Ch. 20

Bait

Mavin watched Danny walk away, and never had he hated the guy more than he did at that moment. It was a powerful, heated hatred that made Mavin want to break Danny's neck for real. The kid was showing him up, showing off. He was going to get himself killed, and Mavin would take the blame. But what Mavin hated most was that Danny, without even thinking on it, had taken the initiative and helped Mavin to sneak away from the approaching gang. Whether the gang would have reacted in violence or not even Mavin could say. It didn't really matter, though. All in all, Danny had saved his life, and that made him the better man for it.

Mavin wouldn't have saved anyone's life. He would have just walked out the door to take his chances with the gang, giving little consideration to all possibilities.

Mavin's anger welled in his chest, expanding like a balloon, causing his blood to scream through his ears and his temple to throb. He clenched his fists, which shook, and hoped beyond hope that when he did find Danny that he would be gutted and empty of blood. His fury rose, higher and higher, until a red haze filled his mind and tainted his vision.

Then it seeped out of him quick as siphoned water. He could no longer hold onto it, but had no outlet to vent it on. So, it emptied from him on its own. Emotions could be peculiar in that way. They build and build, reaching the point where they have no more room to grow, so collapse back in. Deflate, as it were.

As the anger drained from him, the reasons for his anger drained with it until all that was left was the fact that Danny had saved him, and he was wandering off to go wait for a killer. Then, replacing the anger entirely, much to Mavin's slight disgust, was a grudging respect for Danny. It was no fondness, no admiration, but enough to make Mavin realize that this wasn't the way to go. In truth, he had been using Danny as bait, in a way, but more to prove his theory than to catch the Hangmen. Mavin had wanted to use himself for that task, to bring them in on his own merit and with no one else's help. They had always been his to catch; his and Myers had she lived.

It didn't matter, though. There would be no bringing them in. They weren't that stupid. Mavin could desire it to his grave, but the reality of the situation had finally come down hard. They would never be caught.

Mavin tilted his head back and let fly a string of curses into the cool air smelling faintly of water and frying food. With that done, he locked the car and set off after Danny on foot.

CSINY

Danny couldn't help laughing, despite the pain it caused him. He did not know why he thought it funny seeing Mavin standing in front of him, but it was. It might've been the pain, or the fact that Mavin had come way earlier than Danny expected.

" What's so funny?" Mavin snapped.

Danny looked up at Mavin. " You in on all this?" he asked without thinking it through first. Mavin's eyes rounded over in disbelief.

" What? What do you mean, 'in on this?" Mavin's hands suddenly shot out, grabbing Danny by the collar and hauling him to his feet. " You accusing me of something, Messer?"

More agony tore through Danny, and his chuckling was brought to a dead halt when the breath caught in his throat. He gasped hoarsely, going rigid.

" Ah crap! It was a joke, Mavin. I thought you of all people knew a joke when you heard it!" he choked out.

Mavin let go of Danny's collar, but kept one hand against his good shoulder as support when Danny began stumbling forward.

Danny inhaled a shuddering breath as deep as his chest would allow. " I would've been dead by now if you were anyway. So, you come to hide in the bushes and wait these guy's out?"

The corner of Mavin's mouth turned up in a flash of a smile that quickly vanished. " Tempting. No. I'm here to haul you're butt to a doctor so I don't get chewed up and spit out by your boss tomorrow. Come on; let's get this over with. The sooner we arrive the sooner we can be sitting in the waiting room, drinking bad coffee, and waiting for all eternity just for some doctor to tell you what you already know."

Danny winced when he felt his shoulder scrape again. " Man I want to go home. I'm sick of this crap."

They made their methodical way back to the car. Every step jarred Danny's shoulder, and he had to stop once to dry-heave a few times.

" When you get in the car," Mavin said as they approached it, " keep your head out the window."

Danny did something similar by resting his forehead against the frame.

" So what's the deal with this picture? Why didn't I here about it?" Mavin asked as he pulled away from the curb.

Danny shrugged his uninjured shoulder. He was too tired to think. " I don't know. Maybe that's how much people don't like you."

" Stow it Messer. Seriously, what happened?"

" One of the Hangmen got into my place, put a knife to my neck, and took a picture of it. It was like a warning or something, I don't know for who though. Let's talk about it later. I'm gonna puke and at this speed it'll just splash back into your car."

They fell into silence the rest of the way.

On arriving at the emergency room they only had to wait five minutes. The cut on Danny's back was dealt with first; disinfected then stitched up. It hadn't been long, but it had been deep. He was X-rayed afterward, and once the doctor had a look at the ghost-white images of the bones gave Danny the ultimatum of staying over night to have his shoulder popped back in the morning, or have it done now. Normally it was best to wait, the doctor said, but Danny couldn't take the scraping anymore. Neither could he stand the idea of waiting just as much. So they gave him a painkiller in the form of a liquid, then a numbing agent through a needle to the arm. Once all feeling was gone from his shoulder say for a vague prickling, a thick-armed male nurse came in and assisted the doctor in pushing and twisting Danny's arm until the ball finally snapped back into the socket. The painkillers kept the agony low, but there was still pain that left Danny shivering and sick. More X-rays were taken, and Danny's arm was put in a sling. There was little they could do for his ribs.

" I really think you should stay just for tonight," the doctor said to Danny.

Danny was rebuttoning his shirt with one hand. He shook his head that felt light enough to float away.

" I'll come back tomorrow. What does it matter where I am if I'm just going to lay down, right?"

The doctor conceded, but hesitantly. Danny was escorted back into the waiting room. He could see through the windows the indigo blue of a sky on its way to morning. Mavin was by the public coffee machine, leaning against the table. When he looked up to see Danny, he glared, lifting his Styrofoam cup.

" Bad coffee and waiting for eternity. Just like I said."

Danny pressed the palm of his hand to his throbbing forehead. " Yeah? At least you didn't have someone trying to break your arm while tryin' to fix it."

Mavin tossed his cup in the garbage and pushed himself away from the table. The two of them headed out through the sliding doors. Already a few birds were waking up and starting their chattering chorus.

" Where to now?"

" Home," Danny groaned.

" Wait, you sure about that? Didn't you say one of the killer's broke into your place?"

Danny's mind was swimming between reality and the fog of numbness created by painkillers. Mavin was right, Danny knew he was, and it made his heart feel like it had plummeted into his stomach. He really wanted to go home.

" D--m it," he growled. " Fine - just drive me by the place so I can grab some stuff. I'll stay at a freakin' hotel. I hate hotels."

" Better that than dead."

" If I'm going to stay someplace else I should've just stayed at the hospital." But in truth, the hospital sounded less appealing.

When Mavin brought Danny home, the sky had gone from indigo to gray-blue, and traffic was starting to pick up.

" Need any help?" Mavin asked sounding less than pleased.

" Naw, I got it. I just need some stuff… like a cleaner shirt," Danny replied as he pushed himself up from the car with one hand. His fuzzed brain found it both odd and comical that Mavin was acting something near hospitable. But despite Mavin's poor attempt at being good-natured, Danny still despised the idea of the man setting foot in his place.

" How long is this gonna take?" Mavin called as Danny moved onto the sidewalk.

Danny's mind was too distorted to think up a vicious comeback, so he just went with the first number that popped into his head.

" Five minutes. That's it. If I'm not back by then it means I'm probably passed out cold on the floor."

He entered his building, oblivious to everything and reaching his place without even realizing it until he was at the door. He pulled his keys from his pocket and unlocked the knob, then stepped inside his shadowed living room. He caught himself at the last minute from dropping onto his couch and crashing. He shook his head in a poor attempt to clear it, then removed the CSI jacket, setting it on the counter. It slid to the floor with a hiss of material, but Danny's muscles were too stiff to let him bend and pick it up.

His shirt was already untucked, so he reached up to begin unbuttoning it. He did not even get the first one undone when he paused on hearing a noise. It sounded like a faint clink, like keys or chains. Danny tensed, dropping his hand to his gun beneath his shirt and turning his head to look over his shoulder.

Something rattled, and Danny was struck across the face by a lump of cold, uneven metal. The blow caused his head and whole body to snap around. He dropped like a sack of rocks onto his knees as lights flashed and pulsed in his vision. He swayed on his hand and knees, blinking rapidly when something thick and warm oozed toward his eyes. The same warmth was tracing a path down the side of his face. The sharp metallic flavor of blood filled his mouth, and he spat a glob of it onto the tiled floor of his kitchen.

" Easy now," came a strange, lilting voice from behind him. " Just stay still. It'll be okay. Just don't move. It should be over soon."

The tone was like that of someone trying calm a snarling dog. The blurred and shadowed world was spinning to Danny. He swayed, fell to his side onto the injured arm, then shoved himself back onto his knees when pain shot through him.

" Don't' move!" the voice hissed.

All at once, faster than Danny could blink, something thin and sharp was wrapped around his throat and pulled viciously back. Both Danny's hands, in spite of his injury, shot to the wire, but he was pulled harshly up and back, his spine arching painfully. He was then pulled onto his feet, only to have his feet kicked out from under him so that he fell backward onto the floor. All the while the wire tightened, biting into the flesh of his neck, crushing his esophagus and trachea. Danny's legs kicked as he tried to push himself backward and create slack. He clawed at his neck, trying to get his fingernails beneath the wire that was cutting him open. He could not breathe, even so much as wheeze in a small amount of oxygen. Panic gripped him and he thought his heart was going to explode it was pounding so fast.

Then, before he could black out, the binding wire slackened, just enough for him to suck in a harsh, grating breath.

" Easy now," cooed the voice. Danny cringed when he felt the wire move, sliding around his neck. He saw a figure move out of the corner of his eye, crouching and walking to position itself in front of him but a little to the left. Danny could not see the figure except as a mass of shadows distorted by the darkness and flashes of light hazing his vision.

The pressure of the wire was now at the back of his neck more than the front. Then the pressure at the front increased as the figure twisted the wire together.

" Don't move. It'll be slow if you move. Stay still and it will be quick. Just let me do this and it will be over."

The figure reached out to pull Danny's gun from its holster and stretch up to set it on the counter. The figure then pulled something out from within his own clothes. Faint light flash along a silvery surface, and even in Danny's hazed state his brain still registered what it was; a knife.

Panic took a whole new kind of hold, and Danny tried to jerk back away from the knife. But the figure yanked back like one trying to discipline a disobedient dog.

" No, no, no," the figure whispered, still in that strangely soothing tone. " You shouldn't do that. Just hold still. I have to do this. It has to be done. So just hold still."

Danny felt the blade press against his chest just below his neck.

" Normally, I wouldn't do it this way. I would let you die first. But my brother is letting me do this, as an apology. But you, you need to be punished. So I'm afraid you have to be alive for this, and awake. It'll be terrible. You won't be able to scream, but you'll want to. But I can't let you. You will be awake, though, and it will be terrible. Then - it will be over."

Though for some panic had a way of forcing the mind to shift into primal instincts of flight or fight, for Danny it sent his mind reeling a mile a second over ways he could possibly get out of this alive. What had Farrone said about these guys? They had talked about weaknesses and what they could be. But Danny's mind was moving too quickly to recall, and the pressure of the knife against his chest wasn't helping any.

" You shouldn't have listened to my brother," said the figure. " You should have just let her die. My brother would have killed you quickly. But I can't. You have to be taught. All of you do."

The figure maneuvered the knife with the point pressed against Danny. He felt a sharp sting and an increase of pressure against his sternum, and finally realized why Aiden had been so paranoid about knives.

" You brought this on yourself."

The sting became pain.

" You'll be my best work yet."

Danny could feel blood. He sucked in as much air as he could.

" W-wait!" he rasped, panting and speaking between pants. " Wait, wait, wait. Please wait."

The pressure stopped but did not relent. " Why? Why should I wait? Do you have something you wish to say? You can say something, if you wish. I - I don't mind."

Danny swallowed though nothing would go down. Blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth. " I - not - not in the front. Don't do it in the front. The back."

" What?"

Danny took in another labored breath. " B-back. I - I don't want to - to see it." he coughed painfully once then closed his eyes. " I don't want to watch."

A part of Danny's words were a ploy, and a desperate one. But another part was true. The light outside his windows was increasing. He could not only see the knife but the small dark stain of blood soaking into his shirt. But when he looked at the figure's head, he saw only shadows.

" Please," Danny begged, wanting to puke but too busy just trying to breathe. " Go through the back."

Danny saw the figure's head tilt to one side. " The back? I would have to remove some of the ribs, cut through the lungs. It would take a while. The front is easier. Cut the breastbone, then break the ribs open. Like opening a jammed door."

The man sounded like he was reciting a recipe.

Danny cringed again, wracked by uncontrollable shaking. " No! It - it'd be different. Cut open my back, my lungs. It - it'll be the worst - death yet. The sickest. B - better than anything - your brother has done. Y-you got your own style man. This'll - be part of it."

The figure tilted his head to the other side. " What are you up to?"

Moisture distorted Danny's vision. He blinked it away and felt a tear slide down his face. " I just, I don't want to watch. Just please don't let me see it. That's all."

The figure stayed crouched, unmoving. The pressure of the knife remained where it was, even when Danny tried to cringe away from it. Seconds became like hours, stretching by without count. Time might as well have stood still, becoming Danny's own private hell full of such agony that he was beginning to wish that the man would just cut him open and get it over with. Anything just so long as it eventually ended, even if he had to watch. But Danny did have a plan, and if he could see it through then he would. Danny would not give in without a fight.

" All right."

The man's voice acted like a bullet through glass, breaking through the hell and frozen time to bring both of them back into the real world.

" It will be slower, more painful. But that will make a good punishment."

Danny felt the wire slide around his neck, and saw the Hangman slip like a shadow into more shadows, vanishing behind Danny.

" Lean forward. I need your blood to stay in your body."

Bilge tried to shoot up Danny's throat, but the pressure of the wire kept it back. Danny leaned forward, while at the same time bringing his knees up. He pressed both the heels of his feet into the floor, then tensed the muscles of his legs. He then dropped his hands to the floor, and using both legs and arms, he thrust himself backward with everything he had, snapping his head back into the face of the killer.

Danny's kitchen was small, so with that single push he had the killer pinned between his back and the cupboards. The Hangman cried out in alarm, but it was cut short when Danny repeatedly rammed his elbow into the guy's chest, over and over. The killer, in turn, pulled at the wire, twisting it, and Danny's hand automatically flew up to try and pull it away. He saw the knife glint out of the corner of his eye as it was raised, so abandoned the wire the grab the wrist holding the knife and keep it up.

Danny's panic gave him the strength he needed to twist the killer's wrist, squeezing hard. There was a snap, and the knife fell clattering to the floor.

When Danny reached out to pick it up, the wire tightened again and both his hands flew to it. So, instead, he brought his foot back and kicked it away to send it sliding across the floor.

The wire went wonderfully slack when the figure darted from around Danny to go scrabbling on hand and foot toward the knife. Though half-blind from lack of glasses and oxygen, Danny forced his bloody and broken body to move. He also scrambled toward the counter, stretching his injured arm up against the torture it created and groping along the surface until his hand landed on the gun. He grabbed it, falling to his stomach when his strength suddenly left him.

In the same instance, the Hangman grabbed the knife and stood. Danny stretched out his gun and fired. The gun exploded, the Hangman screamed, and went down when the bullet hit his ankle.

Danny remained where he was, body trembling so badly that he could not move, and heart beating so fast that he could hardly take in enough air to keep up with it. His head swam, the room spun, but there was so much adrenaline coursing through his veins that he could not pass out.

The Hangman brother was writhing on the floor with his knee to his chest and his hands gripping his ankle tightly.

Suddenly the door burst open, and Mavin strode quickly in, pulling out his own weapon and training it on the killer. It was light enough to see by now, but Mavin turned on the light all the same. The Hangman lifted his head to look at Danny with a blank, emotionless expression.

He looked to be a little older than Danny, with short, slicked black hair and a square-jawed face. He was thick-necked and broad shouldered, wearing gray coveralls like what a garbage collector might wear. He did not move, even though his leg was now dripping blood. He just stared at Danny with empty eyes like windows to a vacant room.

" I -uh," Mavin said as he looked from Danny to the Hangman. " I thought you were kidding about that five minute thing."

Danny pushed himself onto his hands and knees, then sat back on his folded legs. He felt cold, and hunched up his shoulders and back, still trembling all over.

Mavin continued to look back and forth from Danny to the Hangman. He then took another stride over to the killer and shoved him onto his chest with a foot to the back. " Stay down!" Mavin barked. He pulled out some cuffs and yanked the killer's arms behind his back. He snapped the cuffs on with an audible click, then straightened and turned to Danny.

Mavin's mouth worked, but no words came out. The man was bewildered into speechlessness, but all Danny's brain could register was what emotion it was he was seeing.

Mavin put his hand to his head and ran his fingers through his hair. " Dang kid… um… you all right?"

As if in answer, Danny gripped his knees with both hands and lowered his head as the once obstructed bilge finally ripped through his throat. He heaved, and a thin stream of vomit mixed with blood poured from his mouth to splash onto the floor.

Mavin grimaced. " Guess not."