Chapter 31: Back to Work

The first good news was that, over the holiday, Spring's clone had finished. Somewhere along the line her protector had recognized it for what it was, a copy of herself, and decided that two protectors were better than one, so she stopped fighting the process. The first step for me when I went to see her was to separate the two. Actually that was the second step. The first was to stick us all in a bubble, then pull the clone out and put it in a second bubble where the first one could observe what was happening.

As soon as I showed up, the protector, of course, wanted to fight. Only this time I wasn't hampered by the need to play nice. Before she even got near me, I had her immobilized. I didn't even bother with restraints but just froze her.

"I am not here to fight you," I said to the one watching from outside. "I know what you are, and I understand what you are trying to do. Watch closely."

I stepped into the bubble with the clone, and, just as she had, the clone immediately went on the attack. I showed no mercy this time but very quickly beat the crap out of her. When she finally went down, I froze the scene and stepped back out into the bigger bubble.

"I could have done that the first time we met," I said, "but as I said, I understand what you're trying to do. You just want Spring to be safe. I know that you don't trust me because I'm a stranger, and you see strangers – especially grown up strangers – as a threat to her. But I am not here to hurt Spring; I am here to help. If I let you go, will you talk to me instead of attacking me again?"

"Yes."

"Nice try, Spring, but that was a lie. I know you don't trust me, and I don't blame you, but think about where you are. If I wanted to hurt Spring, is there anything you could do to stop me, right now?"

Not far away another bubble appeared; in it was a little girl, curled up in fetal position, asleep. As soon as she appeared, the older one started struggling to free herself. When it became evident that she couldn't stop me, her demeanor changed, and she began to cry.

"Please don't hurt her," she pleaded.

"He's not going to hurt her, Spring," Samantha said, appearing suddenly beside her.

"Sam?" Spring said, surprised to see her. "Sam, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be here."

"I know," Samantha said, "but I am. I'm here because you need to trust him, and I know how hard that is for you. That's why he brought me along – because I understand. He does, too, Spring; he really does, and he's really here to help. How are you getting along with Kristie's family?"

"We're doing fine. They let us sleep with Kristie."

"And do you miss Spring's parents?"

Hatred twisted the girl's face. "No," she said coldly. "We're glad they're dead; we hated them; they were evil."

I found it interesting how as soon as the topic of Spring's dead parents came up, she began speaking of herself in plural, expressing herself as a representation of the original as well as the protector. I had already decided the best way to convince her that I was here to help was to show her that I was on her – their – side.

"I know," I said. "That's why I killed them."

Around us an image formed of the cabin on the lake. Spring was chained on the front porch, huddled naked against the nighttime chill. "I killed them for what they did to you..."

The image changed, and now it was Autumn kneeling chained on the porch. Her hands were bound behind her back, and her mother was pulling her head back, forcing her neck straight as her father held her head and forced himself deep into her mouth and throat just as her mother was forcing a huge dildo in and out of her painfully stretched sex.

" ... and for what they did to her."

Spring wailed at the sight of her sister being abused by their parents. I let her go, and she fell to her knees weeping. When she did, Sam knelt down beside her and held her while she cried.

"It's okay, Spring," Sam said. "Watch."

The scene changed, and now her parents were in a lawyer's office signing paperwork to arrange for her to live with Kristie's family if anything should happen to them. Both couples signed the documents, and the notary certified their signatures.

Then the scene changed again, and her parents were on the boat, far out in the middle of the lake at night. The newspaper reports only said that they had apparently fallen overboard while traversing the lake in the dark. The boat had eventually run aground far across the water, but there was no way of knowing where they had fallen overboard. Evidence found on the boat – a condom wrapper and a large vibrator still running on what was left of the batteries – suggested that they may have been fooling around on the moving vessel and either lost their balance or been tossed out when the vessel caught an unexpected wake.

The vision she was seeing now told a different story. In the image, the boat was still as her father tore the condom wrapper open, tossed the latex overboard, and dropped the wrapper on the floor of the boat. While he was doing that, her mother removed the vibrator from her purse, turned it on, and set it down on the seat. Their movements were sure and deliberate – as if what they were doing were the most natural things in the world. After removing their swimsuits, her father shoved the throttle all the way forward and they both stepped casually off the back of the boat into the icy water. They had been in the water for over an hour – treading water as their bodies lost heat and their muscles grew stiff – when suddenly they seemed to become aware of their surroundings. Panic set in as they realized where they were, but by then it was too late – they were too cold and weak to even scream above a whisper. Her mother went first; fading in and out of consciousness and beginning to sink, her dead weight more than her struggling husband could support and hope to stay afloat himself. She woke again briefly as she breathed in her first mouthful of water, and you could see the fear on her face as she realized that her husband had moved away and left her to drown.

Her last words would never make the pages of a romance novel as she simply whispered, "You bastard."

Cry and thrash as she could, she didn't have the strength to stay above water, and within a few minutes she was gone.

Spring's father, meanwhile, had continued to try to swim weakly away from the sound of her mother's thrashing, but he too was far too cold, tired, and stiff to endure. Soon the lake was calm and quiet again.

The look on Spring's face echoed a deep satisfaction at watching them suffer and die. "It was too easy," she said fiercely. "They should have suffered more."

"I know," I said, "but it had to look like an accident."

Suddenly realization dawned, and wonder lit her face. "It was you! You killed them all!"

"Yes," I answered plainly. "It was the only way to save you and the others. You know about the compulsions that Lord Hightower had placed in you in the event that you should be found out, or something should happen to him personally?"

"Yes," she said, surprise again evident on her face, "but those went away a while ago. That was you?"

"Yes," Sam answered for me. "He took them off of everyone."

"Why everyone?" she asked skeptically.

"I didn't want to take them off them all," I answered, "but I couldn't take the chance that something might happen to Hightower before it was time. I didn't want any of you to die because I took a chance.

"You're different, Spring," I said, "in that you knew about the compulsions. Even though there was nothing you could do about them, you knew they were there. The other Spring... ," I indicated the sleeping girl in the other bubble, " ... didn't know about them, did she?"

"No," she answered. "Dawn didn't know; I kept them hidden from her like all the rest."

"Dawn?" I asked.

"Our name is Spring Dawn," she said.

I wasn't surprised. What research I had done had shown me that most multiples took different names to help keep them separate and distinct.

"You kept the name 'Spring' so you wouldn't slip and give yourself away?"

"Yes," she said. "How do you know all this?"

"I had to do some research in order to figure out the best way to handle you and gain your trust, so we could save you both."

"You want to save us both?" She said skeptically.

"Of course," I said. "She can't survive without you. If she could, you wouldn't be here. What happened?"

"You said it," she said with a shrug. "She couldn't cope. When Autumn died... , she just couldn't face..." the memory was obviously still painful and she paused again before going on, " ... I had to save her."

"When Autumn died?" Jamie said. "That's where it happened, Jimmy. She couldn't bear the truth of what had happened to Autumn or the reality that it could happen to her. She knew the truth; that her parents had sold her sister into slavery – or let Hightower do it – and she hated them for it. Her hatred of them kept her from being able to be the submissive little slut they wanted her to be. She couldn't keep it up. The only way was to deny the truth and convince herself that Autumn had died. So she created someone who didn't know the truth. Someone who could do what was necessary and keep her safe."

"Right," I said, "but now it looks like she did too good a job. Spring has protected her all right, but she hid her away so nothing could reach her, and she's kept her there ever since. From the self image, I'd say for years. What do you think will happen when Autumn comes home?"

"I don't know," she answered, "but I certainly don't think it's a good idea to tell Spring she's alive. Worst case is she's not as in control as she may think, and if she discovers the one piece of information that Dawn withheld from her..."

"She may no longer be able to do what Dawn created her to do, in which case there is always the chance that Dawn may in fact be able to replace her with another protector that can."

"Right," she said. "I think we need to go along for now and just stick with the original plan."

'The plan' was to give Spring the one thing she didn't have: Hope, the knowledge that there was in fact – or at least there may be – an end to all this at some point down the road. Of course, now, that hope had to come in two parts. Spring now knew what she needed to – that someone was actually working to put an end to this hell she had been born into – but now there was another component. We had to let 'Dawn' know, and also give her news that her sister was still alive, and that if everything worked out, she would one day get to see her again. I could have forced my way in, but I thought it would be better if Spring gave her consent.

"Spring," I said. "I've shown you the truth about what is going on. I'd like to share that with Dawn as well. Would that be okay with you?"

Immediately her expression changed, becoming more guarded and unsure.

"It's okay, Spring," Sam said. "He's not going to hurt her, I promise. You can trust him. Remember, he didn't have to ask you; he could have just frozen you again and done whatever he wanted to, but he didn't. He asked you instead. Please?"

"Will you stay with me while he goes to her?"

"Of course I will," Samantha said, hugging her. "Be brave, Spring; it's what you do best."

"No it's not," Spring answered in a teasing voice, "and you know it." She turned to me. "Go ahead."

The first thing I did when I reached the little girl was to put a new bubble around us to make sure that 'Spring' couldn't tell what was going on.

"Dawn?" I said softly, kneeling next to the girl curled up before me.

"Who are you?" She asked, uncurling a little to look up at me. "How did you get here?"

"My name is Jimmy," I answered. "And it wasn't easy. Your protector takes her job very seriously."

"My what?"

She didn't even realize what had happened. Not a good sign. Apparently Jamie didn't think so either as suddenly the girl was curled up asleep again.

"Jimmy, we can't tell her, not yet," Jamie said, stepping out suddenly.

"Why not? I thought you just said..."

"I know what I said; I was wrong. Jimmy, unless I'm mistaken, she doesn't know anything has happened. I think she's been frozen here, like this, ever since 'Spring' manifested. We don't know what will happen if we wake her up. It was despair that drove her to this place. If she suddenly had the kind of hope we were going to give her, she may decide to try and come out again. The conflict that could create..."

She was right. The conflict could tear her, them, apart. It would open a breach in Spring's carefully crafted defenses; it could allow Dawn to interfere at the wrong time and do or say something that got them noticed, maybe even punished. I turned and went back out to where we had left Sam and Spring, dissolving the protective bubble as I passed through.

I wasn't surprised to see Sam bound and kneeling at Spring's feet, with the protector holding a knife to her throat. With a thought I froze Spring, dissolved Sam's bonds, and pulled her to her feet.

"Did she hurt you?" I asked.

"No, not really," She said. "Just a little bump on the head; I went along like you said. Can she hear us?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Good," she said with a smile, then turned and hugged the other girl. "It's okay, Spring, I'm not angry with you. I know why you did it, and it's okay. You're doing a great job of protecting Dawn, and I love you."

She kissed her solidly on the mouth. She couldn't really do much considering she was essentially kissing a statue, but she did it anyway, whispering, "I'll see you later," as she pulled away. I sent her back to her own dreamspace and released Spring from her thrall.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. She flicked her wrist, and the knife disappeared. "You knew I would do that?"

"I suspected you might. You knew you couldn't hurt me directly, so you tried to use Sam as leverage just in case."

"And you're not mad?"

"No, like Samantha said, you're doing your job; I can't be mad at you for that – especially since there was no real danger. You couldn't hurt Sam or me either way. I'm going to go now, but before I do, I want to do something for you."

I released the bubble holding the clone and merged the two back together, then reduced the clone back into just the original energy pattern.

"What did you do?" Spring asked. "I feel different, but I don't know why."

"The energy that I used to create the clone is now part of you. I'm not really sure what that will mean in the long run, but it should help strengthen you. I don't think Hightower has figured out that we stripped away the hidden compulsions from before, but if he does and tries to do it again, it won't work – not the way he expects it to. The compulsion will form just as he expects, but it will not be able to control you. No matter what he tries, it won't work unless you go along with it – which you should at first, so he doesn't suspect that you can really resist him. Otherwise, it won't be real, and no matter how it may appear, you will be the one in control.

"How can you do all this?" She asked.

"There is more," I said, ignoring the question. "If you should ever feel threatened – ever face something you can't handle – call me, and no matter where you are or where I am, I will send someone to help you."

"What do you... ?" She gasped suddenly as Jamie merged into her. "Holy shit! What the... ?" As quickly as she had come, Jamie was gone again. All we had wanted was to let her know that I was telling the truth, and 'someone' had come to her. It took her a second to catch her breath after the sudden rush. "That was intense," she said.

"You're welcome," I said. "You're doing a good job, Spring. Keep up the good work, and hopefully, if everything goes well, this should all be over soon. You won't try and kill me if I hug you, will you?"

"You're serious? After all this shit you want to hug me?"

"Of course," I said. "I told you, I understand why you are this way; why you do the things you do. Something Sam and I have in common is that we accept you and love you for who you are. So do I get the hug, or should I just go?"

"Can I get a kiss too?"

Now that she knew I wasn't the enemy, and I wasn't here to use her, there was a different sort of passion about her. The kiss made it clear that she felt the same way Tanya had before. Jamie felt it too and stayed back. I broke the kiss before Spring had a chance to try and push it any further and stepped back.