FrAcTuReD (Part One) (Completed continued in Part Two)

Chapter. 10

"What are you doing?"

"Putting books away that fell," she told him and he shook his head in response.

"Nah-uh, I mean what are you doing in Susan's room? You'd know she'd have a fit if she saw you in here."

"Well she's not here; besides I needed to borrow something, I'll bring it back if you're so worried about it."

Joshua looked to the book that was on desk. "You're thinking about becoming a brain surgeon or something?"

"Hell no," Alex said as she grabbed the book. "It's just that one of my friends mentioned something that got me interested, and I thought to check it out."

"Why not the internet?" he offered.

"Because the internet can always lie to you, Claude's said that multiple times to you now, and considering the job he does it shouldn't be surprising."

Joshua shook his head. "Since when have you both ever spoken to each other?"

"Hey he's your friend, you both are always together it's only natural that I talk with him when he's around. And besides, medical books get right to the point of things."

"If you say so, but if Susan finds out..."

"It's not like I'll have it forever," Alex snapped. "Besides, she doesn't even live here anymore she has her own apartment close to the damn hospital. It's not like her to visit anyway..."

"You don't give her enough credit you know."

Alex glared at him. "After what she did why should I? Besides it's not like her to even admit to a mistake even if she were not at fault. After what happened with Mom..."

"Alex that was three years ago, you can't keep holding a grudge on her forever for something she couldn't stop."

"That's not the point!" Alex snapped in anger. "And you damn well know it too." she then walked past him and headed to her room. "I'll be in my room if Dad need's anything..." and then closed the door without so much as a word.

With a sigh Joshua ran a hand through his hair, in all accounts Alex had the right to be angry, she had the strongest connection to their mother it only made sense she'd still be mad. But still he could only hope to try and patch things up with them, at least eventually, whenever that would be that is...

"Dad... how the hell do you do it?" he said to himself and began to head down stairs only to stop when his cellphone buzzed in his back pocket. Taking it out Joshua looked at the text message and smiled slightly. "So you finally get some time off huh? It's been a while..."

I want to see you.

Was all that the message read, Joshua merely let out a deep breathe when he read it. "Always right to the point aren't you?" before he texted a response.

I still have work but it should be dead later tonight I'll head by your place.

Good. Was the only response, shaking his head Joshua put his phone away and continued down stairs to keep working.

Alex tossed her backpack on to her bed from the other end on the room in anger, the bag smacking against the wall before bouncing slightly on the bed from the impact. She leaned against the door and ran a hand through her hair as she tried to force herself to calm down. As much as she hated to admit it her brother was right. She couldn't stay angry at her sister forever but this was something she just couldn't forgive easily.

It was why she couldn't trust doctors after what happened, hell she refused to even speak to her sister for three months after that, what's more Susan didn't even show up to the funeral and without so much as an apology either...

"Fuck..." she muttered before pushing herself off the door and went over to her desk only to pause when she saw a photo of her mother with her, back when Alex was twelve, a year before her mother was diagnosed with cancer. In the photo her mother looked so happy and calm with peaceful eyes. It made Alex wonder, what her mother would think of her now with how Alex had taken the road she was now on in life.

With a sigh she sat down on her bed and began skimming through the index to find what she was looking for, or at least hoping to find. Hell for all she knew she could have grabbed the wrong book entirely and would have to go back into her sister's room to try and find the right book, but for now this book was the start.

"T.B.I... T.B.I..." she muttered as she flipped through the index. The book itself was rather weighty, with it feeling like a damn college textbook or something else in that regard. Then she found what she was looking for and flipped to the correct page. "T.B.I or Traumatic Brain Injury is caused when ample amount of damage is done to the brain and can cause blackouts, memory loss and doing abnormal behaviour in comparison to the person would act normally. Yeah okay that's Charla said..." Alex said out loud as she scanned through the page. "But can that be linked to how she was acting that night?"

She continued to read until something caught her eye. Something that made her become completely still.

"...note however that these symptoms can also be linked to D.I.D or M.P.D. and if not treated quickly can have lasting effects of the person affected with both symptoms."

"What is that?" she went back to the index and began to search for what she was looking for and found it in the index. "D.I.D it stands for... Dissociative Identity Disorder or..." she stilled. "Multiple Personality Disorder..."

In that moment Alex began to replay all of the moments where she had interacted with Charla, both in the day and at night noting the major and even small differences in how the girl acted between the light of day and the dark of night, two sides of the same coin and yet somehow completely different from the norm.

Just thinking it over lead to so many questions that kept stacking on one another, again and again, but with all that in mind something that Will said came flooding back.

"Wow, hey wouldn't it be messed up if Charla was the killer?"

"And what if I did? Would you look at me or even her differently if you knew the reason?"

Alex had become still as stone when Charla's words overlapped Will's was there more to it in the words that she said? A hidden meaning or was it just as it was, and if there was more then why?

Alex glared down at the book as her emotions began to twist in her stomach. "Shit..." what the hell could or even should she do now?