The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 159 (Spencer's Nightmare)

Spencer tugged on his tie as he stood behind the prosecutor's desk in the large Seattle courtroom. On this day, December 18th, 2011, a finality would be reached in one of his first cases. A sixty four year old man had been accused of murdering his neighbor over an issue regarding their fence. The one thing that stunned Spencer was the last name of the man, similar to his. Granted, he and his father both changed their names legally to Benson, due to the fact that Robert's adoptive parents were Henry and Veronica Benson. Humorously, Spencer thought his granddad ought to change his last name to Davidson, but Tyrone would never go for it.

Mitchell Shay was a somewhat frail looking elderly man with a white goatee and thin, wispy white hair. His eyes were cold and violent, as if there were an even more extensive history behind the things this man had seen than the legal system even knew about.

He looked over to the defense and saw Mitchell sitting in wait, his jaw was locked tight and his face held no emotion whatsoever. "I would like to call to the stand, Jesse Martinez." Jesse Martinez was the gardener for Lucas Raymond, the man who had been gutted with a knife and had a .38 caliber bullet carefully placed in between his eyes. It was a sad fate for a 28 year old man with little respect for the elderly, as far as Mitchell was concerned.

Jesse was a medium sized man with an olive complexion, he had stunning brown eyes and thin lips. He walked to the bailiff, spoke the sacred oath, and walked to the stand. Spencer could see the fear in the man's eyes, and that was to be expected, he had been there when the murder took place. "Mr. Martinez." Jesse moved his eyes to Spencer and watched as he moved to the witness stand. "What were you doing on afternoon of July 21, 2009?"

"I was trimming Mr. Raymond's hedges like I did every Tuesday. There was nothing unusual about that day. Except one thing…"

"What was missing?"

"His neighbor usually was out trying to start an argument. You see, Mr. Martinez had several trees which had branches crossing over into the other yard. Nuts and leaves would constantly fall down, this was the source of his neighbor's arguments. "

"Where these arguments frequent?"

"Yes sir, every time I was there, I saw them fighting." Spencer slowly nodded and paced a bit to the left, rubbing his chin in thought. As he peered over to Mitchell, a bead of sweat traveled down his nose. Mitchell slowly looked at him and he froze up with fear, for a split second his eyes met true evil. Those pale blue eyes seemed as though they could kill a man in an instant. He quickly turned away and focused his attention back to Jesse.

"Now on this day, did you notice anything out of order?"

"Yes."

"What was this disorder that you noticed?"

"Mr. Raymond's front door was open." Spencer clasped his hands together and spoke up just a bit more, hoping to get a bit of excitement flowing in.

"What did you do when you saw the door ajar?"

"I entered, thinking something might be wrong. That's when I saw him."

"Saw who?"

"That man." Jesse pointed to Mitchell and Spencer felt a sudden cold chill down his spine. He cracked his neck slightly and closed his eyes.

"You saw Mitchell Shay in your boss's house? What was he doing?"

"He was hovering over Mr. Raymond with a knife…cutting a hole in his stomach. I-I ran, I hid, I was afraid he would come after me." Mitchell growled and Spencer once more felt an odd sensation, as though there were a demon in the room.

"I see." Spencer moved his arms forward and faced the jurors. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you Jesse Ramirez." Spencer pointed his hand, palm up, towards Jesse, then pointed his index finger at Mitchell. The old man didn't flinch, he didn't budge from his seat. "Witnessed that man kill his boss over a dispute regarding land. You've heard the evidence, you've heard the case." He paced down the booth, holding his hands behind his back. "A bullet wound to the forehead, stabbing his stomach. You saw the pictures, entrails lying in…a pool of blood…You have a witness statement placing this man at the scene of the crime. This man, who has had a history of violence with this neighbor. It is now up to you to decide if this man is guilty of a crime or if he walks free."

Mitchell moved his eyes to the side and huffed as Spencer started to walk back to his desk. "I give you one final, one chilling piece of evidence, picked up by the sheriff." He picked up a cassette recorder and handed it to the judge, who proceeded to play it.

It was a confession to a police officer, all was silent as Mitchell's cold voice echoed through the air. "Did I kill? Yes, I have killed before. Did I kill that young man? Yes. He had little respect for elders, someone had to teach him to respect his elders. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I kill again? Yes. There are several things I have done in the past, several attempts I have done. What those were, you will never know. I will never tell you and nobody else will. Do I care? I'm a sixty something year old man, I'll die soon enough. What do I care if you put me in prison? What do I care I die right here, right now? Just know that everyone gets what they deserve eventually. That boy did. I enjoyed cutting open his gut, I enjoyed shooting that pistol into his head…"

The judge cut off the recording as the occupants of the courtroom tried to shake off the cold air. Spencer slowly sat down at his desk and closed his eyes as the Judge ordered the jury to deliberate. It didn't take long for them to reach a verdict and come back out. One member of the jury, the spokesman, read off their card.

"We the members of the jury do find the defendant guilty of first degree murder." Mitchell bowed his head as Spencer wiped his brow with a napkin, he was glad the trial was over. He smiled as the judge ordered Mitchell be put away for thirty years without possibility of parole. A feeling of euphoria rushed over him, an unexplainable feeling of joy seemed to hit him, as if he'd just avenged more than just this one murder victim. He beamed with pride as the judge slammed down the gavel and the officers led Mitchell away.

As Spencer walked out of the courthouse, Sasha came running up to him and hugged his neck. He looked into her warm, loving eyes and gently kissed her lips. He felt so much freedom and happiness from her. After all the tension, after all the evil that seemed to radiate from that man, he needed a familiar and caring face. "How was the trial baby?"

"It was hell. I told you that guy had the same last name as I did? I'm sure it was coincidental, but Jesus…he was creepy as hell. I mean, I was scared of him!"

"Well don't be, you have nothing to worry about baby. The case is over, you'll never have to see that guy again."

"Hopefully." She lowered her hand to his and tugged gently, walking with him. He breathed in and smiled at her. "You look amazing today, by the way." She blushed lightly as she rested her head upon his shoulder. "You know, that case reminds me. Nobody's found Lionel yet, I hope he's not still out there."

"No one knows where he is, but yeah, people are out looking for him. If he slips up, you know he'll be found."

"Remember what Carlos told Mom? Lionel isn't the type of person to slip up. I'm also a bit worried, he's getting older too…what if…what if he decides to break his pattern? Don't serial killers do that? Usually once their M.O. is found, but…if he's going after the 'evil' in the Shays, then…"

"Ah don't worry about it baby, let's just go home and rest, okay?" He smiled back at her and put his arm around her waist. "I love you."

"I love you." As they walked, Spencer saw a group of women eyeing them. Some were familiar, such as the girl from the supermarket that never liked him. She had stars in her eyes. There was Miss Fielder, from the local park community center. He shrugged and gazed confidently ahead of them as he and Sasha walked past the women drooling over him. Sasha slowly glared at them and they quickly looked away. He smirked and shook his head as he made his way into the car.

When they made it to their home, Sasha decided to work on making dinner while he leaned back in his bed to take a nap. When he closed his eyes, he immediately began to drift off into a lucid sleep.

Spencer moaned as he awoke, his vision was slightly cloudy on the edges, but he could see well in front of himself. He was in a dark room and heart was beating rapidly. His breathing was raspy and his body covered in sweat. Something wasn't right, where was he? He moaned and quickly threw his hand to his throat, his voice was a lot deeper than usual! The touch of his fingers was odd as well, wrinkly it seemed.

How was that possible? He moved his hands in front of his face and stared at the backs with wide astonishment, he had white hairs! He screamed out and took a look around, finding himself stuck in a cell with iron bars and a window with iron bars, clearly a prison cell.

As he dashed from the prison bed and to the sink, he stared in the mirror and let out a shuddering moan. He was inside the body of Mitchell Shay! He screamed out and his eyes flew to the calendar. The month was January, each day was marked with an X to signal the passing of time. His eyes froze on the date, January 13th, 2012 was circled in red. It was Friday the 13th, the first of the year.

Outside the cell, a young guard stared in at him, his eyes were narrow in a cold glare. "Shay! The warden would like a word with you!" He knew the name of this prison, it was a very cold place that he, or Mitchell, had been transferred to. He hadn't behaved well in the last prison and requested to be moved to a prison within the state he'd lived in for so long before, Idaho. He was now in an small town prison.

He let the guard grab his arm and pull him roughly from the cell. As he walked along, he felt an overwhelming, overpowering sense of dread. He'd not met the warden there before, not personally. All he knew was he was an elder man, just a couple years younger than he was.

As the guard pushed him through the door and shut it behind him, his body seemed to shake as he eyed the back of a leather chair. On the oak desk was the warden's name: Leo Benne. Next to the brick was a large hourglass. The walls were bleak and dark and the ominous feeling of death filled the air. Why?

He'd heard rumors about this prison, about this town. It was a corrupt town. Sure, crime didn't slide, but the police could literally do whatever they felt like. This prison was bad for it. Prisoners were known to 'disappear' from the prison for good. The warden would allow a prisoner some time to go wherever, the only one to know where would be the officer taking the prisoner. The officer would then return, the prisoner's body would never be found.

"There's a lot of evil here, Mitchell." He swallowed as the warden spun his chair around. Mr. Benne had his right leg crossed over his left and was leaning back, his fingertips pressed against each other in his lap. He had a slightly balding head with very light, thin brown, almost grey hair combed back. His face had mild wrinkles, frown lines creased his lips, and his ferocious eyes rested deep within his sockets. Those eyes seemed to hold a lot of danger, death, history and age.

"Yes there is, Mr. Benne."

"I assume you've heard the rumors of my prison? It is depressing. I can assure you, I've never had anything to do with a prisoner's disappearance before."

"Never?"

"Correct. It is the guards that they give me."

"Why don't you do anything about them?"

"Have you seen this town? There's no replacing the guards…the mayor won't do shit and the police chief doesn't care about the prisoners. Honestly I am growing weary of it. However, I can see the chief's concern with…cleansing…the evil."

"Yes." Mitchell's eyes turned to the hourglass, the sand was falling down quickly. Mr. Benne's eyes moved over and his frown marks deepened.

"Time is running out Mr. Shay. Please tell me, I am interested…I thought all you Shays were gone?"

"Huh? No."

"No? Surely I do not consider that lawyer that put you away, Spencer. Hell, his father was adopted. I am concerned with his grandfather, however. I do know that Tyrone Shay was born from a very evil man, Devlin Shay."

"Yes, that is true. However, there was another lineage. Brandon's sister." Mr. Benne's eyebrows rose curiously as he tilted his head to the side. "She was assaulted by the drunkard bastard brother of that Davidson patriarch. She had a son. This was written off in history because our cousin, Keyton, was apparently good and he decided to keep that line unspoken of."

"I see…so tell me…on down this line of Shays…I presume them to be evil."

"Straight to my son, Bana." He smirked deviously and Mr. Benne's eyes narrowed. "We've all tried to slaughter the Davidson family, and now I'm here, so you got nothing on me."

"No, that is true. Your entire line is filled with blood, death, the stench of evil." Mr. Benne rose to his feet and slowly opened his drawer. "Serial killers. Do you know of Keyton's son?"

"Not entirely, no."

"Lionel Shay, he's a serial killer who has stalked the Shay family. Every ten years, he strikes." The dark feeling started to rise up again as he began feeling a bit more uncomfortable. He swallowed hard and glanced at the calendar. "As early as 1963, actually…Brandon Shay was on his deathbed…" Mr. Benne reached into the drawer and Mitchell's heart began beating harder still as realization slowly dawned on him. "Striking on a Friday the 13th, he opted to cleanse the Shay line of evil."

"Mr. Benne? What are you reaching for?"

"Gun." His blunt tone struck Mitchell hard as he watched the man pull a steel pistol from the drawer. "The last death was his own sister, back in 2003, Connie Shay. He took pity upon her, spiking her drink with a sleep aid and pushing her body into a lake. His first kill, Brandon, isn't very known. Only because he was thirteen years old when it happened…he was turning fourteen in just a couple days. He was speaking to his great grandfather when the 90 year old man confessed to all the crimes the Shay family did. That's when he snapped and put pressure on the life support tube, causing Brandon Shay to have a heart attack. From that point, he vowed to rid the world of the Shays. At all cost, he just had to wait a few years."

"Whoa…" He watched as the warden checked the bullets in the gun. "How do you know this? I mean…" He wasn't afraid, he was an old man anyway. If he was to die, he'd die.

"Hm? Oh, I'm Lionel." His face drained of its color as Lionel shifted his eyes up and smirked. "Yes, I am a prison warden. No, I have only ever killed members of the Shay family, so any prisoner that has vanished from this prison has not been under my watch. Now you see, when I heard of your trial and I learned that there were more Shays around, I realized something…I couldn't bide my time anymore. The Shays would continue and I would eventually pass on before my job was done. I can't let that happen, but I will still bide my time some. I prefer to stick with Friday the 13th, no other date will do."

"How the hell have you not been found out?"

"I'm very meticulous, very careful. I get the job done, typically in one strike, and I make sure it's clean. You? Here's the plan. You'll be shot and killed. The guard outside will then take your body to the prison furnace where you will be properly burnt to ashes. Goodbye Mitchell Shay." His eyes widened as Lionel slowly pointed the gun to his right temple. He moved his eyes to the hourglass and whimpered slightly as the last few bits of sand began seeping through. "You're out of time." His body flinched and the last thing he felt was blood oozing down the side of his face. The last thing he saw was his vision fading to black as he crashed to the ground.

Spencer awoke in a sweat and was breathing heavily. Sasha ran into the room and reached his side. "Spencer, what's wrong? I heard you scream!"

"I-I don't know, I can't tell you what just happened…" She sat next to him and hugged him, hoping to comfort him. He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes, then tentatively touched the side of his head. He felt no blood, so clearly it was a dream, but it felt so damned real. "It was just a nightmare, Sasha. A bad nightmare."

"Yeah, you're okay and I'm right here. Don't worry about anything, you're safe." He chuckled nervously and closed his eyes, he was certain it meant nothing, but the face of that man sure as hell stuck with him.

"Some guy that looked like fucking Hannibal Lecter…shot me in the temple with a gun…and a guard threw my body into a furnace."

"Ouch." He felt her shiver and quickly lift him up. "Okay, don't think anything of that. Dinner's almost done anyway. Are you hungry?"

"Yep!" Food seemed to be great for instantly taking his mind off of that dream, it was just what he needed. Hopefully he could forget the looks of that man, that cold and calculating man.

So Lionel Shay. Well, that was just a nightmare, wasn't it? I guess we'll have to see, come the first Friday the 13th of the year. Now it's known to Spencer that there are other Shays out there besides Tyrone and Lionel.