Chapter 3:

Chapter 3: Contingency

Contingency:

1 : the quality or state of being contingent
2 : a contingent event or condition: as a : an event (as an emergency) that may but is not certain to occur b : something liable to happen as an adjunct to or result of something else

After awhile all crime scenes begin to look alike. There's always a body, a dark creepy room and usually a lot of blood. In this case, a whole lot of blood.

"Well the coroner is pretty sure that it was "death due to loss of blood." I 'd say that's a pretty good guess." Jake motioned around the room.

A woman in her mid thirties lay sprawled out on the floor in a once nicely decorated apartment. Her throat, wrists and ankles had all been sliced up and her right hand had been cut clean off. She lay in a pool of blood soaked carpet. There was a wet, glimmering redness covering everything.

I knelt down near her body to get a closer look. Same M.O. as our guy, he really liked to slice them up. For whatever reason drove him to do this, he seemed to enjoy it.

I took a few notes on the crime scene as the crew around me took pictures. Suddenly, I slipped into another vision.

"Sara." The man said, the scruffy gray brown hair around his lips shifted as he smiled. There was blood, so much blood. A woman screamed. "Sara." The man's voice again. A knife reflecting light off of it's tip. "Sara." More blood. "Sara, you're next!"

"We're done here Sara….." Jake leaned over placing a hand on my shoulder, my vision just stopped.

I stood up and looked over at Jake, he shook his head and blinked as if he were waking up from a dream.

"Jake?" I asked softly, raising an eyebrow.

"Lets go Pez." He said and walked out, I followed him to where our vehicle was parked. It had gotten dark out while we had been inside and the weather had gotten much colder.

"Jake what was that?" I asked seriously as I climbed into the car.

"Pez, I think I shared your vision. I don't know how, but when I touched your shoulder, it was just like before, only more intense."

"What did you see?" I asked, needing to know.

"Blood. Lots of it. And you, bleeding." His voice was quiet as he stared out the windshield.

"That sounds like the vision-of–the-day." I joked. "Maybe it's a sign that we should call it a night."

"You know Pez," He looked over at me. "it's a Friday night, there's nothing we can do until we get in the forensic reports. Well, do you want to get a drink? I could really use one." His look was almost pleading me.

"YOU could really use one? Talk about an understatement. Let's go." I smiled back at him as we drove off.

* * * * * *

We sat at a big booth in a small dimly lit corner if Jim's Bar. Joker by the Steve Miller Band was playing from the jukebox. This was my place to come and unwind, and usually win a bit of money playing pool. Jake had stumbled upon me here one time and lost $20 in the process. I had given him a hard time about coming here before. That it was where I went to get AWAY from work, but right now I couldn't have asked for better company.

"Oh my god! You didn't!" Jake spit out between his laughter.

"How was I supposed to know he was an undercover cop!" I joined in his laughter. We had been sitting here for almost two hours exchanging stories and hysterical tales. It still seemed weird to me to be able to laugh again like this. It had been a rough year with the death of Danny, my partner and my lover Conchobar.

Our laughter wrapped up and we broke into a moment of silence as we both sipped out of our respective bottles. Jake finally took this opportunity to begin asking me one of about a million questions I'm sure he has concerning me and the Witchblade.

"So have any other people shared," He looked around for prying eyes and ears. "your visions?"

"Not that I'm aware of." I answered.

"Then why me?"

"Supposedly everything happens for a reason, all things are connected." I started to explain. "Maybe you being my partner, by my side, is all part of the Destiny of the Blade." I tried to emphasize the "mystical meaningfulness" of the last part with a gesture towards my bracelet. "Perhaps when your hand was between it and me when I was healed triggered some sort of a reaction." I shrugged then smiled. "Maybe you're just going crazy."

"Ha. Ha." He said, obviously not amused. "Seriously Sara. I think some of what you just said might be true." He leaned across the dark wooden table and took my hand in his. "I feel …. I feel like I have some sort of "connection" with you now."

"Wow Jake, you ARE a smooth talker." I smiled.

"Sara. I'm serious, I..." He looked hurt by my lax. "Never mind." He stuttered a bit and glanced around nervously letting go of my hand. He really was serious, I felt bad for teasing him so much.

"Jake, I'm sorr-"

"You know," He cut me off and glanced down at his watch. "It's really late, mind if we take off?"

I shook my head letting him know that I was ready. I threw down some bills on the table to cover my part of the tab and grabbed my jacket as we headed out the door.

"Good night Jake. Thanks for the company."

"Goodnight Sara." He gave me a half-smile as I shut the car door and turned to head up for my apartment.

My god! What a long day, I thought to myself as I dropped my jacket and holster on the couch and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. I'm so glad that I'll be able to sleep-in tomorrow. I looked in my bathroom mirror and noticed that the drapes were slightly shifting in the breeze. I turned and shut the window. I made a mental note, I needed to remember to shut that. At least it didn't rain this time.

That's when I noticed my bracelet spring to life, the jewel glowing a fierce red. Something's not right. Shit, I thought. My gun is in the other room, it tends to be a little more reliable and there's a lot less to explain afterwards.

Just then I was grabbed from behind. My attacker had jumped out from behind the shower curtain and got a good grip in my arms. He was strong and knew what he was doing because he dug my right hand into the small of my back preventing me from using the Witchblade in fear of stabbing myself. I caught a quick glance in the mirror, not much to my surprise it was the killer who had taken me captive.

"Go ahead Sara," He spoke softly making me tremble as his warm foul breath caressed the side of my neck. "Use your weapon. I'd love if you did some of the work for me." With his free hand he reached up to the other side of my neck and just barely cut me enough that I could feel my warm blood trickling down my neck.

Man, I thought. This guy is strong. The Blade gives me extra strength and other abilities, but I can't do squat to stop this guy.

"So you're the wielder of the Blade I presume? Seeing as how you're alive and well after taking a bullet in the chest." What? This guy knows who I am, I realized. I mean, he saw me use the blade at our earlier encounter, but how does he know what it is and that I am the Wielder?

"I've been looking all over for you Sara." He sneered at me.

Suddenly a loud crash came from the other room and made my attacker jump.

"Sara!" It was Jake's voice I heard call out to me.

The man quickly grabbed my right arm with such force that I knew I would have bruises there later. He took my hand away from my back and immediately the Witchblade took form and the sword emerged. He used my arm to point my own blade at my chin. I started wondering, could this thing really hurt me? How could it harm it's master? Of course, it was known to do worse to those who wore it. Just then my partner came around the corner with his gun aimed.

"Freeze Buddy! Let her go!" He shouted. His eyes were so focused and full of fear.

"You better put down your weapon boy, or your partner is going to die!" His voice was hoarse, as if he had been a life-long smoker. It only added to the creepiness of his looks.

"If you hurt her.." Jake said sternly while lowering his gun to the floor. Still crouching down and his hand just barely touching the handle of the gun, "Alright, I'm putting down my weapon, now let her go." He spoke slowly and made sure to full articulate all of his words.

"First stand up and kick the gun over here, then you can have your precious partner back."

Jake followed the man's instructions. The gun slid across the bathroom tiles and clanked when it hit the edge of the bathtub about a few feet over from where I stood. Still in his grip my own sword just inches away from stabbing into my neck.

"That was an awfully big risk, don't you think?" The man almost seemed to cackle as he giggled to himself. "I mean, is she really worth all of this? Is she important enough for you to risk all of this? Why don't you just leave her here for me?" Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the man smile.

"I'm a cop. It's my Job. She's my partner." Jake spoke simply and sternly. One sentence at a time. His eyes however spoke differently to me. He stared into them trying to tell me that it would all be all right, that he wouldn't let anything happen to me.

"All right PARTNER." The man emphasized the last part. "take her then!"

The man took my right hand with the blade pointed right at my chin and pulled my arm back as if to get a little more momentum before he went to thrust it into my neck.

"NOOOOOOO!" Jake screamed out as he jumped towards us, in an attempt to stop my attacker. But I think that had been the man's plan the whole time, just to get Jake closer to us, because before either of us knew what was going on, he changed directions with my arm. And he drove my sword straight through Jake's chest.

{I am soooooo mean ending it here, but I need to keep you all interested while I work on future chapters, don't worry though. I won't make you wait too long. :) Tell me what you think! Have a good day, and for all you students out there, good luck with midterms!}