Chapter 14 #2
“She wanted me to get life insurance too,” she muttered, twisting to look at him, frowning.
“Did you?”
“Yes, I did. So, tomorrow we talk to Stefan,” she repeated, while he hesitated, then nodded.
“That would be a good idea.”
“It’s more than a good idea,” she snapped. “It’s necessary.” As much as she tried, it was hard to control the shakiness she felt.
He looked over at her, clearly concerned.
She gave him a shrug. “I’m starting to realize that maybe my best friend wasn’t exactly my friend at all. And that’s a god-awful horrible feeling.”
He stared off in the distance and then asked, “You are thinking she set you up?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “I think she was looking for options, and I fit the bill. I know she was desperate to stay with her kids. And I wanted that for her too, of course. But the part that I can’t forgive is her putting it into the kids’ minds that she was coming back as me.”
“Do you think it was just her attempt to make them happier about being with you?”
“No, I don’t think that at all. Now I wish I could have heard both sides of the phone messages between them.
She often talked to them over the phone.
” She shook her head as she remembered those events.
“I would be making dinner or something, and I heard voices. They always shushed when I came in, but I just figured they were sharing a few moments of special time together, so I didn’t worry about it. ”
Devon gave a bitter laugh. “And right now, you can believe that I’m wondering exactly what I missed and why I shouldn’t have been quite so generous about this. I don’t know who the hell Tabitha was at all. I never would have believed such a thing, but now? I can no longer say that.”
“And that’s what’s bothering you as much as anything.”
“It’s all bothering me,” she whispered. “I mean, whatever the hell this is,” she added, “it’s way beyond the scope of anything I was expecting.
I mean, entities in the yard, the kids trying to get their mother back?
Somewhat understandable. But a book giving instructions on possession?
No. And to come back as me? Switching places with me?
Without asking permission? Without once letting me decide?
Hell no. That part means I was definitely set up to take the fall, and I can’t even look at the twins the same anymore. ”
He frowned at her.
“Oh, I know,” she declared. “That’s a horrible thing to say, but their mother possessing me, without my damn knowledge?
What am I supposed to do? Pretend that it’s okay for them to have been working on this extreme plan behind my back?
This is all about them waiting for their mother to come back and to do whatever she needs to do …
to become me,” she snapped, staring at him, trying hard not to let her voice rise but failing miserably.
“And me essentially dying for her to live.”
He shushed her. “Let’s keep it calm. We don’t want the neighbors hearing this kind of talk. Plus we don’t know if the twins are listening in.”
“Yeah, I checked to see if they were asleep, but I no longer trust either of them. Especially after hearing more about it from Tabby, then her brother got really angry at her, as if she were ruining everything, since I wasn’t allowed to know because then it might not work.”
“Interesting,” he murmured thoughtfully.
“Definitely some high-level shenanigans,” she snapped, followed by a hard laugh.
“Come over to my place. We can give Stefan a call.”
“Isn’t it too late?”
“I’m not sure that lateness matters on something like this,” he noted. “Plus I do trust him, and, if he says he needs time, we’ll have to give him time.”
“God, I hope not,” she muttered. “At this moment, all I want is to move them into foster care. That scares the hell out of me. Then they do too.”
He wrapped an arm around her, consoling her. “Let’s hold off on judging the children, when all they’re trying to do is get their mother back.”
“By killing me?”
“Not necessarily, at least from their perspective. Maybe she presented it in a completely different way, for them to understand. Maybe it was more a case of sharing the same body or something. I don’t know,” he admitted, frowning.
“To even think of planning for this is way beyond the scope of anything I’ve ever had to deal with.
” He took a look at all the energies shimmering around them and added, “But then again, so is this.”
He led the way inside his house, and she’d been inside it before, so she sat down on the nearest piece of furniture. He eyed her in concern.
She shrugged. “Yeah, I’m not doing very well right now. I know I’ve got to go to work, and I have to act as if all is normal. But believe me that there is nothing, … nothing normal about any of this,” she said, her voice a ragged whisper.
He pulled up a chair, sat down beside her, then called Stefan, who answered.
Stefan replied, “I know she is there, but I am not sure what’s going on though.”
Camden gave him the update, and Stefan was shocked for a moment.
“What?”
Stefan’s shocked whisper made her feel some solace. She wasn’t going crazy, but this mess was.
Camden replied, “Yes, apparently the kids are doing what their mother told them to do, to bring her back. Unfortunately, they were also told that they had to stay close to Devon here because the mother will come back as Devon.”
Stefan went quiet for a long moment. “Is that exactly what they said?”
Devon sighed. “At the moment, I’m not exactly certain that I remember exactly what they said, but that was the gist of it. Toby was pretty upset that his sister told me more about it, and he told her to shut up—something along the line that I wasn’t allowed to know.”
“No, of course not,” Stefan noted. “You don’t tell your victim, do you?”
“Thank you,” she declared. “Thank you for seeing it from my side. At the moment, I am completely horrified, outraged, and feeling betrayed. I don’t even want to see the kids.”
Stefan pondered that. “I’m not saying that it’s their fault because they are kids, and somebody has manipulated them into believing and doing something.
Yet I’m still not sure how they thought it would work.
What a horrific example of doing something out of love,” Stefan muttered, his voice thoughtful, yet calm.
Stefan’s calmness gave Devon the courage to relax and to settle down. There would be answers to this; they just had to find them.
Devon explained further, “Something about their mother giving them a book. And I don’t know this for sure, but, in hindsight, there were a lot of conversations that were shushed when I appeared.
I would go out and run errands, bring her food and clothing, do laundry for the kids and that stuff, and I mean constantly.
I was there every day for the bulk of the last year.
Plus, the kids lived with me then too. I’ve been there an awful lot over the years, maybe too much.
It was already arranged that I would take the kids, so maybe Tabitha thought becoming me would be her perfect answer. ”
Devon shrugged. “Yet it’s very difficult to look back on the kids now, realizing that the only reason they were being half decent during this time frame was because they were waiting for their mother to appear and to take over my body, discarding me for her.
I wonder if there was something about their birthday time frame as well—maybe why they were really struggling that day,” she shared. “To be honest, I’m quite freaked out.”
“Of course,” Stefan agreed, “and you should be. You have a yard full of remnants, making all this a little too real.”
“And I don’t even understand this whole remnant thing,” she noted, as she stared out at Camden’s backyard. “They’re in his backyard now too, by the way.”
At that moment, Camden bolted up and took a look around the place. “Yeah, Stefan, they’re coming over here.”
“Chances are they’re following her,” Stefan remarked, “not so much coming to you but coming to her.”
“In which case I should leave, so more don’t come over and occupy his world,” Devon announced, bolting to her feet.
Camden shook his head. “That’s a nice sentiment, but it won’t help. We have a bigger problem than anybody was thinking.”
“Is it possible?” Devon asked Stefan. “Is it possible for Tabitha, or the twins, to do this? Am I in serious danger?”
“Yes,” he replied.
She gasped and then started to cry.
Camden tugged her over to sit beside him on the couch, his arms holding her close.
“Look,” Stefan added. “I’m not saying that they’re capable.
I’m not saying that it’ll work, but, unfortunately, we have seen an awful lot of situations over the years, where these things did happen.
Some people have managed to possess other people’s bodies and to live on.
So, yeah, it is possible, and this is a crisis. ”
*
Camden had to admit he’d never heard of this, and, just like her, he was worried. Then hearing Stefan acknowledge that it was even possible was shattering.
Stefan continued. “We don’t know that the twins have the abilities required to do this.
Unfortunately, these cases only tend to come up after somebody does succeed.
” Stefan added, “I get that it’s a shock, and I can tell you that, out of 8.
3 billion people on this planet, probably less than 0. 1 percent are capable of such a thing.”
Camden turned to Devon, already in shock.
Stefan sighed. “Unfortunately, I don’t know whether your friend is one of those or not.
Can you get a hold of the book? That might help.
If that’s a guide, that would be something rather amazing to see.
I wouldn’t be worried except … for all these entities in your yards.
A door has been opened. The trouble is, you cannot guarantee who is coming through that door, and, just because the twins’ mother wants to be the one who gets back here, that doesn’t guarantee she’ll be the one to do it,” Stefan explained.
“You do know what you’re saying,” Camden said in a hushed whisper.