Part Two
Anthony Zacchara looked out the window of the passenger plane tapping his fingers on his knees. The old woman next to him tsk'ed loudly and turned pointedly away. Anthony grinned at his reflection in the mirror, watching the whites of his teeth glare with the light from the cabin behind him. He looked down at his watch, still set on Port Charles time and wondered if the delivery service had made its second delivery on time.
Johnny Zacchara stared at the man wearing the "ONE STOP" Delivery Uniform and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you the first time, what is this?"
With a long drawn out sigh the man read aloud from his clipboard… again. "It's a delivery for 'Johnny Zacchara, my worthless son.'"
Anger clenched up inside of him. Even from the grave his father was taunting him. He stepped back and let the man wheel the handcart into his house. The butler stepped up awaiting orders and Johnny waved at the stack of packages. "Just put it in storage or somewhere… I really don't care."
He turned away and walked back into his office, determined to find something to distract him from the ghost of his father.
The crew, similar to a hazmat group had arrived at the office and examined the packages. It was part of doing business in the modern era. With all the chemical weapons out there, it was stupid to assume the mob was immune from the methods of terrorists. It was much the same between the families people would always try to take out their rivals. For now, Corinthos Morgan was still doing things the 'old fashioned' way… not that it was anymore 'civilized' but it was expected.
Stan exited the van and gave Sonny a nod. "They're clean." Looking over at Jason he gave him a strange look. "You play chess?"
Jason shook his head. "No. Maybe back before the accident. What's wrong?"
"Nothing…" Stan ducked back into the van and removed a package. The xray on this one says it's a chess set."
Jason took the package from his hand and took it back into the office away from the prying eyes of people passing by. He set the package down and took out his pocket knife, making quick work of the paper wrapping. He spread the paper aside and lifted the lid from the box. Inside the box were chess pieces… almost a set.
The White Queen was missing. Jason picked up the White King and watched as the head fell back into the box. Beneath the king was a piece of paper. He took it into his hand and opened it.
WHERE IS THE QUEEN? DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD. A.Z.
Sonny snatched the paper away and read it. "I thought he was dead."
"So did I." Jason's voice scratched the inside of his throat. "I shot him. Twice."
Flicking open his phone Sonny gave Jason a scathing look. "Well, it looks like you messed up again, Jason." He hit a button and held the phone to his ear. "Where's Carly?" He listened to the voice on the other end, nodding quickly. "Get her home, now… extra guards… there's someone threatening her."
Jason picked up the king and looked at its headless body. There was something off about this. Something very very off.
The air was soft, warm. Elizabeth lifted her nose in the air and smelled fresh bread. It was a dream. It had to be a dream because just beyond the bread she smelled jasmine. One more deep breath and Elizabeth began to open her eyes… and slowly realized she couldn't.
She tried to touch her face, but found that her arms were heavy and unresponsive. She struggled as though she was drowning and trying to reach the surface of the water, but no matter how much she tried she remained still and immobile. Beyond the abject fear she felt she was vaguely aware of the sound of monitors, something like they had at GH. She heard the escalating beep beep of a heartrate monitor and hoped beyond hope that it was all just a trick of her mind and she was back home.
A door opened behind her head and a few people entered, their feet heavy on the floor, the sound echoing on the walls.
A hand, rough in touch and feel, brushed back her hair and a light was shone into each eye in turn. "Well," came in the insistent voice, "she'll come out of it?"
"Are you sure you gave her the prescribed dose?"
"I know what I did. Don't you question me!" The voice wasn't just angry, there was a twist of ice in the tone that shivered through Elizabeth's still form. "She'll be up and around soon enough, hmm?"
Some sort of muffled affirmation won a gruff laugh from the man near her head. "You can go until I'm done talking to Elizabeth."
Hope leapt in her heart. Whoever was in the room knew her… or at least her name.
A chair scraped across the floor and came to rest beside her bed. The same hand that had nearly scratched the skin of her forehead took her hand in his. "You're finally where you should be Elizabeth. You're with family."