Michael's P.O.V

"...Suzie?"

As soon as I heard that name, my arm dropped, along with my heart, which plummeted down into my stomach.

I stared at the girl who had unknowingly just turned my entire life upside down, but her full attention was on the other girl she was eyeballing, the girl I thought I knew, or was just grasping knowledge of.

The eyes were the same, the only difference was the hardened stare within them. She looked exactly the same as... What was the point of names now? I couldn't bring myself to look at her, I was scared of what I might find.

Instead, I edged away from her side and turned away from them both. I caught the reflection of them in the window, still stiff and unmoving. It was almost like time had paused, as if when they looked at each other a force between them stopped time altogether, and it chilled me to the bone.

Finally, the silence broke.

"What do you want me to say, Maria? I'm sorry?" The tone of voice was venomous, a far cry from the sweet tinkling of the good morning I had heard just hours ago.

The real Maria folded her arms, still not breaking her stare.

"I want a damn explanation, not an apology. You aren't even supposed to be here Suzie, you aren't stable. You think I wouldn't find out that you'd busted out of there, huh? I've been searching for you for months and months, I went to the flat you were staying in, using my money to pay the rent for, but you were gone. Then the paparazzi descended. I couldn't get rid of them, they followed me everywhere when they should have been stalking you. You want to know what that's like? For something you don't even know had happene-"

"Shut the f*ck up, Maria! Just shut up! I don't need this, you wanted me to be happy, you wanted me to be normal, but I couldn't ever be normal enough for you could I? So you lock me up like some criminal in that hell hole and never once visited me! You didn't give a flying f*ck about me except for the fact that I may be tainting your good name. And now I'm happy you're out to ruin that for me too?"

"That happiness isn't yours though, is it Suzie? It's mine, it's in my name and I'll be damned if I let you hurt my family again. You were never satisfied with ruining our father's life, by taking away his wife, your own mother, you had to ruin mine too. Now you're going to ruin your lover's over there."

I turned as both pairs of eyes looked in my direction. I scanned Suzie's face, but found little to no emotion. No remorse, no shame, nothing. It was like looking at the face of a porcelain doll, the eyes shone, but were dead inside. I suddenly realised who she was, she wasn't my Maria, she was Suzie, little more than a monster, disguised as my beautiful fiancé.

My body was pressed against the cool glass, a relief from the intense heat of rage that was beginning to radiate through my body. This was not happening, this was all lies. I was not going to be the victim of conspiracy again. I aimed my focus on Maria, who was shaking

"Would you care to tell me what the hell is going on here? You think I'm just gonna stand here, completely out of the loop while you take away everything I have? The hell you are. You better give me something more than that to prove yourself, I don't trust nobody's words no more. I don't know what to think. I don't know who that woman over there is any more, but two minutes ago she was the love of my life, so you better tell me exactly what you're talking about right now or I'm getting my security on you."

"Security is already here, Mr Jackson."

I whipped round and saw Matt and my two other guards standing behind me. They moved in on the two girls and restrained them both.

"Now is no time to talk. We are going to have this thoroughly investigated in due time, but for now, both of you are under a restraining order of a hundred metres. You are not to enter any of Michael Jackson's property, any attempt will be treated as trespassing."

Matt looked at me and shook his head.

"We had Maria wired Mike, she's telling the truth. We investigated a few files as part of our investigation into Carl Whickham and found Maria's real address on his person. He had ordered Jed Murray to send his team of journalists to publicly harrass Maria, thinking it to be Suzie, of course. Anyway, all will be thoroughly relaid to you later, somewhere less public."

I nodded at Matt, and the other security lead the sisters away.

Suzie didn't even look at me as she passed, or even seem to notice she was being touched at all, she was completely zoned out. I panicked as the truth was starting to penetrate me in waves.

Maria's P.O.V

As we were being manhandled out of the hospital, I looked at my sister properly for the first time in years. She was still the broken twin I remembered, her eyes were distant, her expression cold. It gave me shivers just to look at her. I knew what she was capable of and I wasn't going to let her destroy anything else.

I thought about the popstar I had just been in the presence of and felt a twinge of guilt. I never intended to hurt him, or anybody. But I couldn't stand by and let my sister loose in this world, his own life would be at risk if I had. He should be grateful.

We were hustled into darkened vehicles and taken away to the security's headquarters for quarantine until the matter was to be resolved. I could hear Suzie in a frenzy as she begged to see Michael, a sure sign that her meds had worn off. She would never see him again as long as I could help it.

I stirred her chlorpromazine into some water and handed it to one of the security.

"If you want any control over her, you're going to have to do things my way. This is her medication. She has schizophrenia and if you don't give her this, she won't stop."

He looked at me, skeptical. "We're currently investigating into drugs which had been administered to Michael Jackson. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

I stared at him, aghast at his accusation.

"You think I'd try to kill somebody?! No! This is Suzie's medication, prescribed by her doctor, I have had no contact with Mr Jackson until today."

Another member of security cut in, obviously the main man within the group.

"Hey, woah Samson, Maria is not part of this. The doc said that the drugs in Michael's system were off the record, homemade, not prescription drugs. You can't just go around pointing fingers."

Samson rubbed the back of his neck, looking guilty. "Sorry boss, I just, it was a little suspicious is all"

"Well keep your suspicions to yourself, the last thing this woman needs is more accusations, she's had the paps on her back. Give her a break and go give that psycho her pills."

Samson scurried off, and the 'boss' came and sat beside me.

"I'm sorry, Maria, he's a little touchy. How are you feeling?"

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Other than the fact that my psychopath of a sister has re entered my life and I'm stuck here being interrogated by Michael Jackson's goons? Peachy, thanks for asking."

"Look, we're just following procedure, we can't risk Michael Jackson being at risk."

"Well what makes him any more of a priority than me other than he pays you to think so? I'm the one at risk here, not him. Now Suzie's out of his life he won't need to worry about impending death."

I felt him tense beside me. "Death? What do you mean?"

I hung my head. "She killed our mother. She doesn't remember, but she did. She was home from university for the weekend and was boasting about her precious boyfriend. Mum found evidence of her alcohol problem and was confronting her about it, said it was the last straw. Suzie had been off the rails for a while, but had still achieved high grades, she wanted to be a writer, although her work was rather disturbing and people didn't want to publish it. I guess that's why she took to drink. Anyway, mum was shouting at her and she flipped, just like that, broke a bottle and stabbed her continuously. I came home to find blood all over the house, poems written in my mother's blood on the walls. Suzie was rocking in the corner of the bathroom, chanting incomprehensible gibberish about children being pure or something. She was hospitalised, diagnosed with schizophrenia and then sent to an institution. I couldn't face seeing her after what she'd done. If my father had been home, he would have been killed too. He's all I have now."

He was quiet, but put his arm around me. I felt a little safer, but no more comforted. I knew that Suzie had to be stopped before she took anything else I had away.

My life was a continuous struggle to hide my evil twin, but she always managed to linger in my mind every day. She was my other half after all, and despite what I knew she could do, I still loved her. It was for that reason that I couldn't ever visit her in that institution. I didn't want to see her there, because that was not the sister I remembered. I was just glad that I had saved someone else, someone important, from losing everything, even if it was too late for me.

*