Omega Web: Requiem of the Flame by JayVitolo
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights. Please don't sue me; I'm a poor college student.
The fire in the building before her lights the nighttime air in shades of red and orange. All Marie Parker can see is a shadowy figure leaving a building. Before she can register who this figure is, the unthinkable happens. The building explodes in a fireball, scattering glass, chunks of burning wood, and other miscellaneous debris throughout the air. A red notebook falls at her feet and she quickly puts the flames out that threaten to engulf it. She picks it up as wear tears flow down her cheeks as she flips through it. She never saw or heard the gun, not until it was too late. The notebooks pages are now a collage of written words and red blood, and then it falls.
With tears in her eyes, she jerks awake. Looking around the room, she checks her body making sure this is reality. A quick glance at the clock next to her shows it to be 2:15 in the morning. She glances next to her and sees Jarod asleep, but she wakes him to make sure.
Marie begins to slowly push his shoulder until she gets his attention. "Jarod. Jarod."
An audible sigh is heard as Jarod rolls over to look at her. "What?"
She quickly grabs him in an embrace. "Jarod! You're still alive." She kisses him on the forehead. "I love you."
Confusion is evident in the pretender's voice as he looks at the tears in her eyes. "Of course I'm alive Marie. I went to sleep alive and I intend to wake up alive." He wipes a tear from her cheek and replaces it with a kiss. "Don't worry about us."
Jarod turns away and quietly drifts back to sleep as Marie silently stares at the ceiling. She can't help but replay her dream as it loops in her mind's eye. What does it mean? Will it come true? With a heavy sigh, she slips back into her slumber.
The building melts back into her eyes, but this time it's different. She sees Jarod walk into the structure while telling her to stay back, that he'll take care of this. She sees Jarod open the door, sees him talking to somebody in the window, and then sees somebody get shot. The room is then set on fire to hide the body, then the explosion. The same familiar red notebook falls at her feet, but this time she doesn't pick it up. Now she's looking around and notices a man pointing a gun at her, then everything goes black.
But then she starts to shake. It's cold, everything is cold. Somebody is yelling at her. She hears her name but is unable to answer. The voice gets louder and more frantic as the shaking follows in suit. Her eyes finally open to see Jarod beside her, his eyes are wide and his motions are frantic. All she can do is grab him by the neck and pull him into an embrace.
She starts to sob. "Jarod!"
"Don't do that to me again Marie." Concern is in Jarod's voice as he continues. "I just got out of the shower and saw you lying there. I started to call your name, but you never answered."
She looks him in the eyes. "I'm sorry. But I dreamed you died again." She sighs while wiping tears from her cheek. "I saw his face this time. It was etched with anger." She quickly grabs him in a hug again. "Like he wanted to do this."
The phone begins to ring, causing Miss Parker to pull Jarod closer out of fear. The stalker is having his desired effect on Marie, she's scared senseless. Jarod slowly picks the phone up while holding Marie in his arms.
"Hello?"
Sydney's voice booms on the other end. "You and Parker should get here as soon as possible. Angelo may have a lead."
Jarod nods and places the phone back into the cradle without a word and helps Marie to her feet. "Get dressed. Sydney thinks Angelo knows what's happening."
"Okay. Promise me you won't let anything happen."
"I promise, Marie. I will always be here for you, just like in the past." He kisses her forehead. "And always in the future. Now get dressed, I'll wait for you downstairs."
Jarod leaves the room and slowly pulls the door closed behind him as drawers can be heard opening and closing. Marie looks into the mirror that is sitting on her dresser and sees her face, but it slowly dissolves into the face of an unknown man. This man's eyes are cold as steel but unequally calculating. All Marie can do is wonder who this man is and what significance does he hold?
Down in the living room of Parker's house, Jarod decides to get the mail for her since she most likely would not venture outside today. As he gets to the mailbox, he gets an overwhelming sense of somebody watching him. After he looks around, he opens the mailbox to retrieve the three letters and bring them into the house.
He makes it to the door before his cell phone rings. Jarod sighs before answering the call. "Hello?"
The voice on the other end speaks fast but clearly. "You want answers to the questions. Meet me at the old glass plant in Chester County, Pennsylvania."
"Wait. Who are you?"
The dial-tone answers Jarod's question as Miss Parker opens the front door. She looks at him with a puzzled expression and notices the mail in his hands. "Who was that?"
Jarod meets her gaze with a smile. "An answer."
At the Centre, Angelo hovers over the pictures of Jarod and Parker. He grabs the one that shows the two of them in the Starbright Diner and narrows his focus.
"Anger. Hate. Betrayal." Angelo falls to the floor staring at the picture. He can't take his eyes off it.
Sydney kneels next to the man and pulls a piece of paper out of his pockets. He shows it to Angelo before speaking with him.
"Angelo. This note came with that picture. Can you tell us who sent it?"
Angelo looks up at the note and grabs it from Jarod's hands. As soon as Angelo touches it, his whole body shudders under the flood of emotions. He starts to crumble the note into a ball and tries it rip it in half.
"Hates happiness. Hates life." Angelo looks back at the picture and slides it to Sydney. "Hates joy."
"Why Angelo? Why does this man hate so much?"
Angelo grabs Sydney's sit coat and pulls him close. "Rage. Lust. Control." He grabs the pen from Sydney's breast pocket and grabs the picture from the floor. He begins to carve circles around Miss Parker. "Wants Miss Parker."
The stalker paces in front of his desk in the darkened room. He still has the phone in his hands from when he called Jarod, this time he didn't bother with the cryptic remarks. Straight and to the point. He slowly looks at the wall next to his computer desk; pictures of Jarod and Miss Parker are taped in a collage. He pulls one off the center and looks at it, circling the Marie Parker's face with his index finger. Soon she'll be his, he knows it. After he gets rid of Jarod, the cancer to their relationship, Parker will be all his.
He sits in his desk chair and drops the picture into the middle of a large pad of paper. A letter opener is pulled out of the drawer and quickly slashed along the picture, crossing Jarod's face out. He leans back in his chair as the picture is brought to his face. Slowly he kisses it as he sighs in pleasure.
"You'll love me until death does us part, Marie." A soft symphony can be heard playing in the background. "From now until the end of time."
Jarod and Miss Parker open the doors to Sydney's office to see the psychiatrist and Angelo hovering over a flood of pictures and papers. Angelo begins to scan the handwriting of the stalker as Sydney looks at the two people that just walked in. With a sigh, he stands and adjusts his shirt collar.
"You said Angelo found something." Marie walks over to Angelo and kneels next to him. She places his hand on Angelo's back, causing the man to jump.
Angelo looks at her with a sympathetic stare before trying to speak. He finally musters the courage. "Wants Miss Parker."
Sydney looks at Parker and clears his throat. "Angelo believes our stalker desires you Parker. Evidently he sees Jarod as an obstacle." Marie is still looking at Angelo as the information from Sydney slowly sinks in.
Jarod nudges the psychiatrist in the shoulder to get his attention. When Sydney turns his attention, Jarod slowly whispers in his ear. "Can we talk in private for a minute?"
Sydney nods his head as the two men turn to walk out the door unaware that Miss Parker sees them. She watches as they leave the room and decides to slowly sneak to the door to listen to this private dialog. She slowly opens the door but never expected what she heard.
"Sydney, he called me again."
"What did he want?"
"He wants me to meet him in an abandoned glass plant in Chester County, Pennsylvania." He looks Sydney in the eyes before continuing. "He is offering me answers and I have to take him up on it."
"So you are going to meet him?"
"I have to. This may be the only chance Marie and I have to stop that lunatic." Sydney nods his head as the thought slips in.
"But what about Parker?"
That never crossed Jarod's mind. He was so determined to go there and finish this man off, he never thought about her. "You can't let her know. Sydney, I don't know if I'll be walking away from this one."
"What do you mean?"
Jarod sighs as he rubs his forehead. "I mean I may be able to beat this guy. I have a feeling he is going to try something, but I don't know what. I've run the scenario in my mind constantly and every time something changes. A wild card."
Jarod shakes his head trying to remove the negative thoughts as Sydney puts an arm around him. "Miss Parker." A grin slowly appears on his face as he recognizes Parker's spirit. "Jarod. I've told you from day one, trust your heart and your mind. If you have doubts, you must isolate the causes."
Jarod's gaze falls to the floor before he speaks again. "That's why Marie can't know what I'm doing. I don't want her to be there when this happens. One way or another, the stalking will stop."
He looks back at his mentor and locks his gaze onto Sydney's eyes. For the first time in years, Sydney is able to see genuine anger and torment inside Jarod. He's only had this look a few times before. The words that follow the gaze send a chill down Sydney's spine, as he never expected them.
"Even if I have to die in the process." Jarod scares himself with those words and for a second time seems to stop.
Marie slips back into Sydney's office and falls against the wall. Jarod's words were so cold and filled with anger. She never heard him like that before. Sure, she heard him mad before but he was never that filled with animosity towards another human. The same thought flooded Marie's head, constantly. What is he going to do?
"No." She gasps as the dream replays in her head.
The intense fire from the building, it must be the glass plant Jarod is meeting the stalker at. The person who shot her must be the stalker, but Angelo said the stalker wanted her. Why would he shoot her if he wanted her so badly? Then it hits. Jarod is going to die. She has foreseen his death. A tear slowly makes its path down her cheek.
"Not you too." She quietly begins to sob into her hands, unaware that Jarod and Sydney have returned to the room.
"Are you okay Parker?" Sydney looks at her with a concerned expression.
She slowly looks at the two men standing in front of her as Jarod cups her knee. She wipes the tears from her face as she draws a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just remembering Tommy."
Jarod knows she is lying, but he's not in the mood to argue. He has to be ready for everything that will happen tonight, he has to make sure nothing will go wrong. "It's okay to remember loved ones Marie. Everybody must die, it's the cycle of life."
Jarod's last comment stabs her in the heart, but she can't show it. Jarod has no idea that she saw his death in her dreams, and it happens tonight. Once again, she'll lose a loved one. Only this time it isn't due to the Centre, but some outside catalyst.
She looks him in the eyes. "I guess so." Her words were cold, but somehow they made her feel safe. The Ice Queen is breaking at the surface, maybe its time to let her take over again. How much pain can a single woman take?
A knock is heard at the office doors as Broots sticks his head into the room. "Um, Sydney? I have the results you asked for." Sydney quickly looks over to Broots and grabs the piece of paper from him. Broots retreats back into the hallway as the older man thanks him.
Jarod looks over his shoulder before speaking. "What's that Syd?"
"A handwriting analysis." He looks down to the paper in his hands and slowly glances over it. "I had Broots run a scan for people with handwriting that matched the stalker's."
Through a sigh Marie speaks. "What's the result?"
A smile creeps onto Sydney's face. "It appears our friend has a name."
"Well?" Anger is slowly building in Miss Parker. She wants to know who this man is, that way she knows who to kill.
"His name is Daniel St. Brolier." He looks up from the paper with a shocked expression on his face. "A disavowed Federal Agent."
TBC. Read and Rate.
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights. Please don't sue me; I'm a poor college student.
The fire in the building before her lights the nighttime air in shades of red and orange. All Marie Parker can see is a shadowy figure leaving a building. Before she can register who this figure is, the unthinkable happens. The building explodes in a fireball, scattering glass, chunks of burning wood, and other miscellaneous debris throughout the air. A red notebook falls at her feet and she quickly puts the flames out that threaten to engulf it. She picks it up as wear tears flow down her cheeks as she flips through it. She never saw or heard the gun, not until it was too late. The notebooks pages are now a collage of written words and red blood, and then it falls.
With tears in her eyes, she jerks awake. Looking around the room, she checks her body making sure this is reality. A quick glance at the clock next to her shows it to be 2:15 in the morning. She glances next to her and sees Jarod asleep, but she wakes him to make sure.
Marie begins to slowly push his shoulder until she gets his attention. "Jarod. Jarod."
An audible sigh is heard as Jarod rolls over to look at her. "What?"
She quickly grabs him in an embrace. "Jarod! You're still alive." She kisses him on the forehead. "I love you."
Confusion is evident in the pretender's voice as he looks at the tears in her eyes. "Of course I'm alive Marie. I went to sleep alive and I intend to wake up alive." He wipes a tear from her cheek and replaces it with a kiss. "Don't worry about us."
Jarod turns away and quietly drifts back to sleep as Marie silently stares at the ceiling. She can't help but replay her dream as it loops in her mind's eye. What does it mean? Will it come true? With a heavy sigh, she slips back into her slumber.
The building melts back into her eyes, but this time it's different. She sees Jarod walk into the structure while telling her to stay back, that he'll take care of this. She sees Jarod open the door, sees him talking to somebody in the window, and then sees somebody get shot. The room is then set on fire to hide the body, then the explosion. The same familiar red notebook falls at her feet, but this time she doesn't pick it up. Now she's looking around and notices a man pointing a gun at her, then everything goes black.
But then she starts to shake. It's cold, everything is cold. Somebody is yelling at her. She hears her name but is unable to answer. The voice gets louder and more frantic as the shaking follows in suit. Her eyes finally open to see Jarod beside her, his eyes are wide and his motions are frantic. All she can do is grab him by the neck and pull him into an embrace.
She starts to sob. "Jarod!"
"Don't do that to me again Marie." Concern is in Jarod's voice as he continues. "I just got out of the shower and saw you lying there. I started to call your name, but you never answered."
She looks him in the eyes. "I'm sorry. But I dreamed you died again." She sighs while wiping tears from her cheek. "I saw his face this time. It was etched with anger." She quickly grabs him in a hug again. "Like he wanted to do this."
The phone begins to ring, causing Miss Parker to pull Jarod closer out of fear. The stalker is having his desired effect on Marie, she's scared senseless. Jarod slowly picks the phone up while holding Marie in his arms.
"Hello?"
Sydney's voice booms on the other end. "You and Parker should get here as soon as possible. Angelo may have a lead."
Jarod nods and places the phone back into the cradle without a word and helps Marie to her feet. "Get dressed. Sydney thinks Angelo knows what's happening."
"Okay. Promise me you won't let anything happen."
"I promise, Marie. I will always be here for you, just like in the past." He kisses her forehead. "And always in the future. Now get dressed, I'll wait for you downstairs."
Jarod leaves the room and slowly pulls the door closed behind him as drawers can be heard opening and closing. Marie looks into the mirror that is sitting on her dresser and sees her face, but it slowly dissolves into the face of an unknown man. This man's eyes are cold as steel but unequally calculating. All Marie can do is wonder who this man is and what significance does he hold?
Down in the living room of Parker's house, Jarod decides to get the mail for her since she most likely would not venture outside today. As he gets to the mailbox, he gets an overwhelming sense of somebody watching him. After he looks around, he opens the mailbox to retrieve the three letters and bring them into the house.
He makes it to the door before his cell phone rings. Jarod sighs before answering the call. "Hello?"
The voice on the other end speaks fast but clearly. "You want answers to the questions. Meet me at the old glass plant in Chester County, Pennsylvania."
"Wait. Who are you?"
The dial-tone answers Jarod's question as Miss Parker opens the front door. She looks at him with a puzzled expression and notices the mail in his hands. "Who was that?"
Jarod meets her gaze with a smile. "An answer."
At the Centre, Angelo hovers over the pictures of Jarod and Parker. He grabs the one that shows the two of them in the Starbright Diner and narrows his focus.
"Anger. Hate. Betrayal." Angelo falls to the floor staring at the picture. He can't take his eyes off it.
Sydney kneels next to the man and pulls a piece of paper out of his pockets. He shows it to Angelo before speaking with him.
"Angelo. This note came with that picture. Can you tell us who sent it?"
Angelo looks up at the note and grabs it from Jarod's hands. As soon as Angelo touches it, his whole body shudders under the flood of emotions. He starts to crumble the note into a ball and tries it rip it in half.
"Hates happiness. Hates life." Angelo looks back at the picture and slides it to Sydney. "Hates joy."
"Why Angelo? Why does this man hate so much?"
Angelo grabs Sydney's sit coat and pulls him close. "Rage. Lust. Control." He grabs the pen from Sydney's breast pocket and grabs the picture from the floor. He begins to carve circles around Miss Parker. "Wants Miss Parker."
The stalker paces in front of his desk in the darkened room. He still has the phone in his hands from when he called Jarod, this time he didn't bother with the cryptic remarks. Straight and to the point. He slowly looks at the wall next to his computer desk; pictures of Jarod and Miss Parker are taped in a collage. He pulls one off the center and looks at it, circling the Marie Parker's face with his index finger. Soon she'll be his, he knows it. After he gets rid of Jarod, the cancer to their relationship, Parker will be all his.
He sits in his desk chair and drops the picture into the middle of a large pad of paper. A letter opener is pulled out of the drawer and quickly slashed along the picture, crossing Jarod's face out. He leans back in his chair as the picture is brought to his face. Slowly he kisses it as he sighs in pleasure.
"You'll love me until death does us part, Marie." A soft symphony can be heard playing in the background. "From now until the end of time."
Jarod and Miss Parker open the doors to Sydney's office to see the psychiatrist and Angelo hovering over a flood of pictures and papers. Angelo begins to scan the handwriting of the stalker as Sydney looks at the two people that just walked in. With a sigh, he stands and adjusts his shirt collar.
"You said Angelo found something." Marie walks over to Angelo and kneels next to him. She places his hand on Angelo's back, causing the man to jump.
Angelo looks at her with a sympathetic stare before trying to speak. He finally musters the courage. "Wants Miss Parker."
Sydney looks at Parker and clears his throat. "Angelo believes our stalker desires you Parker. Evidently he sees Jarod as an obstacle." Marie is still looking at Angelo as the information from Sydney slowly sinks in.
Jarod nudges the psychiatrist in the shoulder to get his attention. When Sydney turns his attention, Jarod slowly whispers in his ear. "Can we talk in private for a minute?"
Sydney nods his head as the two men turn to walk out the door unaware that Miss Parker sees them. She watches as they leave the room and decides to slowly sneak to the door to listen to this private dialog. She slowly opens the door but never expected what she heard.
"Sydney, he called me again."
"What did he want?"
"He wants me to meet him in an abandoned glass plant in Chester County, Pennsylvania." He looks Sydney in the eyes before continuing. "He is offering me answers and I have to take him up on it."
"So you are going to meet him?"
"I have to. This may be the only chance Marie and I have to stop that lunatic." Sydney nods his head as the thought slips in.
"But what about Parker?"
That never crossed Jarod's mind. He was so determined to go there and finish this man off, he never thought about her. "You can't let her know. Sydney, I don't know if I'll be walking away from this one."
"What do you mean?"
Jarod sighs as he rubs his forehead. "I mean I may be able to beat this guy. I have a feeling he is going to try something, but I don't know what. I've run the scenario in my mind constantly and every time something changes. A wild card."
Jarod shakes his head trying to remove the negative thoughts as Sydney puts an arm around him. "Miss Parker." A grin slowly appears on his face as he recognizes Parker's spirit. "Jarod. I've told you from day one, trust your heart and your mind. If you have doubts, you must isolate the causes."
Jarod's gaze falls to the floor before he speaks again. "That's why Marie can't know what I'm doing. I don't want her to be there when this happens. One way or another, the stalking will stop."
He looks back at his mentor and locks his gaze onto Sydney's eyes. For the first time in years, Sydney is able to see genuine anger and torment inside Jarod. He's only had this look a few times before. The words that follow the gaze send a chill down Sydney's spine, as he never expected them.
"Even if I have to die in the process." Jarod scares himself with those words and for a second time seems to stop.
Marie slips back into Sydney's office and falls against the wall. Jarod's words were so cold and filled with anger. She never heard him like that before. Sure, she heard him mad before but he was never that filled with animosity towards another human. The same thought flooded Marie's head, constantly. What is he going to do?
"No." She gasps as the dream replays in her head.
The intense fire from the building, it must be the glass plant Jarod is meeting the stalker at. The person who shot her must be the stalker, but Angelo said the stalker wanted her. Why would he shoot her if he wanted her so badly? Then it hits. Jarod is going to die. She has foreseen his death. A tear slowly makes its path down her cheek.
"Not you too." She quietly begins to sob into her hands, unaware that Jarod and Sydney have returned to the room.
"Are you okay Parker?" Sydney looks at her with a concerned expression.
She slowly looks at the two men standing in front of her as Jarod cups her knee. She wipes the tears from her face as she draws a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just remembering Tommy."
Jarod knows she is lying, but he's not in the mood to argue. He has to be ready for everything that will happen tonight, he has to make sure nothing will go wrong. "It's okay to remember loved ones Marie. Everybody must die, it's the cycle of life."
Jarod's last comment stabs her in the heart, but she can't show it. Jarod has no idea that she saw his death in her dreams, and it happens tonight. Once again, she'll lose a loved one. Only this time it isn't due to the Centre, but some outside catalyst.
She looks him in the eyes. "I guess so." Her words were cold, but somehow they made her feel safe. The Ice Queen is breaking at the surface, maybe its time to let her take over again. How much pain can a single woman take?
A knock is heard at the office doors as Broots sticks his head into the room. "Um, Sydney? I have the results you asked for." Sydney quickly looks over to Broots and grabs the piece of paper from him. Broots retreats back into the hallway as the older man thanks him.
Jarod looks over his shoulder before speaking. "What's that Syd?"
"A handwriting analysis." He looks down to the paper in his hands and slowly glances over it. "I had Broots run a scan for people with handwriting that matched the stalker's."
Through a sigh Marie speaks. "What's the result?"
A smile creeps onto Sydney's face. "It appears our friend has a name."
"Well?" Anger is slowly building in Miss Parker. She wants to know who this man is, that way she knows who to kill.
"His name is Daniel St. Brolier." He looks up from the paper with a shocked expression on his face. "A disavowed Federal Agent."
TBC. Read and Rate.