I stared at him, my chest heaving up and down. “What on earth are you talking about? You are crazy. I’m leaving now.”
“No, wait, let me explain. Please, Samantha. I need to get this off my chest. I can’t do this anymore. You’re right, I betrayed you, my own best friend. And I lied to Blake.” His face visibly paled. “Pretty sure I’m a dead man when he finds out. But you have to let me tell you what’s really going on.”
As much as I wanted to scream and throw a holy tantrum, his last plea got to me. More than anything, I needed to know the truth. I was done being confused.
“Okay, spill it. And when you’re done, I leave. Don’t touch me, and don’t follow me. Do you understand? Or I will make sure Blake’s not kind.” I regretted my last words as soon as they came out. Seeing Mack’s flinch confirmed that I’d gone too far.
Like it or not, it was still Mack. Freaky liar, probably psychopath, but still Mack. For whatever reason, I couldn’t stomach seeing him hurt. It tore at something inside me, like a throbbing hangnail.
“You might want to sit down for this,” he said gently.
I sighed heavily, and then shrugged as I plopped down on his bed. “Okay. I’m sitting.”
To my relief, he stood far from me. “Samantha, when you drowned as a kid, it did something to you. When you were underwater, someone else took over. You have another personality within you. It’s Sammy.”
That wasn’t what I’d been expecting, and my mouth gaped open to protest. There was no way that was true? Was there?
“What do you mean—another personality?”
“Sometimes, when someone’s traumatized or really afraid, multiple personalities emerge to protect or defend that person. That’s what happened to you. You don’t remember it because you blackout when she comes and wake up when she leaves you.”
My eyes widened. “Blake told me I’d felt his face underwater when he saved me, but I only remember this feeling I’d be okay and the next minute I was above water…”
Mack nodded. “Yeah, that was probably Sammy. That’s when she first came to be. In your moment of sheer terror, she came to save you. Honestly, when Blake asked me to look out for you at school, neither one of us knew about your other side yet. After you and I’d become good friends, I saw her. Maybe six months after the drowning incident, we were out in your yard playing when you fell down. When you didn’t get up, I ran over to see if you were okay. I must’ve been saying your name because all of a sudden you sat up and glared at me. You shouted, ‘I’m not Samantha!’”
Mack chuckled a little. “I said ‘sure, whatever, Samantha’ and you hulled back and socked me in the nose. So then I was like ‘fine, tell me who are you then?’ And then you freaked out, got all scared on me, saying you didn’t know.”
I could only stare at Mack. I didn’t want to believe this could be true. And yet, I’d been experiencing blackouts, going to therapy, supposing it had to do with my fear of drowning, and never really understanding why for as long as I could remember.
“I’d said something like, ‘fine whatever, you’re Sammy,’ and you calmed right down. You told me to call you Sammy from then on, not Samantha. I thought you were just joking around and I humored you. Then it kept happening. You’d be all nice and then just shift into this bossy prima donna. We’d be out riding and then you’d dump the bike and want to go to my house so you could rummage through my science books.”
“That does not sound like me at all,” I cut in.
“I know, you hate science. And school. But Sammy wanted to study all the time. It was like she couldn’t get enough. I tried to shrug it off for a while. And I debated whether to tell Blake, and then Sammy begged me not to tell anyone. That’s when I heard your mom and dad arguing one day in the kitchen. You were up in your room, and I was waiting for you downstairs. Your mom kept saying how she didn’t understand why you were so different. Why you kept lying about where you’d been or what you’d done all day. I decided I had to tell them what I’d seen. Your parents put you into therapy after what I’d told them. During your first session, Sammy came out. She was ticked at me for telling your parents. She emerged to tell the therapist to mind her own business. By then, your parents knew what was really happening. Your dad took it pretty well, kept being patient and calling you Sammy when you seemed upset. But your mom had a harder time with it. For whatever reason, Sammy came out more for her, and the two of them didn’t get along at all.”
Mack grimaced.
I swallowed hard. “This sounds too crazy to be true, but it makes too much sense. That’s probably why Jeremy told me he’d catch me with you all the time and get all annoyed. I never understood what he was talking about. He saw us together when I was Sammy.”
“Jeremy.” Mack spat the word out. “Blake’s right, he’s the mother of all douches. Samantha, it didn’t take long for everyone to think you were a bit off at school. I tried to keep the rumors from flying, but you’d pass out in class and then act strange, different. No one knew what to expect. Your parents let the teachers know of your disorder, but they wanted to keep it discreet for you. But that didn’t matter to everyone else.”
Another piece to my puzzle. “So that’s why no one ever wanted to date me? And why only Jen and you were my friends?”
Mack gave me a sad smile. “Yeah. By the time we’d hit high school, guys thought you were totally hot, but steered clear. Until Jeremy. He pretty much told everyone he didn’t care if you had an IQ of ten, you were good looking, and that’s all that mattered to him.”
“Ugh. He just wanted to make out with me?”
“Pretty much. Blake and I wanted to deck him on more than one occasion. You see, I had fallen for Sammy while Blake was in love with Samantha.”
I gaped at him. Shocking as it was, another piece fell into place. “Did Blake know about Sammy and how you felt about me… or her?” I asked at last.
“No, he didn’t. I couldn’t admit to him that I’d fallen for the girl he loved most of all, even if it was just one side of her. When Sammy realized how I felt about her, she pressured me to find a way to free her.” His face saddened. “What started out as her trying to save you, changed. She felt she was stronger then you, so she could take better care of you. Keep you safe. She said she loved you more than anything… and that was why she had to find a way to be the dominant personality.”
“What do you mean? Seems like she just comes whenever the heck she wants. I’m always passing out, waking up somewhere new.” I gasped, realizing what my words meant. “That’s what happened in Tonbo’s theater, isn’t it?”
Mack nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think she took over, flew back home. To do what, I’m not sure really. We were hunting, well, Jaxon. Truth is, Sammy wasn’t always honest with me.” He grimaced. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. I need to tell you how it all happened.”
I nodded, not really looking forward to the bit about the cabin. I just couldn’t stomach that Mack had purposely tried to terrorize me.
“Sammy was smart, like I said, and determined to find a way to heal herself. She was convinced that if she could fix her broken pieces, she would be the one left in control. You see, she can only emerge from time to time. Most of the times are when you’re nervous, afraid, and almost always when you’re in danger. She’d get so mad at you for mountain biking. She’d curse at how she’d find herself suddenly plummeting precariously down some slick cliff. She’d get you out of the scrape and then march to my house to use my computer.” Mack glanced at me. “Or to do other things.”
I felt my face heat. Was that why Mack’s lips felt familiar and welcoming to me?
“Other things?” I repeated.
“Yeah, well, we liked each other. Sammy told me she loved me. She wanted us to be together. I’d never had anyone like that before. It happened one time when we were kissing. I lost control and—” I almost gasped at what he might be implicating, but he finished with, “I transformed into a dragon right before her.”
/> “Oh,” I said, relieved beyond measure that that was it.
“I knew I’d messed up. And she wouldn’t stop with the questions until I’d pretty much spilled the beans. Once I’d told her all about the Dragon Fae world, and Blake, she figured out that he was who had saved her that day in the water. She immediately wanted to know if the serum would work for her. Make it so she’d be herself permanently, never to disappear again.”
Now I was beginning to understand why Mack had said it was Sammy’s plan.
“So in other words, Sammy wanted me to disappear forever,” I said.
Mack frowned. “Yeah, and that’s why I told her no. As much as I loved her and wanted to be with her, I cared for you as my friend. I never wanted to hurt you, Samantha. You have to believe me.”
“So what happened then? Why’d you end up doing it anyway?”
“Love makes you foolish and blind, I’m ashamed to say. Sammy started researching more and more into the science behind it all. Reading all about Alois Oldrich.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“That’s Tonbo’s real name. His Czech name before he changed it to Tonbo.”
“Oh. So she still wanted to change herself… err… me?”
“Yeah. She became obsessed with meeting Tonbo. She begged me to at least take her to the island so she could see it. I don’t know why I caved. She could be so persuasive. As much as I loved her, looking back, I can see how stupid I was. So I agreed. Found a time that Blake would be with Jaxon hunting, and I brought her to the island.”
“Where did my parents think I’d gone?”
“I told them I wanted to take you with my family on vacation. At that point, your mom needed a break from well… you. Sammy made sure of that. And your parents knew that I knew, and Sammy would listen to me most of the time. So they agreed and we went ‘with my parents to California.’”
“We didn’t really though, huh?” I said.
“No way, but your parents trusted me. And my folks, they don’t care when I head over to the island. They’ve long accepted that’s a part of who I am.”
“When did we go?” I asked.
“About four months ago, during summer break. I took you there. Showed you the island, even went into Tonbo’s office.”
“Ah… the tiles in the foyer. They were so familiar!” I gasped. “And so were Tonbo’s gardens.” I glanced at Mack. “And so was Kate.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I introduced you to Kate. All the while, you remained Sammy. I was scared to death any moment you’d change back to Samantha. It was risky, idiotic, and I can’t believe it worked. We stayed only one day. We left that night.”
“But I would have looked like myself... and if I met Tonbo, why didn’t he say anything when I went with you guys again?”
“Kate told me which days Tonbo would be visiting the outskirts. He likes to make sure the ancients are okay. So we went on a day he was gone. Kate made sure of it. I just couldn’t risk him seeing you. He would’ve told Blake. He loves Blake.” There was no envy in his statement about Tonbo loving Blake. If anything, I almost felt like Mack felt the same way about him. “We did try to disguise you a bit. You wore a brown wig and big sun glasses.”
“Well that explains why I felt like I was having déjà vu the whole time I was there. So then what happened?”
“Well, Sammy and Kate started talking. At that point, all I just thought was that the visit went great and the two of you had hit it off as friends. We headed home with me sweating bullets the whole way. After a few weeks of being home, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. No harm, no foul. Sammy even backed off from begging me to change her.”
I stared at him. “I have a hunch that Sammy and Kate weren’t just discussing their favorite bands.”
“No, they weren’t,” he said, running his hand through his hair.