WARNING: you know the drill, turn on/off the language filters, lock the door, descend to your bomb shelters, anything can happen in this chapter...
4.15 Comforting the Heir
Raven
Corleonesi's arrest was all over the news. Chris really wasn't lying and he actually arrested his father. How did it feel? Would I be capable of doing the same? I hated my father with passion for how he'd been treating me, for his lack of interest in me. I cried, I cursed his name too many times over the years, but I didn't think I had it in me to do what Chris did. All I ever wanted from the old reserved Henry Nightshade was to love me and be proud of me as he was of Thomas.
As it seemed all Chris wanted was that his father rotted in jail.
Corleonesi's arrest was all over the news. Chris really wasn't lying and he actually arrested his father. How did it feel? Would I be capable of doing the same? I hated my father with passion for how he'd been treating me, for his lack of interest in me. I cried, I cursed his name too many times over the years, but I didn't think I had it in me to do what Chris did. All I ever wanted from the old reserved Henry Nightshade was to love me and be proud of me as he was of Thomas.
As it seemed all Chris wanted was that his father rotted in jail.
My boss gave me a call, our photographer managed to get decent shots of the arrest and I was to write a front page article about it. Maybe I could get my boss something even better, another exclusive interview with the hero of the hour. And why not? I was at the source after all, I slept with him.
The tabloids would live off this story for months. The Son vs Father theme was too good. Finally there was something for everybody to write about besides boring social events and council meetings. On days like these I really loved my job.
I started working on my article. I thought of texting Chris and inviting him over, but it was already late and he never stayed overnight. Should I give a call to chief Johnson and congratulate him on the great success? If anything else wouldn't secure him the council chair, this would. Perhaps I could push a little and make him let me talk to Corleonesi for a few minutes. Now that would be something! As crazy as it may sound I'd always wanted to meet the man in person. I grew up seeing his wanted posters on every corner, hearing rumours about him and Beryl Heffner and reading the books in which the main male character had been supposedly based on him. For all I knew he could become my father-in-law one day. Shouldn't I at least go and say hi?
My thoughts were interrupted with a sound of a doorbell. Who could it be this late? I ran downstairs and saw a familiar figure through the door pane. Well, well, well, if I am not a lucky girl tonight...
"Hey," said Chris when I opened the door. "Is it okay if I crash at your place tonight?"
"Sure."
He came in and stood in my small kitchen looking around like he'd never been here before.
"Want something to drink or eat?" I asked.
He shook his head.
"Would you mind if we went upstairs? I've been working on something on my PC and I better save and close the file, just in case. Don't want to lose an hour's work."
He followed me, saying nothing at all as we climbed the stairs. The silence was getting awkward.
He sat down on my bed and waited for me to turn off the computer. "I saw the news," I said.
He sighed. "I thought you probably did."
"So? What was it like to see the old man again after all the years?"
He gave me a one shoulder shrug. Then a muscle on his jaw twitched. "Kellie was livid," he said a moment later. "I've never seen her mad like that before. She called me heartless! She defended him. Can you believe it?" He jumped to his feet and started pacing the room. "She kept saying that he loved me, as if it was enough to make all those dead he's been leaving in his wake disappear!"
I never liked Chris' adopted sister and I was never buying her "poor little girl" act. Now little miss Morality decided to be a pain in the neck of my lover. The same girl that had a crush on him when we were teenagers and attempted to suck his face on public. The memory still grossed me out.
"She met him only once! Once!" Chris ranted.
"She did?" I couldn't help but wonder when it occurred.
"Yes! Her image of him is highly distorted! And I had to have him arrested, my career depended on it!" My lover threw up his hands in frustration and then ran his fingers through his hair. Did he even realize how sexy the gesture made him look? I licked my lips.
"She doesn't uderstand, how important what you're doing is. You have great responsibilities to this town and to your family."
"Right? What a hipocrite I would be if I promised safety to our citizens while my own father, the biggest criminal of them all, was still at large?"
"You had no choice."
"I didn't." His anger seemed to be finally running out fuel.
"Did he resist the arrest? Was there any shooting?"
He blew out his cheeks. "No. He surrendered immediately. He was... calm the whole time." His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. Clearly the reunion with his father was nothing what Chris had expected.
"How many cops were there altogether?" I asked and reached for my pen and notepad as an idea of a brilliant phrase for the article sprang in my mind.
"Six at first, then Terry called the reinforcements, because of..." Chris trailed off as he noticed I was making notes. "What are you doing, Raven?" he asked, his tone suddenly ten degrees colder.
Shit. "Just making some notes for tomorrow's article," I said. There was no point in denying it.
"Are you interviewing me just now?"
It was my turn to do the one shoulder shrug. I didn't dare to look him in the eye though, instead I outlined the word reinforcements in my notepad.
"Can you stop working for a fucking minute, Raven?!"
Good job, Raven, now you are the main focus of his anger. I put the notepad away. My beautiful lover needed to blow off some steam. I could try to get more info out of him later when he'd calmed down. "I'm sorry, love," I said in a soothing voice. "That was inconsiderate of me." I got up and reached for his hand. "You know I'm on your side, right, Chris? Come here. Sit down. Relax."
He reluctantly obeyed. "Don't do this to me again," he said. "No taking notes, not when I'm venting. I won't be used by you like this, Raven. You know I only talk to you, no other journalists or reporters. You didn't need to use my outburst to wheedle information out of me. All you need to do is ask and accept it if I say no."
I realized once again, that I wasn't dealing with some flatfoot, but with an itelligent young man who used to dream about becoming a scientist. This was Chris, my smart and incredibly sexy lover. I felt a familiar tingling of desire when he scolded me like this looking at me accusingly with those beautiful dark eyes of his.
I climbed in his lap. "I'm sorry," I apologized again. "Let's not argue. There are much better things for us to do."
"I agree," he said and his arms enfolded me warmly.
I felt like falling, but it was a pleasant sensation. My skin ached for his touch. I let the straps of my nightie fall off my shoulders, inviting Chris to pull the thin piece of clothing further down and off my body. I tugged at his sweatshirt making him pull it over his head and throw it on the floor. We started kissing.
* * * * *
Chris
I usually wouldn't stay at Raven's place past midnight. Tonight, however, I didn't want to go back home to all the drama with Kellie and fresh memories of the arrest. I needed to get away from that. Perhaps I will have a dreamless sleep tonight, I hoped.
I couldn't be more wrong.
With Raven's warm body snuggled close to mine I was sliding into a deep sleep...
I usually wouldn't stay at Raven's place past midnight. Tonight, however, I didn't want to go back home to all the drama with Kellie and fresh memories of the arrest. I needed to get away from that. Perhaps I will have a dreamless sleep tonight, I hoped.
I couldn't be more wrong.
With Raven's warm body snuggled close to mine I was sliding into a deep sleep...
...where there was the sterile white room already waiting for me, pulling me closer and closer. And I was falling toward it, sinking like a stone thrown into a lake, unable to escape, with limbs heavier than a leaden weight and stomach knotted in horror...
This time it was worse than ever before.
The pale man entered the room with his two henchmen as many times before. Like a giant hungry spider he was coming nearer and nearer to us - me and my mother, two flies caught in his web.
"One of you must die now," he said matter-of-factly. "The question remains, who is it going to be?"
Usually this was a cue on which my mother stood up, pushed me behind herself and made the decision that changed my life. But everything in this particular dream was going to be different.
"Time for you to grow up, boy," the pale man said and put a gun in my hand. "Only one of you can leave this room. You decide."
I didn't want to die. I desperately wanted to leave the room and live. My mother walked up to me. "You know what you have to do, Chris.
"I can't."
"Either shoot your mom or yourself, boy, I don't care. But I don't have all day. Do it or I'll have you both shot."
"Do it, Chris!" my mother urged me.
My heart was pounding in my ears. The pale man's henchmen raised their own guns aiming them at us.
"Shoot me, Chris, or we both die!" my mom was yelling at me.
And I did. Oh Maker, I did.
I ran out the room and almost collided with my dad.
"Thank the Creator you are okay. Where's your mother?" he asked.
"She's dead. Because of you!" I shouted at him. "You are late. You are always late!"
He looked sad just like the last time I saw him. "I'm really sorry," he said. "For everything. I would have traded my life for hers or yours in a heartbeat, you know that, son."
"No! I don't know that! I think it's all a load of crap you're telling me! You have always been selfish, doing what was only best for you! I hate you!" I lunged at him and tackled him. A knife appeared in my hand. I stabbed him in the chest. Then again and again. "I hate you!" I yelled.
As he was drowning in his own blood and the life was leaving his body he managed to cough up, "...for...give me... son... love... you..."
I killed my dad. He didn't even fight back much.
I ran. I couldn't find the exit, there were only doors leading to more rooms like the one I had been held in. I entered one of them by random.
There was a little girl playing with dolls and singing to herself. Could it be...?
"Celeste?"
She turned around and I nearly jumped in horror when I saw her face. Her voice of a little girl sounded out of place.
"What do you want, thief-brother? Have you come here to steal my house? Where will my dolls live, thief-brother? T-H-I-E-F-brotha!"
I couldn't stand the sight of her and I stumbled out of the room and tried the next one.
I was met with Kellie. At least her face looked normal.
"Why did you pick me, Chris?" she asked. "Why did you pick me at the orphanage? It wasn't just because you liked me, was it? Why did you pick me? Why do I have to go through all this with you? I want to be happy."
"I'm sorry, Kellie. You didn't deserve this."
"Your hands are bleeding, brother."
"What?" I looked at my hands. Blood was dripping off them. I shook my head. "It's not my blood."
"Whose blood is it?"
"My dad's. I... I killed him."
The blood was dark and sticky and somehow I knew it would never wash off. Everyone would see it and know what I did.
"You are crying, Chris."
I felt the tears on my cheeks and couldn't stop them. My body was shaking. I dropped on my knees and sobbed.
"You are crying, Chris!"
What have I done? I wished I could kill myself with a thought.
"Please, stop crying, Chris!"
Because I was a coward and couldn't do it the hard way. If wishes could kill all this would have been over long ago.
My whole body was shaking violently.
"Chris!"
I woke up with a start, gasping for air. Raven was up too looking concerned. Shit!
She stroked my cheek. "Is it always this bad?" she asked.
She wasn't even surprised. How could she know? But then again, what Raven didn't know? She always dug up everything. Could Kellie have told her?
"No," I said.
"What did you dream about?"
It was always more questions with Raven. How much of what I tell her would she use to climb higher on the career ladder?
"Talk to me, Chris."
I pulled away from her touch. "I don't want to talk about it."
"You should. If not with me then with someone else."
"Like who, Raven? A stranger?" I felt I was getting more and more irritated and with that my voice raised. "I don't have the luxury of..." I got up and started putting my on clothes. "I can't... I can't..."
"...trust anyone?" Raven finished for me. "Not even me?"
Especially not you, I thought, but kept my mouth shut.
"I see," she said and her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
I ground my teeth. And now she's hurt?! She isn't exactly doing her best to win my trust!
"I think I should go. It's almost morning anyway." She didn't say anything, but I could feel her glare in my back as I was walking out the door. "See you later," I threw over my shoulder.
On my way to work I pulled up at a store to buy something to eat. When I was passing by the newspaper rack I noticed that yesterday's events already made it into late edition. My mood got even worse.
Author's note: Thank you, Leeuska, for you amazing work on another cover of everyone's favourite Gossip magazine! Thank you, Pammiechick, for those great taglines suggestions! You guys are helping me a great deal to make this story better and more fun to read.