“What are you saying?” Todd
Bervell twisted his mouth into an overly serious line. His eyes danced with
mockery. “You think Dalia’s some sort of reincarnation of Madelene, come back
to haunt you?”
Jack scowled, wishing he had kept
his private thoughts to himself. People were always begging to be confidantes, but
once they knew your secrets, they mocked you for them.
“I didn’t say that.” He muttered, irritated.
“Well, what then?” Todd’s
patronizing countenance annoyed Jack. His best friend was normally the
idealist, he the skeptic. The odd reversal of their roles was unsettling to
both.
“I don’t know. It was too strange,
that’s all. She called herself Maddie, and she knew it was my birthday, among
other facts. I don’t know what to think.”
“You said she made that cake for
you? I hope you didn’t eat any of it!” Todd laughed, ignoring Jack’s earlier
remarks.
“I did, before I knew she made it.”
His friend’s face dropped, his mouth falling open.
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, but don’t worry. I checked it
out in the lab and there was nothing in it besides what the recipe called for.”
“Well that’s a relief. She could’ve
poisoned you.”
“I know that.” Jack replied. He
couldn’t help adding, “But she didn’t.”
Exasperated, Todd exclaimed, “Just
because she didn’t cause you a slow and painful death when she had the chance
doesn’t mean she’s your wife come back from the dead, Jack.”
Jack rubbed the back of his neck,
the creepy sensation he’d felt when Dalia spoke to him still running down his
spine, hours later. She was back in solitary, locked up tightly and guarded by
an orderly. Didn’t he know everything that Todd was saying? He wasn’t stupid,
but the eerie familiarity of it all was getting harder to explain away. “Have
you spoken to the girl’s parents about this? Maybe they forgot to mention a
third personality hidden down in her psyche somewhere. After all, it would be
hard to surpass Lorraine. She’s certainly the most memorable of the three.”
Todd rolled his eyes and sipped his coffee. The other doctors in the lounge
were busy discussing cases and reading. Jack wondered if they ever did anything
else. Most of them were older than Todd and himself, and none of them seemed to
mind twiddling their days away in this place, poring over dusty psychological
tomes and having lengthy descriptions of cases with one another. He hated living
at the facility, and was thankful that it was temporary. If he was lucky, in a
few months he would be transferred back to the University, where he would be
able to teach for a few years before moving his practice to a city of his
choosing.
“Jack,” Todd was starring into his
coffee cup with a thoughtful expression glued on his face. “I don’t want to
sound insensitive, but you’ve been working a lot lately. You know, earning a
teaching degree and practicing all at once. It’s got to be tough. Maybe, you’ve
just let all the work catch up to you. There’s no shame in needing a vacation
every once in a while.”
Jack gritted his teeth.
“I did not just imagine this.” His
voice rumbled lowly. “I couldn’t have.”
No comments:
Post a Comment