“So I want to help. Maybe you could, like, have a hobby? It’s sort of creepy having an audience.”
“Screw you.”
Kaitlyn storms away and slams the door behind her, glaring through the glass for a moment before running down the stairs.
“Shit.”
“Language, Naida,” comes a stern voice from off camera.
Naida films the empty corridor, but we catch her reply to someone at the other end. “Sorry, Miss Chisholm.”
“And you’re late for lights-out. The bell went off five minutes ago.”
“Sorry, miss.”
[END OF CLIP]
Naida Camera Footage
Date and Time Index Missing
Naida’s Dorm Room
Naida kneels before a short candle, and the shadow of the flame flickers along the floor and wall. Outside, the light is growing brighter, and the rain patters the windows in rhythmic droves. Beside her, Carly sits biting her lip. Naida first covers the candle with a small pot with holes all over it, so that the candlelight is scattered over the walls like raindrops. Then she removes a little drum from beneath her bed and begins to beat it while chanting phrases that the mic cannot pick up.
After a brief silence, during which Naida’s head remains bowed, Carly glances up at Naida’s mirror on the wall. It is covered with a cloth.
“So the dead can’t enter,” Naida says, looking up at her. “And so that our souls can’t get lost or be harmed.”
“Are we in danger?”
“We should be careful.”
Carly blinks, swallows, nods.
Naida takes a breath. “Great Father, Gorro, aid us in our prayer for our friend. Open the doorway for this communication. But protect us from wandering ears and eyes, and keep us safe. Keep her safe. Forgive our bold request. Bring us cleanly into the spirit world and help us bring our friend—sister—peace. Accept my small offering tonight, great Gorro, majestic Karrah, and bring harmony to the school.” She pours what appears to be wine or grape juice into a chalice from a silver jug, her hands shaking visibly. “Quiet any evil that may exist here and let it sleep.”
She raises the chalice to her lips and drinks deeply, then hands it to Carly, who sniffs the liquid, then takes a sip.
“Finish it.”
Carly does so with some difficulty, and when the chalice is empty, she coughs.
“Is it done? Will Kaitie be—”
“Blessed Father, great Gorro, honored Mother, kindly Karrah,” Naida interrupts, squeezing her eyes shut. “Thank you for your communion. We close the door.”
“Is it—”
“Done. Yes.”
“Kaitlyn will be happier? Calmer?”
Naida hesitates. “I hope so.”
[END OF CLIP]
11 126 days after the incident
Criminal Investigation Department, Portishead Headquarters
Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Portishead, Bristol
Tuesday, 7 June 2005, 09h20
AUDIO INTERVIEW #1, PART 1: Detective Chief Inspector Floyd Homes (FH) and Dr. Annabeth Lansing (AL)
(FH): Detective Chief Inspector Floyd Homes, Avon and Somerset CID, interviewing Dr. Annabeth Lansing on the seventh of June 2005. You were Carly Johnson’s therapist?
(AL): That is correct.
(FH): In what respect were you treating Miss Johnson?
(AL): Emotionally and psychologically. Carly suffered numerous complications after the death of her parents.
(FH): Were you the admitting doctor in Carly’s case? For Claydon, I mean.
(AL): No. Dr. Phillips admitted Carly, and I was brought in when she was diagnosed with DID.
(FH): DID?
(AL): It’s a personality disorder, normally brought on by severe trauma. Dissociative identity disorder.
(FH): Can you elaborate?
(AL): Dissociative identity disorder is a disruption of identity. There are usually two or more distinct personality states.
(FH): And Carly had this disorder?
(AL): That’s why I was brought in. It’s my field of expertise.
(FH): I see. [Shuffling paper] In plain English, Doctor, what are the symptoms?
(AL): Altered personality states, amnesia surrounding the trauma. Sometimes accompanied by a paranoid alter ego, a scared alter, a sexually deviant alter, a dominant or aggressive alter—
(FH): How many of these alters did Carly have?
(AL): That’s what made her case so interesting. She had only one other alter, and that one was fairly normal, as far as alters go. She was fully developed, but not exaggerated, like alters can be. Another unique feature is that the alter, who called herself Kaitlyn, came out regularly, at timed intervals.
(FH): Is that unusual?
(AL): It’s unheard of. Another unusual thing about the Kaitlyn alter is that she heard a voice—a voice speaking to her when there was nothing there. She called it Aka Manah.
(FH): A voice. She was delusional?
(AL): She heard a voice. We all hear voices, but we know that they are our thoughts. Kaitlyn wasn’t sensitive to that. She heard the voice in her head and outside of herself. Most often outside of herself. She thought it was real.
(FH): I see. [Pause] When did the Kaitlyn persona come out?
(AL): At night. Kaitlyn called herself a child of darkness.
(FH): And that wasn’t extreme?
(AL): In the scheme of things, no. It simply amounts to a normal teenager’s angst about her existence. I believe it was Kaitlyn’s “job,” as it were, to protect Carly from the dark hours, owing to what happened to her parents. In trauma, darkness is often given personification—like an evil force.
[Pause]
(FH): Tell me about what happened at the end of September 2004.
(AL): I only found out about all of this later, but it was around the end of November when Carly seemed to integrate, but she did so in a peculiar manner.
[End of tape]
12 136 days until the incident
Diary of Kaitlyn Johnson
Sunday, 19 September 2004, 6:30 pm
Dorm
I should throw tantrums more often.
Jaime knocked on the door before she came in, which I should have known meant something was wrong. She’s grown so much that when I saw her, I thought I might actually cry. Her arms are leaner, her stomach flatter; the pudginess of her toddler years is gone. She’s five years old already.
When she saw me, she paused, eyes searching mine, she was afraid of me but when I opened my arms, she laughed and ran into them. I picked her up—she’s so heavy now!—and spun her around like I used to.