Don't Slay the Dragon (The Chronicles of Elizabeth Marshall Book 1) (18 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Travis, can you print me two copies of this entire file?”  Logan’s question broke into my thoughts.  “And keep this all under wraps.”

“Sure thing, Chief,” Travis smiled as he loaded the paper tray of his printer. 

I gave Logan a questioning look.  I wanted to keep reading.

“Trust me,” he said quietly as Travis took the copies out of the printer and handed each of us one pile.  The paper was still warm from the printer.  “You did a great job, Travis.”

              “I’m not done looking.  I still think I might find more.”  He was already clicking his mouse and searching through more files.

“Then let me know if
you do find something.”

“Thanks, Travis.”  I said as we started to head out of the darkened area.  He gav
e a cheerful wave back then dived back into his investigation. He was like a kid with the hottest new video game release.

“What do you need two copies for?”  I asked as we walked down the hall.

“He only printed one copy,” he gave me an innocent look, took the pile out of my hands, opened my jacket and slid it against my chest then zipped the jacket up to my collar bone.  “I need to put this other copy in the official file. Head out the back door.  Is there somewhere we can meet?”

“Are you up to Chinese food?”  I asked.

He smiled and we agreed on a small restaurant not too far away.  As I got in my car and gave it a chance to warm up, I unzipped my jacket and set the papers on the seat next to me.  I was reeling from the possibilities of what the journal might be telling us.  I was grateful to have Logan as a sounding board.  Delving into the mind of Barbara might prove to me as difficult as dealing with Lisbeth.

Once in the restaurant, I asked for a small booth towards the back and was just sitting down and accepting a glass of water when
Logan arrived.  I set the papers on the table between us.  We seemed to mutually agree to leave it alone until our meals were ordered.  I ordered lemon chicken while he ordered beef and broccoli.  We each had hot jasmine tea.

“I’m not going to get you into any trouble, am I?”  I asked as soon our waitress walked away with our order.

“Personally or professionally?”  He teased.  I guess my question was a bit broad.

“Both
, I guess.” 

“Well,” he took a sip of the tea, “personally,
if you’re asking if I have a wife and children somewhere that I’ve been sneaking around on, the answer is no. I’ve been divorced for two years.  She worked in dispatch and was having an affair with another officer in the department.  He was fired, but they went ahead and got married.  He works at the county sheriff’s office now.  We never had any children but she has a baby girl with her new husband.”  He didn’t seem too emotional about it.  He seemed to have healed from the relationship.  “I wish them well.  What about you?”

I told him about my marriage to Lewis, not going into too much detail about the abuse.  It still wasn’t something I could talk about readily.  We commiserated with each other about our separate divorces, talked about the challenges of keeping a marriage together, and exchanged ideas about what we would want a future relationship to be like.

He was so easy to talk to.  What he said was interesting but he was also a good listener.  He asked about my college plans and was very supportive about some of my ideas for the future.  He had already earned his degree in law enforcement, so he was very encouraging about me finishing my degree. 

Logan was easy to talk to. He was a great listener. He didn’t interrupt when you were trying to express a point. His comments were thoughtful and non-judgmental.
It was so relaxing talking to him that we were almost finished with our meals before we each looked at the pile of papers on the table.

“
You didn’t answer one of my questions.”  I mentioned.

“I didn’t?”  He gave me a surprised look.  “Which question would that be?”

“Am I going to get you into any trouble at work?”  I looked again pointedly at the papers.

“No, I’m being careful.”  His eyes seemed trusting.  I hoped he was right.  “You have the right to most of this information. 
Even this journal.  It’s just a small police department.  People talk.  I didn’t want any unnecessary attention or focus on you until we get to the bottom of this.  Besides,” his handsome face was concerned, “if you had seen your face when we were reading the journal…”

He left the rest unsaid. 
Had my expression said that much?  My mother had always said you could read every thought that went through my head by the expression on my face.

There was no question it was very difficult reading Barbara’s entries.  In some ways, as crazy as it seemed,
Barbara was almost like a second mother to me.  I had spent so much time with her and Lisbeth.  It was hard for me to think I may have missed the signs that she was having such serious problems.

“I thought we should have some relative privacy to read through the rest,” he picked up the pile and handed it across the table to me. 
“Ladies first.”

It wasn’t exactly in my experience to be around a ma
n who was so thoughtful and considerate.  My own father always treated my mother with respect and concern, but somehow I had begun to believe they were traits left to the last generation.  Maybe Logan was different.

I pushed my almost finished plate aside and made sure there was a clean place for the papers.  Hesitantly, I picked up the first few pages and scanned down to where I had left off before.

             
                                                                                    August 5

I haven’t written for a while. 
There hasn’t been time. The creativity is endless.  It flows through my veins like liquid fire.  Many nights I can’t sleep, I must stay up and paint all night.  My pieces are selling well at the bookstore.  My gratitude to Atrus Dracona is boundless.  She inspires me.  She fills me with confidence and energy. 

              September 23

Dracona is a strict master. 
She must have my total obedience and attention.  She is jealous and ferocious in her possessiveness.  I am glad that Elizabeth is old enough now to take care of herself.  I don’t dare anger Dracona by giving Elizabeth too much attention.  I have seen the anger of the Wise One.  I have seen what she is capable of.  I must keep her content.  I must keep her quieted.

I handed the pages to Logan and waited for him to read them before I read on.

“What do you think was wrong with her?”  I asked.  “Do you think this Atrus Dracona was an alter ego?  Do you think Barbara had multiple personality disorder too?”

Logan took another bite of his fried rice and seemed to think through his next words carefully.

“What if Barbara wasn’t doing research on exorcism for Lisbeth?”  He suggested.

I looked at him in question for a moment then my eyes widened as it hit me. 

“No!  It can’t be!”  My recently filled stomach started to churn at the thought.  “Barbara?  Possessed?”  He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Think about it.  Doesn’t it make sense?” He questioned.

It made more sense than he knew. 
I thought back to her reference to Halloween night, the séance, the Ouija board.  What had happened that night?  I wondered if Lisbeth or another personality was present that night.  I wondered if they could tell me what happened.

“Did you ever see anything suspicious?”  He asked.

“She was always eccentric, just like Lisbeth.”  I answered, searching back through my memories of Barbara.  “She was free-thinking and temperamental. She had a temper and I saw her and Lisbeth argue frequently.  But it’s hard to say if it was anything else.  It’s not like I ever saw her speaking in tongues or her head spinning around.”

“Those are stereotypes anyway.  If it was an evil spirit, a demon, it could have been more subtle. 
And you weren’t with them 24/7.  There’s no telling what things happened when you weren’t around, or when Lisbeth wasn’t around.”

He had a point.  How much was there that went on in their lives that I didn’t know about?  Lisbeth’s initial diagnosis took me completely
by surprise, and I thought I really knew her. Then there was the missing years, the years after I had moved away and lost touch with them.  Anything could have happened in those years.

Maybe there was more I needed to learn.  I picked up the pages and continued reading.

Chapter
Thirty-Four

                                                                                                
 
January 17

It’s sleeping, finally. 
I think it might actually be safe.  For weeks I’ve lived in fear that she might awaken. My dreams are filled with fear that she might return.  She haunts me.  I look in the mirror and sometimes see her staring back at me.  I hear her following closely behind me.  She follows me everywhere.  No matter how hard I try, I can never outrun her, never escape her.

                                                                                                  January 26

I can’t remember how I got home tonight. 
I’m starting to forget things again.  My car was parked out front, so I must have driven, but I have no memory of it.  Have I eaten today?  I don’t know.  The memory loss is getting worse.  I think she suspects that I’m fighting her.  If she knows that I’m trying to regain control I think she might try to destroy me.  What will I do if she takes complete control?  What will happen to Elizabeth? 

                                                                                                  April 26

Something happened tonight.  I only have brief glimpses of it.  Elizabeth had a friend of hers over for dinner.  I had been struggling all day to keep Dracona away, but she was fighting me.  I would say things, hurtful things, and it would be out of my mouth before I realized it. 
Elizabeth and I began to argue.  There is something wrong with my daughter.  Before I knew it, we had knives pointed at each other.  When I looked into her eyes, it wasn’t my daughter looking back at me.  It was someone else.  What has happened to her?  Has this disease that has infected me spread to my daughter? If it has, what will I do?

I was chilled to the bone remembering the night in question.  Even now I could picture the two of them, knives pointed at each other, the dangerous look in both of their eyes.  I had no way of knowing what was going on inside each of them. 

“That was me,” I
quietly told Logan as he read the entry.  “I was the guest at dinner.”

“Are you serious?” 
His dark blue eyes widened in shock. He was horrified.  I nodded silently. It took a moment for him to reply.  “What happened?”

I related the incident to him as I remembered it. 
My voice sounded somewhat emotionless to my own ears. It wasn’t until now that I realized how hard I had tried over the years to put that particular memory behind me. I had been so frightened that night, but not nearly as frightened as I would have been if I had known what was really going on with the mother and daughter. How could I, a young teenage girl, have understood the true dynamics of what was really going on between them?

When I finished explaining it to
Logan, he pushed back the last of his now clean plate and sat back against the padded bench.  I could tell he was still processing through what I had told him. The look he gave me was one mixed with both admiration and concern.

“You really did have a front row seat
to all of this, didn’t you?” he said, amazed.  “It sounds as though each of them was incredibly unstable.  Do you realize what could have happened to you that night?  Did you know what kind of danger you were in?”

“
With Barbara, I had no idea she had these things going on inside of her. She was like a second mother to me at times. She was so incredibly different than my own ‘normal’ mother, but I just thought she was eccentric, unconventional. As for Lisbeth…”  How could you put all the different facets of Elizabeth Marshall into words? She was so hard to define. 

I thought back and started putting dates and places together.  That’s when it hit me.  I gasped and took a look at the last two pages of the journal.  There were only two entries left.

             
                                                                                    May 15

What have I done to my daughter? 
Dracona came out tonight and I couldn’t control her. She came completely unleashed and Elizabeth was in the way.  I don’t remember exactly what happened, but Elizabeth’s piercing screams brought me back from that empty space Dracona usually sends me.  The next thing I knew, Elizabeth was out of control and there was nothing I could do to calm her down.  She fought me with everything she had.  Even with all the martial arts classes we take together, I’m no match for her physically.  There was nothing I could do.  I had to call the paramedics.  They took her to the nearest hospital.  They’re evaluating her in the psych ward.  What have I done to my daughter?

“That’s why Lisbeth had the breakdown,” I said aloud to myself. It was now all starting to make sense.  That was the trigger that sent Lisbeth over the edge.  “What did this Dracona do to her?  It must have been some kind of confrontation.  I can’t even imagine…”  My voice trailed off.

I had always wondered over the years what had caused Lisbeth to have a breakdown. She was usually on such a rollercoaster ride that arguing with her mother was a daily routine.  It must have taken something severe to push her to that breaking point. Was this it?

I looked down at the last entry.  It was dated a week later.  It was the last time Barbara chose to write in this journal.

                                                                                                
 
May 22

My daughter has been diagnosed with something called multiple personality disorder.  The doctors say this has been something going on for years. 
She’s being sent down to the state mental hospital in Provo for further evaluation.  I can’t help but feel a sense of guilt.  I’ve failed her as a mother.  I should have been the one protecting her.  I should have been the one keeping her safe.  Instead, I was the one harming her.  I let Dracona loose.  It’s all my fault.

It’s now more important than ever to keep Dracona hidden.  Elizabeth’s doctors will be watching me closely, I’m certain of it.  I must show no signs of the Dragon’s presence.  If they discover her, there’s no telling what could happen.  If I’m allowed visits with Elizabeth, I must make sure the Dragon is not there.  Elizabeth must stay safe now.

I fought to keep the tears in check as I passed the last page to
Logan and waited for him to read it.  This journal cleared up a lot of things for me.  I could now see what a combustible combination the mother and daughter could be.  It was amazing that nothing worse had happened between them all those years ago.  I also realized, in all those trips I had taken with Barbara down to Provo to see Lisbeth, just who I had been sitting next to on those drives.  The thought terrorized me.

“I wish there was more,” I spoke after the waitress came to clear our plates and
Logan organized the pages back into a neat pile.

“Travis is still looking.  He might find more.”  He offered.

“I’d like to know what was going on with Barbara during the first time Lisbeth was hospitalized.  It might really help to understand the situation.”  The waitress brought the bill and two fortune cookies.  Logan grabbed the bill before I could but let me pick one of the two cookies.  “It would also give us a lot of insight to know what was going on in the years since, especially the last few months before her death.”

Logan
nodded in agreement.  He opened up his cookie and gave me a crooked smile as he read the small piece of paper within.

“What does it say?”  I asked in only mild curiosity.  He shook his head and started to put it away in his jacket pocket.  I reached across and grabbed it out of his hand before he could, now filled with curiosity.

“Romance is in the air.  Don’t miss this opportunity.”

I felt my cheeks blush at the words.  We hadn’t gotten quite that far yet,
but it was now very evident we were each considering it as a possibility.  Before he could say anything, I cracked open my cookie and took out the small slip of paper.

“I need to go back and see Elizabeth.”  It was already apparent to me that was where the answers were, the tiny paper in my hands only confirmed it. 

“Why?”  He was confused by the quick change in topic.  I slid my fortune across the table for him to see.

“Visit an old friend soon.  You will find answers.”