Chapter 14

"I was nine years old when my mother was murdered. Until a few days ago there was a lot about my past that I didn't remember. It was so painful I just blocked out days at a time. When I saw your signature on Sonny's adoption papers I thought 'they' had found me. But, you were different. You weren't like them at all. I had to know who you were. So, I called an investigator I know and requested he find out all he could about you. I couldn't take a chance that you were sent after me. When he told me what he found my world caved in, but I began remembering it all. My mother had a visitor one night, she told me to take Kristina and hide her. Johnny, I remembered I had a little sister. Mother didn't want the visitor to see us so I took Kristina and hid her. It was Helena, Johnny. Helena was the one who came to see mama."

She saw the fear come into Johnny's eyes. It wasn't a man's fear. It was the fear of a little boy. She laid her hand on top of his and felt him tense as if to pull away, and then force himself to relax.

"Johnny, I took my little sister to the stable and laid her on a pile of hay. I then went back inside and watched Helena kill my mother."

Alexis dropped her head to stare at the floor as she related the events and she felt Johnny's hand come out from under hers and take her hand in his

"I tried for the longest time to wake my mother up, but she just wouldn't."

Both men could tell Alexis was reliving the moment and they both wanted to hold her and comfort her. Sonny couldn't. She already told him he couldn't and Johnny knew first hand that stories like these had to be told in a way they could be handled by the person telling the story. He knew without being told that he couldn't put his arms around her until she finished the story.

"When I couldn't wake her up, I went to get Kristina. She was now my responsibility; I had to take care of her. But, when I got to the stables, she was gone. I looked everywhere for her. I couldn't find her."

"Oh no-o-o-o, I took her. It was me, wasn't it?"

Johnny suddenly realized what he had done so long ago and hung his head. The little sister he adopted as his own and lost was Alexis' sister. He was the one who found the baby in the stables. Alexis grew up without her sister because he took her. He felt the agonizing guilt wash over him.

Alexis looked at him and simply said, "Yes Johnny, you took my little sister."

Johnny couldn't look at her. He had been the reason for much of Alexis' pain through the years and he would never forgive himself.

Alexis was watching Johnny very closely and knew what he was thinking. She could feel him withdrawing.

"You took her and cared for when I couldn't. They came and took me away that night. I never saw Kristina again. I have been grieving for her ever since. Mother told me to take care of her and I didn't. I didn't do what she told me to do and I lost my little sister. Johnny, because you took her, she didn't have to go through what I went through. She was never scarred the way I was. You protected her and didn't even know you were doing it."

Johnny looked into Alexis' eyes and saw she wasn't blaming him for taking her sister.

"They made me go live in the castle on the cliffs." She continued. "You know which one I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, they had me for awhile, but I got away."

Johnny reached toward her and stopped as he saw her recoil. Then reached again toward the sleeve of her sweater. He pulled it up and then pulled up his own. He had the very same marks that she did on his arm. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes, she had known the same pain he had known. She had known the fire.

"Can you tell me what they mean, Alexis?"

"Yes, but you must hear the rest of the story first."

He sat back to let her finish.

"They take what they want and what they don't want, they destroy. Johnny, they wanted you destroyed."

"Why me? I didn't do anything to them. At first, I didn't even know them."

"But, they knew you. They knew who your father was, and they knew who your mother was and just as they began to destroy my life the night of my mother's death, they began to destroy yours as well the night you lost little Lexie."

"You keep saying 'they'. Tell me who 'they' are."

"Helena and Stavros Cassadine."