Kat Martin - Season Of Strangers

Unconsciously, Julie clasped her arms across her chest, waiting for the gruesome tale to finish. She jumped when the doctor pressed the stop button, abruptly ending the strained, terror-stricken voice of her sister on the tape.

“It isn’t true, you know,” Julie said softly. “She didn’t go to the hospital. After she left my house, she simply went home. I called her later, so I know she got there safely.”

“I didn’t think this had actually occurred. At least not on that day. There was nothing in her medical files and nothing on the admission forms she filled out when she started treatment.”

“I thought under hypnosis, people were supposed to tell the truth.”

“They tell the truth as they perceive it. I think Laura may have confused another event in her life, perhaps the abortion she went through some years ago. At least that was my feeling until the session we attempted today.”

“She told you about that?”

He nodded.

The abortion wasn’t something Laura liked to discuss. At seventeen, the pregnancy and botched abortion was just another incident in a lifetime of mistakes.

“You said that was your feeling until today.”

“That’s right.”

Julie’s stomach began to churn. “So what…what happened today?”

“I think the best way to tell you is simply to play the tape.”

Julie just nodded. Her insides felt tied in knots. There was something strangely unsettling about what Laura had said, though she knew it wasn’t the truth. Sitting back on the sofa, she concentrated on the soft whir of the recorder, her chest feeling leaden. Dr. Heraldson skipped the first part of the session where he had done the hypnosis and the conversation leading up to the subject he wanted to discuss. He started the tape at the part where he’d asked Laura about her trip to the hospital the day they had gone to the beach, and if since then, she had ever been frightened like that again.

A long nervous pause ensued. Then, “One night I thought I heard them. I thought they were there, outside my bedroom window. I called the police. They searched outside, but no one was there. A few days later, I thought I heard them again. I was so scared…I didn’t know what to do. I called the police again, but they never found any trace of them.”

The doctor’s deep voice came softly over the tape. “Who did you think was out there, Laura?”

“I don’t know. The people from the hospital I guess.”

“Have you seen them again?”

She swallowed so hard Julie could hear it on the tape. “Yes…They came for me at Julie’s. I should have known they would—that’s where they came for me before…there on the beach. I shouldn’t have stayed with Julie.”

Julie sat up straighter on the sofa, her stomach clenching tighter.

“Tell me what happened,” the doctor said.

“I-I heard them outside on the balcony…footsteps…little scratching noises. I knew it was them. Oh, God, I was so frightened. I wanted to hide. I wanted to run. But I knew they would find me wherever I went. It was dark outside. When the lights went off, I wanted to curl up and die. A few minutes later, a bright light filled the room, so strong it hurt my eyes. Then it was dark again.” Laura made a soft choking sound of despair. “That’s when they came into the bedroom.”

There was the sound of the doctor’s chair moving. “Go on, Laura,” he whispered gently, “this is only a memory. You’re distanced from it. The memory can no longer hurt you.”

She seemed to relax at that. “I don’t know how they got in. One minute they were out on the deck, the next they were there, standing all around the bed. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even scream. They stared at me for the longest time…then they carried me away.”

The doctor cleared his throat. “What else do you recall?”

“Nothing until I woke up. I was there…in the hospital. They stripped off my nightgown and washed my body with the same wet slimy stuff they rubbed on me before. They parted my legs and probed inside me. It hurt a little, but mostly I was embarrassed. I don’t think they really meant to hurt me, but I hated them just the same. I hated them for what they were doing. I laid there naked and I prayed they weren’t real, that what was happening was only a nightmare. I prayed that I would wake up, but in my heart I knew I wasn’t dreaming.”

The doctor said nothing.

The tape whirred in the silence of a pause. “There’s something more,” Laura said, “but I-I can’t seem to recall what it is.” She must have bent her head for the sob that slipped from her throat came out muffled and ragged. Then she started crying.

Julie jerked when the tape recorder went off, looked up from the hands she’d been gripping in her lap, and returned her attention to Brian Heraldson. She wished the blood would flow back into her face.

“Now you can see why I called.”

She moistened her lips. Her mouth felt like cotton. “Yes.”

“Is there anything you can remember about either of those occasions, anything that might help explain the things Laura has said?”

“No. It makes absolutely no sense. The day we went to the beach, we both fell asleep for a while. Afterward we packed our things and went back to my house. Neither of us felt very good. Probably too much sun. Afterward I had a terrible headache, but other than that, nothing extraordinary occurred.”

“How about later, the weekend she spent with you after the incident with the police?”

“As she said on the tape, she was afraid someone was trying to break into her apartment. She was frightened. That was the reason she agreed to come home with me in the first place.”

“How did she behave that night? Did you notice anything unusual?”

“Not really. We ate an early supper—lemon chicken. It’s one of her favorites. We had a glass of wine and talked for a while out on the deck, then we both went to bed. I was having another one of my headaches, so I took some sleeping pills. I seem to recall seeing a very bright light that night, but it could have been anything…perhaps a spotlight on one of the beach patrol Jeeps. After that, I guess I must have fallen asleep. I don’t remember anything until I woke up in the morning.”

“How was Laura then?”

Julie frowned as she recalled Laura’s pale face the following day. “Now that you mention it, she did seem kind of upset. I thought she was getting the flu. I took her to see our family physician that afternoon.”

“I read Dr. Marsh’s report. The bleeding she suffered coincides with her memory of the physical examination she believes she experienced—but the body has been known to assist us in our delusions.”

“What do you mean?”

“It is not uncommon in cases of trauma for marks to appear with no physical contact, burns, bruises on the skin, that sort of thing. Psychosomatic manifestations can cause all sorts of problems.”

The doctor caught her worried gaze and came up from his chair. “I can see that you are upset and that wasn’t my intention in bringing you here.” He rounded the desk and walked toward her. “We’ve only just started Laura’s therapy. She hasn’t heard the tapes. I wanted to speak to you first, find out as much as I could. I’ve decided to play them for her during her next session. Perhaps hearing them will help her remember what it was that unleashed her fears in the first place. At the very least, since none of this actually occurred, she’ll be able to understand their groundless nature. Then we can begin delving into her feelings about the abortion.”

Julie rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying not to notice the headache that had started to build. “You really believe that’s what this is about?”

“Don’t you?”