Chapter 03: Mind Games
He lived in her neurons and he had ridden in her mind as she brought him home with her away from the shell of the Victorian Institution where his rule had been law and life and death to the fallen women who had been brought to him. As she slept he had perfected his hold on her and he had drawn strength from the fear and humiliation which had been engendered in her by the dream which he had inflicted upon her.
Trish awoke that Sunday morning feeling weak and hungover after her troubled night. She dragged herself out of her perspiration soaked sheets noticing that the duvet was on the floor where it had fallen as she lashed about in her sleep in a desperate attempt to fight off the horrors which were being perpetrated upon her. The dream was still very real to her in all its horrible detail as she pulled her robe around her over the long white nightdress and made her way to her kitchen to make coffee. And all the while he rode with her in her head seeing through her eyes and, at the same time, exploring the mind which he had made his home. As he roamed around her deep subconscious he plumbed every memory and every pain and humiliation which she had ever experienced. There was much here which he could use.
The woman was unaware of what he was doing in her mind but it would have been impossible for him to probe so thoroughly without his host feeling something. His exploration amounted to running his fingers over very old scars and when a wound is touched it causes pain. Trish sat on her kitchen stool not far from tears and feeling slightly nauseous. She had inexplicable feelings of helplessness and bitter embarrassment as she found memories were seeping back of things which were long past and which she had thought were buried and long forgotten. It had been a horrible weekend beginning with her visit to the grim derelict reformatory where she had been subject to such a shocking attack made all the more horrible by her attacker remaining invisible and then she had spent the whole of Saturday night in unspeakable nightmares. She told herself that it was natural for her to feel groggy and she would return to bed and sleep it off. Carrying the half empty coffee cup she retraced her steps to the bedroom and discarded her robe onto the bed. As she did so she caught a glimpse of the long mirror and froze as the coffee cup fell from her paralysed fingers spilling hot coffee down the front of her gown and onto the carpet.
Instantly she clamped her eyes tight shut to push away the image of the large man in the black suit and dark green waistcoat with gold watch chain. He was from her dream; he could not possibly be here but when she opened her eyes he was still there leering at her from the mirror. She just stared at the awful image as she summoned the courage to look behind her but when she risked a glance over her shoulder there was no one there. Relief flooded over her but was snatched away when she heard her name rasped out in a harsh whisper; looking in the direction of the sound she beheld him on the opposite side of the bed where he could not possibly be reflected in the mirror. He was between her and the door.
Her fear was now overwhelming. It was not merely the fear from the old building or even the terror from her nightmare last night but it was loaded with the things which he was using from her own mind. It was the way she had felt so many years ago when Jimmy Parker had..had done what he had done to her and then there was her Uncle Andy and the things which he had done.
We rely on our memories for our knowledge of the past but what if someone tampers with our memory? As he was becoming more skilful in manipulating this mind in which he had taken residence he found that he could plant memories to order.