Previously in Deception:
Once it boots up, I immediately press play, my heart beating so quickly within my chest.
Suddenly, a small sound is heard through each ear bud and we listen.
"Hi Charlie." A voice says into the tape recorder.
"Hi Ms. Mapil." I hear a voice and I immediately recognize it as my own. This is me, talking.
"How are you doing today Charlie?" she asks and I recognize this Ms. Mapil's voice from somewhere. It seems so...apparent.
"I am ok. I am ready to get started."
"Oh, good. Don't worry Charlie, we'll have you all better in no time." The sound of Ms. Mapil's voice is the last thing we hear before the tape stops. I look down at in confusion, as does Niall
"Give me the tape." I whisper angrily. Niall pops open the side and hands me the tape. I examine the side and a smile appears on my face.
"Good job Mom." I mutter to myself, amazed by my mother's intelligence. It is clearly visible that she removed half of the tape from the right side. She took out whatever part she didn't want someone to hear.
"What are we going to do now?" Niall asks me as I stand up.
"We're going to Ms. Mapil." I say and Niall's eyes widen.
"You know who it is?" he asks and I nod.
"As smart as my mother was, she always underestimated me." I say. I didn't recognize the lady's name, Ms. Mapil, because that was her maiden name. She later got married when I was twelve.
I haven't called her Ms. Mapil ever since then.
"Do you know where she is? Who is she?"
I take a big breath as I pick up the tape recorder and cling it to my chest. "She's my therapist. Let's go."
Chapter 42
I look up at the rusted old building and frown.
"How long has it been since you have seen her?" Niall stands next to me, blocking my body from the cool wind.
"No more than two years. I told my mom that we needed the money for my college and that I was better."
"But you lied."
"Clearly my elope to London can clarify that." I roll my eyes, annoyed.
"So she moved offices. Can't be that hard to find." Niall shrugs and I glare at him.
"Let's go to the coffee shop and we can use a computer to look up the new address." I urge.
Niall follows me down the street as I cling my jacket even tighter against my chest.
Behind me, I hear Niall's phone ring. I turn around slowly and he stares at the number, scratching his head.
"Who is it?" I ask and Niall looks away from my eyes.
"If it's him, give it to me." I narrow my eyes.
When he doesn't reply, I snatch the phone from his grasp and press talk.
"Charlie?" Harry asks breathless.
I stay silent because I am still pissed off at him. He was probably so drunk that he doesn't remember what he said to me.
"Charlie." He whispers again and breathes heavily into the phone.
"What?" I reply.
"I am... I am in Gary's office." He whispers and part of my stomach twirls.
"What?" I yell into the phone and Niall's eyes widen next to me.
"Harry! Why are you there?" I whisper, worried. My heart is aching. Pissed or not I don't want him there.
"It's okay, the cops came and shut it down days ago. I didn't want to remind you about Gary so it slipped my mind."
"Why are you there then?" I breathe, walking at a faster pace once I see the coffee shop up by the signal.
"I wanted to solve this for you. I didn't want Niall to be your hero."
"Well saying the things you said last night most certainly does not make you a hero." I spite.
"I know Charlie. I am...I am an idiot."
"Go on."
"Listen we can talk about this later. Gary's office is quite creepy. I just wanted to tell what I...found." Harry's voice tightens. I pause in the middle of the sidewalk and feel my own heart clench.
"What did you find?"
"Letters. And they're all from..."
"From who?"
"You mom. They're addressed to Gary. Looks like there is one for ever other month for the last nine years."
My breath catches in my throat and I feel Niall's heavy eyes on mine.
"What do they say?" I whisper in a panic.
"They're coded. Like, some of the sentences are normal and some are just random words together. I am going to try to crack them for you though. Maybe the secret is written here?"
"No, she's smarter than that. Harry, how long ago was the last letter written?" I ask and he pauses, shifting through the piles of papers on the other line.
"Uh it was...oh my god." He pauses.
"What when was it?"
"Two months ago but this one isn't in code." Harry whispers. His breath is shaking.
"Harry what does it say?"
He doesn't answer. "Harry?" is cream into the phone and his breathing catches up.
"It says..."
"Hey you! What are you doing in here?" I instantly hear from the background. Then I hear movement and the sound of glass breaking.
Then the line goes dead.
"Oh my god." I whisper, dropping the phone.
I turn to Niall with panicked eyes.
"I need to go back. Harry. Oh my gosh. I need to go back. I need to go back now." I shake my head reputedly.
"Charlie. Charlie stop!" Niall shouts, taking my face in his hands and bringing my eyes to his.
"We're here in Portland. The answers are here. We're getting answers not tomorrow, not next week; no. Were getting them now.
I breathe in and close my eyes.
"Harry..." I whisper and Niall shakes his head.
"As much as I hate the dude, he's a strong lad. He'll be fine but we need to keep moving." He says and I nod. I know he's right.
Harry is fine. He will be fine, I know it.
~
I look down at the paper we printed from the coffee shop.
"What if this isn't the right address?" I whisper to Niall.
"It's from Google maps. I am sure it is."
We open the door to the office and stream past a hallway of doors until we reached the one with a number "8" on it.
I look at Niall and he looks at me, nodding. I then place my hand steadily on the wooden door, knocking.
After a few seconds, someone answers and I already know it's Mrs. Agna , or Ms. Mapil.
Her aged face quickly sweeps into a frown as she sees me.
"Charlie Parker." She smiles, mildly.
"Agna, hi." I say awkwardly. She looks at me and then past me to Niall, narrowing her eyes.
"Only you, Charlie." She smiles. I turn back to Niall and he nods.
Before shutting the door, I look back to Niall and pull him into me, wrapping my arms around his neck in a tight hug.
"Thank you." I whisper.
Then I let go and follow Agna into her office.
"New place?" I say and she nods sitting in her famous black chair. I can tell she still has all of her old, antique items.
"So Charlie, how are your parents? Even better, how are you? It's been years." I take a seat on the beige couch and a familiar jolt of anxiety runs through my body.
"Oh you don't still talk to my mom, I mean I know you used to have such a great connection to her." I say as my nails dig into my palm. Anga freezes as she sips form her tea.
"I haven't talked to her for about a year, darling."
"Oh well, then I might as well inform you that she is dead." Agna's eyes widen as I stand up and walk over to her.
"And guess who killed her?" I say.
"Charlie are you feeling well, I can make you some tea and..."
"I am fucking fantastic. I have just been lied to my whole life about uh I don't know, my kidnapper being my own father? And you know what the cherry on top of that was? Watching him kill my mother as she swore to some kind of her own secrecy." I seethe. There are tears in Agna's eyes and I know she wasn't lying when she said that my mom and her lost communication.
"You knew Gary was alive right? Because my mom knew and who would she possibly tell such a big secret to that she could trust?" I question and Agna looks up at me.
"You're mother was a good woman." She says.
"And she died like one." I finish.
"In fact, she died because of a secret that I wasn't allowed to know. A secret that she guarded her whole life with, a secret about Ellie." I say .
"Charlie, I don't know the secret. I just was here to help recover from that night. That was my only job." She pleads, but in her eyes I see a shade of dark shadows.
"So that's what this was for?" I say, taking the tape recorder out of the bag on my shoulder. Her eye's freeze at the sight of it.
"What did you hear?" she immediately whispers.
"Clearly not enough since I am here. Listen I came to you every Thursday of my life since I was eight. I depended on you. You told me funny stories and made me feel better. Can't you see that this secret is tearing me apart? I never knew that my dad, wasn't even my real dad. And my brother! Dylan isn't even my real brother. DO you know what that feels like? To be told that every memory is practically a lie? And you know what's worse? There's more. My mom died because she didn't want me to know this damn secret. But I am done! I am done with the secrecy. This is my life and I deserve to know. Ellie was my goddamn sister. I deserve to know the truth!" I shout, tears pricking at my eyes. Agna stands up and shakes her head at me.
"Trust me, Charlie. Go home and live your life." She says pointing to the door.
"No. Not until this starts making sense. My mom wrote letters to Gary ever since the incident. Gary told me he didn't kill Ellie but I watched him I watched him strangle the life out of her! Was my moms till in love with him or something?" I say, aghast and Agna just shakes her head.
"Your mother..." she breathes, wiping her right eye.
"She came to me in a panic after the accident, Charlie." She says, shaking her head.
"I saw you. You were so little and broken, so I helped you. I did what your mother told me to do. I loved you like my own child Charlotte. All your mother and I wanted was to bring you back..."
"Bring me back?" I whisper.
"I...I can't do this. Charlie, I need you to leave." She begins shaking her head repeatedly.
"Mrs. Agna, please! This is my life."
"I promised your mother." She cries out.
"Yeah and she promised me when I was ten that she would never leave my side again but look what happened."
"Charlie, everything we have done, everything you are will turn to dust. You really want to do that to yourself?" she whispers in horror.
"Do it to myself? It's already been done. I have lived a life full of lies. I don't even know who I am anymore. The love of my life is half way across the country being beaten up for all I know. I need this Mrs. Agna, please. Save me from this misery."
"This will only cause you misery."
I pause for a second, looking into the deep blueness of her eyes.
"I am ready." I whisper.
She sighs and walks across the room a large shelf, digging in the middle until she pulls out a disk.
"What is that?"
"A video." She replies. I look at and take a breathe, knowing that this is it. This is happening. As she enters the disk into the slot she pauses the screen and turns back to me.
"I want you to know Charlie that your mother never gave up on you. She loved you." She whispers.
Then she looks up at he ceiling and closes her eyes. "She's right Evelyn, she needs to know. I am sorry." She says, talking to the thin air. It's like I can feel the presence of my mother.
Agna clicks play and on the screen comes a dark room with two chairs. Immediately two people enter.
It's me. I see me. I am young, probably eight. Mrs. Agna takes the seat across from me.
"Charlie." She welcomes but I stare straight at her.
"We're going to test how much you have improved over the last three months." I nod slowly, but the deadness in my eyes is visible. It's weird looking at me so young. I look petrified.
"I am not crazy." The young me whispers. I watch myself shake my head back and forth, almost like a robotic motion.
" You are not crazy little Charlie. Have you been listening to your tapes at home?"
"Yes."
"For how many hours a day."
'Ten hours."
"Good. Are the images starting to fade?"
"I still see her. Everything, everything you tell me to imagine...I can see it. But I still see her. She won't go away. I tell her to go away!"
"What do you see?"
"I see her eyes. And she's screaming at me. She...crying. But then I see the Boogeyman and I just want him gone. But they both are there."
"But you are good person Charlie. You know what happened that night."
"Y-yes."
"So tell me what happened? What did the boogeyman do?"
"He...hurt Ellie."
"What else did he do?"
"He killed her."
"You don't seem so sure."
The young Charlie pauses and looks down at her hands. I don't remember this. I can't imagine how I wouldn't remember this. I don't remember ever going into a dark room.
It's like...my memory is gone.
"I can't see him." The young me closes my eyes.
"He's a bad guy. You keep saying that. But I just can't see him do it. All I see is her face and she's crying, screaming at me. I can't..." the young me pauses, looking off into the distance.
"Ellie! I am sorry Ellie!" I scream.
I watch in horror at the tape as the young me stands up from the chair and throws it across the room. Mrs. Agna sits completely still...like.... she's used it. I crumble down pathetically on the floor and start rolling back and forth, burying my head into my knees.
"I'm not crazy." Is that last thing that I say before the tape shuts off.
My mouth is slightly parched open. I look over to Mrs. Agna.
"I don't get it. Was this supposed to make me understand? You took me into some creepy dark, room and fucked with my head? Is that what you did?" I scream.
Agna stays calm but my eyes are wild.
"When you came to me Charlie, I had one task. " she says.
"I had to make you forget." She continues.
"Forget what?" I scream.
Agna pauses and looks at me.
"Your mother took you here in attempts to save your life."
"As a therapist, everything she told me became confidential. Your...situation was never to be told to anyone." She whispers, looking down at her hands.
She takes a deep breath and I feel it. It's coming.
"Gary told you he didn't kill, Ellie. Am I right?" she asks and I nod.
"He said that...because it's true." She finishes. My eyes harden as I stare at her. This cant possibly be true?
"Is she alive?" I ask, my heart jumping a beat.
"No, Ellie is not alive." She looks down.
"If Gary didn't kill Ellie that night...then who did?" I whisper.
She looks up at me with cold eyes. I want to know what she is thinking.
Taking a deep breath she shakes her head.
"Who killed Ellie?" I ask, more persistent. Could have been my mom?
"Was it my mom?" I whisper and she shakes her head. Tears have begun to fall from her eyes.
"What? Tell me damn't! Who killed my sister?" I scream.
Her eyes soften and she takes a breath.
"You did, Charlotte. You killed Elizabeth."