Within

Synopsis

The creative piece is set in the Cotswolds and written in omniscient narrative style.

It focuses on twin sisters, Imogen and Jasmine. Jasmine hates her sister who does not really exist now.

Imogen thinks she is normal and a detective whereas really she is the  one who is ill . When Imogen was younger her parents died, which disrupted her growing up. When Jasmine dies too, Imogen can’t cope and so her brain makes up its own alternative personalities to deal with the reality she can’t face.  The death of her parents initiated the emergence of a ‘spilt personality’ but was more recognizable when Jasmine died: this was a stress factor which made her appear  crazy.

Chapter 1 is her hallucination period where she thinks she is interviewing a prisoner.

Chapter 5 is set in the present time and she is actually talking to a Psychiatrist about events that have happened: she stills thinks her sister is alive.

The intervening chapters are written in a diary format to give the readers a sense of time.

This story is not finished yet.

Chapter 1

                                                 Imogen (Present day)

She grabs her coffee from her desk and brushes her long blonde hair away from her eyes. She walks at ease towards the room and opens the door to a man who is sitting at the desk with a smug look on his face. He’s tall and quite handsome, with scruffy, short hair and brown eyes. She walks towards him and sits on the chair opposite. The room is painted grey all the way around with a window at the end.

He is looking at her with a smirk. Imogen stares at him thinking how dare he look at her like that and who the hell does he think he is? Sometimes she hates her job but someone has GOT to put these bastards behind bars. 

Imogen cannot bear that grin anymore. She gets up, walks around the table towards him, puts her foot right next to his chair and leans into him. He looks up and the smile is gone: he looks unsure as to what this crazy woman is doing. She grabs the chair and throws it backwards sending him to the floor.

She screams at him ‘HOW DID YOU DO IT, YOU BASTARD? I KNOW IT WAS YOU!’

Imogen feels weird but she does not know what’s going on, it feels like something is taking over her and she can’t stop it but it feels good and she does not want it to stop. She feels exhilarated. Imogen can hear a faint voice but she is not sure where it’s coming from and does not know what it is saying.

He screams ‘WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, BITCH!’ and is in complete shock. He’s never met this woman before; what the fuck is going on? She looks up with a grin on her face and puts her hand in her pocket. She grabs an object and puts it to the man’s neck, digging it in fiercely. It’s long, thin, with a sharp end that looks like a letter opener.  He tries to break free but he can’t: he keeps wriggling. The knife presses harder into his neck, causing it to bleed a little.

He shouts in a trembly voice ‘Get off me, bitch, you’re insane.’ She shouts at him to sit still and she smiles. Her eyes are now serious and dark, her whole face is changing colour. She is incredibly wild, out of control, seems overwhelmed with this new power. She feels invincible.  She presses the knife even harder against his throat and asks him if he has any last wishes. Before he answers, she moves the knife away and with one quick swipe, she slits his throat. 

His blood drips everywhere. Drops of blood can be heard hitting the ground. It sounds just like rain drops: splat, splat and she can hear the gentle gurgling of blood from his mouth. She moves to the front of him and kicks the chair to the floor. Bringing the knife to her mouth, she licks the remaining blood from it and makes a humming noise like she is enjoying the taste, then licks her lips. She smiles and says, ‘That’s for killing her, you bastard’. Imogen walks back out of the room as if nothing has happened.

                                                        Chapter 5

        (Present day)  Imogen

With a dejected air she walks over to the office. Her hair is worn, discoloured, greasy and lifeless. She is wearing pale blue trousers and a black, long-sleeved top with a picture of a guitar on it and a pair of trainers that look tattered. She takes a bottle of water as she walks by the desk and enters the room.

The man is sitting down at his desk: he is tall, very handsome and mysterious with his green eyes and black hair. He seems to have a friendly face because he is smiling at her with a soft demeanour. He may have a friendly face but she can see straight through it. He moves from his desk and takes a seat on his black leather chair. She walks towards him but makes no contact with his eyes and moves towards his sofa.

She knows he is smiling at her, she can feel it on her cheeks. Imogen says to herself, ‘You bastard, stop it.’ She wants to shout at him but something is stopping her from doing it. She feels herself walking towards his chair and her hand is in her back pocket. Imogen goes to him and slides her hand out of her pocket. She thrusts the metal emery board to his throat. She is going to tear his bloody throat out; who the hell does he think he is looking at her like that.

The guard, who was concealed at the back of the room, suddenly grabs her hand and bends it back making her drop the object. She screams in pain as he throws her to the floor and he grabs both of her hands. He puts a pair of cuffs on. He grabs her by the hair and pulls her head up.

‘STOP!’ Dr Philips shouts.

The guard says ‘Dr Philips, you okay? I am sorry; this is not going to happen again. I am going to take her back to her room.’ He manhandles her and walks towards the door.

Dr Philips says in a stern voice, ‘Its fine, Edwards. I am fine. No, don’t, she will be fine now. If you wait outside I will call you if I need you.

The guard starts to hesitate ‘But’….

‘No buts. She’s got her handcuffs on and she is not going to do it again, are you Imogen?’ He walks back to his desk while he’s talking to both of them.

She looks at him and does not say anything. She wonders why he is so confident. Imogen feels agitated so she starts to pick and play with her fingers.

The guard leaves the room and they both sit there quietly as if they both are gathering their thoughts. Dr Phillips watches her for a few seconds then leans forward.

‘Right, let’s try again. We got off on the wrong foot; obviously it was something I did. I am sorry if I offended you in any way,’ Dr Philips says.

She does not say anything and carries on gazing at the floor. Imogen hears the voice again saying: ‘Does he not know who I am, I don’t need him to analyse me. They have the wrong person, it’s my sister they want, and she’s insane.’ The voice stops and Imogen thinks she could not have said that better herself and she can see he is ready to talk again.

Dr Philips starts to talk ‘Alright, Imogen, you can stop this session at any time and the guard is outside so I know you will not try to attack me. My name is Dr Paul Philips but you can call me Paul. Do you know why you’re here?’

Imogen glares at him now, her eyes are on fire. ‘Of course I don’t why I am here. Your imbeciles dragged me out of work while I was interviewing a man on murder charges,’ she says as she is dragging her fingers down the sofa impatiently.

Dr Philips calmly says ‘Imogen, you were not at work, you were found in your flat sitting next to the dead body of Roger Jones.’  He watches her closely waiting for a reaction but her eyes still stay fixed on the floor.

Imogen’s voice starts to tremble a little ‘I don’t understand what’s going on. I swear I was at work. I can’t remember being at my sister’s flat. You got it wrong, it’s my sister you’re after, she’s the crazy one.’ She knows exactly what he’s trying to do to her; he’s trying to confuse her. Like she does to her detainees.

‘Ok, Imogen, tell me bit about yourself and your sister,’ he says as he takes a sip of water.

What does he want from me? she mumbles under her breath. Imogen decides to keep him happy and be the helpful person she is. Her body starts to soften as she tells him where she grew up, which was the Cotswolds. How she loves how quiet it is and everyone is kind. Her favourite part is the bridge with a stream running through it with rocks you can walk on and she likes to lie on the grass and listen to the water trickle.  Her entire demeanour looks different. It’s changed from picking and playing with her fingers and she is more relaxed now.

‘I am 28 years old and I have a twin sister, she is not like me. I have a fantastic career as a detective and she works as a poxy waitress. She’s not like me. I am lucky, she is crazy and she tried to kill herself several times. She’s as rough as hell, not like me, I am normal but I do try to be there for her and I have to be there for my family, don’t I?’

He looks at her in a concerned manner, walks over to his desk, grabs a file and another glass of water. He walks back to the chair and they are both quiet. He flicks at the file and then closes it and puts his hands to his mouth.

 Dr Philip’s face looks serious now as he starts to talk ‘Right Imogen. That’s great, thank you. There are some things I want to talk about and please tell me if I am wrong.’

She nods her head for him to carry on, while talking to herself saying ‘of course he’s wrong. Why am I even here?’ Something inside her wants to reach out to him and slam his head across his desk until he stops breathing. She is empowered and can’t control this feeling, it feels good. She tries to get her hands loose but it just is not happening; she is starting to feel frustrated. She once more starts pulling at her fingers one by one. She does not feel like herself. It’s as if someone else is trying to take over her body.

Dr Philips starts to talk again, ‘I have your file here. It says your sister, Jasmine, died five years ago in a car accident. Imogen rolls her eyes as she starts to laugh. ‘Your sister died instantly and you were in a coma for six days.  Do you remember this, Imogen?’

Imogen stares at him, still laughing. She thinks this is ridiculous. She does not want to talk to him but humours him, interested to see what other lies he will come up with next. ‘I saw her the other day; she was in hospital because she tried to commit suicide again. Stupid cow, she can never do it properly.  Sometimes I wish she would talk to me but she hates my guts. I am the last person she would turn to.’

‘Fine, I see. We’ll come back to that. Shall I carry on?’ he says.

She nods her head.

‘Ok, I’ll carry on but I would like to hear your opinion when I have finished.’

Dr Philips carries on with the questioning. Imogen just sits there and answers when he asks her thoughts and opinions but then Dr Philips changes his questions to see if he gets a reaction from her. He asks Imogen what happened to her mum and dad. She glares at him with hatred but there are tears in her eyes.  She closes them and sits still, picking at her fingers and humming as if in a trance. Dr Philips snaps his fingers at Imogen when she does not answer. She jumps slightly and the humming stops. Her eyes then open: they look far away, dull and sad. She then moves her legs up to her chin and places her hands on her chest while muttering ‘They just won’t stop talking to me.’ A tear rolls down her face. Imogen sits in this position for half an hour.

Dr Philips watches her for a while, shocked by the sudden emotion. He feels he has made a breakthrough with her. 

Eventually he gets up and calls the guard back in, who pulls her roughly to her feet.

They leave the psychiatrist’s room in silence and she is escorted back to the psyche ward.  Imogen now looks lost and bewildered, she can’t believe what’s happening to her and she can’t seem to comprehend what Dr Philips has just told her. She can’t seem to recall what happened in the last half hour. It does not seem to make sense to her because she is not ill she is normal, it’s her sister who has this disease. But suddenly her mind starts to wander back to this morning and all she can remember is walking into a room and meeting Dr Philips and attacking him. She tries to think harder but she can’t remember going to the police station. It dawns on her that she was never there and she never was interviewing that guy and killing him: it was just an hallucination or a bad dream but then Dr Philips had told her she was sitting next to a dead body. Imogen feels mad, she does not know who she is and what’s real and what’s not any more.

Imogen walks into the building and looks up: the walls are white like a radiator. The doors are also white, with a window, and the tops all have locks on them. She walks by the main reception where there are two nurses dressed in white chatting to each other. One has an eye patch on her right eye. They stop talking and stare at Imogen.

The woman with the eye patch mumbles ‘Bitch’ under her breath and says to the other nurse, ‘She will pay for what she did to me’. Imogen is confused and  wondering who is this  woman.

The nurse walks up to Imogen, only inches away from her face ‘You’d better watch yourself because I can do things to you when you are not even aware. Just be careful when you’re asleep’ and the nurse punches her in the stomach.

Imogen goes down to the floor, holding her stomach. Her shoulders go tense and when she looks up she has a big smirk on her face. ‘Now we’re talking.’ She sees a needle in the nurse’s hand. She lunges towards her, knocking the guard to the floor.

The nurse looks stunned and shouts for the assistant to press the buzzer for help. Imogen grabs the needle with her mouth and stabs the nurse in the neck. The nurse falls to the floor and Imogen jumps on her, opens her mouth and reaches to her neck and bites it.

There are three guards running towards her. They grab her and, as she stands up, she has a chunk of skin in her mouth. She spits it out and licks the blood from her lips.

The guard screams, ‘Imogen, what the hell have you done?’

 She looks at them and says ‘I am not fucking Imogen, I am Jas. She’s a fucking whore and nobody.’

They grab a second needle, inject her arm. She screams, ‘Get the fuck off me!’

The guards are taken aback by what has just happened; then Dr Philips runs in and sees the nurse on the floor. The blood is spurting out of her neck where a big piece of skin is missing. Her body is lifeless from the injection.

Dr Philips snaps ‘What the hell has just happened?’ He then  shouts to the  guards: ‘QUICK, GET HER TO THE INFIRMARY. I WILL BE THERE SHORTLY.’ He moves towards Imogen, who now is sitting on the floor, quiet at last. Her whole body and face looks frail. She goes back to rocking and humming like she was earlier.

‘Jas, can you hear me? It’s Dr Paul Philips. Do you know why you have done this to Nurse Green?

Imogen comes out of her trance and goes back to her confused self, says ‘Why are you calling me, Jas? I am Imogen. Who is Nurse Green and what happened?

She is pale  and he can see that Jas has gone and Imogen has returned. He feels sorry for her. She has not got a clue as to who she is or what is happening to her. 

‘Guards, take her back to her room, she looks shattered and I will see her later’, Dr Philips says as he walks to the infirmary.

‘Yes, sir, our pleasure,’ mutters the guard.

They drag Imogen to her cell, open the door and throw her in. She hits her head on the floor and they turn around, ‘It serves you right. Watch your back, miss, or we will get you for hurting one of our own’. They slam the door and walk away.

 Imogen looks at the door and towards the wall. There is a picture of her family. She puts her face in her hands and cries.

 She hears the voice in her head again and it’s telling her to go under her bed. Find a piece of brick that is loose. She finds it, reaches into it and pulls out a letter opener, like the one in her hallucination. The voice tells her to put the weapon to her wrists. Her body tenses, although she desperately tries to ignore it, but it gets stronger and she can’t resist it. She lashes at her left wrist seven times and does the same to the right wrist. The blood goes everywhere. She feels lightheaded and falls to the floor.

Two hours later Dr Philips opens the door and Imogen is lying on the cold floor that has now turned red. He runs to the body and it is lifeless.

Imogen’s body is now placed in the infirmary. It’s very dark down here and there are two other bodies in black bags. They are getting ready to be taken to the mortuary. The large metal doors creak as Nurse Green comes in .She hobbles to  the bag and  a large white patch covers the hole in her neck. She stares at the bag and says ‘You had it coming you crazy bitch.’

 Suddenly the bag starts to move: she thinks she is seeing things so she closes her eyes . She opens them and screams ‘Oh shit.’

Word count: 3074