The Mind Eater

Nicole felt a sense of accomplishment as she read Marie's email.

A smirk appeared on her lips which flattened into a smile as her 'lover',
Brenda prepared to leave.

Brenda was the latest in a cycle of young women who were just 'coming out' or whom she had 'brought out'.

Nicole's typical procedure was to encourage confused women between the ages
of 20 and 30 to 'experiment'. These were not patients.
Never patients.
They were women she met socially over whom she could exercise her 'power'.

Nicole had the amazing ability to convince people she spoke the truth.

As a child she could fool her mother into believing she was sick to avoid school. She could convince her teachers into believing she was bullied. She could always make her friends feel guilt for doing anything she had not fully agreed to. Nicole had often stolen small items from those who came into her space and was able to convince the owners they were her's.

The only person she couldn't fool had been her elder sister, Sandra.

Nicole had spent her life in the shadow of her sister. It was only when she reached nineteen and her sister had married and moved away that she could begin to emerge.

Nicole was a version of Sandra. A version missing all that made Sandra beloved.

Although she tried to act like her, talk like her, be her, it didn't work. As years passed, Nicole developed a hatred for Sandra. This was latent because there was no contact between them.

So Nicole did the next best thing.

She would invent stories about Sandra, rewrite history, hold to false memories, which she could get others to believe.

Nicole rewrote Sandy from the happy person who was bright and courageous, into a sick violent harpy.

Nicole's parents, although Conservative could not disown her. Having rejected Sandra for her revolutionary zeal, they had only little Nicole. Knowing it, Nicole punished them, claiming all sorts of abuse which never happened and forcing their capitulation.

Nicole knew the abuse didn't happen. Getting her parents to accept her false memories only made her despise them a little bit more.

Her so-called lover, Brenda, had
now left the flat.

Nicole's rules were simple.
Get out and give me
MY SPACE between 8 am
and 5 pm or move out.

Nicole would soon replace Brenda.
Her lovers always bored her.
They were just too easy to manipulate.

She sat at the computer and reread
Marie's email, relishing it.

How stupid could anyone be?

Marie was always stupid, but after forty years, hadn't she learned anything?

Nicole lit a cigarette and went to the balcony her mind going back, remembering when they were children.

Marie had been a tubby little 'Please like me' type which Nicole had always exploited. Even at the age of ten, Nicole knew how to use people like Marie.

Marie had been her 'best friend' for seven years. Then, Marie, just seventeen, married a man in his thirties who Nicole wouldn't wipe her shoes on.

The friendship ended, and Nicole moved on to others.

When Marie's marriage collapsed, when she reached out, Nicole turned her back.
It was Sandra who took her hand.

Sandra who brought Marie back into their 'family'.

As far as Nicole was concerned, her 'best friend' Marie was a pair of old shoes
she'd thrown away.

However, to please Sandy more than Marie, Nicole allowed the friendship to be reignited at a very low flame.
It was about a year later Sandra married.
Married and moved far away.

Every Sunday, just after Sandra married, just before she moved away, Nicole would visit her. Then there was sporadic contact during the next decade.

Nicole, feeling confused and neglected, decided to try her 'abuse' trick on her sister, just to see what Sandy would do.

Sandy who had 'everything' didn't respond to Nicole's fantasy. Of all the people in the world Nicole needed to impress, to best, to vanquish, it was Sandy.

But Sandy was a thousand miles away. And Sandy still had the real Power.

Years had passed.

Nicole was now 59. She had been an active lesbian for 39 years. She never had a steady partner, and the word partner, suggesting equality, didn't exist in her vocabulary. Nicole had victories. Stupid confused girls she could give their first lesbian encounter. Easy victories over weak females whose lives she could twist.

Nicole decided to 'track' Sandy and find anyone who might have contact with her, and destroy the relationship. Marie was a true success.

Nicole learned that for over fifteen years Marie had tried to find Sandy.
Marie had also tried to contact her, but she was not interested.

Nicole considered Marie a waste of time since that ridiculous marriage
decades ago, until Operation Sandy Stalk was implemented.

Nicole forced herself to connect
with Marie.

The fool poured out her heart,
unaware she was writing to a
psychologist who majored in manipulation.

It didn't take long for Nicole to repaint the past.

Marie was stupid.
She didn't remember that Sandy didn't have a phone.
She didn't remember that it was Nicole who told Marie's mother what she was doing..

And even if Marie had a perfect
recollection of the past before
this contact, Nicole was more
than competent to rework memories.

She was a professional, who'd been playing people, (and being paid for it) for over a quarter of a century.

For weeks Nicole put up with Marie's stupid emails, actually having to open a file to keep track of her embellishments, redirections and fabrications..

Finally, Sandy made contact with Marie. After all these years of trying, Marie finally connected to someone she had so valiantly searched for.

And what happened?

Oh, how proudly Marie boasted at how viciously she had responded and how
she had told Sandy to never try to contact her again, working for Nicole's 'approval'.

Nicole had to laugh. It was just too easy.

Nicole decided she would make three more dull posts to Marie, then cut her off.
Nicole couldn't act too quickly for then Marie might realise she had been manipulated.
Might revert to the facts.

Nicole set a schedule.

She would respond every other day. Then, her third post would state she was going on vacation for a month and be out of contact.

She would never resume contact.

It had been Nicole's experience that a month was sufficient time for 'cement' to dry.
It was virtually impossible after the passage of that time for anyone to resume
their 'place'.

Despite the fact that Nicole would never contact Marie again, if she played it right,
Marie would or could never contact Sandy.

Even if Marie realised that for fifteen years she had pursued Sandy, that for fifteen
years all of these events so well constructed by Nicolei, had never operated on her
thoughts, even if she realised Nicole had manipulated her, it wouldn't matter.

What mattered is that any connection between Marie and Sandy had been destroyed.

Nicole returned to the living room, glanced at the clock. She had time for another cup
of coffee before her first patient would arrive. She glanced at the file. Today she
should be able to bring Denise Dressler to 'remember' how her father
'abused her as a child'.

She laughed, it was all just too easy.