Always Look Forward
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye!
Chapter Four
A bleary-eyed Johnson looked up from the mess of papers lying spread upon his enormous wooden desk, when he heard someone knocking on the door.
"Yes?" he called out in greeting, though he did not particularly wanted to see anyone at the moment. Jackson Rippner had become more of a headache than he could have ever imagined and it was all because of the former manager that he was even in Miami to begin with.
"Um, Mr. Johnson, sir, we just got word about the Rippners," said a scared young man as he entered the office.
"And?"
"Jackson and Lisa Rippner have disappeared. No one knows how. A few men on the team could have sworn they heard her cry out, but no one could find any traces of them."
"What about the children?" Johnson inquired. This was certainly odd behavior coming from Jackson.
"We've got them. They were at the safe house."
"Thank you," said Johnson, as he waved the young man back out the door.
Who would have ever thought that Jackson Rippner would even have a family, let alone leave them to the mercy of the company? Why did he abandon his children? Where was Lisa Rippner? Was she following her husband or had Jackson killed her? Normally, a mother would never leave her children.
What was Jackson up to and why did it seem like he was willing to risk everything? Why did he let himself nearly get caught twice?
The Rippners had almost been history in the first attack. All four of them had been in the house when the first team of hit men went in. Then the bombs started going off and all of them escaped. Even Jackson managed to crawl away before the final explosion leveled their home.
They had been sitting ducks.
When Jackson drove away, beginning the hunt for real this time, he had allowed himself to be followed. A team had slipped a tracking device upon the undercarriage of the silver BMW and tracked him via the signal as well as following the car. The team had watched him stop the car on the shoulder and nearly strangle his wife in a fit of rage. They had seen her fight back and nearly shoot him in front of their children.
Something was amiss with Jackson Rippner. Even with all the information that he had on him, he still could not figure out what was wrong with the former manager.
Why, after all this time, had he decided to plan his revenge? Why wait so very many years? Why was he taking such risks with his life and his family's lives?
Johnson shifted through the papers upon the desk, trying to make some pattern or sense out of them. He had documentation of all his jobs, all the people he knew, files on his children and Lisa, the file on his half-brother John Roberts, and somewhere papers on his medical history and a psychological profile. There had to be something in those papers that would explain his behavior.
Jackson Rippner never did anything without a reason.
Johnson flipped open the file on Roberts and scanned it. Roberts had been a few years older than Jackson, yet never met the young man until he convinced him to become a manger. Jackson had at one time been his loyal associate, doing everything at his older half-brother's beck-and-call. Then Jackson snapped after a job and tried to kill Roberts.
In black-and-white, the reason for Jackson's behavior was becoming clear...
Jackson Rippner had murdered his parents on orders from his mentally disturbed half-brother.
Johnson shuffled through the papers, searching for Jackson's psychological profile. If Roberts was mentally disturbed and Jackson had been through trauma, then it was likely that Jackson had some metal and/or behavioral problems.
According to the psychological profile, Jackson Rippner showed signs of antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and socipathy, along with a split personality that he referred to as 'Jack' or 'Jack the Ripper'. It appeared that the split personality held more of the disorders than Jackson himself did.
Interesting…
Jackson picked Lisa's limp body up and carried her out of the room and house through a secret passage. He was not going to let them be caught. It was bad enough that they had his children.
'Why do you care? You were going to kill them anyway…' whispered Jack.
"No," insisted Jackson. "I would never do that."
'Then why did you hurt her?'
No, this was not happening. Jack was not going to take control. He would not let Jack take control. Jack would kill Lisa and the twins.
'You don't need them in your life. Just kill them and return to your past. To your old life. You used to enjoy killing people…' Jack reminded him.
"No!"
"You don't have to do this… any of this…" Lisa pleaded with Jackson.
'Just give in. It's only a matter of time. Would you rather her be awake or asleep when you kill her? Or do you want to kill your children first?'
No, he would never kill Lisa or the twins. He was not a killer. Jack was the killer, not him. He hated killing people. He had only done it to ease the pain after his parents' murder.
'Which you committed… And enjoyed… You enjoyed it as much as you enjoyed toying with her…'
"No! I will not kill Lisa!" Jackson screamed at himself. He loved her too much to harm her.
'It's only a matter of time…' Jack hissed.
Jackson sighed loudly. It was only a matter of time before Jack took over and Jackson was forced to watch himself kill her. Jackson sometimes was privy to Jack's crimes. Sometimes he blacked out and had not a clue what he had done. He hated losing control to his dark side. He hated losing to Jack.
But what else could he do?
Author's Notes:
Yep, Johnson's back and he's working with the company to find Jackson. Jackson's trying his best to not let Jack win, but he's losing the battle. Jack has a plan, which we'll find out soon… Next chapter coming soon! And the prologue has been replaced.