 |
 |
|
| E-mail this page to a friend | Tell me when this page is updated |
| IMPOSTER BY MARIQUA |
CHAPTER 90 |
Spurts of fear oozed out of every nerve ending in Slider's body, and he gritted his teeth to prevent the impending attack of white hot anger which he knew would soon permeate him. I'm so close...I can't blow this now !
"You can take your hand off me, Nick," he uttered with steely calm.
This is deja vu...I said that...I said it to him that night...
Like an animal that knows it could be in danger, Nick's eyes fired in readiness and every sense elevated to its peak. His tapering fingers continued to press into the flesh of his enemy, unwilling to leave himself unprotected.
"It wouldn't be unlike you to hatch some misguided plot to undermine me, now would it, Slider? Remember Tea? Come on...she's in this house, isn't she?"
"No...she's not."
Nick's hand loosened slightly, and he stared at Slider as if bent on penetrating any protective field that he might have erected. "I knowyou, Slider...you're not some lying S.O.B....but you're not to be trusted either ."
As Nick's fingers slowly slid away from Slider's throat, Slider felt a pure, radiant relief. If everything weren't riding on this, I would have wiped that supercilious smirk off your face, Nick...Z...or no Z!
****
The unexpected sound he had made seemed to reverberate throughout the house like distant, rumbling thunder while Edwards stood perfectly still. Damn these old houses! One more careless move like that and everyone is this place will be on me like flies!
Sykes is probably itching for me to call...can't risk it yet. The last thing I want is for the ghost of Todd Manning to suddenly materialize right in front of me...
Commissioner Sykes bit hard on his lip and then checked the rear view mirror to see if he had drawn any blood. There was much too much at stake for him to keep any kind of calm perspective. He had sent Edwards to break into a house without a warrant and to try to spy on whatever was taking place within those walls. Everything pointed to what Edwards had been hinting about -- Todd Manning was alive and well.
Now he had the time to think ahead and to imagine what could happen if Todd Manning was discovered in the house. It would be a tremendous coups for him to haul him back to Llanview and throw him behind bars. Perhaps enough of a coups that he would be seen in a new light by prospective voters. Any kind of service to the public which would garner immediate attention in the press was a surefire way to elevate his standing. Single-handedly bringing Todd Manning back to stand trial could very well seal a win.
A troubling thought hit him. Viki Carpenter is here. This knowledge produced a more negative analysis. She could ruin it all with her version of the capture. Edwards must only find out if he's in there...he can't be spotted...
****
"What...what are you thinking, Viki?" Tea heard the difference in Viki's tone and perked up immediately.
"I have something that Todd needs, Tea...and so do you."
"If you're speaking of love, Viki...well, he already knows that I do."
"No...It's not love...I agree...he knows we love him. I think he's carried that around with him during his best and worst times like a shield from the many attacks he must have faced."
"Then...what?"
"Knowledge."
Tea looked mystified as Viki's voice said the word with strong emphasis. "I'm sorry, Viki...you lost me..."
"Think about it," Viki's eyes began to focus intently on the steering wheel. "You and I have been participants in Todd's life, both of us offering him our love, but in a way, also providing him with the missing pieces to a life that was shattered years ago."
"...he wanted to be different with you...he saw that what had worked for him in the past was shallow and, at best...only a part of who he could really be."
Tea shook her head sadly, "but it didn't work, Viki...he couldn't go there."
"It doesn't matter," Viki said pointedly, "...you started something with him...something that possibly caused him to go back into these alters in order to seek his way out."
"But I don't see how I can..."
"That's where you and I are so alike, Tea," Viki interrupted. "We both thought that we had failed to get through...actually, each of us got through to him beyond our wildest expectations. We just didn't recognize it."
Viki's piercing blue eyes looked straight at Tea again. "You see, Tea...I also realize, that I've always had the power to help him, but I wasn't strong enough back then...and I guess...I was more dedicated to forgetting my own experiences. I know what he's going through...I know everything...becau se, as you are aware, I had the DID."
****
One of the voices outside her door had risen to a level where she could almost make out what was said. Sherry bent down next to the door to try to listen and peek through the large keyhole. Nick is talking to someone...no, now he sounds like he's threatening someone...
Nick had left her because he had heard something, and knowing that someone else was now in the house with them really unnerved her. At this point, after Nick's irrational behavior and his confession that he had a disorder, not to mention his intimations of her disloyalty, Sherry no longer felt any sense of security. What she had done by coming here with him had been a mistake, and one that she should never had made. She had let her emotions take over, and that had been her undoing. Somehow she knew that she had taken a step into some bizarre zone laden with pitfalls and danger, and she didn't like it one bit. Her "dangerous" side, as Nick had put it, was not t hat reckless. I wish that this were all some dream...that I had never met Nick...and that everything was just as it was...
But it wasn't. And just as she handled critical decisions in near-death emergencies, Sherry knew she had to snap out of any self-induced fog she might be in and get down to business. There was no time to regret what had happened. There would be time for that later. If I can just see who is out there with him...then I will know what I have to do...
****
"I'd really like to trust you, Slider," Nick flashed him a wicked smile, "but I've learned a thing or two about you since we last had contact."
"And that is?"
"You're just as single-mindedas me really. You go after whatever is foremost on your agenda, but in a more roundabout way...actually, you're a much sneakier bastard than I am."
Saying nothing, Slider's eyes once more cast a look down the hallway.
"It helps to know who you're dealing with...especially from my point of view," Nick continued, "...since I can't afford to misjudge my competition."
"You'll always have competition, Nick...from Todd."
"Toddy? That's a hoot! He's got one-thousandth of the strength that I have now. You know...it was real providential for me that you did decide to answer the phone that night...back then...and at that service station. I should really thank you, Slider, ole' buddy...you're the one who made it all possible."
Well then, I'm the one who's going to rectify those mistakes, Nick, so that you don't have any more reasons to gloat...
****
"So...you think that you can help him get back?" Tea asked with new understanding.
"I think so...I know that there are factors involved in my therapy which I remember, and certain conditions that could be set up in order to force him to come to terms with what he has become. Acceptance of his alters is of vit al importance to bringing him back."
"And me?" Tea asked tentatively. "What can I do? I feel like Todd and I had a powerful connection that has since been broken."
"You have something that is more critical to his mental balance than anything. You are his future, Tea...every hope and dream that his tortured mind can latch onto. He wants to come back to you and his daughter...his fam ily. Except...he has an alter that apparently wants a family, too...with another woman. You have to compete with that."
"I hate it that somewhere inside him he loves another woman." Tea said miserably and turned her head away. "I hated it with Blair, and I hate it with her."
"You loved Andrew once, too, didn't you?" Viki asked gently. "You thought that he would provide you with what you didn't get from your husband."
"But, Viki, that was different. I tried to love Todd...I gave him every opening, but he just couldn't...or wouldn't accept it."
"Didn't Todd try to love you in his way? Yet, I wonder if you just couldn't...or wouldn't accept it from him either."
"Then I guess he and I have always been at cross purposes," Tea said bitterly. "The fates just wouldn't allow us to understand each other...well, but for... one night..."
Viki nodded her head sagely. "And that, my dear Tea, is the reason you still have a chance...nothing has been lost. For one night that man opened himself up to you as he's never done for anyone else in his mixed-up, misbegotten life."
****
"Let's go," Nick said suddenly.
"I'm not going anywhere, Nick."
"Yes, you are...we're going downstairs to see what that noise was. This i s my house, remember?"
A hand shook slightly and touched the crystalline smooth glass of a door knob and then tightened forcibly around it. I'm opening it...I've got to!
