Page 56 of Spitfire

"SCARLETT! WHAT THE FUCK!" Jasper shouts and takes steps towards her, and I bulldoze into him, shoving him backward.

"Don't, she's not herself! She's not the one in control right now!" I try to stay calm, and not provoke her, but I can see the fear mixed with the desire to be finally free of the cage Ashmaker lives in.

"What the hell does that mean?!" Jasper lowers the gun, pointing it at the floor between Ashmaker and me, with uncertainty. I can see it clearly across his face. He doesn't know if he believes what he's seeing, or who the real threat is anymore. He was so sure it was me, and that I had Scarlett here by force. I almost pity him. I can't imagine how his mind is trying to decipher what is really happening, and whether he should trust what I'm telling him, and what he's seeing with his own eyes.

"Please, baby, pull the knife away from your neck. Whatever is going on, we can fix it together, I promise," he begs, each word punctuated with terror.

Instead of listening, she pushes the sharp blade deeper into her skin, causing a trickle of blood to flow down her alabaster skin. "She's Ashmaker, and also Scarlett. Both of them share her body. Scarlett doesn't know what's happening right now. She's not in control." I grit my teeth, my hands fisting at my sides as Ashmaker stares at us impassively.

"She's Ashmaker?!" Jasper dares to take his eyes off Ashmaker to meet mine, his expression filled with disbelief. "Then who the fuck are you?"

"I'm the accomplice, the copycat killer, recreating her crimes."

Ah fuck, why'd you have to do that, Xavier? Now we have to kill everyone in this room.

FORTY-THREE

JASPER

"I'm the accomplice, the copycat killer, recreating her crimes." A buzzing starts in my ears, and it's getting louder and louder. The gun wavers in my grip, my finger easing off the trigger. How can this be possible?

If I wasn't seeing Scarlett before me, with that blade pressed against her neck right now, I would think this was all a farce Xavier created to escape his fate, but one glance from my peripheral vision shows me he's losing it as much as I am at her threatening to kill herself. Something's not right with her. It's as if she's empty, her spark missing, and all that is left is darkness. It pours from her right down to her angry tone.

"She's Ashmaker, and also Scarlett. Both of them share her body. Scarlett doesn't know what's happening right now. She's not in control."

Is it possible that what he's saying is true? How can one person be two people, and what the fuck does he mean they share her body? I rapidly flip through all the information I have on Ashmaker. Could our profile have been wrong this whole time, and it was always a woman and not a man? Could a woman be capable of that type of savage brutality?

Jesus fuck, the profile was mainly compiled by Scarlett Lyssa. Was she purposely pushing us off track so that we wouldn't catch on to the fact that it was her? If what Xavier is implying is true, she may not even have known what was going on. How can she not be in control of her own body? Is it some type of mental illness? Is Scarlett not well?

What the fuck am I saying? Of course she's not well, she's holding a damn blade to her neck. "Scarlett, please, baby, please drop the blade," I plead in panic. She stares right through me with dark, vacant eyes, a twitch on her cheek the only response. Desperation and anxiety fill me, as I watch the woman I'm in love with being mentally unaware of what she's doing.

"Fucking explain now, Poine." I point the gun back in his direction, unsure of what to do next. Maybe if I threaten to shoot him, she'll take the blade away. He flinches at my action, but doesn't attempt to dissuade me, and other than following the movement with her glance, Scarlett doesn't object to the gun being back on him. Does she not care about him? That doesn't make sense. I've seen the way they are together. She has feelings for him.

"Dissociative identity disorder, her mind split long ago from the trauma and abuse she suffered as a child in foster care. She's still Scarlett Lyssa, but she's also Ashmaker, each one with a distinct personality and mannerisms." Xavier's gaze connects with Scarlett's, and I watch as she stands there defiantly, her ego on display, and so different from the Scarlett I know. Her cold gaze turns in my direction, and it's as if she’s calling me out for how long it’s taking me to figure it all out, and she’s daring me to do something with every word that leaves Xavier’s lips. Holy fuck, could what he's telling me be true?

"Ashmaker protected her from the child abuse, the rapes. All the shitty, traumatic events that happened to her growing up, and as she became stronger, pervasive amnesia and memory gaps would have happened. It was the way her brain rewired itself for survival. She didn't realize until recently that she's Ashmaker, and she's been hunting herself the whole time."

Child abuse. Rapes. Traumatic events. Survival. His words echo through my mind louder than I can endure. I lower the gun completely, my chest heaving as if I've just run a marathon. The coldness in Scarlett's eyes scares me to death. It's as if she feels nothing for either of us right now, and isn't afraid to die by her own hand. Ashmaker, not Scarlett. I try to wrap my head around what Xavier is telling me. "How do you fit into all of this? I know you two were once in the same foster home."

"Very good, Jasper. You've been doing some actual work. I thought poor Scarlett was going to have to carry your investigation all on her shoulders, while you took all the glory. Fucking men, always stealing what's not theirs to take."

Duly noted that this version of Scarlett is not a fan of men, but I guess that makes sense with the way she's killed them. I note that Ashmaker's voice is arctic and abrasive, and nothing like Scarlett's. I want to rebuke her assessment of me, but I'm also terrified to trigger her further. Right now, I'm neck-deep in uncharted waters.

"Yes, we met in foster care, and Scarlett saved me from our abusive foster dad. Isn't that right, Ashmaker?"

She rolls her eyes disdainfully. "She had more control then. She wasn't as broken yet. That came later, and that's when I had to step in more and more to protect her."

She wasn't as broken yet. My heart shatters at the words, and the knowledge that Scarlett suffered so horribly, that the only way her mind could cope was by splitting into two identities. How could someone have done those things to a poor defenseless child? No, children, because Xavier mentioned she saved him.

"Go on, tell your truth, Xavier. Tell Jasper here how you became her obsessive shadow, stalking her for years, thinking you needed to protect her, when she had me all along."

"She was mine! I had to protect her, to ensure she was happy," Xavier growls with frustration before catching himself. "I didn't realize that her mind had fractured, and that she didn't recognize she was Ashmaker, until I followed her to a crime scene. From that moment on, my task was to ensure assholes like you didn't catch her."

"You copycatted the crimes to throw us off the scent. That's why there was an escalation of bodies. Why the fuck would you do that? Why not try to get her to stop, and get some help? Why become the accomplice who covered up her crimes?"

"Oh, do tell, Xavier." Ashmaker winks at Xavier, and it makes my blood boil with jealousy, even though I can clearly see that it isn't my little vixen in control.

"I couldn't allow you to lock her behind bars, or worse, in some fucking mental hospital. I couldn't be parted from her." He drags his hand through his hair, pushing off the dark hoodie, and allowing the dim light to paint his tresses almost silvery-white. "I also found I enjoyed helping her punish men who abused kids like us. It was cathartic, a release that helped me with my own demons."