Chapter Thirteen - Dr. Lindstrom
Dialogue Only.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Office of Dr. Peter Lindstrom
Manhattan, New York
9:13 a.m
(Liv sits in the cushioned chair. She's nervous. Her bruises are healing. Her re-injured arm is now re-cast. Dr. Lindstrom sits adjacent to Liv, yet, about five feet away.)
"I was having a bad day. I was upset. My captain told me to take two days off. I stopped at a bodega for a few things. I got home and when I entered my apartment, I heard a noise... I was tired so I guess I wasn't thinking. I froze. He was there, waiting for me. In the course of four days, he kept me tied up, handcuffed, drunk, and drugged. He use every chance he had to torture me... I was burned. I was cut... He branded me. When he took me out of my apartment, he drove around the city... Several vehicles were stolen, a woman was pistol whipped and left deserted, along with her infant child, a cop was murdered, and a woman was raped, brutally, during Lewis's rampage... He eventually found an abandon beach house where he planned to rape me, torture me, and eventually kill me... He uh? Restrained me. To an iron frame bed. Somehow, I was able to break free of my restraints, and? Used the metal frame bar from the bed to hit him... And when he was finally subdued, he was handcuffed. He kept taunting me. Like he knew every raw nerve."
"You were in a very vulnerable state. It almost seems as if you're blaming yourself."
"I know better.. But he still got to me."
"Got to you?"
"Yeah. Yea... But not the way you think."
"How do you mean?"
"He's still inside of my head... He baited me and I took the bait... From what I've seen? There are monsters all over this world. My job is to catch these monsters, not become one."
"Olivia you did what you felt was right in that moment."
"What was right? He was already subdued and I snapped. I lost it. I beat him and I couldn't stop... I thought. I had killed him."
"You said he taunted you, yes? Had you tied up and drugged. He baited you? Olivia your ability to cope with all of that overwhelmed you."
"And that makes it ok?"
"When a person goes through a horrific experience, such as yourself, their actions aren't always rational. In a moment they may snap, they may not be aware of what they're doing. Rather their actions are moral or immoral."
"Are you saying that I was temporarily insane?"
"I'm saying I hear you feeling a lot of guilt and regret... Let me ask you this? If you walked in, unarmed, on Lewis torturing another woman, instead of yourself, then would you have defended her in the same matter?"
"That's not the same thing."
"Is it? Because you defended yourself?"
"Even though he was handcuffed and could no longer hurt me?"
"You said he taunted you. Did he asked you to kill him?"
"Yes. But he wanted me to shoot him... He was willing to lose his life just to get to me, to get inside my head. And?... He did.."
To Be Continued...