Damien was sitting in the kitchen flipping through a magazine that had landed in his mailbox that same morning. He wasn't really paying attention to it, he was just eying over the pages, but as he turned a page, he almost dropped his coffee cup onto the table. He carefully put it down without letting go of the page with his eyes. On the page was a picture of him and Jill cut out and taped stuck. Someone had drawn around and onto the picture with a black marker, creating a mane around his face, and big claws over his hands.
Over the picture was the text "Does the beauty really deserve her beast?"
Damien knew they were being targeted, and a chill went up his spine. He wasn't going to let any type of serial killer touch his wife again. He decided to get the person immediately if he tried anything, he knew he could do it. Pushing the magazine away he rose to his feet and hurried down towards Jill's room. He got halfway before he stopped. A man was standing, wearing black and a hood, in the living room. The two of them just stood still for a second, staring at each other, Damien could feel the adrenaline pump in his veins as he stared at the man's cold eyes. The man took a step forward, and Damien could see the shiny blade of a small knife reflect towards the sun outside as the man moved.
The man suddenly attacked, with one quick motion the blade went flying through the air. Damien didn't hesitate for a second as he jumped up into the air, landing a perfect karate kick towards the knife, sending it flying towards another direction. The knife slid away and landed underneath a bureau.
Damien landed perfectly on his feet, and stood still again, looking at the man.
"How are you going to defend yourself without your weapon?" Damien smirked. "You should just surrender."
The man let out a laugh as he took a step towards the knife. Damien pulled up his eyebrows as he observed the man, beginning to walk through the room too to get to the knife. Damien was closer. The both observed each other as they both slowly walked towards the knife, but suddenly things seemed to go way much faster than Damien was realizing. No slow motion here. When Damien looked away for a second to get an eye of the knife, the man lurched himself towards it, grabbing it before Damien even had time to react. The man then took two quick leaps and was suddenly throwing himself onto Damien with full force, throwing them both backwards over a small table. They both crashed down onto the floor, Damien cussing loudly at his mistake.
The pain in his side came from nowhere. He could feel how the man pressed the knife into his side, and Damien bit his lip to not scream out in pain. The man was on top of him still, pressing the knife deeper into his body. Damien felt like the air was being pressed out of his lungs without allowing him to inhale, and he knew he had to get this guy off from him. But they were pretty much at the same size, and Damien could tell this man was in good shape too, just as Damien was. Knowing he wouldn't get many opportunities he raised a fist and brought it down hard towards the man's cheek, and it was enough to get the man slightly off balance – and for the excruciating pressure against his side to subside for a second. Damien grabbed the man by his shoulders and tossed him off from him, breaking away from him, putting distance between them.
He realized his mistake too late. He had put distance between the two of them, but he had put the man between him and Jill. Damien could see the man smiling through the mask, and he cussed underneath his breath as he heard Jill move around in the other room.
"Damien?" She called out tiredly.
"Jill! Stay inside and lock the door!" Damien shouted, but it was too late. Jill appeared in the door frame, and the unsub quickly took a hold around her neck, putting the knife towards her stomach. Jill was shaken by the movement, she hadn't expected this, and feeling the cold blade through her thin top, she felt anger rise inside. There was no way this man would hurt her baby. Casting a glance towards Damien, she could immediately see he was covered in blood. Anger boiled over and Jill decided to act.
"Get off from me!" Jill snapped angrily, grabbing the man's arm holding the knife she twisted it out of her way, moving around she flipped the man over her shoulder before he had time to think more about it. The man landed on his back, and Jill managed to land a hard kick into his side before he scrambled to his feet.
The man quickly recovered, with frustration building up inside of him he grabbed a vase with flowers standing behind him, and before either Jill or Damien could react he slammed it right across Jill's head, and she fell to the floor, not moving.
"Jill!" Damien called out, quickly dropping down to the floor next to his woman, his head leaning down over her chest and mouth. She was breathing. She had a pulse. There was a gash by her temple and blood was already pouring out freely. She slowly opened her eyes as Damien put his hand towards the gash, and she met his eyes. Nodding slowly she told Damien she was okay, and he brushed her hair before he looked up, wondering where the man was for the second. He never got to catch another glance at him before something hit him over the head, and he fell down onto the ground next to Jill, who quickly sat up, looking over Damien. Seeing the bleeding wound in his side, she put her hands towards it, pressing down as tears begun streaming down her face.
She looked up. The man was not in the room. Jill knew she needed to get an ambulance to the scene, and most of all she needed to get help if the killer hadn't left the house, which she was sure he hadn't done.
Scrambling to her feet, easier said than done when the world swayed around her and the blood from her temple was hot and sticky towards the side of her face. She grabbed onto the couch as she pretty much fell over it, grabbing onto the phone she called Kris' place. She let it right for a couple of times before she slammed the phone down, calling another number Kelly quickly picked up.
"Yes?"
"Kelly, it's… It's Jill."
"Jill, Kris, Kam and I are on our way to your place." Kelly said quickly, stopping herself as she heard Jill cry. "Are you okay?"
"No, you have to get here, and call an ambulance on the way, I think-ARGH!"
Jill screamed and dropped the phone as she felt pain spreading across her back, feeling like she was on fire. Screaming she twirled around, her knees wobbling as she twirled too fast, and she grabbed onto the couch as her legs wouldn't carry her. She looked up, seeing the man standing a few feet away with a teapot in his hands, smiling.
"Have you read Beauty and the Beast?" The man asked, and Jill looked up at him, wincing, crying and breathing hard. She couldn't open her mouth, she just stood their, fighting not to fall.
"DID YOU EVER READ BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!" The man screamed, and Jill nodded in fear.
"Yes, yes, I have. My mum used to read it to me." Jill answered through the cries, swallowing hard.
"You know how all things in the house came alive?"
"Yes."
"Tell me the things."
Jill took a deep breath as she looked at the man, trying to remember the things from the book.
"Eh… a candlestick, a clock… a teacup."
The man smiled before he tossed the teacup towards her, and Jill screamed as she throw herself away from it. It missed her head, to where he had been aiming, but crashed towards her shoulder, and she screamed out in pain as she throw herself down onto the floor, beginning to crawl away to take cover. Her shoulder immediately protested and her upper body slammed to the floor, and she gasped in pain as she hit the hard surface. She took a deep breath before she got herself up, trying again to crawl away, her shoulder and back complaining painfully, but she didn't have time to worry about it. The man followed her, laughing, before he suddenly stopped as he heard the front door opening. Cussing he ran for the back door, and Jill collapsed behind a couch.
"Jill!" Kris screamed, hurrying through the house, seeing her sister she immediately fell down next to her. Jill was lying on her side, her arm hanging dead towards the floor. She was crying and shaking, and Kris winced as she saw the burns across Jill's back. Jill was wearing a thin top, but it hadn't covered her sensitive skin from the boiling water. Kris saw the blood running from the side of her head, and she jumped to her feet and returned with a towel, pressing it towards the side of Jill's head.
"Dam… Damien…" Jill whispered as Kris pulled her fingers through her hair, and Kris looked up after Kelly or Kamili. None of them were still in the house, and Kris realized they had left to go after the unsub.
"Jill, hang on, the ambulance will be here any minute. Stay still and try to calm down, you need to calm down for Andrew's sake, okay? Deep breaths. You take deep breaths and I will take care of Damien, okay?"
Jill nodded slowly, closing her eyes as she tried to calm down and to push the pain into the back of her head.
"Good girl. Can you put a hand towards the towel here? You're bleeding quite a lot." Kris asked, and Jill moved around slightly, before getting into a position where she could put her hand towards the towel.
Kris smoothed her hair once more before rising to her feet, looking around the room until she found Damien. She swallowed hard as she saw all the blood around him, and she knelt next to him. His eyes were halfway open, Kris could see the pain in his eyes through the small slits his eyes created. She swallowed hard and was just about to find something to press against his side when she heard movement by the door. Looking up she saw paramedics rush inside, and she quickly made her presence known by showing up behind the couch. The paramedics immediately saw that Damien was in worse condition than Jill, and tended to him first as Kris moved back to comfort her sister.
Outside, Kamili and Kelly were running through the neighborhood, trying to catch the man they had seen leave through the backyard. Both Kelly and Kamili held their guns in one hand as they ran as fast as they could, pressing their legs and muscles to the breaking point. It was in the middle of the day, on a Saturday, but even so, the streets were quite empty. The rain was hanging in the dark clouds on the sky, and the chilly wind made people curl up in their couches and watch movies instead.
The man rounded a corner, jumped over a fence, and kept running over the lawn. Kamili throw herself over the fence with ease, as Kelly rounded the house the other way, trying to cut him off. Kamili was close to him, and she was seething with annoyance at not being able to catch him. Stopping for a second she aimed her gun towards him, but he tossed himself over the fence, not giving her a clear shot. She tucked the gun at the back of her pants and kept running, tossing herself over the fence too and kept running after him along the street. She saw how he tossed himself into a car and went off into a flying start down the street. Aiming towards the tires, Kamili shot severals shots before giving up.
She looked towards the car that was fleeing off, and suddenly the scene played out in slow motion in front of her. Kelly, who had been running around the house to maybe cut him off if he decided to go that way, ran right out into the crossroad as he drove out into it in high speed. Kamili's hand flew to her mouth as she watched Kelly see the car in the last second, preparing herself as she jumped up onto the hood of the car to prevent being hit by it, and she rolled over the top of the car before slamming down onto the asphalt, not moving.
Kris was in the back of the ambulance together with Jill who was up on her side on a gurney, her arm tied stuck due to the injured shoulder, a compress towards her temple, and she had a cool blanket over her back, where blisters had appeared on the red and swollen skin. The medic was taking care of Damien, trying to control the amount of bleeding and keep him awake. Damien and Jill were holding hands, and Kris watched the two of them with tears in her eyes. They really were the perfect couple, and she was so happy they had found their way back to each other.
Thinking of finding their way back, she wondered what had happened to Kelly and Kamili. She had been at the house for about 20 minutes, but Kelly and Kamili hadn't returned, and she prayed that they were both okay.
Another thing that captured her mind was that when she had left the house, she had tossed a glance into the kitchen. On the table there had been a small vase, with a single rose in it, with all the petals lying on the table.
When the last petal drops…