Chapter 12: The Dreading

Part I

        It was probably around the third week after Max and Alec had become lovers that a creepy feeling began to work its way through Max's system.  It started with a tingle in the back of her neck; almost like the kind she got when she knew someone was watching her, but not quite. As time went on, sometimes with the tingly sensation her palms would sweat a little or the beat of her heart would elevate kind of like they did when she had an ominous feeling about a certain person or situation. But not exactly like that either. All in all, it amounted to a voice telling her that this, her life at the moment, was way too good to be true. 

Alec was like her other half. They often finished one another's sentences. They're reactions to the nuances of life they faced daily were usually identical.  She laughed more with him than with any other person she had ever known her entire life. And she had a feeling the same was true for him.  Many of the same activities excited them.  And speaking of excitement, making love to one another was probably number one on both their lists. After the first time, Max had been on such a high she couldn't sleep despite Alec doing a thorough and award worthy job of wearing her out.  She never imagined that sex could feel like that…at least sex with Alec.  If she had known she would have tried to get into his pants the first night they stayed together.  Of course, she was only half serious.  If they had done anything back then it wouldn't have been the same.  She was convinced that the bond they had built that eventually led to their coupling was what made it as great as it was…is.  That was another problem that came with that creepy feeling.  Whenever she tended to think about how great it was…IS being with Alec, she often thought of it in the past tense—as if it was already over.  A big part of the dreadful feelings she had been having lately was her fear that this would all end because it was just too damn good to be true.  Didn't most people search most of their lives for the kind of relationship she had with Alec and yet she had found it at such a young age. And if her fantastic love life wasn't enough of a cause to alarm, there were also the successful jobs they had been pulling off lately.  They'd been to three difference cities, risking their get in and get out credo by pulling two jobs in each and everything…absolutely everything always went off without a hitch.  Were they really that good?  She did notice that since sleeping together they'd become much more in tuned with one another in the waking world as well. Words or even hand signals were rarely needed. But was that enough of an explanation?  She wished she could shake off her paranoia and just enjoy their good fortune but the ominous feelings never stayed far behind.

        Turns out, it was with good reason.

***

        Pulling a job always came with an incredible rush.  The danger of possibly getting caught and the consequences that would result made it all the more thrilling. The fact that they did the jobs at night added to the feeling.  She loved playing at night. To Max it was the best part of the whole day and to have someone to play with, doubled the exhilaration their activities wrought. They would usually be so charged afterwards that they'd make it only a few blocks from the heist before Alec would pull Max into an empty alley and push her up against the wall.  A few times they only got as far as the roof of the very building they ripped off. And after the primal, mind-numbing sex, they immediately tended to another urge; food.

        The twenty-four hour diner they stopped in was nearly deserted at 5:00 AM, which suited the X5s just fine. They're food was in front of them almost immediately after they had ordered. Alec was half way through his breakfast when the show on the television suspended in an upper corner of the restaurant made him wish he hadn't put so much ketchup on his eggs.  Grainy footage of bloody body parts and what looked like bodies of teenagers that were shot to death filled the screen. He couldn't know for sure because the volume was turned down.

        "Ugh. Why would they have such a nasty show on where people are eating?"  Alec commented in disgust.

        Max turned to see what he was talking about and gasped.

        "Hey turn that up!" Max ordered, startling everyone in the room.  The waitress found herself obeying and quickly hit the mute button on the remote.  Max had seen this before; the red, white, and blue banner running along the top and bottom of the screen, the pair of eyes that started and ended the segment with a man's deep voice.  This was not a show.  It was some kind of cable hack.  When she had seen them a couple times before, she never paid that much attention.  But now she was riveted. The images in front of her, despite the grainy quality, were unmistakable.  The street, that building, those people—she knew them all—had known them.  For years she had been one of them and now to see them that way.  Bullet holes speckled their bodies and the surrounding walls, blood and body parts everywhere.  They were all dead.  She left them months ago and someone had come along and killed them all. 

Where was Moody?

        No sooner had she thought it then her question was answered.  The voice over warned that the next image would be even more gruesome but Max as well as the other people in the restaurant couldn't look away and then it was too late because suddenly the screen was filled with an image of three severed heads perched on stakes.  Moody's was one of them and upon seeing that Max shot up from the table and nearly blurred to the bathroom.

        Alec stared after her retreating form open mouthed.  Yeah the show was gory but they had been shown worse scenarios at Manticore.  Why did seeing that particular footage upset Max so much?

Deciding to skip speculating and just wait for her to tell him, Alec paid the bill and went to stand by the bathroom door to wait for her.  He had a feeling that when she told him what was bothering her, the restaurant was not the setting she would want to do it in.

        She was still trembling when she walked out of the bathroom five minutes later and her face was pale.  Wordlessly Alec gently took her by the hand and led her outside to her bike.  The silence continued as he drove them back to the hotel with her clinging tightly on to him.

        It wasn't until they were inside their room that Max explained to Alec who those murdered people were to her. Throughout the whole explanation Max still appeared shell shocked.  Her tone of voice was soft and faraway and her eyes were glazed.  But finally she turned and for the first time focused on him.  Alec could see that her eyes were now partly simmering with restrained emotions of either grief or rage or everything in between but mostly they were pleading.

        "I want to go back Alec."  He couldn't fathom any possible reason why she would want to do that and his incredulous expression said as much prompting Max to continue. "I need to know if they're all dead…if any of them made it out.  I need to be sure.  If some of them survived.  I want to help them.  We can afford to help them out, can't we?"

        "Of course we can, Maxie."

"And then I need to find out who did that to them."  She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "So that I can kill them."

TBC

Author's Note: Yes that was short despite taking this long to post but it was necessary to stop there to sort of set the stage for their upcoming adventures.  The next chapter will be up shortly.  And if you haven't yet, check out my first DA video in the mean time and let me know what you think.  It can be found on my web page (www.angelfire.com/ma4/eva) under music videos.