Disclaimer: I own my imagination and the will and means to play with other people's intellectual property.
He was tied up again, and so were his family. The three minions were nowhere to be seen. He was powerless but he'd been powerless before. Red John had killed his family and there were nothing he could have done. But this time was even worse. Red John was going to kill his family again, and this time it was right in front of him and there were nothing he could do but watch.
"You know what Mr. Jane, this time is gonna be very special for both you and me. I get to kill not two people you love, but three." It took Jane a minute to catch up, then he realized both Charlotte, Angela, and Lisbon were going to die, and there'd be no one left to pick up the pieces afterwards.
Now he kinda regretted not calling the team before rushing over here.
They were seated across from each other in a triangular formation where he was at the top angle, and the women were seated at the two bottom ones. Red John was standing on the bottom line right between them.
"Who are we going to begin with?... This one?" he said and walked in a circle around Charlotte. "...or this one?" he said as he went across and made a similar tour around Angela/Lisbon, completing his infinity walk around the two chairs he ending up in the same exact spot, between the two slash three most important people in his life.
Jane hoped he wasn't going to be the one to make the choice, it would be an impossible task to place upon him. Like seeing his family die wasn't bad enough already.
Red John looked over at him, and as he'd done all night he knew what he was thinking by reading his reactions. Jane normally wasn't this transparent, but he was on edge here and hiding behind his usual masks wasn't exactly his greatest concern at the moment.
"Don't worry Mr. Jane, I might be a lot of things but unnecessary cruel is not one of them, I'd never put such a pressure on you." His crooked smile, that Jane had come to hate over these past hours, made its appearance yet again before he continued. "...Mainly because that would put you in a position of control, and we can't have that now, can we? Not after all I've done to strip you of any power you might think you have over me or anybody else. The truth is you're nothing but a helpless, little, impotent, bottom feeder." Red John bend down and came one step closer with each new colorful adjective he added to the description of Jane, until he was standing right in front of him at eyelevel. Jane briefly flashed back to the last time he had been tied to a chair with Red John this close. It hadn't been pleasant back then either.
Red John moved his head to the side of Jane's and whispered in his ear, "I think I'll start with your lovely wife. You'll get to hear her scream once again, or maybe it'll be Teresa that screams, don't tell me you haven't longed to hear her do that." The glee in his voice made Jane shutter, and as Red John pulled away Jane closed his eyes to avoid seeing the dark abyss of murdering intent in the other man's glance. But as he heard the man's footsteps slowly retract he had to open his eyes again. He needed to see this, no matter how much it would torture him, all this was his fault after all. And he needed to be present in the moment or he would regret it, he unfortunately had already had firsthand experience with that fact.
Jane didn't see where the knife had come from, suddenly it was just there, in Red John's hand. For a moment Jane wondered if it was the same knife he used to kill all his victims, then he decided it didn't really matter and tried once again to set his mind in escape mode. He just couldn't let this be the end of his quest. He'd had an entirely different scenario of how it might be in his head, and this was nowhere near close, in fact this had to be one of the few scenarios he absolutely hadn't imagined or thought possible.
The room was devoid of any sounds as the knife punctured her skin and a thin line of red liquid followed the trail the knife made. Red John stood with his back to him as he pushed the knife gently to her skin and drew lines across her body as naturally as a child puts crayons to paper. There were no screams. Neither Angela nor her alter ego Teresa made a sound. That was his girl, trying to be strong for his sake. The woman just pressed her lips tightly together until they turned white.
Red John stopped temporarily, and she exhaled heavily a few times before looking up and meeting Jane's eyes. Red John had turned to look at him too: "Now, this is a disappointment." Nobody answered him. "How long do you think it'll take to get a sound out of this one? How many cuts?" He didn't wait for an answer, just turned around abruptly and with no warning whatsoever he plunged the knife deep into her left thigh. This time she screamed. Surprise mixed with the sudden pain had caught her of guard. It was loud and nerve-wracking, but didn't last very long. She doubled over as far as her restraints allowed her to and took control of her emotions as best as she could. Only faint whimpers escaped her as Red John yanked her back up into a straight seating position again. Charlotte was crying, she probably couldn't believe the man she'd thought to be her father for so long would hurt the woman, that was her actual mother, like that. Jane was crying as well, do to his inescapable powerlessness. Even Red John shed a few elated tears. The only one that wasn't crying was the one that should have been. This just proved that she'd always been the strong one.
"Please stop. Please let them go. They're innocent. Please. I'll do anything."
"And we're back to begging it seems." Red John mocked. "I think we're past that stage, don't you? You might as well accept your faith, surrender to the circumstances, you have no one left to save you. Your heroine here hasn't that much fight left in her. She's just the scared little mouse of the wife you once had. Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon was never real. She doesn't exist. I made her up. One of my more brilliant moves, I must say."
Being confident was one thing, but Red John was displaying more than a little overconfidence here. He had done so most of the night and Jane hoped it eventually would be his downfall. But right at this very moment Red John had the upper hand and the prospects seemed pretty gloomy.
He continued his evil monologue. "Maybe we should raise the stakes a little." He said and pulled the knife forcefully from where he had left it, protruding from Angela's/Teresa's leg. A sharp intake of breath was her only giveaway. Even when the dark and deep red fluid started oozing from the wound she kept a straight face. With defiance in her eyes she stared the perpetrator right in the face. Jane could see just how hard she was fighting, she was clearly paling and a line of sweat had broken out over her brow. She was losing too much blood and he was losing her.
A/N: Did the infinity walk make sense? Just to clarify in case it didn't - he walked around the chairs so he made an 8 lying down also known as an infinity sign.
