Other People's Bodies

by Amy Cross

  Just in case.

  "It's like a whole different world down here," Edward says as we reach a large, brightly-lit concrete room. "I had it sound-proofed years ago. I don't even know why. I just felt as if it'd be better if there was as little transference between this part of the building and the actual hotel. I suppose you must be thinking that I'm rather strange, but I swear, I was just trying to find a place where I could be myself. No-one else comes down here, you see. Not unless I bring them, and as I'm sure you can imagine, I don't do that very often. I can be myself down in the basement, and I can let go of all the pretense that usually makes me feel so uncomfortable". He pauses. "It feels so good to finally tell someone about this. I've waited for this moment for so many years".

  Glancing over at the far wall, I feel a shiver run down my spine as I spot a pair of manacles hanging from the ceiling. I look at a nearby table and spot a large leather case, and I can't shake the feeling that whatever Edward gets up to down here, it's far from conventional. Is it possible that Edward's 'big secret' is just a spot of weird sex? Is this his way of asking me to spank him?

  "Edward..." I start to say.

  "I never brought Elizabeth down here," he replies, turning to me. "I was always too scared to let her see this side of my personality. I thought she'd turn and run. I thought she'd see me as some kind of monster. Now, though, I realize that's not how she would have reacted. It was a mistake to hide my true nature from her. After all, you're still standing here. It means a great deal to me that you trust me so much, Elizabeth". He pauses. "Sorry. Laura. I'm grateful that you were willing to come and see the real Edward Bannister". He makes his way slowly toward me. "I know what people say about me. They make jokes. They say I'm chained to the hotel. They say I'll never leave. None of it's true. I'm not attached to the hotel. Not at all. But this place, down here, this has always been my real home. I can live my life in the hotel forever, so long as I get a few hours down here from time to time".

  "Why did you bring me down here?" I ask. "Did you want to -"

  Before I can finish, he steps closer and kisses me. Taken by surprise, I don't resist, and after a moment I'm once again overcome by a powerful feeling of deja vu. It's as if I've kissed Edward before, not only the other day when we had that brief sexual encounter, but long ago, before I even knew him. There's a part of me that wants to pull away, but the whole sensation is so unusual, it takes several seconds before I can get my thoughts together.

  "Did I shock you?" he asks, breaking away from the kiss for a moment.

  Unsure of what to say, I stare back at him.

  "Didn't you realize that this moment was coming? You must know how I feel about you".

  "I'm not sure that -"

  "I want you to make love to me," he whispers, leaning closer and kissing my neck. "To the real me. And in turn, I'll make love to the real you".

  "I think..." Stepping back, I try to stay calm. "I think I should go now," I tell him. "I think -"

  "I thought you wanted to know what happened to Elizabeth?" he replies. "I thought that's why you came down here with me tonight?"

  "No," I say, spotting a couple of large cloth sacks over by the wall. For a moment, I can't work out what I'm looking at, until finally I realize that there are two bodies in those sacks. I feel a cold shiver pass through my soul as it becomes clear that this is way too huge for me to handle. Whatever's wrong with Edward, it's not something I can deal with. I just need to back away slowly and then run. If I can get to the top of the steps, I can lock him in the basement until the police get here.

  "My father finally decided to confront me," Edward explains. "He'd been pushing his luck for too long. He should have learned his lesson by now, especially after I broke his kneecaps all those years ago, but apparently he felt he could stop me. It's not my fault. I had to shut the old fool up, and that dumb bitch of a nurse wouldn't stop screaming until..." He pauses. "I suppose a son should feel sorry after killing his father, but it wasn't like that at all. When something is necessary, it's hard to have any regrets".

  "I don't need to know anything," I tell him, trying to stay calm. It'd be so easy to panic and run, but I need to be smart here and just focus on trapping Edward down here. I'm pretty sure he left the key in the lock, so I just need to make sure I have time to seal him in here. "It's none of my business, not really," I add. "I don't have a clue. I'll just go, and you can get on with things".

  "None of your business?" He smiles. "Are you serious telling me that you don't know the truth? Isn't it burrowing its way through your soul? Can't you feel it gnawing at the edges of your mind?" He pauses. "I don't have to tell you what happened to Elizabeth. You already know. You were there".

  "It doesn't matter," I say, unable to hide my panic any longer. "I don't need to know what happened to her. I don't need to know anything. I can just leave, and you can go back to however things used to be -"

  "I love you," he says suddenly.

  I stare at him.

  "You must have known that from the moment we first met," he continues. "Surely you felt it? Despite everything else, there's always been a kind of energy between us, a kind of passion. It's been there every time we talked, every time we've been in the same room together, and it's survived everything that life has thrown at us. It's so strong, I almost feel as if I could reach out and touch it. This love, this passion, is something we've created together. It's like a child. I always knew it would be like this, but now I can see that we're made for one another. All you need to do is accept the inevitability of this moment, and the rest will all be taken care of. That night when I first saw you, after I'd refused to come to the big family dinner... I loved you from the moment I first saw you".

  "Edward -"

  "You've been through so much," he continues. "You've survived so many injuries and tragedies, but you came back to me. You didn't run. You could have hidden forever, but you chose to come back, and now we can be together". He takes a step closer, and there are tears in his eyes. "You came back to me, Elizabeth. And now nothing can tear us apart".

  Elizabeth

  Five years ago

  "Wait," Cole says, taking a deep breath. "There's still a way around this. You don't have to turn and run immediately".

  "I do," I say, barely able to hold back the tears as we sit in the storeroom. "You didn't see Edward's face. He was so..." I take a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I didn't know he wanted that," I continue. "I thought we were just friends. I never saw him as... I mean, I never thought about him that way. I thought he was just Luke's brother. My brother-in-law".

  We sit in silence for a moment.

  "When he was touching you," Cole says eventually, "did you try to stop him?"

  I shake my head.

  "And when Victor walked in on you, how far..."

  "We hadn't..." I sigh. "I was naked, but we hadn't done anything. We were close, though. It was going to happen. Another minute and..." Grabbing another tissue, I wipe my eyes. So far, I've managed to avoid collapsing into a complete and utter sobbing mess, but I know the levee could break at any moment. "It was my fault," I continue. "I led him on. I always thought I was a loyal person, but I led my brother-in-law on, and I didn't read the signs, and when he made a move, I didn't stop him. I would have let him sleep with me. I would have gone all the way".

  "You can't blame yourself," Cole replies. "You're stuck in the middle between the pair of them -"

  "That's just an excuse," I say firmly. "The truth is, I made bad decisions. Really, really bad decisions. I'm not going to try to blame anyone else for my stupidity. The best thing right now is if I just disappear".

  "You can't disappear -"

  "Can't I?" I ask him. "I'm being serious. Can't I just walk out of here and vanish? Can't I make it so they can never find me? That's all I want. I want to vanish like a ghost, and I want to go somewhere they can never find me. I know that might be the coward's way out, but it's all I can think of right now. I want to run and run and run until
-"

  "Where would you go?" Cole asks, interrupting me. "How would you live?"

  "Anything's better than this," I tell him. "I have to take responsibility for my own mistakes, and I have to move on. I should never have married Luke, and I should never have come to live at the Heights, and I should never have let myself get so close to Edward". I wait for him to reply, but after a moment I realize that he's just staring at me. "What?" I ask. "What are you thinking?"

  "Nothing," he replies.

  "Do you think I'm a slut?" I ask.

  He shakes his head.

  "Do you think I'm a bitch? Do you think I'm a cheating cow?"

  "Of course not".

  "Then what?" Again, I wait for him to say something. "You must think something about me," I continue. "I trust you, Cole. I know you'll be honest with me. What do you really think?"

  He stares at me for a moment. It's as if he's poised to say something, but he can't get the words out of his mouth. "I think maybe you should leave," he says eventually. "I think maybe this place, these people, are all too much for you. No-one could handle being married to either of those bastards, but if you leave, you need to do it in a controlled and careful way. You can't just run out the front door screaming. You need to have a plan. You need to think ahead".

  "I can work it out once I'm gone," I say. "I just need to get the hell away from this place".

  "Let me help you," he says. "Do you seriously think the Bannisters won't try to track you down? Do you think they'll let you just walk out of here? They'll do everything within their power to get you back. If you have some help, maybe you've got a better chance".

  I take a deep breath, trying to decide what to do. Finally, realizing that I can't do this alone, I nod. "How?" I ask. "I don't even know where to begin".

  "Meet me back here tonight," he says.

  "Have you got a plan?"

  "I'll have one by then. I know these people, Elizabeth. I've seen how they operate. I'll come up with a way for you to get away from them".

  "And what about you?" I ask.

  He pauses. "What about me?"

  "Won't they be angry?" I continue. "If they find out that you're helping me -"

  "Let me worry about that," he says. "Anyway, maybe I've been here too long. Maybe I should get going as well".

  "You're going to come with me?"

  He pauses again. "Let's just focus on getting you away first, okay?" he says eventually. "Can you be back here at the bar for 10pm? The place'll be dead and we'll have a better chance of getting away without anyone noticing. Besides, Luke'll be drunk well before it gets dark. From there, we can keep moving through the night, and by the time they realize anything's wrong. Just bring the essentials. Passport, money, some clothes. Leave everything else behind".

  I nod, feeling a little overwhelmed by all of this but, at the same time, realizing that it's my only choice. The Bannisters aren't going to let me go, and while this mess might be partly my own fault, I'm not going to compound my earlier errors by sticking around and letting things get worse and worse. Having seen what Luke did to Edward, beating him almost to a pulp, I'm scared to face him, and now that Victor knows about my shame, I've got no choice but to get out of here.

  "I'll be back at ten," I say, turning and hurrying to the door. "I'm leaving, and there's nothing they can do to stop me".

  Laura

  Today

  "I'm not Elizabeth," I say, my heart racing as I edge back toward the steps. All I can think about is the fact that I need to get the hell out of here. Whereas I previously assumed that Edward was strange but sane, it's now clear that he's getting fantasy and reality confused. Those slips of the tongue over the past few days, as he's increasingly begun to refer to me as Elizabeth, were clearly more than just a series of mistakes. As he comes closer and closer, I'm starting to realize that he really thinks I'm someone else.

  "Let me explain," he says calmly. "When -"

  "No!" I say, trying to work out what to do next. If I turn and run, he'll come after me and I might not be able to get the door locked in time. This isn't about saving my job anymore; it's about saving my life.

  "You are Elizabeth Bannister," he says, stopping a few feet from me. "I know this is hard for you to take in, but you really are her. You probably think I've lost my mind, but I assure you it's not like that at all. In fact, this is the sanest moment of my life. Of your life too. This is when all the madness ends, and all we're left with is the crystal clear truth". He pauses. "You are Elizabeth, and in your heart, you must know it's true".

  "My name," I say slowly, waiting for the perfect moment to turn and run, "is Laura Kingston".

  "That's the name you were given after the operation," he replies.

  "It's the name I was given by my parents".

  "Your parents never existed," he says. "They were figments of your imagination, just like every other aspect of Laura Kingston's life. All the guilt, all the regret... Believe me, the whole fantasy was carefully constructed in order to seem plausible. We spent more than a year conditioning you, training you day after day to believe these things. It was essential that you believe every word, and I hired the best psychiatrists in the business to come and work with you. The people in your mind weren't real. Your ex-boyfriend Lloyd wasn't an actual person, and neither was your friend Hayley. These were all ideas that were planted in your mind and made to seem real, so that you'd believe Laura Kingston existed. I'm afraid we had to make you feel guilty about your past, in order to ensure that you'd never try to go back".

  I want to grab him and shake him, to make him see sense, but at the same time I know that it's probably too late. I doubt I can truly get through to him, and it feels as if this fantasy has taken root in his mind. He needs help. He needs proper psychiatric help.

  "Let me prove it to you," he says, turning and walking over to a nearby desk. Taking out a folder, he leafs through a series of photos before passing one of them to me. "Do you recognize the woman in this image?" he asks.

  "That's her," I say, staring at the close-up image of Elizabeth Bannister's face. Her eyes are closed, and there are a series of black lines marked on her skin, as if she's about to go under the knife for some surgery.

  "That's you," he replies, passing me a second photo. This one shows Elizabeth once again, except that this time there are a series of cuts all over her face, with some of the sections held together by gauze and stitches. "These pictures were taken during the plastic surgery procedures. Fourteen were required in all to get you from your old look to your current face. Obviously we needed to make sure that you'd look completely normal at the end. We couldn't risk any scars. The doctors were absolute perfectionists in this regard. They worked and worked until they'd got it all done, and I believe the only tell-tale sign is a small scar behind your ear. I doubt you've even noticed it".

  Reaching up, I feel behind my left ear, and then behind my right, and finally my fingertips brush against a small, raised section of skin. I never realized I had a scar, but still, it can't be true. This is all just part of Edward's fantasy. He must have noticed the scar some time, and now he's folding it into his fantasy.

  "I get it," I tell him. "You want to have Elizabeth back. You'll do anything -"

  "It took two years," he continues, passing me a third photo, this time showing the same face with most of its skin having been peeled back, revealing the muscle and bone beneath. "They had to make you look completely different. It was vitally important that no-one here would be able to recognize you when you returned. No expense was spared. When the program started, the Bannister family was extremely wealthy, but eventually we used almost all our money to reconstruct you. Even your eyelids were altered, to help give your face a different overall shape. The attention to detail was staggering. I can't tell you how impressed I was when it was finished. Even your eyelashes... All those little parts of the body that make us look the way we do. It was hard to change you so completely, but we managed it in the end, thanks to some very
capable, though morally dubious, surgeons".

  He hands me yet another photo, and this time I notice something startling: the skin has been sewn back together, and although there's a huge amount of damage and bruising, it's impossible to miss the fact that the woman in the latest image looks like me. Still, I know for a fact that I've never had any such operation, and I definitely wouldn't put it past Edward to have a few photos doctored as part of his bizarre plan.

  "There was one complication," he continues. "When you were leaving the Heights, there was an accident, and you lost most of the skin on your left arm. It was able to be reattached, but it took another five operations just to get it working again. In total, you had nineteen operations over four years, and we spent more than £50m, almost every penny we had, changing you from Elizabeth Bannister to Laura Kingston. Even your body had to change. Your breasts, your legs, your hips... Everything. We removed a tattoo of a hummingbird from your right ankle, in case it might provoke some memories when you woke up. We even had your hair color permanently changed from blonde to brunette, and your eyes from green to blue. Your voice was altered. Your ears were pinned back. Your moles were moved. No expense was spared, and no detail was overlooked. By the end of it, the doctor said it was quite the most remarkable transformation he'd ever seen. If we hadn't been so keen to keep things under wraps, the accomplishment would have made headlines around the world".

  I stare at him, trying to take all of this in. It sounds impossible, and yet at the same time the photos make it seems as if maybe, just maybe, something like this could be done. Then again, I know my memories are real. They're my memories, and I'm not going to let Edward take them away from me.