An Act of Finality-Sylaire-Part 5

[black_hat]

“I knew there was something like that inside of you,” he said, clasping her hand as if binding a contract. “Call it intuition, but I sensed it in the way you work. Your reactions are every action are…interesting to say the least. But aren't you the victim, really? Having to endure anything and everything with no marks to show for it, with a power most people would kill to get. Your family took advantage of your situation. Let’s not go further into that. The police are looking for you, but they don’t know exactly what they are looking for. And when they find you, a government agency with no initials will lock you in a cage like an animal and experiment on you.”

 

She shook her head, refusing that past. He was planting thoughts in her head, is all. Hopefully not literally, at any rate. “With the probes that they borrowed from the Martians when they visited, huh. Yikes.”

 

He looked mildly offended. Well, mildly was putting it…mildly. “I’m telling the truth. And with you as the patient, well…I wouldn’t be surprised if one of your rescuers decided to play doctor.”

 

“Hey, you lied about your name,” Claire said, pulling her hand away. “First strike and you’re out.”

 

“What’s in a name?”

 

“Everything.” She bent down, looking under the car seat for her rogue shoe.

 

“I agree.”

 

“So out of curiosity…my so-called ability is to hurt other people and waltz away.”

 

“Actually, you can help others, if you tried. Hey, you fixed me. That counts for something.”

 

“What-?”

 

Great, he was out the door, and there wasn’t a shoe in sight. He watched her with that odd half smile, savoring something, and then the door let go. Rather than scramble out, she practically tumbled out.

 

Claire hurried to her feet, embarrassed.

 

“For a moment, you looked like one of those silly Garfield things. You know, that people stick on their car windows…”

 

She stared.

 

“Oh, don’t tell me that they don’t have Garfield in the great state of Texas.” This little tidbit was said in a flawless accent.

 

“I wouldn’t know,” she said, bitter. He shrugged, grinning like a jackal.

 

“Wait, give me my shoe back. Come on, cough it up.” She held out her hand and waited, like a mother would when she demanded her child spit out the gum he had been chewing during church. 

 

“Oh, that. I assume your shoe was on your foot.”

 

“Well?”

 

“Look, I couldn’t find it. It didn’t seem to matter at the time.”

 

“Fine, hide it, then. See if I care. I’m still going in.”

 

Claire started across the parking lot, with him trailing behind her. “Is it really so hard to believe that you are a killer?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, it is,” she huffed, trying to think of how to alert the cops inside that she was in trouble without tipping him off.

 

“When you nearly got those people killed tonight. I see.”

 

“I didn’t hurt the guy. If they want, they can just fine me for his soiled underwear.”

 

“Oh, but I would have hurt him. If any one of them had actually stuck out their necks, I would have decapitated them.”

 

“What?!” She stopped cold.

 

“You would have left me no choice. You can’t tell me that the possibility of their deaths didn’t cross your mind.”

 

“That wasn’t part of the deal!”

 

“As I recall, you never asked what would happen when you drug that poor, lone soul into our business. Why didn’t you ask? After all, you’re a smart girl…so full of questions about yourself. Why didn’t it cross your mind to ask after the suburbanites?” he asked, his voice full of bewilderment.

 

Before, she could have detected if he was being false or not. Claire opened her mouth to explain herself but found that she couldn’t. He leaned down to whisper in her ear.

 

“Between you and me, Claire-bear, that’s how a killer’s mind works. So tell me: how does it feel to be a monster?”

 

Something caught in her throat. She turned back to the police station and walked toward it as if she was in a dream. Tears were in her eyes, but she couldn’t cry. She seemed as unable to express real emotion as he was.

 

 

 

“It’s not like I blame you. It’s so easy to slip into, and nobody told me. That’s why I never thought about it, either.”

 

He caught her arm. “You’ll need this.” Something was pushed down on top of her head, and she thought, a little hysterically, that it was a ski mask. It turned out to be only a harmless baseball cap.

 

“On second thought,” she began.

 

“Ladies first.” He opened the door, motioning for her to go in, and if she didn’t, then the police would notice them. She walked in.

 

She oscillated between relief and disappointment. The fluorescent lights inside this place made everything stark and cold. It was possible that people could exist outside her pain and terror, and go on with their lives. But what had she expected, the world to stop?

 

“Like clockwork.”

 

He tapped her on the shoulder and pointed. First she looked at him, consumed by curiosity. What would a shadow man look like in real life time? He did lose a certain something, seeming to shrink without pitch blackness around him. Perhaps it was the inch deep circles under his eyes. It was like being afraid of the crouching figure in the corner of the room, only to turn on the lights and find out it was your favorite jacket in a bundle. That incidently sprang to life and put you in a strangle hold, anyway.

 

Then Claire looked at the buletin board and frowned.

 

“I don’t see anything. Unless you think I bear a resemblance to that bearded guy.”

 

“God, you are short.”

 

He placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head up. Her face stared back at her.

 

“Person under suspicion…is that what they’re calling it nowadays? Have to say, that’s not the picture I would have chosen for you. A cheerleading murderer sends out mixed signals.”

 

She didn’t much care about that. What she cared about was that there was no air. Her face swam in front of her as she tried to learn how to breathe again and failed. Person under suspicion in the disappearance. Person under.

 

Huge, black dots appeared before her eyes, seeming to eat up the light in the room. Maybe they were in her head, why she couldn’t remember.

 

She must have swayed backwards because he grabbed her suddenly and ushered her out the door. Something was hissing, and she wasn’t sure why the earth was shaking.

 

“Breathe, breathe, you little bitch, you don’t get to quit on me that easily!”

 

Ah, it was him. He was seething again, in and out of her vision, and he was a fury, shaking her from side to side. Possibly he was about to break her arms. More than that. He was afraid.

 

“I…heart attack,” she choked out.

 

“Statistically impossible!”

 

She was thrown into the backseat of the car, and before she knew it, they had spun out onto the main highway. She thought she heard something heavy slid around in the trunk, and her windpipe narrowed to what felt like the circumference of a dime in response. Blue lights reflected in the windows.

 

“G-god.”

 

“Just breathe. You can’t pass out in your condition. I don’t know how that would work yet.”

 

 He rolled down the window and stuck a hand out. For one crazy moment, she thought he was casually motioning for the police to go around. Then he stopped the car. Claire struggled to sit up, and managed to see a squad car go sailing by, unable to stop, and heading into oncoming traffic. She closed her eyes.

 

Something pushed against the back of her throat, and there was a flare of red pain. She gasped. She could breathe again. In its place, there was an assortment of other pains. She had been clawing at her throat, for one pain, but the pain in her mind was much worse.

 

“So much for keeping a secret, huh? Oh well."

They were already spiraling back towards the expressway, so there was no time for her to turn around and see if there were any survivors. All of that…over her freakout.

 

“Good thing I froze the video cameras in the parking lot beforehand, or else I’d have to stop this little adventure early.”

 

“How could you? You could have just gotten away…I…”

 

“Claire, Claire, Claire,” he sighed. “I can’t help faulty breaks. It happens.”

 

At her look, he changed his tune. “You shouldn’t have caused such a little scene. And after I had just told you about involving people in our business.”

 

“He survived, I…he may be okay.”

 

“When their heart stops, it means they’re dead. Usually.”

 

“But that guy at the window…got a good look..”

 

She remembered a thump of something hitting the floor in that house. Then, she had believed the pervert had just ducked out of sight. Now, if he could cut breaklines, then he could just as well…

 

He smiled at her in the mirror.

 

“What can I say, Claire, you’re a heartbreaker.”