Author's Note: Sorry for the delay..again. This sight has been acting funny lately...maybe it's just on my computer but...oh well. Here's the next chapter. Thanks for the reviews. I was kinda worried about what people would think. Let me know how you feel about this one, too!
Chapter Five: Clyde
"So this is the little thing that fucked up your world." Clyde said, taking a step forward toward Lisa. Jackson immediately countered in front of him to block his path. "Your blouse is open, sweetie."
Jackson didn't respond, but left his shirt hanging open and continued to glare into Clyde's eyes. "What are you doin' here, Clyde."
"That pretty little wife of yours killed my brother." Clyde said, his eyes glaring at Lisa as she began to scoot herself and Cynthia toward the door, "Oh, don't go anywhere, sweetheart."
Lisa stopped moving, staring at the stranger in front of her. He looked like a professional. Like he knew what it was that he was there to do. His eyes were cold and eerie and determined. He seemed like he only had one objective on his mind. He made her think of the way Jackson was when he was working and that thought scared the hell out of her. She had seen Jackson at work. He was the best at what he did and she couldn't help but wonder...was this guy as good as Jackson?
"Your brother was trying to kill her." Jackson said with a grin, "Fair trade."
"Tell that to him." Clyde said, matching Jackson's smirk with one of equally terrifying intensity.
"Oh, I can't. Didn't you hear, man?" Jackson said, "He's dead."
"Jackson?" Lisa said, her voice trembling.
"Don't worry, Leese." Jackson said, sidestepping to put himself in Clyde's path to Lisa again, "We work for the same people and I promise you, they will be less that pleased when they hear that Clyde here has been threatening their favorite."
"You can't play the teacher's pet card, Rippner! Not this time."Clyde snapped, "I have no intentions of touching a hair on your head...but this bitch..."
Lisa rose unsteadily to her feet, though staying as close as she could to Cynthia who remained frazzled on the floor. "Jackson?" Lisa said again, "Where are the kids?"
Jackson felt his throat tighten up painfully, as though he had swallowed something very sour. "Clyde..."
"Three kids, man, damn! What are you two, rabbits?" Clyde laughed, "I mean, what a sick world with all those little Rippners running around."
"Where are my children, Clyde?" Jackson said, his voice calm and stern. Lisa observed his straightened posture and raised shoulders. He was switching into defense mode. Prepared. Alert. Ready for anything. That was her Jackson.
"I assure you, they are perfectly safe for the time being. My associate has them back at your house." Clyde said, spreading his hands in surrender, "Just a bit of insurance to make sure that you cooperate."
"Cooperate how?" Jackson demanded.
"This murdering bitch comes with me and you're free to go and collect your children."
Jackson wanted nothing more than to say 'no deal'; problem was, in the back of his mind he saw the image of Luhki's green eyes, Mariah with her arms spread out wide spinning circles in the front yard, and he could hear Jack Jr.'s uncontrollable laugh. He couldn't risk his children, but he wouldn't give up Lisa either. He glanced over at Lisa. She was up on her feet and had at some point taken a ready stance, her feet shoulder width apart, legs slightly bent at the knees. Her eyes locked with his to let him know; she was ready to run. All he had to do was say the word. Jackson looked back to Clyde, tucking his hand into his pants pocket. He smirked, winked at Clyde at the same moment Lisa took off behind him for the door. Jackson pulled her car keys from his pocket and tossed them back over his head, Lisa catching them without breaking stride and she was out the door. Clyde finally snapped into reality and moved to go after Lisa, but Jackson caught him by the shoulders and shoved him back against the wall. Clyde lost his balance and slid to the floor. Jackson took that chance to jerk Cynthia to her feet and pull her through the window.
Clyde got back up to his feet and gave Jackson no further consideration. His target had gone through the bedroom door and he gave chase. He flung himself out of the bedroom door and slammed into the opposite wall of the hallway just in time to see a flash of Lisa's auburn hair and skirt as she exited through the front door.
Lisa had just gotten her hand on the door handle of her car, when a voice broke into her already racing thoughts.
"Where you goin', bitch?" Clyde said from his position leaned against the hood of her car. He took a step forward, causing Lisa let out an involuntary scream and then without thinking about it, she flung the driver's side door open. It slammed against Clyde's face and knocked him on his ass. Lisa moved to get into the seat, but he caught her by the calf and pulled her to the ground with him. Jackson had pulled the same stunt about a million times and she didn't even have to think about her retaliation. On instinct, she kicked him in the head, using her shin to deliver the majority of the blow. With a scream, Clyde released his hold on her leg and rolled off to the side, giving Lisa the chance to get back up to her feet.
Clyde scrambled to his own feet and grabbed a handful of Lisa's hair and dragged her back out of the car and slammed her into the picnic table that sat beside the house. Lisa rolled over the table top and went crashing down onto the bench, causing it to snap in two under her weight. She used her hands to climb the wall and pull herself to her feet at the same time Clyde was coming around the table toward her. Lisa grabbed half of the broken bench and used every ounce of strength she had in her to swing it at his head. Clyde threw up his arm just in the nick of time, his forearm catching the brunt of the blow. But she managed to hit him with enough force to knock him first into the wall and then he sank to the ground, giving Lisa the opportunity to scamper back over the picnic table without interference.
Jackson and Cynthia hit the soggy ground outside the window with a resounding squish. Cynthia immediately sank to her knees in the dirt, but Jackson was instantly on his feet and alert to his surroundings. He had already worked out this escape route. He was less than fifteen yards from the garage and could make that run on foot in less than three seconds. He turned to Cynthia, who was sitting on the ground hyperventilating. She obviously wasn't dealing with the situation very well. Poor girl. Somehow she always managed to get dragged into his and Lisa's messes. She probably wondered why these things always seemed to happen to her without ever making the connection to him or Lisa. She never even would have considered placing the blame on them. That wasn't who she was. Jackson cupped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. "Cynthia, I need you to listen to me."
Her eyes locked with his, but her breathing didn't calm and she seemed lost in her own head.
"Cynthia, he's not after you, okay." Jackson said, using the same voice he used with Mariah when she had a bad dream, "You're safe as long as you stay here. Lock the doors and if you hear anyone in the house, call the police. Do you understand?"
Clyde nodded, but he had his doubts as to whether or not she had actually comprehended anything he had just said to her. He straightened his stance just in time to see Lisa's silver SUV flying out of the driveway and down the road. A standard black Lexus followed not long after. Jackson cursed under his breath then turned back to Cynthia, "Cynthia, I'm gonna need your car keys."
Lisa's eyes darted back and forth between the road and the headlights in her rearview mirror. She had the gas pedal pinned to the floorboard, but the car behind her was still gaining ground. Such was the burden of choosing a sensible family car even if it was a Mercedes. The Lexus nudged her bumper and the SUV started wobbling back and forth as Lisa fought with the steering wheel to regain control. Clyde rear-ended her again and she let out a shriek that was all together pointless since there was no one around to hear it, but what else could she do? Thinking as quickly as she could, she made a hard right turn onto a side street, her left two tires coming off the ground before coming back down with a jolt. This car wasn't built for high speed chases she realized as she let out the breath that she had been holding the entire time she had been airborne. She heard the Lexus's tires squealing as it made the turns as well.
She glanced up into the rearview mirror again, just in time to see the headlights swerve out of her line of vision as Clyde maneuvered to bring the car up along side of her. The Lexus raced forward by her side and its driver jerked the wheel to the right and sideswiped Lisa. She heard the sickening crunch of metal against metal as one side of her Mercedes went off the road. She took out a few mailboxes with a scream but she managed to get all four wheels back onto the pavement without doing any real serious damage. Clyde swerved off into an apparent cow field as another car came down the road, blasting its horn at him, but as soon as it passed he was right back at Lisa's side with another blow to deal out. The third time he sideswiped her, he sent them both spinning in 360 circles and eventually landing in a six foot deep ditch at the edge of another field, this one appeared to be along the end of a wooded marsh land. Clyde's Lexus crashed on its side in the ditch and stayed there, but Lisa's car went rolling end over end, finally coming to a stop upside down on its roof.
Hanging upside down in her seat, Lisa groaned and held her hand to her head, pulling it away to find it covered with blood. She tongued at her freshly busted lip and tried to get her bearings. She let her hands drop above her head to test the surface of the ceiling, which was covered with broken bits of glass from the shattered windows and windshield. It wasn't the most appealing prospect, landing on broken glass but...whatever. She reached up and unhooked her seatbelt, gravity directly taking effect and pulling her body toppling down from her seat with a crash. She let out a quick yelp of pain as little shards of glass embedded themselves into her bare arms and legs. She looked out the window and could see the headlights from the Lexus shining upward into the dark sky and its horn was going off steadily as though something were leaning against it. Hopefully Clyde's severed head. With a shaky intake of breath, she slid over to the passenger side of the car and reached up, forcing the glove box open. As soon as she did so, the 9mm clattered down from within it, coming to a rest at her stomach. She grabbed hold of it then used both arms to haul herself through the shattered passenger window. She paused for a moment, bracing herself against the wrecked vehicle, leaning down and using the palm of her free hand to brush the bits of glass from her knees. She took the time to scan the marshy field and then broke into a dead sprint across it.
Jackson swerved Cynthia's Volkswagon Cabrio swiftly along different back streets, dodging cars parked along the side of the road and trash cans that had been hauled to the ends of the driveways for morning pick up. He knew that his Lisa could take care of herself. He wasn't too worried about her, having every confidence that she could more than handle Clyde Mellmott. It was his kids he had to get to. They were the only thing on his mind as he steered the car onto his street.
If anything had happened to his kids, there wouldn't be enough pieces of Clyde's body left around for anyone to identify. He switched off the headlights as he pulled the car into his own driveway, slipping from the cab noiselessly and creeping up to the front door. He slinked inside the house, which was completely silent. He had never heard his home so quiet before. It was weird. He slid into the kitchen and drew a butcher's knife from the holder to use as a weapon. It was a far cry from his K-bar, but it would serve its purpose and any knife in his hands was a precise as a surgeon's scalpel.
Somewhere in the distance as Lisa was running, the steady buzzing in her head suddenly stopped. It was the horn. The horn stopped blaring, and Lisa instantly froze where she stood. The silencing of the horn could only mean one thing. Clyde was out of his car. She snapped her head back into the mission at hand just as rain began falling on her face and kicked her pace up a notch, sloshing barefoot through the field, crouched down, making herself as small as was physically possible. She ducked behind trees whenever she came to them, but the wood was so spread out and she had to keep moving. Her legs were splattered with mud from the knees down and her thighs were growing tight and stiff but she didn't notice the pain, her body was coursing with too much adrenaline for her to feel anything else. If she survived the night, she would sure as hell feel it all in the morning. Her joints would be stiff and sore from working out without the proper warm up and stretching that they required. Her field hockey coach in high school used to lay into players for not stretching before practice. Lisa could practically hear his voice as she ran. She leapt over a stream with the grace of a track star and continued running without faltering so much as a step. Jackson had told her once that she was a beautiful runner. She didn't know why the compliment was running through her head at that moment, but it was and it seemed to give her an extra nudge as she kicked up her speed yet again. Maybe it was the thought of Jackson.
She heard the gunshot, but it wasn't until the bullet slammed into the tree that she was leaned up against, sending slivers of bark exploding into the air, that she let the shock sink in. She ducked around to the other side of the large round tree truck and took off running. It was too dark and she couldn't see anything. She didn't know where Clyde was or how close to her he was or if he had a clear view of her or not. All that she knew was that she had to get away and so...she ran. She could stop, turn, and shoot...but she couldn't see him and if he could see her then she was more likely to just be shot than to actually shoot him. There was a thicker grouping of trees up ahead so Lisa began pumping her legs twice as hard in desperation to get to their protective cover.
Her lungs were burning, her throat was scratched and tight, and her joints had begun to ache terribly, but she weaved in and out of the thatch of trees hoping that Clyde might lose sight of her and she could get to the other side of the field to the road, which was the road that led to her house. If she could just get there, she could get to her kids. Nothing else was important. Just as the road came into view, a pair of large hands grabbed her by the face and jerked back, sending her feet flying up over her head, her hand losing its grasp on the gun. She landed hard on her back, sending mud flying in all directions. As soon as she hit the ground, she was set up by the huge stone hard body of Clyde. She heard the sound of the gun hitting the ground with a loud sloppy thump somewhere above her head, but Clyde already had her pinned to the ground.
One huge hand clasped around her throat and began to squeeze as the other held the barrel of a snub nose .38 to her temple. "You may have bested Rippner, bitch! You may have even managed to get to my brother, but I'm a different breed, understand?" he spat, tightening his hold on her throat as he spoke.
Droplets of water were beating down on her face and in her eyes, making it hard for her to keep them open in order to focus on her attacker. She did however hear the distinct sound of him drawing back the hammer on the gun as she splayed her arms out at her sides, her hands groping over the ground for anything that she could use to hit him. The only thing her fingers found was a stick no wider than a pencil. It would have to do, besides, she was good with things like that. She closed her hand around it and brought it up, jabbing it into Clyde's ear and grinding it as far down into his ear canal as she could. Clyde let out a scream, dropping his gun as his hand flew up to cover his bleeding ear. Lisa brought her knee crashing up into Clyde's groin and then pushed him off of her. She jumped up, chunks of mud clinging to her skin, and kicked him in the ribs with her barefoot, which probably hurt her more than it did him, but it was the principle of the matter.
"Explain something to me, would you?" She screamed, kicking him again, "Why do you men feel so obliged to always try to strangle a woman? It never works and it's really hard to explain the bruises!"
She took about three steps away from him and dropped to her knees, feeling around the ground until she found the 9mm she had dropped. Once she had her hands on it, she spun around and took aim to finish the job. But, when she turned around, Clyde had disappeared. He was just gone. Lisa weighed her options. She could either fumble around in the dark looking for him and giving him the chance to get the drop on her or she could make a break for the road, get to her house and her kids. No contest. Taking one final look around the vicinity, she turned on her heel and started once again for the road as the hard rain softened into what could best be described as a dribble.
Jackson crept from the kitchen down the hallway. All the lights in the house had been turned off and it was pitch black. It made no difference to Jackson though, his perfect vision adjusted faster than most people's to the dark. It came with the trade. He slinked along the walls with feline like prowess, checking each door that he came to for any movement. After he found the entire downstairs void of any life whatsoever, he turned his gaze to the stairs that led to his and Lisa's bedroom.
He took the stairs, keeping his body stooped low and alert, his right hand holding the knife out to the side of his body to be able to deliver a quick blow, his left hand touching each stair before he put his foot on it. When he reached the top step, he slowly peeked his head around the wall to peer into the room.
Jack Jr. giggled and pointed at him from the playpen that was positioned between his reading chair and the bookcase in the corner. Jackson's fatherly instinct was to rush to his son and hug him and get him out of the house, but the professional instincts took over and instead he craned his head to see further into the room. Mariah and Luhki were sitting on the bed playing with a couple of their Barbie dolls. He scanned the rest of the room and upon see no one else, her came fully into it. He kept himself flattened against the wall however, until he was able to check the bathroom. There wasn't anyone in there either.
"Hey, daddy!" Mariah chimed from the bed.
"Daddy!" Luhki exclaimed at the same time as her little sister.
"Hey, girls!" Jackson said, dropping to his knees by the edge of the bed and kissing each girl on the cheek. He dropped the knife to the floor so that he wouldn't scare either of them. "Are you okay? Is anybody hurt? What about Jack? Is he okay, too?"
"What's wrong with you, daddy?" Luhki laughed.
"Luhki," Jackson said, focusing all of his attention onto his eldest child, "do you know who brought you here?"
Luhki pointed over his shoulder. He heard her scream the second before something hard hit him in the back of the head and everything went black. He heard Luhki's voice for a moment more, but it slowly faded farther and farther away, and then vanished altogether.
Lisa tore through the field, glancing over her shoulder every so often to make sure that Clyde wasn't right behind her about to grab her again. She could see her house...and the car backing out of her driveway. Her feet hit the pavement and she shifted her weight to change directions to head for her house. The car that had just pulled out of her driveway was coming straight for her and the sudden image of her children tied up in the trunk came flooding through her head and without giving it any further consideration, she leapt into the speeding vehicle's path. The dark blue Lancer's tires screeched in protest as the breaks were forcibly applied and it skidded sideways to a halt. The loud squealing noise startled Lisa so that she stumbled backwards and lost her footing. causing her to fall to the asphalt. The driver's side door flew open and the driver came clambering out of the car. "Oh, my God! Are you okay? I mean...what the...Lisa?"
Lisa looked up and her breath caught in the back of her throat. "Davey?"
Author's Note: Please, please, please, let me know what you think!