“Marcus even continued to talk with a partner after she had been brutally injured in the home of Leah Grey. She barely survived the attack and she still hasn’t regained consciousness.”
Angela looked confused. Brutally injured, unconscious? What the hell was Bachman talking about?
“What did you think, Marcus, when you pulled the trigger? Was Angela getting too close? Were you trying to commit the ultimate sin by murdering the one closest to you?” Dr. Bachman asked.
Angela looked back out the window. Yes, the sky was blue again. And warm. If she imagined hard enough, she thought she could actually feel its warmth on her face. Yes, the mind was a powerful thing. She was sure she could feel the warmth of the sun.
“Marcus.”
Angela turned to Dr. Bachman.
“Why are you calling me Marcus?” she asked.
“You were the first to find Angela. You were the one to call in the attack on a police officer. You spoke with your father when you knew the man was lying faceless in a county morgue. When Professor Hutchins told you about the priest who wanted to get God’s attention by committing horrible crimes, was he describing your grandfather or was he describing you?”
Angela laughed.
“You’ve lost your mind, Dr. Bachman. How can I be in a coma while I’m sitting right here talking to you?”
“Angela is gone from your life, Marcus. She was put in intensive care six months ago. You haven’t visited her because you’ve been here with me.”
Dr. Bachman waited for a response, but there was nothing but genuine confusion from the person across the table.
“You, Marcus Carter, have been at this facility since your arrest outside the cabin.”
Angela looked across the room and then turned back to Dr. Bachman.
“Where is here?”
“This is a psychiatric facility. I’ve been treating you here.”
“And you think Marcus is responsible for those murders?”
Dr. Bachman hesitated for several seconds.
“I believe they started years ago with David Lombardi, who then became David Carter. At some point, you must have been brought in on the family secret. I believe that’s when your identity disorder first started taking root. You literally developed into multiple people to protect your true self from the horror you saw around you. I suspect it happened shortly after you found the cabin.”
“The little boy lost in the woods. The little boy with the mask of death.”
The voice was childlike and innocent.
“Did they teach you how to kill, Marcus?”
“The sins of the father are passed to the son. You can’t make him stop. He’ll never stop.”
The voice now sounded remarkably like a female. Dr. Bachman assumed it was the voice of Leah Grey.
“But you have stopped, Marcus. You can’t hurt anyone. Not anymore,” Dr. Bachman said.
“He must die. Marcus Carter must die.”
Dr. Bachman didn’t know who he was taking to now. He studied Marcus and for the first time in six months, he thought he may have seen Marcus’s true face.
“Is that you, Marcus?”
Dr. Bachman continued to study Marcus, but he saw him slipping away.
“MAI can’t hurt you anymore. He’s gone away. He’s never coming back.”
Then the face changed before Dr. Bachman’s eyes. It was cold and hard, and it terrified him.
MAI laughed.
“You don’t believe in demons, Dr. Bachman?”
“Who am I talking to?”
MAI lunged across the table at Dr. Bachman.
There would be no escape.
He had brought up the monster’s name, and now it had appeared before his very eyes.
In that split second Dr. Bachman realized how naïve and foolish he had been.
Marcus was unbelievably strong. He held Dr. Bachman down with one hand. It was wrapped tightly around his throat. Dr. Bachman struggled to breathe, but he couldn’t get air past the crushing grip on his windpipe.
“I am loneliness. I am emptiness. I am despair,” Marcus said.
Dr. Bachman’s world faded to black.
CHAPTER 41
Always With You
Journal Entry: Somewhere on the Atlantic, December 14, 1948
I stood against the ship’s railing and watched the sun drift towards the horizon. The sky looked like it was on fire, and the ocean glowed with the most beautiful shades of vibrant blues I had ever seen.
I waited until the sun completely sank into the waters. Then I walked back to my cabin. America is still a few days away. I wished that I could simply sleep until the ship arrives. Hopefully there will be a new life there, a chance to start over and make things right. But is that even possible now?
I sat in my cabin in the darkness for several hours. It’s been weeks since I heard the voice, weeks since I’ve taken a life. I can’t believe the things I’ve done. There were twenty women in all. But the only face I can truly remember is Bianca Rossi. She was the first, and for some reason she seemed the most innocent. She was like a child in a strange way. Her days are over now because of what I’ve done. I can’t stop thinking of hell and wondering if they’ll greet me at its gates. Will they torment me for all of eternity? I deserve nothing less.
Then I heard its laugh come from the shadows.
“Did you think you could leave me?” the voice asked. “Did you think I couldn’t find you here?”
I wanted to turn on all of the lights and make the darkness disappear. But I didn’t want to see its pale eyes.
“You’ve come too far, David. You can’t stop now.”
“I don’t want it anymore,” I said. “You’ve told me nothing but lies.”
“But you did want it. You asked for it, practically begged for it. The loneliness, David. Don’t you remember feeling the loneliness? You wanted to know if he existed. I’ve given that to you. I’ve shown you his face. If you’ve seen me, then you have seen his shadow.”
“You’ve shown me nothing.”
The demon got angry at me, and I could hear the rage in its voice.
“I’ve given you everything, David. All that you are, all that you hope to be is because of me.”
“I won’t do it again.”
“You will do it again, and you’ll keep on doing it until I let you stop.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why do you need me to do it?”
It didn’t answer me for several seconds. Its voice was calm when it spoke again.
“I’m just like you, David. I feel the emptiness just as you do. I searched for his voice too. I live in the darkness. I have seen the beginning of time. We need each other, David. We fulfill each other. Don’t you understand that?”
“Leave me. Please.”
“I can’t. And I won’t. I’ll be with you always, and when you die, I’ll be with your son and his son after that, until all of your days are ended.”
Nature of Evil Page 19