Wow...last chapter bombed. I hope you realise I write more reality than fantasy...so if you want a guaranteed happy ending...don't hold your breath.
I'm not sure if it's just true Casey hate or that the story isn't move fast enough for you. I won't go back and change it just now because you might be surprised at how it plays into the rest of the story. Maybe later if you still hate it I will review it...it isn't my best work but I am finding it difficult. Writing an evil character is harder than I thought...hard for me anyway.
If you have ideas of sentences using psychological tactics I could incorporate let me know...this is a psychological thriller after all.
I hope none of you have had to live with someone remotely like Casey...I have...I have seen psychological abuse firsthand and it is criminal...but it doesn't make writing a character like this any easier...it might even make it harder...so gimme a break already. lol
Enjoy the ride...
Chapter el3v3n
"Maura. I dreamed you left me."
"Shhhh Jane. It was just a dream. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."
Maura strokes Jane's arm softly hoping she will easily drift back to sleep.
"Casey was there...in my dream...he told me you had only stayed because of my baby."
"Sweetheart you know that's not true. Go back to sleep. Everything will be better tomorrow."
Jane squeezes her eyes shut and rolls on her side so she is closer to Maura's warmth. Jane was released from hospital five days earlier and every night has woken from a nightmare. Maura decided to move Jane from the guest room to her room to better monitor her friend and prevent additional stress to them both.
A few moments pass and Maura thinks Jane is asleep again until she hears a soft whimper.
"It's ok Jane. I am here." She purrs softly rubbing Jane's back in small circles, "I won't ever leave unless you want me too. Ok?"
Any mother that loses an unborn baby has a tremendous amount of heartache to battle on top of the physical effects. Even with a supportive network the pain can be long-suffering.
"Why is this happening to me, Maur?"
"Right now, there are a lot of chemical and hormonal changes going on in your body due to the recent fetal mortality. It can take up to 12 weeks for your body to return to normal. Strange dreams are an extremely common occurrence."
Maura doesn't get a reply
"Some doctors believe strange dreams are due to the cortisol level changes, in part from the stress caused by the loss even though the estrogen levels are lower."
Jane sighs, "Thank you google mouth."
She sounds calmer, relieved. Maura smiles lightly, "No more facts then?"
Jane wiggles even closer and says in a sleepier croaky voice, "You can keep talking. Your voice is very soothing."
Casey is waiting when Maura wakes up. Sitting facing her in a creepy way looking smug.
"I saw your girlfriend again today."
Maura can't help but sit fully upright, excited to hear any detail about Jane.
She has a million questions but knows asking Casey won't get the results she wants. Waiting for him to tell it his way has been the most effective.
"She didn't want to talk to me at first but after a while she wanted to tell me everything. Everything about what she is reallllly going through."
He drags his words out painfully.
Maura swallows and waits as patiently as she can trying not to show her desperation to hear how Jane is. Maybe she will get to talk to Jane again like last time. Just to hear her voice again.
"She barely touched her coffee. That says a lot doesn't it Dr. Isles."
Casey watches her a moment longer but doesn't get the response he hopes for.
"I think it does. I can't tell if she is at breaking point or already past it. She is so easy to manipulate now."
The hope in Maura's eyes completely fades and she feels sick again. He is telling her nothing she can believe but it is all she has.
"I might take her out for dinner...to cheer her up. Do you think she would like that? Do you think I could make her feel better? You were able to make her feel better...although you can't satisfy her like I did..."
He smiles to himself and drops his hand to his crotch and holds it there, "Maura...do you think she would allow me to 'pleasure her'?"
Maura's expression darkens as she glares at him, an almost silent 'no' leaves with her next breath.
"I could make her scream you know."
Maura covers her mouth. Her body is threatening to heave up bile.
Casey shifts his gaze to her and smiles before letting his arm drop down to his side.
"I am fairly sure that no one can predict what she will do next...but that's the fun of all this, isn't it...the unknown." He smiles again.
"Will she freak out. Will she take it out on Korsak again. Or take it out on her poor Ma that woefully cries every night that her second daughter is missing. Boo-hoo. What will Janie do?" He mocks, "Everyone is a mess...but Jane...oh, she is something else now...much more than just a mess."
He smirks as he thinks back to all the things he said...all the seeds he planted in Jane's mind. Doubt. Confusion. Fear. Which ones will take root.
"I doubt it would take much to convince her she is crazy...Do you think I could push her so far that she would end her own life?"
"What did you say to her?" Maura finally asks through gritted teeth, squinted eyes and a deep and violent anger.
"Oh not much.." He says faking humility, "...I just made her doubt herself. And doubt you Dr. Isles. And yet she still trusts me...the one punishing her."
He chuckles gleefully
Maura thinks hard for a minute, she has heard of something like this before. It was something like 'Gaslighting'. Only all the psychological cases she read about, it was done by someone close and personal, like a family member, and also done very slowly, over months or years. Maybe in Jane's current emotional state combined with her past history with Casey it had created an ideal environment for him to get more access to her mentally and emotionally...according to him anyway. She suppresses a shudder and looks down at her hands.
"I wonder if they will let me visit her in a mental institute."
Maura bites her tongue just before she calls him 'mental'.
"Shall we go and see how she is doing?"
The car ride is nice, fresh air and sunshine suddenly feel like a release from hell to her.
Casey parks the car just outside the Boston Common. Its an area Maura and Jane once spent much time together talking, jogging or just relaxing and Maura immediately spots Jane on their park-bench about 300 feet away. Well it's not really 'their' park-bench...but it is a spot they tended to have quite a few meaningful conversations.
Jane's knees are pulled to her chest and her elbow is on the back part of the seat and she rests her head on her palm and stares into the distance. She looks worn out.
Casey watches her intently before smiling to himself. Maura knew of the psychopath smirk, a subtle smirk they give when they got their own way or their agenda of seeing another person harmed was fulfilled, Maura had hoped that Casey was not a psychopath, that he had instead had a mental break. She wasn't so sure now as he seemed to look for and relish in anything that appeared like Jane was hurting.
"How much more are you going to put her through?" Maura asks suddenly. It was a double edged question, on one hand it was how long Jane would suffer and on the other hand it was how long she would be forced to watch Jane suffer, which hurt her as much as any physical harm inflicted to her directly.
Casey doesn't turn to Maura, he keeps his gaze on Jane, like a movie he didn't want to miss a second of it, or like a lion watching a gazelle, "However long it takes."
Maura looked back at Jane, she hadn't moved, Lord only knows how long she had been sitting their already today. Then there is movement in the rough direction Jane is looking, it's Frankie in his police blues as he strides confidently in her direction. He is right in front of her before she senses his presence but she doesn't move till he places his hand on her shoulder and sits beside her.
Casey pulls out a parabolic electronic listening device and puts the window down a smidgen to poke it out and point it in their direction. The voices that come through the radio are slightly crackly but clear enough to hear every noise. The first noise is Jane's sigh.
"How long do you plan to sit here today Janie?"
Jane doesn't answer but loosely shrugs her left shoulder like she always does.
Frankie stares at his sister like he doesn't know what else to say. In the past few weeks every question he asks has caused or almost cased an over-reaction. Are you ok? Is met with loud angry sarcasm, and 'of course she isn't ok', how could she be alright, her best friend is still missing. A normal question to ask but a silly one. If he says that they will find Maura she screams that 'no-one knows that for sure'. If he suggests that everyone is doing everything they can she breaks down in tears 'that everything is not enough'. She is not her usual self with her usual responses. But she is usually here when she is upset so Frankie can find her. He takes that knowledge that she is ok with him finding her. That maybe she want's to talk.
"Have you eaten?" He finally asks hoping she won't bite his head off.
"Yes." She grumbles in reply, "I'm eating, I'm showering. I'm doing all the things that I have to do to stop everyone harassing me and worrying about me as well as Maura."
Maura closes her eyes at this, she cannot believe how unselfish this act alone is by Jane. Jane, who would starve herself with worry, had forced herself to eat just so her family don't worry twice as hard. But Maura also knows that it means Jane will think she isn't doing enough to find her friend. A sacrifice she makes for her mother mostly.
Jane clears her throat, "I didn't realize how much time I spend with her. Until now and she is gone." Frankie can only nod. None of them realized how much Maura was involved in their entire family until she wasn't there anymore.
Jane closes her eyes and a single tear falls down her cheek and she just lets it run and doesn't stop it or hide it.
"We'll get her back, Janie." Frankie tries to comfort her.
He doesn't say alive but he believes she will be.
"Do you think she likes us Frankie?"
"Are you kidding Janie, she thinks we are the best thing that ever happened to her."
Jane half smiles and Frankie nudges her in the arm.
"You are pretty much all she talks about when you aren't around."
"Do you think she'd ever go away and not want us to know where she was?"
Frankie frowns deeply, "No. What gave you an idea like that?"
Jane hugs her knees tighter, "Just something Casey said."
"Casey?" Frankies eyebrows almost merge with his hairline, "That's a name I haven't heard in a long time."
"Yeah," Jane sighs again and turns her head to face him, "He is back in Boston."
Frankie has always shown all his expressions on his face, and he can't hide the disgust and surprise that show.
"Wow. Well he is wrong...and I don't much like him. He doesn't know Maura at all."
A sigh and then silence as they both gather their individual thoughts.
"Jane..." Frankie starts again, "What if Maura's abduction...is personal?"
Jane opens her eyes and stares into the distance.
Frankie watches her lack of response for a moment before continuing, "We have looked at every possible scenario and even that it could be completely random. But random doesn't fit anymore."
"It is personal" Jane whispers to herself
"We know they want your attention...but why you. And Maura...well, she doesn't open her door to just anyone. It had to be someone she knew"
Jane doesn't even blink.
"What if it's directed at you?" Frankie finally blurts out.
This gets a reaction. Jane half sobs half cries out "NO." Frankie jumps a little in surprise. Jane puts her face into her palm and bites her lip to silence both herself and her thoughts.
Frankie continues a little more cautiously, "But Jane, it wouldn't be the first time that-"
"Frankie don't," Jane's voice breaks completely, "Please don't say that. I can't...I couldn't...I -I wouldn't... if...if Maura was h-hurt because of...because of me."
Maura's heart flip flops inside her chest and she fights back a sob. She turns to see Casey as he sits calmly and smugly watching the scene play out.
"I'm sorry Janie." Frankie whispers realizing the implications of his words. He had thought that loosing Maura was the worst thing that could ever happen to Jane, but the worst thing would actually be if Jane lost Maura and it was somehow Jane's fault.
Jane shakes her head side to side in her hand like she is shaking away her thoughts. Her lips quivers as she fights to contain her feelings.
After a moment she gets a semblance of control back and lets out a breath in a way that sounds like it might be hard to simply breathe.
"Frankie, I-I can't breathe."
He looks at her and she turns to look at him for a moment. He can tell she is breathing fine but its shallow and rapid like that one time she broke three ribs.
"It hurts to breathe." Jane clarifies, "Every time I think about her it's like I...I can't seem to get enough air." Jane clenches her hand into a tight fist. Maura clenches her hands into fists as well to hold in the tears that threaten to escape.
She has to tell someone how much she is struggling, someone other than Casey. She isn't close to blacking out but maybe she wishes she could right now. Frankie studies her carefully. He looks worried.
"It's alright Jane, just relax. Ok."
And Jane does, she focuses on breathing, on yoga, on relaxing, calm like in a mud bath in the forest, and her thoughts take her back to Maura again. To happiness now so far away she can grasp it but not hold onto it. And she whimpers and tightens her fists until they hurt.
"Jane. You are ok" Frankie watches her carefully as she begins to calm down, "You aren't going to do anything...you know...stupid...are you?"
Maura feels like her heart break. After what Casey said she can't help but worry. She never thought Jane could ever be suicidal before...before this. Jane had gone through several lifetimes of trouble and pain and always come out the other side somehow. With her family and friends she had found a way through everything. But she had been so upset when Frost died, and she only knew him for a few years. She had run in front of moving cars to get to hallucinations of him. How much worse might she be if it was Maura that Jane lost. Maura that she had known for a little over eleven years now. Maura, her very best friend in the world. Maura heard the sound of herself swallow as she waited to hear Jane's response.
Jane let out a shaky breath and played with her lip between her teeth in thought.
"I don't know if she is alive..." Jane looks up into her little brothers eyes, she see's the love and compassion in them, she knows what he is implying and she knows that if anything ever happened to her...for whatever reason...it would be her brother that would be responsible for delivering the news to everyone, "...no, I don't think I will."
Maura can't sit there and take it anymore, she can't do nothing, so she lets out a blood-curdling scream.
...to be continued...