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| IMPOSTER BY MARIQUA |
CHAPTER 95 |
Part Ninety-five continued:
A jarring, mind-dazing current exploded through Nick's consciousness unlike any he had ever experienced. Toddy...it's not true...noneof it...he's a liar and a hypocrite...you know that...we know that..he left you, remember? Where was he when you sat like an animal in that jail...and there was no one...no one but me...me, Toddy, to make the pain go away...
As Nick's large body shook uncontrollably, Sam felt the sting of tears in his eyes. Do you know what this is doing to me? It's killing me to go after your alter...he's still a part of you, and I know there's a war raging right now...inside your mind.
It's his word against mine...are you going to believe him? Coach...he thinks he has some kind of insight about you...but he didn't even know who you were back then...he thought I was you...couldn't even tell the difference...don't...cut it out, Toddy...stop what you're doing...can't take...
I know it's hard, Coach...don't crack...stay with it...it's got to be done...
Everything on Sam's face reflected his deep disturbance with what was happening, and Slider yearned to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. For Sam, this was equivalent to attacking his own child, and Slider knew that it was extremely difficult for him. I would have done this myself if I could...but it had to be you...
It was all part of his plan. Allowing Todd's surrogate father to expose Nick as being less powerful than he had led Todd to believe, was the match to ignite the fire. Todd would know that he, and he alone, had been the one to save Peter Manning...that he had not been completely weakened in his mind. Todd could then begin to disseminate what was real and what was not, but he would still be walking a tightrope without a net. Nick would use every connivance he had to convince Todd that he was still better off with him than without him. There were still two other people who would have to support him in his walkout...Viki and Tea.
Seeing Nick's sudden confusion, Slider took advantage of the moment, and turned his head to speak low into the cell phone. "Viki....come upstairs...Tea...stand by..."
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"He wants you to go up there," Tea said breathlessly. "I have to wait here."
"Why?" Viki's nose wrinkled up in puzzlement. "He needs both of us, doesn't he?"
"I'm not sure...I guess we'll find out."
"How does he even know what I'm going to say?" Viki questioned sharply. "We haven't talked about it."
"Maybe he knows about your DID history, Viki. I think he's been prepared for this."
"Whatever," Viki said and then suddenly laughed awkwardly. "...Todd's favorite word."
sssssssssss
Pull it together, Nicky boy...just a little jolt that's all...Toddy is back in his place...everything's cool...
"Psychoanalysis!" Nick laughed raucously in the darkness. "This whole setup has your imprint on it, Slider ole' man...but this is nothing to what I've been dealing with in Toddy's life, and I'm an old pro at mastering any upsets you might have up your sleeve."
"Oh, and Coach...gotta hand it to you...you did do your homework, and I'll even allow for Toddy to have had some input that night...after all, we were in constant communication, and I even alerted him to what might happen. So what if he saved his Daddy...there were other times that Toddy saved people...it means nothing in the long run...he's still a washout."
Sam opened his mouth to respond to him, but another voice stole into their midst.
"Means nothing? On the contrary, it means everything," Victoria Carpenter said as her form materialized at the head of the stairs.
Victoria...
Oh...I get it...first your Daddy and then your Mommy...come to help you get rid of me...Toddy, this is such a waste...they've said it all before and nothing ever changed, did it? I weathered Coach...she's going to be a piece of cake...
Recognition of something she had experienced before in her own life set in as Viki's cool gaze scanned the face of the man she felt she had loved the minute she saw him. This is my brother...even as screwed up as he is...
"Nick...it is Nick, isn't it?" Viki stepped forward and held out her hand.
At his refusal to shake her hand, she dropped it and a knowing smile transformed her face temporarily while she looked directly at him without wavering.
"That name...brings back so many memories. I had my own version of you once, and she led me on quite a journey...to places I never would have dreamed of."
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Edwards flattened his body up against a wall as the voices rose and fell at a distance from him. The players were there...except one was missing...the wife...where was she? He could just barely make out the shapes, but he was picking up on some of the conversation. He had been listening for the name of "Todd", but Rappaport kept using someone else's name...someone named Nick .
Another woman he had never seen was standing somewhat to the side and away from the small cluster of people at the head of the stairs. She didn't seem to be a part of any of it -- more as if she were also apart from them watching as he was. Who was she? Where did she fit in to all of this?
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Tea checked her watch and bit her lip. Her husband was up there with Sam, Viki and Slider, and everything hinged on what they could do to force the alter, Nick, to give up his powerlock on him. Looking back at her watch, another critical thought raced into her mind. Del! I told him I would meet him...time is running out...he'll come after me if I'm not there...
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"Victoria Lord...I know all about you," Nick said easily and thrust his hands into his pockets.
"Really? Apparently not as much as you think you do," Viki said drily. "In fact, I'd be willing to wager that you know precious little about me."
"What's to know?" Nick's eyes swept over her with disdain. "I guess Toddy knew you were a complicated mess and he didn't even bother."
"Todd had his own demons to wrestle with," Viki said and her eyes flashed a warning back at Nick. "I think he did a pretty good job of it, too...managing to extricate himself from them long enough to do some good things with his life."
"Oh...the saving people thing. Well, he talked himself into all of that. I was never for it...I knew it wouldn't do one damn thing to change his rapist reputation."
"It doesn't matter that it didn't change that. What matters is that he did it at all. It did something for him...it changed him."
"...you didn't like that, did you, Nick? You see, I know all about you, too...I've had firsthand experience with what you are."
Nick walked to the side of her and his mouth widened into a false smile. " Careful Victoria Lord. Don't compare any part of you to me. I'm an original."
Slider held his breath as he listened to the exchange between Viki and Nick. It was going better than he had ever dreamed. Viki was using her experience with and knowledge of DID to deliberately go after Todd's mental creation.
Yes...identity...you have to expose his identity, Viki...
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Sherry felt as if she were in the last row at a theater watching a scene that had gripped her mind with such power that she could never look away for one second. Some of it was beginning to make sense...some of it didn't. There were people here confronting Nick who she had never seen before. Nick had called the other man "Coach" and they seemed to be talking about the past. Now a woman had appeared who was also speaking to him as if he were someone she knew. Yet, both of them were challenging Nick in some way, and he was fighting back. For a moment she wanted to step in and protect him, and she couldn't really understand why.
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"I wouldn't think of comparing myself to you, Nick," Viki said brightly. "You came out of someone else's mind, but why you did is no mystery to me."
"She came out of my mind, too...as a protector...as a friend when I was alone and isolated from any kind of real love. At least, I thought so in the beginning. Nothing could convince me otherwise. But she was really there to wreak havoc with my life and make me feel powerless from deep within."
More lies, Toddy...she was Queen of the Wackos from Day One...listening to her is like listening to a mental patient...
"I let her do it...oh boy, did I ever! It was just fine by me that she have that control because I didn't want to take any responsibility for what I had done...no, I wanted to let it all wash away and fall off into some abyss where it would never be mine again."
...but it is mine...all of it...every sordid, immoral, decadent detail is a part of me and always will be. I had to acknowledge that."
"Okay fine!" Nick roared at her. "It's so wonderful that you have it all together, Victoria. "You really think that you're cured, don't you? Believe me, that mind of yours is packed with more looniness than you could ever handle. You can stand here with that smug attitude and lecture me about responsibility, but you're deluding yourself. One day it's going to come back and bite you in the..."
"Stop it, Nick!" Sam barked back at him and his hand touched Nick's arm as if to restrain him. "Just stop it!"
"No...you stop it!" Nick glowered at Sam and Viki. "Neither one of you ever "got" Toddy, so spare me the moralizing and lectures on his poor soul. I don't care what your experiences were either, Victoria...they don't compare to any of his."
"You think not?" Viki pursed her lips. "Lest you forget...we both had the same father, and even though we walked different paths in life, we shared the agony of not having a loving parent."
"That man is gone...he's dust in the ground, and his ghost doesn't haunt Toddy anymore," Nick said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, I see," Viki put a finger to her lips and nodded. "Then why are you here? I would think that Todd would have ended this symbiotic relationship if that was the case. You're here for a reason, Nick...I know it, and Todd knows it. He just doesn't know that he doesn't need you anymore."
"He needs me!" Nick stormed. "...but you may have hit on a a grain of truth, Victoria...I don't think I need him anymore."
"But where are you without him? I certainly couldn't go forward until I faced the truth of what I was...with her. I couldn't just erase her from my memory as if she had never existed."
"I can erase anything I choose," Nick said and his eyes suddenly left the small group and lingered on the woman standing away from them.
"Can you erase the people who meant something to him? Do they get buried, too?"
"They don't matter...not you, not Coach here...not Slider...not even his wife," Nick snarled. "Know why? None of you make up my world...you're all shadows of Todd's existence...not mine. Besides...I have someone to care about in my world, and she's the one who will complete me."
As his eyes shifted, so did the eyes of Slider, Sam and Viki, over to another presence removed from their circle.
Sherry froze as she suddenly became aware that she was now the center of attention for the group gathered at the top of the stairs. She had heard enough...enough to know that what she had secretly feared but had insisted on denying, was taking an ugly, disturbing form and becoming blatantly real. Todd...Toddy ...he's the one they want...not Nick. Nick... he has to be the alter...he lied like a dog. An alter has been trying to make love to me!
TO BE CONTINUED
