Title: Hatred is the Strongest Poison
Chapter 10 – Secrets & Lies
Thanks to AccountingProfessional for the idea. Hope it works and thanks!
Monty Glennon…but he faked his death…Greg saw him burn to death right before his very eyes. Spike shakes his head still unwilling to accept his verbal confession as truth. "Greg…saw you die."
"Well he saw what I needed him to see. So much for the all-knowing leader of THE SRU!" Monty shouts at Spike.
"Who's Dylan?" Spike inquires, recalling to mind that Monty had mentioned him in passing.
'You'll never get away with this Monty.'
'I already have Dylan. Your death means my life. Think on that for all eternity while you burn IN HELL!'
Monty's mind flashes him a few grisly images that preceded the burning death of one man so that he could escape. "My death…much unlike yours will be was relatively painless but was an amazing performance."
"Who's Dylan?" Spike tries again with a small frown.
"He's no one…now it's time…"
"WHo…" Spike starts in a shout and then coughs and quickly ceases. "Is he?"
"WAS! He's dead…I killed him like I am going to kill you," Monty growls. "Only his death was…no…no I won't give away details."
"They had your…DNA."
"Those simpering fools found what I wanted them to find! Anyone can pull a few of their own teeth and some other personal effects."
"Blood…"
"What?"
"One file said that…"
"Which file? TELL ME!" Monty shouts as he takes a few steps towards Spike. But this time he stops with a frown when he sees Spike not shrinking back. Maybe his methods weren't working? Was his mind stronger than Dylan's? Would he have to take more drastic action? Use more intense measures?
"A file that…compared DNA," Spike answers with a somewhat raspy tone. "Who is he?"
"He's no one…no one…" Monty chants over and over to himself as he turns and storms out of the room, giving Spike a few more moments of reprieve. Spike's fingers frantically move toward the ankle cuff and try to pry it loose, his mind desperate now to be free of the captive clutches of a confirmed madman.
"I'll show you…I'll show you," Monty rushes back into the room and up to Spike. And before Spike can even respond Monty's covered his mouth and nose with a thick cloth doused in chloroform, laughing until the tiring SRU officer finally goes limp in his grasp. "I'LL SHOW YOU!" Monty shouts down at Spike's unconscious frame before he heads back out of the room and reaches for the nearest bottle of whiskey and takes a hearty swig.
He turns sharply to his computer and narrows his gaze at the small desk calendar right beside it. "I'll show you Greg…I'LL SHOW YOU!" He shouts before he picks up the TV remote and hurls it at the small calendar, making both of them tumble to the ground, one landing softly the other breaking into a few pieces.
"Ha so much for your big plan!"
Monty turns to where he hears the voice and sees a very recognizable face covered with black char looking back at him with a twisted smile. An image of a man he murdered many years ago. "You're dead!"
"Oh I'll always be with you, you know that. That was my vow just before you murdered me."
"You had to die Dylan," Monty tries to justify himself to his own mind projected image.
"Just like you will…you always reap what you sow."
"No!" Monty insists, shaking his head until he's dizzy, the bottle sliding from his sweaty fingers.
"We'll always be together."
"No…" Monty tries in a quieter tone until projected laughter forces him to drop the bottle and cover his ears.
"Always!"
"NO!" Monty shouts as the image his mind had procured finally fades. He stands in the middle of the room for a few more moments trying to gather his collective thoughts into one single focused idea before he dares to take a step back in Spike's direction. "I'll make this work!" Monty hisses as he storms back into Spike's room and bodily gets him into the chair, strapping him down, putting the gag into his mouth and then fixing the headpiece before he turns it on and then leaves.
"I will make THIS WORK!"
XXXXXXXX
Sunday morning for Greg and Marina were the complete opposite from what Spike was forced to endure. They met for breakfast and then spent the time afterward walking, talking and holding hands in the park; enjoying their time together away from their hectic work schedules. They talked about Scott and the fact that Greg's nervousness the night before only served to make him anxiety-ridden the young boy didn't even notice.
"I'm glad it went well. I was worried," Greg comments as they finally take a break and sit down on a nearby park bench.
"You worry too much, you know that right?"
"That's what Jules tells me."
"Just Jules?" Marina counters. "I think the thing I like best about your team is how you all really do care about one another."
"We try," Greg sighs as he slightly pulls her a bit closer into him. "I know we all get so busy with work and our own lives that I sometimes think our cohesiveness has fallen by the wayside a little. But then other times we are stronger than ever. We might bend but I doubt we'll ever really break."
"Not with you at the helm," Marina warmly praises, bringing a contented smile to Greg's face. They talk a bit longer before it is time to move on, slowly meandering through the park; Marina getting a few more details about Monty and what had helped Greg to quit the bottle for good. She had told him about her rocky marriage and having a miscarriage and not wanting anymore children.
They head out of the park and toward a small open patio café for lunch. It was a great day for them indeed.
XXXXXXXX
By the time Monty comes back to check on Spike before the noon break, Spike's mind is a raging mix of muddled emotions, largely due to the hidden message Monty has inserted to the home movies that he was forced to watch for hours on end. The same images over...and over...and over...again.
"Enjoying your entertainment?" Monty chides as he removes the helmet and sneers at Spike's watery gaze.
This is all Greg's fault, Spike's mind replies without warning. What the hell? Where did that come from? Spike internally argues with himself.
"I see the conflict," Monty states in triumph.
"No…they were…stupid," Spike tells him back.
"No!" Monty warns sharply. "You watch what you say."
"Water," Spike asks softly as he licks his dry lips. After hours of just sitting bound to the chair he winces as Monty pulls away the hard leather wrist restraints and the skin is raw and chapped. His legs were like jelly and his throat was dry and hurt to swallow. His mind, however, was on fire trying to digest and sort out all the mixed messages he was now digesting.
Hate…kill…enemy…words now swirling around his mind but directed at those he was supposed to love and respect. During the time he was forced to watch the monotonous images on the screen he had tried to keep his mind focused on friends and family. However, those happy memories were starting to wane, also due to lack of solid sleep and anything nourishing in his stomach.
His heartless captor had come in half-way through his morning session and given him another injection, this time it was what his captor had called it a nourishing powerball. It did help to ease the stomach cramping but was only there to keep his stomach from turning in on itself and not to give him strength or energy of any kind.
"Okay you can rest a few minutes before we start again," Monty tells Spike as he fully releases him but leaves him free in the chair.
"No more…"
"What?" Monty asks angrily as he turns around to face Spike.
"I need sleep."
Monty roughly grabs Spike's chin and forces his face painfully forward, making Spike's fingers grip the leather arm rests to keep himself from falling to the floor. "When you look at me do you see sympathy for you at all?"
Spike looks at the soulless black pools before him and feels his entire frame seize. His mind picks up silent screams of Monty's victims of the past, haunting images of those he killed, and then finally his own face as he lies dead in a shallow grave. But he couldn't play his game, he had to try to find some shred of human decency in the monster before him; not realizing that the man that was once Monty Glennon no longer exists, only the devil's protégé.
"Answer me Michelangelo," Monty taunts calling Spike by his full first name.
"Yes."
"What?"
"Yes…yes I do," Spike replies with a faint smile. "Can I sleep now?" He follows up his answer with a small smirk.
"Don't lie to me Spike!" Monty yells. "You know how much I hate liars. Do you see anything but a monster before you?"
"I see…a man," Spike answers with a rapidly racing heart.
"LIAR!" Monty shouts in frustration, his fingers still clutching Spike's stubbled chin in his fingers. "Tell me what I want to hear!"
"Please…water."
"First you want water…then sleep…water…sleep! I just want a STRAIGHT ANSWER!"
"YOU'RE A MONSTER!" Spike finally shouts back, jerking his head free but doing so at the same time that Monty pulls back with a snicker and smile. Unable to put his hands out fast enough and with Monty stepping back, Spike's frame crumples to the floor; Spike's eyes watching his captor's feet walking away and leaving him on the floor. Spike closes his eyes and allows his spinning head to catch up before he opens them again and stares at the open door.
GET UP! MOVE! His brain yells at his heavily fatigued body. But quickly biting back the pain, Spike pushes himself to his knees, his mind determined to escape; telling himself that he'll sleep for a week and eat like a King when he's free. However he merely flops back down, stifling a small anguished cry as his brain starts to digest his own defeat. Never…never give up…his tries to encourage himself to keep going and try again. Spike finally gets to his knees and then while holding onto the nearby chair manages to get himself upright. But he loses precious minutes holding onto the chair as he is forced to wait for the small dark circles to dissipate before they get bigger.
Now! Go now! His brain commands as his ears pick up sounds in the distance. He looks at the space before him, finding the door and taking this first step toward it and then another…another…another…and then.
"What the…" Spike whispers in shock as his eyes pick up the shrine that Monty had made. It was various pictures of Greg down throughout the years and then a few of him most recently. "No…not possible," Spike frowns, unaware of the madman slowly watching and creeping up from behind.
"This isn't…it can't be…" Spike utters.
"Oh but it can," Monty's sly voice is heard in Spike's ear before he turns around and his entire goes dark.
XXXXXXXX
"I had a wonderful day," Marina tells Greg as they linger in her front doorway. "Wish you could stay."
"Well I would but um…for some reason I have extra paperwork to do tomorrow morning that I didn't get done on Friday," Greg smirks.
"Ah I wonder why that is," Marina smiles in return. "Try to take it easy okay and um…I know this week is gonna be a tough one for you."
"Yeah…Tuesday," Greg huffs as he remembers the looming death anniversary that haunts him each year – that of Monty Glennon.
"You call or just drop by if you need me okay?"
"I just might take you up on that," Greg tells her in truth. They talk a bit longer before Greg gives her one last good night kiss and then heads for home. His mind drifts toward Monty Glennon and his last few tormented hours on earth and the fateful call leading up to Monty's horrible demise.
'Greg…'
'Monty is that you? Where are you? Let me come there…I can help you.'
'No…no one can help me. Ever.'
'Monty, please tell me where you are?'
'That was always your stumbling block Greg. Your pride. Thikin' you could help when you CAN'T!'
'Fine. Then tell me where you are and I'll send someone who can help.'
'No one can help me.'
'Monty you know we have to bring you in.'
SILENCE
'Monty?'
'Greg, you're right…I guess as always. I'm tired of running. But just you okay? Please…I just need help. I just want you and you alone. Promise me Greg. Promise me.'
'I promise.'
Of course Greg didn't go alone but he did leave the rest of his team outside the warehouse, taking one SRU member along but having them stay behind until he could bring Monty safely out. That never happened. Instead he was forced into a firefight and then after a few minutes watched as Monty's flaming frame came into view, doused with gasoline and dead before he could take even one more step toward him.
"Damn it!" Greg curses as his palm slams the steering wheel just as he arrives home. Marina was a true godsend. Each year for the past nine years he would just sit and morbidly dwell in solitude his choices that led up to a very unfortunate and unnecessary death. This year when his mind wants to dwell on Monty's terrible demise, he's able to switch to happier thoughts of events during the day and his anxiety instantly lessens.
Course at this very moment he was unaware of the true terror that was putting a very deadly plan into place. A monster who had kidnapped his friend and fellow team member, had them strapped helplessly into a chair while they forced their evil plan upon them.
Help me…Spike's mind calls into the darkness in futility, nothing there but his own fright to answer in return.
"But he's at peace now," Greg mumbles about Monty, never guessing that the small feelings of paranoia inside actually required some attention. But those voices would remain small and unchecked until the eleventh hour when it might be too late to act upon them.
XXXXXXXX
Seconds wore to minutes.
Minutes dragged to hours.
And hours seemed to meld into from one endless nightmare to another.
By midnight Spike isn't even aware as his captor approaches, stops the mental and visual assault, pulls out the gag, undoes the straps and then lets Spike's frame merely sag to the small bed where he's cuffed and given a blanket.
"No…more…please," Spike begs as he blinks his very weary and somewhat watery eyes.
"You are a pawn...a means to an end and I don't care. Now we have a busy day ahead tomorrow," Monty pauses in the doorway as he turns off the small light and bathes himself in an eerie dark glow. "Tomorrow you're gonna call in sick. Goodnight Spike."
"NO!" Spike calls out in a raspy tone as the door is slammed shut and he's sealed inside. "No…more..." he lightly whimpers as he slumps his damp short dark locks onto the little pillow and squeezes his eyes shut. The team will figure it out…they're the best at what they do…you'll soon be safe…safe…soon. "Boss...you have to...find me."
And that lone tormented word carries him quickly into the dark realm of sleep for a few blissful hours.
XXXXXXXX
"So the smile," Ed comments as he joins Greg in the team meeting room early Monday morning. "I take it the weekend went well?"
"Better than expected."
"So she found out you are human afterall and went running for the hills?" Ed teases.
"Something like that. I met her son."
"And?"
"And…"
"Greg you're great with kids and have dated other women…"
"It was okay," Greg assures his friend and team lead. "We are taking it slow which is nice."
"Nice," Ed smirks. "Okay…but you know I'm only gonna wait so long before I say I told you so."
"I expected that," Greg nods as Sam and Raf come into the room. The talk about Greg's personal dating life quickly dies as he shares only the really intimate details with Ed and no one else; a few other details to Jules and Spike.
"No Spike yet?" Jules asks as she enters.
"Anyone seen him?" Greg asks with a small frown.
"Nope," Sam shrugs as he sits down opposite Jules.
"Winnie," Greg touches the speaker phone button. "Anything from Spike?"
"Yeah I got a call from him about five minutes ago and was going to give you the message. He's sick and just resting today."
"He said that?"
"And he's gonna watch the great muppet chase," Winnie giggles.
"Sounds like Spike," Jules smiles.
"But sick?" Ed frowns. "Spike's never that sick."
"Might be from the accident," Greg suggests. "But if it was Spike maybe he just knows to take it easy today. I'll call him later. Alright what's on today's agenda?"
A/N: So think the team will fall for the message? Is Monty's plan foolproof? And what else does Spike learn? Hope you are still liking the story and please review before you go and thanks so much!