MY BLOODY VALENTINE, ONCE AGAIN
By, october57rain

Chapter Eight
Friday, February 13

Standing at the front door Tom hesitates wondering if he should walk in or knock. "Why is there a funeral wreath on the door?" He looks to Larry who shrugs his shoulders. "Not much help in the real world without your favorite chair- are you?" The door opens, surprising them.

A young woman with red hair and green eyes stands looking at them, "Hello Tom, we heard you were back." She steps away opening the door wider, "suppose you don't need inviting in to your own home now do you." She watches the two men walk in then quietly closes the door.

Giving her a knowledgeable look, "You must be Helen's baby sister Shasta." Tom looks the place over. Many things still where they were when he left. His eyes pause on the closed office doors then turns to Shasta. "Is your sister here?"

She looks to the top of the long winding open staircase and sees Helen appear from down the hall. "She is on her way down." Shasta looks back at Tom and Larry standing in the foyer. "I need to get back to packing." She darts up the stairs past Helen her anger flaring on her face, until she gets the most empty saddest look from her sister which makes her feel bad for being so selfish. Shasta looks down at Tom and then darts off to her room crying.

"Evening," Helen's voice is shallow, "please make yourself at home," she directs her hand to the large room at the end of the stairs."

"I would like to see my room." Tom steps onto the first few steps to stand next to Helen.

She gives him a half forced smile, "Of course," she takes a sigh, "your room has never been touched, except for keeping the dust and cobwebs at bay." Helen takes the out reached arm of Larry who leads her into the room while Tom walks upstairs.

"You seem a bit sad," Larry doesn't want to invade Helen's privacy or talk to her as a patient, but habits are hard to separate when one barely carries on casual conversations, as is the case with Larry Giles, being a single man who spends most his nights watching documentary shows or people living the life, just outside his apartment window. "If you don't mind me asking, are you alight?"

Larry follows Helen to the chairs and couch that encircle a large fireplace. "If you must ask, five years ago my husband, "Red", was murdered," her words become staggered accompanied with tears, "now", Helen stops, covers her heart then takes a long breath, "My son "J.R." he," she couldn't finish as the emotional pain and exhaustion from lack of sleep looms within.

When Helen first appeared at the top of the stairs Larry was taken by her beauty and now her pain became his and all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and absorb all the sadness inside.

While Larry offered Helen a shoulder to lean on and Tom was in his room thumbing through his past, Chief Newby barges through the entry door without a word and rushes up the staircase. He enters the large double door room at the end of the long hall where a gentleman is standing outside on the balcony. Out of breathe and shaking with news, Jake Newby takes a calming breath then speaks to the man with his back to him. "He's back, Harry Warden is back!"

Jake pulls the fax from his jacket then hands it too the man, "Dennis called me from Grandville, now it isn't a positive ID…" He lights his pipe, "and there's more. The body in J.R.'s car wasn't his, it was a woman's and I am afraid it may have been Dakota."

With shaking hands the man hands the paper back to Jake. "This doesn't mean Harry Warden's back." The man turns around revealing himself to be T.J. Hanniger, none other then Tom's father. "We know whose body that is. We don't need to wait for some forensics to tell us." T.J. stops in thought. "This is all may fault, if I hadn't been so quick to fire Harry, none of this would have happened."

Jake places his arm on his shoulder, "Jesse it is not your fault, no one knew how bad off Harry really was."

With a deep voice Jesse responds, "I should have known, these were my men, my workers and I should have known Harry was loosing it." He stops, his fist clutching the banister railing. "I tried to help him", his voice flows with concern, "He refused. All he wanted was to lash out, and he didn't care who it was."

"Then why Tom, why is Harry Warden after your son. He was a kid." Newby looks out towards the fort with the waxing moon gleaming through the tree branches, etching the structure.

"Because, I took his means of life away from him and the men took his wife." His voice grows bitter, "He should never have married that hussy. She was no good to him from the start. Always dressing like some whore and carrying on with any man that would look her way." Jessie stops to ponder his thoughts, "This town is cursed and I can no longer hide behind these walls."

Jake looks at the fax again, "She told me she was leaving town and would never return, but it looks like she may have been Harry's first victim and most likely before he set the mine explosion."

Jesse did not need to look at the fax again he recognized the revealing picture of skin that was cleaned, clearly exposing the heart tattoo Harry Warden's wife had etched on her breast long before they had married. "So, she was the body they found on Cherry Hill." He gets a nod from Jake. "And Dakota was driving J.R.'s car? Then where is J.R.?"

They give each other a look, "We should keep this news from Helen. I don't think she can handle the thought." Jesse turns to walk inside.

Following him Jake puts the fax in his pocket. "But what about Dakota's mom, do we leave her in the dark." He stops, "There's more." Jake pauses, "The woman's body or Dakota's." He wipes his mouth, "Her heart is missing."

There conversation is abruptly interrupted when a quiet voice calls out, "Dad." Tom is standing near the bed. The surprise on his faced filled with mixed feelings as the sight of his father alive blurs his thoughts.

Over at "The Cage" bar Axel is sitting in the police car. Giving the chief's shirt one last look he slowly unbuttons and slips it off. He grabs his street jacket from the seat and puts it on. Underneath is the candy box he pulled from Sarah's car. Giving it a moment thought he decides it should be opened.

Fear crawls down his arms making the hairs stand on end as he reaches across the seat and peels away the cellophane that seals the box. Time seems to slow down as he tosses the wrapping to the floor. Every muscle in his body wants to take the heart shaped candy box and just throw it in the garbage, but he has to know. Every receptacle in his brain has to know what lies beneath the beautifully sketched scene of cupids decked in glitter that glistens from light coming in through the windshield.

A tapping on the window, just about stops his heart as fear pulls his hands away. In the shadowed darkness he can see who it is and rolls down the window, "Hey, what's up?" He gives a pleasing grin, glances back at the box then to the window.

She leans low coming face to face with Axel, "Well, I was just wondering what you have planned tonight. I'm off until tomorrow night and was wondering if you'd like to meet up later." She gives a smile while waiting for an answer.

Axel gives his neck a stretch before answering, "There's not too many people who knows I stole your chariot way back when." They both smile, "and I don't mind riding that chariot again." Axel looks at the box. "Let's meet up later as usual."

"Well, then it's a date." She smiles and prances away.

Jake hollers quietly out the window, "It's not a date Harriet, it's not a date." He watches her wave him off without looking back. He smiles while shaking his head and then his mind jars him back to the box sitting by him. Holding his breath and with careful hands he almost surgically lifts the lid off the box, when Axel sees what's inside he throws his head against the seat and breathes.

Looking out the windshield he bows his head in a shaking motion then pops one of the many chocolates in his mouth from the box before putting the lid back on. For a moment he thinks of giving the box to Sarah, but now it is opened, so he decides to take it into the bar with him and leave it on the counter for everyone to have a piece.