Where the fear has gone

It’s not often that Lockwood dissociates, and it doesn’t happen now. He’s good in a crisis, action oriented, lucid, and incredibly alert. He's always thankful for it in the moment, but at night, when he’s trying to shut his mind off, it doesn’t help as much. He pictures a dark room in his head, a new box in front of him, the crystal clear images of his memories in his hands, and one by one, he places them into this new box, and shoves it away into a corner with all the other boxes labeled, dangerous, do not open. He wonders, if he ever dared to examine all of them, how many boxes of memories he’s accumulated and compartmentalized over the years.

And now, in this moment, as Holly says, “There’s been an accident,” he knows he’ll eventually be packing another box soon.

George is attacked, and Lockwood spends a lot of time at the hospital, barely holding it together.Book spoilers for The Empty Grave.