych class, I even did a project on sociopaths. It had been over two years since that project, but one thing had always stuck with me. Psychopaths are born, sociopaths are made.

"What happened to you?" I asked quietly, trying not to sound rude.

"What do you mean?" He asked, even more confused than before. So I told him my 'interesting tidbit'.

"You mean I wasn't born like this?" He paused, "I thought most mental illness was a chemical imbalance that you have from birth."

"You can have a predisposition to sociopathy, but no, you weren't born like this..." I hesitated to continue, "It's normally a response to trauma." He stopped in his tracks when I said that, he looked like a deer in headlights.

"...Trauma?" He asked quietly. I nodded slowly. "You mean to say that something traumatic happened to me to make me like this?" I nodded once again, letting him talk uninterrupted. "But I don't remember having any trauma! I wasn't old enough to really understand when my mom died nor did we ever talk about it. I haven't had anything else traumatic happen!" He sat on my bed, his head in his hands.

"Sometimes," I started, not wanting to sound like a therapist, "we don't remember trauma because that's our mind's way of coping... But it's not your fault for not remembering it." I finished, scooting closer to him. He wasn't crying, he was just staring blankly before turning to me. He placed his hand on my cheek and pulled me into a soft kiss. I immediately obliged, giving in and letting him easily move me up on top of him as he moved further on the bed. I straddled him, and after a couple minutes of making out, he pulled away and gently laid me down next to him. I snuggled up, resting my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat when he lifted my chin to look me in the eye.

"Thank you, Dottie." He said genuinely, letting my head rest down again and wrapping his arms around me.

We fell asleep like that.

And I had never felt

Safer.