Empty Decorations

Chapter 5

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"Hello?" The phone looked like such an alien all of a sudden. The ones that you'd expect to send out some tentacles right into your ear and then inhibit the unsuspecting human. Or maybe it was just some sort of crazed stalker out to get your best friend. Only this time, Shalimar rather have the former option.

Chewing on her lower lip, she glanced at Brennan who clenched his jaw tighter; Emma crossed her arms staring intently at the call while Jesse gripped the cordless harder. With Piper safely in her crib, Emma's arms were empty to be busied with.

"Yeah." The molecular, let a sigh and smiled. Emma had long released her breath, probably being able to sense Jesse's relief before hand. He mouthed something un-comprehensible to Shalimar herself and from Brennan's frown, to him as well.

"It's just Greg, our neighbour." Emma had reflexively relaxed her hands to her side. "Nice guy lives with his wife Lina no kids works downtown has an avid collection of baseball cards..." She ranted on.

So maybe Emma wasn't so relieved after all.

"Right," Shalimar had tuned back in to Jesse's conversation, "Thanks a lot." Silence. "Yeah, see you in a while."

Between hitting the 'end' button and putting down the phone, Jesse managed a face that said one thing: "phew". The pursed lips and raised eyebrows pointed to exactly that feeling. "Greg called. He's coming over to pass some of our mail that got stuffed into his mailbox. That's all."

"Did he have to call?" Brennan snorted.

"Well I don't think he could actually send a Morse code through the walls Brennan." Shalimar bit back, just as annoyed as the elemental was.

Throwing a face at her, Brennan made a small growl, while Shalimar flashed her golden feral signature.

"Will the both of you stop it?" Emma sounded firm all of the sudden.

"Yeah Brennan," Shalimar wasn't one to back down and they all knew, "Make yourself useful and answer the door Sparky. Someone's about to knock." She smiled ferally and arched an eyebrow. Her fine tuned hearing picked up s soft disturbance in the snow outside. The laughter threatened to slip through her tight grin when the deep rapping of wood echoed in the hall. She kept the face on as Brennan stared back at her, not flinching.

The shadowed figure of Jesse swept by when he headed for the door and pulled it open, forcing Shalimar to break apart the silent battle with Brennan. "Hey, Greg." He smiled and leaned slightly on the door frame. Emma stood behind and let her mouth curl into a small smile.

Greg was a bespectacled, slightly jumpy middle aged guy. His brown hair was beginning to show signs of thinning. "As usual, American postal service at its best." He said sarcastically, holding out the brown envelope.

"Thanks." Jesse accepted the slip without taking much of look. "You wanna come in?" It was a courteous offer and any idiot would know that saying 'no' would be the answer at this moment. Greg was no idiot. "Uh, nope. Thanks anyway, it's cold out here and I have to get back to me wife." Peaking in, he gave a queer but friendly smile at Shalimar and Brennan. "You have friends around anyway, so I better split." With one wave at Emma, Greg took two steps back and to whipped to his left.

Jesse allowed the door to swing back, he moving away from it and cutting off Shalimar's view of Greg's departure. "Oh no…" the iced dread had returned.

"What?" Emma sounded like she was on a verge of a breakdown, and Shalimar felt like she could kill somebody, anybody right then with the mounting suspense and worry.

He held up the brown envelope for everyone to witness. It looked like every other letter there was. Address printed on top, envelope stuck neatly on the top right.

Those hands of Emma's automatically folded across her chest defensively.

"It's a letter?" Brennan shrugged assuming nothing odd about it.

"It's him." Jesse kept eye contact with Emma as she spoke those two words. His fingers broke open the flap and pulled out a colourful greeting card. It looked so normal and clean, that it gave the Feral a spine chill.

"It could be from anybody." Brennan suggested hopefully. Denial was something that nobody really bothered with.

"Yeah I'm sure Santa sends through regular mail now." Shalimar snapped back silently. She was as edgy as Brennan and more so were Jesse and Emma.

Flipping open the card, Jesse licked his lips and looked up once again.

Emma had started to rub her neck right below her chin. Something, Shalimar noticed, she did when she was nervous. Emma's other free hand was still folded across. "Is it him? What's on it?"

Getting up finally, Shalimar stepped up to her friends side and gently held her arm, pushing away her hand that was about to cause a bruise on her neck.

Jesse looked like he was in a battle of thought. Relieving him of the burden, Brennan lightly took the glossed card from Jesse's hand. The blonde molecular never objected.

"Precious babies, Precious moments, Watch her daily, Or miss her to me." Pausing, Brennan looked up then down again and continued, "Congratulations my dear friend. Take care of her well. Small treasures are easily lost in crowds. Signed: The Pied Piper."

"What is with this creep?" Shalimar growled.

"He knows Jesse." Emma whispered softly but audible. "He's been watching us."

"The Pied Piper?" Brennan mused. "Has he ever signed off like that?"

A small hesitated shake of the head to a full negative turn. "No." Jesse answered, "HE never signs off, he could be referring to Piper," Instinctively, Jesse turned to glance at Piper sleeping in her crib. "In fact, this is the first time he has ever mentioned about Piper at all."

"He calls; he sends letters and now this?" Emma was starting to freak, in a big way. "I don't care if he targets us Jesse. But he is NOT touching Piper!"

Walking up to her, Jesse wrapped his frustrated wife in his arms, "No one is touching our daughter." He assured, putting his forehead against hers.

Shalimar grabbed the greeting card from Brennan and scanned through it. The cover was decorated with a picture of balloons and when turned open, had the neatly printed poem and message. Feeling disgusted, Shalimar tossed the offending card on the table. "This creep just crossed the line from being murdered by me to being tortured slowly and then murdered by me." She hissed between clenched teeth.

"Right after I tie him to an electric rod and do the honours, you can have him." Brennan added, sounding just as menacing,

Rubbing Emma's back to soothe her fears, Shalimar battled with her own worry, fears and anger. Her family's being threatened and she was going to do everything about it.

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A relatively short chapter this time. Trying to catch up with all the other backlogged fics I wrote. Anyway, do review!!!!! Come on hit that button!!!!

freak@ngel/frickangel.