Todd looked around trying to find something that would tell him someone had been standing there when he suddenly spotted it. He reached down and picked up a small braided wreath. It was very delicate, made with small wildflowers and long leaves woven together to form a lovely ring. Someone had had a lot of practice weaving. Whoever was watching had stood there for some time. He put the little wreath in his pocket and frowned.
“What are you thinking Todd? It looks like Blair might have been right. It probably was some child watching the house. That wreath is not something a man would have made.”
“Could be, Samuel, but something doesn’t seem right. If this is a child, why doesn’t she come to make friends, why is she just watching? I thought I knew of all the small towns on the mountain and none are close to here. Where has she come from?”
“Todd, are you worried because there is a small child loose on the mountain, or is something else bothering you?”
“What do you mean? I just think it’s weird. I could have sworn someone was watching the house this morning and the wreath confirms it. What I want to know is if the person who made the wreath is connected to Sam’s Sleeping Beauty?”
“There’s no way we can find that out until we find Sam’s friend, but I think there’s something concerning this you don’t want to talk about. I’m guessing you’re worried for another reason. This has to do with Mitch. Right?”
Todd leaned back against a boulder. “I don’t know, my nights have been hell lately, you know it. I’ve been trying to keep the nightmares from Blair, but it’s getting harder. Seriously, I’m grateful Blair was in such a playful mood last night, it kept the dream away. Now, this. I can’t shake free from the idea that this girl is connected somehow. That’s crazy right?”
"It’s not crazy Todd, not when it concerns us. I’m inclined to believe you might have a point. We need to find this girl if she is a girl. We’re not even sure about that. If it is just a young girl, you’re going to feel pretty foolish?”
“But Samuel, what if it’s not? God, I hate being paranoid, but there’s been no sign of Kipling or Mitch either one and I don’t like it. I can’t say why it bothers me for a person to be watching the house, but it’s so reminiscent of when Carlo used to do it. I hate this feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Samuel, I’ve got to know. What do you remember about Mitch?” Todd had dropped down to the ground, his back to the boulder, and entered his mind to talk to his “brother” face to face.
Samuel looked at Todd. He knew the last time they had discussed Mitch, Todd had been very fragile, but a lot had happened since those therapy sessions. Samuel found a chair and sat down noting Todd doing the same thing. “It’s not an easy memory to access Todd, You thought something else entirely was going on and you retreated and I found myself looking at a knife. But I blanked it out too. For eight years, I chose not to remember how I got this scar”
Todd nodded he understood that that time for Samuel had been equally traumatic. “I’m grateful every day that you held on for all of us. I don’t fault you for hiding from that truth. How can I? I completely disappeared. It just that it continues to be a blank spot for me since it’s your memory.”
The two men looked at each other, mirror images of themselves but different. Samuel reached up and smooth his hair off his face. Even now, when he knew he was just a part of Todd, he still felt the reality of all those years. He had lived them, not Todd. “For eight years I pushed that memory from my mind and hid it the way I did the scars. I figured that those scars marked me as something ugly and since I couldn’t remember anything, they were a constant reminder that I should stay hidden. The night I remembered Marty was just proof to me I had been right.”
“But you weren’t right, Marty was my burden and you had just been left to carry it. When did you remember the second scar?”
“The truth of that night came to me in Ray’s office in Cherryvale
Todd had cringed when Samuel described Mitch slicing into his cheek and his hand had involuntarily covered his cheek. It hit him that Samuel had been created that night and he was truly a babe in the woods. He had become aware, finding himself being manhandled and tortured by a madman and he hadn’t known why. “I’m sorry.”
Samuel’s head whipped up and he looked at Todd, his hand on his cheek and sorrow in his eyes. “Why? What do you have to be sorry for?”
“I’m the reason you were born. I fled and you had to face my enemy and you didn’t even know why. You hung in there even after all that and protected me. Even now, you’re here for me. Once I remembered what had happened that night your purpose for being was finished. Why did you stick around?”
“I stuck around because you still needed me. I’m not sure why, because you have enough strength to go it alone now. Yet we’re comfortable this way. Do you want me to go?”
Todd remembered laying in Ray’s arms as Samuel had stoically told him the truth. The truth he had needed to hear because his version had been warped by his time in the tomb. Samuel had walked away and said his job was finished, but Todd had begged him to come back. At first, Todd had believed him gone but when things had begun going downhill as the nightmares had started, Todd had known Samuel was still near to back him up. “No, I don’t want you to go, but I feel selfish. For eight years, you lived a real life and now you only live through me. It doesn’t seem fair.”
Samuel smiled “I’m not upset that I don’t have the same life I used to, after all, it was your life. I just held your place. Besides, from everything I’ve read about alters I have it pretty good. You let me out to help whenever you need me, you let me spend time painting, so what do I have to complain about.”
Todd grinned ruefully “Well when you put it that way, but I’m still sorry. You shouldn’t have had to take Mitch at his cruelest. The man is a blight on this planet and he should be gone, but someone took that away from us. I know he’s out there.” Todd’s hand clenched and he grabbed his stomach as fear rolled through him. “I won’t let him do it again. It makes me sick with fear and he’s bleeding into my nights again. We have to find him and stop him for good this time, for our sanity.” Todd pulled himself out of his head and gripped the boulder standing back up. “The moment John told me Mitch’s body was missing, everything came flooding back. So we know Mitch is out there and I think he’s alive and now someone is watching my house. I’m not psychic, but I feel it’s all connected. It’s time I got into town and I still need to talk to Shaun.”
Todd, sooner or later you’re going to have to tell Blair. I don’t think the nightmares are going away anytime soon.”“
“You’re right, but it’s awfully hard to break this mood she’s in lately. She’s been really upbeat. I don’t want to bring her down.”
“If you wake her in the middle of one of these nightmares she’s going to know you’ve been hiding them from her, and she needs to know about Mitch. He’s terrorized her family too. Talk to John. Maybe he’s had a chance to find out more about Kipling and tell him about our visitor. If you’re correct, he could be checking into her too.”
Todd brushed off his clothes "You're right, Blair needs to know now, I'm through keeping secrets from her." He walked back around the garage to his car and noted that Blair had already left with the kids. She was going to beat him to The Sun but it couldn’t be helped. As he drove into town, he made a beeline for Shaun’s office. It was time to review those tapes.
I enjoy the conversations that Todd has with Samuel. He's growing on me as an alter.
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