Insane

by Emery LeeAnn

  Fighting a wave of revulsion, I replied, “Well, of course I would be a proper wife as the bible states. Physically pleasing you as a good wife would do.”

  He scooted closer. Then the darkness took its place as Grace took the light away.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Grace

  This son of a bitch is rubbing his crotch looking at me like I’m his next meal. It was disgusting and ridiculous. Pervert old fart thought I would ever give myself to him, he could sit there and wait. I had a surprise to show him.

  As he came near me, he reached his hand out to brush it across my face. That’s when I saw the opportunity arise. My knee shot up in between his legs, earning me his howl of pain and a triumphant smile on my face. Sick bastard.

  Without even thinking, I picked the shears up slamming them into his back between the shoulder blades. I did this over and over while his body shook in convulsions as the blood drained from him. His whimpers of pain died out as he took his final breath.

  I felt the familiar pressure in my head, but it didn’t edge me out. It was like I was sharing the light. Not liking the feeling, I slid back so Katherine could search him for the keys.

  Going out of the light, it occurred to me, Mary was the one sharing my time. I was the protector, supposed to keep her from seeing anything dangerous.

  Trying to talk to her, Mary turned to me with dead eyes chanting:

  Amazing Grace, how sweet the taste,

  From A gutless wretch like you.

  I once was lost, with your sins I’m found,

  Was blind, but with your blood I am free.

  ***

  Katherine

  Oh, for fucks sake. There is blood all over us. What happened to the plan?

  Grace was only supposed to knock him out, not slaughter him. We need to get as far away from him as we can.

  Tears streaming down my face over what she had done, I knew I needed to pull it together. Bending down, I pulled the body closer so I could pat him down to find the keys.

  Searching through his pockets in the overalls I had no success. My frustration was growing. I was exasperated at the situation, at the man in front of me for doing this to us, and mostly at Grace for not following the plan.

  Dropping to my knees, I pushed the corpse over, to see if the keys were in the front pocket. To my horror, I couldn’t find them. Anywhere.

  There was this incessant chanting in my pounding head, the only chance we had at getting out of here was in front of me, now gone just like dead vermin. We were fucked with a capital F. This shackle around my ankle wasn’t budging, and the chain was too heavy to move up the pole. The locks holding the chains together were heavy duty. We had been trying to break or smash them since the day he made us come in here.

  The door to the barn was open and all I could do was look out into the great expanse of his property. Disappointed, I extended one arm trying hard to touch what my eyes could see, but I couldn’t reach it.

  After that, it was hopeless. The days were sweltering hot and the nights were freezing cold. Our body was desecrated with his remains, and our own excrement.

  I curled up inside myself, balled up in a fetal position. Giving up, we waited for death to claim us.

  ***

  Grace

  Now I have Mary who is acting like a pint sized version of me possessed, and Katherine is giving up on me.

  I don’t understand why what I did was so wrong. I took care of the problem. He was a sick fuck. The pounding in our skull is so reverberating, it’s setting me on edge.

  I guess for all our studying, we would never know more than what we read about Multiples in books. We had had such big hope to meet a psychologist who specialized in dissociative identity disorder.

  At this point, everyone was content to stop fighting and give up. Fuck this shit. I’m not the inspirational one. Who am I to argue, as long as we did it together?

  I’m taking Mary to a corner of our mind so I can hold her hands tight. Maybe some of this racket will stop. Something had definitely changed with our sweet little girl. She was no longer there. What replaced her was something dark and wrong.

  And Katherine? Well, if she can’t get her shit together, why should I?

  CHAPTER SIX

  Five Days Later

  Detective Pike

  The smell was enough to knock me off my feet. I didn’t blame the rookies who were losing their lunch at the side of the barn.

  The decomposed body of the farmer had maggots and flies all over it. At first, they called to tell me there were two dead on arrivals, but then the girl moved. The reporting officer almost shit his pants.

  The girl had a clamp on her ankle which was attached to a heavy tow chain. She was skin and bones, smelling like human waste as well as decay from the corpse.

  What it appeared to me as, the old man had kidnapped or just kept her prisoner, and she had to fight back in self-defense. No doubt he had forced her to do sexual acts. The girl looked young.

  A neighbor had noticed the farmer hadn’t been out for a few days, so he came to check on him. He noticed the smell and came to investigate. When he saw the macabre scene, he immediately called the police.

  Paul Vance, the neighbor, was muttering, “You just never really know some people.”

  Getting a pair of bolt cutters, the EMTs were able to cut the iron from her feet. Loading her on a gurney, they took her to the hospital.

  I decided to walk into the house and investigate since no one seemed to know the girl’s name. One of the deputies found a folder in the bedroom filled with paperwork about her. She was adopted ten years ago. This was her uncle who did this to her.

  It never failed to amaze me how sick some people are. Apparently, her name was Adalyn Moser. Scribbling it down, I shut my note pad close, then let myself out of the fucker’s house.

  ***

  Katherine

  Going in and out of darkness, I hear people talking, or maybe it’s all in my mind. Slipping back out, I wonder if this is death.

  Mary

  My dolly misses me, but when I pick her up, I just want to do violent things to her. Can’t shake this feeling of viciousness swirling around me. Half of me wants to play, while the other half, wants to slay. Thankfully, my eyes are drifting back off. I don’t like this new me. It scares me.

  Grace

  What’s happening? I only come out when there is eminent danger. There is just darkness, and grogginess. So tired. Are we dead? Is that why we are here? Can’t stay awake long enough to figure it out.

  ***

  “Adalyn? Adalyn?” A soft voice says.

  I wake up groggy, looking at a blonde pretty woman staring at me. She smiles when my eyes creep open.

  “You’re awake.”

  My mouth feels like it has cotton in it. My neck is stiff. I can’t turn it around to see who else is in the room. She seems to be staring at me.

  “Adalyn, how are you?”

  Oh, she must be talking to someone else.

  The blonde lady walked around her desk, then bent in front of me with a concerned look on her face.

  “Can you talk, honey?” She said softly.

  “Hi.” I said.

  Her grin reached across her whole face.

  “I was worried when you didn’t answer me.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were talking to me. What’s an Adalyn?”

  She looked at me perplexed. “Do you know your name?”

  “I’m Katherine.” I said simply.

  “Oh. I’m sorry, Katherine. I was given wrong information. So how are you? My name is Dr. Dhavern by the way.”

  I looked at my ankle to assure we weren’t still locked in. Breathing a heavy sigh when all I saw was white gauze , I replied, “Well, now that we aren’t chained up, I feel a little better.” I yawned, really tired just talking, “but I’m not sure about Mary and Grace.”

  The pretty blonde’s face paled. “There were others in the barn chained with you?”
>
  “Yes. We were all chained.” Seriously. This woman is a doctor?

  “Do you know where the others went?” Dr. Dhavern asked, her voice laced with concern.

  I was really sluggish, like they had been drugging me. I put my finger up, telling her to hold on. Closing my eyes, I summoned my other two alters. They were there, but both seemed to be resting. Probably from whatever medications they had given us.

  “Well, whatever you drugged us up with, has them pretty snackered out.” I looked at her accusingly.

  She looked at me strangely. “I’m sorry for that. You had been through quite the trauma, so I only ordered what I thought was good for you to have so you could regain your strength and energy back. You were skin and bones when they found you.”

  Looking down at myself, I realized I had filled out. How long had I been here? “Of course I was. That lunatic was starving us until we agreed to sleep with him and become his wife.” I gave her a disgusted look to convey how much I did not want that to happen. “How long have we been here?”

  “I need to let you know, it’s just you. You were the only one we found.” Dr. Dhavern looked sad. “How many other girls were there?”

  Realization dawned on me that she wasn’t aware I was a multiple. I smiled kindly at her, like she was a child. This was not an easy subject for people to understand.

  Looking at me perplexed, she raised her eyebrows, “I feel like I am missing something. Were there other girls besides yourself?”

  “Mary and Grace.” I replied.

  She nodded, still with an odd look on her face. “And where are they now?”

  “Here.” Mary’s tiny voice popped out for the answer then slid back into the darkness.

  ***

  Dr. Dhavern

  It was almost as if another person just answered that question. The range in the voice was completely different, as was the mannerism.

  Schizophrenic? Imaginary friends to help get through the situation? I decided to try something else to try and figure out what was going on. “Are both of the other girls here in this office?”

  Katherine looked at me with this look I can only describe as she now thought I was crazy.

  “We are all inside this head. We are a multiple.” She frowned at me, “That was Mary who is seven, she was the one that answered about where the others are right now. Can’t you tell the difference in our voices, Doc?”

  I had to persist, no matter how much I agitated her. “So if Mary is seven, how old are you and Grace?”

  “I am twenty-six and no one knows how old Grace is. She is older like me but only appeared to protect Mary.” She shrugged.

  “Which one of you is the host?” I still wasn’t positive with her diagnosis. It wasn’t common, and she was so flippant about it. Not to mention, they weren’t exactly the classic Dissociative Identity Disorder patient.

  “We don’t know. We have never met her. We figure she is too far hidden from whatever trauma happened to her, and she is locked in the dark side in our mind. We have no memories before seven.”

  This was an incredible story if it was true. But, I needed to do some research to see if it was accurate. I had read all the police reports about her uncle keeping her locked up because he wanted to wed her. Her only chance at freedom was to kill him.

  She never mentioned being a multiple in the reports. Could that be because she just conjured the personalities up, or because she wasn’t sure who she could trust?

  “Well, I can tell you we have changed from calling it multiple personalities to Dissociative Identity Disorder or D.I.D.” I informed her. Trying to glean what I could, I made my face as blank as I could so she couldn’t pick up any of my reactions.

  “Yes, we are aware.”

  “Oh? How did you come to diagnose yourself? Have you been seeing a therapist?” I asked.

  “You mean besides all the people in our head?” She chuckled. “When my aunt was alive, she realized it when we slipped in and out of the light. She could tell who was who just by talking to us. She gathered as many books as she could on multiples so we could read up on it.” She said with a tear in her eye, her voice sad.

  “So, books were your only diagnosis?”

  “That’s what she fucking said, isn’t it?” A dark pair of eyes glared at me. I would swear the temperature dropped in the room. “Look lady, we don’t give a shit if you believe us or not. So fuck off and quit upsetting them because if I have to come back out again, you aren’t gonna like it.” With another hard stare, her eyes closed, then reopened, and I was looking at a very scared face with big brown eyes.

  “Who are you?” I asked softly.

  “Mary.” She said in a small voice, her hands twisting.

  “Hello Mary. You are seven. Is that correct?”

  She nodded her head yes. I smiled big at her. “What do you like to do for fun?”

  “Read the bible, color, and I like dollies but mine got left behind.” She said sadly.

  “You read the bible?”

  “I memorized it.” She said proudly, head held high and shiny eyes.

  “Mary that is quite an accomplishment!” She beamed at me for the compliment and just like that, she was gone.

  “Mary doesn’t come out much. We try to keep her occupied.” Katherine explained.

  “Would it be ok if I brought her a doll, a coloring book, and a bible?” I asked. We didn’t have patients that young at Brunswick.

  Katherine closed her eyes. Her entire face went blank. It was incredible to me, if this was indeed a case of D.I.D., how seamless they changed into who was the one out. There was no in-between, just by their eye color could you tell. I had already made an enemy with Grace. I would need to mend that fence.

  Opening her eyes, she simply nodded. There must’ve been an internal struggle, with Grace no doubt.

  “Is there anything I can get for you or Grace?”

  “No more knockout drugs. We want to be able to think straight.” She said right away.

  “That I can definitely do. We just wanted you to rest comfortably. I recommend we give you a small dose to help you sleep.”

  “Absolutely not.” She said emphatically, starting to get agitated.

  “Ok. Ok.” I put my hands up to let her know I wouldn’t give her anything. I wanted her to trust me.

  She nodded her head, still not looking like she totally trusted me. I took my cell out and decided to send a quick text to my partner, then put it away giving the girl my undivided attention.

  “How about we take a tour?” I asked.

  That earned me a smile. She limped a little because of the wear and tear her ankle received from the shackle. I had the orderly clean it and wrap it, but it was still sore. I could tell by the way she winced.

  “Would you like some pain med-”

  “NO.” She cut me off quickly. I nodded. It was her choice and, right now, I wouldn’t contest it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Katherine

  We still didn’t trust the doctor. She seemed nice enough, but she was keeping us locked up in here. We went from one prison to another and we hated it but, at least here, we had others we could talk to.

  She showed us the eating area, if we decided not to eat in the room, but we were required to eat at least one meal with everyone else. As long as it wasn’t dog food, we didn’t care where we ate with. She took us to the common room where there were games, a piano, and a television. The problem was, it was so incredibly loud, it made our head hurt. These people were, well for lack of a better word, crazy.

  I was starting to get nervous. Knowing I had to keep us under control, I stopped for a moment, took a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

  “I know this is a lot to take in. Take your time getting situated here.” She said sounding concerned.

  We nodded, trying to calm down. She put her arm on my shoulder, then steered me back towards her office. There was an older lady standing inside her office with a bag in her hand.

 
Dr. Dhavern smiled at her, taking the bag from her. “This is my partner, Katherine, and I’ve asked her to bring Mary a present. May I speak to Mary, please?”

  Reluctantly, my eyes changed color, and Mary came out. “Hello.” She squeaked.

  The doctor handed her a doll from the bag. Mary’s eyes lit up, she hugged the doll, thanked both women, then her entire face went blank.

  “Thank you for giving her this. We will put it on our bed for her tonight. Grace is concerned about her being out with you two.” I said, smiling kindly. It was a nice gesture, but we sure as hell still didn’t trust anyone.

  The doctor nodded, while her partner frowned.

  “I understand.” Dr. Dhavern insisted.

  “May we go back to our room?”

  “Of course.” She called an orderly to show us the way.

  Taking the doll, I laid it carefully on the bed. Mary could come out and play as much as she wanted with it in here. Grace would be alright with that.

  Looking at the clock, I could see it was almost time to eat. I laid the doll on the bed, covering her up, per Mary’s orders.

  Making my way to the dining area, I passed a room that was full of stuffed animals. The man on the floor seemed to be crawling around them. He looked dangerous by his size, until he glanced up at me and I saw the same childlike wonder in his eyes like Mary had.

  “His name is Toby.” A thin woman walked beside me. She had a white gown on and fuzzy slippers.

  “My name is Donna. We are neighbors.” Her eyes crinkled as she smiled.

  “Hi.” I replied cautiously, “I’m Katherine.”

  “Welcome to the loony bin.” Donna giggled.

  My eyes grew larger. I’m in an asylum? I thought it was a regular hospital. She was looking at me curiously.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out.” She went on. “Toby is a nice kid. He looks like an adult, but his parents raised him in a cage as an experiment without any parental love at all. He doesn’t speak, but they have taught him some sign language here so he can communicate. Just don’t ever remove his animals unless he hands them to you.” She shivered.