Title: Nevermore
Chapter: 13 Author: EvidenceRating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Thanks to D and Maple Street!
The bell on top of the McClaine's Bakery jiggled as Podena slowly opened the door.
"Damn," Shauna McClaine whispered. "I'll be right back," she said to Thomas Spade as he lay sleeping on her couch.
She quickly ran down the stairs to the bottom floor where the bakery was located, yelling, "I'm coming!"
Podena looked at the muffins lined up in their trays, in perfect unison. The blueberries all together, the cherries grouped …everything so perfect. He had the gun already out so just removing the safety he shot at the glass case housing the muffins. Bits of muffin and glass shattered all over.
Shauna stopped in her tracks and began running back up the stairs. Thomas was wide-awake now.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Gunshots," she cried, "There is some crazy man down there."
"Podena," Thomas said slowly. He had awakened with a clearer mind. Jumping up and staggering slightly, he grabbed Shauna's hand. "Is there a back entrance?"
"Yes, a door over there," she pointed.
"Let's go," he said pulling her along.
Podena walked through the bakery and shot at the huge metal oven but his gun was out of bullets. Dumping the gun in a bin of floor, he preceded up the stairs to the apartment. There was some he could kill he could almost taste the fear as a shark hungers to smell blood.
With a near fall, Shauna and Thomas made it outside and into the night. "Is that your car?" Thomas asked looking at a small white hatchback.
"Yes but my keys are upstairs."
"Never mind let's go," He held her hand tight running through the back alleyways and into the night.
Podena made it to the backdoor. Whoever had spoken to him was long gone. He wouldn't have the chance to kill. He went back down to the bakery and selected a long knife. At least he had acquired a new weapon. He looked at his refection in the metal. "You are a handsome devil," he told it and took off.
"Hey," Jack's voice interrupted Sam's concentrating on the stitches on her head.
"What are you doing?" She asked turning from her reflection.
"Checking on you," he responded putting his hands in his pockets.
"Jack, this is the woman's bathroom," she said with a smirk.
"I know but you have been gone 22 minutes."
"Did you draw a timeline for me?"
"Of course on the back of my used taco napkin," he smiled as she laughed.
"I'm fine just needed some time that's all."
"Okay, if you need to talk just tell me," he started away but her voice stopped him.
"Jack, why are things better between us then they were this morning?"
He sighed, reclosing the door. "I don't know. A lot has happened. Martin and you are no longer an item…"
"We never really were."
"You were hurt, your cousin is in danger, there is a serial killer on the loose…the interrogation room."
"I don't want our friendship or any other relationship we have to be about how good we kiss," there was a tinge of bitterness in her voice.
"It isn't."
"Sometimes I wonder seeing that is all we have really shared-the physical part."
"We've shared more than that Sam."
"Not as husband and wife do," she said it quietly staring back at the mirror.
"Is that what you want?" Jack asked slightly flabbergasted at the turn this conversation was taking.
"I might."
He rubbed at his still sore face. "I can't give you that."
"Never?" She turned to look at him, tears forming.
His heartbeat raced, "I can't...I'm married."
"I won't be your mistress anymore, Jack. I want…more than that." The tears were flowing freely now.
"I can't…" he whispered.
"It's not a "I can't" it's a "I won't". You don't love me enough." She started out of the bathroom but his arm grabbed her.
"That's not true!"
"Actions speak louder than words," Samantha said walking away from the only man she ever loved.
Jack sighed. Father Walker's words rung through his head but the overwhelming urge not to leave his kids like his mother left him, out of selfishness, pushed those words away. His mother had killed herself because she was unhappy- forever impacting and changing his life. No matter how much he loved Samantha he couldn't do that to his girls- change their lives because of his needs. He walked down the hallway to his office alone.
Podena could feel the cool tip of the blade pressed against his thigh, it made him feel warm and tingly inside. Now with Thomas gone he needed a victim before cousin Sam found him and the jig, as it was called, was up. The dark encased all the souls walking on the street. He needed that next body so that his whereabouts could be given. A telephone booth stood empty on the sidewalk. He walked in and pulled out a page. Now he needed a pen. His eyes searched until he saw a man scribbling on a pad. He was middle age with a large belly and a balding head. Podena walked up causally to him.
"Excuse me, may I borrow your pen?" he asked gently.
"Oh sure, here." The man handed over the pen with a smile.
"Thank you," Podena said and wrote at the top of the page the address of the warehouse. He handed back the pen. "Thanks again."
"Don't mention it."
Feeling the blade sending heat through his body, he pulled it out as a cat detaching its claws and jabbed the knife far in the man's belly.
The man let out a shriek and eyes turned to Franklin's position. He pushed the paper containing the address into the man's shirt pocket and ran. Voices called after him. Blood dripped from the knife. One young hero tried to grab him but Podena slashed at his face. Soon the voices were gone and Podena threw the knife in a dumpster. He made his way to the warehouse to prepare the bomb. He would not live to see the morning but it was worth it. Well worth it.
To be continued…