Chapter 16

Tamsin fought the darkness. For a moment, she succeeded, only to meet Karen's taunting eyes. Karen's hypnotizing voice dragged Tamsin back into the void, and this time, she was unable to escape.

She started dreaming. She dreamed of things that had happened a long time ago, things that she had thought she had forgotten. She dreamed of people, their faces, their voices...

She saw her mother again, briefly. She was brought back to her dying moment. She saw her weak, pale smile. She heard her voice whispering: be careful what you wish for. She whispered to her, in that patient room, in that vague afternoon sunlight, over and over.

She also saw Dylan. In her vision, he would constantly and randomly change between an adult and a child. Sometimes he'd have the adult look but a child's voice. Other times he'd look like he was 11 years old but sound like he was 30.

She saw him standing in front of the white mansion, in front of his yellow car, waving at her. She tried to reach him but every step she took made him look further away. Then, she saw him waiting for her outside the school gate, like he always would do after school when they were both kids. She walked towards him, but when she got close enough, they suddenly got devoured by a strange darkness. The next thing she knew was that she was inside a cave, with Dylan's dead body. She stared at his body for so long, that he eventually opened his eyes.

Hey, sis. He greeted her with a lighthearted tone. What's up?

Tamsin couldn't even get a single sound out of her throat.

Hey sis what's up? Where's Bo? Have you seen her? Did you do your homework? Where did Bo go? Hey Tamsin wait, wait...

Tamsin drifted away, against her own will. And all of a sudden, she dreamed of Bo. She dreamed of the first time she had seen Bo. That was right after Bo's parents passed away in a car accident, and Stella brought her home. She dreamed of that 11 year old girl who seemed confused, lost but still vividly vibrant. For a moment, she basked in the old memories, where nothing had been broken or shattered or lost, where everyone was young and full of hope, where she wasn't alone. Then, she saw Bo in Dylan's funeral, destroyed and in pain. She was in pain as well, when she tasted her bitter tears, and when she kissed her over and over... Bo's scent, it was a curse. She couldn't escape.

In darkness, daze and chaos, she dreamed of someone else. Strangely, she was convinced that it was Kira, but it was too dark and she couldn't see that person's face. She couldn't figure out where she was either. It was just too dark.

She was somewhere, and there was someone in front of her. That person stood so close that she could practically feel their beaming eyes.

Where am I? Who is this? She asked herself, and everything started to spin.

She was once again brought back to that cave, the cave where she had found Dylan's body. All the gemstones around her stared at her coldly. They knew. They all knew what happened. They knew, but all they did was staring and observing and watching. They did nothing. They did not help him. They did not tell anyone. They did not even try.

She searched for Dylan. He was there, and he wasn't there. She saw his silhouette, or was it even real? He seemed familiar, and he seemed strange.

Was he really him? She wondered as she approached him carefully.

It must be him, for he looked exactly like Dylan, but the oddity was that his movement seemed awkward, so awkward. It was as if he was a puppet, or a robot. It was as if he was the figure she had once dreamed of right after she had come back to Crimson Rock.

She blinked, and then she found herself in the wild field, under a paper white moon, with a blooming dogwood tree above her. The paper-like flowered shuddered in the wind.

Under the tree stood Dylan. When he saw her, he reached his right arm out, with a postcard in his hand.

Not again. Tamsin thought to herself as she took a glance at the postcard.

It wasn't the one with entrance 7. It wasn't one with a copy of the current scene either.

It was just pure black, with a faint glimmer in the center.

What the hell is it? Tamsin thought as she leaned in to take a closer look - for reasons that she could barely fathom, figuring out what it was seemed to be the utmost important thing to do right now. No matter how close she got, though, she still couldn't figure it out.

That faint glimmer. That thing. That object. It drew her nearer and nearer, and then it sucked her in. All her thoughts and consciousness were consumed.

With a long, desperate gasp, Tamsin jolted, almost throwing herself off the bed she was in.

She panted, as if soon she wouldn't be able to enjoy the air that smelled nothing but disinfectant.

Is this a dream too? Am I still dreaming? She wondered as she looked around. Hospital bed, iv in her left arm, a beeping monitor, an old tv mounted on the wall...

Then, she met Alex's eyes. The FBI agent was sitting in the corner of the room reading a book, and the moment she noticed that Tamsin had awakened, she closed the book and stood up.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine, I guess," Tamsin cleared her throat a few times. "Where is Bo?"

"She's fine."

"Where is she? What did you do to her? I need to see her now!"

"She's home. She's safe. She's with one of my agents and two other local police officers. I'd stop pulling on that iv if I were you." Alex eyed the needle that was buried in Tamsin's arm. The spot was bleeding a little because Tamsin was moving too violently.

Tamsin rolled her eyes. She went silent briefly as she tried to recall everything that had happened, things that really had happened, things like Karen hypnotized Bo into believing that she was in love with her and that she was the one who killed Dylan. She tried to make Bo kill her, too. The last thing Tamsin remembered was her voice urging her to go to sleep...

No, that was not the last thing that she remembered. She remembered hearing Bo's car pulling into the driveway, and the doorbell ringing. What happened next?

She swallowed hard as she looked down at her own chest. She wasn't wounded, nor was she feeling any pain. So Bo didn't shoot her, did she? Was she able to free herself from Karen's hypnotizing spell? Or was she apprehended before she could shoot her?

"How- What-" Tamsin muttered.

"Bo never went to the cabin," Alex explained. She seemed to know what concerned Tamsin the most.

"But-but I...I heard her car pulling in. I heard her ring the doorbell. Karen...she had the whole thing planned. She hypnotized Bo and me and...she didn't think that Bo could get away. How-I mean, Karen admitted to killing my brother, and she-"

"I know."

Tamsin frowned hard at the level of confidence in Alex's voice. "You...know? You know about her plans?"

"Yes, I know about her plans. I heard everything."

Tamsin frowned even harder. "What do you mean you heard everything?"

Alex cleared her throat. "When you called me last night and told me about your hunch and you were going to confront her, I did a little digging into her background and found some...fairly interesting stuff. Those raised enough concerns for me so I went ahead and got a warrant."

"For what?"

"For lawful interception during the meeting between you and Dr. Wilson."

"Lawful interception...you spied on me?!" Tamsin hissed. "What you eavesdropped my phone or something? What's next? Listening to my shower thoughts?"

"Calm down. It had nothing to do with your phone. We remotely activated the mic on Dr. Karen Wilson's phone, and it was only during the meeting. You gotta admit I made the right call."

"Tell me what happened."

"When I realized what Dr. Wilson was up to, I sent agents to your home. When they got there, Bo was just about to leave the mansion. We did find a gun in her purse, but she told us that it was Wilson who recently convinced her that she needed to carry it with her for safety reasons, because of, well, her husband's mysterious death."

"Did she say anything about why she'd go to that cabin?"

"She said Wilson called her and told her to come over but didn't say anything specific. It doesn't look like she knew any of Wilson's plans. She had no idea that you were at the cabin."

"If she didn't go to the cabin, who did?"

"One of my agents. I figured that if Dr. Wilson didn't see someone coming as she planned, she might get suspicious, so I sent in an agent disguised as Bo, and she drove the car that Bo would have driven to the cabin. She apprehended Dr. Wilson the moment she got into the cabin, and found you unconscious on the couch. She couldn't wake you up so we rushed you to the hospital."

Tamsin nodded and let out a deep breath. "You said you dug into her background and found some interesting stuff. What did you find?"

"Mysterious circumstance surrounding her mother's death-"

"Wait, you think she killed her mother?"

"Well all I can say right now is that there were a few unexplainable things. To determine if she was involved would require reopening the investigation into her mother's death. Also, she had an ex-girlfriend a few years back. They broke up shortly after she got a job offer at the military lab. Her ex dated some guy after that. That guy ended up dead one day, leaving her ex the prime suspect. Her ex was not convicted because the evidence was ruled inconclusive, but her life was hell during then."

"You think she hypnotized her ex into killing the boyfriend?"

"I don't think even hypnosis experts can make people kill other people unless that person really wants to kill in the first place. I was thinking that she might have staged the murder like what she did to Dylan."

Tamsin pondered for a long time. "I said the same thing when I was talking to her, and she said that she was capable of making people kill other people with the help of those pills. You heard that as well, didn't you?"

"I did. I have rushed some samples of the pills that Bo has been taking to the nearest lab. Hopefully I'll get some preliminary results tomorrow."

Tamsin continued to go over the moments she spent in the cabin in her head, every detail, everything. She recalled that Karen was overly confident that she could hypnotize Bo into killing her with the help of the pills, but admitted that Dylan was an anomaly.

"She was so sure that the pills would help her hypnotize Bo into killing me, but she said that Dylan was an anomaly. She must have done this before. She can't say that Dylan was an anomaly unless she has succeeded before."

"I thought so too. Why would Dylan be an anomaly, though? Is it because Bo's love for him is too deep?"

Tamsin let out an awkward smile. "I have no idea," she said, as her chest ached for that possibility. She wondered if it really was Bo's sincere love for Dylan that stopped her from killing him, and that thought agonized her so much that she could hardly breathe.

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. Then, something else occurred to her. "That glass of water," she said. "Did you check that glass of water by any chance?"

"What water?" Alex frowned.

"That glass of water she gave me while we were in the cabin. It should be on the coffee table, though I didn't drink any of it. Did you check it?"

"No, why? You think something's wrong with it?"

"Well..." Tamsin trailed off as she thought about the drawing she had found on her truck that morning. How could Kira - or whoever drew it - knew exactly what a glass of water that Karen gave her would look like before that even happened? Was it just a coincidence? Whoever left that drawing there for her, were they trying to warn her?

"Well?"

"I was just thinking...I mean, she might have a fail safe plan in case Bo wouldn't follow her orders. Who the fuck knows what she might have put in the water."

"I'll have someone send it to the lab then."

Alex left the room briefly to make a phone call, leaving Tamsin alone, contemplating.

Tamsin was discharged from the hospital the next morning, after the doctors had found nothing abnormal in her system. When the early winter sunlight touched her skin, she felt like she was in another lifetime. Outside, Alex was waiting for her.

"Good news, or bad news?" Tamsin raised her eyebrows.

"I am not sure," Alex said as she tilted her head to her vehicle. "Got a minute?"

"I really want to go home and take a hot shower but I guess that can wait."

"I got some preliminary results back. The pills Wilson prescribed to Bo were supposed to be a not so common sleeping pill. Well, according to the label at least. However, the lab results show that they weren't that type of sleeping pill. Those pills are not any type of drug approved, or even approved for trial, by any of the government agencies."

"What is it then?"

"The lab doesn't know. It's not something they have ever analyzed before. So I went to talk to Dr. Wilson. After a sleepless night, she admitted that she obtained those from a project that she worked on at the military lab. She said, quote unquote, it's highly classified and every piece of information related to that project is need-to-know."

"Drugs stolen from a highly classified project at a military lab? Great," Tamsin drawled.

"I pulled a lot of strings and eventually got a hold of the PI. She was appalled when I told her that Karen Wilson took that drug and used it on someone else. She said this was a major incident and needed to be mitigated asap."

"Did she mention any side effects of that drug to you?"

"No, not anything specific, but she assured me that there wouldn't be any long term side effects. She's coming to Crimson Rock soon, and she will want to speak to you and Bo once she's here, so don't go anywhere until then, okay?"

Alex paused briefly. "Oh and by the way, we found that the water was spiked with that drug as well. It's good that you didn't drink it at all. How did you know that the water might have something in it?"

"I didn't. I guess I was just...being cautious," Tamsin lied, as her mind once again slipped to that drawing.

"Well, I guess now it's safe to say that we have found your brother's killer, who also might be a serial killer. I have compiled everything that I've found on Dylan's death, Dr. Wilson's mother's death and her ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend's death, and forwarded everything to the bureau's serial killer division. They'll take it from here."

Tamsin nodded. "Are you leaving soon then?"

Alex sighed. "Well, after the meeting with the project PI, yes. As much as I want to stay and investigate more about Jennifer's death, I still have a job to do."

"Do you think her death has anything to do with Karen Wilson?"

"No, no I don't think so. Jennifer's death was well before Dr. Wilson's appearance in Crimson Rock. The two of them never met," Alex shook her head. "Though, it's hard not to suspect that she might have something to do with it, isn't it?"

"You still don't think her death wasn't just an accident, huh?"

"No I really don't. People just don't change like that. You don't just come back to a place you desperately tried to escape, not without a good reason. I just need to find that damn reason." Alex tapped her finger on the steering wheel and went quiet.

"I never thought I'd come back until I got Dylan's message. Maybe something similar happened to her too."

"Maybe, but even when you were away, you still had contacts with Dylan. Jennifer, on the other hand, had never talked to any of her family members once after her escape."

Tamsin shrugged. "Well, she came back for something."

"I know," Alex hummed. She tapped the steering wheel for a few more seconds, before she took out an envelope and handed it to Tamsin. "I want you to take a look at this."

Tamsin frowned as she took a peek inside. It was a thumb drive.

"Everything I got on Jennifer's case is here."

"Are you sure I am allowed to take a look at this?"

"This was never a formal investigation," Alex explained. "I've only worked on it in my spare time. I'm stuck. I need a pair of fresh eyes. Besides, both you and Jennifer are from Crimson Rock. You went to the same school. You were around the same age as well. Maybe you can ask around and see if anything is worth investigating."

"Alright," Tamsin nodded as she pulled the thumb drive out of the envelope and tucked it into her jacket pocket. "I can't promise anything, though."

After the long, hot shower at home, Tamsin was finally brought back to life. As she exited the bathroom with nothing but a bath sheet loosely wrapped around her body, she found Bo sitting in her bed, concerned and confused.

"Is it...all real?" Bo let out a nervous smile at Tamsin. "Dr. Wilson killed Dylan and tried to make me kill you?"

She stood up and stepped forward, with her hand reaching out. Before she touched Tamsin's face, though, she withdrew. "They said that...the FBI agents said that Dr. Wilson hypnotized me into believing that I was in love with her and that I was the one who murdered Dylan. This...this can't be real."

"It's alright, Bo. It's all over now. She is not going to hurt you anymore," Tamsin told her as briefly hugged Bo. Then, she realized that she was not dressed. Before she could pull away, Bo wrapped her arms around her and drew her close.

"I could have killed you, Tamsin," Bo whispered, shivering.

"You didn't. Even if the FBIs hadn't stopped you, I don't think you would have done that to me."

"But...they said she-"

"She's a fucking liar and a criminal," Tamsin replied. She eventually pressed her lips gently on Bo's hair. "You are safe now."

"I just...I can't believe what she's done, Tamsin," Bo murmured. "I trusted her, and now I'm embarrassed and I feel awful."

"None of this is your fault," Tamsin sighed. "You didn't do anything wrong, Bo."

"Well, if I...if I noticed anything, Dylan could have lived," Bo argued. "She must have learned everything about Dylan from me, and I...She must have tried to hypnotize me into killing him but I guess I didn't comply?"

Tamsin sighed and held her tighter. A part of her started to hurt when she wondered again why Karen Wilson would call Dylan an anomaly.

She let Bo sit down beside her, before she said, "there's something I really need to ask you, Bo."

"Yes?" The brunette raised slightly to hold her gaze.

Tamsin took a deep breath and fisted the edge of the sheets. She clutched so tightly that her knuckles started to hurt. "Why did you decide to go back to Dylan after you told me that you were in love with me?"

Her voice was shaking a little. The fear and the pain, they suffocated her. The fear and pain that had lasted over a decade long, they were so vivid and so real. They scarred her for life. She had to know. She just had to.

"What?" Bo's eyes widened. She seemed beyond confused.

"It was pouring rain that day. We were at your aunt's house. It was just the two of us. You kissed me and told me that you broke up with Dylan because you were in love with me. Then, the next day I returned home to find you and Dylan at the dinner table announcing your engagement. Why...why did you do that to me, Bo?"

At this very moment, she was that teenage girl again, heart broken, defeated, demanding an answer, an answer that she had feared that would shatter her even more. For countless times, she awakened in the middle of the night, asking that question while staring into the void. Why? Why did you do this to me? How could you hurt me like that?

"What are you talking about, Tamsin?" Bo frowned.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about, Bo," Tamsin bit back her anger and frustration. She took a deep breath and continued,"Look, I just want to know why you chose to be with him. I just need to know why."

"I chose to be with him because you left, Tamsin," Bo's shaking voice brimmed with pain.

"What?" Tamsin murmured, completely taken by surprise. For all these years she had exhausted all possible reasons, and clearly, Bo's answer was not one of them.

"That day, at my aunt's house, I kissed you and told you that I was in love with you. Then, we spent the night together. It was incredible. That night was incredible. I was so happy. I thought we'd start something, but you left town and you never came back. I was heartbroken, Tamsin. You left me and you didn't even bother to tell me. I was devastated and Dylan...he comforted me. I was with him because you were gone, Tamsin."

Tamsin was completely struck numb. She found it shocking, and scary, that Bo genuinely believed what she had just said. Bo really thought that she was the one who got abandoned and betrayed.

"No, no, Bo. I did not leave you," Tamsin held Bo's shoulders firmly. "I left town because you announced your engagement with Dylan out of nowhere. You looked so happy and it was so real. It took my days to finally be able to ask you why, and you just brushed me off saying that he was the love of your life. At first I thought, okay, if that was what you wanted, I could deal with it and move on, but it was just too much for me. Watching the two of you having your happily ever after hurt so much. I just couldn't."

"No, Tamsin. I got back with Dylan because you left. I got engaged after you left."

Fear seized Tamsin as a part of her wondered if Bo was the one who was telling the truth. That thought made her heart stop and the hair on the back of her neck stand. How could Bo remember things so differently? Was she right? Was she wrong? How could she prove that? How could she figure out what had actually happened?

On the verge of losing control, Tamsin thought of something.

She grabbed her wallet and pulled a ticket out with her trembling figures. "The bus ticket. Yes, the bus ticket!" She showed it to Bo. "When I left town, I took a bus. I still have the bus ticket."

"Okay?" Bo frowned at the ticket.

"See the date?"

"November 27th," Bo read it out.

"When did your engagement happen? What was the date of it?"

"June 3rd," Bo immediately answered.

"Exactly! I left town a few months after your engagement, Bo. You were engaged in June. We all started 12th grade in late August, and that awful chemistry teacher whom we had before finally left school. Then, in November my dad passed away. Do you remember it?"

Bo opened her mouth and went into a trance. "Your dad...I-I remember his funeral," she admitted. "I remember all of us being there. Stella was crying. Kira-no, there was no Kira. Dylan and-Dylan and you were there as well. My aunt was there too, and she brought homemade dinner rolls. There was a lot of food and...someone made a comment about having Thanksgiving dinner two weeks too early that year."

"Yep, that was one of Stella's uncles, I think."

"The funeral was about a week before Thanksgiving. You left Crimson Rock...after the funeral?"

"Yes, a few days before Thanksgiving. November 27th. I packed my things the night before and left Dylan a note. Then I got on the first bus and left Crimson Rock."

Bo was about to argue that it didn't happen that way, but she seemed to have a hard time coming up with an explanation with the established timeline. "No...no this is not how..." she murmured, "this is not-I didn't. I didn't, Tamsin. I didn't just...you left me first, Tamsin. You left me and I got back with Dylan."

"I did not, Bo." Tamsin held her hands and squeezed gently. "I was madly in love with you, and I would have never left you, had I not thought there wouldn't be an us. You were with Dylan and then my dad passed away. There was nothing left for me here, and that was why I left Crimson Rock."

"No, no that is not true!" Bo sobbed as she repeated in low voice "you left me, Tamsin". She collapsed into Tamsin's arms and cried out eventually. As her sobs subsided, she looked at Tamsin in fear and asked, "How could I have remembered everything wrong? What is wrong with me, Tamsin? What is going on?"

A/N: Hope everyone likes this chapter!