chapter 4

What is it we're fighting for?

"Hun, can you come inside please!"

"Just a minute, dear!" The man picked up a paintbrush and put the last few strokes of paint on his sign.

Down With B.B.C. was blazoned across the picket sign. The door of the house behind him slammed shut.

"Well, Mr. Fury, do you suppose your fiance might be getting impatient?"

"Emily..."

"Excuse me, sir, do i know you?"

"Why no you don't ma'am, Charles Fury is my name."

"Well if you see my fiance, will you tell him his meal is going to get cold after too long?"

"Actually he just showed up!"

"Let's eat then!"

Both people walked into the house and ate their dinner. That night there came a sound from downstairs. It awoke the both of them. Charles grabbed his knife and slowly made his way down the stairs. The sound of breaking dishes echoed from the kitchen. He peered around the corner to see a group of older men digging everything out of each closet. The mens faces were hidden behind ski masks. The only weapons he could see were baseball bats. He was outnumbered three to one. He looked around the corner again, this time he was met by a bright light shining in his face. The men in the kitchen surged toward him, bats in hand. Charles fumbled up the stairs, every few steps he would slip. Eventually the men were surrounding him, hitting him again and again in the back with the aluminum bats. Then from the top of the stairs came a scream. The scream caught the attackers attention. They bolted up the stairs after her, after Emily. Charles grabbed the rungs of the stairs and pulled himself up the stairs. Every motion hurt, every pull sent pain up his back. There were screams coming from the bedroom. Charles could only hear cries of pain and agony, followed by the reverbaration of each bat as it struck Emily's body. Then it was silent. The men came back and with one final blow to the head, Charles's world went black.

"Charles..."

Emily!

"Charles, can you hear me?"

Emily!

"Charles, my name is Claudia, i'm an EMT, you've been attacked... can you hear me?"

"Emily..."

"Hang on Charles, we're taking you to the hospital"

Charles looked out the window of the hospital room, the trees were brown, the sun was setting, the world felt colder. He looked down at the ring on his finger. He stroked it lightly, and tears came to his eyes. As he breathed he felt the tightness of his lungs. He must've broken a couple of ribs, and his head throbbed from a concussion.

"Excuse me..." In the door stood a local police officer. "Are you Charles Fury?"

Charles nodded wiping away the tears.

"I have a few questions i'd like to ask you, that ok?"

He nodded again.

The officer took off his hat and sat in a bedside chair, he dug in his pocket for a notebook and a pencil. "So, what happened last night?"

Charles looked down at his ring. "Last night..."

The officer interrupted, "You do know that you have the right to remain silent?"

Charles looked at him confused. "Why..."

"We have eye witness reports saying you beat your wife to death last night."

"Who..."

"Your neighbors say they heard a lot of racket, followed by some yelling and screaming."

"I did not kill my wife..."

"Several others will testify you did, I think this would be a good time to get your story straight"

"Get out of here!" Charles screamed at the police officer.

At the trial Charles was not convicted of his wifes murder. There was not enough evidence to properly convict him. After the trial, Charles returned home and began asking the neighbors why they had testified against him. Even worse why they had lied about the state of his relationship with Emily. They always answered, "Sorry, I have to go" or "It's the truth".

The inside of the house was still a mess, the police did nothing to help the situation. He went to the bedroom and looked at the large blood stain on the floor. He fell to his knees and just stared in awe. This had to be a dream.

The phone on the bedside table rang, causing him to jump. He crawled across the floor and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Mr. Fury, this is Proffessor Lancaster, i'm calling because you missed your final exam. I had left previous messages but i only got the answering machine. I was calling to let you know that you have missed too many classes and it is great regret that i have to inform you of this at such a poor time. I'm sorry, but you cannot graduate and you are expelled from the college."

Charles slammed the phone back on the receiver. His life was over, there would be no degree in clinical Psychology, there would be no happy family.

Charles locked the door behind him as he left his house for the last time. As he faced the street he noticed a BBC van parked at the corner of the street facing his house. He walked out into the road toward the vehicle only to have it speed off.

Emily

Fury reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring. Nobody in the elevator said anything, they just waited patiently for the door to open. When the door finally did open, there was a grinning Gabe on the other side. "You guys take forever!"