Dark Reflections

Chapter 26

Darkness is Falling

Paul slowly stirred around and opened his eyes. He put a hand to his head and attempted to rub the pain away, but realized it wasn't working. He slowly sat up and looked around. His eyes widened when he realized something.

It was quiet… Too quiet…

Realizing Shawn was probably in a shitload of danger; Paul struggled to his feet and walked around. He was wondering where Shawn went and knew he had to get to him as soon as possible. Vasquez being among the missing didn't help his paranoia at all. He searched around for several minutes before he finally tripped over something.

He felt around with his hands and made his eyes adjust to the little light he had and soon realized he had tripped over Shawn. Paul quickly realized that Shawn was unconscious and he had been beaten up by Vasquez. He felt his blood boil at the size of the gash on Shawn's face, running from his left temple to the middle of his eye lid. He put a hand on Shawn's chest and shook him lightly, trying to wake him up so he could talk to him. Shawn stirred a little, but didn't open his eyes. Instead, he rolled onto his side so his body weight wouldn't be pushing against the handcuffs, which were cutting into his wrists.

Paul rubbed Shawn's back.

"You're gonna be fine, Shawn… You're gonna be ok," He stopped talking once he heard rustling in the distance.

Shit!

He had almost forgotten about Vasquez. He whirled around to look for Vasquez but didn't see him anywhere, so he looked back down at Shawn.

"Shawn, I'm gonna go look around, ok? I'll be right back, I promise," He whispered, then stood up carefully and walked away.

He semi tripped over and kicked an object at the same time, so he bent down to try and find it and was relieved to feel a flashlight. Paul stood up and turned it on, silently thanking God that it still worked, and continued his search.

He moved the flashlight back and forth, trying to find any sign of Vasquez. Did he think the two members of D-X were dead and, as a result, decided to run for the hills? Or did something else happen that he wasn't aware of? It had to be the latter of the two, since Paul was knocked unconscious for an extended amount of time. He wasn't even sure how long he was out of it. All he knew was that his being unconscious left Shawn extremely vulnerable, and the fact that his hands were cuffed behind his back didn't help at all. He was shocked when he shone the flashlight straight ahead of him, and about 20 feet in the distance, he saw what appeared to be a body. Thinking it was Vasquez; he smirked and quickened his pace. Once he reached the person, his smirk faded and he felt sick to his stomach. He dropped to his knees and tried to fight back his sadness.

"Shane..,"

Paul looked a little further away from Shane and shone the flashlight in that direction, only to see Vasquez sprawled out on the ground, dead from a bullet wound to the head. Paul grimaced and looked back down at his brother in law, shocked and not knowing what to do about him. He saw Shane's eyes flutter and heard him groan.

"Shane-O? Shane, can you hear me? It's Paul… Please wake up… Look at me!" Paul shouted, putting a hand to Shane's chest.

He was about to shake him, but pulled his hand away like he had touched a hot pot on the stove. He looked down and saw his hand was covered in dark red blood.

Oh fuck…

Paul shone the flashlight onto Shane's chest and saw blood everywhere. He looked at his brother in laws face and saw he was awake and in an incredible amount of pain. He felt bad for Shane. He had never been shot before and he didn't know what he could say to calm him down. While going through a list of things to do in his mind, Paul absent-mindedly took off his coat, then his shirt and pressed it to Shane's chest, making him groan.

Shane closed his eyes and bit his lip to try and avert the pain, but to no avail. He had never felt like this before in his life, even when he had a serious case of the flu as a teenager. He opened his eyes and, once his vision settled, saw Paul in front of him, pushing a shirt against his chest.

Yeah, like that's going to make the pain any better…

Shane thought to himself.

"P…Paul?"

Paul's eyes shot up once he heard his name being called from below, and was glad to see the fog had somewhat cleared from Shane's eyes. He seemed more conscious now, and that meant he was more aware of what was going on… That couldn't be a good thing.

"Shane-O! Are you ok? How do you feel?" Paul asked.

Wow. Dumb questions. Way to go, Paul!

He thought to himself after seeing the look on Shane's face.

"Well… I… I feel like I got shot… And… On top of that… I feel like shit… Thanks… For asking…" Shane paused to cough, making Paul wince at the pain that must have tore through Shane's chest.

He looked down at Shane's chest and saw how awkwardly it was moving. Breathing was definitely a difficult task for Shane right now. By the looks of things, the bullet hit him in the sternum.

"Jesus Christ, Shane… What happened..?" Paul asked.

Shane took a few deep breaths to try and slow down his breathing to a normal speed. He looked at Paul.

"Well… I… I noticed that you and Shawn… Left without your stuff… So I got your gym bags… And followed Vasquez to the best… Of my abilities… Without making him know he… Was being followed… I saw… Him take a different… Turn… And knew he was up… To something… Besides… Shawn's voice… Hinted off he… Knew something about him… And… Dad and I got worried… Anyway… I stayed far back… So he wouldn't see me… And I watched everything… Happen from my car… After he knocked… You out… I saw him… He tried to… Do something to Shawn… So I confronted him… Told him about the stuff I read about him… How I… Knew he was… A phony… He got mad… And challenged me… So… We both… Let a shot off…"

Paul looked at Shane in shock.

"You mean… You knew the whole time that Vasquez was a fake cop and you didn't say anything..?" Paul asked.

Shane nodded his head.

"Not the… Whole time… And it… Wasn't my place to… Say Vasquez was… In on it… Shawn… Should have said something…" Shane replied, making Paul sigh.

He was right, as usual.

"Ok, ok… Do you have a cell phone? I need to call for help..," Paul whispered.

Shane nodded his head. He went to move his right hand but stopped at the immense about of pain that shot up his arm and into his chest. He groaned in pain, making Paul jump.

"Jesus! Are you ok? What do you need," He asked.

Shane closed his eyes and once again took several breaths.

"Phone… Right pants pocket…" Shane whispered back.

Paul nodded and, with a shaky and bloody hand, took his brother in laws cell phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and silently thanked God Shane had Verizon. He called for help and was told by the operator that they were going to run a trace on his cell phone to get an exact location. Paul didn't care much, mostly because they needed help quickly. Once their location was reported to the police, Paul pocketed the cell phone and looked down at Shane.

"Help is on the way, Shane-O."

"T...Tell every…One I love them…" Shane whispered, and then weakly opened his eyes to look at Paul, who felt his eyes fill with tears.

"Don't talk like that, Shane-O," Paul whispered back.

He saw the fog was back in Shane's eyes. He was barely able to keep them open. Paul saw Shane was having a lot of trouble breathing. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that. Hell, he didn't even know how long Shane was laying there bleeding to death before he woke up and found him. He was shot in the chest for Christ sake. And he knew the outcome of this. Shawn would blame himself, as he usually did. He hated the fact that a part of him knew Shawn was right to blame himself, but another part denied it and convinced Shawn that it wasn't his fault because he was traumatized. In all honesty, how long can he continue that charade?

Paul put a hand on Shane's face, which made his eyes lazily snap open again.

"Can you do me a favor, Shane," Paul asked, hearing his voice break.

Shane opened his mouth to answer but quickly decided against it and nodded his head instead.

"Hang on, ok? Please keep your eyes open… Come on, think of happy thoughts… You're gonna be fine, Shane-O, I just need you to stay awake…" Paul stated.

Shane was 36. He was married for 10 years to his high school sweetheart, Marissa Mazzola. They had two sons, Declan and Kenney. He was the Executive Vice President of Global Media. According to Paul, Shane was a kid with his whole life ahead of him. How the hell could this be happening to him?

He watched as Shane fought the darkness that was trying to consume him. He knew how hard it was to fight unconsciousness, just not how hard it was to fight unconsciousness while he was laying God knows where in Montreal with a bullet wound to the sternum and his brother in law trying to convince him he was going to be ok while he knew he was bleeding to death. He watched; trying to blink away his tears, as his brother in law started to choke up blood. Paul sat there, completely dumbfounded. He didn't know what to do or say. He just watched in horror as Shane's breathing got slower and more troubled.

The cops and the ambulance pulled up as soon as it looked like Shane had stopped breathing altogether. The cops helped Paul up and pulled him away as the paramedics loaded Shane onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.

"I thought you said there were two victims?" A cop half asked half stated, as most of them usually do.

Paul mentally smacked himself in the head. He forgot all about Shawn!

"Well there's a dead cop over there." Another cop stated and gestured to Vasquez.

The other three cops looked at Paul in shock.

"I know what you're thinking… We have a whole file on that guy… He's a phony who just wanted to get my friend alone." Paul replied.

"What friend?" A cop asked.

Paul walked over to where Shawn was and carefully pulled him up, then proceeded to half drag him over to the group of cops.

"This friend." The fourth cop pointed his pen at Shawn.

"Isn't that Shawn Michaels?"

Paul raised an eyebrow at the cops.

"Yes..?"

The only thing he saw was the blur of police uniforms running back and forth helping the paramedics with Shawn and Shane. He saw how quickly they worked, especially when trying to get the handcuffs off of Shawn. As if the cops didn't move fast enough, they also spoke faster. The only thing Paul heard was the word 'call.' And that word only meant one thing…

He had to call Vince.

A/N: Well another chapter done. Sorry this one is short, but I think it's the perfect size for an in-between chapter. The next one will be better.
Oh, I realized that in an earlier chapter (most likely chapter 3) I had Shane say his sons names were Declan and Kennedy. I've learned that his youngest sons name is actually Kenyon, which shocks me since Kennedy would have been a much more appropriate choice in my mind. Anyway, according to my sources, the child is nicknamed 'Kenney,' so that's what I'll be referring to him as…

Edit: The chapter's title, 'Darkness is Falling' is a somewhat altered line from Randy Orton's theme song, 'Voices,' by Rev Theory. The line is 'I see darkness falling.'