Chapter XIX
Just Breathe
Warrick fought his way through the haze. He didn't open his eyes immediately, he lay there, taking stock of the situation, his hands and feet were bound...and there was something on his face. His eyes popped open, panic already setting in.
Allan McQueen was leaning against one of the cylinders. "Welcome back, Mr. Brown...or may I call you Warrick?"
Warrick realized that what was over his mouth was a hospital mask...one meant to help patients get oxygen. "Let me go." His voice was muffled by the mask over his mouth and nose. McQueen chuckled, it was a cold, disturbing sound. "You know it's people like you that really get me mad. You come and go every day and don't pay attention to the beauty around you." Warrick tried to free himself, but the cuffs held solid as the steel they were made of. "My mother once told me, when I was a very little boy, that the signs were like glowing angels, watching over Vegas...protecting it." McQueen stared off into the distance, "I miss my mother." He shrugged his shoulder. "That's not important, now. You see, you may have forgotten the Angels, Warrick Brown, but they haven't forgotten you. Vegas will never forget you, Warrick...I'm making you an Angel." Warrick would have liked to believe this man...the man who was calmly poised to take his life, was insane...but the calm, collected way he spoke...the gleam in his eye...he wasn't insane...he was a sadist of the worst breed...he was enjoying this.
He turned the knob and Warrick's eyes bulged wide open. He couldn't taste or smell the deadly gas that was now being pumped into him, but he feared it. He began to thrash around, trying to dislodge the mask from his face.
McQueen laughed, "Just breathe it in, Mr. Brown. Just breathe...It's really a nice death...quiet, peaceful even."
Warrick's mind spun. He didn't want to die. God, he didn't want to die.
His mind rushed, like a cliché, over his life.
Going to church with his Grandmother
Running money as a teen
Graduating college
Winning his first big pot
The first case he'd closed by himself
The moment he'd found out that Holly Gribbs died
Nick's brush with death
Jim's close call
Sara's smile
Finally, his mind brought forth the calming vision of Catherine Willows...Soft blonde hair, fathomless blue eyes and she was calling to him... He reached for her.
Warrick's lungs began to burn and he lost track of time...it could have been five minutes...it could have been five hours. The gas was robbing him of his ability to keep delusion and hallucination separate from reality...He stopped struggling... He stopped fighting...
Allen McQueen watched, with rapt and dark attention as his latest Angel gave into his fate...It was beautiful.
