Psychosis

Chapter 50- A Horrible Sense Of Familiarity

Isabel looked in the mirror, staring at her reflection, trying to figure out what looked off about it. She couldn't figure it out, until she saw something strange on her face. It was a small white scar on her cheek that certainly wasn't there before. But as she inspected the scar, another one appeared on her other cheek, but this scar was darker. The first one was white, but this one was light pink.

And, before she knew it, several more scars started to appear on her neck and face, each one bigger and darker than the one before it. The last one was at the base of her neck, and it was about three inches and deep pink. At first, she just stared at the scars, wondering what they meant and why they were showing up. But there wasn't any sign as to what they could possibly mean.

And then, suddenly, she felt a sharp sting on her chest, and she gasped in pain. The rest of the scars had just appeared without a sensation. Then there was another sharp sting, this one worse. As the stings continued to get worse, she pulled off her shirt, and on her chest, she saw thick, long scars, but these ones were black- dark and nasty. Each time a new one appeared, she felt a worse sting of pain, and she closed her eyes, trying to work through the pain. And finally, it stopped.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw on her stomach the worst scar yet. It was as wide as her stomach, thick and jagged, and it was a darker shade of black than all the others. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. What did all of this mean? Why was this happening to her? She looked at the scar at the base of her neck and hesitantly touched it.

She immediately brought her hand away as a bad memory flooded her brain.

Is that what these were? The scars of her past? She thought about the memory that had been brought about by the scar she had touched. She wondered what memory touching the first scar would bring back. But then she looked at the scar on her stomach and wondered what that scar would bring back. Well, actually, she had a feeling that she already knew. So she absolutely did not want to touch it and absolutely under no circumstances was she going to.

Suddenly she heard a squeaking noise at her feet, and she looked down to see that a mouse had settled on her foot. For a second, she just stared at it, breathing heavily. She hated mice. She hoped that if she just stood still, it would eventually go away. But that was not what happened. Instead, it looked up at her, and, almost as if it sensed her fear, began to climb up her leg. Isabel screamed and kicked out, trying to throw the thing off of her leg.

Fortunately, her little maneuver worked, and she saw the mouse land on the ground and scurry off. Unfortunately, it also caused her to lose her balance, and she took a few steps back, just trying to regain her balance. By doing so, she ran into a small step-stool that she hadn't seen, and she tripped over it. And on her way down, because fate absolutely hated her, as she flailed her arms trying to find something to grab a hold of, she accidentally brushed her hand along that big jagged scar on her stomach.

Immediately, her worst memory started to flash across her eyes, and the worst part of it was, she couldn't stop it. With the other scar, the memory had stopped when she was no longer touching it. But with this memory, it just kept playing. Once it ended, it just started over again, trapping her in an endless cycle of mental agony. The pain of her hitting the floor didn't even register over the pain the memory was putting her through. And even though she tried everything she could to get it to stop, she just couldn't.

So, instead, she just curled up into a ball, put her head in her knees, and started to cry.

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Ciara wasn't sure what to expect when the car containing her, Reid, Rossi, and Hotch pulled onto the Whittle's property. She could see that the property was large, and she wondered if the four of them would even be able to search the whole thing. There were a lot of places someone could hide evidence out on the farm. But it turned out that evidence would be the least of Ciara's worries. The thing she had to worry about was that the property was going to bring about a bittersweet, horrible sense of familiarity.