This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons is entirely coincidental. All characters depicted in sexual situations are at least eighteen years old.
As always, any political, social or religious views in this story are those of the characters and their circumstances, and don't necessarily reflect those of the author.
SPECIAL NOTE: This installment includes the description of a graphic and illegal act of extreme brutality, the morality of which is debatable. Reader discretion is advised.
*****
PART ELEVEN -- Homegoings and Danger Close
We manage to get Teri back into her bedroom with a minimum of fuss, but she's nearly comatose from the trauma of what's happened to her, and worse, what
nearly
happened. I can't blame her for being afraid; on the contrary, I blame myself for letting the creep get anywhere near her. It doesn't matter that he shouldn't have been able to find her, now he
knows
where she lives. It's up to me to make sure he never gets near her again.
I hire a company to install an eight-foot-tall chain link fence all the way around the sides and back of the property, enclosing the orchard and residence both, and mow down everything within fifteen feet on our side of it. I install spikes along the ten-foot-high stucco wall that surrounds the residence and replace the original gates at the street with ones much more difficult to scale. Then I install cameras and motion alarms on the fence
and
the wall, all hooked into a much more sophisticated, monitored alarm system.
Teri's nervous about the idea, but I teach Anna how to use my shotgun and have her practice dryfiring with a laser targeting system until she's comfortable with it. We store it loaded in the living room, housed in a custom coffee table with a hidden compartment. Either of us can get to it from anywhere in the house, given ten seconds notice. If it comes to that, we hope it will be enough.
No fortress is impregnable, but at least if the creep shows up here, he's going to have his work cut out for him.
* * * * *
By the day after her attempted abduction, Teri is able to join us through her Double. After a week, she can physically venture out into the house as long as one of us is with her at all times, but she won't swim or go outside, much less go anywhere in the motorhome again. Her forward progress has completely stalled out.
Anna and I know this constant fear can't be good for Teri, either mentally or physically, and we are, of course, willing to do anything to help her. There's still one avenue we haven't pursued, so I reach out for help.
* * * * *
Dr. Howard Jenson is the psychologist who's been seeing Teri regularly for the last few years. I'm very interested in meeting with him and hearing what he thinks about Teri's condition, but I'm not going to fly to Minnesota and leave the girls in the house without me. The good doctor, however, is more than willing to make a house call after I offer to fly him and his wife down to Miami for the weekend and put them up in a top-shelf beachside resort.
I ring the hired limo through the front gate when it arrives and meet him in the circle drive in front of the house. Dr. Jenson is a trim, fiftyish man with a remarkably thick gray beard and even thicker glasses. Teri and Anna are waiting for us just inside the door. Anna has a simple (for her) spread laid out, and we discuss how things have been going for Teri over lunch.
Dr. Jenson is impressed with the strategies that Teri had used to set Kira onto an even keel when she emerged the last time in Minnesota. He's even more so at the steps we took to make her comfortable when she transitioned back to being Teri here in Florida.
Anna and I tell the good doctor about how Teri had ended up in Cozumel, what had happened there, her subdued return to Minneapolis, and her more recent experiences in Florida, including the attempted kidnapping.
Teri tells him about Kira's discovery that her mother had been intercepting Maya's letters. Dr. Jenson nods. "I never had the opportunity to meet 'Maya', but it did strike me as odd that she never tried to leave anything for Teri."
"Her parents never had you talk to her during an episode?" Anna asks incredulously. "It would seem to be a slam dunk if they really wanted to get to the heart of the issue."
"I'm afraid I can't speculate as to their motives," he says. I have the feeling that he has some strong ideas on that subject, but his professionalism is stopping him from sharing them.
"So where does this separate personality of Teri's come from?" I ask.
"Well," he says, "Teri's fear and anxiety are somewhat typical for someone in her position. Her 'episodes' are more unusual, but hardly unprecedented."
"You've seen this kind of thing before?"
"Not personally, but there are many such cases in the literature. Conditions such as hers are difficult to diagnose, though. My best hypothesis is that her manic phases are a way of escaping the dread of her attacker when the fear has had time to slowly, but steadily, build to a flashpoint. I don't believe her transition is instantaneous, however. From listening to her parent's accounts, it seems that Teri has certain precursors to her manic phase."
"Really?" I ask. "Such as?"
"In the hours before the full-blown onset, she becomes less fearful and is able to do things that she's not usually able to do, even though she still thinks of herself as Teri. In this transitional period, she sometimes makes poor choices regarding her personal safety." He gives Teri an apologetic look. She waves it off.
I consider his words for a moment, then nod. "It's always seemed strange to us that if Teri was too scared to leave the house, how did she manage to walk out into the front yard to retrieve a newspaper? She says she has no idea."
"At the time I did it, it felt perfectly normal," Teri says. "In retrospect, I'm amazed that I could have worked up that kind of courage. With the way things have gone, my abductor
should
have been waiting for me at the curb."
"And that's probably why she got so scared when I surprised her," I say.
Teri nods.
"Exactly," Dr. Jenson says. "Another time, right before one of her episodes, her father witnessed her walking through the house wearing only her bra and panties. This was not something she would have normally been comfortable doing."
"That's
very
true," Teri says.
"Then there are the accounts of the wild scenarios that Maya, or
Kira
, comes up with during her manic stage," the doctor says. "This has been something of a puzzle for me."
Anna jumps in. "Kira told us that she believes she comes up with these to avoid facing the fact that, for all practical purposes, she's going to
die
when she leaves her manic phase."
He nods thoughtfully. "That's quite possible. All in all, hers is a most puzzling affliction."
"So, what's the best treatment for it?" I ask.
"Well, there are a whole range of drugs that can be used to treat anxiety, but with extreme cases like Teri's, their effectiveness is spotty at best, especially when you consider that her anxiety is actually quite reasonable for someone in her position. After some less-than-satisfactory experiences with them, neither Teri nor I believe that psychotropic medications are the answer for her."
"What about other kinds of strategies?" I ask.
Dr. Jenson sighs. "Normally, a change of scenery might help, like it seemed to be doing here at first. Unfortunately, it seems that the improvement was undone when her attacker followed her here." He looks to Teri, who nods. "How did he find you, if I might ask?"
"We have no idea," she says, "and I don't think moving again would help. He's just going to find me again anyway."
"We'll keep you safe from now on," I say.
She nods. "I know, but the idea that he could be just outside these walls terrifies me." She shivers. "And I hate the idea that you and Anna are stuck here, guarding me. That's not fair to you."
"Hon," Anna says, "we're not exactly adventure travelers. We'd rather be here with you anyway."
"Absolutely," I say, meaning it.
Eventually our visit is over. I walk Dr. Jenson to the limo. The chauffeur starts to get out to walk around and open the door, but I wave him back and do it myself.
"Doctor," I ask as he gets in, hoping to get a last word of advice now that we're not in front of Teri, "is there anything else that you might recommend?"
He leaves the door open and I squat down to be face-to-face with him. "Teri's best course of treatment would be to
remove
her source of anxiety," he says.
"So we need to catch him and get him locked up for good?" Like I haven't thought about that a thousand times.
He studies my face carefully. I can see that he's trying to decide whether to say something more. Finally, he does.
"I've treated many patients who have been through traumatic events, but what that poor girl has suffered is more than most people could handle. Her fear of her kidnapper is extreme, and unlikely to dissipate simply because he's in the custody of a rather porous legal system."
He pauses for a long moment. "This isn't really within the scope of prescription that I normally provide for my patients, but honestly, for her to have any chance of being free of her fear, I believe that she will need to
