CHAPTER 9: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Greg was starting to get restless and fidgety. He constantly sat up and down, making sure he didn't forget the street name for the time that Cal would hopefully give him the phone. His whole body now felt the effects if being burned and then whipped. His whole back and stomach was red and blistered with open sores everywhere, and the sheets under him were irritating it even more. He couldn't keep his eyes from watering from the stinging that his body was doing.
What he was even more worried about was the warmth he felt all over his body, even though his shirt had long ago been shed. The blisters and gashes all over his body were starting to become infected, he was sure of it, but there was nothing he could do now.
Cal sat down next to Greg. "I am finished cleaning you up. Janine will be up momentarily. And as you asked, here." He placed a phone next to Greg's head. "I know which number you want. Janine told me Sara Sidle's number before. Only a few minutes. Janine can't find out, and if you try to tell her anything about who we are," He threatened, "Sara will get it."
Greg nodded, and managed to keep the disdain and disappointment and fear out of his eyes. He didn't think he would get saved in time anymore. All hope that he had had before was gone from his soul. Greg watched in silence as he saw Cal's fingers find out the numbers that were so familiar to him. He heard only two rings go in until he heard her angelic voice. "Greg? Is that you?"
"Sara, is my mom there?"
"No, she isn't." A pause, and then, "Greg, forget that, just give me a different code."
Greg nodded, but only Cal could see. "A bend at the tree and peasant." Greg looked at Cal, who was in turn giving him an odd look. He was suspicious, but Greg had gotten it out. Now he was going to say the only important thing left to him. "Sara, listen to me."
"What is it Greg?"
Greg chuckled. "Sara, you're probably not going to find me in time."
"Greg, don't…"
"No Sar, Janine's coming now. I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't think I'm going to come out of it alive."
"No Greg, we'll find you, we're..."
"Five more seconds." Cal whispered harshly.
"Sara, I love you, and I always have loved you and I'm sorry I missed our date." Click.
Greg watched as Cal took the phone and shoved it in to his pocket. "I'm sorry. Now, I wish you luck. If you don't impress her, she'll probably slit your throat."
Greg didn't react. He was never surprised by what they said anymore, just resigned to his fate. He watched as the door opened, and Janine came in, and Cal walked out. She wore a tight matching sleek black panty and bra set that matched her hair. Her light purple eyes were blazing. She was confident, seductive, and ready for a good time. She had something in her hand, and Greg started to cower at her sight.
"What do you have in your hand?" Greg asked staring at it like a dog that had committed some bad deed against his master and awaited punishment.
"Oh calm down Gregory." Janine chided gently. "It's a lighter. I have to set the mood you know." And with that, she started to light the first of the candles that lined the room. They flickered, dancing playfully on the walls. She seemed to purr as she went from candle to candle, lighting them all with delicate slowness, paying attention to each one. Greg started to cry sullenly. All his romance and chivalrous ideas were starting to go down the drain, faster and faster. All these ideas he would have used to woo Sara with, to make the mood perfect. It was almost as if she knew his exact plans. And it sickened him. How he would ever pull off a romantic set-up again without ending up screaming and psychologically scared was beyond him.
Then it was zero hour. D-Day. The last candle was lit, and did its exotic dance with the rest of its candle brethren upon the wall, casting haunting shadows upon the room and its inhabitants. She turned to him. "Now or never, lover. Here I come."
She started to walk over, but then they both heard a disturbance downstairs, and the words that Greg started to cry for joy at.
Sara flicked her phone closed when she heard the other line go dead. But she wasn't upset this time. "Was that Greg?" Warrick asked, looking at Sara who was sat up front with Nick who drummed the steering wheel nervously in the driver's seat.
Sara was smiling. "Yeah, it was."
"Well, what did he say? Is he okay?" Nick asked worriedly.
Sara nodded. "He told us where he was."
Nick looked out of the window of where the three of them were parked. The street was quiet, and nothing stirred. "Did he? Then, are we in the right place?"
Sara nodded. She in turn looked out the window to where Nick was staring at the dark evergreen coloured Sunfire car in the driveway of the house on the very corner of Palm Street and Pilgrim Avenue. "A bend at the tree and peasant," Sara grinned. "Good job, Greg."
Nick flipped open his cell phone, speed dialling his supervisor's number. "Grissom, it's Nick, we've found Greg, call Brass…the house on the corner of Palm Street and Pilgrim. We're going in." And with a hurried flourish, Nick closed his phone quickly.
Warrick and Sara looked at him surprised. "Griss ain't going to be happy about that, Nick." Warrick said.
"Who cares?" Nick said, hopping out of the crime scene vehicle. "Let's get Greg, come on!"
Sara and Warrick mimicked his actions, and brandishing their weapons followed him at running speed to the house. Upon getting to the door, Sara was about to knock, not knowing any other way to enter a locked house, but Nick and Warrick came up faster and had deftly barged the door open with their shoulders, making it swing wildly on its hinges.
"LVPD, put your hands up!"
"No!" Janine screamed, as she realized what was happening. She turned to Greg, her eyes deep set and blazing. "You!"
Greg smiled at her brazenly. "You underestimated me. I'm not just a weak and helpless male. And I think we've beaten you. Sara and me, and everyone I care about. And I hope you like jail. Maybe you'll find another lover there."
"No, no, no, no, no!" She said, starting to pace the room. "No. I've got to finish this. You've been my biggest challenge, and I want, no, need, to break you."
She raced over to the bed, jumping on Greg and knocking the wind out of him. She straddled him, smothering him in kisses that, as he was tied up, could not defend against. He felt her tongue against his now pounding carotid, flicking it and feeling the life and adrenaline course through him as he fought to get her off of him. Greg felt her hands travel hurriedly down his scorched chest towards his jeans button, but the door swinging open interrupted her wandering fingers. "Stop right there, Janine!"
"Sara!" Greg called, overwhelmingly grateful and joyful that she had come in time to save him from Janine and her foul desecration. "Sara, thank God…"
"You bitch!" Janine screamed, still with a leg on each side of Greg, making Sara's blood boil more and more by the second. "Do you know how embarrassing it is to be interrupted in the middle of making love?"
"What 'love'? Greg doesn't love you. You're a psychotic whore! Now," Sara said, poising her gun at Janine, "get off of him now, slowly."
Janine had other plans however. She pressed herself closer to Greg, making him wince as she pressed her skin into his own sore body. "No. I have to finish this. I have to. I…I love him, and he loves me too."
"Get off of me!" Greg yelled, squirming to sit up, and hopefully get her off. However, he was pinned fast. His strength was too diminished to do anything, and he realized this. No food, no water, in what had to be at least twenty-four hours, and brutal exhausting physical and mental torture. He looked over at Sara, who had her eyes trained on Janine, her gun aimed. Greg shook his head to regain his senses. Getting out of here was the most important issue now, and he would worry about possible future relationship complications later, when the time was appropriate. His hope was back and burning strong, now that Sara was by his side and here to rescue him. "I love Sara, and now that she's here, you may as well stop this craziness."
"He's right Janine," Sara said, "Stop this, and give up, and we can maybe make a deal with the DA."
"Lies!" Janine screamed. "You don't mean that, and it doesn't matter. You just want him for yourself. Can you tell me you don't love him?" Sara hesitated, not making a move, just keeping her gun poised at Greg. Her eyes only flitted to Greg once, but Janine caught it. "I thought so."
"Janine, it's over. Don't you realize that this is wrong?" Sara implored, but looking into Janine's eyes, Sara knew that she didn't.
Janine shook her head. "That's opening up a can of worms Sara." She began, taking her hands and rubbing it up and down Greg's chest, making both Greg and Sara sick. "What is right and wrong?"
"This is wrong." Greg said, but Janine would have none of this and she dug a fingernail into one of the existing gashes on his chest, making it bleed again and making him gasp.
Sara pointed her gun again. "I won't tell you again to get off of him, Janine!"
"No, just listen to me. Humour me." She added, letting her finger dabble in the pool of blood starting to form. "What is so wrong about what I do?"
Sara stared at her, incredulously. "For one, it's twisted beyond belief! You hurt others, and you hold them against their will."
Janine laughed. "That may be true, but it is for the better. A natural procession if you will."
"Come again?" Sara was getting pissed, but she wanted to wait, to see if, if she heard her out, she would obey and come quietly.
"In the natural world, the only drive of an animal is to survive. Survival of the fittest. Natural selection. Animals…they only mate with the strongest. They think of the future. Usually males will compete with each other for the affection of a female. Then once a winner is found, the strongest male will mate with a female of choice, and produce offspring. But, usually the female has no say in this. The strongest male will just choose the strongest female, and that's that. I, however, am a woman who knows what she wants, and what she needs, and I have the ambition to do something about it. I have ultimate control. I want to breed a strong child, which all our instincts tell us to do. I am strong, so all I need is a strong man, one who meets all my needs, as an animal," She took her hand and dragged it along Greg's torso, "and as an emotional, intelligent human. Gregsy seems to meet that criteria."
All Sara could do was stare at Janine, dumbfounded. This girl had more issues than she thought. "Is that what you really think?" Sara said, her voice extremely reproachful. "There is so much more to think about! In today's age, we can't do that! It's barbaric! Not to mention against the law."
"The law?" Janine scoffed. "What makes this law the right law? What about the rules that religion teach us?"
Greg spoke up again, despite what he got the last time he chose to do so. "I never saw you as religious." His tone was filled with sarcasm. He never felt in danger anymore, which he found odd. Maybe it was the fact that Sara had a gun pointed at them, but that was futile, if Janine never recognized it yet. She had herself too close-pressed to Greg for Sara to get a clear shot.
Janine ignored him, still talking fully with Sara. "It says nothing about, 'keeping someone against their own free will', in the commandments. But, it does have a little something about adultery."
Sara outwardly bristled. "I didn't know, and when I found out, I ended it."
"So you say."
"Listen you little bitch, you can't say anything, because you're the one who kidnaps men when she's married." Greg spat.
"My husband knows about this, he helps me, and besdies, Cal and I have an agreement. I love him, and he loves me, but he is not suitable for reproducing with me. He is not strong."
"You love him, and he loves you, that should be enough." Sara said, the anger in her voice. "Enough of this, get off of him not or I'll shoot!"
Janine never added to her plans, because past her brave façade, she was eyeing the gun Sara held with fear. She was stuck, backed into a corner. Then, as if a light bulb flashed above her head, she reached down to the bedside table and revealed the little butane lighter.
"Don't move Crawly!" Sara said, aiming the gun once more.
"No, you drop the gun." Janine said from on top of Greg, still holding the lighter high, like a trophy.
"Wh-why?" Greg asked, finding it troubling to breathe with the added weight of Janine situated on one spot on his chest. The fear gripping his lungs and heart weren't helping.
"Drop the lighter, Janine." Sara calmly suggested, though far from calm.
"Drop the gun." Janine repeated. "Or I blow the place up."
Sara and Greg froze. They looked from Janine to each other, and back again. Sara spoke first. "What do you mean?"
"Stupid skank." Janine said, shaking her head, "You know, blow upas in explode? God, and you're a CSI?" She paused, and then answered the question on the top of both Sara and Greg's tongues. "Under this bed, there's enough explosives to blow up the house, and certainly do enough damage to the three of us. All I have to do is let the sheets spark and it goes."
Janine laughed, but Sara was quite simply at a loss for words. Greg spoke this time, the danger representing itself to Sara too much to ignore despite his flagging strength. "You're bluffing."
"You want to take that chance?" Janine said, still hugging herself close to Greg. She laughed again. "Poor Sara Sidle can't shoot because she might hit poor Gregsy, and can't move because she may chance me blowing all of us to bits. What is she going to do?"
"What would you accomplish by blowing all of us to smithereens?" Greg shot back.
"Look, Greg, just look around you!" She said, gesturing with her unwieldy lighter. "She's here, and you're ready to leave me, like I said you would. You lied to me. For all I care, she can have you, but I was sure that with a bit of taming, you would have been mine. We could have had a wonderful child. I love you unconditionally." Sara gagged from the side. "But if I can't have you," She finished, "no one can. No one deserves you but me, no one is strong enough but me!"
"You don't own me, you can never have me like I'm some object." With a dry sob, he said unemotionally, "Sara, shoot."
"What? I can't Greg, she might…"
"Just shoot the gun, Sara. Kill this bitch."
"No Greg, I might miss!"
"Do it!"Janine was still laughing in Greg's ear, as she held up an arm and lit the lighter. "She won't shoot me Gregsy. Poor little Sara Sidle is too scared to shoot me. That's because I love you, and she doesn't love y-"
Bang.
An ear-shattering blast as the bullet left the gun, an explosion of sound and force bounced around the room. Sara didn't even know whom she had hit. Tears leaked out of her eyes as she ran towards the bed. "…Greg?" She asked as she neared the bed, clapping out the tiny flame that the lighter spouted. She had been bluffing about the explosives. She hadn't expected anyone to find the house in time, or at all. And this fact would have frightened her if she could have been more scared. She pushed the body of Janine off of Greg, and only saw blood on his chest. "Oh, Greg, are you…?"
She reached out a hand and touched his smooth face, as she now openly cried. Nick appeared at the room door after hearing the gun shot, leaving Warrick to deal with Cal Platt, whom they had swiftly unarmed. The sight of Greg, tied up to the bed with Janine Crawly near him in supposedly sexy lingerie disgusted him, but as he inched nearer, the sight of Sara crying over his body covered in blood made him gag.
He came closer to the crying Sara, but instead of looking closer at Greg's face, his eyes closed and skin pale, he went to the malevolent raven-haired witch who was the cause of it all. Sara had pushed her onto the far side of the bed to look at Greg closer, but she obviously hadn't paid close attention. Janine was now on her back, facing the ceiling, light purple eyes staring lifelessly into oblivion, blood trickling down her body onto the down comforter that covered the bed.
"Sara, look!" Nick cried, tears of relief now escaping his eyes. Her head turned, and she caught sight of the bullet hole in her chest, and she turned her attention to Greg again while Nick called the paramedics. "Greg, come on Greggo, open those beautiful eyes for me, please Greg!" She stroked his face encouragingly, her fingers tracing the light stubble that had appeared over the past two days since he had been taken.
As if in response to the stimuli of Sara, Greg's eyes fluttered open, and trained themselves on Sara. In a throaty croak, he asked her innocently, "Are you an angel?" He tried to smile a tired smile.
"Greg!" She cried as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him over and over. "I love you, Greg!"
Sara's affection filled attack made Greg's body shiver in pain, but he was too glad to have her in his arms…well, him in her arms. "I love you too Sara." He sniffed, and started to cry as the realization he was saved set in. "I love you Sara! Please…get me out of here."
Greg felt his left arms finally lower as Nick untied it from the bedpost. His shoulder ached, and the pain flooded his body. Sara had raised herself from Greg's body, and she looked deep into his mocha eyes. She knew unconsciousness was going to take him again, but it was a restful blackness he was returning to. He was safe, and he was looking somewhat…forward to waking up the next time, because he had a feeling Sara would be by his side. Sara saw his eyelids slowly close again, and she comfortingly entangled her fingers in his hair, not like Janine, but softly, tenderly. Her sweet smile invaded his dreams this time, and her parting words as well.
"I've found you."
Okay, I have one more chapter to go, dealing with the aftermath of the ordeal. So, alack and alas, my time of end is drawing nigh. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to GOD the alerts start working soon again!