the old Renee

You saw less and less of Sarah. She started going out with friends whenever she didn't have volleyball or other school events.

The nights she went out, she didn’t text you updates anymore as Sarah would have. She’d come home smelling of cheap cocktails and vanilla lotion, sometimes with glitter in her hair.

When you tried to talk to her afterward — about your love, your marriage, your real lives — she’d tilt her head and give you the blank, wary look Renee had always given him.

“Why do you keep bringing that up?” she’d say. “That’s… weird, James.”

One evening you tried to bring 'Sarah' back from her Renee persona. She blinked at you with an expression you didn’t recognize.

“You’re not my husband,” she said, smiling faintly. “You’re my stepdad. My mom’s dead.”

Your chest tightened. “Sarah, stop.”

“Why are you calling me Mom?” she asked.

The way she said it — with genuine confusion — rattled you.

You immediately put her back into a trance and brought her out as Sarah again, but even afterward, she didn’t entirely shake it off. At dinner, she barely spoke. She kept glancing at you like she was remembering old grudges.

By the third month, you began to wonder if Sarah was fading completely. She’d drop little barbs in her “Renee” voice, sometimes during trance, sometimes after. “You were never really part of this family.” “Mom only stayed with you because she felt sorry for you.”

They were Renee’s words — but coming from Sarah’s mouth, they landed like knives.

The final break came when James overheard her on the phone with one of Renee's friends. Her had put her back to Sarah when she got home from school but her behavior had not changed very much with the switch.

She was giggling, telling her about “this creepy thing my stepdad said.” The laugh was pure Renee — and for the first time, you realized that maybe there wasn't a difference between Sarah and Renee anymore.

When she saw you in the doorway, she didn’t flinch. She just smiled, the same smile from their first hypnosis night.

“You okay, James?” she asked sweetly. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”