BURNING THE PICKET FENCE
Part 9 – Fear No Evil
January 19, 2003
Davalos, Dean, Hastings and Franklin Law Services
Fort Wayne, Indiana
"There's my killer!" Randy looked up from desk to find Alicia Hastings, one of the senior partners leaning against his door. "You kicked ass out there today. And you looked really good doing it"
"Thank you." Randy replied self-assuredly. "Thank you very much."
She smiled seductively at him as she poured them both a drink. "So tell me…did you think he was guilty?"
Randy whirled around in his chair smiling at her. "Did his check bounce?"
Alicia laughed at his supercilious conduct. "We've been talking about you a lot in your partner meetings, Randall. The general consensus is that you are egocentric, over-confident, brash and have absolutely no scruples whatsoever."
He stood up leaning against the edge of his desk, arms folded. "So, what does this mean?"
"This means you have an amazing future in this firm." She smiled slowly. "And partnership is in your near future."
"Glad to hear it." He whispered smiling as he stood up walking to her. He reached under her dress pulling off her nylons and panties. "But why wait, when I can make partner right now." With a look of animalistic lust in his eye, he pulled off his belt buckle and took off his pants. He picked Alicia up by the buttocks, her back against the wall.
"I thought you said you were taking your wife out tonight for your second wedding anniversary." She asked him breathlessly.
"That's tomorrow." He whispered. And with an wicked gleam in his eye, he entered her as erotic screams of passion echoed through the empty halls of the offices.
The following morning, Randy and Sarah lay in bed facing each other. Sarah's legs were wrapped around him while he penetrated her, as they slowly moved back and forth together.
Sarah pushed him over on his back as she climbed on top of him, straddling as she guided him back inside of her. She began moving faster. Randy began to moan loudly as she grinded against him, coming down on him hard. Sarah let out a series of moans as an orgasm rocked through her body. Randy released inside her, moaning loudly.
They collapsed together on the bed, Randy pulling her into his arms. Sarah lay across Randy's chest kissing him softly. "Happy Anniversary." She smiled at him.
Randy looked harshly at her for a moment, and then in a fit of rage, he grabbed her shoulders, throwing her back down, pinning her against the mattress. In the process she hit her forehead against the corner of the night table, crying out in pain. It began to bleed heavily.
"Where did you learn to fuck like that?" He sneered in her face. "I didn't teach you that!"
"Randy, stop it your hurting me." She reached up touching her forehead, pulling back a handful of blood. "I think I need to go to the doctor."
But Randy ignored her. "Who are you sleeping with while I'm at work, Sarah?" He hissed at her. "Who is climbing into the bed I paid for with my hard earned money fucking my wife?"
"What in the hell is the matter with you?" She started at him angrily as she tried to move, but he was very strong. "I'm not sleeping with anybody, but you. And if you don't get the hell off me, I can, and I will make you regret your decision to do this."
Randy looked down at Sarah suddenly noticing the gash on her forehead. "Oh my God! Baby, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me." He pulled her into his arms rocking her back and forth.
"Just get me a damp rag before I bleed to death, you fucking asshole." She shouted at him as she stood up pulling away.
Randy stood up and walked into the bathroom and returned with a damp washcloth. He threw it at her, then recoiled slapping her hard across the face sending her flying into the wall hitting her head again. Sarah fell to the floor unconscious.
Randy looked at his wife's motionless body lying on the floor. "Oh, you have a mouth on you, Sarah Paladini. You think you are all superior to me with your high IQ and your PhD. Yet you sit around here all day doing shit while I work my ass of taking care of you. I think it is time you learned a little gratitude!"
He turned her over pushing into her as she lay immobilized on the floor, her head bruised and bleeding. "Since I met you, you have been a cold, spiteful bitch! It was fun as first…I deflowered and melted the ice princess, but now I am stuck with the fucking ice queen! "
Sarah began to come too rolling her head around. She was woozy and everything was a blur. She felt her husband on top of her thrusting in and out of her angrily.
"Randy…what are you doing?" She asked him faintly.
"I'm teaching you a lesson, you whore!" He sneered. "I've had it with your insubordinance and your mouth. It used to turn me on, but now it just pisses me off!"
Sarah began to cry. "Randy, I think I'm dying. I need to go to the hospital."
"Not until I'm done with you." He leered breathlessly at her. "You want to act like a whore…I'll treat you like a whore!"
Sarah looked up into his green eyes that used to gaze at her with love and devotion. His beautiful eyes were replaced by an evil hatred sneering down at her.
As tears streamed down her face, Sarah could feel the life draining out of her.
For the first time in her life, Sarah felt afraid.
One Week Later
Fort Wayne University Hospital Trauma Center
Beep…beep…beep.
The unmistakable resonance of hospital equipment echoed through her ears as Sarah began to slowly regain consciousness. Faint and disoriented, she tried to open her eyes, but she found she couldn't. Everything was a blur. She could see the room was dark, but the lights from the equipment radiated a soft glow into the darkness. She tried to touch her face.
"Don't try to move, baby girl." She heard a gentle voice speak to her and a soft hand massaging her arm. "You're at Fort Wayne University Hospital Trauma Center. You have a concussion and you have lost a lot of blood."
Sarah tried to speak. Her voice came out weak and raspy. "Who are you?" She whispered.
The woman came into Sarah's view smiling softly at her. She was a pretty African-American woman who was about thirty. "My name is Dorothy Miles. I am a trauma nurse. Do you remember what happened to you?"
She closed her eyes trying to remember.
She remembered waking up in the morning with making love with Randy and then something snapped, turning her devoted husband into a brutal monster. Her mind quickly began to flash. She recalled him slamming her into a wall and when she came to, he was on top of her forcing himself on her as she lay dying.
Tears began to stream down her face. She nodded as she remembered.
"You have been here for a week." Dorothy told her gently. "You gave us a scare. We almost lost you a few times. Your husband brought you here and he has barely left your side." Dorothy took a mental note that Sarah's eyes filled with terror at the mention of her husband. "I need to ask you this, by law Sarah. Is your home environment abusive, verbally or physically?"
Sarah only closed her eyes and didn't answer her. Dorothy watched her sympathetically. "If you don't want to talk about it right now, it's ok." She stroked Sarah's hair. "Do you have any family or friends you want me to call?"
Sarah shook her head slowly. "I don't have anybody." She whispered.
"Ok Sarah." Dorothy squeezed her hand gently. "You try to get some rest. I'll be back to check on you in a little while."
Sarah laid there alone in the darkness, tears streaming down her face.
Dorothy walked out of Sarah's room and sat behind the desk at the nurses' station. She immediately picked up the phone.
"Who are you calling?" Another nurse asked her.
"Security." She replied. "And then the special victims unit. That child was raped."
"She's such a pretty girl. Who could do something so horrible like this to her?"
Dorothy looked at her with determination. "Her husband. She didn't tell me that, but I could see the fear in that girl's eyes when I said he has been here every day." She dialed the phone. "He is not allowed in that girl's room, everybody got that?"
"Yes, security….."
Little Rock Arkansas
Not So Distant Future
Sylar awoke the following morning alone in Sarah's bed. His eyes searched the room for her, but she was nowhere in sight. Closing his eyes he focused on his super sensory hearing and could hear her getting dressed in the bathroom. "It's good to be back." He smiled to himself.
His mind came back to the present and Sarah. He smiled as he thought of the night before. Thinking about her made him crazy. He could still feel her against him; her body soft and subtle next to his. She radiated a scent that nearly drove him mad. Though she very clearly and concisely told him it was a one night affair, there was no denying it; she would be a fire that would burn in his soul forever. He wanted her again.
His list of sex partners was a very short list. Starting from a girl he met his sophomore year in collage who introduced him to oral sex, then a neighbor lady who took pity on him when he got stood up one night was his first carnal lover. There was Jennifer, the sexy girl who had the window across from his bedroom. When he was nineteen, he used to sit in the dark every night watching her undress. One night she spotted him and invited him over for a night he never forgot. "What a freak!" Sylar thought smiling to himself.
Along the way there were more girls and women. Ones he met in bars in his travels across the country, like the waitress at the diner he took back to his hotel the night he killed Dale Smithers. Or the wannabe actress he met at a bar after killing the Walkers in Los Angeles.
But none of them compared to Sarah.
When he felt her body against his, he was weak from desire. He could not get enough of her. And though they slept at times throughout the night, they woke up many times gratifying each other's desires. It was like they were created for each other. Their bodies fit together perfectly and she took him to feverish heights he had never known before.
But during the night something changed. The intense sexual apex had turned to something else. There was a look in her eye. An innocence that made him want to protect her. He remembered holding her face in his hands as she stared back into his eyes.
And somewhere in the night as she slept, he felt her body against his. He put his arms around her and they spent the rest of the night in each other's arms.
His mind returned to her in the bathroom. He recalled the night before how a simple twitch of his finger sent her into an oblivion of orgasmic ecstasy. But then he remembered her warning and today she would leave him at Primatech, never to be heard from again.
"But when did you ever play by the rules?" He laughed maliciously to himself. Closing his eyes he raised his finger and began to wiggle it around. He smiled to himself as he could hear her gasp with gratification once again.
"I know you can hear me!" She grunted trying to suppress the waves of pleasure ripping through her. "This isn't fair, you son-of-a-bitch!"
Sylar only laughed to himself as his finger actions became faster. He could hear her moan out loud. "That's right, pretty Sarah. You love it." He whispered. "Don't deny it, baby." With a series of hard thrusts, he could hear her scream, clutching the towel rack, pulling it over.
She opened the door violently stomping out there, naked and wet from the shower. "I told you. One night, one night only. The rules were simple, Gabriel! Why can't you understand?"
"Because one night isn't enough for me." He climbed out of bed approaching her. "And who says we're playing by your rules anyway?"
Sarah stared at him coming towards her, trying to fight the raging lust she was feeling. "Look! You wanted to get in my pants, you got in." She hissed at him as she backed up to get away from him. "The ride is over, Gabriel. The amusement park is closed."
He smiled staring at her lasciviously. "Well, you know…I've been thinking about that. And I've been wondering who the hell died and put you in charge." He put his hands on her shoulders. Leaning in, he whispered in her ear. "I can feel your desire for me, Sarah. Your blood is racing, your heart is about to beat out of your chest and your cheeks are flushed." He stared down at her hungrily. "And I can hear your loins throbbing." He grabbed her arm and rubbed his lips against her neck. "You are so hot for me, you're about to detonate."
"Last time!" She hissed at him through clenched teeth. Sylar did not hesitate. He lifted her up balancing her on the edge of the dresser, pushing himself into her. Their hips moved in circular motion, perfectly in rhythm with each other as they moaned loudly. Sylar could see a sheen of perspiration form on her body as she closed her eyes. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he thrusted harder. Both of them screamed in cries of ecstasy as they climaxed together, then collapsing against each other breathlessly.
As they recovered, they held on to each other. Still inside of her, Sylar softly began to stroke her face. They pressed their foreheads together breathing softly as they stared into each other's eyes. Closing her eyes Sarah smiled softly, then opened them again looking up at him. There was a softness in her eyes as she began to lean into him, her lips rubbing against his ever so softly.
Then the bedroom door burst open. "Well isn't this the pretty picture!" Luke became enraged as he saw them together, her legs still wrapped around his waist. Sylar quickly released her wrapping a towel around her, but not himself. He proudly stood naked in front of Luke, smirking at him.
"Luke, get the hell out of here!" Sarah shouted at him as she began to get dressed.
Ignoring her, Luke turned to Sylar. "So…you made it into the 'I fucked Sarah Jane Noonan' club'. Damn! That member list is growing. We're bursting at the seams. So how many times did she let you do her? Twice and then she made you leave? That was the deal I got." He sneered.
"I spent the night next to her in bed, doing her over and over again." Sylar taunted him proudly. "No floor for this boy. And if you would have walked in that door just thirty seconds earlier, you would have witnessed us winning the World Series together."
"Ok, you know what, shut the hell up!" She shouted. "Both of you." She turned to Luke. "I am a grown woman and I chose to sleep with him. I am not your girlfriend. And there is not a damn thing you can do about it!"
Luke stood with his hands on his hips staring at Sylar. "By the way, how did you get out last night?"
"I gave him a key and a mickey." Sarah replied buttoning up her jeans.
"You mean you invited him to come over here?" Luke asked disbelieving. "By knocking me out ?"
Sarah nodded. "That's right."
"Yeah…" Sylar ridiculed him. "And in an interesting chain of events, she helped me get my powers back. I was a good boy, and I got a cookie. Wait…actually…I got the whole jar."
Luke stood with his arms crossed smiling venomously at Sylar. "You got your powers back! Well, guess what? I have a cookie too." He pulled out a small electronic device about the size of a cell phone
Sylar's face slowly fell. "What is that thing?"
"Well, I'll put it in layman's terms so you can understand it, ass wipe." He laughed. "It is a power inhibitor. It suppresses the powers of anyone within a 200 foot radius by sending out an electro-magnetic field. Those of us who are not blessed with abilities use them to level the playing field. Like right now!" He pressed a red button, then reached into his shirt and pulled out his gun.
Sylar tried to use his telekinesis to throw the gun out of his hand, but he was unable to.
"Shit." Sarah whispered.
Luke took the gun holding it to Sylar's head, who stood looking at Luke apprehensively. "Let's go, pretty boy."
Sarah tried to jump on his back but he knocked her off as she fell to the floor. "I'll be back to deal with you in a minute." He left the room wedging a chair in the door with Sylar at gunpoint shutting the door behind him.
"Sit down!" Luke commanded Sylar to sit in the same chair he sat in the night before. Sylar did as he said as Luke took out a roll of duct tape, wrapping it around him.
"I hear this stuff hurts like a bitch when it comes off." He taunted him. "It's too bad it will be the coroner removing it, because the rest of you will be in hell!"
From the bedroom, they heard a crashing sound and Sarah screaming in pain. "Oh God Luke! Help me!"
Luke stood up. "Sarah?" He whispered horrified as he jumped up and ran to her. He threw the chair off the door and opened it. Sarah was laying in a fetal position sobbing uncontrollably.
As he bent down to touch her arm, she turned to face him pointing her gun at him. "You never could resist a damsel in distress. Bob always said it would be your own arrogance that gets you killed someday."
Luke laughed spitefully shaking his head as he picked up his gun pointing it at her. "I should have known."
Sarah stood up as they circled each other pointing their guns. "So here we are. Friends for three years, partners for almost a year. Even lovers for a night. And it all ends with a Mexican standoff. Well my friend. One of us is not going to come out of this alive."
"Yep, it all comes down to this." He smiled venomously. "I loved you, Sarah. I knew you didn't love me, but you treated me like a piece of dog shit on the bottom of your shoe."
"And I told you, not to fall in love with me." She whispered. "I warned you I would never love you back and I would do nothing but break your heart. And I did Luke. The rules were simple. All you had to do was enjoy it and then next morning, just walk away."
Luke shook his head laughing angrily. "No man ever enjoys a night with you and walks away with his sanity, Sarah. You are a witch. You look at men with your big brown circles for eyes and they are yours forever. But to you, they are nothing but a piece of toilet paper. Until now."
"What do you mean?" She whispered.
"I can see the way you look at him." He tilted his head toward Sylar in the front room. "Ever since the night they brought him in. And you have never let a man spend the entire night in your bed and fuck him again in the morning." He shook his head viciously. "I saw the look in your eyes when I walked in here. You were looking up at him and there was a gentleness I have never seen in your eyes before. You're falling in love with him, Sarah."
Sarah stared at him coldly cocking the trigger. "Just like you….and just like all the others. It was sport. There was no love involved. He was a bright shiny new toy and I enjoyed playing with him. Maybe a little more than the others. What can I say…it was good…real good"
He shook his head at her. "You really are a piece of work. I don't know what has happened to you, Sarah. But whatever it was had to have been something horrific; because it has made you an empty, cold-hearted bitch with ice water in your veins. You are bliss and you are pain."
Sarah nodded coolly. "That's right. And as I have told you before I stay right here in the gray. It is how it has always been Luke and how it will always be."
"So when I kill him, you won't shed a single tear, isn't that right, Sarah?" He leered at her.
Sarah continued to stand there, but said nothing.
"Sarah." Luke walked toward her softly lowering his gun. "I don't want to do this baby. I have always loved you. Ever since the day Linderman brought you back to the fold. I saw you walk in. You were weak…broken. And then you went into solitary and nobody saw you again for six months. And then one day you emerged. You went through a complete transformation. There was a fire in your eyes and you were a force to be reckoned with. You were, and still are a machine." He stood in front of her. "Which makes what I have to do so much more difficult."
He reached out whipping her with the end of his pistol as she fell to the floor unconscious.
From the front room Sylar could hear Sarah fall. "Sarah!" He shouted trying to free himself.
"She can't hear you." Luke sneered at him as he came through the door. "She's taking a little nap. It's too bad when she wakes up, your brains are going to be splattered all over the room. Nothing personal you realize."
"You are so fucking stupid." Sylar laughed maliciously. "Somebody at your place of employment wants me alive and has painstakingly gone to a lot of trouble for the last year to make sure I stay this way. Do you really think Sarah is going to let you get away with killing me when she has strict orders to keep me alive and then just drop you off in Texas?"
Luke began laughing slowly with growing irony. "You really don't understand what this was all about, do you? Bob knew exactly how this was going to go down. I wasn't being transferred to Texas. This was an execution assignment. He knew she was going to sleep with you, and I would try to kill you and Sarah would have no choice but to kill me. But what that cock-sucking tool bag didn't count on is that I'm going to kill you. As for miss Sarah in there…I haven't decided what to do about her yet. But after what I walked in on this morning…it's not looking too good for her right now. I'll be sure to say goodbye to her for you."
He grabbed his hair, pointing his pistol at his chin. Sylar closed his eyes as the cocking of the trigger echoed through his ears. And then he heard five shots. He slowly opened his eyes just as Luke fell over dead with Sarah standing behind him holding her smoking gun.
Using his telekinesis, he released himself from the duct tape. He stood up and approached her slowly. "Are you ok?" He asked her tenderly.
"Yeah." Sarah replied ardently, not looking at him. "We got a long drive ahead of us before we get to Texas. Get dressed. We're leaving in ten minutes." She shoved her gun back in her shoulder holster and headed for the door.
Sylar stood there nodding with spite. "Business as usual. He was right about you. You can sure turn it on and off again, just like a water faucet."
She stopped walking staring out the door. She did not look at him. "I never eluded you to anything different. You are a prisoner and my job is to transport you from Hartsdale, New York to Odessa Texas. And to keep you alive. By killing Agent Ramirez, I have done that. Any expectations beyond that from you are completely delusional. Nothing has changed between us…Sylar." She walked out the door, shutting it behind her. She opened up the back of the van putting her suitcase in. As she turned away from the van, she stood emotionless staring out ahead of her.
A single tear trickled down her cheek.
"Odessa Texas, twelve miles." Sylar read off the highway sigh.
"I really can read you know." She replied coolly. "I don't need an update from you every time we pass a highway sign. It's getting really irritating."
"You sure weren't irritated with me last night." He reminded her.
Sarah closed her eyes petulantly. "I know. I was there"
"So was I." He whispered, his eyes staring at her in the rear-view mirror from the darkness of the van. "Oh, it started out pretty kinky with being tied to the chair and you feeding me naked, but somewhere in the night, you changed. The way you looked at me…the way you touched me. It started out to be angry, animalistic sex, but before the night was over we began to make love, Sarah. I felt it…and so did you."
Sarah continued to stare ahead of her. "As I told you before. We had one night together. That's all it is ever going to be. That's all we are ever going to be."
"You sound like a fucking broken record." He scoffed at her. "You keep saying that same phrase over and over again, just like you rehearsed it. Why only one night Sarah? Why are you denying yourself something amazing? What are you so afraid of?"
She gave a short laugh. "Um…for one thing you're a serial killer."
"Yeah…I would love to see our body counts side by side." He laughed spitefully. "I got a feeling your trail of corpses is a lot longer than mine."
"It's the job." She replied lucidly. "I mean, what did you think was going to happen? That I was going to let you into my bed, and the moment I felt your touch I was going to turn to jelly? And then I was going to take you and run away somewhere where we could be together for the rest our lives living in a house with a white picket fence raising psychotic babies?"
Sylar began to laugh manically.
"And what in the hell did I say that was so damn amusing?" She demanded.
"You had that scenario all worked in your head." He grinned slowly. "Just like at one point you were seriously thinking about it. Were you thinking about it last night when you laid there looking in my eyes? Or maybe it was when in your sleep I put my arms around you and held you. Or maybe it was this morning after we made love and we couldn't let go of each other. I felt you rubbing your lips against mine. If Agent Ramirez hadn't come in and caught us, I think the girl who doesn't kiss on the mouth was getting ready to plant one on me."
Sarah continued to look straight ahead coldly. "The only scenario I am working from is the one where I take you to Primatech Odessa where I am going to sign you over, just like a package. Then I am going to do some paperwork, and after that I will get a hotel room for the night. And then tomorrow morning, I will fly back to New York, and whatever happened between us last night will be nothing but a memory."
"So is that your motto?" He sneered at her. "Fuck 'em and drop 'em?"
She rolled her eyes. "What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"How many lovers have you had that are still alive?" He asked his voice full of malice.
Sarah screeched the van over to the side of the road, putting it in park. She pulled out her pistol turning it around pointing it at him as she cocked the trigger.
"Please!" Sylar laughed. Sarah jerked her hand dropping her gun as her pistol melted.
She continued to stare at him, undaunted. "Don't you ever say that to me again!" She spoke slowly, her voice filled with rage. "You know nothing about me!"
"Ouch!" He started to laugh maliciously. "It looks like I hit a nerve."
Sarah turned around and started up the van again. "The only thing you're going to hit is the inside of a cement jail cell."
"Where they are going to cut me open and perform vivisections on me…probably for the rest of my life." He whispered. "And you are just going to leave me there."
Sarah didn't respond. She went down a side street and pulled into a tan and brown building that read Primatech Paper along the wall. "Welcome home." She replied coolly as she got out of the van.
Sarah looked around the parking lot and there were no cars. "Something isn't right here." She whispered to herself. She started to open up the back of the van to remove Sylar, but before she could open the door, she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Well, well, well…you have finally arrived." She grimaced as she recognized the voice. She spun around to face him.
"Adam Monroe." She replied. "And I thought I was already having a bad day."
"It is always a pleasure to see you, Sarah Noonan." He looked around. "I don't see Agent Ramirez with you. Did you send him to off to the OWI headquarters in hell?"
"He jeopardized our mission and I had no choice but to take him down." She replied slowly. "And who in the hell dug up your sorry ass?"
"Oh, I had a little help from an old friend." He grinned. "And when I arrived here last night to retrieve my package, I found it was destroyed by that annoying little choir boy Peter Petrelli. I literally tore the place apart to find it, and I suppose I got a little bit sloppy as I kind of had to kill the entire night crew. It really was in self defense, you realize. They shot first. And then I learned that you and Sylar were on the guest list for tonight, so I thought I would stick around and say hi." He smiled. "So when do I get to meet Mr. Gray? I really am a huge fan of his work."
Sarah stared at him as she opened up the back of the van.
Sylar was gone.
--END--