Thursday
5:17 PM
3.774 inches
Ethan was back to his motel room, his back against the door so he wouldn't fall in weakness… What had he done? He had… He had killed a man only to know the fucking letters were on the gun grip! It was unbelievable, unacceptable, it was… It was for his son…
But the man also had children…
He couldn't stop thinking about the little girls' reaction when they find their father's dead body laying right in their room, next to their picture. These little girls, how would they grow up with such a memory, how would they face the world after that? Hot tears dripped from his eyes. Damnit, he felt so ashamed of what he had done…
He heard someone opening the door. He knew who it was but to look at him after taking someone's life… He just stood in there, listening to the falling rain, something he hated more than himself at the moment.
"Ethan, what happened?" Norman fastly kneeled near him, facing him and putting his hand over his left shoulder "What's wrong?"
Ethan kept staring at the floor, seeing through it, back to the little girls… And then Jayden understood.
"Did you-… Oh…" He sighed, speechless.
"H-He…" Ethan started, slowly regaining the strength to speak "H-He had c-children, Norman… H-he was also a f-father and I killed him…!"
Please, man… I wanna see them again…
Ethan closed his eyes, hiding his face in is hands. Damnit, he should have… He should have never gone in there in the first place! Brad Silver had been killed...
"So I would know the chip was in the gun grip." Ethan told Norman, more than nervous with himself and with the fucking killer "At the fucking gun's grip and to receive ONE SHITTY LETTER!"
Norman couldn't hide his disappointment. One single letter? On the gun's grip? Shit, that wasn't supposed to happen like that, was it? Still…
"You did what you thought was right, Ethan."
"But it wasn't right!"
"He would have done the same if it was one of his children!"
"I couldn't… How could I…"
"It can't be changed, Ethan. It's already done, you can't go back now."
Ethan stared at him, angry. He was only making it worse, that stupid, did he even know how it felt to do something bad as that without actually wanting it?
"Just… Just stop, for God's sake!" Ethan told him, sweating in anger and shame.
"No, you stop it!" Norman ordered and did it with such a heavy tone that it made Ethan stop moving at once and face him. He wasn't, however, angry "You are a father, Ethan! You are trying to save your son, any father would have done the same! You made your choice, it's done now. Don't blame yourself for what happened: You had no real choice."
Breathing slowly, Ethan kept facing the agent for a few seconds, thinking about what he had just said. Damnit, he still would stand by side after all? He should be throwing him into prison by now!
"Look" Norman continued "We'll finish those damn trials and save Shaun. What comes after that doesn't matter. We have to think about what's going to happen now. Understood?"
Ethan nodded, dizzy. Agh, he felt a terrible headache, was hungry, couldn't stop shivering. Norman helped him up and he sat on the bed, even more ashamed. Norman got him some water (The things he had bought the day before were still there) so he would calm down for a while. He took a long swig, giving himself some time to relax as Norman sat on the chair and closed his eyes, trying to hide the pain. It felt as if every bone of his body had been broken. His heart seemed to be in fire and his eyes started closing by their own. Oh yeah, what wouldn't he give for a good and complete sleep right now…
"So…" Ethan started after a few minutes, still shocked but more relaxed "What happened? With Neville, I mean."
"Oh, well, I got some information I guess…" He told him, eyes still closed enjoying the peaceful darkness around him "Didn't work out as I thought it would though. But it's done."
Ethan looked at him suspiciously and realized with a certain surprise he had several superficial cuts over his face. How didn't he see them before?
"You're wounded!" Ethan said, still unbelieving he didn't see it before. Dang, the man was staring right into his eyes, he should have seen it!
"What, this?" He pointed to his own face, eyes still closed. Damn, he felt exhausted "Nah, this is nothing, believe me. To be crushed by a backhoe, that wouldn't be too nice."
Ethan opened his mouth in astonishment. Wait, what?
"What do you mean?!"
Norman opened his eyes and smiled as Ethan widened eyes stared at him. It seemed he had forgotten about Brad Silver at least for a second. Good!
"Mad Jack was asked to get rid of a car for someone and get him a new one with false plates. Yeah, he paid cash so you know what happened in the end. The fact is, this "someone" wanted Paco from the Blue Lagoon to know when the car was finished."
"Do you think Paco is the killer?" Ethan asked.
"Or he's the killer or he has had direct contact with him. I'll find that out after questioning him tonight…"
"What more?" Ethan put the glass of water over the bed side table "You didn't get those cuts by talking to him, did you?"
"Maybe" Norman laughed "I searched for clues around the place and he got me. I was about to arrest him when my vision got blurry and all of that…"
"Tripto…"
"Yeah… He tried to throw me into the crusher but I managed to escape and then there was this cool confrontation in there with me being beaten up all over… He got caught by the backhoe's treads and I went back to my apartment, took a shower and then came here."
Ethan's mouth was ajar. What was he supposed to say after that? Damnit, Jayden seemed so relaxed after such a thing, how could he? Norman got up and got some water for himself, feeling his vision get blurry once again. This time, however, he was just very, very sleepy.
"Listen, I… I'm really tired. Do you mind if I sleep for a while?"
"Oh, of course not! Take your time!" Ethan told him and got up to eat something. Jayden put his ARI glasses over the desk and laid on the bed – Letting out a long groan as he felt his body easily relax – staring at the ceiling for a while.
"Are you ok?" Ethan asked "I'm sorry for… You know, I felt so scared and totally forgot about what you had to endure and…"
"I'm fine, don't worry. Just don't let me sleep to much, I better get to the Blue Lagoon around 11 PM or sooner."
"I won't." Ethan laughed, biting some fruit Jayden bought for him "And thanks once again for… For everything."
"You have nothing to thank me for" Norman said and smiled weakly, feeling his senses slowly fall into a deep and silent world, somewhere he had nothing to fear, no pain, no worries, just the good old silence pulsing into his ears…
Ethan picked up another cup of water for him and turned around to face Jayden once again who had covered his eyes with his right arm.
"Oh, ah… Don't you wanna eat something? It'll be… Good for you."
...
"Jayden?"
Ethan smiled and sat at his desk, staring at the rain which kept falling and falling while Norman Jayden felt isolated from the world, finally managing to enjoy his well deserved rest.
( - - - )
"Already?"
Norman rubbed his eyes with annoyance. Damn, it felt as he had slept almost nothing, it just couldn't be 10:40 PM already!
"It is!" Ethan called and showed him the watch "See? 10:40 PM, I told you."
Jayden sat over the bed, barely opening his eyes. Aww man, he really needed to sleep more often. He looked to the clock and gave Ethan a groggy smile.
"If you think I can actually see something you're really w-wrooong" He said, yawning. He wished his eyes would open, for God's sake…
"C'mooon FBI! It's time to work! If Paco leaves the place, then we're fucked."
"Hell, you're right… S-Shiit" He cursed, yawning again and laughing to himself. He probably looked like a child now, fighting against the need of getting up. He went to the bathroom and washed his face with all his will. "Wake up Nahman, damn!", he told himself. He came back near the desk, picked up his ARI glasses and glove and his car's key.
"If I don't come back until tomorrow morning you can bet he was a good friend of Mad Jack" Norman said, giving Ethan a brief wave of hand. He was, however, interrupted.
"Wait, where are you going?" Ethan called him.
"To Blue Lagoon, where else?" Norman asked, confused.
"Wait, without me? No way! You better wait for me or I'll follow you and I mean it!" He said and went into the bathroom.
Norman didn't move, trying to understand what he had said.
"Wait, you're… You're not coming, Ethan! I can not let you, I'm sorry. It is way too dangerous!"
"You've been through hell to help my son, I'm ready to do the same!"
"It's not about doing the same, Ethan! If something happens to me, at least you'll still be able to find him!"
"What if the last trial requires both of us?" Ethan asked as he left the bathroom "The fourth one didn't, neither the first or the second one but this is the last one! Finish him and get the address, that's what we're talking about!"
"You're being chased by the police! If anyone in there recognizes you, we'll be in some real trouble!"
"I'll be, not you! The Blue Lagoon is pretty far from here, they may not know me, I don't know!
Norman stared at him suspiciously. Yeah, he really wanted to go, that's for sure. Still, it was dangerous, he couldn't-
"I…" Ethan started and now said it with a really worried expression on his face "I've got a really bad feeling, man."
They looked at each other for a while, Norman thinking worriedly. Jeez, what should he do? If there was danger, both could be in good mess and then Shaun would be left behind after everything they had done! However, he also had a bad feeling and having Ethan saying the same made he consider taking him with him… Still…
"We'll have to go to my apartment. You're already slowing me down, Ethan, you better be of some help!" He said, smiling.
"Go to your apartment? Wait, why?"
"You're not expecting to go work with me with these clothes, are you, agent?"
( - - - )
"I don't feel pretty comfortable with this, man…"
Thursday. 11:32 PM. 4.386 inches.
Ethan Mars was on the passenger's seat, wearing a suit Jayden lent him – It was a little tight but it was all he had for now. Norman turned to him.
"I told you it would be better if you just stood at the motel! Now we're here and you'll have to deal with it!"
"What if they ask for my badge?"
"They won't. Just stay next to me and we'll make it through. Don't say anything, just stay next to me. Got it?"
"Yes, boss. Whatever you say."
They got out of the car and found themselves staring at a really exotic building, big and blue shining letters saying "BLUE LAGOON", a really loud music coming from inside. Both took a deep breath and went in - The music got even louder of course. Jayden headed directly towards the bouncer, Ethan right next to him pretending to be a cop. This felt weird, alright, but he had to act if needed and he needed to now more of all times!
"I'm here to see Paco!" Jayden said out loud.
"Paco? There ain't no Paco here fella. Get lost!"
Before Ethan could freak out, thinking everything was already lost, Jayden picked up his mighty badge and showed it to the bouncer, who stared at it with a "No way!" expression. Bingo!
"He's in his office" He said, at last "Take the stairs over there!"
Norman nodded and kept on walking. Ethan came after him, trying to keep controlled, to keep cool.
But as soon as he saw the crowd of people he felt a sudden lack of air.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Norman faced him, worried.
Oh yeah, he should have told him about it!
"I... I can't bear crowds. Too... Too many people! Too many people!"
"Wait, you wh- Ethan!"
Ethan would have fallen if he hadn't been held by the profiler. Shit, he felt so eager to do something useful, to actually help that he had totally forgotten to tell about his 'little problem'. He would only slow things down, damnit, damnit...
Jayden searched for the stairs. No, they weren't far, thanks God! They had to keep moving, he couldn't just leave Ethan behind! Whatever made him feel like that, he would have to go through with it, he would have to be strong!
"Ethan, listen to me!" Norman literally screamed into Ethan's ear as the music kept getting louder and louder "You need to trust me now of all times! I'll help you through this, okay? Just stay focused, listen only to my voice!"
Ethan tried breathing slowly, tried to calm himself up, but it was too much for him. He coughed and started walking as Jayden put his arm around his back, dragging him with him.
"Are you listening to me, Ethan?" Jayden kept calling, heading on for the stairs, trying to keep calm "Look at that, Ethan! Look, the stairs are right over there, see? We're almost there!"
Ethan tried focusing, feeling a little lighter than before. 'Listen only to his voice, you're almost there, forget the crowd...'
"Oh My God, look at that Ethan!" Jayden screamed "Whoa, did you see that? What a nice butt, oh my! And look at these breasts, ohhhhhhhhh!"
Ethan coughed once again, smiling. Where? Where?
"Oh shit, what about that one over there! Look, she's right on the stair! We gotta get near her, Ethan, quick before she escapes!"
The architect leveled his head up, feeling more confident, just trying to forget about the crowd. Yes, he was going to make it... Yes, they were almost there...
"Daaaaaaaamn, what are those beautiful green eyes?" Jayden exclaimed and Ethan actually laughed to that one. 'Great job, Ethan, you're making it! Keep focused, keep it up!' "Ohhh, and that brown hair! Damnit, man, she's looking at me, oh my God, she's looking at me!" He kept on saying, staring at empty space. Yeah, thanks God there was no one at the stairs, but he had to call Ethan's attention to something.
"Quick, before she escapes!" Ethan said, laughing, and Jayden couldn't help but also laugh. It had worked! Good job, Nahman! A few more steps, only a few more steps and…
They did it! They reached the beginning of the stairs. Jayden let Ethan sit and gather some air as he happily asked:
"We… we did it?"
"You did it. Not me!" Norman answered and helped to pull him up. Ethan started laughing from happiness, knowing he had managed to do it! He looked around, realizing the woman Jayden was talking about didn't actually exist. He kept on smiling though... However there was something else in his smile…
"Ahn… Jayden?
"Yeah?" Norman asked.
"Has it been a long time since you had sex?" He asked and added "The way you've spoken of that woman totally sounded like it!"
"I knew you would pay attention to that!" Norman laughed and both started to go up the stairs.
"Now, seriously…" Ethan restarted "Has it been a long time?"
Norman smiled, blushing, trying not to laugh again.
"Well, yeah… Yeah, it has. My fucking job doesn't let me have any free time, so… You know."
"I see… If you find someone, please let me know: Seeing all those girls shaking their butts out there actually makes me remember I haven't done it in a long time…"
"Who knows? After solving this case and saving your son, we could go and find us some whores. Now that wouldn't be too bad, would it?"
Still laughing, both of them reached for the door – Go back to acting, Ethan!. Norman showed his card to the guard and he let them in.
Suddenly, it all felt into a morbid silence, the music still on somewhere far from there. Without waiting, Norman entered the room silently, Ethan right behind him.
It was a nice room, after all. It had a blue light over it and there was a big aquarium too. A big sofa had been placed at the end of it and it had a beautiful tone. But something surely was out of place. They could feel it in the air, staring at their faces. Their eyes fell over a chair right next to them, a man sitting on it. Slowly, Norman approached him and, before he turned the chair to face him, both knew what they were going to find.
"Oh, damnit..." Ethan exclaimed, seeing the gunshot hole on the man's forehead. Norman kept calm, for it wasn't too much of a shock to him to see dead bodies. Taking the ARI out of his pocket and putting them on, he was ready to find out what exactly had happened and why.
It was when a fast movement behind him made him look back.
Ethan had been launched against the floor by someone, someone who had his face covered and surely had something to do with this murder. Norman tried to reach for his gun but it was too late: The man forced him over the table and sent him right against the other side of it, ARI being launched out of his face. The man was already leaving the room as if nothing had happened when Ethan got up and tried to bring him back, grabbing him. But the man wasn't for play and punched Ethan hardly against the wall, hitting his head against it and giving him a punch in the stomach.
Mars fell against the wall, trying to recover from the attack. The man, once again, headed for the door, but Jayden was faster and jumped against him in an effort to overthrow him to no avail: The man held him by the neck, beating him against the table. Before Jayden could even move, he got what was behind him in the room, something none of the men had noticed to be there - A Katana sword.
Desperate, Norman tried to avoid the attacks. A sharp pain got him in the chest as the blade hit him. Yet, he was able to counterattack and kicked the man, being able to stand for a second.
Ethan had just recovered from the attack when he saw what was going on and saw when the sword hit Jayden once again and he laid on the chair over the body. He closed his eyes in pain and tried to get away kicking the table but was slow and felt a sharp pain again as he was superficially stabbed in the left side of his waist. Shit, he was going to die, he was going to die…
Before the final attack was made, however, Ethan grabbed the man by the neck and pulled him, struggling him and making him drop the sword. Another punch in the stomach and Ethan felt dizzy, but not enough to let go. If he did, Norman would surely be killed and –
Another hard punch was too much for him. He fell on his back, fearing what the man would do if he picked up the sword again. But Norman had already thrown it away and ran into him, trying to knock him down. He felt weak, he felt queasy but he had to try!
Ethan saw when the man got the profiler by the neck and threw him against the aquarium, crashing it with the impact, and left without a word.
Jayden tried to get up, standing on his arms, but the whole world seemed to be spinning and he didn't make it, falling once again. He was breathing frantically, sweating, trembling, suffering... The room was filled up with his pain groans and Ethan got up as fast as he could, approaching his friend.
"Norman! Norman, man, talk to me!"
"Q-Quick, before he escapes!" Norman shouted, angry.
"There's no way of catching up with him, not in a night club as this one: He must have already taken off his mask; we'll never find him in the crowd" Ethan said, sincere. It wasn't worth it.
The profiler was in too much pain. Bleeding, he tried reaching the wounds in an attempt to make it stop, writhing. Ethan helped him get up and sat him on the sofa at the other side of the room, analyzing his wounds carefully. There were long cuts on his chest and – Oh God – what seemed to be a deep wound made when he was stabbed. Norman kept on sweating, breathing with difficulty, just wishing for it to stop... Ethan freaked out, trying to think of something that would help but before he could do anything Norman took a deep breath and, closing his eyes, said:
"I'm… I'm sorry about that… Did h-he hurt you?"
"Stop caring about me and care about you, for fuck's sake!" Ethan answered. He didn't want to sound angry, he was just worried. Really worried.
"I'm ok. _Norman said_ J-Just give me a few seconds to… To ease the pain."
"Oh man…" Ethan slowly lifted up Jayden's shirt and seeing the deep wound felt his heart pump faster. Shit, he was bleeding too much… Shit, Shit…
"I'm ok!" Norman assured him with a trembling and painful voice "Don't worry, I-I'll take care of it. B-But right now I need you to… To stay outside."
"What?"
"In case someone comes in… Y-You let them get in and flee. Here" He gave him the car's key.
"Wait, you're… I-I'm not leaving without you! No way!"
"We're here for Shaun, right? You will leave me if necessary, no matter what happens!"
"B-But…"
"Please, Ethan" Norman asked and he closed his eyes as a terrible pain hit him and he felt the urge to faint "Just go!"
Not really having any choice, Ethan Mars left the room blaming himself. If something ever happened to Norman, if anything wrong happened to him…
Norman felt queasy. He touched his cut, only to see his hand full of his own blood, hoping it wasn't actually deep... He took another deep breath and tried to get up, moaning loudly in grief, only to sit back. "Keep it together, man, c'mon!" He held his breath and he finally got up, fighting against the will to scream in agony as more blood poured down from his abdomen. "Concentrate, Norman, concentrate" he kept telling himself as he wore the ARI glasses and searched for clues. There had to be something around that would help, anything would do…
On the other side of the door, a worried Ethan Mars stood still, thinking about this bad feeling he felt before… Jayden was losing too much blood, they had to do something fast! Goddamn killer, he could have killed both of them in there and yet they didn't even manage to see the man's face. Ethan's heart started pumping harder as a image of a bleeding Jayden agonizing on the floor came to his mind and he opened the door to make sure everything was ok.
Norman wasn't breathing rhythmically but was up, analyzing something he had found over the table (Which Ethan obviously couldn't see). He finished staring at whatever was there and turned to Ethan.
"Nothing else to see here. Let's go" He said, taking out the ARI glasses and glove.
They closed the door and left the room. Norman hid his hands full of blood on his pants' pocket and closed his suit to hide the wounds as they headed for the exit. He tried to keep a normal expression so they wouldn't call attention and as much as it hurt, he kept his head up, thinking about getting out of that fucking place.
Ethan stood next to him all the way. He didn't fear the crowd, didn't even see it! This time, he had his attention focused on something much more important than that.
He had his attention focused on Jayden's life.
"Do you drive?" Norman asked, feeling his throat get dry.
"O-Of course. To where?"
"My apartment, please" He said and, as he sat on the passenger's seat, he closed his eyes for a few seconds, breathing deeply, holding his shaking hands together. Ethan looked at him, scared, and faced his greatest fear, something he didn't think would ever happen to the determined man sitting next to him.
Norman needed help.
And he needed it now!