Post by Hellokitty on Aug 19, 2006 14:01:03 GMT -5
Falling Book 2: Finding Marlena Chapter 16
“Nooooooooo,” Marlena screamed again, commanding Shane’s attention. “Nooooooooo,” she screamed again, lost in a nightmare that was all too real. She saw and felt the ship sinking, saw Forrest drowning before her. But that’s not how she remembered it happening. He didn’t drown; he left her alone in her grief, alone when she needed him most. She begged him to stay and stand by her, but he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. “Don’t leave me John. Please don’t leave me again.”
“It’s happening,” Dr. Gunther warned the others as he wiped his sweaty palms on his threadbare trousers and watched Marlena thrash on the floor in front of him, he arms still chained to the wall. Quickly he undid the restraints. “She’s starting to remember…hurry and pick her up and place her in that chair,” he said as he motioned to the men. Silently the masked men roughly picked Marlena up and placed her in the chair. Blonde hair hiding her face, she slid forward in the chair and Dr. Gunther had to reach out and steady her to keep her from falling.
“What in the bloody hell are you going to do to her now?” Shane asked Dr. Gunther as he forced his way into the room. A blast of air from the overhead vent chilled him. He looked down at Marlena and noticed that her eyes were rolled back in her head and her teeth were chattering.
“Ah Mr. Donovan,” Dr. Gunther said, looking up at him. “I’m so glad that you could join us. After all you were there in the beginning….”
“Don’t remind me,” Shane interrupted. “If I’d have known then what I know now you can be bloody sure that I wouldn’t have participated.”
“Why I seem to remember that you were quite eager back then….A young beautiful girl with a recreated past was just the challenge you were looking for,” Gunther crudely reminded him, taking him back to a place 30 years before that he rarely liked to visit.
“Herb, I’m not proud of what I’ve done in the name of my county and world security…I’m not,” Shane admitted as he turned his back to Dr. Gunther and looked out the barred window at the barren concrete landscape before him. The sun was starting to set, casting interesting shadows on the wall.
“I don’t think any of us are, but why do you care?”
“You know why. It’s not right.”
“According to your standards Shane, but not according to mine. If this mission upsets you so, perhaps you ought to talk to the chief about a reassignment or retirement,” Dr. Gunther suggested as he leaned over Marlena and lifted her shirt, exposing her breasts. Shane looked away as Dr. Gunther preciously felt along her protruding ribs and breastbone. Finding the spot he was looking for, he jabbed the needle of the hypodermic in as far as it would go. Slowly pushing down on the tip of the plunger, he released the high dose of amphetamine directly into her heart.
“Was that necessary?” Shane asked, disgusted by how Marlena was once again being treated.
“I don’t see anyone standing by and forcing you to watch,” Dr. Gunther smirked. “Now I suggest that you leave before she wakes up and I begin questioning her,” he added, deciding to keep Shane’s secret from Marlena. In due time she would know, Dr. Gunther thought as he coldly watched Shane nervously rub the top of his head as he left the room.
“Julie…I know that you’re in there,” he said as he flashed the small stream of light directly into her left pupil. “Come out wherever you are,” he chided her, no longer caring about the sensitivity of his treatment. As more time went on he became more nervous, anticipating that at any minute John Black would come busting through the door like a white night trying to rescue his precious queen. Seeing her pupil dilate he let go of her lid and watched it as it naturally closed and then struggled to open.
“Come on Julie.”
“Dr. Gunther?” she whispered as she struggled to open her eyes. “I don’t feel so well.”
“That’s only natural. You’ve been resting for quite a while my dear,” he said with a smile on his face and concern in his voice. Although the risk for this seldom done procedure was high, Dr. Gunther was looking forward to it.
“I want to sleep.”
“You will in a couple minutes. I have some questions for you…do you think you could help me out.”
“I don’t know.”
“Try for me, then you can sleep.”
“Okay,” Marlena said as she struggled to wake up. She felt that something was off but couldn’t put her finger on what it was. As she struggled to recall the last thing she remembered, she was horrified to realize that she didn’t remember anything. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. “What did you do to me?” she asked as her eyes slowly opened. “What did you do to me?” she asked again. Her mind was a blank canvas without color or form. “What did you do?” she screamed in a panic as she struggled to stand up. “Oh god….oh god…oh god…what’s wrong with me?” she asked rhetorically as she paced in front of the window. She had no idea of who she was or where she’d been or most importantly why she was in the room. Furthermore, she had no idea what was outside of the room or if she could leave.
“My name is Marlena,” she said defiantly to him, recalling the name from somewhere deep inside her. She remembered him calling her Julie when she woke up.
“No, your name is Julie,” he said as he stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders in a kind and concerned manner. He felt the shaking of her thin frame as she internally questioned her sanity. How was it possible to lose your life?
“I don’t know who Julie is….I’m Marlena,” she stated adamantly as she shook her head and tried to loosen his hands from her shoulders. She wasn’t Julie.
“What is the last thing you remember?” he asked as he massaged her shoulders.
“I don’t remember anything…what did you do?” Suddenly she jerked out of his hold and turned around and stared at him. Something about him was so familiar.
“Of course you remember Julie…. Of course you remember Marlena.” Nothing about this was routine anymore. He’d been instructed to call her Marlena, but sensed that he’d get to her real memories sooner if he also called her Julie.
“I don’t,” she said as she grabbed her head. All her thoughts and suspicions were swirling around in a symphony in her head and the harder she tried to remember the worse she felt. “I can’t do this,” she whispered as she fell to the floor. “Who am I?”
“You are a very special woman…a very special woman with so much to tell me….now lets start at the beginning.” Slowly Dr. Gunther reached for her face and slowly cupped her cheek in his hand. Wiping the errant tears tenderly with his thumb, he moved closer and closer to Marlena until their faces were mere inches apart. She wanted to pull out of his hold and hide. Looking around the room for a closet that would make her safe, that would provide shelter from feelings that she knew were lurking below the surface she was unable to find one. “There’s always was a closet,” she whispered as she closed her eyes, letting the tears freely flow.
“Stop…Just stop,” Shane demanded as he barged into the room unable to take the emotional abuse that Herbert Gunther seemed to delight in inflicting on an unstable Marlena.
“Leave now,” Dr. Gunther said in anger as he continued to stroke the side of her face. They were at a critical juncture in her memory retrieval and restoration. Any outside stimuli could irreparably damage her true memory and he wasn’t about to risk his mission because of Shane Donovan’s misplaced insecurities and some sense of duty and protection towards his charge.
“I can’t,” Shane whispered as he watched Dr. Gunther. “I can’t.”
“Guard’s,” Dr. Gunther called out in alarm as he continued to stroke Marlena’s face. She was so close to remembering her past. He only needed to push past one last barrier and her mind would be putty in his hands.
“Seamus?” she confusedly asked as she looked up at his tall and handsome form. “What are you doing here?”
“Marlena?” Shane asked as he approached her.
“This can’t be happening,” she said as she pulled out of Dr. Gunther’s hold and slowly walked backwards until the wall was directly behind her. Palms behind her, she gently felt the rough concrete against her fingertips as she looked for a place to hold onto. The situation was all wrong and impossible.
“Marlena?” Shane asked again as he approached her.
“Nooooooo,” she cried out as she grabbed onto the wall and felt the snap of one of her nails as it broke from the pressure. “Noooooooo….this isn’t possible…..Nooooo.”
Shane stood before her and tried to touch her but she shirked back, afraid of him. “Get out now,” Dr. Gunther sternly warned him. Two guards, once again in black masks, stormed into the room. “Remove him,” Dr. Gunther demanded as he pointed at Shane.
“I can explain it Marlena,” Shane shouted to her as he was physically drug out of the
room by the guards. “I can explain everything.”
“You lied to me,” she screamed at him. “You lied…you’re one of them.” Her mind bridged that connection with surprising speed and accuracy. “You are all one of them,” she screamed out at no one in particular. “Where is Forrest? I want Forrest….FORREST,” she screamed out as a sudden searing pain in her head rendered her incapacitated. She closed her eyes welcoming her memories of Forrest as they returned.
********
Marlena…Marlena….Marlena,” Stefano whispered as he held the queen chess piece next to his heart. “What have they done to you my queen?” he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
“Damn John…Damn you,” he said as he thought back to his younger brother. Handsome and charming, John was the apple of his mother’s eye from an early age. As Stefano struggled through his early years competing for his fathers’ attention, he always knew that he would never be as good enough or smart as his six older brothers in his fathers eyes. Joining the family business at 16, Stefano asked to be sent to the West Indies to manage the Dimera family interests. Ruthless and shrewd, he was determined to earn his fathers respect. “Enough about the past,” he said outloud as he walked to the balcony doors and opened them. “But why?” he asked again, troubled by the situation, not understanding how a monster like his brother could have created such an exquisite creature like Marlena.
************
Maxwell Owens took the much fingered picture of Marlena Evans Black out of his pocket and held it to his lips. “Vengeance is mine,” he promised her. “Vengeance is mine….soon I shall have you sitting before me begging for your life.”
***********
“Forrest,” Marlena screamed as she crawled on the floor towards the steel door. “Forrest…don’t leave me,” she begged, tears streaming down her face.
“Julie, who is Forrest?” Dr. Gunther asked her, trying to distract her.
“You know who he is,” she calmly said as she sat up and looked him in the eyes. The brightness of the overhead fluorescent bulb illuminated her orbs, bringing out the yellow in them. She looked like a cat that was about to attack its prey. “My name is Marlena,” she coldly informed him.
“That may be, but you are also Julie.”
“Julie is dead. You and Seamus killed her a long time ago….God, I feel so stupid now. I must be the running joke at ISA,” she said as she stood up and wiped her hands on her bare legs. “I feel so naive…my whole life has been nothing but a lie that both of you have orchestrated. Shane, Seaumus, whatever your real name is…”
“Marlena its not like that,” Shane interrupted.
“THEN YOU TELL ME HOW IT IS,” she screamed at him, all the rage built up in her for what she had just realized that she’d lost spilled over. “Tell me how it is.”
Shane looked down at the floor, unable to respond. The day that he’d always feared was coming was here and there was nothing he could do. This wasn’t, she wasn’t, a tidy package that he could rewrap and place a bow on anymore. Her feelings of betrayal and memories of what she’d lost were quite real. “I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t Mr. Donovan?” she asked, no longer caring about maintaining an semblance of a relationship with him. “All this time, all these years, I’ve been nothing but an assignment to you….AM I RIGHT?”
Shane continued looking at the floor, as the two guards continued holding him away from her. “Marlena, I need to ask you more questions,” Dr. Gunther tried to intercede.
“Fuck your questions….I’m done….I’m done with you and the ISA,” she said as she walked towards the door and put her hand on the cold metal handle.
“Marlena, you were more than an assignment,” Shane admitted as he struggled to move closer to her. “You have to believe me.”
“How can I? All the years you sat at my dining room table eating alongside my family, you knew all this stuff about me. You probably found it all amusing didn’t you? Probably laughed afterwards as you filed your little reports with the ISA on me….I can see it now. ‘I had dinner with Marlena and her family tonight. She thinks that she is such competent doctor but if she only knows that she needs help more than her patients’...”
“That’s not true,” he interrupted.
“I don’t believe you anymore Shane…I had a right to know about my past…. It’s mine, not yours.” She was livid and out of control, Shane’s betrayal more than she could tolerate. “All those years Shane, acting like you were my friend….” she said and then suddenly stopped, lost in thought.
“Marlena?” Shane asked, not liking the silence in the room.
“Roman’s known all along about me, hasn’t he?” She didn’t want to know the answer, but needed to know. “He knows doesn’t he?” Tears slowly ran down the side of her face that she made no effort to hide or still. “He knows.”
“No Marlena…..No,” Shane said in a panic. “He doesn’t know.”
“How could he not? He was an employee of the ISA and I was a project. He was sent to watch me wasn’t he?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m right….I’m right….I’m right,” she said as she let go of the handle, the burden of what she learned to much for her psyche. “John?” she choked out in a sob, her eyes welling up with tears. “Was John involved?” Time seemed to stop for her as she turned towards Dr. Gunther and Shane and waited for the answer, looking back and forth between them for any signs that they weren’t telling the truth. Each second passed with the heavy beating of her heart, a heart that was breaking with each nanosecond.
“I don’t know,” Shane whispered. “I don’t know.”
“LIAR?” she screamed at him. “You’re all liars…I don’t trust anyone….I can’t trust anyone.” Turning back to the door, she once again placed her and on the handle. “I can’t trust anyone,” she whispered. John couldn’t have been part of this conspiracy, could he?
“Marlena,” Shane said as he tried to lunge out of the guard’s firm hold. “Let me go…I need to talk to her.”
“I think you’ve done enough talking Mr. Donovan….I need to finish my questioning….Now Julie, if you’d sit down in the chair we’ll be done in a few minutes.”
“I don’t think you understand…I’m done with the ISA,” she said as she pulled down on the door handle only to find that the door was locked. “Open the door,” she demanded, as she furiously pushed up and down on the handle trying to disengage the lock.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Dr. Gunther said coldly as he approached her, hypodermic in hand. “You are going to tell me everything that I need to know.”
**************
“Can’t trust anyone,” John said as he stood up from his chair, feeling like something very wrong was happening with Marlena. “You can trust me….you can trust me.”
“Sit down Mr. Black,” the guard ordered, as he pointed his snubbed nose pistol at John. “NOW.”
“Sorry pal, my wife needs me,” John calmly told him as he approached the uniformed agent. “I know you’re just doing your job, but something is wrong.”
“You heard Agent Donovan… Everything was fine….now just sit down.”
“Save me,” her voice whispered to him in the dark. “Save me Forrest.” He saw her, the ethereal glow of the moon casting shadows across her face. Holding out a thin pale hand, she beckoned him to her. “Save me.”
“I can’t,” he told her as he tried to grab hold of her hand. The closer he moved towards her, the further she seemed to be. “Wait….please wait.”
“Why are you leaving me?” she asked him, her blood red nails floating in the space in front of her, drawing his attention.
“I’m not.”
“You did.”
“Don’t go.”
“It’s too late for me…it’s too late for us,” she said as she slipped below the surface of water he didn’t even know was there. He felt the coldness of the water as it suddenly rose, soaking his pants and shirt.
“Wait.”
“It’s too late Forrest….I’m falling and I don’t want to stop,” she said as she suddenly leaned backwards and disappeared. He frantically reached below the surface trying to find her in the dark murky water but couldn’t. “Where are you,” he frantically asked, as he felt below the surface, afraid of what lay beneath.
“Marlena,” he screamed as he dove below the surface of the water.
“Mr. Black, are you okay?” the guard asked John, noticing the vacant look in his eye. He’d been standing before him for a couple minutes with a blank look on his face. “Mr. Black?” he asked again as he waived his hand in front of his face. “Mr. Black.”
“Marlena,” John whispered, as a trail of water ran from his thin blue lips towards his chin and down the front of his shirt. “Marlena,” John whispered again, eyes unfocused. Water continued to run from his mouth in a steady stream. “Marlena,” he choked as water spurted from his mouth.
“Mr. Black, are you okay?” the guard asked as he fingered the speaker button on the walkie-talkie attached to his shirt. “Something is wrong with Mr. Black. I need back up stat.”
“Marlena, don’t leave me,” John whispered to an unseen force in the room. “Don’t go.” He grabbed his chest with one hand and placed pressure on it. He was having a hard time breathing as his lungs filled with water. “Where are you?” he gasped between desperate breaths of precious air. Looking through the murky water he couldn’t find Marlena. “Don’t leave me again,” he begged her.
“What’s going on?” Agent Smith asked as he quickly entered the room, the click of his leather wingtips as they ricocheted against the hard floor echoed against the walls. He was annoyed that the questioning of Dr. Evans had been interrupted by the antics of John Black once again.
“Something’s wrong with him,” the guard said as he pointed at John who was struggling to breathe. “He’s been standing there like that for a couple minutes….I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“Probably faking it,” Agent Smith suggested, as he ran his hand in front of John’s face cautiously. He wasn’t going to fall for a clever diversion. John Black was one of the best agents that the ISA had something that Agent Smith always kept in the forefront of his mind.
“I’ll always love you,” John whispered as he lost consciousness, falling to the floor with a resounding thud.
“Get an ambulance,” the guard yelled into his walkie-talkie, not finding John’s pulse as he felt along side his neck.
“What’s wrong with him?” Agent Smith asked, believing that this was another ploy of John’s.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that he was drowning.”
“Nooooooooo,” Marlena screamed again, commanding Shane’s attention. “Nooooooooo,” she screamed again, lost in a nightmare that was all too real. She saw and felt the ship sinking, saw Forrest drowning before her. But that’s not how she remembered it happening. He didn’t drown; he left her alone in her grief, alone when she needed him most. She begged him to stay and stand by her, but he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. “Don’t leave me John. Please don’t leave me again.”
“It’s happening,” Dr. Gunther warned the others as he wiped his sweaty palms on his threadbare trousers and watched Marlena thrash on the floor in front of him, he arms still chained to the wall. Quickly he undid the restraints. “She’s starting to remember…hurry and pick her up and place her in that chair,” he said as he motioned to the men. Silently the masked men roughly picked Marlena up and placed her in the chair. Blonde hair hiding her face, she slid forward in the chair and Dr. Gunther had to reach out and steady her to keep her from falling.
“What in the bloody hell are you going to do to her now?” Shane asked Dr. Gunther as he forced his way into the room. A blast of air from the overhead vent chilled him. He looked down at Marlena and noticed that her eyes were rolled back in her head and her teeth were chattering.
“Ah Mr. Donovan,” Dr. Gunther said, looking up at him. “I’m so glad that you could join us. After all you were there in the beginning….”
“Don’t remind me,” Shane interrupted. “If I’d have known then what I know now you can be bloody sure that I wouldn’t have participated.”
“Why I seem to remember that you were quite eager back then….A young beautiful girl with a recreated past was just the challenge you were looking for,” Gunther crudely reminded him, taking him back to a place 30 years before that he rarely liked to visit.
“Herb, I’m not proud of what I’ve done in the name of my county and world security…I’m not,” Shane admitted as he turned his back to Dr. Gunther and looked out the barred window at the barren concrete landscape before him. The sun was starting to set, casting interesting shadows on the wall.
“I don’t think any of us are, but why do you care?”
“You know why. It’s not right.”
“According to your standards Shane, but not according to mine. If this mission upsets you so, perhaps you ought to talk to the chief about a reassignment or retirement,” Dr. Gunther suggested as he leaned over Marlena and lifted her shirt, exposing her breasts. Shane looked away as Dr. Gunther preciously felt along her protruding ribs and breastbone. Finding the spot he was looking for, he jabbed the needle of the hypodermic in as far as it would go. Slowly pushing down on the tip of the plunger, he released the high dose of amphetamine directly into her heart.
“Was that necessary?” Shane asked, disgusted by how Marlena was once again being treated.
“I don’t see anyone standing by and forcing you to watch,” Dr. Gunther smirked. “Now I suggest that you leave before she wakes up and I begin questioning her,” he added, deciding to keep Shane’s secret from Marlena. In due time she would know, Dr. Gunther thought as he coldly watched Shane nervously rub the top of his head as he left the room.
“Julie…I know that you’re in there,” he said as he flashed the small stream of light directly into her left pupil. “Come out wherever you are,” he chided her, no longer caring about the sensitivity of his treatment. As more time went on he became more nervous, anticipating that at any minute John Black would come busting through the door like a white night trying to rescue his precious queen. Seeing her pupil dilate he let go of her lid and watched it as it naturally closed and then struggled to open.
“Come on Julie.”
“Dr. Gunther?” she whispered as she struggled to open her eyes. “I don’t feel so well.”
“That’s only natural. You’ve been resting for quite a while my dear,” he said with a smile on his face and concern in his voice. Although the risk for this seldom done procedure was high, Dr. Gunther was looking forward to it.
“I want to sleep.”
“You will in a couple minutes. I have some questions for you…do you think you could help me out.”
“I don’t know.”
“Try for me, then you can sleep.”
“Okay,” Marlena said as she struggled to wake up. She felt that something was off but couldn’t put her finger on what it was. As she struggled to recall the last thing she remembered, she was horrified to realize that she didn’t remember anything. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. “What did you do to me?” she asked as her eyes slowly opened. “What did you do to me?” she asked again. Her mind was a blank canvas without color or form. “What did you do?” she screamed in a panic as she struggled to stand up. “Oh god….oh god…oh god…what’s wrong with me?” she asked rhetorically as she paced in front of the window. She had no idea of who she was or where she’d been or most importantly why she was in the room. Furthermore, she had no idea what was outside of the room or if she could leave.
“My name is Marlena,” she said defiantly to him, recalling the name from somewhere deep inside her. She remembered him calling her Julie when she woke up.
“No, your name is Julie,” he said as he stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders in a kind and concerned manner. He felt the shaking of her thin frame as she internally questioned her sanity. How was it possible to lose your life?
“I don’t know who Julie is….I’m Marlena,” she stated adamantly as she shook her head and tried to loosen his hands from her shoulders. She wasn’t Julie.
“What is the last thing you remember?” he asked as he massaged her shoulders.
“I don’t remember anything…what did you do?” Suddenly she jerked out of his hold and turned around and stared at him. Something about him was so familiar.
“Of course you remember Julie…. Of course you remember Marlena.” Nothing about this was routine anymore. He’d been instructed to call her Marlena, but sensed that he’d get to her real memories sooner if he also called her Julie.
“I don’t,” she said as she grabbed her head. All her thoughts and suspicions were swirling around in a symphony in her head and the harder she tried to remember the worse she felt. “I can’t do this,” she whispered as she fell to the floor. “Who am I?”
“You are a very special woman…a very special woman with so much to tell me….now lets start at the beginning.” Slowly Dr. Gunther reached for her face and slowly cupped her cheek in his hand. Wiping the errant tears tenderly with his thumb, he moved closer and closer to Marlena until their faces were mere inches apart. She wanted to pull out of his hold and hide. Looking around the room for a closet that would make her safe, that would provide shelter from feelings that she knew were lurking below the surface she was unable to find one. “There’s always was a closet,” she whispered as she closed her eyes, letting the tears freely flow.
“Stop…Just stop,” Shane demanded as he barged into the room unable to take the emotional abuse that Herbert Gunther seemed to delight in inflicting on an unstable Marlena.
“Leave now,” Dr. Gunther said in anger as he continued to stroke the side of her face. They were at a critical juncture in her memory retrieval and restoration. Any outside stimuli could irreparably damage her true memory and he wasn’t about to risk his mission because of Shane Donovan’s misplaced insecurities and some sense of duty and protection towards his charge.
“I can’t,” Shane whispered as he watched Dr. Gunther. “I can’t.”
“Guard’s,” Dr. Gunther called out in alarm as he continued to stroke Marlena’s face. She was so close to remembering her past. He only needed to push past one last barrier and her mind would be putty in his hands.
“Seamus?” she confusedly asked as she looked up at his tall and handsome form. “What are you doing here?”
“Marlena?” Shane asked as he approached her.
“This can’t be happening,” she said as she pulled out of Dr. Gunther’s hold and slowly walked backwards until the wall was directly behind her. Palms behind her, she gently felt the rough concrete against her fingertips as she looked for a place to hold onto. The situation was all wrong and impossible.
“Marlena?” Shane asked again as he approached her.
“Nooooooo,” she cried out as she grabbed onto the wall and felt the snap of one of her nails as it broke from the pressure. “Noooooooo….this isn’t possible…..Nooooo.”
Shane stood before her and tried to touch her but she shirked back, afraid of him. “Get out now,” Dr. Gunther sternly warned him. Two guards, once again in black masks, stormed into the room. “Remove him,” Dr. Gunther demanded as he pointed at Shane.
“I can explain it Marlena,” Shane shouted to her as he was physically drug out of the
room by the guards. “I can explain everything.”
“You lied to me,” she screamed at him. “You lied…you’re one of them.” Her mind bridged that connection with surprising speed and accuracy. “You are all one of them,” she screamed out at no one in particular. “Where is Forrest? I want Forrest….FORREST,” she screamed out as a sudden searing pain in her head rendered her incapacitated. She closed her eyes welcoming her memories of Forrest as they returned.
********
Marlena…Marlena….Marlena,” Stefano whispered as he held the queen chess piece next to his heart. “What have they done to you my queen?” he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
“Damn John…Damn you,” he said as he thought back to his younger brother. Handsome and charming, John was the apple of his mother’s eye from an early age. As Stefano struggled through his early years competing for his fathers’ attention, he always knew that he would never be as good enough or smart as his six older brothers in his fathers eyes. Joining the family business at 16, Stefano asked to be sent to the West Indies to manage the Dimera family interests. Ruthless and shrewd, he was determined to earn his fathers respect. “Enough about the past,” he said outloud as he walked to the balcony doors and opened them. “But why?” he asked again, troubled by the situation, not understanding how a monster like his brother could have created such an exquisite creature like Marlena.
************
Maxwell Owens took the much fingered picture of Marlena Evans Black out of his pocket and held it to his lips. “Vengeance is mine,” he promised her. “Vengeance is mine….soon I shall have you sitting before me begging for your life.”
***********
“Forrest,” Marlena screamed as she crawled on the floor towards the steel door. “Forrest…don’t leave me,” she begged, tears streaming down her face.
“Julie, who is Forrest?” Dr. Gunther asked her, trying to distract her.
“You know who he is,” she calmly said as she sat up and looked him in the eyes. The brightness of the overhead fluorescent bulb illuminated her orbs, bringing out the yellow in them. She looked like a cat that was about to attack its prey. “My name is Marlena,” she coldly informed him.
“That may be, but you are also Julie.”
“Julie is dead. You and Seamus killed her a long time ago….God, I feel so stupid now. I must be the running joke at ISA,” she said as she stood up and wiped her hands on her bare legs. “I feel so naive…my whole life has been nothing but a lie that both of you have orchestrated. Shane, Seaumus, whatever your real name is…”
“Marlena its not like that,” Shane interrupted.
“THEN YOU TELL ME HOW IT IS,” she screamed at him, all the rage built up in her for what she had just realized that she’d lost spilled over. “Tell me how it is.”
Shane looked down at the floor, unable to respond. The day that he’d always feared was coming was here and there was nothing he could do. This wasn’t, she wasn’t, a tidy package that he could rewrap and place a bow on anymore. Her feelings of betrayal and memories of what she’d lost were quite real. “I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t Mr. Donovan?” she asked, no longer caring about maintaining an semblance of a relationship with him. “All this time, all these years, I’ve been nothing but an assignment to you….AM I RIGHT?”
Shane continued looking at the floor, as the two guards continued holding him away from her. “Marlena, I need to ask you more questions,” Dr. Gunther tried to intercede.
“Fuck your questions….I’m done….I’m done with you and the ISA,” she said as she walked towards the door and put her hand on the cold metal handle.
“Marlena, you were more than an assignment,” Shane admitted as he struggled to move closer to her. “You have to believe me.”
“How can I? All the years you sat at my dining room table eating alongside my family, you knew all this stuff about me. You probably found it all amusing didn’t you? Probably laughed afterwards as you filed your little reports with the ISA on me….I can see it now. ‘I had dinner with Marlena and her family tonight. She thinks that she is such competent doctor but if she only knows that she needs help more than her patients’...”
“That’s not true,” he interrupted.
“I don’t believe you anymore Shane…I had a right to know about my past…. It’s mine, not yours.” She was livid and out of control, Shane’s betrayal more than she could tolerate. “All those years Shane, acting like you were my friend….” she said and then suddenly stopped, lost in thought.
“Marlena?” Shane asked, not liking the silence in the room.
“Roman’s known all along about me, hasn’t he?” She didn’t want to know the answer, but needed to know. “He knows doesn’t he?” Tears slowly ran down the side of her face that she made no effort to hide or still. “He knows.”
“No Marlena…..No,” Shane said in a panic. “He doesn’t know.”
“How could he not? He was an employee of the ISA and I was a project. He was sent to watch me wasn’t he?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m right….I’m right….I’m right,” she said as she let go of the handle, the burden of what she learned to much for her psyche. “John?” she choked out in a sob, her eyes welling up with tears. “Was John involved?” Time seemed to stop for her as she turned towards Dr. Gunther and Shane and waited for the answer, looking back and forth between them for any signs that they weren’t telling the truth. Each second passed with the heavy beating of her heart, a heart that was breaking with each nanosecond.
“I don’t know,” Shane whispered. “I don’t know.”
“LIAR?” she screamed at him. “You’re all liars…I don’t trust anyone….I can’t trust anyone.” Turning back to the door, she once again placed her and on the handle. “I can’t trust anyone,” she whispered. John couldn’t have been part of this conspiracy, could he?
“Marlena,” Shane said as he tried to lunge out of the guard’s firm hold. “Let me go…I need to talk to her.”
“I think you’ve done enough talking Mr. Donovan….I need to finish my questioning….Now Julie, if you’d sit down in the chair we’ll be done in a few minutes.”
“I don’t think you understand…I’m done with the ISA,” she said as she pulled down on the door handle only to find that the door was locked. “Open the door,” she demanded, as she furiously pushed up and down on the handle trying to disengage the lock.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Dr. Gunther said coldly as he approached her, hypodermic in hand. “You are going to tell me everything that I need to know.”
**************
“Can’t trust anyone,” John said as he stood up from his chair, feeling like something very wrong was happening with Marlena. “You can trust me….you can trust me.”
“Sit down Mr. Black,” the guard ordered, as he pointed his snubbed nose pistol at John. “NOW.”
“Sorry pal, my wife needs me,” John calmly told him as he approached the uniformed agent. “I know you’re just doing your job, but something is wrong.”
“You heard Agent Donovan… Everything was fine….now just sit down.”
“Save me,” her voice whispered to him in the dark. “Save me Forrest.” He saw her, the ethereal glow of the moon casting shadows across her face. Holding out a thin pale hand, she beckoned him to her. “Save me.”
“I can’t,” he told her as he tried to grab hold of her hand. The closer he moved towards her, the further she seemed to be. “Wait….please wait.”
“Why are you leaving me?” she asked him, her blood red nails floating in the space in front of her, drawing his attention.
“I’m not.”
“You did.”
“Don’t go.”
“It’s too late for me…it’s too late for us,” she said as she slipped below the surface of water he didn’t even know was there. He felt the coldness of the water as it suddenly rose, soaking his pants and shirt.
“Wait.”
“It’s too late Forrest….I’m falling and I don’t want to stop,” she said as she suddenly leaned backwards and disappeared. He frantically reached below the surface trying to find her in the dark murky water but couldn’t. “Where are you,” he frantically asked, as he felt below the surface, afraid of what lay beneath.
“Marlena,” he screamed as he dove below the surface of the water.
“Mr. Black, are you okay?” the guard asked John, noticing the vacant look in his eye. He’d been standing before him for a couple minutes with a blank look on his face. “Mr. Black?” he asked again as he waived his hand in front of his face. “Mr. Black.”
“Marlena,” John whispered, as a trail of water ran from his thin blue lips towards his chin and down the front of his shirt. “Marlena,” John whispered again, eyes unfocused. Water continued to run from his mouth in a steady stream. “Marlena,” he choked as water spurted from his mouth.
“Mr. Black, are you okay?” the guard asked as he fingered the speaker button on the walkie-talkie attached to his shirt. “Something is wrong with Mr. Black. I need back up stat.”
“Marlena, don’t leave me,” John whispered to an unseen force in the room. “Don’t go.” He grabbed his chest with one hand and placed pressure on it. He was having a hard time breathing as his lungs filled with water. “Where are you?” he gasped between desperate breaths of precious air. Looking through the murky water he couldn’t find Marlena. “Don’t leave me again,” he begged her.
“What’s going on?” Agent Smith asked as he quickly entered the room, the click of his leather wingtips as they ricocheted against the hard floor echoed against the walls. He was annoyed that the questioning of Dr. Evans had been interrupted by the antics of John Black once again.
“Something’s wrong with him,” the guard said as he pointed at John who was struggling to breathe. “He’s been standing there like that for a couple minutes….I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“Probably faking it,” Agent Smith suggested, as he ran his hand in front of John’s face cautiously. He wasn’t going to fall for a clever diversion. John Black was one of the best agents that the ISA had something that Agent Smith always kept in the forefront of his mind.
“I’ll always love you,” John whispered as he lost consciousness, falling to the floor with a resounding thud.
“Get an ambulance,” the guard yelled into his walkie-talkie, not finding John’s pulse as he felt along side his neck.
“What’s wrong with him?” Agent Smith asked, believing that this was another ploy of John’s.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that he was drowning.”
OMG your killing me here! Great chapter... I soo hope you update soon!