Double Life: Double Life

A/N: at the end

***

Another fight started, if you were found out, if someone figured you out we would lose it all, our license and money, we had already lost you, we had to do something and that had to be fast. Take you by force was something none of us was willing to do so Alex´s brilliant idea was to get rid of you. Half of our group was against it, you were the work of over twenty years of our lives, he said we could start over, it was only a s mall step back, with the data we had on you and your process we could start again. In the days of that debate Nati disappeared, she stole some data among other very important things.

Alexander´s shark lawyers and investigators looked for her but Nathalie Stirling had disappeared, later I knew she is now Natasha Strasberg, quite similar don´t you think? Through her I found you. She sold herself to the next better cause: Karl´s hate.  She´d have a lot of profit there I doubt Karl´s company could be so successful out of the blue like it was. I told Alexander of my suspicions but he silenced me reminding me you had died on a car accident with your aunt and uncle.

 What a coincidence that their little girl, about your age, Nichole Elizabeth Cristales, whose identity you now have, had been the only survivor when our girl died with her aunt and uncle… Do you know about that? I have always doubt that it was an accident.  Poor man and woman that had to die and that poor girl, if there was any but for Alexander that was enough, the forensic proof was enough for him, a burnt car, the survivor’s broken ribs as she got out of the window when the car crashed. Did they break your ribs, baby? I bet Nati did that too. It didn´t convince me, Alex said I was paranoid, all the rest thought so too… It was another mistake for Alex.

Whenever I could I followed Karl in his trips, he seemed normal, always, he´s good at keeping it that way though I think that´s Nat´s ability. I was quitting, it all, with the family I had to take care of and my work I didn´t have time to think of Karl and his perfectly normal life, his gold-digger wife and adopted daughters until I met Sarah on a visit to a psychiatric ward where my hubby had volunteered me.

She was scared to death, she was convinced “the little girl” had come from the dead and had killed her husband. It had happened years ago from when I found her. Her husband had gone for a run and had been found dead of a heart attack hours later. She didn´t make anything of it back then but it was something you did when you were nine. For them you were dead but many years later, her eldest son died the same way and what made her insane was the death of her beloved grandchild, she was convinced she´d seen you. “Nati brought her” she told me. Her other son had taken her to the hospital where they declared her crazy, delusional, schizophrenic, she´d been there for years.

 When I went to see her again she had died of a heart attack. It alerted me. I went back to see Karl more attentively. He’s so rich and important now, isn´t he? But he keeps a low profile, nothing much of his family is known and of his niece, Nichole Elizabeth there is nothing, not even I have enough influences to find her but where the lion is there had to be the cubs and they were.

I first saw Nati. I followed her for a long time before I saw something of importance, one day a car picked her up. I followed them, they stopped at a hotel, she got out and then a lean tall girl of long black hair on a braid with a bad attitude and black gloves got off after her, so much like Miriam except for the scowl on your face. I had found you and this time I wouldn´t tell Alex. I contacted our group, all the assistants were dead, back then it was only six of the crew without Nati of course. Most of the m thought I was crazy… but one of them shot you, didn´t he? I thought you´d died there…

I couldn´t let you get to me or to my family though I knew by then how poetically Karl carried his vengeance, the spouse first, then the eldest child, followed by the youngest and the other if there were any and last the one who had any contact with our project. Don’t worry I know you didn´t kill that many, only the scientists crew, the assistants and the children if they were old enough… I tried to warn them all but, like I said, most of the m wouldn´t listen. I had no proof and by the time I got some of them to listen, I had lost you, it was as if you´d disappeared, I didn´t see you again. I lived in fear for my children and grandchildren as I told you; you took my eldest son and his wife and my husband. I was devastated I had to protect the rest of my family.

Years later I found someone to help me, I made contact with a driver, he wanted money, more, your father and Nati pay well for your protection, he wouldn’t tell me where you live but I managed to convince him of taking your life, he was reluctant, he´d seen what you could do, you’re so feared among those who know you, Nicky, but greed can overpower fear. I convinced him I knew how to do it and you know I did it. Did you get stabbed by some man?  Did you get sick?  I thought it´d kill you, venom, a snake venom, it would kill a normal person in a few minutes, it wouldn´t let you heal quick enough for your body to shut down without bleeding out, I guess he was stupid and couldn´t follow orders, I had told him to do it when you weren´t close to Nati, who else could make you better? I thought I had destroyed you until in my daughter´s birthday.

We were celebrating in our country house, I saw Nati, she purposely let me see her, she walked by me, she was in the catering crew, she dropped a basket, something bit me, in the mess she disappeared. What bit me was the same kind of snake, the same venom I got in you she brought to me.  A coincidence happened; I’m sure her doing or you father´s: an ambulance was going by, with the right amount of antidote enough to let me live, not enough to prevent it from paralyzing half of my body. She let me live to see the worse… a while later my daughter was killed, she suffered a heart attack as she was at a party. Her boyfriend saw a redhead talking to her about the time she died; he saw it all from the stage: the girl talking to my daughter, my daughter suddenly falling to the ground in the middle of the crowd… a commotion in which the redhead disappeared… I’m sure it was you… I haven’t seen him since he let me know of that… Have you seen him? Have you touched him? My two other children died in mysterious accidents. Who do you think arranged that? It´s all Nati.  It’s all Karl. It´s all you, you, my perfect child became a death angel, the puppet, a murderer.

****

Now you see why I hold a grudge against my so called friend, why I hate Alexander, his dead boy killed us all. I wonder why you´ve been so merciful with him, with his kind, with his kids. Only his hidden son has died, burned eyes. Nicky? What was that? He didn´t know, he didn´t see his son, I did. He thinks I’m still with him and that´s why I was at that funeral. No one ever knew of the poor guy not even in his death his father saw him. Why did you burn his eyes? Did you know who he was? You´re too methodical, you deaths lack passion, yes, I have studied the m, the ones that you made me suffer and the ones that Sarah got to narrate to me before you killed her.

Your methodical, clean kills tell me you know nothing but his eyes… what you did show me emotion, did he hurt you? Do you know of Alexander? I´ll tell you something interesting, all his children have green eyes, most of his grandkids too. The little boy’s, his grandson´s eyes are just like his.

Oh, before I forget, one that I think was quite clever was Angie´s death, it hurt him a lot, even though he´d divorced her a very long time ago he mourned her for months, way more than his hidden son, of course it hurt Erick and Angela a lot and his new by then also ex-wife was mad, it was hilarious, really.

If I had a saying in how you´ll proceed… I don’t doubt you´re experiencing anger, sadness and self-loathing right now. You know no one, everybody´s kept secrets from you, you didn´t even know yourself well – you couldn´t know, if you knew I know things would be different… Well, half of your vengeance had been done but it had been Karl´s it´s time to make it yours, get back at Alexander, let him know you´re coming, that with the burnt eyes could be a good way. You could start with Cassie´s kids, Eleanor and Alan, Ely is single but you could take Alan´s wife too, then go to Angela and her kids, her hubby, both of them; then Maggie, Erick’s wife, she´s like a daughter to Alexander and Erick adores her, if she dies first both her children will suffer a lot, then take Aaron, the youngest twin, yeah, the dead boy who made you a monster has a twin, it´s not his fault so be merciful with him, then go to Erik. The dead boy, Joshua, he should be last only before his grandpa after all it was him who ruined it all for all of us. But it´s your vengeance, I’m only suggesting what you could do, you can´t deny that it´s a good idea, after all, by this time, I’m sure I’m six feet under but as long as they go through the same, as long as they get their share, I´d even rise from the death to aid you in this.

Instinctively, Nichole banged her head against the wall, so hard it hurt. She´d recognized the names, she´d know who Ibsen had been talked about since the part about the little girl but she´d clung to the hope that it was a coincidence but she knew it was not and now all the names were there, it was too overwhelming. She felt that state of “shutting off” that Mary Ann had been describing, she felt like she was about to pass out but she had to push through it. Tilly had trained her to beat it in situations like this one. It´s only emotions, your body´s fine, she told herself. Tilly had always made her go through hardships so that she overcome it, you can do this, she told herself but it felt like this was too much.

Nichole turned the page, she saw an address, Burgeoys address with josh’s room number and building, a list of the places he hung out with Aaron and his friends at night, the address of the place he´d gone to dance the last time she saw him. There was his home address, the place where she´d spent a week, the family´s schedule, when they might be alone and at the end of the page another address with Alexander Arlington´s name, she guessed it was the huge house where she´d spent the end of the year, there was also the addresses of the other family members she´d mentioned, a small description of their habits. Nichole banged her head against the wall again, Mary Ann was right, she was angry, she felt betrayed, she didn´t know what to think, she´d always wondered about how she came to be but this was like a nightmare from which she couldn’t wake up.

In case you still don’t believe me, I’ll give you more proof, here´s a list of the crew of researchers and family that I know you´ve taken with name and the dates on the back cover, I´ll leave you some photos, I’m sure you´ve seen some before in different places.

Though she didn´t recognize all the names, the times of dead dated from when she was nine, when she had started to kill for her father, for Tilly for Nat, she recognized many of those date, the recent ones, the ones whose faces haunted her nightmares, now she understood why some seemed to look at her as if they knew her. That she now knew some were the spouses or children of others felt like a punch in the gut, she closed her eyes tightly, both wanting to stay alert and to pass out.

***

A/N: I wanted to named this one "Arlington" but I guess it´s not exactly all about them or about my boy lol 
This is the last one of the post I had done and ready to be published... right now Im about to start working in the awful amount of paper work I have... wish me luck