IMPOSTER - PART TWELVE

PREVIOUSLY

Each word was laced with pure venom as she heard him say, "Did you miss me...Tea,? Or should I say -- you little traitor!"

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Tea's arms ached with pain as the arms crushing against hers tightened mercilessly. Pete! Oh, dear God in heaven!
"Tea...Tea...you've been a very naughty girl, haven't you? Just when I thought you were beginning to like me, too! His harsh, cutting voice spoke into her tousled hair. Tea's legs went numb with terror and she sank against him in a state of complete shock.
"Now, now...none of that, chiquita! I guess you just couldn't help yourself, could you? Just had to get away from that nasty ole' Pete! All that crap about "I think you're so exciting, Pete!" His broad shoulders squeezed into hers with severity and he nuzzled her neck with mock tenderness. "You're just like all the rest of the "teases" I've known. No wonder Todd could never trust you. I kept trying to warn him about you, too, but the stupid man had this idea that you were the "real thing". And you were always trying to change him and teach him a lesson -- when really, you were the one who needed to be taught a lesson!"
Tea heard the sound of her choked, tearful voice as he uttered these words. "Pete...please! You don't understand! I was afraid that you wouldn't come back...that you had left me here and..."
His hellish laugh cut through her protestation and silenced her. "Oh...real good, Miss Attorney-at-law! Actually, I think I do understand...and for a moment there with you on that sofa, I thought I didn't...or that I had misjudged you. My hatred of you for forcing Todd to be someone he's not was disappearing. But now I see that I should have followed my best instincts about you -- that you were and always will be a lying, two-faced shrew who doesn't deserve to live."

Viki Carpenter's Continental sped along the highway headed east out of town. Both passengers in the car were strangely quiet and subdued as the blinking lights of the city dotted the horizon. Neither one of them felt much like talking and seemed to be occupied with their own thoughts. Out of the silence a ringing sound interrupted their respective musing.
"Hello?" Viki asked with a tight edge in her voice as she picked up her car phone.
"Hi Viki! It's Susana. Just wanted to let you know I got in just fine and am staying at the Palace. I'm a little tired, so maybe we could meet early tomorrow, if that okay?"
"Viki?" Susana spoke again as there was no response to her question.
"Oh, yes...Susana. Thank you for the call. Susana, I have to tell you. I'm in the middle of a crisis situation here...in fact, I'm in the car now driving out of town."
"What?"
"Yes. Maybe it's providential that you called now. You see, It's about my brother, Todd...the one with DID that you were going to talk to. He's become the alter named Pete that I told you about and he's abducted his wife, Tea." Viki glanced over at Sam whose eyes were glued to hers with a questioning look.
Susana' s calm, professional manner moved into play as she listened to Viki.
"So this alter has taken his wife with force, I assume. How dangerous do you think he is, Viki?"
Viki's eyes suddenly hurt with the strain of everything. "Susana, I won't mince words. He tried to rape his wife. I'm afraid for her life, too."
"You told me before that you last talked to the real Todd up on the roof of the hospital...so it's been awhile, right?"
"Yes. We've seen several other alters -- three, to be exact."
"But never Pete?"
"No, I haven't seen him."
Susan heard the stress and agitation in Viki's tone, but she knew she had to be completely honest with her.
"You don't know what you're up against then, Viki, and you need to be prepared. Did something happen which may have triggered the appearance of this alter?"
Viki searched her mind for anything she could lay hold of that would help Susana. What had been different? The other alters had appeared in the penthouse at different times, but what was it that had changed there to make another one -- the most dangerous one -- emerge? An image was appearing in her consciousness which suddenly helped her make the connection. Tea!
"I don't know if this means anything, Susana, but Tea had just recently moved back in with Todd."
"Okay. Now we're getting somewhere. You've told me before that their relationship was a very strange one -- that Todd wasn't able to be close to her in every way that a husband should be. Tea wanted much more than he was able to give her...isn't that right?"
"Yes...very true."
Susana's voice deepened with intensity. "Viki, I am only going on the facts you've laid out for me previously, but obviously Pete perceives Tea as a tremendous threat to Todd. He is, after all, the protector of all of the alters. Pete is probably a survivalist who is determined not to vanish through her influence over Todd -- in other words, he does not want to integrate. He may also see Todd's love for her as a very destructive thing for the other alters."
Susana continued as new thoughts occurred to her. "Viki, how much does Todd love his wife?"
Viki thought back to the day that Todd had sat at a table with her at the Palace and bemoaned his fate of being unable to be normal and have Tea. She had given him a pep talk -- knowing that his heart was breaking and that he was in such despair over losing her. Then he had blown her away with his next move as he dragged her and Sam into the Palace Bar and had opened up his frosty heart and laid bare his feelings in front of complete strangers and his stunned wife. As he reproposed to her, Viki saw how excrutiatingly painful it had been for him to declare his love to Tea and leave himself unprotected and at her mercy. It had been so out of character for him and by doing it, it was an act of undeniable love -- the depth of which was unimaginable.
"He loves her with everything he is, Susana."
"Then, there is something that could happen based on what you've told me. Tea may be the catalyst, Viki, for the integration of all the alters back into Todd."
"What do you mean?" the hair on the back of Viki's neck rose as she sensed the importance of what Susana had just said.
"I mean that Todd will try to protect her -- this much is certain since he loves her so deeply. He's going to have to fight for her, though...he will have to do battle with Pete...literally."
Viki understood exactly what Susana was saying since she had said something similar to Sam in the penthouse garage. She thought of something else which tore at her heart and made her cringe with a feeling of great foreboding.
"Susana, what if Todd isn't strong enough to conquer this alter? What if..." she paused and didn't even want to say out loud what the worst case scenerio would be.
"What if he can't do it? Well, in a battle of this magnitude for the very soul of this man...Todd, as you know him, may disappear from his consciousness forever -- in other words, the alter, Pete, would live and his other side, Todd, would die."
The color in Viki's face completely drained away and she gripped the phone with white knuckles.
"Viki! I'm not trying to alarm you, but I want you to know what could happen. I don't know your brother -- you do! There are strengths and qualities within a man which rise to the surface when faced with his own death, and from what you've told me, Todd has faced death before in a very real way. He has that experience to draw on. He survived with the force of his will to live. Hang on to that!"
Viki's eyes were rapidly filling with tears as she thought of that day when Todd had stood on the roof of the hospital. "But...Susana...he wanted to die on that roof! He was so close to taking his own life. I could see the hopelessness in him and how he saw no way out. How can he fight with this lack of faith in himself or anyone else?"
Susan's soothing voice continued like a balm to Viki's emotional state. "He does have faith in something...in love, Viki! He knows that he loves his wife. That love will be the most powerful weapon against his dark side. I don't have to tell you that there is no greater force than this!"
Viki nodded and her hand loosened on the phone. "You're right, of course, Susana. I'm ashamed that I'm in such a state of doubt now...I should have more faith in him. He's come so far, and I know what a fighter he is!"
"Viki, don't beat yourself up about this! As someone who fought her way back from a living hell, you know it can be done! He's your brother, Viki. He has your blood in him."
"Yes," Viki's spirits seemed to revive as she saw a faint glimmer of hope in what Susana had said. "He is my brother!"
"I'll be here, Viki. Call me anytime...and I mean...anytime if you need me!"
Viki hung up the phone and looked sideways at Sam who had been staring at her as she talked to Susana. His eyes told her that he understood everything that had been said, and he reached over and patted her hand.
"It's up to Todd now, Viki...and we'll pray that God will be with him on this night."

The serenity of the night against the backdrop of the woods was marred by the convulsive sobs of a woman whose fate was in the hands of a vicious predator. The large man dragged her smaller body which had gone limp with fear and seemed unable to react to her dilemma. The moon shone down on them and highlighted their bodies against the deep blackness of the night -- in a place where no one else could see or hear them.
Pete's large hand was spread out over her face and another arm had encircled her body in a vice-like hold as he pulled her roughly along with him toward the cabin. His face was set in a hardened mask of hatred and his eyes seemed to be glazed over with insanity. As they neared the cabin door, he shifted her in his grasp and lifted the keys out of his pocket.
Tea saw the closed door and sensed that if it opened, she would be doomed. Her voice, cracked with emotion, attempted to stop what was happening.
"No...no, Pete! Please! I'll go anywhere with you! Please! Let's get out of here and go somewhere else...they'll find you here!"
Pete's face remained stony and impassive as she pleaded with him while he inserted the key in the lock. The key turned and the door opened once more to the warm, inviting interior which now seemed incongruous with the atmosphere of terror surrounding her. The door slammed behind them as he continued to drag her body across the oak floor with ruthless determination -- never once stopping in his drive to reach another room.
A chair pushed up against a door was savagely knocked aside and as the door opened, he kicked his foot against it as if it were an impediment. Tea cried out as he hurled her body across the room and sent her flying out to land on the huge bed in the center of the room. She gaped at him from underneath the hair that had fallen down across her face as his imposing form stood in front of her. The eyes she had hoped would one day look at her with desire, looked at her with a lifeless intensity and then transformed into eyes bent on destruction.
His muscled arms slowly pulled his vest off his shoulders and let it drop to the floor, and his fingers worked their way down to the buttons on his shirt. He finished unbuttoning the last button and grasping both sides of his shirt, pulled it open in a calculated, unhurried manner so that she would look directly at his exposed chest.
"I've been waiting a long time to make you pay for what you've done to Todd...and to us!" he said -- his hard, unforgiving eyes full of his plans for his revenge on the one woman who had stood in his way of completely dominating Todd. His hands reached up -- lowering the silk shirt down over his broad, bare shoulders -- and let it slide gradually down his arms and fall in a heap behind him.

~ TO BE CONTINUED ~