Chapter 8: The ties that bind break easily
Carter walked down the cold long narrow hallways towards where he would confront this man who had become his nightmare. The thoughts that filled him were those of more outright anger than anything else. What gave one man the right to be so cruel to another, and have that other person be nothing more than a mere woman who was connected by nothing more than being associated with Carter? Going after him was one thing but going after Abby that was crossing over a thin unspoken line. You could go after him all you wanted but when you involved the people he loved and cared about you were no longer striking at him but at his very core.
He sat down on the hard metal chair now to wait once more, the waiting around here seemed to last an eternity and his palms sweated while his hands shook, not from fear but from pure anger. Carter had never hated a man as much as he hated Paul right now. He had never felt an emotion so pure and so raw as the one that was just now beginning to surface inside him.
He lifted up his head when he heard the sound of the door opening and it was in that moment in time that his eyes feel upon that man for the first time in years. His heart pounded in his chest and it took all that he had to restrain himself from turning into something that he didn't want to, something that would make him no better than that man and that was a line that even Carter wasn't willing to cross.
He watched as he was led over to the table and sat down across from him. There eyes locking in a very powerful and chilling gaze. Neither of them wanting to say anything to the other yet knowing that they needed to. It was a standoff in a way to see which one of them would hold out the longest before breaking away or initiating conversation.
"Why are you here?" Paul asked finally breaking the silence that was between them. There was ice in his voice, "I do not wish to see you."
"I'm not here for pleasantries." Carter said matching the coldness with his tone, letting what anger he felt seep into the voice that he used.
"You can turn around and leave the way that you came; you are wasting your time and mine." Paul said.
"Time is something that you have a lot of, cause I promise you that you are not leaving here anytime soon again." Carter said. He wanted to reach across the table and strangle the very smug man but restraint held out.
"Oh but do not be certain of that." Paul said, "they say that I am a very sick man and I tend to agree with them."
"You are no sicker than any other criminal out there." Carter hissed at him now, "and you belong locked in a jail ward not a mental institution. I'll see to that."
"You and what Army Dr. Carter." He said, "there is nothing that can stop me, not you or your precious tales of sanity."
"I'll get to the point." Carter said not wanting to be around this man any longer than he had to be. "What do you want from me?"
"From you, I want nothing from you." Paul said keeping that smug cold tone with him.
"You have to want something, you are too cold and calculating not to." Carter said, "so what is it that you think you are gaining by hurting innocent people."
"There is no such thing as innocent Dr. Carter." Paul said leaning back now crossing his arms over his chest. "I believe we are though here."
Carter leaned across the table pulling the man towards him, "we are no where near done. I want to know why you are hurting Abby."
"Now, now Dr. Carter." Paul said, "you will get no answers from me using violence." He said looking at Carter. "you may get no answers at all."
"Damn it." Carter snapped, "you leave her alone, what ever offense you think you have suffered that wasn't her doing and her life is not a toy for you to play with."
"Oh but I am not playing with her life, and if she dies it will be not by my hands." Paul answered, "you see I have done what needed to be done and the rest will be set into motion by fate."
"You lie." Carter said, "this is all your doing, you drove that knife into her back with out caring what happened to her, just like you killed Lucy and stabbed me."
"See that is what you perceived happened." Paul said trying not to sound sane or calculating but there was always a plan behind every action, "fate has her now, not you nor I but fate and it's fate that will do what it sees fit."
"Just stop with the fucked up ramblings." Carter said, "I'm warning you if anything happens to her I swear to god I will hold you responsible."
Paul leaned closer to Carter now, "no Dr. Carter, it's you who is responsible; it is her blood that is on your hands not mine. In the end her demise will be your doing, she will die because of you and all that you have done, not because of me, you will be the one to finally push her over the edge and when the angel falls it's a long way from heaven."
"Son of a bitch." Carter said trying not to lunge at him now, for Carter in all his reserves had never resorted to violence to solve anything but he wanted to honestly kill this man for everything that he had done, "she will not die, I won't let her."
"As I said before Dr. Carter that is up to fate. You cannot control fate anymore than anyone else, the thread of life is a thin strand that snaps at a moments notice, and hers has, I'm sorry to say unfortunately started to fray. Right now, she's probably at home locked inside her house afraid of those who might harm her, yet her mind cannot tell her those who are friends from those who are foes. She may perceive you as a foe, or her best friend as her worst enemy for the mind, yes dear doctor the mind plays tricks on even those who are sane."
"Go to hell." Carter said now standing up and taking a step back from the table his eyes throwing daggers at the man sitting there as calmly as when they first sat down.
"I have already been there Doctor." Paul said realizing that he had finally gotten to him, "you run home now to your precious Abby and you enjoy her for the time that she has left, which mind you isn't much. There will come a time when you too sit trapped with in the recesses of your mind and you cannot get away from them, a time when you too shall hear the voices telling you, haunting you that you have done great evil, that you have lost all that you hold dear to you. You shall never see your child's eyes, you will never hold the one you love in your arms again, your friends will be the cracks in the ceiling that you count when you are awake. There is something about insanity that is comforting but also most unwelcoming when you cannot escape the torment here anymore. Soon she will know what that feels like and I promise you this, you will know that feeling as well in time."
With that Carter turned his back to the man, "we shall see, for I will never be like you. That much even fate cannot control, I control my destiny no one else." Carter with his frustration and his anger, a deep boiling hatred that he needed to bury again for the sake of being able to continue on with his life, left the institution. Paul would get the justice that he deserved in the end. Carter had the answers that he needed for now. He needed to focus his attention on Abby and getting her through this with out having any of what Paul said come to light so that he could prove the nutcase wrong, for his own sanity.
