Monster In the Mirror, page 7
Knowing Izzy had just moved in, he opted for a potted plant instead of a bouquet of flowers. Something called a peace lily, which seemed ideal, since it was meant as a peace offering. It looked nice with lots of deep green leaves and white flowers.
A few minutes later, he was standing outside Izzy’s door. He knocked and hoped she’d answer.
She did. She looked … shaken. But he wasn’t sure that had anything to do with him. She kept one hand on the door. “Hi.”
There wasn’t much strength in her voice. “Hi. You okay?”
She shook her head and looked away. “I’m … I don’t know what I am.”
“I’m sorry.” He held the plant to the side so he could see over it better. “That’s really what I came up here for. To apologize and tell you that I’m sorry I didn’t handle things better last night. I should have found a different way to tell you. I should have understood that what I take for granted might completely upset your world. Anyway, like I said, I’m sorry.”
She looked at him. “It’s not your fault. You tried to tell me.” She studied the plant a moment. “A peace lily.” A hint of a smile played over her mouth. “Did you pick that out on purpose?”
“I did. Do I get points for that?”
Her smile widened, and she stepped out of the way. “Yes, you do. Would you like to come in?”
He definitely hadn’t expected that. “Sure.”
She took the plant from him as he entered. She carried it over to the TV console and set it on the floor. “I love it. This place really needs some greenery. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. She’d only asked him in, not to sit, so he didn’t want to assume.
She turned around but stayed where she was by the console. “So. Was that you on the stairs last night?”
He blew out a breath. “You saw that, huh?”
She nodded. “Hard to miss.”
“I guess so. Did Edgar frighten you?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “He didn’t exactly give me warm fuzzies.”
“Me either, so I get it. Sorry. It’s kind of a long explanation, but I generally have precautions in place to make sure he doesn’t get to roam free like that.”
“I have time.”
He looked at his watch. “Did you eat lunch?”
“Not yet.”
“Do you want to share a pizza if I run downstairs and get one? We could talk while we eat.”
She nodded. “Okay. I went to the store this morning, so I have iced tea and some diet soda, if you’re interested in any of that.”
“I’m good with water. What do you like on your pizza?”
“Meat and veggies? I’m not picky.”
“Pepperoni, mushrooms, and extra cheese okay?”
“Sounds great.”
He came back with two pizzas, because Noble’s was having a buy one, get one free offer, so for the second one, he got one of their more interesting options of barbecue chicken with sweet onions.
She opened the door as he reached their landing. “Two?”
“Special buy one, get one.” He came in. Her little table was set for two. There was a glass of ice water at each place. He put the pizza boxes on the kitchen counter. “I like leftover pizza, so it’s all good.”
They helped themselves to some slices. Izzy took one of each. He did the same but knew he’d be coming back for more.
She took her seat. “Thanks for the pizza.”
“Anytime.” He meant that. He’d have bought caviar if that’s what she’d wanted. It was worth it to share another meal with her.
It was true that he craved company, but her company was something special. The sound of her laugh lightened his spirit. And when she smiled at him, he felt like the sun was shining on him. He was obviously infatuated, but who could blame him?
It wasn’t every day a man like him got attention from a beautiful woman.
She swallowed a bite. “This pizza is really good. I might be in trouble living above this place.”
He nodded. “Well, I’m a regular, so I understand.”
She ate a little more without saying anything. “I went to talk to someone about a job today. A woman named Josephine Thibodeaux.” She watched him as she spoke.
His mouth came open. “The Thibodeauxs are …”
She dropped her gaze to her plate. “Vampires. I know. I made a fool of myself. I passed out. She called Deacon Evermore to make sure I was all right. He wanted to escort me home, but I refused. I was embarrassed enough already.” Izzy’s mouth was pulled in a tight line, and she looked miserable.
“I know Josephine a little. I don’t think she’d hold that against you. Most vampires remember what it was like to be human, no matter how long they’ve been turned.”
Izzy took a breath before saying anything. “In a way, I’m kind of glad it happened. It made me realize that you were right and I should have listened to you.”
That took the words out of him.
She shook her head. “I can’t believe everything I thought was just a story is real.” She flicked her eyes up at him. “Jekyll and Hyde, huh?”
He nodded.
She picked up the slice of barbecue chicken pizza. “So was all of that stuff about studying brains just a cover?”
“No. I’ve been searching for a cure for my curse since I had the education to make it possible. I’ve learned a lot about the brain and the body but not enough yet to fix myself.” He thought about the new blood test results. “I might be on to something now, however. Last night’s transformation came on me without me being aware of it. Edgar was much more controlled, and the transformation came on later than usual, too. Those things have never happened in combination before. I was trying out some new drugs, though, and it’s possible they contributed to that difference. Certainly worth further study.”
“You’ll try the drugs again then?”
“I will. My hope is they’ll lead to a complete cessation of the change. Granted, that’s probably going to take a lot more trial and error, but that’s my hope.”
“I hope that for you, too.”
There was something in her eyes that might have been fear. Or worry. “Listen, you don’t have to be concerned about Edgar. You won’t see him again. Now that I know what the drugs do, I plan on locking myself in my basement right away instead of waiting until I know the change is coming.” He backed up. “You see, I’ve always been able to sense it before. There are certain telltale signs. But not last night. Anyway, I’ll take the dopamine inhibitors and go straight down where Edgar won’t be a danger to anyone else.”
“That sounds sad. Having to lock yourself up, I mean.”
He shrugged and got up for two more slices. “It doesn’t bother me.” It did, but he had long ago come to terms with how his life had to be. He returned to the table. “It’s not like I’m really aware of being down there. That’s all Edgar.”
“You don’t remember being him?”
“I have no awareness when he takes over.”
“Wow.”
He nodded. “It’s similar to the disassociation that happens with multiple personalities, but in my case it’s also accompanied by a physical change.”
“I saw.” She ate another bite. “I knew it was you, though.”
He stopped eating. “You did? How?”
She tipped her head at him. “That little white scar that runs through your eyebrow. Edgar has it, too. And once I realized that, I could see traces of you in him. It’s you but sort of blown up.”
“Good description.”
“Edgar didn’t seem all that bad.”
Henry looked at her with great seriousness. “He is. Don’t think otherwise. He’s dangerous. He gave me that scar. If you ever see me in that form again, stay away.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
If she was ever hurt by Edgar, Henry wouldn’t forgive himself. “Thank you. I don’t mean to scare you, but being afraid of Edgar is healthy.”
“Has he ever hurt anyone?”
“Not physically. He chased a woman into the river once. He’s done plenty of property damage. Killed a whole flock of chickens. By eating them.” Henry was losing his appetite.
“You don’t like telling me all of that, do you?”
“No. I don’t.”
“But it wasn’t you. It was Edgar.”
“As much as I like to treat him as a separate person, he’s not. It’s still me. Just in a different form.” Henry sighed. “It’s a terrible burden to bear. I don’t expect you to understand, but—”
“I understand more than you think.” She sipped her water before looking at him. “In fact, I was wondering if you might be willing to take me on as a patient.”
He blinked at her. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Doctor-patient confidentiality, right?”
“Right. Absolutely.”
She swallowed, going silent for a few long moments. “I think there’s something wrong with my brain.”
“In what way?”
“I think I might be a serial killer.”
Izzy couldn’t believe what she’d just confessed to Henry, but he was a doctor. Anything she told him was supposed to be kept private. She exhaled. It was amazing to get that dark secret off of her soul.
He was looking at her like she’d lost her mind. “Why on Earth would you think you might be a serial killer?”
Her throat constricted, trying to keep the words from coming out. She’d held her secret for so long. She’d moved here to make it easier to keep. But if Henry could help her, that wasn’t an opportunity she could ignore.
“My real name isn’t Isadora Graham. It’s Isabelle Gerhart.” She made herself hold his gaze. “As in Ian Gerhart.”
His mouth came open. “The Silverton Slayer?”
She hated that name, but Ian had earned it by setting a series of fires that had killed nine people. And he’d been in the news a lot lately, thanks to his upcoming trial. His nickname, given to Ian by the detective who’d hunted him down, had been plastered across news tickers, websites, papers, any place that dealt in current events. “He’s my fraternal twin brother. We were cut from the same cloth. We share DNA.”
She felt tears forming. They were half angry, half sad. She did her best to blink them away. “I can feel the darkness in me. The urge to lash out. And sadly, the fascination with fire.” A soft almost-sob clogged her throat for a moment. She managed to whisper, “I don’t want it to win. I don’t want to be like him.”
Henry shook his head. “Just because he’s your twin brother doesn’t mean you’re going to end up like him.”
“You don’t understand. There is darkness in me. I can feel it. You must get that.”
“There’s darkness in everyone.”
She tried to make her point a different way. “Can you feel Edgar in you?”
He nodded, a look of realization coming over him. “I can.”
“Then you do know. Please, you have to be able to help me. Can’t you scan my brain or something and see if there’s something broken in me? Something that can be fixed?” She felt like if anyone could help her, it was Henry.
“I can absolutely run some tests.” He hesitated. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
“No, go ahead.”
“Have you ever hurt anyone?”
“No. I have thought about it a lot, though.”
“Who hasn’t? It’s natural to have revenge fantasies. Have you ever set any fires?”
“No. I avoid fire at all costs.”
He nodded as if he understood. “Are you still in contact with your brother?”
“Not since he was arrested and I found out what he’d been doing. And how long he’s been doing it. You know, he set fire to our family home years ago. Until his arrest, I always thought it was an accident. So did my mother and grandmother.”
“His arrest was … two years ago?”
“Three.”
Henry sat back. “And with his trial about to begin, it’s brought all of this up again, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. That’s a big part of why I moved here. My landlady was pretty close to figuring out who I was. I knew there would be reporters and cameras at my door any day. I had to get away. And I’d run across the Shadowvale website while searching for small, safe towns. It seemed too good to be true.”
He smiled. “Pretty accurate description.”
“Little did I know. Mrs. Winthrop, my landlady, started asking me pointed questions like what did I think of the Silverton Slayer and had I ever known anyone like that and then one evening, I came home to find someone had been in my apartment. It wasn’t a mess, but I could tell drawers had been gone through and things had been disturbed. I keep a very tidy house.”
“I see that,” he said, looking around. “I’m sure it would be easy for you to tell if someone had rifled through your possessions.”
“It was. That’s when I knew it was time to go. So I rented this apartment, paid the deposit to get the key overnighted, and started packing.”
“You definitely came to the right place. You’ll be safe here.”
She looked toward the windows. It was bright out despite there being no visible sun. “I don’t think I’ll ever be safe anywhere. Not if I share Ian’s proclivities. Not if I have the same monster inside of me.” She looked at Henry again. “And what if someone figures out who I am? That he’s my brother? I’ll just have to move again.”
“No, you won’t. I promise, Shadowvale isn’t that kind of town.”
“You say that, but—”
“They let me live here, don’t they?”
She looked at him then. Really looked at him. And for the first time, saw the pain in his eyes. Saw what his life, even in a protected place like this, must cost him on a daily basis. She felt for him. “You really do get it, don’t you?”
He nodded. “I do.” Tentatively, he slid his hand across the table.
She did the same, meeting him halfway, twining her fingers with his. “I’m sorry we got off to such a rocky start, but I’m really glad I met you.”
A smile lit up his eyes, replacing the pain with something much happier. “I’m really glad I met you, too. Outside of my family, I haven’t met many others who appreciate what it’s like to live with that kind of shadow. When I look in the mirror, I don’t just see myself.”
She squeezed his hand. “Neither do I. I see Ian.”
“I see Edgar.”
Silence spun out between them, but it was thick with unnamed emotions and the empathy of souls finding a safe space. She couldn’t believe she’d found someone who understood the burden that weighed on her.
Finally, Henry spoke. “I won’t let you go through this alone.”
“Thank you.”
He smiled. “I take it you didn’t get that job with Josephine?”
Izzy snorted. “I didn’t ask, but I’d assume no.”
“Then you’re still available? Because my lab hasn’t gotten any neater. That is, if you’re interested.”
“Is this a pity hire?”
He laughed. “You’re the one who’ll need pity if you take the job. But I could really use the help. And not just with organization.” He leaned forward. “To really make progress on my new development and the tests I’d like to run on you, I could use a lab assistant.”
“I’d be happy to, but I don’t know anything about that sort of work.”
“I can train you. And there’s a lot of it that’s just common sense. Like washing test tubes and beakers, monitoring equipment, cleaning up, charting results. If you can problem-solve and use critical thinking, which I’m guessing you can, because it seems like a big part of organizing other people’s junk, you’ll do fine. I can pay you a decent wage, too. My family’s foundation has an allotment for an assistant. I’ve just never been able to find anyone interested in the job.”
“I won’t lie, I need the money, but what matters more is getting us both help. If you’re willing to train me, I’m in. Do you want to get started right now?”
He looked at his watch, a simple analog timepiece that looked like it had some years on it. “I would love to, but I’m a judge at the high school science fair at two.” He glanced at her. “You want to go with me? It would be a great way to meet some new people and see a little more of the town.”
She smiled. “The high school science fair? Will there be baking-soda volcanoes?”
He chuckled. “Probably. But in Shadowvale, sometimes the experiments can be more interesting than the usual.”
She nodded. Being with someone who knew who she really was and didn’t care was very appealing. Especially when that someone was going to help her. “I’d love to.”
“Great. I’ll go change, then meet you downstairs in ten minutes.”
“Perfect.”
Ten minutes later, they were in his car, a sturdy old Land Rover. He pointed out a few things along the way, some businesses he liked, a restaurant that had great homemade pasta, the park where Edgar had once torn three trees out by their roots.
She smiled at that, even though it wasn’t funny. It was just such a curious conversation to have and not one she imagined he’d had with a lot of other people.
The tree-lined street gave way to a slight rise, and the high school appeared before them, a big red-brick, white-stucco and glass two-story structure with a flat roof and a large electric marquee out front proudly proclaiming Shadowvale High School as the home of the Tigers. The scrolling ticker announced the science fair.
Henry parked in the visitors lot. “I just need to check in at the front desk. I guess you’ll have to as well. I think that’s standard for all visitors.”
“No problem.”
They walked in together. He held the door for her, then gestured to the plexiglass window that separated the receptionist from the lobby. He went up to it and greeted the woman. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Palfrey.”
“Hello, Dr. Jekyll. Science fair, right?”
“Yes. And this is my assistant, Isadora Graham. I need to check her in, too.”
