Devil In A White Dress

Thirty-Eight

"Lazarus, the multiple man. Some people called him that," Austin replied," He was the only one in the Swedish soccer ball club...or should I say the first soccer ball player in the world, to have five different alters each with five special skills on the field. It was right after that accident. What is it again?"

"He got incapitated with a falling sign post just when he was about to score a perfect penalty kick. He was real heart-broken after waking up in the hospital."

"And the strange thing was, all his alters had the same tendencies to hurt his family. They grew violent and hostile until that night, one of his alters, they called him Lester. He went on some uncontrollable rampage that almost resulted in the deaths of Catherine and Bill Dubois. His wife and son. The news said top psychiatrist Dr. Cowen came to their rescue and just by listening to the ticking sound of his watch, poof...Lazarus comes back."

"He was sent to Baltimore Asylum in 1986. Dr. Cowen once said in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel that Lazarus "Five" couldn't be stable no matter the number of years he was kept. He said Lazarus couldn't talk to the Five. And neither could they. None of them were on speaking terms with each other."

"And you know what? He's in the same institute as Emma Woodburn."

"Where do you get all this stuff, Austin?", Chang questioned curiously.

"Let's say I have been locked in my room for weeks." Austin shallowly replied.

"You ever heard of the woman who stole people's eyes?", Chang went on smirking as she noticed Austin get distracted by the portrait on the wall. The one next to the drink's cabinet.

"Oh yeah. She's the one with the jar full of eyeballs, right?", Austin quickly voiced out, "They sent her to Baltimore. Same place as Woodburn is."

"Freaky", Chang mouthed, eyeing Austin suspiciously, "You heard of the Spiderwoman lady?"

Austin immediately beat her interrogation, "Obsessed with too many Spider-Man comic books. Went totally schizophrenic. Started climbing walls. Abducted babies. Got caught and sentenced to Baltimore. Same place as Woodburn."

Chang's eyebrows were raised. "The kid who believed he was invisible?"

"Robbed a hundred stores. And shoplifted without getting noticed. Believed he had the superpower of invisibility, so was sentenced to Baltimore. Same place as Woodburn."

"The Pope? Ring a bell?"

"He kidnapped, raped and tortured teenage girls. Killed them. Carved symbols on their skins. Believed he saw the end of the world. Got caught. Sent to Baltimore, same as Emma Woodburn. Where do you get all that stuff, Chang?" He added satirically and got a quick response.

"Let's say I hide in my home and watch a lot of boring news all week," Chang smiled, drinking her beer.

Austin finally walked briskly towards the cabinet in a Sherlock-Holmes wannabe sort of manner. He observed and noticed what seemed to be a tiny picture of a family hidden behind the tequila bottle. Straightening out the paper, which had been soaked and crumpled up, the portrait of Chang's family is seen behind a hospital in Baltimore. What spooked Austin was that the setting was just like her house.

Something that might have looked like a normal, dull day in 1991, a young Chang, a ponytail matching her pink little dress, was standing in front of what seemed to be either her mother, father and elder brother, who wore a military uniform.

Chang took a deep sigh, then awkwardly turned her frown into a broad smile. "We were visiting my aunt in the asylum when I was seven. It was 1999. She had Alzheimer's. Kept on hurting people and didn't know why. Didn't when to stop. So, we put her in her happy place."

Austin let down his Sherlock Holmes gesture, "I'm sorry. She still alive?"

"I'm just kiddin'," Chang giggled, "My mother was Spider-Woman's aunt. She was my cousin. Her real name's Mina Hopkins. We took care of her when her parents died of Cardiac arrest. Guess she wasn't a fan of her "wall-crawling" adventures so she sent her off to the institute when Dr. Cowen told us to."

"Oh," Austin mouthed. He wasn't perplexed.

"It's so strange. I never tell anyone about my past," Chang continued, while Austin was aware, she was now talking to herself, "I guess I'm negligent as they all say I am."

In order to leave the awkward scene, and speaking of being negligent, Austin remembered the angry dementia-stricken mother of his and her orders of "Not leaving the house till project works were done" speech. But then again, what was his worry? It was Mrs. Summers. She wouldn't even remember that last conversation at the table.

"I'm leaving. Thanks for the Wi-fi", he said, hurrying to grab the laptop and race through the door.

"Wait. Wait. Sure you don't want me to give you a bath before you go, Austin?", Chang asked harmonically, "Your daddy liked it. I actually put him to sleep, y'know."

There she was. The beautiful Japanese American model doing her thing again. How on Earth could a young man like Austin Summers say no to this nymph? Was he going to say no? Did he even think of saying no after finding out his dad had got the only thing he couldn't ask her for? Was his consciousness speaking to him when Chang spoke those last words?

"I'll be back in the evening. Promise," was what he said before leaving.

Chang blew him a kiss and winked.

At approximately 3: 26, Mrs. Summers received the good news that Aunt Kitty and Uncle Sam's attorney proved their innocence off of Lantom's manslaughter during the gym incident. The cell phone that so happened to cause a building to burn down in ashes, belonged to one of the visitors who accidentally left it to overcharge. The police had found and arrested him later on.

Hearing this, Mrs. Summers took the wise decision to Uber all the way back to the diner to have her usual pep-talk with Betsy Cudmore. Mr. Summers finally got the Jeep back from Impound, Kenny still mourned over his dead mother and no one noticed the Devil in WHITE walking down the neighborhood with blood all over. She was suffering from a concussion and it looked like help was from a thousand mile-away.

Slowly, Emma Woodburn staggered to the ground and eventually crawled with blood painting her surroundings. A beautifully mowed lawn belonging to a venomous landlord.