Call Me Sarah
Chapter Eleven
Sarah closed the door and leaned heavily against it. {Finally. I thought he'd never leave.} She glanced around at her surroundings. "Looks like someone has money." She fingered a porcelain figurine. "And no taste." Her eyes fell on a painting above the mantel.
"Is that a Monet?" She recognized it as a work from his later period. She carefully studied the colors and forms. "Damn." She muttered. Closer inspection had revealed the painting to be a clever reproduction. "Pity. The original would be worth a small fortune."
A phone rang behind her. She let it ring three times before finally picking up the receiver.
"Yeah?"
"Chloe?! Sweetie is that you? Oh honey, I've been so worried about you. Are you okay? What happened? Craig said that something happened at the dance - Are you all right? Oh those stupid, mean-spirited kids - they are going to pay for what they've done to you."
Sarah held the phone away from her ear to block the hysterical woman's shrill voice. She rolled her eyes. {This must be Nancy. Poor Chloe.}
"I'm fine, Mom. I'm just a little tired so I'm gonna go to bed."
"Well, um.okay sweetie. I've been held up here at the hospital so it will be a few hours before I can come home. But Craig is on his way there now. He will want to examine you, just to make sure everything's fine."
{Oh he will, huh?} Sarah thought to herself with a dark smile. She took her knife out and watched the light glint off of the cold blade.
"Okay."
Celeste inspected her appearance in the airplane's bathroom mirror. She gazed at the strange face reflected back at her. "Perfect." She declared with satisfaction. {With this guise I should go unrecognized.} She cleared her throat and practiced speaking without her usual accent.
"Hello, I am Dr. Shanice Johnson."
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Dr. Johnson." Marlena greeted the beautiful woman as John led her into the penthouse.
"You're very welcome, Dr. Evans."
John cast a puzzled glance at the black woman. There was something about her that he just couldn't place.
Marlena smiled as she shook the woman's hand. "I'm sorry, Dr. Johnson. Have we met before? You seem very familiar to me."
Dr. Johnson smiled uneasily. She replied after a slight pause. "I do not believe so, Dr. Evans. Yet we do move in the same circles; perhaps we met at a conference once." She suggested.
"You're probably right. Well, let's get down to business, shall we?"
"Yes, of course. I must say, I was quite surprised and concerned to hear of Sarah's reemergence. Where is she now?"
"Unfortunately, we don't know. We've been tracking her activities through the night, and our son Brady even made contact with her, yet she has managed to slip away from us repeatedly."
"It is imperative that we find her, and quickly. Sarah is highly unstable and extremely dangerous. There is no knowing what she may do."
"What do we have here?" Sarah smiled darkly as she spied the locked gun safe. A quick search of a nearby dresser revealed the key. She unlocked the small metal box and pulled out the sleek black gun. "Nice." She found the ammunition in a separate locked case.
She held the gun in her hand, familiarizing herself with the weight and feel of it. Her eyelids fluttered shut as dark images spun in her head.
Someone was beating her. She could feel the bruises forming on her tender face. She could feel the stinging burn of a thousand belts lashing down on her legs and back. She swallowed the whimper that rose in her throat. Another memory flash and now someone was tearing her clothes off, moving inside her.
She forced away the vivid images and calmed the chaos in her mind. This is what she was supposed to do. This was her mission. {Complete it and I can go back to sleep and it will all be over.}
She studied the gun briefly and paused. Not only did she instinctively know how to operate the weapon, she also knew its make and model. She knew that this particular model generated a large amount of kickback, and that she would have to brace herself against the force.
{I've never used a gun, have I?} Images whirled in her mind. She stood over a fallen foe, blood flowing in rivers on the floor, a smoking gun cradled in her hand.
She blinked rapidly to clear her mind. "What the hell is happening to me?" {The things I've been doing; breaking and entering, martial arts, handling guns and knives - I shouldn't know how to do any of it.} "But somehow I do." She finished aloud.
{Pull yourself together, Sarah. Just do what you came here to do.} She saw a picture of Nancy and Craig on top of the dresser. She aimed her gun at it, at Craig's face and smiled.
"It ends tonight, Chloe. I'm gonna make sure that no one ever hurts us again."
A door slammed below. A male voice floated up the stairs. "Chloe, sweetheart are you here?"
"I'm up here, Craig."
"And that's the last that we've heard of her. Brady left to follow a hunch of his own, but we haven't heard back from him yet."
They heard the penthouse door open.
"I bet that's him." John spoke up as he headed into the living room with the others in tow.
"Hey son. Did you have any luck?"
"Define luck. I found her at the pier. I just dropped her off at the Wesleys'." He replied breathlessly.
"Why didn't you bring her back here?"
"What, and get a repeat of last time? No thanks. Sarah doesn't want help. If I had brought her here, she would've known something was up. I'm just glad she agreed to go home. Especially after what I learned tonight."
"I better call Craig and let him know about Sarah." Marlena said as she moved toward the phone.
"What did you learn?" Dr. Johnson asked Brady.
"A lot. It was amazing. Sarah actually opened up to me - revealed to me some of her history - how she came to be in the first place."
"And what EXACTLY did she tell you?"
"She told me about Chloe's parents, how they died." Brady began.
The caseworker quickly interrupted. "Let me guess.She told you they were murdered one night while she watched."
"Um.yeah. How did.?"
"I've heard the story many times from Sarah. The problem is - that's not what happened. Chloe's parents died in a car accident, plain and simple. I know. I've read all the police and coroner's reports. There was nothing 'mysterious' about their deaths, tragic though they were."
"Then why does Sarah remember it that way?" Brady asked.
"Well, Chloe's life changed very dramatically due to her parents' deaths. She went from a warm, loving family to an orphanage to her first foster home in just a matter of days. She dealt with it by inventing the fantasy of her parents' murders in her mind. Perhaps it was easier to believe her parents were murdered - that they died while trying to protect her from a faceless monster, than to believe they simply died due to a careless mistake made behind the wheel of a car." Dr. Johnson suggested.
"Okay. But if that's the case, then why is it Sarah who remembers it this way and not Chloe? Chloe thinks her parents died in the car accident, it's Sarah who believes otherwise." Brady asked.
Marlena spoke up, having just gotten off the phone. "Well, you need to understand how alternate personalities work. Humans, all animals, have a survival instinct. In stressful or dangerous situations we're always seeking an escape. But sometimes physical escape isn't possible, in which case a mental escape is used. An alternate personality is the mind's way of protecting the main, or original, personality during a severe trauma. The main personality escapes by shutting down - and a 'decoy' personality is created to endure the trauma."
"Like that movie we had to watch in health class, Sybil? The girl with Multiple Personality Disorder? I think she had like, sixteen separate personalities." Belle offered.
Marlena smiled at her daughter. "Exactly. Same basic phenomenon."
"Great, does this mean there are fifteen other Sarahs waiting to pop up?" Brady asked.
Marlena chuckled wryly. "Ah, no. I don't think so. A major factor in cases like these is when the originating trauma, that is the event that causes the personalities to form, occurs. In Sybil's case, the originating trauma occurred during the formative years of early childhood. Her core personality hadn't fully formed so the trauma caused a splintering of her psyche. Her personalities are actually fragments of her true self, representing various basic emotional states. I can only assume that the trauma, whatever it was, occurred much later in Chloe's life, after she had already fully formed. In those instances the number of alternate personalities is much less, usually only one or two. These alternates are usually alter egos of the core psyche and act out emotions deeply buried in the core subconscious."
Marlena paused as a thought occurred to her. "Usually alternate personality disorder is caused by sexual abuse. As a result the alternate is a highly sexual being, since they were created to handle the abuse while the core personality shuts down. The deeper, gentler emotions are foreign to them; they only know the base emotions: lust, and anger. The concept of right and wrong has no meaning to them."
Brady nodded slightly as the pieces fell into place. He looked to the caseworker for confirmation. "Earlier this evening, Sarah came onto me. Heavily. When I.turned her down, she attacked me. She's also attacked at least two other guys tonight. Lust and anger."
Dr. Johnson nodded sadly. "Yes. During her years in foster care Chloe was abused. One of her foster fathers beat her, and another.raped her. He was a pedophile with an especially vile hobby; he liked to take pictures."
Brady closed his eyes as sadness and bitter anger flowed over him.
"Of course." Marlena spoke up softly. "So when she saw the pictures tonight of her naked body."
"Yes. It reminded her, subconsciously, of the abuse she had suffered earlier. Sarah came out as a result."
Brady was surprised at the relief he felt. {It wasn't me. It wasn't my fault.} He remembered what he had just learned and his momentary relief faded to be replaced by worry. How were they going to help her through this?
"Which brings us back to Sarah." Dr. Johnson resumed. "It was she who first invented the story of the Lanes' murders, perhaps as an explanation for the dark rage she felt inside. The murders act as a desensitizer, they give her an excuse to act out her violent emotions. Sarah is a walking atomic bomb. She does what she wants to with no regard to others. She has no moral compass. Instead, her driving goal is to protect Chloe, and exact revenge on those she feels has harmed her. Her favorite target: father figures, for they represent the monsters who abused her in the past."
"Oh God, no." Brady breathed. "I was telling Sarah about Chloe's life, because Sarah doesn't share Chloe's memories. She got very interested when I mentioned her parents, especially her stepfather, Craig. You don't think."
"If she doesn't share Chloe's memories of the last few years, then she doesn't know why she's here. She will just think that it's business as usual." Dr. Johnson said.
"Which means that Craig is in very grave danger."
Chapter Eleven
Sarah closed the door and leaned heavily against it. {Finally. I thought he'd never leave.} She glanced around at her surroundings. "Looks like someone has money." She fingered a porcelain figurine. "And no taste." Her eyes fell on a painting above the mantel.
"Is that a Monet?" She recognized it as a work from his later period. She carefully studied the colors and forms. "Damn." She muttered. Closer inspection had revealed the painting to be a clever reproduction. "Pity. The original would be worth a small fortune."
A phone rang behind her. She let it ring three times before finally picking up the receiver.
"Yeah?"
"Chloe?! Sweetie is that you? Oh honey, I've been so worried about you. Are you okay? What happened? Craig said that something happened at the dance - Are you all right? Oh those stupid, mean-spirited kids - they are going to pay for what they've done to you."
Sarah held the phone away from her ear to block the hysterical woman's shrill voice. She rolled her eyes. {This must be Nancy. Poor Chloe.}
"I'm fine, Mom. I'm just a little tired so I'm gonna go to bed."
"Well, um.okay sweetie. I've been held up here at the hospital so it will be a few hours before I can come home. But Craig is on his way there now. He will want to examine you, just to make sure everything's fine."
{Oh he will, huh?} Sarah thought to herself with a dark smile. She took her knife out and watched the light glint off of the cold blade.
"Okay."
Celeste inspected her appearance in the airplane's bathroom mirror. She gazed at the strange face reflected back at her. "Perfect." She declared with satisfaction. {With this guise I should go unrecognized.} She cleared her throat and practiced speaking without her usual accent.
"Hello, I am Dr. Shanice Johnson."
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Dr. Johnson." Marlena greeted the beautiful woman as John led her into the penthouse.
"You're very welcome, Dr. Evans."
John cast a puzzled glance at the black woman. There was something about her that he just couldn't place.
Marlena smiled as she shook the woman's hand. "I'm sorry, Dr. Johnson. Have we met before? You seem very familiar to me."
Dr. Johnson smiled uneasily. She replied after a slight pause. "I do not believe so, Dr. Evans. Yet we do move in the same circles; perhaps we met at a conference once." She suggested.
"You're probably right. Well, let's get down to business, shall we?"
"Yes, of course. I must say, I was quite surprised and concerned to hear of Sarah's reemergence. Where is she now?"
"Unfortunately, we don't know. We've been tracking her activities through the night, and our son Brady even made contact with her, yet she has managed to slip away from us repeatedly."
"It is imperative that we find her, and quickly. Sarah is highly unstable and extremely dangerous. There is no knowing what she may do."
"What do we have here?" Sarah smiled darkly as she spied the locked gun safe. A quick search of a nearby dresser revealed the key. She unlocked the small metal box and pulled out the sleek black gun. "Nice." She found the ammunition in a separate locked case.
She held the gun in her hand, familiarizing herself with the weight and feel of it. Her eyelids fluttered shut as dark images spun in her head.
Someone was beating her. She could feel the bruises forming on her tender face. She could feel the stinging burn of a thousand belts lashing down on her legs and back. She swallowed the whimper that rose in her throat. Another memory flash and now someone was tearing her clothes off, moving inside her.
She forced away the vivid images and calmed the chaos in her mind. This is what she was supposed to do. This was her mission. {Complete it and I can go back to sleep and it will all be over.}
She studied the gun briefly and paused. Not only did she instinctively know how to operate the weapon, she also knew its make and model. She knew that this particular model generated a large amount of kickback, and that she would have to brace herself against the force.
{I've never used a gun, have I?} Images whirled in her mind. She stood over a fallen foe, blood flowing in rivers on the floor, a smoking gun cradled in her hand.
She blinked rapidly to clear her mind. "What the hell is happening to me?" {The things I've been doing; breaking and entering, martial arts, handling guns and knives - I shouldn't know how to do any of it.} "But somehow I do." She finished aloud.
{Pull yourself together, Sarah. Just do what you came here to do.} She saw a picture of Nancy and Craig on top of the dresser. She aimed her gun at it, at Craig's face and smiled.
"It ends tonight, Chloe. I'm gonna make sure that no one ever hurts us again."
A door slammed below. A male voice floated up the stairs. "Chloe, sweetheart are you here?"
"I'm up here, Craig."
"And that's the last that we've heard of her. Brady left to follow a hunch of his own, but we haven't heard back from him yet."
They heard the penthouse door open.
"I bet that's him." John spoke up as he headed into the living room with the others in tow.
"Hey son. Did you have any luck?"
"Define luck. I found her at the pier. I just dropped her off at the Wesleys'." He replied breathlessly.
"Why didn't you bring her back here?"
"What, and get a repeat of last time? No thanks. Sarah doesn't want help. If I had brought her here, she would've known something was up. I'm just glad she agreed to go home. Especially after what I learned tonight."
"I better call Craig and let him know about Sarah." Marlena said as she moved toward the phone.
"What did you learn?" Dr. Johnson asked Brady.
"A lot. It was amazing. Sarah actually opened up to me - revealed to me some of her history - how she came to be in the first place."
"And what EXACTLY did she tell you?"
"She told me about Chloe's parents, how they died." Brady began.
The caseworker quickly interrupted. "Let me guess.She told you they were murdered one night while she watched."
"Um.yeah. How did.?"
"I've heard the story many times from Sarah. The problem is - that's not what happened. Chloe's parents died in a car accident, plain and simple. I know. I've read all the police and coroner's reports. There was nothing 'mysterious' about their deaths, tragic though they were."
"Then why does Sarah remember it that way?" Brady asked.
"Well, Chloe's life changed very dramatically due to her parents' deaths. She went from a warm, loving family to an orphanage to her first foster home in just a matter of days. She dealt with it by inventing the fantasy of her parents' murders in her mind. Perhaps it was easier to believe her parents were murdered - that they died while trying to protect her from a faceless monster, than to believe they simply died due to a careless mistake made behind the wheel of a car." Dr. Johnson suggested.
"Okay. But if that's the case, then why is it Sarah who remembers it this way and not Chloe? Chloe thinks her parents died in the car accident, it's Sarah who believes otherwise." Brady asked.
Marlena spoke up, having just gotten off the phone. "Well, you need to understand how alternate personalities work. Humans, all animals, have a survival instinct. In stressful or dangerous situations we're always seeking an escape. But sometimes physical escape isn't possible, in which case a mental escape is used. An alternate personality is the mind's way of protecting the main, or original, personality during a severe trauma. The main personality escapes by shutting down - and a 'decoy' personality is created to endure the trauma."
"Like that movie we had to watch in health class, Sybil? The girl with Multiple Personality Disorder? I think she had like, sixteen separate personalities." Belle offered.
Marlena smiled at her daughter. "Exactly. Same basic phenomenon."
"Great, does this mean there are fifteen other Sarahs waiting to pop up?" Brady asked.
Marlena chuckled wryly. "Ah, no. I don't think so. A major factor in cases like these is when the originating trauma, that is the event that causes the personalities to form, occurs. In Sybil's case, the originating trauma occurred during the formative years of early childhood. Her core personality hadn't fully formed so the trauma caused a splintering of her psyche. Her personalities are actually fragments of her true self, representing various basic emotional states. I can only assume that the trauma, whatever it was, occurred much later in Chloe's life, after she had already fully formed. In those instances the number of alternate personalities is much less, usually only one or two. These alternates are usually alter egos of the core psyche and act out emotions deeply buried in the core subconscious."
Marlena paused as a thought occurred to her. "Usually alternate personality disorder is caused by sexual abuse. As a result the alternate is a highly sexual being, since they were created to handle the abuse while the core personality shuts down. The deeper, gentler emotions are foreign to them; they only know the base emotions: lust, and anger. The concept of right and wrong has no meaning to them."
Brady nodded slightly as the pieces fell into place. He looked to the caseworker for confirmation. "Earlier this evening, Sarah came onto me. Heavily. When I.turned her down, she attacked me. She's also attacked at least two other guys tonight. Lust and anger."
Dr. Johnson nodded sadly. "Yes. During her years in foster care Chloe was abused. One of her foster fathers beat her, and another.raped her. He was a pedophile with an especially vile hobby; he liked to take pictures."
Brady closed his eyes as sadness and bitter anger flowed over him.
"Of course." Marlena spoke up softly. "So when she saw the pictures tonight of her naked body."
"Yes. It reminded her, subconsciously, of the abuse she had suffered earlier. Sarah came out as a result."
Brady was surprised at the relief he felt. {It wasn't me. It wasn't my fault.} He remembered what he had just learned and his momentary relief faded to be replaced by worry. How were they going to help her through this?
"Which brings us back to Sarah." Dr. Johnson resumed. "It was she who first invented the story of the Lanes' murders, perhaps as an explanation for the dark rage she felt inside. The murders act as a desensitizer, they give her an excuse to act out her violent emotions. Sarah is a walking atomic bomb. She does what she wants to with no regard to others. She has no moral compass. Instead, her driving goal is to protect Chloe, and exact revenge on those she feels has harmed her. Her favorite target: father figures, for they represent the monsters who abused her in the past."
"Oh God, no." Brady breathed. "I was telling Sarah about Chloe's life, because Sarah doesn't share Chloe's memories. She got very interested when I mentioned her parents, especially her stepfather, Craig. You don't think."
"If she doesn't share Chloe's memories of the last few years, then she doesn't know why she's here. She will just think that it's business as usual." Dr. Johnson said.
"Which means that Craig is in very grave danger."