Dance with the Devil: Chapter 28

“I know what heard!” Todd said the next morning in their bedroom. “It was Victor!” Blair looked at his near wild-eyed expression. She was starting to really worry about his mental state. But she didn’t have to say anything to him. “I know you think I’m really losing it this time, but I heard him.” He took a deep breath. “Look, Starr and I have talked about being a twin, having a twin. She told me…science thinks identical twins have a deeper connection, maybe even slightly…psychic. I know this sounds crazy.” After another breath, Todd toned down his voice. “For years, I’ve heard voices in my head. I even told Viki about it, before I left Llanview after my DID debacle. She said I needed to get away so the only one I heard was my own. But it’s never been just mine. And the only time I didn’t have any voice in there, even mine, was the eight years I was gone.”


Blair looked away for a moment. “Okay, what did Victor say to you?”


“He said, if we ever had a twin connection…a weird twin connection, he needed it now.” In his frustration, Todd threw a pillow off the bed with as much force as he could muster. “God, he stole my life for eight years, then he died and I still didn’t get any peace and now that’s he’s actually alive, he’s still driving me crazy.”


Blair knelt down to Todd, hugging him fiercely. He returned the embrace, holding on to her as long as he could. “Todd, you’ll get through this, I know you will.” She stood up as she heard a knock at the suite’s door.


Jack was there to answer it. Molly Lansing-Davis was on the other side, but she was not her usual cheery self. “Can we talk?” she asked.


“Sure, hold on one second, I just want to let my parents know I’m going out,” Jack said as he moved towards his parent’s room. He had heard them earlier, but they had gotten quiet. He knocked on the door, which was opened by his mother. “Um, Molly’s here and we haven’t talked in a day or so. I’m going to give her an update on what’s happening if that’s okay.”


Todd nodded at his son. “Yeah, that’s fine. Look, tell her thank you for everything she’s done, you know, recognizing Victor. It may be driving me crazy, but it’s actually a good thing to know.”


Jack smiled and left with Molly. They headed to Kelly’s as he filled her in on the video from the park and what had been learned. Then, he told her of his concerns for Todd. “My dad remembers shooting my uncle on that night. But now that we know that’s not what happened, he’s starting to question his sanity. And before you came this morning, I heard him tell my mom that he’s hearing Victor’s voice.”


“His twin brother?” Molly asked. She thought back to the park. “But their not identical. I’ve read about twins feeling a connection, but that’s only been observed with identicals.”


“They weren’t when they first met, but according to my crazy grandmother, their mother, Irene Manning, they were but she had plastic surgery performed on Victor to further whatever her plans were,” Jack said. “It was all a very confusing time last summer when my real dad came back.”


Molly reached out to put her hand on top of Jack’s. She tried to think of what to say. “My grandfather tried to freeze the world,” she finally said, matter-of-factly. Jack just blinked at her twice, then burst into laughter. Molly joined him, laughing too. It was this scene that her sister Kristina came upon.


“What the hell are you doing with my sister?” Kristina yelled, stunning the two. “Get the hell away from her, you jerk!”


Molly was appalled by her sister’s behavior. “Kristina, he’s my friend! Don’t talk to him like that!”


Molly’s defense of Jack would have continued, but Jack’s cell went off. He answered it, and after a few minutes, said goodbye to Molly. His friend looked sad as he left, then shoved her sister. “What was that about? Jack’s been a good friend me and I hope I’ve been to him. Why are you acting like that?”


“I’m trying to protect you, Molly. If Mom or my dad or your dad knew you two where hanging out, they’d all flip. Stay away from Jack Manning or I will tell them,” Kristina shot back at her sister.


Molly’s attitude changed. “If I want to be friends with him, I will be. We’ll be starting school together soon.” As she left her sister, she retorted, “Besides, I’ve never told you who to be friends with, like Ethan or Johnny. So you have no leg to stand on.”


Jack hurried to Dr. Keenan’s office at General Hospital. His mother had called when the psychiatrist had asked Todd and the family to come in and see him. Though Todd had issues to get through, it was his belief that with his family around, it would create a safe environment for him and help in his recovery.


Blair, Todd and Starr were already there by time Jack had arrived. When he entered the office, the doctor was talking about the medical records he had received. “From what I read and what I observed a day ago, I do believe the diagnoses of PTSD was accurate,” he began.


“See, Blair, I wasn’t lyin’” Todd commented, affecting his fiancée’s Southern twang.


Blair just gave him a look but said nothing. Dr. Keenan noted the interplay of the two as he continued. “Mr. Manning, I need to know the circumstances of your abduction nine years ago. What the events were that led up to your being taken from your family.”


Todd’s eyes went wide and he gulped. “That’s…really hard to talk about.” He squeezed his eyes shut, remembering Mitch Laurence’s taunts. He took a deep breath. “Uh, at the time, my family, my sister especially, was being tormented by this cult leader, who had been keeping my father alive for…God, years.”


“Your father, Victor Lord?” Ewen asked.


“Yeah, anyway, Mitch, the cult leader, he kidnapped Blair but I was able to rescue her. But she couldn’t handle that craziness and she said we were finished. I went after Mitch again but he got the upper hand and locked me in my father’s mausoleum, after the SOB really died. Then after Mitch killed a friend of mine and set me up for the crime, he had me bound and gagged and put me in the crypt next to dear old dad,” Todd explained as he tried to hold back the nightmares of that whole experience.


Blair closed her eyes, remembering, briefly, Sam Rappaport’s dead body next to hers and finding Victor Lord’s ring on the floor. When she opened them again, she found Todd’s hand and squeezed it. Jack and Starr had been sitting on chairs brought in for them and, as the looked at each other, grabbed onto the other’s hand, Starr fighting back tears. She especially remembered this time and remembered Mitch trying to take her, but Blair going with him instead.


“What was the next memory you have?” Dr. Keenan continued.


Todd looked at Blair, unsure of what to say. When he found his voice, he answered, “I was sitting, bound in a chair in a windowless room.” He looked at the psychiatrist. “I didn’t know how I got there, I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t even know how much time had passed. When they told me it was eight years, I didn’t believe them at first.”


Ewen made some notes. “How did you get back to your family, to Llanview?”


“I managed to escape and I hopped on a plane that was taking another prisoner there. He was being released, I think, and his wife met the plane and they left together. I got off and got into town,” Todd continued his story.


“When you got back to town, did you get in touch with your family? Did you let them know you were back?” came the next question.


“No, not right away. The first person I met was Sam,” Todd said. “Sam Manning, my nephew and Blair’s son. He got me something to eat. Then Starr came out because she heard him talking to me and came out to investigate.”


Starr finally spoke. “He was hiding from us for part of that day, we later figured out. Sam said he was talking to a man with a line on his face and he drew my dad’s scar on his cheek.” Starr took a breath. “He also stopped off at Llanfair, that’s our Aunt Viki’s residence and at out Uncle Victor’s home. Then, when we had a birthday party for Sam, he took Sam.”


“I needed to get ‘Todd Manning’s’ attention. Not the best of ways, I’ll admit,” Todd said with a chuckle. “But it worked. I confronted the imposter but the goons who held me recaptured me. They shot me and threw me in the river, but a homeless guy pulled me out and called a cop to help me. When someone took a shot at me, the cop, McBain, realized something was up and let me stay with him. Then I saw that my family was going to be all together at some movie premiere and there was some else there who wanted to talk to McBain, so I told him he had to go then decided to make my own grand entrance.”


“What was the reaction to your return?” Ewen asked, more to the family than to Todd.


“Shock,” Blair said. “For most of the eight years he had been away, we still thought we had Todd with us. But when we saw Todd, him, that night, it threw us all for a loop. We didn’t believe him, nor did his sister. Eventually, DNA tests were run on both him and the Todd who had been in Llanview the whole time. They came back as both positive.”


“The only theory I could come up with was that they were identical twins, which was crazy because Uncle Victor looked nothing like my dad,” Starr added.


“I said they were clones,” Jack put in, but got the same look from his sister as he did when he had initially said it.


Todd smiled lopsidedly at his son, but turned his attention back to the psychiatrist. “It was a few days later that we learned my mother was alive. She was brought back to Llanview, where she confessed to me, my sister and my brother that we were twins, that she had me held prisoner for the eight long years and the length she had gone through for her nefarious scheme, which I still haven’t figured out.”


Ewen took more notes but saw the patient was looking unwell. “Alright, Mr. Manning, I think we’ve gone over enough for today. I’d like for you to come back in early next week. I can see there’s more we need to discuss, but I don’t want to push anything today.”


As the Manning family prepared to leave, Blair hung back. She had a few things she needed to inform the doctor of. “Doctor, there is one thing you should know about Todd’s mother. When he initially learned he was adopted, he got a hold of his mother’s diary. It painted a very different portrait of the woman, one of a loving mother who didn’t want to give her son away.”


Ewen nodded at that comment. “Where is his mother now?“ he asked.


Blair looked back as she saw Dr. Webber approach Todd and the kids. “He killed her in self-defense shortly after Victor’s shooting.”


“Thank you for letting me know this. I’ll make a note and we’ll try and broach it the next time I see him.” With that he said his goodbyes and Blair returned to her family.


“Here’s the list of surgeons who have had great success with this type of surgery, as it seems Dr. Evans is unavailable. Also, as you requested, a physical therapy regiment to keep your muscles strengthened before your surgery. I take it you’ve found therapist?” Steve asked.


“Yep. Seems the owner of the Metrocourt once worked for here in that capacity,” Todd replied. “Thanks again.” His phone rang just then and he answered it. After a brief conversation he hung up, a smile on his face for the first time that day.


Blair came up to Todd and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You seem happy. What was that call about?”


“That call was from the realtor I hired. She seems to have found a house with all the specification we need and wants to meet us there,” he said. “Besides, with Jack and Sam starting school soon, I really want to get out of the hotel. I mean, I’ve lived in worse, but between the office and suite, I’m kinda sick of it.”


Blair returned his smile. “Okay, well, why don’t we go pick up Sam from Tina’s care then we can go have a look?”


Todd nodded and began wheeling himself to the elevator. When the door opened, out stepped Alexis Davis, Sam Morgan and her son.


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