Disclaimer: The characters in this story are the property of CBS and are only used for fan related purposes. Any dialogue from the eleventh episode, "Splash", included is used only to further the story.
--
Escape
--
They say that when you die your entire life flashes before your eyes. They're right, too. But what they don't tell you is what sort of visions you see when you watch someone else die: you see the life they're never going to have.
And for Chloe Carter, as she watches Cal Vandeusen die right in front of her with the weight of his engagement ring heavy on her finger, she sees the life she'll never share with him.
No lavish wedding of their own without a psychopath crashing the reception, no honeymoon on the French Riviera. No London flats, no visits to the California beaches or Seattle shores, no more holidays. No first anniversary, no fair-haired children running around the house, no grandchildren as the blonde turns to grey. No growing old together, no dying after a long and happy life...
No! No… Cal! No!
She's screaming out loud, her voice hoarse but still she cries. The knife is delving deeper, cutting deeper, and no one is listening to her. Wakefield is intent on his crime and Cal… he's staring at her, blood spilling out the corners of his mouth, desperate to get one last look before he succumbs.
She's screaming, but not so loud that she doesn't hear him whisper her name one last time:
Chloe…
And then, just like that, he's gone.
Cal is dead.
Wakefield killed him.
With the sort of strength only a madman could possess, he pulls his knife free from Cal's chest with a sick, squelching sound. Then, as she loses all sense and begins to sob and scream and yell all over again, Wakefield picks his body up like a rag doll, effortlessly tossing him over the side.
She watches his fall, his slow descent as he is taken away from her. The impact makes a splash, but she's too busy trying to make sense of what she'd just seen—what she'd just lost—to even notice it. It's not so easy for Chloe to loosen her hold on Cal.
And to think, in that morbid way she always had, she'd been fascinated by this monster, a serial killer who terrorized the island seven years ago and is doing an even better job of it this second time around. She'd even made Sully bring her to his grave—
—she should've spit on the tombstone.
Wakefield should be nothing but bones, rotting in a hidden grave far from consecrated land. But he isn't. He's alive and he's killing again. She's lost track of all the lives he's claimed since they arrived for the wedding—Lucy, she figured, and Beth, she knows, for two—and she was just a witness to the latest.
Cal. Her Cal.
Dead.
One glance—one panicked, terrified glance—and Chloe knows that he isn't done. He'll never stop until either he's dead or they all are. He's the one with the big knife… what can she do?
She could escape. All she has to do is hook her other leg over and safely climb to the other side of the fence on the other side of the bridge. She'd be free from Wakefield's clutches, if only for the moment, and it's even possible that she could save herself.
She's young, she's lithe, she's scared out of her mind, and Wakefield has more than enough victims to choose from. She could outrun him, she could get away—
—but for how long?
There's no escape, Chloe suddenly realizes as the panic just disappears. He's hovering close, his expression evil in its anticipation, the knife slick with Cal's blood held assuredly out towards her. He's asking her for her acceptance; he's expecting her to stand still as he stabs her with that same damn knife.
She knows she's next. The murderous lust is like smoldering flames in his dead eyes, greedy and threatening all the same. John Wakefield wants to see her dead—Chloe, the sort of woman he himself almost died for—but she's not about to give him the satisfaction of letting him add her to his body count.
She's too good for him.
Is your fiancé willing to die for you?
Daring another final glimpse over the edge, she spies Cal's body again, lifeless and alone and adrift in the treacherous river below. It makes her ache and it makes her yearn to hear his adorable accent one last time.
I love you…
Chloe…
She'll treasure those words for the rest of her life, and she'll treasure the heartbreaking realization that she knew all along Cal's answer to Wakefield's cruel question… just as she knows how she would have answered if that bastard had asked it of her Cal.
She knows what she has to do.
"You can't have me," she tells Wakefield simply.
And then she just lets go.
Author's Note: This was just one of the most poignant scenes in the whole series, in my opinion. I have to give the creators credit -- not only didn't I think they would have the nerve to kill Cal and Chloe off at all, but the scene was perfect for their characterizations. And, of course, it provides us fic writers with ample information for short character studies. I just couldn't resist... though now I wonder what I should write next. Me, I'm going to ride my HI inspiration while that lasts ;)