| IMPOSTER BY MARIQUA |
CHAPTER 109 |
IMPOSTER
Part One Hundred and Nine
Part One Hundred and Nine Continued:
As she waited for the elevator, Sherry thought back to the many times she had caught this same elevator to go to another apartment in her building -- an apartment where she would walk in knowing that she could always be herself.
Her lips curved in a shadowy smile as she reminisced about dropping by that same apartment to help cook dinner, and how she was incessantly teased about her culinary skills.
"Hey, look!" she would protest knowing that she was being set up," I had my nose in medical books...not in cookbooks."
"Lucky for us that I had my nose in both," he would say with a straight face while his electric blue eyes crackled with mischief.
Usually at that point, she would grab the nearest cooking utensil and playfully poke him in the ribs.
The good old days...cut it out, Sherry...it's over...where is that elevator?
Her thoughts were reined in sharply the instant she sensed she was not alone.
Someone is here...watching me...
An icy stream of fear began its slow trickle through her veins -- the paralyzing flow picking up speed with every second.
I can scream...
...but, no one is around...most of my neighbors are at work now...
...the mace...in my purse...if I can just get to it before...
...the elevator is here...but I could be followed...
~~~~~~~~~~
The elevator doors opened and its one occupant raced out -- his vibrant, blue eyes pinpointing one door on the opposite end. Increasing his quick pace to a run, he made a beeline for the door -- expelling short spurts of breath not from exertion but from sheer dread.
His fist pounded three times on the door.
"Sherry! It's me, Slider! Let me in...now!"
He waited only a few seconds for an answer and then inserted a key into the door lock.
Entering the apartment, the oppressive quiet served to pump up his adrenaline even more. There was no indication that anyone was there, but his mind was already made up. He would search her apartment and find out it was indeed empty. Working his way through each room, his shoes brushing swiftly across the plush carpet, he finally slowed down as he neared one particular room. Looking inside, his eyes widened, and his heart sank with a crashing thud.
Oh, no...
~~~~~~~~~~
Tea's fingers brushed over her feverish forehead.
He's in love with another woman...
What's wrong with me...why should I be so shocked? It's not like he was never divided before...there was Blair...and all those times when his love and loyalty went right back to her...
"No! I can't...I can't do this anymore!"
"Can't do what?"
"You figure it out!" she hissed, her face transforming into a hateful snarl. Holding up her left hand, she critically examined the dazzling stone on her finger.
"All that waiting around...for nothing!"
Twisting the ring off her finger, she slung it viciously at his chest.
"There...take it, you bastard...your fourteen carat trinket. Put it on her finger!"
Automatically bending down to pick up the ring, he slowly closed his hand in a fist around it -- his eyes raking over her with unconcealed disgust.
What the hell...trinket...how dare you, Delgado!
~~~~~~~~~~
I'm too late...
What met Slider's eyes was a room in complete disarray. Stacks of clothes were draped haphazardly across the canopied bed, and several cardboard boxes lined the walls of the room -- some already stuffed full.
So she's leaving...that's pretty damn obvious...no good-bye...no nothing....
...and I'll just bet she's not leaving alone...
~~~~~~~~~~
"This is what I get, huh?"
"You...my own wife...you don't even try to understand! And what the hell is up about this being some trinket?" Todd demanded fiercely -- his eyes blazing as he opened up his palm to reveal the brilliant ring.
"Understand?" Tea echoed the word as if it were foreign to her. "What's to understand? It's pretty darn clear...you just said it...you're in love with another woman!"
"Just as I thought...you're not really getting any of this, are you?" he snapped. "I did say that, but you made up your mind to ignore the rest."
"Oh...well! Excuse me, Todd...you slink back here and then pronounce that you love someone else...and I'm supposed to what...say, "that's no problem, Todd?"
"For once, will you just shut up and listen?" he thundered, thrusting his hand back through his long hair in frustration and rising up to full height.
She opened her mouth to fire another response but instead decided to remain silent.
Your very last chance, Todd...
"All right," he said in an effort to get a hold of his temper. "...I already told you that I'm different now...you do get that much?
Still wanting to hurt him for what he had admitted to her, an evil glint stole into her eyes.
"Oh, sure I do....except none of it fits, Todd. There's no change going on here...just more of the same old you."
"Couldn't resist getting your little dig in, could you, Delgado? Anyway, what could you know about it...you haven't been around me at all lately...not since," he paused, took a deep breath and then went on.
"...Okay, this is what I know. Remember how you always said I could be more than I am? Well, you certainly nailed that prediction, Tea, because right now, I'm definitely a lot more."
"More...more of what?" Tea glanced quickly over him. "All I see is the same man who was always so good at twisting words to suit his own purposes."
"Hold on a minute...now you're in denial...which, come to think of it, is a pretty natural state for you, Delgado."
Shaking his head, he crossed his arms and looked at her squarely again with renewed determination.
"Never mind...erase that. Let's try this one more time...maybe the only way you can get it. The person I am now...what if I told you...I'm really not the man you married."
"You don't say? How fascinating...but, you're incorrect...you're exactly the man I married." she said smugly. "The man married is a two-faced..."
"Wait...if you mean the alters..."
"No, I don't mean that. That's not something you had any control over. I'm talking about how you always say one thing and then do another."
"Yeah...well, maybe I was like that, but maybe it was because I didn't really know who I was...ever think of that, Tea?"
"It's easy for someone like you...you know who you are...you don't question it...but all these years...I've questioned my entire existence because I was robbed of something that I needed."
She cocked an eyebrow, "And what, pray tell, was that?"
His eyes glittered back at her.
"My identity."
"That's convenient...sorry, Todd, but I'm not buying into it. You had and still have an identity...you're a husband...and a father, a multimillionaire, the publisher of The Sun ...and..."
"And nothing!" he blurted out before she could finish. "Those were roles I had to play...because of circumstances. I went ahead and did what I had to do...but I always knew something was missing."
"Oh, great, and I guess I was just one of those circumstances?"
"You were with me...I think...to help me. You made me take a long, hard look at myself...something I never wanted to do"
Sniffing disdainfully, she said, "At least you admit it now...because you never used to give me a any credit for understanding you, Todd. I did try very hard to get you to come out of that private world of self hatred and misery you created for yourself."
"Yeah...you're right...you were always trying to goad me into changing...but, remember, I'm the one who chose to live in that created world as you call it, Tea...for reasons of my own...and it had nothing to do with you...and another thing...before you go on and on about what you think you knew about me and my world," he pointed his finger at her, " ...don't forget all those times I shut you out, and you didn't have one clue why I did it."
That's a true statement...when you threw me out of the penthouse without a stitch on...you shut me out but good...
He waved at her not to speak as she tried to interrupt again.
"The thing is...what you didn't know...and what I now understand," he said and paused again, "...is that I was dealing with only one side of me."
Tea took a step back, once more alarmed as she remembered what he had said earlier about Nick.
"What do you mean...one side?"
"Don't worry...I wasn't some alter," he said so harshly it made her flinch.
"I was split."
~~~~~~~~~~
Walking back into his own apartment, Slider's shoulders were slumped from a deep sense of failure.
Struck out...don't know what happened...where is she?
Flipping on the light switch, he saw the woman he had been searching for and obsessing about for weeks sitting like a beautiful, oriental statue on his sofa.
I'm hallucinating...
She rose and walked toward him -- her dark eyes seeking him out.
"Slider...I'm sorry...I panicked...and came here."
Not waiting for more of an explanation, he angrily strode past her.
"Okay...where is he?"
"Who? Oh no....if you mean..."
"Who the hell else would I mean?" he growled through clenched teeth as he angrily traipsed through the kitchen.
"He's gone?" she asked, and at once she knew who had been watching her near the elevator.
"Slider...stop that and listen to me!" she yelled as she heard him jerk open a closet door.
Returning, he stood facing her, his arms crossed and his attitude indicating he had lost all patience.
"That's right," he said harshly, "Go ahead...tell me where he is."
"I'm telling you I don't know where he is!" she said, her voice now sounding shrill and stunned by his insinuation.
"At least...I don't know right now. Slider, I think he's been stalking me."
~~~~~~~~~~
"You were...what?"
"Split. I was split off when I just a kid."
"Split...so, what does that mean? You were split in half? Come on, Todd! This is even bizarre for you. Okay, I'll go along...if that's the case, then where is the other half..." she stopped -- suddenly unable to complete her sentence.
"Nick is the other."
"But Nick is gone, Todd. Slider told me he was integrated."
"The alters...Pete, Tom, Rod...and all the others integrated. They went back into my mind somewhere. Nick isn't an alter."
"Todd, this is too much...."
"Can't you see? It's so simple. Nick is what was missing. I've been searching for him all my life. Without him, I really didn't have my whole identity...just part of one. Nick didn't disappear, Tea...he's here...with me. Slider was right...everything is as it should be...and the thing is...it feels good. Life doesn't irritate me anymore."
Forgetting for a moment that she was still very confused, she touched his face tenderly and lightly stroked his cheek with the back of her hand.
"Todd, you know I've always wanted you to be happy."
Almost shivering with emotion, his eyes shone with a light she had never seen.
"I am happy...for the first time in my life, I'm not wishing that I was anyone else but me. This is what I've been trying to tell you, Tea...I have all my memories now...my childhood...all the way up to adulthood. They aren't just my memories either. He isn't a fragment of my mind...like some alter personality."
"Tea...Nick is me."
A long, brittle silence settled into the room. If she dared to speak she was sure that her voice would be tinged with hysteria, so she did the only thing she could do...refuse to believe him.
This is just another fabrication of his...he wants out...he's made up this whole thing to get rid of me...
"Any memory from your life is always a part of who you are, Tea...what you're made of...what you want, he said, his velvet voice now coated with a husky edginess that rooted her to her spot.
She gazed at him with a frozen, shocked expression -- her golden skin coloring within seconds to a deep red hue when his fingers glided up around her jaw line and then spread out further to her cheekbones.
"Her skin...it's pale...like cream...
Then, before she had any time to react, he pulled her roughly to him and sank his mouth deeply into hers.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Stalking you?" Slider moved in closer to her. "Then, let's have it...you said you saw him...where is he?
"I have no idea. My guess is he's left the building."
"Without you?" Slider said cruelly. "I doubt that."
"What is it with you?" Sherry's voice shook with exasperation. "I have no interest in your patient, Slider."
"But he has an interest in you," Slider said flatly. "It's not over yet, Sherry."
"You said he was gone...so now you're saying Nick is...back?"
"No, I'm not saying that. I was counseling Todd Manning this morning, but I wasn't paying enough attention to the signals he was giving me in our session. When I discovered he was missing, it hit me why he had left, and I knew exactly where he would go...to see you."
"Well, that doesn't make sense. This Manning and I don't even really know each other."
"Oh, but you do know him...at least, you know the other side of his personality...
"Nick."
~~~~~~~~~~
Todd is...Nick...
That night under the stars, she had demanded that he reveal all of his nature to her, even sides to his soul which would have been fearsome. After making love to him, she believed he had given up the ghosts that haunted him and he was completely hers. Yet there had been a persistent doubt that she hadn't wanted to admit. One piece was still missing to the puzzle that was Todd Manning.
Is it possible...if what you've been trying to tell me is true...then I never made love to the real Todd Manning...
Since the night he was led away from his home in Chicago, she had wanted him so much -- waiting with all the fortitude she possessed while he was going through therapy. That he was back with her, and that his soft, but demanding lips were crushing into hers once again should have lit her up inside with joy, but instead a terrible disquiet rattled around in her body and refused to leave.
Who are you?
~~~~~~~~~~
"I have to find him," Slider said mechanically. "If the authorities know he's on the loose again, he'll be picked up and then he won't have any more chances. I gave my word that I would keep him here."
That's a lie...I don't care where he is...all I care about is knowing that you're not with him...
Sherry's eyes took a second, closer look at Slider as she remembered how rudely he had spoken just minutes before.
What's wrong with you? You're acting so strange...it's almost as if you're...jealous...
Slider noticed her studying him intently and squared his shoulders in readiness for his next move.
In life you're lucky to get a second chance...I'm not blowing this again...
~~~~~~~~~~
Why had she always tried to figure him out? So many nights she had lain awake mulling over all the possible reasons for his strange behavior only to come up with nothing.
Be careful of what you wish for...
On the night Tea had faced off with Nick in his old home, she had wrestled with him to free her husband from a personality she assumed was just another alter mixed in with the others. What she hadn't known was that she was actually dealing with the missing half of the man she loved.
Now the stark horror of what all of it could mean enlarged and magnified in her mind to such proportions she couldn't face it.
No...
Meanwhile the warm, urgent thrust of his tongue parting her lips was rapidly pulling her away from the imminent terror of her discovery.
Feels...so good...I need this...
In one smooth movement, his hands snaked up her arms to pin her closer to his hard body and then wound around her -- snaring her so there was no way to escape. Over and over his lips burned deeper and deeper into her quivering flesh -- masterfully drawing out more of her will with each sizzling touch. Darkness descended into her spirit as his persistent invasion brought her mind and body closer to the brink of final submission.
She could forget anything now....nothing mattered except that he wanted her.
Take me...
Then she heard it...just as his strong arms swept under her and lifted her body from the floor.
This time the powerful tide of passion could not stop the hidden horror from slapping her down like a monstrous wave and assaulting her again.
Why, Todd...why did you leave me in that field...I begged you not to go...
You promised you would return to me...
That promise is dead in the water...
You're never coming back to me...
You left me here...with this...
Imposter!
TO BE CONTINUED
2002 Copyright by Mariqua

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