CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I
SHOWDOWN WITH A SUPERIOR MIND
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1995
Doctor Frederiksen circled around Tuesday, sizing her up to see what she was made of. Tuesday seethed with hatred for him, for the man who had forced her to sacrifice her soul though the brutal murder of others. She needed answers, and had to buy time, so she began to talk about what she knew.
“I know about ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals!” Tuesday began, trying to get a rise out of the doctor.
“Oh, good for you.” Doctor Frederiksen replied snidely. “You know about a company with a proven track record of success, a pillar in the business community. So, what?”
Tuesday dismissed his arrogance as she continued. “I know about BN-243, I know what you did to Daniel Price, and I know that you engineered my entire existence though illegal experimentation.”
“You’re quite resourceful, how did you come by this information?” Doctor Frederiksen asked, his curiosity piqued at the amount of knowledge that Tuesday seemed to have acquired, but made no effort to deny what the teenager had said. “Did you travel back in time to see that too?”
“Let’s just say that your skeletons aren’t as securely fitted into your closet as you thought they were.” Tuesday announced, still waiting for a reaction from the doctor, who was pacing back and forth, tapping his finger in his chin, as if he were in deep thought.
“You have no proof of these claims.” Doctor Frederiksen exclaimed, brushing it off as being a purely fictitious fantasy, dreamed up by a girl with no credibility. “Who would believe that I would do such a thing?”
“If I have no proof, then you have nothing to fear.” Tuesday alleged, trying to get him to confess his involvement. “Daniel Price decided not to go along with your scheme anymore, didn’t he? He was getting too close to Megan, and wanted to tell her the truth, isn’t that right?”
“Daniel Price was killed by drug addicts.” Doctor Frederiksen countered, trying to throw Tuesday off the scent. “The Whatcom County Police Reports state that he was murdered during a robbery. Case closed.”
“Only we both know that isn’t the truth.” Tuesday said, refuting Doctor Frederiksen’s claim. “We know you killed him because he was threatening to go to the police regarding your illegal experiments.
Doctor Frederiksen sighed for a moment, looking Tuesday in the eyes before relenting to her questioning. “I pulled those inferior children from the streets.” He admitted casually, spitting his contempt toward them at Tuesday. “They were all homeless, drug addicted, and had no direction in life. I offered them each a job doing a drug trial, which would enhance the female embryos, which would create children with special abilities. Nobody cared if they lived or died. Nobody, save me.”
“That’s a crock and you know it!” Tuesday shouted back at him, trying to set the story straight. “I know about Omega Protocol 156, you didn’t care about them at all. The only thing I can figure is that my mother never met you when she was contracted to do the drug trials through ConcepTech.”
“No, she had never met me, the nurses worked with her. And yes, I killed Daniel Price.” Doctor Frederiksen confessed, coming clean about the matter. “I tried to kill Megan Ackerman too, but she had disappeared. I paid some miscreant lowlifes to track her down and to kill her, to make sure that she was never seen again. It wasn’t hard, they hit the bars and found her pretty quickly, and invited her to a party. Megan Ackerman could never turn down a party. I heard those guys had some fun with her first, passed her around like the whore she was, before they dumped her into that ravine to die.”
Tuesday instantly flew into an inconsolable rage, realizing that the author of her mother’s lifelong pain was standing before her, and had pretended to want what was best for her. “It was you?” Tuesday screamed at Doctor Frederiksen, questioning everything she thought she had ever known about him. “You’ve had your hand in our lives the entire time!”
“That’s technically not true.” Doctor Frederiksen continued explaining, filling in all the blanks for Tuesday, as if he were stalling. “I assumed that Megan had died from her injuries, and didn’t pursue it any further. Then about six years ago, I began hearing stories of a crazy girl, who thought she was having nightmares about the future. At first I had dismissed it, thinking that it wasn’t possible. As the stories became more prevalent, I began investigating the transcripts as you moved from one therapist to another. It wasn’t until your first day here that I truly connected the dots. When I walked out that door, I couldn’t believe that Megan Ackerman was alive, and her daughter was going to be my patient.”
“You were playing us from the moment we met you!” Tuesday shouted, not backing down from her aggressive stance.
“You want to kill me, don’t you?” Doctor Frederiksen taunted Tuesday, trying to lure her into the sweet seduction of revenge.
“I should have killed you when I was given the choice!” Tuesday lamented, her eyes piercing him like the sharpest surgical knives. “If I had known you were bluffing to throw me off the scent of killing my Mom, I would have killed you in a heartbeat.”
“That’s an opportunity that you will not given a second shot at.” Doctor Frederiksen said snidely, his cruelty now unmasked for Tuesday to witness firsthand. “You’ve learned to control the past now too, and that’s dangerous. But don’t worry, it is something you will forget by the time you wake up. So long as you are under my hypnosis, your power is mine to control.”
“I know something about hypnosis.” Tuesday stated, a devious and wicked smile upon her face. “I have to hear what you’re telling me to do, and I made myself deaf in the present world before I invited you in. I can’t hear a word you’re saying in that room.”
Tuesday felt a small sense of consolation when she saw the smile melt from Doctor Frederiksen’s face, realizing that he no longer had any control over her at all. He became all at once puzzled and confused. “How are you communicating with me then?” Doctor Frederiksen asked.
“I’ve discovered that I could not only change the future, but the past and the present as well.” Tuesday explained, a look of determination written all over her. “I’ve learned to multitask, so while we are having this conversation here, I can also be monitoring you in the present second, free of the influence of my body. I can filter out the effect of the hypnosis and still communicate using my body.”
“Aren’t you clever?” Doctor Frederiksen shrieked at her, angrier than she had ever seen him. “I’m afraid it’s time for you to join your mother.”
“I thought you might say something like that.” Tuesday said, proud that she had gotten the upper hand on the therapist who had trained her. “And you ought to know that today was the first time I’ve ever considered looking into the past.”
Back in the hypnosis chamber Doctor Frederiksen had stood up from his chair, his body shaking, and was preparing an unknown compound, which he planned to inject Tuesday with. It appeared that his body was covered in more of the mysterious burns, as if he had been in a fight with a person whose fists were on fire. He had prepared for this endgame and fi he could not have his prize, then he would destroy it so that nobody could have it. But hearing Tuesday admit that this day had been the first time she had dreamed of the past to change it, sparked his curiosity. “What do you mean, Miss Moxley? If you didn’t go to the past to find out what happened, how did you learn of ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals?
“I have a file.” Tuesday proudly proclaimed, knowing that the revelation would make her a target of Doctor Frederiksen’s wrath in the real world. “A heavily redacted, but detailed file, with enough evidence in it to link you to everything, including the murders of 21 people. And if I don’t arrive at a specific location at a specific time today, that file will be given to the police.”
Doctor Frederiksen’s face turned to solemn rage. “Stupid girl!”, he roared in fury, his voice at a volume that Tuesday
had never heard from him before. “Do you think I’m an idiot? If I let you go, then you’ll turn the file in yourself, and if I kill you, somebody else is going to turn it in. Either way, I’m going to jail, which means that my body count will increase by one today.”
Doctor Frederiksen finished mixing his unusual cocktail and filled the syringe with it, tapping the air bubbles out of it, just out of habit. As he reached for Tuesdays arm to inject liquid death into it, something gripped his own arm, picking him up from the floor and tossing him out into his main office where he landed hard on his desk with a loud crash. When he picked himself up, he could not believe what he saw emerging from the hypnosis room.
It appeared to be The Nightmare, but was clad entirely in white, which gave off an eerie, bright glow as it moved through the doorway of the hypnosis chamber, sealing the entrance off as it moved past it. The Nightmare had its sights set on Doctor Frederiksen, and there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it.
II
A PLEA FOR MERCY
As soon as Doctor Frederiksen had gotten back on his feet, he ran toward the door, but The Nightmare was there in an instant, blocking his only means of escape. He swung his arm furiously at The Nightmare, trying to buy himself enough time to get out that door, but his punch was no match for its lightning quick reflexes. The Nightmare’s hand was up in an instant, and caught the balled-up fist in its hand, squeezing it hard enough to crack the fingers in Doctor Frederiksen’s hand, and then twisted it, snapping the wrist. Doctor Frederiksen cried out in pain as the pain upon hearing the cracking sound of first his fingers, and then his wrist being separated from his arm.
“Please!” Doctor Frederiksen pleaded, trying to find some sort of humanity within The Nightmare. “Don’t do this!”
The Nightmare spoke back to Doctor Frederiksen, but instead of a hissing voice, it spoke in Tuesday’s voice. “You were going to kill me!” She screamed, pressing her advantage even further by causing him the same pain that he had caused her through The Nightmare’s voice. “You’ve made me kill other people, now it’s your turn!”
Doctor Frederiksen used his other hand to try to block out the onslaught of sound coming from Tuesday through The Nightmare, but was unsuccessful as his broken hand was still being held tightly in the grasp of the apparition. Doctor Frederiksen screamed as Tuesday spoke. “The world needs to know of your crimes!” Aural pain cascaded through his mind, making it unable for him to think properly. The louder and more intensely Tuesday spoke, the more painful it was for Doctor Frederiksen.
“Please, Tuesday!” Doctor Frederiksen beseeched, trying to appeal to her better nature. “I was wrong to try and twist you into something you’re not! Have mercy on me!”
The Nightmare thrust Doctor Frederiksen’s arm in a swift, upward motion that carried him from the ground at an incredible rate of speed and bounced him off the ceiling of the office where he landed rigid on the polished hardwood floor, screaming in discomfort.
Out in the reception area, Michelle heard the uproar and Doctor Frederiksen’s screams and sprang from her chair to investigate what the commotion was about. Tuesday immediately sensed this and sealed the door which led to the corridor to Doctor Frederiksen’s office, fortifying her position for the opposition she knew would inevitably come. Tuesday then refocused her attention back on Doctor Frederiksen, who was still asking for mercy.
The Nightmare circled around the position on the floor where Doctor Frederiksen was lying, his good arm raised in a defensive posture, as Tuesday’s voice tore through him again, searing his soul with both the pain and the truth of her words.
“Jessica didn’t even get time to ask for mercy!” Tuesday bellowed, making her meaning plain and clear. “You made me shoot her in the head before she knew what was happening!”
Doctor Frederiksen, out of breath, attempted to make a half-hearted apology for Jessica. “I’m sorry!” He yelled, panting and squeezing his eyes, trying to shut out the pain. “I was only trying to help you! Those bullies were making your life impossible, and needed to be taken care of!”
Hearing those words come from Doctor Frederiksen’s mouth enraged her even further, as The Nightmare reached down to scoop him up from the floor again and in one swift motion flung him over into the corner where his body broke a large Cobalt glassware vase, which left shards of broken glass embedded in the side of his torso.
The Doctor bellowed out again, as his body impacted the wall behind the vase, sliding him down the wall and to the floor again. Tuesday spoke yet again, this time focusing her anger into her voice, causing Doctor Frederiksen to feel as if his head was going to explode from the impact of her words.
“Enough of your pretentious lies!” Tuesday commanded, driving her point right into the most sensitive parts of Doctor Frederiksen’s mind. In a flash, The Nightmare was on him again, picking him up and slamming him through the desk, breaking it in half with the impact of his weight.
Michelle had managed to get the security from The Millwork Tavern to come to the office. When they arrived, she explained the situation to them, that Doctor Frederiksen was having a session with an unstable patient who might be trying to kill him. One of the building’s security officers tried to get the door to the corridor open while the other called 911 and alerted the police to the situation at the therapist’s office, loud crashes and screams being heard from beyond the door.
Doctor Frederiksen had given up trying to reason with Tuesday and worked toward the next most sensible action, trying to alert somebody else to come and help him. Who would believe that a ten-foot-tall creature of light was trying to kill him? It almost sounded too crazy for even him to believe. One thing was certain, he knew if he got out of this alive he would most assuredly make sure that Tuesday Moxley would go to prison for a long, long time. He stood to his feet and called out for help, and he didn’t care who came, so long as they could get him out alive.
“Help me!!” Doctor Frederiksen screamed, hoping that anybody would hear the words come from his mouth. “Tuesday Moxley is trying to kill me! Please, anybody! Help me!!”
In that second, Doctor Frederiksen spied a potted plant sailing across the room toward him out of the corner of his eye. It had been thrown by the arm of The Nightmare, and hit Doctor Frederiksen squarely in his stomach, doubling him over, dropping him to the floor again and knocking the wind completely out of him.
Tuesday continued to use The Nightmare as her personal judge, jury and executioner as she read off the next in her list of charges. “You made me kill Principal McCauley!” Tuesday roared through the voice of The Nightmare so powerful that it ripped clothing and exposed layers of skin from Doctor Frederiksen’s arms and face.
“Not guilty.” Doctor Frederiksen coughed, still trying to get his breath back from the punch in the gut from the plant. “You did that yourself.”
“I would never have done that on my own!” Tuesday countered, her rage on point, forcing Doctor Frederiksen to cover his ears again as the resonance of The Nightmare tore through him again so painfully that it forced him to vomit on the floor of his office. “You manipulated me! You tested me to see how powerful I would become!”
“Please God, help me!” Doctor Frederiksen begged for his life, playing up the melodrama as best as he could for anybody who might be listening. “Show me mercy Tuesday, please!”
“I doubt even God would show you mercy, Doctor.” Tuesday replied, lessening the intensity on which she was speaking through The Nightmare.
The Cadence Falls Police Department arrived on the scene at The Millwork Tavern and found their way to the third floor where building security was working feverishly to get through the door and into the corridor to the office. When the police observed the situation, two of them went back to their car and got a battering ram from the trunk to open the passage for them.
Tuesday was immediately aware of the arrival of the police, and needed to end this before Douglas arrived and becam
e a witness to what was going on. She wasn’t done with Doctor Frederiksen when she heard the battering ram pounding on the door, knocking it loose from its hinges. She needed another line of defense, and had to think of it fast.
III
DOWN CADENCE FALLS
The door leading into the corridor to Doctor Frederiksen’s office busted into pieces and landed in what appeared to be water on the other side. The officers stared into the hallway and saw deep water where there should have been floor, and were confused on how to further proceed. The water seemed to be about twenty feet deep, much deeper than a man could walk. And getting the battering ram down there would be impossible as the water came right to the level where the floor was, and there would be no way to use it once they got it there. The approach would be problematic, there was no way around it.
Inside the office, Tuesday’s confrontation with Doctor Frederiksen continued to escalate into a maelstrom of contempt and malevolence. The Nightmare was across the room again, on him, quick as a flash and lifted him into the air by his throat, but not choking off his air. Tuesday needed him to talk.
Unfortunately, all Doctor Frederiksen was repeatedly saying was “Please, spare me!”. Tuesday was in no mood for his whimpering and pitiful pleas for mercy.
“Why should I spare you?” Tuesday asked, softening her tone completely so that he would not be affected by The Nightmare. “You’ve destroyed my life. If you think there’s a good reason you think that I should spare your life, you had better tell me now.”
Doctor Frederiksen’s eyes darted back and forth, thinking of the best and most calmingly reassuring answer he could think of. “Because, you and I could have the whole world together.” He began, trying to manipulate Tuesday’s sense of greed. “We could have whatever we want, we could do whatever we want. Together, we would be unstoppable, if you could only let go.”
For a moment, it seemed as if Tuesday was considering what he was offering.
“We can change the world together, we can burn this one down and build a better one.” Doctor Frederiksen challenged her to think of the possibilities. “You could take people out who are destroying the world, or you could bring back anybody you can imagine. Your power is limitless.”
“I’ve learned the secret to this power, doctor.” Tuesday countered, still thinking of the things he was telling her. “Why would I need you to twist my mind any further?”
Doctor Frederiksen knew that Tuesday was listening to what he was saying when he felt The Nightmare’s grip loosen a little. “Am I getting through to her?” He thought to himself, hoping that together they could undo any of the damage they’ve caused together.
“You are the one with the power, I am the one with the vision.” Doctor Frederiksen persuaded seductively, explaining his position for Tuesday, so she could understand. “I created you, and I can lead you to anything you want. I can give you the whole world.”
“I had the whole world.” Tuesday screamed, her rage re-intensifying into a swirling storm of hatred and malice. “And you took it from me when you forced me to kill my mother!”
There was no time for more pleas, no time for a defensive reaction, no time for a goodbye. The Nightmare turned toward the plate glass window at the end of the room, and almost before Doctor Anthony Frederiksen knew what was happening, he was travelling through that window at a high velocity, time pausing for a moment as he hung in the air, looking at the waterfall springing out from below the building and admiring its beauty, the last thing he would ever see.
“I hope that was the ending you had planned for your international bestseller.” Tuesday remarked as Doctor Frederiksen disappeared from her view. She felt the pain of his impact below, but instead of suffering that pain, she allowed herself to take pleasure in it, knowing that small amount of pain was meaningless compared to what he had inflicted up on others.
Doctor Frederiksen did not scream as he fell from the third story of The Millwork Tavern down another five-hundred and twenty feet beyond, making a dull thud on the rocks below, breaking the bones in his body as he was tossed about the weight and agitation of thousands of gallons of water a minute. When a rescue team would find him later that day, they concluded that there was no way he could have survived that fall, and any injuries he had previously sustained were inconclusive due to the damage he had taken from the abuse of Cadence Falls.
The police had arrived outside the door, treading water, and hoping to find a way to get inside. Tuesday realized that they were knocking, hoping that somebody would come and open it for her. She knew she didn’t have much time.
Time.
That was the answer. She needed to get back to 1980 and warn her mother not to go to that party, and it needed to happen before the police could access the office and wake up the deaf girl in the hypnosis chamber.