Chapter XVIIII: Last Dance
The sky has just begun to transform into the dull gray of overcast, soon accompanied by light drizzle that pelts the windshield of the unassuming black hatchback as it drives down the isolated road. Marcos gingerly undoes the top collar of the clergy shirt he had taken off Brother Lawrence after killing him.
"I'm gonna make a brief stop off at an old girlfriend's place, you don't mind do you Chuck? says Marcos as he looks into the rearview mirror. The reflection shows a slumped over body in the backseat, the mouth hanging open in a lifeless pose "So goes the life of a used car salesman I guess. When you go for a test drive, you just don't know who your getting inside the car with. Honestly I probably did you a favor pal, another few years of doing this, you probably would've killed yourself, what with all those quotas you fellas gotta meet." Marcos says as he slightly adjusts the mirror to get a better view of the body "I guess you're the queit type huh? No problem, as soon as I'm done with Gabby, I'll dump ya off in the nearest lake or somthin, sound good?" he says with a smirk.
The escaped killer than fiddles with the radio until he happens on a static filled news broadcast "…prison officials are still looking into the tragic and unforeseen crash. All twenty inmates, as well as the two guards perished in the fiery wreck. Amongst the dead were mafia hitman David Dexter Ward and mass murderer Marcos Morales, also known as The Prophet Bomber…"
"Well I'll be damned. How'd those cult motherfuckers manage to pull that off? But on the bright side, the cops ain't gonna be lookin for a dead man…right Chuck!" he says glancing into the mirror at the dead man in the back.
The rain had increased by nightfall and is a full and consistent downpour as Marcos sits inside the parked car. He was about two hundred yards out, staring at the house he once shared with his wife and two daughters. Across the distance on the other side of the street, is another parked vehicle that carries two men in the front and an obscure third figure in the back seat who watches the house as intently as Marcos is.
"I guess they figured this would be the first place I'd come. Damn good thing I spotted them first." he says sitting back in the front seat "I know it's stupid for me to be here, but it's something I gotta do. You get what I'm saying right Chuck?" he says looking into the rear view mirror at the corpse "You know I gotta level with you buddy. Gabby isn't just an old girlfriend, she's actually my wife and yes that is present tense." he pauses and looks back "Yea I know, I was just as shocked as anybody that she didn't file for divorce when I went to prison. Boy I'll never forget the first time I laid eyes on her. I had just graduated from O.C.S., a fresh faced twenty three year old butter bar. Willis and I had gone on a short leave to visit his family back on the West Coast. Incidentally, Willis was a good friend I met in training, fast son of a bitch, made the two mile in less than twelve minutes. But anyway, I didn't really have any family to visit, so he brought me along.
We were both decked out in our Dress Greens, he had those fucking birth control glasses that we called em, and as soon as we walked into his parent's house, his little sister Gabby comes walking down the stairs. Let me tell you Chuck, sexy doesn't even begin to cover it. I say this with all sincerity, believe me. She had to be one of the most beautiful women I had ever laid my eyes on, I shit you not. Dressed in a skin tight knee length skirt, high heels and a turtle neck. She had the darkest long black hair that contrasted so perfectly with her tanned face, the most mesmerizing brownish green cat eyes and the most gorgeous full red lips. But you know what the secret is Chuck? You never let their beauty affect you. That's where so many guys go wrong and I knew how to conduct myself. Ya know what her first words to me were? My brother's friends aren't usually this hot…That set the stage right then and there. Poor Willis, he didn't get to see much of his sister that trip, and you know, right after our first date I hit that little federal bank with the pipe sparkler, the rest is history. A year later we got married and the two sides of my life were set on their paths." Marcos says adjusting the mirror again and pausing as if waiting for a response "I knew you'd understand. I'll be back soon, I hope." he says getting out of the car and pulling on a hood he had stolen from Chuck's body.
Being careful and using the weather to his advantage, Marcos goes the long way around the neighborhood block and manages to evade the detection of the car on the far side of the street with the two men in it. The serial bomber cuts his way through several back yards and porches until he reaches the well kept back lawn of his former home. He climbs over the mid size fence with ease and skulks over to the outer basement entrance and to his delight, finds it unlocked. He swings open one of the doors and slips into the basement all within a few seconds.
Strewn across the bathroom counter is an assortment of medications and pills. Gabrielle Morales looks down at each one as she runs her fingers through her hair. She picks up one of the bottles and narrows her eyes.
"It wouldn't take more than three or four." she whispers as she begins to place the various bottles back into the medicine cabinet. But as she closes the cabinet door, the reflection that greets her is of two people…herself and the damp figure of Marcos standing just inches behind her. The woman gasps and turns around, but before she can let out a sound, her husband jams his hand over her mouth and holds it tightly.
"Shhhh, Gabby, Gabby, it's me, it's Marc." he says with a low voice.
Gabrielle's eyes widen in terror and disbelief, a stifled whine escaping her lips as she looks up at the much taller man.
"Now I'm gonna take my hand away from your mouth and you are not gonna scream. Nod if you understand." he says.
His wife weakly moves her head up and down once, fear still ever present in her eyes. Marcos breathes in deeply as he very slowly lowers his hand away from Gabrielle's mouth.
Her eyes immediately begin to well up in tears as she emit's an exasperated cough "Marc, it can't be you, your fucking dead! They came to the house, I saw it on the news, you died!" she whispers, her cheeks already drenched in tears.
"Baby, you don't know the half of it." he says.
As the two men continue to conduct surveillance on the Morales household, one of them peers into a pair of binoculars, trying to look through the passenger's side window, but finds it difficult because of the heavy rain "You know this clearly isn't working. We need a much better vantage point." he says.
"Relax Corden, just try the best you can. We can't risk getting out of the car, else we give our position away." says the driver, a man named Ferris.
"…and you heard what Father Emmett said. Despite our advantages, Morales is an extremely dangerous target, he's already killed Brother Lawrence. Our guard must be up at all times." says the woman in the back, still obscured by shadow.
Ferris tilts the rear view until he captures the woman in the mirror, revealing her identity as one Deidre Lundy "You never did tell us why you were so insistent on coming along doctor. Isn't this kind of grunt work a little below your pay grade?"
"I'm as dedicated to finding The Eldritch Prophet as anyone else in The Church." says Lundy.
"This is fucking pointless! Instead of sitting here in the pouring rain, why don't we just bust in, shoot the wife and wait for Morales to show up?" says Corden.
"Father Emmett doesn't want anymore foul ups that could lead them to The Church. Leaving dead bodies around, especially as high profile as this one, is just an unnecessary paper trail. You remember Brother Jeffries screw up with the three kids right? He was made to pay Penance for that one." says Ferris.
"Fine, we'll kill her, than bury her somewhere in the woods. No body, no paper trail." says Corden.
"Still too high risk, besides the Colonel could show up at any time." says Lundy.
"For fuck's sake, it's one guy! What chance does he stand against The Church?" retorts Corden.
Lundy looks down, carefully reaches into her pocket and secretly pulls out a small pistol. In her other hand is a matching silencer that she quietly screws into place over the barrel "Maybe your right Brother Corden. But did you ever stop to consider that it's more than just one guy that opposes The Church?" she says raising the gun and shooting both men at point blank range before they can even react.
After a few moments she calmly exit's the backseat and flicks off some blood that had gotten on her blouse. Right next to her, the towering figure of the Yellow Robed entity appears out of nowhere. Lundy looks up, her breath becoming visible in the ice cold atmosphere the creature seems to emit. She smiles "All according to plan my king. Shall I obtain the Prophet myself?"
The entity doesn't answer, and simply reaches out and tilts one of the car's outer rear view mirrors in Lundy's direction until her reflection comes into sharp focus. She looks down and her image distorts and twists out of shape. Her eyes glaze over until they are just hollow white orbs. Than her reflection begins to speak in the same disembodied voice she heard in her head at Saint Thomas' Cathedral "You continue to serve me well daughter. But we must let the descendent of Alhazred steer his own course. Our guidance and suggestion should be enough to lead him into destroying Cthulhu on our behalf. Patience is key."
Lundy looks away, her features having returned to normal as she stares off at the Morales house "Yes my king, patience is key."
Marcos is methodically stuffing some clothes into a small bag from the large closet in the master bedroom as Gabrielle looks on, still in mild shock.
"Damn good of you to keep some of my old clothes babe. Those prison jumpsuits aren't exactly a fashion statement." he says.
"So are you gonna tell me what the fuck is going on here? Like how your standing in front of me right now?" shouts Gabby.
"Shhhh, keep your goddamn voice down!" says Marcos in retaliation.
"How are you alive Marc, what happened?" she asks.
"It's called faking your death Gabby, you might wanna look it up."
"Oh fuck you." Gabby responds angrily.
"Sure, I got time for a quicky." says Marcos with a smug look on his face.
"How can you joke at a time like this, dammit! Now I wanna know, what's going on!"
Marcos looks at his wife and swallows before going over to the window and peering out "Cm'here" he says waving Gabby over as she cautiously steps forward "You see the fourth car all the way down the street facing the house?" he asks pointing towards the vehicle that contained the two operatives "There are some very dangerous and looney people after me Gabby. They're the ones that set all this up. Of course I'm still trying to figure out how and exactly why, but that's the story in a nut shell. I'm in prison, they break me out, I escape, they chase me and here we are."
Gabby stands still, at a loss for words. She raises her hand to Marcos' cheek and caresses the side of his face "If you only knew how many times I pictured you standing right here. Despite everything you did, everything you put me and the girls through, I never stopped loving you." she says, tears again running down her face.
Marcos gently squeezes her hand with his and kisses her palm "I missed you too babe."
Gabby leans in and the two begin to passionately kiss, holding each other almost as if no time had passed between them. After several seconds, they take a brief respite and Marcos speaks up "Oh god, I nearly forgot how much I loved your sweet lips, the scent of your hair, that goddamn perfume you always used to spray on. The same fragrance I would fall asleep with and the one I would always wake up too." he says before his wife pulls him back for another long winded lip lock.
"Take me with you Marc, I don't care where. I won't let you leave me again." she says in between kisses.
Marcos abruptly pulls away, all the passion seemingly gone from his face and replaced by a dead pan seriousness.
"What's wrong?" asks Gabby.
Looking away slightly than turning back to her gaze "That's not why I'm here babe." he says.
"What do you mean?" she asks.
"We have to talk Gabby." he says as he leads her to the bed and they both sit "Let's talk about Allison and Adrianna, let's talk about our girls."
"I don't understand." says Gabby apprehensively.
"Well first off, where are they?" asks Marcos.
"I don't really know. Allison went off to Europe, I haven't heard from her in months, and Adri is with her boyfriend I think. After she got the news that you had been killed, she said she needed some time to sort things out."
Marcos chuckles "I always loved that. You called her Adri and I always called her Anna. Different parts of her name for a different parent. I have to find them Gabby. God knows if they came here, than they'll try to get at them too."
"Who will Marc, who are those people outside, what's all this about?" asks Gabby.
Marcos suddenly takes on a hint of a more sinister tone in his voice as he speaks again "Gabby do you remember how both the girls came down with that mysterious illness, both at exactly the same time when they were four years old?"
"Yea the doctors said it was some kind of congenital disease, probably passed down through one of us."
"Now's not the time to lie to me Gabby, not when we both know the truth." he says as his eyes take on a frightening focus.
"I don't know what your talking about Marc." says Gabby, her voice trembling slightly.
Marcos's once gentle grasp begins to tighten around his wife's wrists "Oh you know exactly what I'm talking about Gabrielle. You see I did some checking in on your background before we got married. It seems that you were diagnosed with several mental disorders including Dissociative Personality, Narcissistic Disorder, severe Bi-Polar and the Coup D'etat, Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. Now don't get me wrong, I knew you were emotionally fucked up when I first met you, but given my psychopathy, I thought we were a match made in maniac heaven."
Gabby begins to squirm a bit "Please Marc, your hurting me."
"Just be still and let's walk down memory lane together, huh. You see I knew I could handle you by yourself, because being a natural psychopath myself, I knew exactly how to act to keep you wound tight on a leash so that you'd never stray. But the game changed when Ali was born. Suddenly I found myself acting, not necessarily out of love or devotion, but the way an Alpha Predator acts in protecting his cubs. Is it love or simply natural selection in ensuring that your genes make it through to the next generation? In my case, that's the big question."
"I never would've hurt my babies." says Gabby beginning to whimper.
"…and I firmly believed that when Ali first got sick. You acted like a devoted and doting mother. Ali miraculously got better and all was well with the world. But than exactly two years later, Anna came down with the same mysterious illness and it started all over again. Than the wheels started turning and I became extremely suspicious of my wife. I started following you everywhere, especially when you were around Anna, and you'll never guess what I found. You had been poisoning my daughters, putting things in their I'vy's to keep them sick. I saw everything Gabby. You might as well come clean."
"You were never home! When the girls were sick, everyone was so kind and caring. We had you home with us, we were a happy family together! If only for a few weeks! But I was careful to not let it go to far Marc, I swear. I would've never had let them die, I love them!" Gabby says through her tears.
"You're a very different kind of monster than I was Gabby. What I think you really love is the veneer of success and happiness. You saw me and the girls as a trophy to portray to the outside world and once I was thrown in prison, everything fell apart for you. Your prefect little world just crumbled. What you really are is a sadistic selfish bitch, who cares about no one but herself."
"That's not fucking true! Besides your one to talk Marcos! You talk to me about being a monster, you of all people! Leading your double life as guy who literally blows people up to get his kicks! What were me and the girls to you huh, just fucking camouflage?" Gabby erupts.
Marcos smiles "That's one more thing I always loved about you. You had always fire baby. But you know, your absolutely right. The moment I figured out what you had been doing to Ali and Anna, I made the decision I was going to kill you, right than and there. But than I stopped and thought about it. As much as I'm ashamed to admit it, there was one thing that mattered more to me than my girls and that was my urge to blow people up as you so proudly put it, and for that to continue, I needed my camouflage. So I let you get away with it. Ali and Anna deserved so much better than the two twisted, psychotic I'm uncultured they got for a mother and a father. But, now we get the reason I'm here in the first place. Call it a long overdue retribution."
"So your gonna kill me are you?" Gabby says, her voice a mix of anger and fear.
"You tried to kill my little girls Gabby and I let you get away with it once. Think of it as a stay of execution."
"No…" she says, barely holding her composure.
"You know what has to happen Gabby. Now the last thing I wanna do is cause you any pain in your passing. Despite what you did, you spent twenty seven years as my wife and you are the mother of my children, and as capable as I am of that particular emotion, in my own fucked up and perverse way…I do love you, and I owe you at least that much."
Gabby breaks down in tears as she covers her face with her hands "No, I don't wanna Marc! It's not fair!" she cries as she collapses into his arms.
"Shhhh, come on Gabby look at you. As soon as I went away, everything fell apart for you. We both know this life has nothing left to offer you. Trust me, it's better this way. You don't have to cry or feel lonely anymore, you'll have finally found some peace."
After a few more minutes of crying, Gabby finally calms down. With her eyes drenched with dry tears, she looks up at Marcos, who is still holding her close "You promise it won't hurt."
"I promise darling, you won't feel a thing, ok. We'll do it together." seemingly resigned to her fate, Gabby gives a weak nod and Marcos smiles "Ok, now go and get those pills in the bathroom and I'll get the wine. You still keep the Chardonnay in the same place?"
Gabby grins slightly and nods "But I wanna do this right. I wanna look beautiful for you one last time."
Marcos smiles back with genuine affection "Ok, tell you what, I'll meet you back here in a half hour. I have to go downstairs and grab some things anyway."
Gabby gives a small "Ok…" as Marcos kisses her on the forehead and exit's the room.
Down in hid old study, Marcos rummages around his office and through his desk. He looks around at all his various military commendations and awards. An old family photo of himself in uniform along with his wife and young daughters, hangs proudly over the fireplace. He goes over and ceremoniously turns it around to face the wall. Under his desk he flips open a hidden latch and out pops a sleek Ruger Pistol. He checks the magazine and finds it fully loaded. He than tucks the weapon into the backside of his pants. Afterward he flips over a small coffee table rug and removes a tiny false panel, which reveals a small safe underneath. Dialing in the combination, he opens the lid and retrieves several wads of hundred dollar bills, stuffing them into a sack on his person.
Simultaneously, Gabrielle is upstairs standing in front of her mirror and slips on an elegant cocktail dress, after which she starts to apply makeup to her face, finishing everything off with a shade of ruby red lipstick.
Marcos carefully pours two glasses of red Chardonnay, while Gabby sits in the background. In one glass he crushes up several white pills and pours the powdery mix in. Finally he sloshes the drink around a bit until the contents are indistinguishable from a regular glass of wine.
He turns around to face his lovely wife "Ready?"
Gabby gets up and goes over to her husband, who hands her one of the cups. They clang their glasses together but only Marcos takes a sip and laughs "I gotta say, I feel a little under dressed compared to you."
Tears once again start to well up in her eyes as she hesitates "I'm scared Marc."
Marcos gently strokes her cheek and holds her from behind, placing his hands on her hips as the two stare at their reflections standing right in front of the mirror "I remember you wore this dress when you first told me that you were pregnant with Ali. Your as beautiful now as you were than." he says sensuously kissing her neck.
She closes her eyes and gently rubs the back of his head. His lips move up towards her ear when he stops to look back at her in the mirror. Gabby takes a deep breath and brings the glass to her lips as she downs all of it one deep gulp. Marcos grabs the glass and spins her around to face him. He caresses the side of her face and says "One last dance." grabbing her phone off the dresser. Scrolling through it he smiles "How did I know you'd have this…" he says as he plays the song Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden.
The two start to slow dance, with Gabby wrapping her arms around his neck as his hands rest on her waist. Halfway into the song, her arms begin to go limp as she slowly slips into unconsciousness. Feeling her life ebbing away, Marcos looks up, as single tear falls from his eye. As the song ends, he picks her up and cradles her body, eventually carrying her to the bed. He lays her down, placing her arms crossed in front of her.
"You rest now my love." he says kissing the back of her hand. He wipes the tear from his face, kisses her forehead one last time and walks out of the room.
Outside, Doctor Lundy, tired out waiting, decides to stage the scene to cover her double murder. She opens up the hood of the car, opens the oil valve and tosses in a small cigarette lighter. She closes the hood and makes a hasty retreat. Moments later, the vehicle is quickly engulfed in flames as a small explosion begins to consume the car and the two dead operatives inside. The commotion catches Marcos' attention as he is making his way out of his old house. Turning a corner he sees the parked car set ablaze when a voice from behind catches him off guard.
"You know you shouldn't be so obvious Colonel." says Lundy aiming her weapon at the man.
Marcos whirls around, aiming his own gun in the doctor's direction "It's you."
"What are the police gonna find inside? Did you kill your wife? Lots of blood and guts on the wall?"
"She overdosed, didn't feel a thing." he says.
"That doesn't sound like you. Must be getting soft in your old age Colonel." says Lundy.
"What do you want, and what's with the fireworks? Emmett and the rest of your cult buddies waiting around the corner?"
"Not quite, at least not yet. You know how they say some people have a guardian angel, well in your case it might be a guardian devil. But it's been decided that you have to be free to run your due course. We'll be seeing each other in time Colonel."
"Decided by who doctor, what's really going on around here?" asks Marcos.
Lundy doesn't answer, she simply walks backwards still aiming the pistol at Marcos before disappearing behind a neighborhood bend. As the flames of the car fire intensify, Marcos runs back to the black hatchback, tosses the small bag with his clothes and money in the passengers seat and hops in himself "Well Chuck, sorry I took a little longer than expected. Let's get the fuck outta here, drop you off at the nearest Waffle House back dumpster." he says as he pulls out and speeds down the rainy road.