"His name is Sylar."
"No…" Sylar threw his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. His identity out in the open... That never happened before. He had always been reckless, he had always used his ability in public, he never once cared about people finding out because he knew the Company would wipe their memories if they did. But this time it was different. This time his actions would not be forgotten and that was something he thought would never happen.
But that was exactly what the man in the horn-rimmed glasses had wanted all along. He wanted Sylar's true identity out in the open. For him to be known as the serial killer he was, cutting off heads, stealing brains and super powers from innocent people, only to use for himself. Bennet finally did it. He won.
"He is a psychopath and a murderer," Noah continued.
"Enough." Hearing that hypocrite talk about all the 'innocent' people that were murdered over the years was really starting to work on Sylar's nerves. You're not so innocent yourself, Bennet. "Turn it off."
Matt on the other hand, was having the time of his life. When he first saw Claire on the TV-screen he seemed confused. He obviously didn't know she had fallen off the Ferris wheel and that she had used her ability for the whole world to see. Exposing herself to the world meant exposing everyone one else as well, including Matt and his son. But he forgot all about that when Bennet started talking about Sylar. "Nooo," he said with a big smile on his face. "You deserve this."
Matt, please. Peter had kept quiet throughout the entire thing, but enough was enough. He needed to talk to Matt, he needed to somehow convince the telepath that it was in his family's best interest if they left, and he needed Sylar to hear it too.
Matt turned to look at Peter and used his power to make it possible for him to speak.
"Thanks," Peter said after taking a deep breath. It was pretty clear to him that Matt was never going to believe Sylar's change of heart. Not in a million years. "You can let Sylar go now."
"I told you, he's not going anywhere unless I tell him to. What if I let him go and he hurts the next best person?"
"That's not gonna happen." Peter wondered why Matt couldn't just take his word for it. Did it not occur to him that if Sylar tried anything, anything at all, even lifted as much as a finger, that Peter would be there to stop him?
"Yes, this man is verydangerous," Noah continued. "He won't hesitate to kill anyone who tries to stand in his way."
Matt chuckled. "This is great! They'll be looking for you now. Everyone will know about you."
"Laugh all you want," Sylar snapped. "This will affect you as much as me."
"I'm not a serial killer."
"Just let us go, Matt," Peter repeated. It was because of Matt's lack of faith in him that made him want to leave so badly. Did the telepath honestly think that if Sylar tried to make another victim that Peter would just stand back and watch it happen? Then he doesn't know me very well, he thought bitterly.
"It's not about you. It's about him. He is going to kill again and I don't want that on my conscience."
"I am not going to kill again." Read my mind, damn it! For once in his life Sylar wanted to do the right thing. He couldn't kill, not even if he wanted to. He never wanted it to begin with. He finally had his hunger under control, he was no longer interested in taking abilities and that was fine and all, but there were only two people who actually believed it, himself included. "Use your brain for once in your life."
"What did you just say?!"
"What happened to you?" Janice suddenly asked.
She took Sylar by surprise. "What?"
"You're hurt."
"I can't get hurt," Sylar said. He narrowed his eyes at her and then realized what she meant. "Oh, that."
"You're covered in blood!" Matt said, pointing out the obvious.
"Noah shot him," Peter explained to him.
"When?"
"After everything that happened at the Carnival."
"Why?"
"You know why. He wants to hurt Sylar for what he did to Claire."
"You just told me that he saved thousandsof people. Why would Bennet shoot him after doing something 'heroic' like that?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?" Sylar asked, raising an eyebrow in sheer mockery. You're holding me against my will for the exact same reason.
"I'd really rather talk to Peter if you don't mind."
"Your reaction is the same as Bennet's," Peter explained. "We told him how it happened, what Sylar did, how he was the one who saved those people. I think he believed us, but it wasn't enough. You have looked inside his head. You have seen the change in him. That's why we came here."
Matt shook his head. "He thinkshe's changed, but that's only temporary. He's a killer, he's always been one and he always will be. It's only a matter of time before he does it again. There only needs to be one ability special enough for him to want to have it for himself."
"Careful…" Sylar said through gritted teeth. Why was Matt so determined to push his buttons? If he wanted to protect his family, like he said, provoking a former serial killer wasn't the way to do it. The telepath was making it very hard for Sylar to not fight back.
"Everyone knows what you are."
Sylar let out a grunt of frustration. The whole thing was pointless. Parkman was never going to believe him. Apart from that, he didn't like the way he was feeling. The telepath kept pushing his buttons and he didn't know how much more shit he could take before he lost control completely. That's what you want, isn't it? You sick bastard.
"How long are you planning on keeping us here?" Peter had been holding Sylar up for a very long time. He had a cramp in his arm and a slowly increasing headache from concentrating too hard for too long.
Matt seemed uncertain. It was clearly visible on his face that he didn't have a plan.
"Matt, just let them go."
"Listen to your wife." If Parkman wasn't going to let him go, Sylar just had to do something himself. Peter had never been able to control his telekinesis as well as him. He just had to concentrate hard enough and he'd be able to knock Peter's head against the wall or something. He'd finally be free, he'd give Peter regeneration (in case he had some kind of injury) and they would be on their way again. It seemed like the perfect plan until, all of a sudden, the grip Peter had on him disappeared and he fell down on the floor. Well, I wasn't expecting that…
Peter had not seen that coming. "Thanks," he said to Matt. He looked down at Sylar and shrugged.
"I want the two of you out of my house." Matt looked at Sylar and said, "I never want to see your face ever again!"
Sylar got to his feet and pretended to wipe some fake dust off his pants. "What about 'I'm sorry for almost cutting your head in half'? I think Peter and I deserve an apology."
"You can't be serious…" Matt said, looking at Sylar in complete disbelief.
"Don't push it," Peter warned Sylar.
Sylar shrugged. He really thought they deserved an apology. On the other hand, he was finally able to leave and that made him very happy. He turned to Peter. "What are we waiting for?"
"Yes," Peter agreed. "Let's go."
"If you ever come near me or my family again..." Matt said as Sylar passed him on his way to the door.
Sylar stopped dead in his tracks and turned around."Then what?" He took a step closer to the telepath, lowered his voice and asked, "What are you going to do about it? Are you going to risk their lives again? Because that's what you just did, Matt. You keep pushing and pushing, but you know what happens when I get angry."
The uncertainty on Parkman's face was very satisfying, enough for Sylar to finally leave. As he walked past Matt's wife he added, "I wish I could say sorry for causing so much trouble, but the truth is: I didn't cause any. He did." Sylar nodded his head in Parkman's direction, then turned around and left the house through the front door.
Peter shook his head reproachfully and watched as Janice helped Matt to the couch. "Have you seen a doctor?" he asked carefully. He would have asked Matt to let him look at the leg himself, but doubted the telepath would let him.
Matt sighed irritably. "Yes, Peter. I just came back from the hospital. That's where I got the crutches from. Now can you please leave?"
"I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have brought him here." Peter had no idea that there was so much bad blood between the two of them.
"You're damn right you shouldn't have." Matt looked up at Peter and then at the door, to make sure that Sylar couldn't hear them. "Do you know why I let him go?"
Peter shook his head.
"The way his mind works… He was going to use telekinesis to bash your head against the wall. He figured that he could give you regeneration to make it better afterwards, just like that. Like hurting you didn't really matter as long as it meant he could get away."
"He did?" That's… sick. Clever, but sick.
"Yes. All this violence… It's normal for him."
It's become normal for all of us. "Thanks, Matt." Peter was about to leave, but Matt hadn't finished yet.
"Hey, can you promise me something?"
Peter frowned. "Promise you what?"
"Promise that you won't let him kill anyone. Don't make me regret letting him go."
But he really has changed. Matt was never going to believe it. It might have been different if he had been the one who got Sylar out of his nightmare, but then Peter would probably have been the non-believer. He nodded his head. "I promise." Then he followed Sylar outside.
Sylar was pacing up and down the street and barely noticed Peter coming out of the house. He was too busy figuring out what to do next. What were his options? Where could he go? What was his life going to look like from now on? He couldn't show his face in public, not without being recognized (shape-shifting was out of the question). He didn't want to spend the rest of his life being chased. He wanted solitude, but he didn't like the idea of being alone.
"That didn't go as planned."
Sylar snapped out of his thoughts. "You'd think?" He thought about it for a minute and then suddenly let out a snort of laughter as he remembered how Matt threatened to cut the top of his head off. It was really pathetic. "He'd never gone through with it."
"What?"
Sylar dismissed what he just said with a hand gesture. "Just Matt and his empty threats. He doesn't have the guts to actually do it."
Peter rolled his eyes. "That's because he's not a killer." Unlike you. "He wants to see you in pain, but killing goes against what he believes in. Of course Matt was never going to act on it. Did you really think he would?"
Sylar shrugged. "I think he hates me enough to act on it." So do you.
"Sylar," Peter started with a sigh. "You have got to get used to people saying things like that to you. You can't just kill their loved ones and not expect any hard feelings in return. They want to see you suffer, like their loved ones suffered." He himself was a part of that group, a group of people that lost their loved ones because of Sylar. What about Nathan? Did he suffer? He probably did, from what Peter had seen of Sylar. He never asked Sylar how he did it, how he killed Nathan. He had only seen the cut across his brother's throat. Sylar didn't cut throats... It was a subject they both always seemed to be avoiding.
Sylar couldn't recall killing any one of Matt's loved ones. "Do you want to see me suffer?" Of course he does, he thought stupidly. There was a reason why Peter kept punching him at every opportunity.
Peter pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed again. "I think you've suffered enough when you had to be on your own for all those years. Even so, it doesn't make up for the lives you've taken." So many lives. Peter wondered if Sylar even knew the number of people he had killed or if he just referred to them as scores or dozens. "I think that's a start."
A start? So he still wants me to see me suffer even more… Sylar decided not to say anything else and nodded his head instead. "So what's the plan?"
Plan… I don't have a plan. Peter came with a plan, but it failed. He should probably have thought it through a bit more, but it was a plan. "Why am I supposed to have a plan?" He's a smart guy, he can figure something out.
"I don't know. I just assumed that you did. Just give me a second and I'll think of something."
Peter wondered what kind of plan Sylar would come up with. Nothing that involves telepathy, I hope.
It was probably better that way. If Peter was going to think of their next plan they would probably end up at the police station. It was Sylar's turn to think of something. They didn't really need a plan. They just needed a place where they could go. Some place where nobody could find them. Everyone knows what I've done in the past because of Bennet. They were probably going to look for him. That's why he and Peter needed to go somewhere away from people. Somewhere totally abandoned. Some place they would never expect us to go… But first they had to get away from Matt. There was no point in thinking of somewhere to go with the possibility of Matt hearing their thoughts.
"I might know something, Peter."
"You do?" That was fast.
"Yes, but you'll have to follow me."
Peter raised an eyebrow. "Follow you where?"
To my secret cave, where I keep the remains of all my victims, Sylar thought jokingly. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."
"You can't tell me?" Sylar was acting very mysteriously.
"You didn't tell me where we were going after we left the carnival," Sylar said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I followed you anyway. This time I want you to follow me."
I'm not sure if that's such a good idea. Peter hesitated for a moment. If Sylar wanted to hurt him, he would have done it already. And besides, where could Sylar lead him to that could be so dangerous? He had trusted him enough to take his ability, so maybe following him wouldn't be so bad. "Alright." He then put his hand on Sylar's left shoulder, closed his eyes and took flight once more.
"Let's go."
Next chapter: More Lies