Chapter Two

Annie had been blissfully tanning on the healing sands of Fiji when she was rudely thrust back into reality. The turquoise waters, the almost creamy texture of the sand dissipated rapidly as she sat up. But the heat remained. No. This wasn't Fiji heat. She knew the pleasant warmth of the Fiji beach and this wasn't it.

Sweat meandered down her back in sickening slow curves. She knew what this was but she couldn't put the thought together. Somewhere in the corner of the room Jameson whined out his fear. She still didn't understand but she moved to find him and when she did she wrapped her arms tightly around the golden retriever.

Focus. Goddamn it.

It unsettled her how out of tune her senses were. How far she was from the reality that she was living. It took another moment for her to realize that she must be drugged. But how? No. Not drugged. maybe still drunk from last night. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind was a memory of her throwing back a few more beers with the stable hands at the end of the day. It wasn't just beer though. Someone had brought out the hard liquor. She distinctly remembered taking her first shot of absinthe. A mistake she was now sure of. They had been celebrating, but what? She couldn't figure that out either. She banged the heel of her hand against her forehead in a weak attempt at recall. This only served to worsen her throbbing headache.

And then clarity came. Adrenaline brought her into focus and the headache disappeared, but the pain of this reality couldn't be dulled. The room was thick with smoke. The warmth must be fire.

Oh yes, I'm a regular, Einstein. Shit, do I ever have brains for days. She thought sarcastically.

She walked slowly towards her door. She didn't dare turn on a lamp. As she approached the door, she realized with increasing panic that she didn't need any light.

The orange pulsating glow around the door was all she needed. But she just stood there. The length of time it took her to act was a mystery to her but all the same unsettling. The room had grown hotter and Jameson had grown eerily silent. She acted then but her movements felt to slow for her liking. Even in a drunken stupor she could still move quickly. Her initial thought, she realized right then, was correct. She had been drugged.

One of her stable hands wouldn't live to see the next morning. But as slow as she was moving she probably wouldn't live much longer anyway.

Shit.

Somewhere inside of her she found what she needed and rushed to her window. She wasn't going to die like this. She'd seen too much and survived despite her knowledge, she wasn't going to let a house fire be her end. Although, some of the greats were burned on a pyre. No. If she was going to be burned on a pyre she needed to be dead first.

"Don't be stupid. I'm not a Viking." She chuckled to herself as she realized she had spoken allowed. Not a good sign. Either the smoke was getting to her or the drugs were. Either way she needed to move. "Jameson!" She shouted. No response. No cold wet nose pushing against the back of her calf.

"Damn it!" She cursed as she left the window to find her dog. She found the poor soul under the bed. She didn't have time to coax him out. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him far enough that she could lift him. With his large body cradled against her chest she ducked under the windowsill and climbed onto the patio roof.

She took a moment to thank the man or woman who had thought to build a wraparound porch. Because of it they might survive this.

Outside a small crowd had gathered. Ten faces cast in an orange glow looked up at her in shock. There was nothing funny about this at all but she couldn't help but laugh at the sight before her. Somewhere in the distance she could hear the angry roar of a firetruck siren. At least they had been smart enough to call the fire department before they just decided to stand there like a bunch of mouth breathing idiots. These were her stable hands. The people she had gotten piss drunk with last night. One of these people or all of these people had plotted to drug her.

She knew she shouldn't take chances. But help was coming and the fire had entered her room. Her back was starting to burn. She had no choice. She searched the faces and found the one she trusted the most. "Leandra, catch Jameson and you'll get a raise!" She shouted.

The time beaten woman raced forward not driven by a raise but by loyalty and held out her arms. Annie lowered herself to her stomach. The roof underneath her felt oddly unstable but she had no other way to safely do this. With one hand on Jameson's collar and the other arm used to guide her she slid with Jameson to the edge. Using her feet as anchors against the crumbling roof tile she grabbed the frightened golden retriever by the collar and slowly lowered him as far as he could go. Unfortunately, that meant hanging him for the briefest second and letting him plummet the remaining 4 feet into Leandra's arms. The poor dog probably had his lungs full of smoke and ash. That brief moment of lost air couldn't have done him any good. But he made it down and now it was her turn.

She turned herself around. The fire was starting to lick at the outside of her windows. She could see the glow of its immense bodies through the other windows. In no time those windows would be hotter than they could handle and they would burst. She needed to go now if she wanted to avoid understanding how it felt to be subjected to the old Chinese torture method of a thousand cuts.

God. That's terrible. She thought as she slowly slid down the roof, only stopping to hang off the side. Even then she only stayed long enough to adjust herself for what would amount to a painful landing anyway. She didn't expect anyone would catch her.

To her surprise, neither pain nor hard floor greeted her. A pair of arms encircled her body as she let go of the roof. As her feet touch the ground she turned, unsurprised to find Bruce had caught her. She hadn't seen him among the faces a moment ago but she had little doubt that he would be there. Whether he wanted to admit it to himself or not he had a hero complex. Anyone with a semi-decent ability to read people would clearly see that in him.

As his eyes passed over her another alarming detail struck her, or rather, she was reminded of something. Despite the weathermen calling the autumn night unusually chilly, at bedtime her body had been drenched in a drunken heat so she had gone to bed in the nude. A fact that was blatantly visible to the 11 people on the lawn, and the arriving firefighters.

As if reading her thoughts Bruce shrugged out of his coat and wrapped it around her securely.

"Thanks." She muttered. Took you long enough. A thought she dared not speak aloud. She wanted this all to pass quickly.

She slipped her arms through the sleeves before wrapping them around herself. Lordy, she was embarrassed but she knew that would soon pass. She knew it because her mind was slowly beginning to swim. She could feel her legs beginning to wobble beneath her as if she were on a boat in the middle of a winter sea. Damn who ever had done this to her. Damn him or her or them to the deepest pits of hell.

Bruce must have reached out to steady her because she could vaguely feel the pressure of his hands on her shoulders. And then she was off her feet, not falling but being carefully cradled against something solid and secure. The smell of burning cedar was replaced by something pleasantly woodsy. The kind of woodsy that was alive. It reminded her of the dense old growth of pines on a chilly winter morning. She loved it. God, that had to be one of her favorite scents of all time. She must be high because it wasn't winter and they were about a half a mile from the pine stand. Sometimes hallucinations could be so wonderful.

Her eyes started to close, her body growing heavier and heavier. She was well on her way to either a smoke or drugged induced slumber. As welcome as that was, she knew that she couldn't give in just yet. Someone was guilty and if that information wasn't released, that someone would surely get away with it. Law enforcement in this town wasn't the best. The only one she could count on was barely half a centimeter away.

Her eyes felt glued shut but after a few attempts she managed to open them. She found that her face was awkwardly buried in his neck. In a moment of pure embarrassment, she realized she had been sniffing his neck. If someone in the universe loved her they'd make him think it was the drugs. But she knew the truth. She'd never been able to resist a good scent no matter where it came from.

"Bruce." She croaked out. Her mouth was awfully dry, her tongue felt awkward and swollen and she desperately wanted to stop talking because it felt as if she might lose whatever was left in her stomach if she continued to feel that swollen, dry thing raking against the roof of her mouth. But vomit or not she had to force this information out. "One of these ten drugged me last night." She whispered as quietly as she could. But even that task was difficult without an ounce of saliva.

His silence told her that he hadn't heard her. And she slowly began to panic. She had no more energy left in her. She had used it all to get the message out to him the first time. The world was closing in around her quickly and she desperately fought to find what she didn't have.

But all that panic had been unnecessary. As her eyes closed again, she felt Bruce's warm breath in her ear. His whisper pierced through the darkness, keeping her from plunging any further for just a second longer. "I'll take care of it." . She let go then. A pair of strong arms ensnared her preventing her from hitting the ground. Her last thought was the terrible realization that she had gone to bed completely naked to ward off the heat.

The chaos of the last few hours had finally settled. All that remained on the property was the charred remains of the house, Bruce, Jameson, some horses and most importantly the one who had unleashed the chaos. This demented soul had been easy to spot. In fact, before Bruce could even start to dig in; the perp who, was more creature than man, had admitted to what he had done. But nothing else. Charles Kane would say nothing more until Annie was there to hear it.

So, Bruce did the only sensible thing and tied him up and locked him in one of the stalls. He let his fist connect with Kane's cheek. But that was because Kane had resisted. At least, that's what he'd tell Annie. Kane wouldn't argue with him. The man was a nut. Bruce wasn't even sure that Kane understood what was going on around him. But he also had a feeling that this was a new condition. Annie wouldn't hire someone so volatile let alone keep them around. His employment records spoke to that. He'd worked for Annie for five years as a veterinary assistant and stable hand. For twenty years before coming to Sugar Pine Ranch, Kane had worked for some big time trainer as an exercise rider and stable hand. By his own admission he had come to work for Annie because he wanted a quieter job for his aging body. That admission had come in one of Kane's more lucid moments. A moment that had made Bruce question this whole situation, well, at least until Kane had gone right back into his schizophrenic ranting.

Bruce was headed out to the trailer he had locked Nicodemus up in earlier, when he spotted Annie staring at the mess that used to be her home. She shouldn't be here, but it didn't surprise him all that much.

He debated the intelligence of approaching her now in what had to be one of the most emotional moments of her life. In seconds he decided it was best to approach anyway. She shouldn't even be out of the hospital yet, let alone staring at her ruined piece of tranquility. He wasn't stupid. He could see what this place was meant to be. The land was already a haven from the realities of the world, and the house would have no doubt been the period at the end of the sentence.

That's why he said nothing when he stood beside her. He just watched her take it all in. She was dressed now in navy scrubs, she held his coat against her chest as if she were holding on to a life saver. He wanted to tell her to put it back on but the way her eyes were fixed to the house, not seeing it as it was now but seeing it as it had been, he was sure he wouldn't reach her. So as an icy breeze kicked up and licked at their cheeks he slowly took the coat from her arms and slipped it around her. Once he was sure that she wasn't going to succumb to hypothermia he took a step back and resumed his vigil for her return to the present.

It had taken her twenty minutes and in that time several emotions had flitted across her face. But by the time she turned away from the house he couldn't read her at all. Their eyes met for a few long moments. Her mouth remained slack and her eyes flat. He'd seen that look before. She was desperate to avoid losing face in front of him. This wasn't good for her. It would kill her if she didn't let it out.

So, he gave her an outlet. A reason to feel something. "Charles Kane says that he slipped Ketamine into your last drink last night." He still found that hard to believe. The amount of Ketamine that Kane said he had given her should have killed her. That much would have killed an elephant. But he wasn't exactly reliable in his present state. Which is why Bruce didn't tell her the amount. It was irrelevant anyway. In any case, as Bruce examined her, he could see no signs of the drug, which was odd. Maybe Kane had been lying about Ketamine.

The shock in her eyes and the loss of color in her skin, confirmed to him that Annie had no idea of Kane's dark side. She shook her head violently and paced uneasily, her jaw muscles working alongside her mind to process this information.

"You're wrong." She decided with all the certainty of someone who thought she knew her employees. Apparently, she hadn't learned that you couldn't take people at face value. Something inside him told him that assessment of her wasn't true either.

"One way to find out."

He turned from her and led the way to the barn. He could hear her steps by the crunch the gravel made under her slippers. As they approached the barn the sounds became fainter as she slowed down. He didn't fault her for that. Every human being's worse nightmare is learning that someone they've trusted for years is a monster. So, he slowed down too, giving her a chance to catch up and not making her think for one moment that she was weak. She sure as hell wasn't. He'd never met anyone who could hold up as well as she was now. If their roles had been reversed (and it had been at some point in his life) he would have torn every malleable surface to shreds by now. But there she was walking towards a truth that would probably nearly break her and though her steps slowed she never once stopped walking. He admired her for that. Yesterday he had suspected this courage in her. Now he had the pleasure of seeing it for himself.

He stopped at the barn door and turned to her. She met his eyes defiantly, as if he were going to try and coddle her. That was the furthest thing from his mind. "I'm warning you now. He's a mess." Mess. That was putting it lightly but he didn't know how else to put it and he didn't want to call him a raving lunatic. He had a feeling that would make it worse for her. She had to see it for herself.

"Let's see." She said with an ounce of yesterday's starkness.

"Okay."

An acrid odor seeped out of the open barn door. It had the distinction of excrement but it wasn't equine. It didn't belong to anything that lived in a barn and never before had Annie's barn ever smelled this way. Her stable hands were masters at their work. She doubted that there was a better team out there.

It took every ounce of strength she had, which was everything she had gained back, not to gag. But eventually she lost to her body's reflex as they walked deeper into the barn. Bruce had lost it long before her and moved into open stalls to open the outer stall doors and further ventilate the barn. There was a bit of pride in that for her. She had outlasted the stoic bat. She'd have smiled if she hadn't been so disgusted by the awful pungency of the air.

"What is that?" Annie finally asked, feeling instantly stupid for having done so. So, she amended. "This isn't horse shit. I don't even think the mule can work up a stink this bad." She choked out. "We just cleaned out these stalls last night."

"I don't know. It didn't smell like this when I locked up Kane and removed the horses." He admitted and when Annie looked back at him as he exited one of the stalls she caught the most fleeting look of concern. She thought she knew why. Maybe Charles had released something in the air. She doubted it though. Bruce would have searched him. And this smell was waste. No. She shook her head. No way.

The feeling must have been mutual because suddenly they were both running, Bruce led with Annie so close at his heels that she rammed him when he came to a halt in front of one of the middle stalls. Bruce absorbed the impact of her body against his without flinch or sound. His eyes were glued to the locked stall.

Annie's nostrils burned painfully. The smell originated here but that's not what drew the loud gasp and the resultant round of dry heaves. Charles sat in the middle of the stall. He had somehow broke free of his binds and undressed himself, probably before he had taken a shit and rolled around in it. But even that explanation didn't seem right. The sulfuric odor was too strong, nearly too lethal to be human. And then she realized why it had all been so familiar to her. Her bowels did a sick twist from fear, not disgust and she immediately set to unlock the stall.

Bruce wouldn't allow it. Before she got the first latch undone his hand was firmly on her wrist and he was pulling her back. "He won't hurt me. I need to get to him!" Annie screamed fighting hopelessly against the two-armed grasp that Bruce had taken her in. "You don't understand!"

"I've seen it, Annie." Charles rasped as he stared down at himself. Annie went cold at the words. All was lost now. There was no hope. She wanted to run. She didn't want to have to watch this but she didn't try to escape. She didn't warn Bruce. He needed to see this even though she didn't want him to.

"Charlie. Please." She whispered in a vain attempt to bring him home.

"It's so beautiful, Annie. All the possibilities…so many lovely, sweet possibilities. All you have to do is give in. That's all you have to do. I did and look how wonderful my world is. Look at that ocean. Have you ever seen such an ocean?"

Annie braced herself against Bruce's chest. She fought the urge to close her eyes. She could feel his arms slackening. He felt her take her shaking hand. He was starting to pull her back as if some instinct was taking hold of him. But he couldn't possibly understand this instinct. It was far too ancient. Far too buried to be alive even in him. Maybe he was getting it from her. It was possible, but she didn't have that kind of discipline. She had avoided it for too long.

"Wait, Bruce. I need you to see this." She didn't know why, but that ancient instinct told her that this was important. She could keep as many secrets as she wanted but this one needed to be revealed.

Charles woke up suddenly to the world. His eyes hardened and anger took hold of every inch of his features. "Why am I here? I've done everything!"

Annie took a deep, slow breath but it did little to help her fight her tears. Even if she tried to reach what little part of Charlie that was rooted in reality, he could no longer be brought back.

Charles giggled as elatedly as a child at Disneyland. "Is that all? Okay!"

"Oh, God." Annie whispered unable to control the impulse. How many times had she witnessed this? How many more times would she have to?

"Annie! I'm going! I'm going back to Bora Bora! Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Charlie, don't do it. Don't go. The horses need you, Charlie." She knew the words would be in vain but she couldn't ignore the instinct to save a friend no matter how many times she told herself that it was impossible now.

"The horses? They're already there." He chided as if her words had been foolish. Before Annie could think of a response that might block the inevitable just a little longer, Charles decided that the game was over.

Charles plunged his fingers into his abdomen as easily as if they were freshly sharpened knifes. He didn't cry out or even wince. He just kept laughing jovially as if all the pain in the world couldn't touch him. Annie watched the blood slowly seep from his wounds, within a second his innards slid out, riding on the flood of blood that was quickly coating the hay.

"What the fuck?" Bruce shouted. He let go of her and started to move towards the door.

Panic spurred Annie into action and she rushed to grab his wrist from the latch and drag him back. "It's too late, Bruce. Don't touch him or you'll be next!" She screamed. The warning must have sunk in because he broke free from her hold and took up her wrist. Without word he dragged her outside with Charles' choked laughter at their back. He died long before their exit but Annie couldn't push the sound from her head. She doubted that she would ever stop hearing it.

"What was that, Annie?"

Straight to the punch. She expected as much from him but she was fully unprepared for this talk. "My brother." She managed to get out although it had been shakier than she would have liked.

"Your brother?"

"David."

"David." Bruce repeated clearly displeased with her curt responses.

She sighed, looked away from Bruce only to have his hand close on her chin and force her to look back at him. She resented this treatment but she didn't resent his intentions. He was only trying to get to the bottom of a very gruesome act.

"It's a little trick he can do. He can take over someone. I can't really explain it but he somehow turns them into," she pointed to the barn, "….that."

"He drives them insane,"

"I wouldn't call that insane. That's beyond insanity. I doubt a crazy person could do what we just watched." Annie responded while battling to stay nonchalant. She wanted to cry but tears right now would be about as useless as an umbrella in a hurricane.

"Some sort of mind control? Charles was talking to someone before he eviscerated himself."

"Eh, there's no such thing as true mind control. I attribute David's 'talents' as something akin to Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.

Recognition flashed in the mixture of confusion and shock. "That's the fungus that turns ants into mindless zombies, isn't it?"

So, he was well versed in the nontechnological aspects of science. Either that or he was caught up in the new science fictional tales of which the 'zombie fungus' has been playing a starring role in lately.

"Not quite. Infected ants still have a mind. They just lose themselves. The zombie part is correct. The goal is spread the infection. But that's not what Charles was used for. Charles was programmed to try and kill me. Maybe." That was a bit she wasn't yet convinced of. If David had intended to kill her she would be dead. "In reality, I think he was trying to leave a message."

"I think you're right. Charles wouldn't say anything more until you got to the barn."

"Ah, yeah. David was always a showboat. He wanted me to know."

"Know what?"

"That he is still alive. And that he is probably going to try and make my life miserable for some time before he decides he's done."

"I'm afraid to ask, but I'm going to do it anyway—"

"When we were kids I escaped a bad situation but left him there to die. Not my fault. David has wanted to kill me since we could barely walk." Annie could see Bruce mounting his next set of questions. "That's all I can tell you for now. Please, Bruce. Diana doesn't know much about my history and the last thing I'm going to do is tell you before I tell her."

Maybe it was the desperation in her voice or he understood the fairness of her statement but he acquiesced. Though he relinquished that line of questioning, she could tell that he was filing it away for another time. This wasn't over. Eventually she'd have to come clean about everything. She wasn't surprised; however, she just didn't want to have to give up that part of her life yet. Both Diana and Bruce have seen true darkness in the world. She didn't want to add to it. No one wants to know that things are worse than they are. Of course in the very back of their minds, where ancient instincts lie, they know it to be true. But the more modern form of the human spirit is to expect that things can't get any worse than the present bad.

"Are you gifted like him? Is this what Diana thought we could use?"

Annie ignored the disgust that he couldn't quite hide. "Yes and no. He and I have similar traits. I'm not cursed the way he is. I complement him. You keep me within a mile of your person and you are safe from infection. Charles went into town two days ago. That's probably how David got him."

"But if I had touched Charles?"

"You would have been infected. That's something I couldn't have stopped."

His curiosity was clearly awakened. She was a new enigma and from what she had heard Bruce had a near obsession with knowing things. But Annie knew that she could go no further. She had already given him too much. "Diana doesn't know any of this. Please file this line of questioning next to the questions about my history. I'm not ready for this."

Again Bruce complied although she could clearly see the resentment at being bridled. He was used to control but so was Annie. And quite frankly she thought she was better at it. Bruce was the forceful one. She gained her control through patience, small offerings and the fact that no one could ever seem to resist the look of pain in a woman's eyes. It was wrong of her to use the last fact to her advantage. She knew it and accepted it. But sometimes she had to do things that she didn't like to protect self and family.

"So, I guess this goes without saying but I'm coming with you." Annie finally said after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah. It's probably best that we stick together until David is dealt with."

The unspoken deal was there but Annie wasn't sure she could honor it. "I can't promise that I can help you with your current problem."

"My current problem is a psychopathic fungus wannabe."

Annie smirked, relieved that he didn't seem to be holding her to any promises. "That I can help you with." But even as she said these words, she wasn't sure that she could keep him safe from David.

Bruce returned her smile before growing serious and looking around. "Do you think he's still here?"

"Not a chance. He left town the moment Charles was infected. This is how David plays his games."

"Right," he breathed out, "so we'll head back to Gotham City."

"Not without Nico, Jameson and Badger. The rest can be boarded with a neighbor until I figure out what to do."

"Taken care of." He said offering her his first sincere smile since this whole mess started.

Annie shot a look at him. "What?"

"I called Diana and gave her the update." He said this apologetically. But, she didn't hold it against him. At least someone had told her. Amidst the chaos, she had forgotten to call Diana herself. "She warned me that you'd probably want to take them with you. I'm assuming Badger is the chestnut with the odd badger face markings."

"Correct."

"The rest are being boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Clayton and Mr. Edwards. They say you can settle the bill when you get back."

She had undergone so much stress today and this gesture removed so much weight from her shoulders. She couldn't thank him verbally as she might cry and that would be unforgivable. Instead, she reached out and squeezed his arm.

"We should probably take care of that body…." Bruce said hesitantly. "No one is going to miss him?"

Annie swallowed back the emotions that, that question caused. She'd miss him. He'd become like her father. But she didn't throw that out there. She was sure that David was long gone but she wasn't 100% sure. She didn't want to risk that monster knowing that he had that over her. She'd be damned.

When she trusted herself to speak, she shook her head and glanced towards the barn. "He has no family. He's a childless widow. His parents and only sibling have passed on. He kept to himself mostly. I'll take care of the body. You should probably not touch it. I doubt he's dangerous now…but let's not push it. There's an acidified lake from the old mining days about ten miles from here. I'll dump him there. I'll be back in an hour." Remembering the risk and lack of indisputable assurance that David was no longer here, she quickly amended her plan. "Actually, scratch that. You're coming with me. Let the horses out into the pasture, grab the truck and meet at the north facing door of the barn. We'd better go together. We'll come back for your car and the horses and head to the airport then."

Bruce nodded and hurried to the task. He was probably as anxious to get out of here as she was, which is probably the reason he showed little to no resentment to her taking the lead. That, or he accepted that this was her show for the moment.

Annie didn't dare cast another look in the direction of where the ruined pieces of her world lay. And she knew that she would meet the task of disposing of Charlie's body with the same amount of determination to put aside her past. Charles wasn't Charles anymore anyway. But David was still David and she needed everything in her power to bring that merciless, beast to his knees. Bruce had seen David's work first hand but he still had no idea of the hell that they were about to suffer through.