"Well shit," Athena grunted as she looked at the pathetic man tied up in front of her. "How the hell did he come back to life?"
"Well, I'm assuming the exchange was reversed. Ruuxa told me that she put Marty's life into another one of Barnaby's creations. So that monster must have died. And now… here we are." Victor and Athena stood with crossed arms over Sanguine, who was now perfectly alive, though severely wounded from the multiple bullets that he took on Halloween night. He was still bound and gagged, fortunately. Athena had a vision that he was no longer dead, and so the two of them went to check it out for themselves.
"You know what this means," suggested Athena. Victor looked at her, unsure of the answer. "If Barnaby was the one who killed that beast, he did it intentionally to get his father back. He knows we have Sanguine. He's probably on his way to retrieve him and likely to put an end to you, Victor. I can see it happening right now."
"As if I'd let that happen." He forcefully slammed the trunk door closed and picked the appropriate key ring off the hook on the garage wall. "Go. Take him anywhere. Just get him away from here."
"You're certain about this, Victor?"
"Yes. I'll stay here and make sure Lura and Jacob are safe. If Barnaby does come back, I'll be well protected. He doesn't even have his gun anymore." They both smiled as they remembered how swiftly that all worked out. "You just make sure Sanguine is as far away as possible, and leave no trail. It's going to start raining soon. The weatherman called it a torrential downpour. Will you be alright?"
"Hey, I'd rather drive in some heavy rain than be responsible for protecting two other people." Athena took the keys and headed into the car. "Victor. Protect yourself. And protect Lura. She's become very unstable lately." He nodded and headed back into the house. Athena started the car, opened the garage door, and sped off, not sure where exactly she was going.
"Barnaby, I got some painkillers for you." Julius didn't even bother knocking anymore. At this point he and Barnaby were the only two on the train anyway. It's not as if Barnaby would have to ask who it was. The ringmaster was lying on his bed and very carefully turned his head to look at the other man, but he didn't respond. Julius took that as a welcoming invitation and walked over to his bedside, popping a few pills in his hand.
"More," Barnaby grunted. Julius gave him a curious look, and the ringmaster gave a tiny nod. More pills were added to the pile, and soon made their way down Barnaby's throat.
"You're sure you don't want to go to the hospital? You could die, Barnaby. These are fourth-degree burns." He looked down cautiously at Barnaby's arms. They were black. The skin was completely charred in some places; in others, actual muscle was exposed. The fire ate away at his joints the most, and his bones were visible at his elbows and shoulders.
"What did I tell you, Julius? We can't risk exposing ourselves. We were fortunate enough to leave the scene of the crime when we did. The media is going crazy over that fire I started. Bizarre three-headed animal found charred to death. If I waltzed into the hospital like this, they would know I was involved. Now, let's get this done and over with." Julius sighed heavily as he prepared to do what he and Barnaby discussed before he headed out to the pharmacy. He grabbed onto Barnaby's left arm with both hands, cringing at the feeling of the singed flesh, and then wedged his foot into his armpit. With a forceful pull, Barnaby's shoulder joint was snapped in two, and like that the useless limb was no longer a part of his body. He hollered in pain as Julius quickly ran over to the other side of the bed to do the same thing to the other arm. The painkillers weren't doing much to ease the pain. Fortunately there wasn't much blood since the tissue had been dead for quite some time. Barnaby looked down at either side and winced at the emptiness.
"Alright, leave me be. Go do what I've asked you to do. You have that envelope? You know where to take it?" Julius nodded his head, looking over on Barnaby's desk to see that familiar file with the word CONFIDENTIAL written on it. "And once you've taken care of that, go do that other thing. Go get Sanguine."
The storm was at its worst at around eleven o'clock at night. At that point, Victor, Lura, and Jacob had just finished watching a movie together in the living room.
"Alright, Jake. I think it's time for you to head off to bed." The teenager grunted and dragged himself off the couch. The father and son hugged before Jacob went upstairs, both of them relieved to be able to do that once more.
"He's a good kid," Lura commented, polishing off the last of the popcorn. "Thanks for letting me join your movie night."
"Of course, why wouldn't I? Like I said, Lura, you're part of the family now." She smiled at him and got up to get herself a drink. "You want me to get you anything?"
"That's okay, I'll join you." He followed her into the kitchen, and while she rinsed the popcorn bowl in the sink, he grabbed two Heinekens from the fridge.
"Did you forget I'm pregnant?"
"Oh shit, I did actually. I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me."
"You don't have to apologize, Victor. It was a mistake. Sometimes I wish I'd forget about it, too." Both of them found a random object to look at as the awkward moment of silence passed. "Got any coffee? I'd kill for a little late-night pick-me-up…"
"Coming right up!" Lura sat down on the kitchen stool and watched him prepare the coffee maker. "You're not nervous, are you?" he asked. She looked at him confused, not sure how to respond. "That Barnaby might come here soon? You know I'll protect you, right?"
"Actually, part of me wants him to come. I have some things I want to say to him. And then I never want to see him ever again. Just one last interaction is all I need to put this behind me for good."
"How do you take it?" Victor asked, referring to the coffee.
"I'll just take it black," she said. He gave her a mug and poured a generous amount in it. She found herself seductively sipping the drink, but she didn't know why. It was so habitual of her to drink a beverage like that whenever she was around a guy. But there was no need to do this in front of Victor… right
Victor was totally aware of the sexy sipping and wasn't quite sure how to go about this. Would he want to be with her sexually? Absolutely. Who wouldn't? But Victor was a gentleman. The situation was just too bizarre to even consider acting upon it. She just ended her relationship with Barnaby over unimaginable reasons, and she could very well be carrying either his child or her son's. And his wife just gave up her own life so that he could have his son back. Too soon wasn't even close to describing it.
"I hate to sound like a scaredy cat, but would it be alright if you… maybe… slept in my bed tonight?" Lura couldn't believe she was just uttering those words. "Oh shit, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. Your wife just died, and then came back to life, and then died again…"
"Lura." He said her name so sternly that she felt as if she was being punished. "Are you asking if you want me to sleep with you, or sleep with you?"
She bit her lip, afraid of revealing the correct answer. He then put down his coffee mug, walked over to her, and kissed her.
"Bedroom. Now." Lura managed to hiss out those words before Victor excitedly picked her up and carried her upstairs.
"Am I a whore?" Lura asked, looking blankly up at the ceiling as Victor nestled his face onto her chest.
"Is this pillow talk?" She smacked him lightly on the back of the head.
"I'm serious. I mean, I did work in a brothel because it was the only thing I was good at. And I really only fell in love with Barnaby because he was good in the sack. Looking back now I wish I never worked at that place. I never would've met Barnaby and I never would've gotten myself in this mess."
"Yes, but then you also never would've ended up here," Victor said, picking up his head to stare into her eyes. His hand found hers and they interlocked fingers.
"I feel so safe with you," she whispered. "No man has ever made me feel that way before."
"No woman has ever told me that before." The two of them cuddled some more as the lightning and thunder raged on outside. "Lura, there's a difference between what you used to do and what we just did. We were making love, it was more than just sex."
"I honestly don't think I've experienced that before. Not even with Barnaby. He was always so visceral."
Suddenly they heard glass shattering downstairs. Lura was startled immediately and clenched onto Victor. "It's him, I know it is. Leave it to Charles Barnaby to attack us right after I've fucked another man." Even Lura herself was surprised that she was able to make light of that situation.
"Shh, I doubt that was Barnaby. Stay right here. I'll be right back." Victor got out of bed, put on some boxers and a robe, and found one of his golf clubs in his closet. Lura got dressed while he was still in the room and then hid under the covers once he left.
Victor slowly crept his way down the stairs, golf club in hand, and immediately noticed that one of his back windows was shattered. The wind from the storm howled into the room, and papers started flying all around, getting soaked by the incoming rain. Victor sighed out of relief, assuming some rock or other flying object crashed in from the storm currents. He scuffled over to the window to assess the damage, not even noticing the hooded figure standing right outside.
Julius took this as the time to strike and crashed his whole body into the window, sending Victor backwards.
Lura, upstairs, heard the second shattering sound and hurried over to the door so she could hear what the commotion was all about.
"Where is Sanguine? Where is Sanguine? Where is Sanguine?" Julius repeated the question over and over again, kicking Victor each time he asked it. The mayor managed to get up and retrieve his golf club, while Julius found some glass shards and wielded them in his hands like knives.
"Barnaby sent you, didn't he?" Victor looked at the intruder, whose face was now exposed as the hood fell back during their scuffle. He wasn't quite sure if he ever remembered seeing this man before. He didn't see him on Halloween night. Maybe he saw him the night Barnaby gave him Ellen's body. Regardless he was definitely here on Barnaby's behalf in order to retrieve his father. "It's a shame the poor bastard couldn't come do it himself. What is he, too afraid?"
"No. He physically can't do this himself."
"And why is that?"
"I'm not here to play twenty questions, man! I'm just here to get the clown. Where is he?"
"Let's think about this for a minute. You want me to tell you where the clown is, and if I don't, you're going to stab me to death with glass shards." Julius didn't know how to answer him, so he just continued to stare at him menacingly, glass in hand. "Isn't that a bit foolish? I'm the only one who knows where he is. You need to keep me alive, my friend."
"Bullshit. I know you're not alone here. Lura's here, too, isn't she?"
Lura heard her name from upstairs and covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her scream. Victor you better lie, she silently told herself. If you tell him I'm here, we're both dead.
"No, she isn't." Without a warning, Julius came slashing at Victor and sliced his arm. While Victor reacted sharply to the pain, the lion tamer knocked the golf club out of his hand and forced the mayor onto the floor. Hearing Victor scream caused Lura to panic and she rushed down the hall to Jacob's room. The boy was sleeping but she shook him awake, careful not to startle him too much and cause him to wake up loudly.
"Jacob, come with me."
"What's going on?" Before she could even reply, the power went out.
The rain was getting worse and worse. Athena thought it would be a rough storm, but she didn't imagine anything like this. The lightning flashed nearly every ten seconds, and it still startled her every single time. She tuned to a decent radio station and blasted it as loud as she could to drown out the booming thunder surrounding her.
By midnight the rain was hitting so hard that the windshield wipers were doing absolutely nothing to help clear her line of vision. She eventually found a service station on the side of the road and parked there for a while until the rain started to die down. In the interim she took a nap.
About fifteen minutes later, Lura heard footsteps climbing the stairs. Oh God please be Victor. Please tell me he heroically killed that bastard. Please tell me he's headed up here so we can continue cuddling the night away. She peeked her head out into the hallway and nearly jumped when she saw Victor's face poke out from the stairwell. "Jesus, you asshole, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" She tiptoed over to him, but stopped instantly when she got there and realized he still hadn't moved. Then Julius revealed himself at the top of the stairs, hiding behind Victor's unconscious—or was it dead—body like a ventriloquist. Lura screamed and did what instinct told her to do: kick Julius square in the gut. The lion tamer fumbled over and lost his footing, and as a result he went tumbling down the stairs.
Lura couldn't believe how responsive she was in this scenario. She always expected herself to be the dumb blonde that ended up tripping or running into a dead end when the killer came around in the horror movie. But surprisingly, she was acting appropriately. The first thing she did after kicking Julius down the staircase was drag Victor into Jacob's room, making sure Julius couldn't tell which room she was going into. She locked the door behind them and shoved Jacob's dresser in its way. After all of that effort she was admittedly exhausted.
Jacob, meanwhile, was kneeling down at his father's side, panicked the minute he saw Lura dragging him into the room. "Is he dead?" he asked frantically.
Lura shushed him and knelt beside him. Putting two fingers to Victor's throat, she patiently waited to find his pulse. "He's alive. I think Julius must've knocked him out or something." She winced as she noticed the big lump on the side of his head where he likely received a tough blow.
"What do we do? Is he trying to kill us?"
"No, Jacob, we'll be okay. We just have to stay quiet so he can't find us. He's just looking for something that isn't here. If we just give him some time to snoop around the house, he'll eventually learn that what he's looking for isn't here, and he'll leave." Her maternal instinct was kicking in and she caressed the boy's face. Jacob didn't quite know how to react to that, but he was too afraid to be worried about that at the moment.
"Well, what if he thinks that the thing he's looking for is locked in here with us? He could come breaking the door down and attack us!"
Lura's face turned pale. "Shit, I didn't think of that." How did a thirteen-year-old outsmart her?
Athena woke up with a fright after hearing a loud thud. She looked out the windshield and noticed a squirrel had fallen out of the tree above her and onto the car. The little creature was just as terrified as she was, and it quickly scampered off the hood of the car and back up the tree.
It was still raining, though not as bad as it had been. Athena turned the car back on and pulled out of the service station and back onto the highway.
She continued on for several miles, still driving aimlessly, when she started to see a bright light flashing in her rear view mirror. Probably just someone's headlights, she thought to herself, ignoring it. The thought caused her check her own dashboard to make sure her car's headlights were on. They were.
About a minute later she started to see the lights again, this time almost growing with intensity. She adjusted her mirror to see if she could get a better look at who was behind her. Except when she did, she discovered that there wasn't a single car behind her. In fact, she was the only car on the entire road. Only Athena Dwyer would be crazy enough to drive in this horrific storm at three in the morning.
Athena started to fear that she was losing it, because the light kept appearing, disappearing, and then reappearing over and over again. Yet there was nothing behind her that could possibly be creating such a light.
Then she remembered. A fellow psychic once told her that those who foresee the future see their own end as a bright light appearing in the distance. As the time draws nearer and nearer to death, the light shines brighter and brighter until it consumes their entire line of vision. Athena began to tremble. Is this truly the end for me? How? Why can't I see the way I'm going to die? At least that way I can brace myself for it. She assumed it would be due to hydroplaning into a tree or getting struck by lightning.
Not once did she stop to assume the possibility that Sanguine managed to break free of his restraints and sneak his way into the back seat while she was taking her nap. Not once did she stop to assume the possibility that Sanguine managed to find a wire coat hanger in the back seat from an old dry cleaning bag and was using it to strangle her from behind in a sneak attack. Not once did she stop to assume the possibility that Sanguine risked both of their lives in that instant, as she lost control of the vehicle entirely, being more concerned about fighting for her life than keeping her car in her lane. Athena fought as hard as she could, but Sanguine pulled at her throat with all his might. Eventually the wire started to slice into her skin, and the white light took over more and more of her vision. Before long, it all went black. The wire slipped right through her neck like a knife through butter.
It was nearing five o'clock. Jacob had fallen asleep about a half hour ago on top of his father, who still hadn't come to. Lura was sitting on the bed, flipping through the books on Jacob's shelves. It was obvious that the kid was into magical mysteries a while ago, but now that he was entering his teen phase, that fad was quickly dying out. He still kept the books and comics hidden away in a drawer, as if to hide them but not permanently. She skimmed the pages, not exactly reading them, but thinking of what it would have been like to raise a son like Jacob. What would it have been like to raise a son all the way to thirteen years of age? Lura told herself that she missed that opportunity, but then she reminded herself that a new one was present. She rubbed her still flat tummy. Abortion is always an option. She had been repeating that word over and over again in her head ever since she found out she was pregnant. The more she repeated it, the more the word began to lose its meaning. The impact of it at first was so severe. But now she was able to think of it nonchalantly. There was no longer an effect behind it. And to Lura, that meant the action behind the word wouldn't have an effect on her. If I survive this night, she thought, I'll go through with it.
She realized about twenty minutes later that they had been locked away in that room for hours now. Julius surely had to have left already. There would be no reason for him to be here for this long to look for a person. How incredibly easy is it to find a whole human?, she thought. It's not like we stuffed him into a jewelry box or something.
Lura quietly got out of the bed and hopped over to the door. Moving the furniture away from the door proved to be a rather loud task, no matter how hard she tried to keep it quiet. Jacob rose after hearing the ruckus. "Where are you going?"
"It's been like four hours already. I'm going down there to see if he's gone. I'll be all right, Jacob, I can protect myself. Lock the door after I leave, okay?" The boy nodded and let her exit the bedroom. Following instructions, he locked the door the second she left and pushed the dresser back in front of it.
Lura tiptoed down the stairs, and it was in that moment that she saw a light flickering from the living room. Her heart pounded as she questioned what it could have been. It appeared to be some sort of candlelight. Was that Julius? Is he still in here looking for Sanguine? Lura then realized that she wasn't carrying anything to protect herself with, no golf clubs or baseball bats or anything. Regardless she continued to stand there and stare at the light, waiting to see if it moved; if it did, that meant Julius was carrying it around to make his way through the dark.
After at least a good minute or two she learned that the light wasn't moving, so she continued her way down the stairs. She had never been more afraid of anything in her entire life, and that included the day that she watched Barnaby kill her neighbor Andy and heard him announce that he had kidnapped her son.
When she finally entered the living room, the rapid beating of her heart seemed to stop instantly. That was it, she could no longer feel her heart beating. Because it was one think to think of that horrific moment when she killed Parker, her own child. It was another thing to see his dead body in front of her. He was mounted above the fireplace, with silver duct tape holding him up by his wrists and ankles, in the same pattern he was hanging up in Sanguine's dungeon. His body was a putrid green-purple color from the decay that had taken over. About eight or nine small candles circled his body on the floor, illuminating his body on display and creating ghastly shadows upon it. There was another piece of duct tape around his forehead like a sweatband, holding it up instead of allowing gravity to keep him facing downward. She stepped closer and noticed that masking tape was used to keep his eyelids open. He was staring right at her. Staring right at his mother. Staring right at his child's mother. Staring right at his murderer.
The most chilling part, however, was the fact that someone wrote on his chest and abdomen, in what appeared to be blood: "THIS IS FROM BARNABY." She read the message countless times in her head, knowing full well its simple meaning yet still not entirely able to grasp it at the same time.
"Oh, you've noticed my little home decorating, have you?" She turned around and saw Julius appear from the shadows. He was shirtless and sweaty, having apparently just finished putting the Parker display together. "Sorry for all the tape, it was all I could find. And I mean it was all I could find. I still haven't found Sanguine. This should be a fair deal now, Lura. I gave you your son back, now you give me what I'm looking for." Julius expected her to sob uncontrollably or scream in terror or cower at his creepy ultimatum. But she did none of that. She just stared at the man in front of her. "Lura, are you okay?"
"You think… you think this is some sick joke, Julius?" Lura then turned to the side and walked out of the room. She thought about what Barnaby told Julius to do. Give her Parker's body in exchange for Sanguine. As sick as Barnaby was, she doubted that he told Julius to do all this. All these theatrics. Tape him up and mount him like crucified Jesus. This was all Julius. Julius took advantage of the situation. He wanted to see her suffer.
"No, this isn't a joke," he replied, a little louder so she could hear him. "Get back here, Lura, we're not done yet."
With a blank expression still on her face, Lura wandered into the kitchen and found the biggest shard of broken glass she could find. "Okay, Julius. I'm in the kitchen." She heard his footsteps approaching and turned around, greeting him with an eerie smile. "Let's hash this out like adults, shall we?"