Wraith
"Shut up." Wraith said without cracking his eyes.
Wraith, we need to talk.
"No, we don't. Shut up."
Wraith, this is important.
"Not to me. Leave me alone." Wraith knew it was pointless to argue, but he was not in the mood to put up with any of Link's crap right now.
Wraith, I want to talk to you.
"And I don't want to talk to you." Wraith answered. "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up."
Wraith, you know that I won't go away. Wake up and talk to me.
"God damn it Link." Wraith said angrily. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the motel bathroom. "Is it too much to ask for a little peace and quiet? Why the hell do you think I am here? I am here for some god damned peace and quiet. Now shut the hell up."
Who do you think you are talking to, Wraith? You know I will keep this up until you talk to me. This is important.
"Important to you." Wraith said. "Not to me."
What is important to me is important to you. I am you, remember? Come talk to me.
"Shit." Wraith said and sat up rubbing his temples. Stupid Link. Couldn't the idiot realize that he always showed up at the most inopportune times? Of course, if Wraith had it his way, Link would never show up at all. Screw him, and screw Dr. Waters. Schizophrenia. Pain in the ass was more like it. His head hurt and he was really not in the mood for it.
Wraith, I am waiting.
"Just give me one god damned minute." Wraith said. "You win okay. I am coming. I just need to clear my head for a second."
One thousand one…
"Yeah, yeah, very funny. Hold on. I am coming." Wraith got up from the bed and stormed into the bathroom. It was the only place in this dinky little motel room that had a mirror. It was always easier to do this in front of a mirror. It kept the voice out of his head. He hated having the voice in his head. He turned the light on and peered at his reflection.
It was not him that he was looking at. It was Link. Link was an annoying jackass that shared his mind with him. Usually Link was quiet and let him go about his business. Every once in a while, though, he would surface and make life difficult. Link didn't ever just pop in to say hi and then go. Whenever he showed up, things got very complicated.
"That is better." Link said from the mirror. Projection something, or something projection. That was what Dr. Waters had called it. Whatever it was technically, it made Wraith's head feel better. When Link was in the mirror, it no longer felt like the two of them were cramped together inside his brain.
"You're telling me." Wraith responded. "How the hell do you think I feel to wake up and have you crowding my thoughts? Now what is so important that you had to bother me like this?"
"You are making a mistake in your pursuit of James." Link said. "I told you to leave him alone."
"If you wanted me to leave him alone you never should have tipped me off to the fact that he was stealing from me." Wraith said. "You should have known that I could not let that pass."
"I didn't tell you that so that you would go after him. I told you about him so that you would be able to manage your finances better. Sure, you get paid plenty for your jobs, but when you are supporting both him and yourself, it means that you need to be aware, not only of how much money you have been paid, but also how much you can actually spend." Link answered.
"The simple solution then is to kill the imposter and keep the money for myself." Wraith said. "You have stood by and watched me kill time and time again. Why do you care so much about what happens to James?"
"He is your brother." Link said.
"I don't have a brother." Wraith said.
"Yes you do." Link said. "It is too complicated for me to explain to you, but you do."
"Look, even if you are right, why should that matter to me?" Wraith asked. "Did you forget what I did to mom? You saw that didn't you? You see everything don't you? You never popped up and told me that I needed to stop because she is my dear sweet mother. What makes this any different?"
"I wish I could tell you in a way that you would understand, but I can't." Link said. "The truth is that I am the one who set up the account and makes the regular transfers from your account into his. He doesn't even realize that he is stealing from you. He really believes that he makes the money himself."
"Would you care to run that past me one more time?" Wraith asked.
"No, I would not." Link answered. "This is far more complicated than you can possibly imagine. I can take hold of your body sometimes and you know it. That is how you end up in different places without remembering how you got there. I went in a long time ago and set up the account. It is only that recently some of your purchases have gotten high enough that I thought you should be aware of him. You were never supposed to kill him."
"Why did you do this for him?" Wraith asked. "If I could kill you for this betrayal I would. Instead, I guess dear James is going to suffer. What happened anyway? Did he ask you for it?"
"I already told you that James is not aware of the true source of his income. That is why he was not able to come up with an answer to you when you asked him where he got his money." Link said. "James has his own issues. It seems to come with the territory of being a member of this family. He never asked for the money, but he needed it, so I gave it to him. He is too lost in his own darkness to successfully provide for himself."
"And what is his own darkness?" Wraith asked.
"I am not really sure." Link admitted. "Maybe it is something like what you and I have. It would not really surprise me. But I am not inside his mind. I am in yours."
"If he did not ask you for the money, then how in the hell did you know he needed it? Is this some sort of telepathy or something?" Wraith snorted.
"Something like that."
"You're an idiot." Wraith said. "If it is telepathy then you ought to know what his darkness is. This is stupid and I don't understand why you are trying to protect him. If you tell me one more time that it is too complicated to explain, I swear to god I will break this damn mirror and walk out of here."
Would that really make me go away?
"No, I suppose it wouldn't." Wraith said. "But the answer is still no. I will not leave James alone. He is going to die and nothing you say will stop me."
"Fine." Link said. "But if you are going to do something, you need to do it quickly. Why are you wasting your time here when you could just kill him and move on?"
"Cops." Wraith said. "The heat is on, so I have to lay low for a bit."
"Do you really think it is going to calm down any time soon?" Link asked. "Don't lie to me. Just admit the truth. Why are you holding back?"
"He hasn't suffered enough yet."
"And what is the next step?"
"Jennifer." Wraith said. The name sent a shiver through him.
"Yes, Jennifer has to die." Link said. "She is back at work now. Why haven't you sent Vixen after her there? The cops are watching James. She could slip in and kill Jennifer without any resistance from them."
"The timing isn't right." Wraith said.
"Will it ever be?" Link asked. Wraith hated him for it. "Why do you love her? You hate everybody. You don't even know her. Why is it that you love her?"
"She's…special. She had eyes that pierce my soul. I don't really get it, but she makes me feel…different." Wraith could not believe his loss for words. He had never really wondered why he was in love with her. He just knew that he was. It was like when he looked at her he actually wanted to be a good guy. He wanted her to love him, but he knew that she could never love a bad guy. But he could never be a good guy. That is why she needed to die. She made him feel something he had not felt in a long time. Guilt. Remorse. Shame.
"You love her because she is pure." Link said. "She is the ultimate definition of unattainable to you. That makes you crave her and hate her all at the same time. So why can't you pull the trigger and send Vixen in?"
"I am just not ready for it yet." Wraith said.
"Vixen is." Link said. "What makes you think she has not already acted? You have been avoiding her. She is probably feeling really scorned right now. With normal women, this is a bad thing. With her… well you never know what might happen."
"Has she done something?" Wraith asked, feeling stupid even as he asked it.
"How would I know?" Link said. "Look, I am just telling you that you need to quit sitting on the fence on this one. Either finish the job or walk away. The longer you wait, the more likely Detective Sweeny is to come bursting through that door with his gun drawn. It is not like you to vacillate, and I don't want to get shot for it."
"Fine." Wraith said. "In the end you are all about self preservation aren't you? I will do it, but I am going to do it on my terms."
"Works for me." Link said. "Just keep me alive."