There was an eerie calm in the house. Michael lay , splayed spread- eagled on the kitchen floor. He was breathing laboriously , his life’s last breath was upon him. His glassy eye reflected an image of Alexis, his niece. She was seated on the floor , a little apart from his now dead form ! She looked dishevelled and confused. Her right hand held a butcher’s knife, blood was all over her favourite pink night- suit! The silence was broken by the wailing of police sirens ! In a few moments , the police entered the modest house. Alexis was immediately arrested. She kept repeating, “ It wasn’t me! It was Amber….! “..” Please someone listen to me.”
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Alexis was orphaned at the tender age of 2 , when her parents came across a fatal car accident. She had been at day- care! Her paternal grandmother took custody of Alexis. Michael, 30 her only son , ran a business from home and never married, by choice. When the grandmother passed away a decade later , Michael stepped in to care for 12 year old Alexis. Alexis was growing up beautifully , with luscious hair and dark eyes .She was a picture of her dear mother. Life was going by smoothly till one day her uncle Michael began touching her inappropriately! She had turned 14! At first she brushed it off, but one night he entered her bedroom and took advantage of her. Poor Alexis had no one to turn too. She confided in Rosa her best friend. But 14 year old Rosa was not capable of giving her constructive advice. A MAD RAGE filled Alexis each time her uncle approached her, even casually! She hated him to the core. .She bolted her bedroom door at night and focussed on her education. Sometimes she felt she even blanked out with mad rage , locked in her bedroom! In a year’s time she graduated high school and secured admission to a prestigious College in another State . She was ecstatic and eagerly moved to a dorm attached to the College .She supported herself financially by working as a waitress. All was fine till she returned home for her Semester break! Michael had written and called her and urged her to give him one last chance! She relented and came home .Sadly Michael tried to molest her while she woke for a drink of water and the Mad Rage Overcame her !
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She sat disoriented near his body ! What had happened! Alexis had no recollection!
The court convicted her of the crime. Her fingerprints matched the ones on the knife ! She repeatedly exclaimed‘ Amber’ killed Michael’!
Psychiatrists considered it a case of Alter Ego, Alexis having confided finally to a psychiatrist about Michael’s ways.
She was sent to a rehab centre as she was 16,a minor. Three years she stayed there and kept studying , majoring in Psychology! Alter Ego , was it, or Redemption?
