I12DT - Digging up the past

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:28 pm

After making the necessary arrangements, Samantha arrived at the appointed time, waiting at the front desk.

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:34 pm

"Ah yes, McManus, here we are." the office clerk comes back, holding a bright orange pass that he hands over. "Doctor Sunderland is with a patient right now, but it shouldn't be long. His office is down the hall past the security and then take the elevator to the third floor. Make sure your visitors badge is visible at all times."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:37 pm

"Thank you very much," she said with a gracious but fairly professional smile, before making her way where indicated.

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:48 pm

It's a fairly standard prison all things considered. Especially compared to the facilities at Muir it's almost low-security, but that's comparing apples and oranges. The psychic impression of the place however is another beast entirely. This is where all the almost incorrigible cases end up and there is someone itching to take out their frustration on someone or something almost constantly. Untempered teenage aggression pervades every area of the prison. She has no trouble finding the office, partially because it's one of the few islands of somewhat calmer thoughts around and after about ten minutes of waiting the door opens and two guards escort a young man out who very clearly had no interest in 'talking about his issues' whatsoever. He gives Sam a lecherous smirk before being pulled along.

"Miss McManus?" An older man, possibly past his retirement age already, steps out after his patient and turns towards Sam.

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:54 pm

"Aye. Thank you for agreeing to talk with me. I'm impressed you've stayed with the facility. That's dedication."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:59 pm

He lets out bit of a sigh. "This is the kind of job you have to have a certain conviction for. Misses Wakefield said this was about the Bell girl? Haven't heard that name in a long time. But do come in, I always have time for a friend of Mary's."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:01 pm

She nodded and stepped in.

"I didn't realize you were fond of her. She's rather in dire straits, now."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:09 pm

"She was when she came here too. Awful business all that. Youngest kid they ever send here, you know. Barely even old enough to understand what she did." he shakes his head.

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:11 pm

"I can't say as she's quite recovered wholly. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the system it's rather hard to find the roots of her issues."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:16 pm

"What do you mean? She was fully rehabilitated when she left."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:19 pm

"She's nigh-catatonic. We haven't made much headway."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:28 pm

"Are you sure that has anything to do with her time here? It must have been what, 20, 30 years?"

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:32 pm

"Frankly we're not, but we need a more complete picture to be sure."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:44 pm

"Well I'm not sure what I can do to help. She became my patient when I first started here. By then she'd been here for... I think almost 3 or 4 years already? She was a fairly bright kid, certainly smarter than most who end up here. The media had called her a a textbook psychopath but growing up in the circumstance she'd been in I'm not sure anyone would have been quite alright. She was emotionally stunted, barely capable of recognizing what she did was wrong.

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:46 pm

"Did she mention her friend, much?"

Her mind reached out to feel the man's surface thoughts. She didn't want to intrude too badly, but with as clumsy a telepath as Mary must have been at that age she hoped some things might be obvious.

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:01 pm

"Not much, but that's because she felt betrayed by her. Didn't keep her from wondering if she'd come to visit but she didn't like admitting that."

His surface thoughts seem to be mostly in order right now. Of course it's been over 30 years and the mind has a tendency to grow around these kind of things and incorporate them as normal eventually. Knowing what to look for though she can tell that somewhere deep down things don't quite want to mesh as well as they should. Old memories should be more faded and blurry and less jagged around the edges.

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:08 pm

"I'd imagine Norma had her own trouble coping with what happened. Even without a stay in a facility like this, there was help that she needed that she didn't quite get."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:13 pm

"That's unfortunate."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:45 pm

"This is why we're trying to put things together. Mary still has fixations on her old life."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:56 pm

"Well, there's only so much I can tell you. She was clearly emotionally disturbed and was acting out against men, albeit ones she had a physical advantage over, in a response to her experiences at home and her mothers occupation as a prostitute who catered to, well, a certain niche. It was a show of dominance and she managed to convince her friend to help her. It was revenge aimed at someone she could enact it on. She never quite learned right from wrong. She might not even have quite understood what she was doing, simply emulating the things she might have witnessed at home though she never outright admitted that."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:01 pm

She nodded, slowly winding her way deeper in the man's mind along the avenues that were opened up by his recollections.

"But you say she started to come to terms with things?"

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:27 pm

"It took time and growing older helped her be able to process these kind of things and understand them. I mean it certainly wasn't easy, it took her months to even really start talking to me, but in the end she came to understand what happened and what she did wrong. It took another couple years from there of course, but yes, I do believe in the end she made her peace with it."

The man's memories are easy to follow. They're vivid and stand out among others from around the same time, a lot of which are barely wisps of vague images while these are still perfectly clear. Hours and hours of talking to a young girl that is slowly growing up as the years go by. First cold and defiant, later there are tears, bursts of anger, more than once she stopped talking when she felt overwhelmed. In the end there's a young woman, still with a bit of a haunted look in her eyes but with a genuine smile and a certainly fragility about herself. It's almost like a montage in a movie and almost as crisp. And it is just as fake.

The later ones are much more cleverly put into place, a little more faded, a little better fit into place but the whole thing is like a giant red line running through the years inside the man's head and it doesn't take much to peel back the veneer to reveal the memories underneath. The early ones are almost the same but the progression is a much different one. A little girl with dark hair and dark eyes, staring back at the Doctor for hours on end. At first mixed with attempts at conversation from his side, later sessions are almost entirely silent. As the months go by and the girl grows into a woman her expression takes on bit more of a range though her smiles remain cruel. She walks around the office while Doctor Sunderland is just sitting there, nodding as if he was listening to an actual conversation taking place. Meanwhile she rifles through his desk, looks through other patients files, reads his books. Week after week, months after months she creates in his head the image of a poor misunderstood girl that deserves to be pitied for the things her upbringing caused her to do. She takes the psychological concepts from his books and builds them into this imaginary girl. She makes him smuggle in cigarettes and alcohol, occasionally she's there with another inmate, sitting in on their sessions, unnoticed by either.

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:42 pm

"Would you say she had much social contact, while she was here?"

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:46 pm

"She made a couple of good friends among the inmates, yes. I was surprised, I thought she'd be having a hard time. Some of the girls we get here can get pretty rough but she managed to stay out of that kind of trouble."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:57 pm

She traced this latest connection, doing the same as she had with the other memories.

"So you feel that it's more likely that trauma after leaving here would be the cause of her troubles."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:11 pm

"It must have been. Unless something happened that brought all of this back but I wouldn't know what would."

Those memories seem to be real. There's one that is shoved away a little that is just an idle thought wondering how odd it is that no one ever seemed to lay a finger on her but some people do. It seems somehow the topic never came up in the sessions he thought he was having with her either. Of course, unless the guards reported something he wouldn't know what was going on in the cells or the yard in the first place, but all signs point towards Mary having been an exemplary prisoner. Granted there tends to be a little less violence in women's prisons to start with but it's almost as if no one dared put a finger on her. She finds an old memory of the Doctor from the day she was transferred from the youth section into the adult block, worrying that she might become more of a victim there, but no memories of anything being reported.

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:19 pm

"Thank you, Doctor. You've been very helpful. I've a few more interviews to conduct, so I shan't keep you any longer."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:23 pm

"You're welcome. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:29 pm

"Absolutely, Doctor." She said as she stood. "I'd say it's been a pleasure, but I'm not certain that's appropriate."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:33 pm

"That's quite alright. It's good to hear from Mary, even if she's not doing so well right now."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:34 pm

Samantha made her way out, and back to the desk for her next appointment.

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:48 pm

For the sake of brevity let's just say the first guard Sam talks to (who at this point is working a desk job) doesn't have much to tell her, apparently having worked in a different block back then. The other one however is now the junior warden for the adult section of the prison and was on guard duty when Mary was transferred into the section over 35 years ago.

"I have to say, I never thought I'd see someone ask about that little brat who isn't a reporter."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:54 pm

"As one of the people responsible for directing her care, I do have a special responsibility towards her."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:00 pm

"Hah, you make it sound like she's in some sort of home. Is she? Must be getting pretty old herself by now."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:02 pm

"She's in rather specialized care, I'm afraid. I take it you weren't fond of her?"

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:10 pm

"I'm not particularly fond of anyone here, but that's why they're here. Too dangerous to let them out, too damaged to rehabilitate. Most of them anyway. But that little bitch was something else alright. Something about her, th'way she looked at people. Not sizing you up, they all do that, try to be tough, pick a fight. But no, never her. She looked at people like you'd look at one of them magic eye things, as if she was looking for something. Creeped me the hell out."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:14 pm

"Bit of a contrast with how Doctor Sunderland viewed her," she raised an eyebrow.

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:19 pm

"Yeah I have no idea what she did to wrap him around her little finger. Well, that ain't true, but you won't hear me tell anyone about it. Pretty young thing like that..." he gives a slight shrug. "She seemed to make friends really easy in general. Usually when someone new gets transferred in... Well we try to keep it civil. But you know how it is. But no, she just walked in like she owned the place. Couple weeks later almost felt like she did."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:21 pm

With the man actively recalling, Samantha began to follow those memories deeper, looking for signs of alteration.

"She does have a bit of a way, I've found."

by **Narrator** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:36 pm

There aren't many. There are some signs but they never seemed to quite have taken hold and over time the old memories must have come back to the surface. She never got to him nearly as deeply as Doctor Sunderland.

"Just between the two of us, I never quite understood why they let her out. But I was just a guard then and the parole board only listens if you got something solid on misbehaviour. Well Sir, she stays out of trouble all the time and that's bloody strange. Doesn't quite cut it for an official report. But that's the system for you. They listened to her psych, her clean slate on behaviour. Checked her cell dozens of times, never even found a single cigarette. Not that anyone ever got busted for that, one of those things everyone closes an eye about. But I swear sometimes she flaunted it, making sure we'd see her smoking out in the yard."

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