Split Personality - Catherine Holland (the read aloud family txt) 📗

Split Personality

Chapter One

As every victim of domestic abuse knows, it never gets any easier; it gets to the point after a while when enough is enough. This was true for one victim who finally found the strength and courage to leave one life behind and start another. All too soon she realised her mistake and it soon became a struggle for her life.
With a deep dark secret unknown even to her, Jenna lay in the intensive care unit at Westridge Memorial Hospital; it was the third time in two months that she’d been admitted, with black eyes, broken ribs and a broken jaw, the nurses knew this was no accident. The first time that Jenna had been taken to the hospital it was for a broken wrist, the second time it was for a broken nose and to have her cast replaced; Jenna had tried to defend herself and in the process had broken the cast.
The first two times Jenna had insisted that the police not be called; the nurses had unwillingly obliged but this time they called the police as soon as they realised that Jenna was the victim of a vicious attack. A member of the public and by lucky chance, a nurse at the hospital had been walking her two German Shepherd dogs in the woods close to her home. The dogs had found Jenna and the nurse had called the paramedics.
With a fresh cast placed over her healing wrist, Jenna had been sedated to allow her ribs to heal easier and quicker. A nurse and two police officers had been stationed to guard the patient after the condition she’d been found in. The police and nurses were both waiting for Jenna to awaken, they needed to know who had done this and why. As the nurse bent over to check Jenna’s blood pressure and temperature; she saw that Jenna had long black hair.
The nurse lifted an eyelid to check pupil dilation and saw that her eyes were hazel. Jenna was five foot five inches tall and had a slim build; it would still be several hours before Jenna woke up.

* * * *

In the mean time Jenna’s boyfriend Kyle had been arrested and was currently sitting in an interrogation room at Westridge Police Station. His short blond hair was askew and his brown eyes were narrowed in dislike, Kyle stood at six foot tall and was well built.
Kyle had been denying anything to do with the attack on Jenna and had an alibi for the day of the attack. The police held Kyle for twenty four hours; his alibi checked out and the police had nothing else to hold him on. As Kyle was being released a call came into the station; Jenna had woken up.

* * * *

The first thing Jenna saw was the white ceiling and then smelled the disinfectant, as Jenna looked around her, she saw tubes and wires sticking out of her hands; and saw a fresh cast on her left wrist. Jenna tried to sit up but couldn’t, she then tried to talk but found her mouth wired shut.
With her free hand she felt around the bed for the switch to call the nurse, it wasn’t there. Jenna could only see out of one eye, she felt for the other eye and found it was swollen shut and incredibly sore. She was also in pain every time she tried to breathe deeply; she heard the door to the room open and then closed. Someone was approaching her, Jenna could smell Jasmine; it seemed to be coming from the person’s clothes.
A soft hand touched her right wrist and Jenna clenched her fist, she opened her eye and saw a motherly looking nurse standing over her. “It’s OK love, you’re safe, the police want to ask you some questions but I’ll tell them to wait until morning.” Jenna nodded; she had a hundred questions running through her mind but couldn’t ask any of them.
The nurse gave Jenna another sedative then walked towards the door as Jenna fell asleep once more.


Chapter Two


The next morning when Jenna awoke, the nurse handed her a pad of paper and a pen; she’d explained to the police that Jenna’s jaw was broken and had been wired shut. Jenna had requested that the nurse stay with her for the questioning. “Do you remember who did this to you?”
Jenna picked up the pen and wrote ‘No.’ She showed the police and they frowned. “Do you remember what happened?” Once again she wrote ‘No,’ and she honestly couldn’t remember what’d happened, one minute she was walking through the woods; the next she woke up in hospital. “Do you know Kyle Swan?” Jenna wrote ‘Yes.’
“Did he do this to you?” Jenna wrote ‘No.’ “In your own words can you tell us what you remember about the attack?” Jenna started writing; ‘I had just finished work and was walking home through the woods, the next thing I remember is waking up in here.’ The policeman smiled, “OK that will be all for now, but we may need to come back and ask you some more questions OK?”
Jenna nodded and watched as the policemen left, later on that day a consultant came into the room and explained that she would need to stay in hospital for a further few days for observation. They asked if there was anyone they could call for her and Jenna shook her head. She didn’t want anyone phoned for the simple reason it would without a doubt cause another beating.
By suffering alone Jenna was ensuring two things, the first was that Josh wouldn’t be able to find her; and the second that she’d be strong enough to leave him and start again, after all they say ‘third time’s the charm.’ Jenna had gone from one bad relationship to the other, when she received the first punch from Kyle, she left him and vowed never to return.
But he came crawling back promising to never do it again, she had believed him and taken him back, when they were alone for the first time in weeks, Kyle broke her wrist and threatened to kill her if she ever left him again. Jenna finally left him after he broke her nose for having a drink with a friend, she was expecting Kyle to come crawling again but he didn’t.
Jenna hadn’t seen the signs of violence in Josh, when he hit her, she’d blacked out and when she’d come to; had found herself lying on her bed. Her clothes had been ripped from her body, as she sat up completely naked Jenna started to cry, she grabbed some fresh clothes from the drawer and left. As Jenna lay in the hospital bed remembering all that had happened in the past, the doors opened and in walked a well built, six foot tall very masculine man.
His gigantic hands ran through his short dark hair and his eyes twinkled in the darkness like a pair of cats eyes, Jenna merely thought that the nurse had returned; but instead of smelling Jasmine she smelt sweat and dirt, mingled together as though it were an animal that had just run long distance, jumped in a lake then returned to its owner with a prize in its mouth.
Jenna could hear footsteps getting closer and closer, she reached for the remote with the emergency button on it, but during the day it had been knocked off the bed and hung just out of reach. A hand reached across and covered her mouth, the pain was excruciating, but she didn’t dare move. A constant gush of hot air kept flowing on to her face as Josh’s breaths deepened. Where were the police that had maintained a vigil by her door?
As the pain reached its climax and Jenna didn’t think she’d be able to take any more, the pressure lifted and she could breathe again. The pain left after what seemed like hours, and Jenna managed to fall into a fitful sleep, her dreams were of faceless shadows and things just beyond her reach.


Chapter Three

One Year Later


Dreams from the hospital still followed Jenna where she went, she had moved several times in the last nine months after she had received threatening calls and letters to her home. This new place was the last hope for Jenna, nothing threatening had arrived in the post in months and she was confident that nothing more would happen.
How very wrong she was. At the beginning of the fourth month in her new home, only a day after she’d gotten her kitten a letter arrived in the post. The kitten being naturally playful and curious swiped the letter with her paw; there was a deafening bang as the letter exploded. Half the hallway was destroyed and the eight week old, pure white kitten was killed.
When Jenna returned to her flat, she saw the flames coming from her side of the building as the fire department battled to get them under control. A barricade had been set up and Jenna tried to push through it, someone stopped her. “What’s going on? Let me through I live there, my kitten’s in there!” Near the entrance to the block of flats Jenna heard two policemen talking.
“There’s blood all up the wall, it’s not human blood and there’s some charred photos of a white kitten, it might match the bits of fur we’ve found.” “What a waste, that poor kitten couldn’t have been more than eight weeks old. Do we know who the person renting the property is yet?” “Yes, it’s a Miss Jenna Daws, she should’ve been home tonight from what we’ve gathered from her neighbours, it was lucky that Miss Daws wasn’t home but maybe someone thought she’d be.”
The police headed towards the crowd and spotted someone trying to get through the barricades. “What seems to be the problem Miss?” “What’s going on? I live in that block of flats and my kitten is inside I have to get to her.” The police drew her to one side and said “What’s your apartment number? And can you give me a description of your kitten?” “My apartment number is twenty-five C and my kitten is white. Now please, can you hurry and find her?”
One of the officers rested his hand on her shoulder as he said, “I’m sorry to tell you this Miss, but the fire seems to be coming from your apartment; the fire department have found bits of white fur and blood on the walls and we believe its your kitten’s blood. Half of the apartment was destroyed with what appears to be a home-made bomb, we’ll know more once the experts arrive, we’d like to take you down to the station to answer a few questions is that OK? Is there anyone we can call for you?”
Jenna shook her head as she followed the officers, that question always made her insides tingle. After several hours of questioning and having her alibi verified, she was put up in a hotel, that night she cried herself to sleep over the loss of her kitten. When she finally fell into a fitful sleep Jenna dreamt that everything was back to normal, that her kitten