“Both of you?”Jenna asked, following her mother through the familiar hallway and into the kitchen.
Piper sat at the kitchen table, holding a steaming mug.She looked up as Jenna entered.“I couldn’t sleep,” she said.“Not after...everything.”
Jenna sank into a chair across from her sister, accepting the mug of tea from her mother.
“Jake told us you were booking Elena,” Mom said, joining them at the table.“But he didn’t share many details.Is it really over?”
“It is.”Jenna took a sip of tea, gathering her thoughts.“Elena confessed to everything.Derek Sullivan, Amanda Hartford.She was planning to kill Brenda Drummond when Piper showed up.”
“And Brenda?Is she...?”Piper asked.
“She’s going to be okay,” Jenna assured her.“Concussion, some stitches where she hit her head.She was lucky—if Elena had completed what she called her ‘correction,’ Brenda would have ended up like the others.”
“Wrapped in white yarn,” Piper whispered.
Jenna nodded, studying her sister’s face.“How did you know to go there, Piper?”
Piper’s gaze dropped to the table.“The voices woke me up.Louder than they’ve ever been.Urgent.”Her voice trembled slightly.“They wouldn’t stop.They kept saying that someone was in danger, that I needed to go to this specific place right away.So I just walked out the front door and followed their directions.”
“You walked there in the dark?Alone?”Mom’s voice rose with alarm.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Piper said, an edge of desperation creeping into her tone.“You don’t understand what they do.It’s like...like standing in a crowd where everyone is screaming at you.I couldn’t think.I couldn’t focus on anything except getting to that house.”
Jenna reached across the table, taking Piper’s hand.“You can’t let them control you.It’s too dangerous.What if Elena had—” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her,” Mom said, her face tight with worry.
“But would you have gotten there in time if I’d stopped to call you?”Piper asked, looking directly at Jenna.“Would Brenda still be alive?”
Jenna wanted to insist that, of course, they would have saved Brenda, that proper procedure would have prevailed.But she felt sure that Piper's intervention, however reckless, was what had saved that woman's life.
“We got lucky,” Jenna finally said.“This time.But Piper, you have to promise me you won’t do that again.Next time, call me.Call Jake.Call anyone.”
“I don’t know if I can promise that,” Piper admitted.“But something did change tonight.Something that’s never happened before.”
Jenna looked up, sensing the shift in her sister’s tone.“What do you mean?”
"When I was in Brenda's house, when I realized Elena was the killer, the voices were still screaming, still overwhelming me.But for the first time, I talked back to them.I told them to stop.I said it out loud: 'Stop it.'And they...listened.They didn't go away completely, but they got quieter.Enough that I could think more clearly again."
“You controlled them?”Jenna asked, leaning forward.
“Not completely,” Piper said.“But enough.For the first time, I felt like I had some say in what was happening to me.Like I wasn’t just a passenger in my own mind.”
Mom reached out, squeezing Piper’s shoulder.“That’s a breakthrough, honey.”
“It is,” Jenna agreed, feeling a surge of hope for her sister.“I’m sure Dr.White can help you learn to manage them, even use them constructively.”
“Like you do,” Piper said quietly.
Jenna nodded.“I had to learn too.It wasn’t easy at first, those dreams...they were terrifying.But over time, I figured out how to work with them.”
“Dr.White thinks I can get there,” Piper said.“She said my mind created certain...barriers after I left home.But now that I’m back, now that I know I’m not crazy, those barriers are starting to come down.”
“Frank will help too,” Mom added.“He knows more about this than most people.”
“And Jake,” Jenna said, thinking of her deputy’s unwavering support through her own journey.“He’s been amazing with me.He’ll be the same with you.”
“So you think I should keep working with the voices?Even though they’re connected to violence, to death?”
