10. Regaining Power (D1)

__ Ardy watched as the general store owner's head snapped back and his eyes rolled up. His body folded back and collapsed at Munson's feet with a sickening ka-thump.
__ "Oh, my God, what did you do that for?!" She screamed, partially in shock and partially in blind rage. While still blind, Ardy ran to Douglas's side without thinking. She intended to kneel down beside him, cradle his head, and see if he was still breathing. Try to revive him. But Munson stepped between them, ducked, and came up at her like a broad defensive tackle, catching her around the waist and throwing her back.
__ "Easy! Easy," Munson cautioned. He held her shoulder back with one hand and held up an admonishing finger with the other. "Don't."
__ "You killed him, you monster! You killed him!"
__ Munson's hand moved from her shoulder to Ardy's throat. He squeezed just tight enough to cut off her air, to get her attention. Her flailing arms went to his wrist and tried fruitlessly to pull his claw grip away.
__ The killer took a deep breath. "Now you listen closely to me, Ardelene. 'Cause I ain't gonna say it twice."
__ She sputtered, gagged. Her eyes went wide as panic wrestled with the rational thought to stop struggling so he could ease his grip.
__ "I killed that homo attorney. I killed that woman in Sioux Falls. I killed Douglas Birdtester. And I'm gonna kill you...." He let the last part sink in. Deep.
__ Ardy stopped struggling and he eased his grip. Tears welled in her eyes. She cried for the lawyer. She cried for the unknown woman in Sioux Falls. She cried for Douglas. And she cried for herself, about to die for no reason, not having lived or found her purpose in life. All for nothing.
__ "Unless," Munson added finally, "You agree to go with me. Stay with me."
__ The memory of that haunting vision flashed through Ardy's mind: Munson coming home from a hard day's work, the red-headed boy calling him "daddy" and running up to hug his leg, and Ardy coming to the door in a June Cleaver apron to wave and ask how his day went. Her tears became a whimper and a slow whine. Nothing would ever be the same again. She couldn't fight this man, but she also couldn't see going along with his twisted dream until she found an opportunity to break free. He would kill her long before then. He'd get bored and end it.
__ Munson stepped away from her and turned to snag the chair Douglas's arm was hooked on. Kicking the arm off the leg wrung, he turned the chair around and set it across the table and motioned for Ardy to sit. Then he circled the table and plopped himself in the throne, snatching up the cigarettes and lighter and drawing one out of the pack.
__ Ardy tried not to look at Douglas's lifeless form next to her, but she couldn't look away. The blood stained crystal ball had rolled against his side. A glint from a passing car's headlights outside caught her eye. She tried to look away, to address Munson, but it was too late.
__ Before she blacked out, she heard him start, "We are going to talk about how I can use your psychic...."
__ She lifted into the air, shrank, twisted, and catapulted down to the crystal ball on the floor. She felt her hair whipping around her shoulders, her blouse flapping around her, as the smell of blood on the thick glass ball became stronger and stronger.

__ Then she was inside Munson's head looking out at herself, blacked out, out cold, head lolling back as she entered the trance she's in now.
__ I'm in the present, she thought to herself. I'm in him looking out at me.
__ "Now what," Munson snuffed. Ardy noted to herself that his was how his voice sounded to him. It was deeper, more gravelly inside the skull. How distorted. She briefly wondered if all humans were under a delusion: The normal voice we hear is the voice we hear recorded. It's the inner voice that's wrong and sour.
__ As Ardy watched through Munson's eyes, he lit the cigarette and watched. He watched her chest heave with each breath. He watched her eyes flicker under wrestless lids. What's happening to me, she cried. Why doesn't something happen? She began to feel uncomfortable, looking at herself with a killer's lustful eyes. He still wasn't thinking of molesting her, but another voice in his head was trying to argue the point.

__ Do it.
__ No.
__ Look at her. Your future wife.
__ Shut up! Don't do this to me.
__ You gonna cry? You gonna cry like that time the lawyer made you put his thing in your --
__ SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!
__ And though Ardy could experience each painful memory brought up by the argument between the two personalities, she could also feel rage and anger -- and anguish -- instead of sorrow, guilt, and fear.
__ The battle inside Munson's conscience continued:
__ If you do it, you won't be a virgin anymore -- or a homo.
__ I'm not! I'm not! LEAVE ME ALONE!
__ I won't leave you alone until you do to her what Clye did to you.
__ No! It's wrong! I won't!
__ But you're a tough guy, remember. What did you call yourself?
__ Lemme alone!
__ A killer. You are a killer, killer.
__ ...
__ So rape her.... And kill her.

__ Maybe it was because R. Lee Munson was a psychotic criminal. Maybe it was the "newness" of seeing someone else's thoughts, but Ardy was having a difficult time sorting out what she was seeing and feeling inside Munson's head. Images flashed by: A smiling woman (his mother?); a stern father; a car hitting his dog, the Golden's head snapping violently away from the bumper as the carload of laughing teens accelerated away; his first kiss with a girl in pre-med; his first fight in third grade; the sting of his father's belt; the gentleness of his mother's kiss; the smell of vomit; the smell of apple pie; mugged at gunpoint in Washington D.C.; swimming in a cool lake after a hard day's work in the sun; crying over his mother's corpse; laughing at a poker game.... The pace of the flashes, and their twisting and strange connections, whirled around Ardy as she struggled to make sense of them.
__ During all of this, Ardy was distracted by the visions. She didn't notice that Munson had stood and had circled the table to stand next to her. His hand was outstretched, his thumb and forefinger holding her chin. He leaned down.
__ He's going to kiss me! Oh, my God! I'm not unconscious! I'm here! I'm in HIM!
__ Ardy -- inside Munson -- felt her head lower to her own face, her/his lips part slightly as they were touched by her own breath --
__ Then pain. A shock of cold pain exploded through the left side of Munson's head.
__ Ardy's eyes snapped open. She was back -- instantly -- in her own body, staring up wide-eyed at Munson's face, his mouth hanging slack over hers. Blood coming in a trickle down the side of his head.
__ Crack! It came quick, a silver blur, as Douglas staggered forward and swung the bloodied crystal ball again. Refusing to let go, the store owner swung like a pendulum out of control. He spiraled dizzily toward the front door and dropped the crystal ball which fell with a loud wooden crack when it hit the floor. He staggered and tried to right himself. Blood still stained the collar and shoulder of his shirt.
__ Munson tried to steady himself on Ardy's chair, but couldn't hold himself up. With a whimpering breath, he fell forward, collapsing painfully onto Ardy and driving the chair, with her in it, over backwards.
__ Ardy landed with a hard thump and tried to roll out from under Munson, but his unconscious body was too heavy. She let out a short yelp as the chair hit the floor, and Douglas moved in to push Munson aside and help her quickly to her feet.
__ "Oh, God, thank you, Douglas."
__ "Salwhite," he slurred. Then he collapsed on the floor next to Munson.
__ They were both either dead or out cold.
__ Ardy had a lot of work to do before they regained consciousness.
__ She kicked the bloodied crystal ball aside and moved quickly to the kitchen for the supplies she'd need.