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ASHFORD: Miss Donoghue, do you know a young woman named Miranda Ryder?
BECCA: No, I don’t.
ASHFORD: Your message included a photo of her.
BECCA: Did it?
ASHFORD: Miss Donoghue, I have already told you that Ibelieve you. And I believe that I can help you. My assistant and I are already on our way to Briar Glen.
[Silence]
Miss Donoghue?
BECCA: It isn’t me. It’s my sister, Sara. Something’s wrong with her. Something is very, very wrong with her.
ASHFORD: Tell me more.
FINAL INTERVIEW
SARA DONOGHUE
May 9, 2017
ASHFORD: I realize that this must be quite jarring.
SARA: You’re wrong.
ASHFORD: You’ve seen the evidence for yourself. You’ve seen the video.
SARA: No. There’s nothing wrong with Becca. It’s me. I’m the one that—
ASHFORD: We all thought so, Sara. Becca is cogent. Her story is consistent. Utterly consistent. She only has the one memory gap, and that—I think that was her way of trying to keep you from being able to ask her about what happened. Even a false story might jar something loose. Sara, the influence of Dahut’s spirit on you was fleeting. She could only manage rough manipulations. Shoving memories into a hole, building slapdash memories over them. She had a year to whisper to Becca. And then she simply stepped through the door she’d built for herself.
SARA: No. It has to be me. I can feel it. I’m... wrong.
ASHFORD: What you feel, Sara, is guilt. Survivor’s guilt. And the more classic kind. You were the one who sent that text message to your school, weren’t you?
SARA: I thought it was the only way they’d come with me, if they thought it was real. And I got them all killed.
ASHFORD: But you saved your sister. And she still needs your help. We can still free her. But you will need to be strong. You will need to be unflinching.
SARA: I...
ASHFORD: Anthony’s last act was to make sure you had that video, Sara. His last act—saving you both, in more ways than you understood. And you hid the phone, because some part of you knew the truth.
SARA: She’s been Dahut. Ever since we came out of the dark.
ASHFORD: It looks that way.
SARA: Then I didn’t save Becca at all.
ASHFORD: Not yet. But you still can.
SARA: What do I do?
ASHFORD: I’ll show you. Don’t worry. We’ll be with you every step of the way.
SARA: “Whatever walked there, walked alone.”
