Chapter XXXIII

Pain

2:05 p.m.

Lindsey saw her come in with the huge knife in her hands. She felt her insides freeze. Sara didn't know she was there. She trembled, "Sara." Her voice squeaked out of her too tight throat. Sara looked up...but it was too late. Madison had struck, and her knife, sharp and deadly had found a home in Sara's back. Lindsey watched as Sara's brown eyes clouded over with pain. The woman opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. It was her own scream that echoed through the basement.

Sara stumbled forward against her. Lindsey could still see the knife buried in her back, blood gushing out, coating the woman's black teeshirt. Lindsey's head swam momentarily, there was so much blood. Sara could feel her breathe violently hitch and something deep inside of her split wide open.

She didn't even realize her knees had buckled until she felt Lindsey closer to her. She collapsed sideways, the knife was still buried in her back. She could feel blood, wet and sticky pooling under her newly collapsed form. That was bad. There was too much blood. She'd been stabbed and it was something vital.

Her vision was growing gray, though in the dim light she wasn't sure how she knew that. Above her she could see a kaleidescope of shapes. Lindsey's face, the killer Madison Daniels, the swinging light bulb. She could see her own hand, pale, trembling and bloody reaching out for Lindsey. "Linds..."

Lindsey felt Sara's hand grab at her, spreading red blood over her dingy white shirt. Sara's eyes were drooping shut, the knife was still in her. The woman bent down and ripped it out of Sara's back. Sara jerked and whimpered in pain.

She clawed her way up, pulling herself into a sitting position. Lindsey could see the blood running out of the hole in her back and she wanted to put her hands on it to stop it, but did not. Sara stared at Madison.

Madison still had the knife, red with Sara's blood, in her hands. "I knew she would be trouble." She dangled something from her free hand. "Did you think that alarm would call the police, Miss Sidle?" She shook her head and laughed, "As if I would trust the blustering Neanderthals that patrol this city with my life. No, I knew the second you kicked in my door." She smiled, it a was an icy cold and feral expression. "You thought you could stop me. All you did was annoy me, Miss Sidle. Though, since Lindsey helped you, I suppose she will have to be punished." She idly ran her finger across the tip of her knife, as if testing the sharpness. "She just isn't right. I'll have to try again."

Lindsey was frozen in place. Madison Daniels was insane and she was powerful. Her mother had once said that power corrupts. She wished her mother didn't always have to be right. Madison wasn't just mean or even only insane. She was evil. Lindsey believed this with the blind understanding that is given to all beings, a basic instinctive knowledge. It was black and white at the moment, Sara was good and Madison was evil...and evil was winning. Her mind, as fevered and terrified as it was, came up with a quote, "There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it." That was Madison Daniels. Power hungry, evil and ruthless. She was relentless. She wasn't going to stop. Both she and Sara would die here and now.

Sara shuddered and tried to speak, but she couldn't. The pain was indescribable, it felt like her every nerve ending was on fire and she could feel herself growing weaker from blood loss and just like the cliché, she was cold. She had never felt so cold, it wasn't supposed to be this cold during the hot desert day. She looked at Lindsey, the girl was coated in her blood and scared. She gathered her strength and patted Lindsey's cheek. "S'gonna be allrigh', Linds." Her voice was weak, her words slurred together and everything came out in a shaky whisper.

Lindsey looked from Sara to Madison. With the knife gone, the bleeding was supposed to get better, wasn't it? Why was Sara bleeding so much? She didn't want to die. She didn't want Sara to die. There was not going to be a sudden rescue. Sara had been her hero, but she was down, she was dying right there in Lindsey's arms. She looked at the brunette again. She was right in front of her, barely supporting herself. Despite her wounds, she was trying to protect her. Sara was trying to keep herself between them. Lindsey wished she could be so brave. Sara looked back at her and whispered something, trying to encourage her even as the warm red blood flowed out of her body and to the concrete. Though her brown eyes were half lidded and filled with agony, Sara was trying to tell her something. She followed the CSI's eye line to the floor and was filled with a cold knowledge that someone was about to die.

Author's Note: (insert your choice of suspense music and or sound effects riiiight here.)

The quote, "There is no..." is from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone...I find it especially fitting for Madison.