You Have Got To Believe Me (Patreon)

Prologue

In a private office of the hospital, a patient was held securely by restraints in an experimental machine. Her chart listed her as a very disturbed woman who was diagnosed with identity dissociative disorder. She believed she wasn't herself but another person. The doctor's experimental procedure was her last hope. All other conventional therapies had been found to be ineffective. This procedure would remove the patient's delusional personality and return her to her true self.

A nurse entered the room. The nurse was Dr. Michael Doerrhoefer personal assistant. She was more than just his assistant; they had been dating for quite a while. Nurse Sputo was the only person that the doctor could trust. It would be unethical to use this experimental treatment on a patient without approval from the state. Such approval could take months.

The patient renewed her struggles when the nurse entered the room.

“Nurse Sputo you have to help me! They are trying to erase me. I'm not crazy! It's all my brother's fault.”

Nurse Sputo had always felt for this patient. Maybe it was because Ariana Grieco looked a lot like her. They might even be mistaken for sisters. That might have been one of the reasons that Nurse Sputo was helping the doctor. She truly wanted this patient to return to normalcy because she reminded her so much of herself, at least in the looks department.

“Ariana, you don't have a brother.”

“I'm not Ariana. My name is Heidi Patchonka. You have to believe me. I'm not crazy!” the patient shouted.

To waste time and calm the patient, Nurse Sputo humored Ariana. “Tell me what you think happened.”

“It all started when my brother told me some horrible news...”

Chapter 1

“Heidi, I have some really bad news. Dad has died,” Eric Patchonka told his sister Heidi.

“Oh my god! What happened?”

“Heart attack. He went quickly.”

Eric relayed the pertinent details. Heidi started to cry.

Eric and Heidi were the heirs to their father's business and fortune. Although they were relatively young, in their twenties, they would have to take over the business and run it. Although they could sell out for a great fortune if they liked. But these details were secondary at this time, there was a funeral to plan and grieving to do.

Several days later, the funeral took place and then the reading of the will. Both siblings would get an equal share of all the assets. It would take a while before the complex will was finalized.

“I know what you want to do,” Eric said.

“You want to fix your nose. Mom and dad wouldn't let you. Now is the time to do it.”

Heidi was a pretty girl of twenty-six. But she reasonably thought that her nose was too big for her face. Whenever she brought it up with her parents, they discouraged her from doing anything about it. Now that they were gone, if she wanted to 'fix her face' she could do it.

“I don't know. Dad just died.

“That was months ago. It's time to move on. You can fix all those small problems.”

Heidi would also like to have a bigger chest, hers was tiny and maybe a few other cosmetic touches.

“Maybe you're right.”

“There isn't anything stopping you now. You can be the person you want to be.”

“I'll look into it.”

It didn't take long for Heidi to come around. It was something she always wanted. With Eric's help, Heidi found a surgeon to perform the procedures. Since the procedures would necessarily leave her eyes covered with bandages, Heidi would stay at the hospital until the bandages came off when her face was healed.

“It went marvelously,” the doctor informed Heidi about the surgery.

Heidi couldn't see herself, but she felt the bandages on her face with her hands. Her face didn't hurt. She could also feel her breasts on her chest. They seemed even bigger than she thought they should. They weren't cartoonishly large though. All seemed fine. Besides what if they were bigger than the modest B-cup she requested. A C-cup or D-cup would be fine, now that she thought about it. Anything was better than the barely there AA-Cup she had before the surgery.

The day came to remove the bandages. Heidi was hopeful.

Sitting up on the edge of the examining table, Heidi waited for the big reveal. The doctor snipped the bandages and then slowly unwrapped them.

“Wonderful,” the doctor announced when the bandages were all gone.

A mirror was provided for Heidi to see herself. She didn't recognize her face. Her nose was smaller as she requested. The rest of her face didn't look familiar at all. It wasn't that she wasn't pretty, but what she did look was a bit older. She didn't look 26 anymore. She looked approximately twenty years older. She looked like a middle-aged woman. Her skin wasn't as fresh and smooth as it had been. There were slight age spots, and the texture was a bit uneven. Fine lines could be seen if a person looked closely. Maybe of these problems would be fixed with makeup to allow her to look pretty, but she would never look 26 again.

Even if her face didn't look 'old' it also didn't look anything like it had. She expected her nose to be smaller, but she didn't look like she was related to her own parents at all. She looked like a completely different person. There wasn't anything she recognized about herself. Not even her hair, it had been cut and restyled. Somehow the texture of her hair even looked different than she had when she entered the hospital.

“What did you do?” Heidi shouted.

That was a rhetorical question the doctor didn't bother answering.

“I'll sue!”

“With some time and makeup and you'll look fine.” This was true, she would look pretty for a middle-aged woman. Heidi wasn't ugly.

“This isn't what I wanted. I wanted to look sophisticated, not old.”

“You aren't old.”

“No one will know that.”

“You can leave here in a couple of days.”

“I'm going now. I'm not spending another moment at this hospital.”

“Suit yourself. But you should wait.”

“I'm getting out of here.”

“OK, if you insist.”

Heidi's clothes were in the closet along with her purse. She retrieved them and got dressed into her street apparel. She didn't have a bra that fit her as her chest was much larger than it was before. She had to leave without a bra. She wasn't concerned though.

She called her brother on her cell but couldn't reach him. She called an Uber next to take her home. It was getting late by the time the Uber arrived. She exited the car and headed up to her own front door. The house that she shared with her brother. Until the will was completely probated, neither could sell the place and move into their own home.

Heidi couldn't believe what happened. She was an old woman. That is the phrase she used for herself. That was her biggest concern. She looked old.

Heidi found her keys and tried to open the door, but her keys wouldn't fit. She tried the security code on the door, that didn't work either. She started to bang on the door.

“Let me in. Let me in.”

“Who is it?”

“It's Heidi.”

“I don't know you.”

“It's Heidi. I just got home from the hospital. The screwed up the surgery.”

“Go away or I'm calling the police.”

“Eric, it's me Heidi.”

“You're not my sister. I don't know you. You should have stayed in the hospital for a few more days.”

Heidi knew her brother very well. She could tell that somehow, he recognized her. She knew he was lying. How did he know she just got out of the hospital if he didn't know who she was? Still, she continued to bang on the door.

“Police, there is a strange woman at my door. She won't go away.” Eric told the police dispatcher. It didn't take long for the police to arrive. Heidi was still banging on the door.

“What's the problem ma'am?”

“I'm Heidi Patchonka. This is my home. My brother won't let me in.”

“I see. You live here with your family?”

“I'm not married. It's just me and my brother. This is actually my parent's house. But my father died a short while ago. The probate hasn't been completed yet. But I've always lived here.”

“OK, do you have proof of your identity?”

“Sure.”

Heidi looked in her purse, she found her driver's license. She had forgotten that she shouldn't look the same as the picture due to her surgery.

“Who did you say you were?”

“Heidi Patchonka”

“It doesn't say that on this license.”

“I know it doesn't look like me, I just had...”

“Isn't this your picture?”

The officer showed Heidi the picture on the license. To her shock, the picture looked like how she remembered her face in the hospital. But what was different was the name on the license and the rest of her information.

It was true that gender, hair and eye color and weight were right, but the name on the license wasn't 'Heidi Patchonka', it was Ariana Grieco, and it said her age was 46.

“What? I don't understand.”

“This is not really your house Ariana? Is it?”

“Yes, it is. It is! I'm Heidi Patchonka.”

“I'm sorry, you seem to be confused. You'll have to leave.”

“This is my house. I'm Heidi!”

“I'm sorry you're not.”

The police didn't want to arrest her. They looked through Heidi's purse. As far as Heidi could tell everything was correct except for her name. Every piece of identification in her purse said she is Ariana Grieco, including her credit cards.

“Let me see my phone. That should prove to you who I am.”

“But when she looked through it, it was the same. There was information about Heidi in her phone, but it looked like she was stalking Heidi. Not that she was Heidi.

“Wait here,” the policeman commanded. He went to make a few calls himself.

There was also an appointment card for a doctor in Heidi's purse. The police noted that it was the card of a psychiatrist. The police officer put in a call to the doctor. While he waited for the call back, the police checked their own records. Ariana was known to the police. She had been committed to a mental hospital under the doctor's care.

The doctor phoned a short while later. He knew all about Ariana's case. Ariana was delusional according to Dr. Michael Doerrhoefer.

The police returned Heidi to the hospital.

In the hospital, Heidi screamed at everyone that she is Heidi Patchonka. That she wasn't crazy.

“I'm not crazy! My brother did this to me! I'm not Ariana! I'm really Heidi Patchonka. My brother arranged all this to steal my inheritance.”

“He did? Why would he do that?”

“He wants me out of the way.”

“I know you believe that, but it is not true. You aren't Heidi Patchonka. You are only using that name because you can't face what was going on in your real life.”

“No, that isn't right. I'm really Heidi.”

“Heidi is a pretty young woman. You are certainly pretty, but you aren't 26.”

“I am. I am. I had surgery done to my face.”

“You wanted to look older?”

“No, they did this to me. My brother must have bribed them or something.”

“I wish it was true, but it is not.” The doctor sounded reasonable. He countered everything that Heidi said. He tried to prove to her who she really was. That if she calmed down she could return to the group home where she stayed with 3 other women with mental problems. “You want to go home, don't you?”

“Yes.”

“Then listen to me and take your medication. I'll help you.”

“My home is the home of Heidi Patchonka.”

“I know you think that, but it isn't true. Heavily medicated, Heidi was returned to her room where her movements were continually monitored and restricted.

Chapter 2

“But Dr. Doerrhoefer wouldn't believe me. I told everyone who I was. No one believed me. You have to believe me Nurse Sputo. You have to stop this before they erase me and make me into someone else. I'M NOT CRAZY!”

Nurse Sputo listened to the story as if for the first time. Something about it seemed true. It didn't sound like the raving of a maD person. Heidi sounded as sane as anyone else. It was Dr. Doerrhoefer who was acting strangely now that she thought of it. Why would he risk his entire career to subject this patient to a highly risky procedure. Even if it was a success, he could lose his license if anyone found out he was experimenting on his patients.

Dr. Doerrhoefer also said that this was his first attempt at this procedure, but he wasn't nervous at all. It was as if he had done it before and knew the exact results. He was completely sure of his equipment.

Nurse Sputo looked at the doctor's personal records on his computer. She had never done so before, but Ariana's story was so compelling that she needed to know the truth.

The facts were worse than Nurse Sputo could have imagined. Heidi wasn't the only patient involved. Dr. Doerrhoefer had to be stopped.

Nurse Sputo stood behind Dr. Doerrhoefer when he was about to activate his procedure. She injected him with a fast-acting anesthetic.

Epilogue

According to Nurse Sputo, Ariana got loose and hit Dr. Doerrhoefer with something before escaping. Dr. Doerrhoefer knocked unconscious. When he came to, he kept telling everyone that he wasn't Dr. Doerrhoefer at all, that he was a woman named Heidi, the same as what his patient had said.

In his cell, Michael Doerrhoefer was in restraints and ranted incessantly.

“I'm not crazy! My brother did this to me! I'm not Michael! I'm really Heidi Patchonka. My brother arranged all this to steal my inheritance!”

End.