Wicked Obsession

Once upon a time Cole Russet had held his sister, Diane in high graces, but that was before his eyes removed the attires of blindness and opened to her patterns of lying, manipulation, and delusions of grandeur.

Diane Russet made it into the Federal Bureau of Investigations having graduated from the California State University. Cole of course was proud of her achievements.

Every twin had significant differences a keen observer would be able to detect. Cole and Diane, despite their gender difference, they were identical. From their shoulder-long ginger hair to the sharp cut features and lean build, but that was as physical as it could get. Envy ran deep into his core knowing that the trait of infinite intelligence and profound wisdom was not part of the gene he possessed.

While Diane attended college and acquired a degree in psychology, Cole partook in several unsuccessful internships, he finally accepted the Diane’s offer to live in her apartment but wasn’t too thrilled living off her salary.

“How’d job hunting go?” Cole only heard a silent click from the door when Diane entered the spacious studio-apartment. She tossed her bag on the sofa next to her and kicked off her stilettos, sighing as her body collapsed on the bed.

Cole swivelled on the office chair and stretched his body, groaning in the process. “All they want are graduates and your kind.”

Diane smiled at him. “Morbid, I like that.”

“I’m tired of petty jobs, I need a real job. I can’t even have a girlfriend if I wanted to.” He closed the overheated laptop without a glance.

“Come on Cole, you know it’s not like that. Not all girls want to the rich kind of guy.”

Cole’s scoff was cynical. “Yeah but they want the financially secure one.” He bit his lip and his thick brows furrowed in deliberation. “What if I go to school huh? What if I start highschool all over again and then go to college and graduate and have a fancy degree like you have?”

Only if Cole could have seen the one-second sneer on Diane’s lips before she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “You know you can’t do that, you’re too old.”

Cole was recalled what Captain Sir Moore said before he died: ‘You are never too old to make a difference’, but it didn’t make sense now that he thought of applying it to a real life affair. Diane was right. He would look ridiculous as a twenty-seven year old sitting amongst tenth graders.

“C’mon Diane, then what do I do? You gotta help me.” Frustration proved evident in his tone.

Diane’s hand skirted to the buttons on her black blouse and began removing each crystal bead. “Cole you know I have tried to help you. I have pooled all my contacts for you in the past, and you know it is always up to you to make break or make.”

His hands squeezed on his nose irately. “That’s the problem! That’s the problem! I can’t do anything. It’s like my brain just doesn’t know what to do. I think it’s defective or something.”

The sharp giggle on Diane’s lips annoyed Cole, and then she threw her shirt so it landed on his face. “I wish there a job description that had: MUST BE VERY CREATIVE, FUNNY AND PLAIN STUPID in its description, I think you would be very suitable for that.”

“Yeah like a writer or something, right?”

“Writers are not stupid. It takes high levels of creativity and constructive detailing to put something on paper.”

“Then a writing career is off the list.” He rotated himself on the chair for a three-sixty as he said so.

Cole pulled his eyes off his sister’s shirtless body and turned the laptop on again.

“I’m going to take a shower, and close the damn laptop it’s ten fifty in the night, you need to get some sleep. Vision loss is real.”

“And so is brain defect.”

Absentmindedly, he shut down the laptop once more sighing into his seat. His brain was racking up all the things he thought he did moderately well but none apart from the times he worked as a salesperson and even then he unapologetically mixed figures which led to his termination. He couldn’t understand why his brain worked that way. It just stopped learning and he would just turn blank.

His bone all but cried when he stood to his full five feet eight height. He felt the need to urinate but the sound of the shower stopped him from going into the bathroom, which meant he would have to wait for some time.

Idle and bored, he proceeded to picking up his sister’s recklessly tossed bag and shoes. As he carried the thick leather bag, he remembered he told Diane to get him a crime book and unzipped the bag, excited to see what she got when his nose picked up a scent. It was the one you perceived when you got into a pharmacy. The white nylon caught his attention, but it was the content of the nylon bag that sustained his curiosity.

He opened the nylon and found two mini bottles. He recognised them as the one his doctor put into a syringe and injected on him. Ketamine. Diane said he was prone to seizures and it began after their parents died in an airplane accident when they were fourteen. Diane said the drugs would stop the seizures from happening which led him to having his own doctor- Doctor Mathias who prescribed this same drug to him. But what was Diane doing with them?

The faucet stopped running, which only meant Diane would soon come out, and see him going through her stuffs. Hurriedly, he pushed the contents back into the bag and tossed them on her bed.

“You took a long time in there.” He commented casually.

“Yeah, I guess today’s just been extra rough. I needed it.” Wet trails kissed each floor when she moved to her bed.

His hands folded in his pocket, Cole stared at Diane, thoughtful.

“What?” She stopped drawing out water from her hair with the small, white towel in her hand when she noticed Cole staring in her direction.

Cole shook his head negative before he responded. “Nothing, nothing. I was just thinking about stuffs.”

“Well stop giving that weird look.” She replied back at him, slightly offended.

The next morning when Cole was sure Diane had gone to work, he decided to snoop on Diane’s personal items. Guilt consumed him while he did it, but he had to, he had to find that drug again.

A fruitless hour later, he resigned on his bed worn out and annoyed with having put to all he scattered back together again. And then it hit him. He recalled the name of the drug.

Cole scrambled up once more and turned on his laptop, typing the words into the search engine.

At that moment, he wished he could rewind time and stopped his prying hands from locating the drugs in Diane’s bag.

He strained to abate his growing anger while he read the words painted on the screen. It took a while but he finally did it and his next stop was the doctor’s office.

Cole took a cab to the familiar path he had gone through more than a dozen times. His jaws clenched and unclenched as he saw the hospital come into view.

He paid his fare and was about to navigate his way to the doctor’s office when a voice called out.

“Young man, hey, please where are you going to?”

He turned to address the small, tight voice and was met with the receptionist. Almost instantly, he masked his anger with a false smile.

“Oh I’m sorry, it’s just that I have an appointment with Dr Mathias and I need to be there quick. I’m running late.”

On cue, the grey-haired so-called Doctor Mathias came into view.

“Ah Doctor.” Cole exclaimed, approaching the doctor. His smile held warmth but his eyes were deadly.

The doctor’s wrinkly face turned and he too smiled when he saw Cole. “Cole, how have you been?”

Cole came close enough to Mathias’ face. “Doctor, why don’t we take this to your office? It’s serious.”

The doctor seemed to understand the urgency of Cole’s statement. “Yes Cole, of course.”

The minute the door clicked close, Cole pounced on the short doctor, pinning him to the wall that had an illustration of the human body on it.

“What do you have against me doctor?” Cole growled at the man.

Fear crept onto the man’s features and he paled. “What- what do you mean Cole?”

Cole resisted the urge to punch the man’s round face. “It’s Mr Russet to you now doctor.”

“Yes, yes, Mr Russet. Please let me go, you are choking me.”

A cynical smirk crossed his lips. “Oh like this?” and he dragged the tie on Mr Mathias’ neck more tightly.

“Yes, please Cole- Mr Russet, you’re choking me.”

Cole held on to him a bit longer before slightly releasing his hand, making the doctor cough violently.

“Sit.” Cole was surprised at the cool tone of his order.

Wordlessly, the doctor approached his usual seat behind the large table.

“No, not there. On the floor, I want you to sit on the floor.”

Matthias dragged in a slow breath before doing as he was told. The floor was cold beneath his thighs.

Silent excruciating minutes went by before Cole spoke again. “I want you to answer my questions exactly as I ask them. No lies, no preambles, just answer as straightforward as possible, do you understand?”

“Y- Yes Mr Russell.”

“Good, now first question; what is Ketamine?”

The doctor’s blue eyes widened and he looked as if silently pleading for Cole to disappear.

“What is Ketamine?” Cole repeated.

“Don’t make me say it again.”

Dr Mathias gathered all the strength he could before speaking. “Ketamine is an injectable anaesthetic.”

“Good, and what does it do?”

“Large, subsequent doses can detrimentally affect neuromuscular strength and, nociception which creates persistent deficits in brain function.”

“Well isn’t that great? You did a good job but now I want you to strike out the jargons you just spoke and answer me this one, does it perhaps retard some part of my brain?”

Mathias bit into his lip and gulped saliva. “Yes Mr Russell it does,”

“Ah that’s great, very great. So you are the man behind who I am now?” Gone was the sarcasm and back was the deathly tone in his voice.

Mathias scrambled to his feet. “No, no, no, no, please, it wasn’t me.”

“Sit the hell back down.” Cole barked at him. “You have a knack for over-repeating things. First it was yes, yes and next it’s no, no? I guess this knack transpires to other aspects of your job, like repeatedly giving a patient the wrong medication.”

“Please Mr Russet. I swear to you it was not my intention.”

“Question number three, whose intention, was it then?”

“It was your sister that told me to do it. She- she threatened me and I had no choice. Please Cole, please forgive me.”

Cole was all deaf to the man’s pleading words as soon as he mentioned it was Diane.

“Give it to me. Give me the drug, give me.”

The doctor quickly did as he was told. He gave Cole a whole pack of the drug.

“Your sister, she’s a psychopath.”

And just like that, Cole left.

Cole left and sat in his messy bed, thinking hard in Diane’s apartment. He was waiting, waiting for Diane to appear and tell him it was all a lie, that the obvious truth was a blatant lie.

When the clock struck nine thirty-four, he sensed her presence by the click-clacks of her heels.

“Oh my goodness Cole, you will not believe what Jeremy said today- Cole?” She stopped on her tracks when she saw the brooding look Cole was directing at her. “What is going on?”

Slowly, Cole brought out the Ketamine from his jacket pocket and threw it on the floor, it’s content spilling on the ground. “Why did you do this Diane?”

His voice was but a light whisper.

Facing her now was much difficult than he anticipated.

“Cole I, I’m sorry.” Oh how empty those words were! Those few words were enough to confirm Dr Mathias’s claims. Though all of Dr Mathias facts proved positive, silently, he gave Diane the benefit of the doubt.

Cold air whipped off the thin sheen of saliva on his lips and so thrust his tongue forward. “Why Diane?”

“You were always better than me as a kid. Mom and dad used to celebrate you all the time, nothing for me.”

“So it was about gifts?” Cole couldn’t believe the incredulity of Diane.

“It was not about gifts Cole, don’t be stupid.”

Cole raised his head at the change of tone. For once in his life he could see the glint that was always in her eye. He did not see the face of a sister anymore, but the face of evil.

“I wanted to be better. I wanted to be better than you. And you didn’t help either; you just had to rub it on my face each time didn’t you. Telling me how dumb I was, now who is the dumb one?” a maniacal laugh burst from her throat, deliria hitting her like a storm.

“Yes it was all me, and so what if I did it, so what if you know now? You Cole are done.”

He had heard about this. Cole had heard read in stories a diabolical twin who strived to eliminate the other, but he never anticipated it would be his twin.

“The police are on their way Diane, you’ll go to prison.”

Somehow, this made her laugh even more. Her hair tangled wildly on her head.

“And you will die when I go to prison.”