"Enough, " Chief Fieldner commanded. Lou peered through mostly closed eyes and saw the police chief standing near Jason. "We"ll have to make the best of it. Having Mr. Malone here might work to our advantage. Take him inside."
"What about this one?" one thug asked, looking down at Jason.
"He"s going to have to go back. Tell the women Malone"s being held here, lead them back to rescue him."
Lou opened his eyes. He fixed Jason with a glare that told him in no uncertain terms not to dare follow those orders.
The chief went on. "It"ll have to look like he fought us, tried to save his companion." He nodded at his two henchmen. "Make it convincing. Just not so much that he can"t make it back to the mainland." He shrugged. "Then again, if you do, you can always take him back yourselves."
They smiled, actually smiled, and closed in around Jason, who curled in more tightly around himself before the first boot landed. When they finished, Jason was lying still in the dirt. They grabbed Lou"s arms and began dragging him toward the house.
Martha proceeded to guide Stormy into a deeper state of hypnosis. Then she told her that she, Storm,was in control and the other part of her psyche must not take over again. She gave the other permission to speak to Stormy and told it to listen as well, and again reaffirmed that Stormy was in control. Then, slowly, she brought Stormy back out of the trance state, telling her to remember everything they had discussed, even the things said by the other, and to awake feeling refreshed, in control and safe.
By the looks of things, Stormy did.
Martha poured fresh tea, this time a cinnamon-and-spice blend she said would lend energy. She instructed Stormy to eat some of the cookies she"d brought in, whether she wanted them or not.
"So? What do you make of all this?" Max asked. It had been killing her to keep quiet and watch for so long, without speaking or injecting thoughts or opinions. Killing her, too, that her plan to slip away and head out to the island alone had backfired. But there was still time. "Is it a case of possession?"
"If it is, " Martha said, "it"s by someone who is convinced she really is a part of Storm." She looked at Stormy. "Do you remember the parts of the conversation when I was speaking to the other?"
Stormy frowned, and then her brows rose. "I do. I remember all of it."
"And what did you sense from her when she was speaking to me?"
"Honesty. Sincerity and a kind of... almost a desperation."
"Then she really does believe what she"s saying, " Max said.
"Either that, or what she"s saying is really true, " Martha put in.
"How could it be true?"
Martha sipped her tea, set the cup on the saucer thoughtfully and met Stormy"s eyes. "What I have to say to you is purely theoretical. You must know that, and understand that no one can be certain about what happens to us in the spiritual realms. My opinion is no more valid than anyone else"s. It"s one possibility, out of many. All right?"
Stormy nodded. "All right."
"All right. I believe that each of us has...a spiritual self. A higher self, if you will. I think that when we pa.s.s on from our lifetime, the person we have been, the soul, leaves the physical world and goes into the spiritual realm, where, if all goes well, it merges with the higher self. Are you with me so far?"
Max was nodding. Not sure she agreed, but as a theory, it wasn"t bad.
Stormy just stared at Martha, rapt.
"So the higher self is made up of each person we"ve been in each and every lifetime. And the higher self generates a new soul, made up of the combined experiences of all the old ones, to be born into each new lifetime."
"If you buy into the theory that we live more than once, " Max said.
"Yes. Now, you"re familiar with the idea of ghosts-of souls that refuse or are for some reason unable tomove on and remain in the physical world instead."
Max nodded. Stormy said, "You think this is a ghost?"
"Not exactly, " Martha said. "I think most souls do move on, leave the physical realm and go on to the other side. But I think once there, some might be unable or unwilling to merge with the higher self. So they remain an individual, even though the higher self generates a new soul, that is reborn and living a new lifetime. Do you understand?"
"I understand, " Max said. "Not sure if I buy it, but I understand."
"Storm?"
Stormy nodded but still didn"t speak.
"Now, " Martha said, "before we began, you told me that when you were in the coma, you left your body. You spoke of the experience of being lost. Even meeting someone else you had never met before, but whom you met later in real life. And she remembered this meeting, too."
"Yes, " Stormy said. "If she hadn"t, I"m not sure I would believe it was anything more than a hallucination."
"Too often we mistrust our own senses, " Martha said. "Suppose that while you were there, wandering, a soul that had failed to merge with its higher self saw you and somehow attached itself to you, so that when you returned to your body, there were two souls, rather than one."
"I think we"re getting a little far-fetched here, " Max said, reaching for her tea, shaking her head.
"But, Max, that"s exactly how it feels, " Stormy said, her voice louder, her face more animated, than it had been before. "Who is this other soul? Why did she want to come back with me?"
"I can"t say for sure, Storm. She kept telling me she was you. I think there"s a possibility-and mind you, only a possibility-that she might be part of you. Another soul that was generated by your higher self."
Stormy frowned, puzzled, but Max saw where this was going. "You think this other is one of Storm"s previous incarnations?"
"I think it"s one possibility she ought to consider."
Stormy closed her eyes. "It"s not fair. I just want to get rid of her. How can I do that? What does she want from me?"
"Now, that"s the relevant question. What does she want? Why did she return? It may be that she left unfinished business in her own time. It may be that there is something here, in the physical realm, that she wants and can only claim by being here herself."
Martha slid a hand over Stormy"s. "I believe I have opened the lines of communication for you. I tried. If it worked, then you"ll be able to find out. Talk to her, listen to her, feel what she feels, and maybe you"ll come to understand."
"And if I can"t?" Martha lowered her eyes. "I don"t know."
"Wait a minute, " Max demanded. "Are you telling me there"s no way to get rid of this...this intruder, this interloper? What about an exorcism? Could that work?"
"It might. Or it might end up banishing the wrong soul."
Stormy shivered visibly at those words.
"Then what the h.e.l.l are we supposed to do?" "Max, don"t raise your voice. She"s doing the best she can, " Stormy said.
Max rolled her eyes and paced away. "I"m sorry, Martha. I"m just worried about my friend."
"I don"t blame you. You know, I"ve long suspected that what I"ve just explained to you is the cause of many cases of multiple-personality disorder. I believe older souls may step in to protect a younger one who"s experiencing severe trauma, to save them, and it works, but ends in the creation of many individuals inhabiting one body. Whether that"s true or not, the symptoms are much the same, and so the treatment could be, as well."
"And what treatment would that be?" Max asked.
"There are two schools of thought on that. In one, therapists lead the patient through guided meditations in which they imagine finding and killing the other parts. I seriously doubt this is the best course. Other psychiatrists have had great success with merging the individual personalities into the whole, which I feel could be a far healthier solution."
"You"re telling me she"s stuck with this thing? You want her to...to adopt it?" Max shook her head. "I say we go with option one. Kill the G.o.dd.a.m.n thing and get rid of it."
"No." Stormy rose to her feet as she said it. "No, I don"t want to do that. Not yet, anyway."
"Stormy, are you out of your freaking mind?"
"Maybe" Stormy met Max"s eyes and smiled a shaky smile. "But I need to know who she is, why she came back, and what she wants from me."
"Storm, I hate like h.e.l.l to bring this up, but this b.i.t.c.h attacked Lou. She attacked me. She"s dangerous."
"She"s a part of me. And I think Martha let her know that you and Lou are friends, and mean her no harm. I don"t think she"ll become violent again."
"I agree, " Martha said. "And there"s also what she said about the sea. Meaning Endover." She sighed. "I don"t want to frighten you with gossip, but it"s not the first whisper of strange goings-on I"ve heard in relation to that place. Still... she"s stronger near it, weaker farther inland. You can use that to remain in control."
Stormy nodded. "Thank you, Martha. You"ve given me a lot to think about."
"Yes, thanks;" Max said, though even to her own ears it sounded less than sincere. Frankly, she"d beenhappier to believe this was some foreigner, a ghost or even a demon. To think it was some long-lost part of Stormy"s own higher self-that was just too much. And it was tough to reconcile her love for Stormy with her hatred for this other. If it were a part of her, how could Max feel both those things?
In the car on the ride back, Stormy was silent.
Finally Max had to break the tension. "Honey, I adore you. You know that. If this is the way you want to handle this thing, then I"m with you."
"I feel like I"m letting you down. Betraying you, even. Embracing your sworn enemy."
"Next time she comes around, I"ll try to make friends."
Stormy laid her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. Max glanced sideways and saw tears squeezing out onto her lashes.
"I don"t have to take you back there, you know, " Max said. "If this other is stronger there, maybe the best thing would be for you to go in the opposite direction."
Stormy shook her head. "I have to go back. I"m not going to find the answers anywhere else." She offered Max a weak smile. "Besides, we still have Delia and Janie to rescue. It"s okay, Max. Really, it"s okay."
"It"s not. But it will be. I promise, Storm, I"m gonna find some way to make this okay." She drove on in silence for a long moment. Then she said, "You know, Storm, it"s entirely possible Martha is dead wrong about all of this. Even she admitted as much."
"I know. It just...it feels true. Everything she said put a knot in my belly that told me it was true."
Max nodded. "I guess we have to trust your instincts. h.e.l.l, this doesn"t impact anyone as much as it does you. It"s your life, your body, your soul."
"My higher self." She sighed.
"Should we go back, then?" Max asked.
"Lunch, then back, " Stormy said. "I"m starved for the first time in days. It"s a good sign, don"t you think?"
"I"m hungry, too, " Max said, though she was worried about the time. She had to get to that island today.
"You"re always hungry, Max."
There was a glimmer of the old light in Stormy"s tired eyes. It did Max"s heart good to see it there. Then Stormy took her hand.
"I"m sorry, honey. I"m so sorry. You"re in crisis, and I ought to be there for you, helping you through it, and instead I"ve developed a crisis of my own to contend with." She shook her head. "And you"re there for me, even though your heart is breaking over Lou." "And you"re there for me, too."
"I want to be."
"You are, hon, " Max told her. "Just being here with me is a big help, you know that. Besides, what more can you do? Lou and me-that boat"s been torpedoed. It"s a lost cause."
"Don"t give up on him just yet, Max."
Max glanced at her friend and lied through her teeth, to Stormy and to herself. "I already have."
Then she drove them to an out-of-the-way diner for a quick lunch before heading the car back toward the cursed little town of Endover . And the farther they drove, the more urgently she felt the need to get back there. She hadn"t reached any conclusions about how to reclaim her friendship with Lou, how to deal with the heartbreak of realizing he would never love her the way she wanted him to. But she had to see him, to be with him. The need was almost crippling, and growing with every mile.
Chapter 20.
I cannot freakin" believe this!"
Max got out of the car, which was nose down in a ditch, and surveyed the blown-out front tire. "This is great. Just great."
"It"s no big deal, hon. We can fix it."
Max sighed, nodded and trudged to the trunk for the jack and the spare, but as soon as she gripped the spare tire, she realized that it was flat, too. "h.e.l.l, Storm. We are so screwed."
Stormy came up beside her, thumped the spare with a fist and made a face. "Not screwed, exactly. We still have the cell phones"
"We have reception?"
Stormy yanked a phone from her pocket and looked at the panel. "Yep. Three bars. Almost full power." "That"s odd, isn"t it? We usually lose it by the time we get this close to Endover."
"Hey, who am I to turn up my nose at small favors? Maybe somebody"s looking out for us"
That, Max thought, was what she was afraid of. "I"m worried about Lou. I"ve got this bad feeling, Storm, and I just can"t shake it."
"Lou"s fine. And we"ll get this tire changed and get back there in no time. We just need to call a garage or something. I don"t suppose you know a number?"
"I think there"s an auto-club card in the glove compartment, " Max said, then zipped around the car to get in and dig it out. She found the card and took it back to Stormy, who dialed the number, pushed b.u.t.tons to negotiate her way through the menu and then entered the membership number from the card.
Then she looked up from the phone. "Your membership has expired. Would you like to renew?"