GHOSTS - PART TWO

PREVIOUSLY

"Got a present for yah Kevie" he said, snapping out of his stoic state. "And it ain't no limerick" he added, slipping the barrel of the gun under the waistband of his pants as an evil glint darkened his eyes.

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"Where I was born, nothing is promised My life is filled with less hope than the prophecies of Nostradamus. These days its hard for me to find peace of mind. Between insanity and sanity there lies a thin line. But if I fall asleep and death takes me away Don't be surprised son, I wasn't put here to stay" (The Fugees)

Don't look, don't look" The shadows breathe

The Darkness seemed to riot around him; colliding with the colors of purple and green everything seemed to shift into a surreal tint. The dream twisted around him until his whole world almost became a vortex unto itself.

Whispering me away from you...

Letting the dream entrap him, he could almost hear the muffled cries of what sounded almost like a bird echo from somewhere deep within the darkness. Encircled in the dark warmth of his surroundings he, for a brief moment, felt safe. Safe even within the black setting.

Don't wake at night to watch her sleep, you know you will always lose...

Out of the shades and shadows that seemed to pull tight around him and image began to form; a face. The full lips materialized first followed by the tinge of the fair skin. The darkness of the the figures eyes seemed slightly brightened by the unilluminated backdrop. The woman's face that seemed to pull out of the shadows became suddenly familiar to him. Before she even started to speak he knew..he knew her...

"Oh don't talk of love" the shadows purr

"You promised me" she said, her voice becoming a flood of raw emotion. "You promised me that you wouldn't try to run away and come to me" she said, a tear flowing down her cheekbone. Before she could speak again he jutted his hand out towards the figure. Reaching, Todd's fingers hungrily groped to try and touch the contours of his mothers face.

Don't talk of worlds that never were, the end is always ever true...

Just as his fingers brushed up against the wetness of her cheek, her face pulled back out of his reach. As she turned from his view, Todd tried desperately to grab hold of her image before she slipped away... again. Stirring the curls of her short dark hair with his fingers, Todd tried to clasp a curl of her hair between his fingers. As he did so, her image turned back on him suddenly. The hollow and slack expression of a new woman stared back at him. Yanking his arm back, Todd immediately recognized the image. Téa's sunken and cold eyes seemed to gaze right through him...

There's nothing that you can say, nothing you can ever do...

Téa's features twisted up into an almost malicious grin as Todd retracted his hand. Dragging her arm up out of the blackness that surrounded them both, Téa held her arm out to him gingerly. "Flower?" she asked, her jaw set rigidly under her almost sorrowfully cold eyes. Looking down at her outstretched hand, Todd jerked back at the sudden apparition of lilacs that lay tediously just inside her unfolded palm.

It doesn't matter how you hide. .....We find you if we're wanting too...

Sitting bolt upright, Todd felt his heart pound wildly in his chest. The darkness of the motel room last night was now replaced by the peaks of the warm sun that shone through the closed curtains. His mind still caught in the confines of the dream, Todd felt his throat begin to constrict. As his breathing became more sporadic, Todd gripped the top sheet of the bed. Struggling to pull out of his sudden state of panic, Todd tried to breath heavily through his layers of dishevelled hair. His chest heaving in his attempt to capture air, Todd jumped from the bed and onto his feet. Quickly staggering across the small closet-like motel room, he reached for his jacket and tore the pockets zipper open. Plunging his shaking hand into the pocket, he felt around for the coldness of the 33. Once locating it, Todd yanked it out and let his jacket fall to the floor.
Todd's breathing became more rough with his hurried steps to the motel bathroom. Ducking into the bathrooms weak light, Todd slammed the door behind him. Furiously trying to keep his hair off his face, he pulled back the hammer on the weapon and leaned back against the door. "Ahh" Todd moaned quietly as his body began to become weak from lack of air. Glancing over to his left, Todd caught the image of his own tattered reflection in the bathroom mirror. His hair tangled and layered across his face. Looking at his own full lips his memory suddenly flashed back in remembrance to his own mothers lips. As he stared at his features in the mirror Todd wondered if his lips were more like his mothers or his fathers. When he was young he had thought that he looked more like his mother..but that was before he knew the truth about them...about his parents.
As he held the gun in his right hand, Todd tugged his hair away from his face. Watching himself in the oval bathroom mirror, he slowly raised the gun at arms length. His reflection in the mirror mimicked him as he pointed the gun directly at his reflection. Carefully caressing the hammer of the gun with his thumb, Todd let a frenzied weak smile slip across his face. Examining his own hazel eyes in the weak light of the bathroom, Todd slowly squeezed the trigger.

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"Oh my god" Téa said suddenly, sitting upright on the penthouse couch. Téa's eyes frantically scanned the living room. Every joint and muscle in her body tensed up quickly and everything seemed, for a brief moment, surreal. Startled by Téa's sudden awakening, Sam's head snapped over to look at her. Her small frame was sitting up rigidly next to the arm of the couch where she had been sleeping peacefully a moment before. She now sat, her whole physique seeming to be twisted up in alarm. Her eyes wildly darted around the room as if to locate an invisible assailant. Sam watched as she pulled a shaking hand up to her hair in a nervous gesture.
"What?" Sam asked, lowering the phone that he had had pressed to his ear. Standing in front of Todd's desk Sam adjusted his footing to stare at Téa's distraught demeanour.
"D-didn't you hear that?" she asked, looking over at Sam and then around the room again. Giving Téa a weird look, Sam lifted the receiver back to his ear. "No, what'd you hear?" he asked, half glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. Feeling her body begin to untwist from her panicked awakening, Téa slowly took a deep breath. After a moment she swallowed heavily and waved her hand slightly in Sam's direction. "Nothing" she muttered almost dismissively.
"Y-you've been up all night?" Téa asked, pulling the memory of the loud bang she had thought she heard out of her thoughts. Smoothing her frantic strands of hair, Téa turned her sitting figure slightly towards Sam. Leaning sideways, she reached out for her crutch which had been laying across the coffee table.
"Yeah, I-I couldn't sleep" Sam said as he placed the phone receiver back in its cradle. Pulling his fingers through his silvery hair, Sam stood silently in front of the desk for a moment before speaking again. "There's something wrong Téa" Sam said, suddenly stepping backward and deflating into Todd office chair. "I can't put my finger on it but I just have this feeling" he explained.
"Like what do you mean?" Téa asked awkwardly as she struggled to pull herself to her feet using the crutch.
"Well, why would Todd just disappear like that? Freak out and trash his own home. Potentially jeopardizing his rights to see Starr... leaving you behind in the condition you were in... it just doesn't make sense" Sam explained, staring at an unfixed point as he leaned back in the chair.
"Since when does anything about Todd make sense Sam" Téa said wearily as she hobbled towards the desk. "Has the DA's office called you back yet?" she asked, motioning to the phone.
"No, I phoned and Hank Gannon wasn't in yet. Told me to phone back in a half an hour...which is about now" Sam mumbled, reaching for the phone receiver again.
"I'll go make some coffee" Téa said with a sigh as she turned and limped towards the kitchen.
Punching the DA offices number into the key pad, Sam slowly swiveled in the high backed office chair. "Hi, can I speak to District Attorney Hank Gannon please?" Sam said and then slouched and rolled his eyes as he was put on hold. "Cream and sugar?" Téa called out from the kitchen. "Black" Sam shouted back. "Very black" he mumbled to himself as the sounds of elevator music fluttered inside the phone receiver.
"Hank Gannon" a voice barked as the music suddenly switched off. "Hi, Sam Rappaport" Sam said then paused. "Have you dug up any new leads about Todd's whereabouts?" Sam asked, fully expecting to get stonewalled by Hank. "Yeah, two officers just came back from questioning some witnesses at the hospital" Hank answered quickly. "Witnesses at the hospital?" Sam reverberated confused and thrown off by Hank's forthrightness. "Yeah, it seems Todd did show up at the hospital after his bail hearing" Hank replied.
"W-what?" Sam said, and then lowered the phone from his ear. "Téa?!" Sam shouted over his shoulder and then turned his attentions back to the phone. "What was he doing there? I mean Téa never saw him.." Sam said, his voice trailing off. "No, but two nurses in ICU saw him alright. I guess he showed up there and caused quite a ruckus" Hank stated matter-of-factly. "What do you mean?" Sam asked, seeing Téa approach out of the corner of his eye with a cup of coffee in one hand as she leaned on her crutch with the other.
"What? Did they find him?" She asked hurriedly as she placed Sam's coffee cup on the desk in front of him. "What happened Hank?" Sam asked waving off Téa's questions.
"Well, I guess Todd showed up at ICU looking for Téa. All the hospital staff had been informed that he was not to see her and if he showed up they were to call security and then the police" Hank responded, sounding as if he was eating his breakfast while talking. "So he showed up and runs into a candystriper and a nurse in the hallway. I guess he had gone into Téa's ICU room and found her bed empty. The nurse said that he was panicked and asked where his wife was" Hank said and then stopped abruptly. "And?" Sam urged him on.
"Well, they couldn't tell him that Téa had been moved to another hospital room and it seems that he jumped to a bit of a conclusion concerning that" Hank said after a moment, his voice sounding muffled. Sam looked over at Téa as his face became ashen again. Téa stared back at him silently until her eyes filled with tears.
"No, he-he's not-" Téa started to say as she began to shake her head vehemently.
"No, no, just-" Sam said waving away Téa's sudden onslaught of panic and urging her, with his hand, to wait.
"What conclusion Hank?" Sam asked. "Well, quite frankly -"Hank said then paused as there was more muffled sounds of chewing. "He thinks she's dead. And before anyone could tell him otherwise he stormed out of the place. I don't know where he-" Hank started to finish but after the second sentence Sam let the receiver drop from his ear.
"Sam?" He heard Hank's voice question. "Sam?" Hank repeated. Placing the receiver back in the cradle Sam turned in his chair to look at Téa. Taking a deep breath before he spoke, Sam looked up into her pleading eyes, "I think you better sit down Téa."

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The faint yellowness of bathroom tiles greeted Todd as he slowly began to pull out of his unconsciousness state. The room was silent. Looking out across the bathroom floor, Todd saw glass and wall plaster strewn everywhere. At the sight of the glass, Todd's mind jerked back to a night that played out not so long ago.

'Tea, you better not be hiding'

"Sam, she's gonna be alright, right Sam?"

With his cheek pressed firmly against the tiles of the motels bathroom floor, Todd lifted a heavy hand to his face. Pushing his fingertips against the contour of his own cheekbone, he felt his skin begin to sting under his own touch. Without having to pull his hand away and look, Todd knew that he was bleeding. With great effort, Todd struggled to turn over onto his back amongst the drift of glass shards. "Aaahh" he groaned as his vision became slightly burly with his bodies movement.
"Hey!" a voice called out. Looking up, Todd saw a figure standing just beyond the open bathroom door. Squinting his eyes, Todd adjusted the angle he was layed out at on the floor so the bathrooms shadows weren't blocking his view of the person. Just as Todd moved, the outline of the person stretched down into a crouching position. When the figures face became visible, finally, Todd gasped and felt his whole body jolt as he tried to scramble backward along the glass covered floor.
"No, yo-your" Todd sputtered, looking up into the all too familiar face of a sandy haired man. The silhouette of Todd's father reached out amongst the rooms weak light to grasp for his son. Todd jerked himself out of his fathers reach by sliding into a sitting position against the bathrooms wall.
"You-your not real" he began to sputter as he groped for his hair in a frantic attempt to slow his racing thoughts. "I'm only trying to help" the figure of his father answered slowly with a mild smirk. "n-no, no, no you're not-" Todd muttered to himself as he squeezed his eyes shut tightly.
Opening his eyes again, Todd looked up at the doorway of the bathroom. Where the figure of his father once stood, a different man in an orange, white and blue jacket, now crouched. The apparition of his father seemed to melt away as quickly as it had come. Todd could see the new mans lips moving but the voice seemed almost muffled.
"What?" Todd asked, after the man again said something that he couldn't make out. "Have you been taking any drugs sir?" the man asked as Todd's hearing became clearer. "What?" Todd said again in a state of confusion. Looking over to the left of the man, Todd noticed an orange box. Printed in bright bold letters across the side were the letters 'EMS'. Behind the EMS attendant crouching in front of him Todd could see a small crowd of people milling around; one of them wearing a police uniform.
Abruptly trying to stand, Todd stumbled slightly on the glass. "Hey, just sit down..." the EMS attendant said in a soothing tone as he mimicked Todd's actions and stood up too. Realizing where he was, Todd tried to gain some balance as he stood amongst the glass in the bathroom.
"Just sit, everything's cool. I just wanna look at your wounds" the EMS attendant said, attempting to calm Todd with his casual tone. At the sound of the attendants voice the officer, just outside the door, turned and stepped towards the bathroom. "Careful, got his name from his ID in his wallet and called it in, he's got a warrant" the officer said, watching Todd's struggle to stand. A sudden wave of dizziness hit Todd; the force of it, combined with his already wobbly footing , drove Todd to reach out for the bathroom sink to stabilize himself. Reaching out too late, Todd dropped to his knees as the world around seemed to shift and shake.
"Sir?" he heard the EMS attendant say as Todd sunk back into the depths of unconciousness.

To Be Continued....