FOREVER MINE (34 page)

Brody gets out of the truck and looks around.  He doesn’t see anything that draws his attention so he proceeds walking through the tall grass.  He has already checked his gun; it is loaded and ready to go.  He brought along a rifle that is loaded with only one bullet; the bullet with his name scratched into the side.  He doesn’t plan on using it for anything other than killing Michael.  

He walks through tall grass, brown and dry from lack of maintenance.  The bugs flying around his head are driving him crazy.  He swats away an annoying gnat trying to make a meal of him.  He cringes as the sound of a stick breaking under foot snaps so loud it could wake the dead; and seems to echo into the next town.  The crickets stop chirping, he crouches down to hide in the weeds and make sure no one has heard or seen him.

Brody starts the slow, start and stop, walk to the side of the mill.  He finally gets to the side of the building and looks into a window.  It is covered in grime.  He spits on the window and wipes in a circular motion to clear a spot large enough for his face.  When he looks inside he sees a dark room with old equipment in it. 

Walking slowly and carefully he makes his way around the building looking in the windows as he goes.  He has found a living area, an office, and a bathroom, so far no sign of Charlie, or Michael for that matter.  There is no sign of anyone.

Turning another corner he hears a noise from inside.   As he gets closer he can hear Charlie screaming Michael’s name.  His heart breaks in two.  Her voice is agonized, haunted.  She screams again.  Brody follows the sound of her voice not looking where he is going.  He gets to a place where he can hear her the loudest and clearest and looks in the window, inside the building.

First thing he sees is some kind of weird greenhouse.  There are flowers everywhere.  He takes out his phone and snaps picture after picture, sending them to Patrick.  He moves to the next window and there she is, hanging from the ceiling by two very long chains.  She is bruised and bloody, screaming Michael’s name over and over with a crazy look in her eye. 

She is crying, and bleeding.  Her wrists are raw.  She stops yelling and goes deep inside herself.  Her eyes glaze over and she starts to cry.  He is just about to bang on the window when he hears something behind him.  He ducks down in the grass and waits.  Michael walks past, slowly.  He is whistling; turning the classic,
Have You Ever Seen a Dream
, into some spine-chilling rendition.  Brody shivers as chills travel up his vertebrae. 

When Michael walks far enough away Brody follows him.  He is moving quickly so Brody is forced to be less cautious, and walks faster.  He turns around the back of the building and looses him.  “Damn.”  He continues in the same direction, just as he feels the hairs stand up on the back of his neck, telling him someone is behind him, he is slammed in the head with something that brings him to his knees.

On his hands and knees, Brody looks up into Michael’s menacing face.  He smiles a big toothy smile.  “Hello, Brody.  You didn’t expect me to just let you walk in the front door, did you?”  He lifts a shovel onto his shoulder; the end has fresh blood on it, Brody’s blood.

Brody tries to make his mouth form words but it will not oblige.  He glares at his assailant, putting all the hate he feels into his eyes, and spits in his face.

Michael calmly wipes away the blood and saliva, and kicks Brody right in the face, knocking him out cold.  Grabbing his arms he drags him inside and waits to show Charlie her present.  He takes the gun from the waistband of his pants, never noticing the rifle Brody dropped in the tall grass outside.

Michael puts him in one of the empty rooms; zip ties his wrists and leaves the room.  He goes into his bedroom area and gathers some things he needs for the next part of his plan.  He lays a couple scalpels and knives on a surgical mat, rolls it, and heads off to Charlie.

                *********

Keller and French are following up a lead on one of the names given to them.  The name has led them to an address across the street from Charlie’s old apartment.  They are waiting outside for a search warrant to come.  It should be here any minute.

Patrick calls Keller and fills her in on where Brody is and what he is doing.

“I can’t wait this time I just want you to know where I am.”

“Patrick, you can’t just run in there without proper backup.”

“I have no option.  They have become friends.  I care what happens to them, and I know if we take too long getting to them, they will die and Michael will get away.”

“Did you tell Fitz what you’re doing?”

“No, I haven’t been able to get him on the phone, and I’m driving to the mill already.”

“Please be careful.  I will call the local PD and have them on standby.  When you get there if Brody or Charlie is in danger you call them and they will be there.”

“Thank you.”

“Just be careful, I kinda like ya, you big Irishman.  I would hate for anything to happen to you before I can get to know you better.”

He can hear the smile in her voice, “I will.  I don’t really think you can know me any better, you’ve seen all I got.” Laughing they say their see ya laters, and disconnect.

“We have to get a hold of Fitz.  He needs to send a team to the paper mill that was bought by Roger Warren.  Brody thinks Charlie is there and has gone after her.  Patrick thinks Michael is there and is going to kill both of them, so he is on his way there also.  I think if we screw this up Michael is going to get away with a lot of murders.”

On the third try Keller finally gets Fitz on the phone and tells him what is going on.  He tells them to get back to the house; he will have another team cover the apartment. 

When they arrive at the house, SWAT has already been updated on the current events and is ready to go.  A warrant was issued for the arrest of Michael Ryan Parker as of two hours ago.  Agent Fitzpatrick has been getting the team ready to move in on the paper mill.  They head out moving as quickly as possible.  It will take almost an hour to get there.  They are going in over the road rather than flying in a helicopter.  They are not taking a chance he will hear them coming and make a run for it.

Charlie is waiting for Michael to return.  She knows what her present is and doesn’t want it.  She knew her fate the moment Michael chased her into the alley that rainy, Friday night.  There was never any way for her to be free of him, other than dying.  All these years, all the other women, it was all practice for this moment.  She has lived her life in constant fear, and now she is bringing Brody down with her.

She has nothing left to fight for.  Brody will die and it will be her fault.  Even if Michael lets her live, she wouldn’t be able to carry around the guilt of his death, or the loneliness of him not being around anymore.  She hangs her head and cries.

When Michael comes back he is dragging a body behind him.  He tosses it on the floor at Charlie’s feet.  Brody is out cold.  His hands are bound and his head is bleeding badly.  His pale face makes her heart beat harder and a pain to form in the center of her chest.  It is worse than anything Michael has done to her. 

His eyes start to flutter open and Charlie whispers his name, “Brody.”

He moans and rolls to his side.  His eyes open and he sits up.  He looks at Charlie and stands slowly.  He walks over to her and puts his head against the sunken bare skin of her stomach.  She sobs when he touches her.  He runs his mouth along her side and she can feel his tears; wet and warm, falling along her skin.  “I’m so sorry Char; I failed you.  I can’t fix this.” He places a soft kiss on her hip, “I love you.”

“I love you.  I always have.”  The tears that pour from Charlie have no end.  She wants so badly to cling to him and make him feel better as they say their good-byes. 

“Isn’t this sweet?  You finished saying goodbye, I have things to do.”

He grabs Brody and sits him in a chair, attaching his ankles to the legs and undoes his wrists long enough for them to be reattached to the arm of the chair.  Then he turns to Charlie and smiles.  He walks over to her and runs his hands over and up her stomach, cupping her breast.  He watches Brody the whole time he does it.

“I am going to kill you, Michael.”  I look him in the eye when I say it; I can see he doesn’t believe me. 

“Charlie, I don’t think you are in a position to be making threats.”  He laughs under his breath as he walks over to his table of knives.  He whistles that song again.

“Why are you doing this, you have me let her go.”  Brody speaks and his voice is calm and I know he is thinking of some way out of this.

“I don’t want you.  I want Charlie, but she wants you, so you see the problem.  No matter what I do I lose.  If I kill you both I win.  Charlie will be forever mine.  I will always be the one who took her life.”

“Wow, you have completely lost your mind.  You kill us both and you turn us into a modern day Romeo and Juliet; the tragic love that never got to be.  People will talk about us forever.”  Brody looks very smug as he finishes his rant.

Michael walks over to him and holds a knife up to his face and slices it across his cheek.  A white line runs along his jaw, and then it turns red as blood rushes to the surface and spills over the edge, trailing down his neck.  He hisses at the pain but doesn’t yell out.

Charlie does though, “Stop it,
please
don’t hurt him.  I will do whatever you want, just let him go.”

“We are past that now, Charlie.  Neither of you are going anywhere.”  He walks back to her and runs the blade over her skin without drawing blood.  Then with no warning he plunges the knife into her side. 

The pain is unlike anything in this world.  It burns like fire.  I scream as he pulls the knife back out.  There is sweat forming on my lip and brow.  I am panting as my blood runs down my leg.

Brody is rocking the chair; trying to break free while yelling something I can’t hear, at Michael.  The whooshing in my ears and my erratic heart are the only sounds I hear.   I watch as Michael walks over to the table and picks up a small scalpel. He returns to my side and makes small incisions up and down my torso.  At some point the pain became so bad I blacked out. 

When I wake I have cuts all over me.  There is blood running down my body, pooling at my feet, and disappearing into the drain at my feet.  I look up and see Brody watching me.  He looks so bad.  Michael must have beaten him while I was out.  I look around frantically for Michael. He is standing off to my right, snipping flowers from his garden.  All black roses of course. 

He turns and I see the gun in his hand.  I shake from the terror of the realization that the end is near.  I am light headed already from blood loss, and neither of us can out run a gun while tied up.  I watch as he walks closer.  He lifts the gun and points it directly at Brody. 

“No, no, no, No Please no.”  I beg him.

Brody looks at me like I am the only person in the room.  He fills his eyes with all the love he has felt for me for all these long years.  The pain is gone, the sadness no more, just love and adoration.  He whispers to me, “I love you, you are forever mine.”  Then the gun goes off.  Brody is thrown backwards and the chair hits the ground with a bloody pool forming beneath him.

I screech, scream, and completely lose it.  I thrash my arms and legs and then all at once it hits me I may die but I have the power to say how.  I stop moving and go completely limp.  I watch Michael’s face as he realizes what I’m trying to do.  He drops the gun and runs to me.

“No, No, NO, Charlie, you can’t do this.”
 
He is trying to lift
my me
, so I can’t hang myself with the rope.  “I had this all planned out, if you do this you mess up my plan, I can’t have that.  All the preparation, all the others it has to be the same. 
You’re ruining it!
”  He is frantically trying to lift me but slipping in all the blood; on the floor and running down my body.

I can feel my heart slowing down, my body is trying to find air but there is nothing there.  He swears and takes the shackles off my ankles.  Next the chains come off my arms.  He lays me on the floor and breathes air into my mouth pushes on my chest.  I cough and choke as I bring air into my lungs.

I roll over on the ground and I come face to face with Brody lying in a puddle of blood, not moving.  I stare at him begging him to move.  He can’t be dead.  Michael walks over and kicks him, nothing.  No movement.  I cover my face with my hands and bawl.  I want to die.  I stand on shaky legs and move toward Michael, I grab a knife from the table.  I slice down my arm from elbow to wrist, and throw it at him.

He lurches toward me the rage apparent in his features.  He grabs my arm, just as the lights start flashing.  He looks around and drags me to a door on the other side of the room.  We exit into high dead grass that chafes my cut up body. 

All I want to do is lie down, I’m so weak every couple steps I stumble and fall.  Michael drags me through the grass.  I trip over something long and skinny; made of smooth metal on the ground.  I pretend to fall so I can see what it is.  I take hold of the barrel of a rifle.  My heart rate picks up and I am very aware that the tables have turned in my favor.  I lift the long barrel into my weak arms, turn and shoot.  The kickback from the rifle throws me on my ass.  I hit my head.  I don’t know if I got him, but I don’t care anymore as I let the darkness take me away; away from my lonely world without Brody.  I sigh and close my eyes.