PREVIOUSLY

"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.

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**Authors Note**

Before you read any further I would STRONGLY suggest to those who haven't looked at this Fan Fiction since last September to REREAD the SERIES PLEASE! You'll get lost if you don't...

I haven't updated this Fan Fiction series in nearly 8 months. There are tons of reason for that, one of them being what happened to Todd and Tea ,respectively and as a couple, on the show. Both characters were robbed of so many things thanks to Pam Long and Jill Farren Phelps. I had a whole little speech written, for the authors note, about what Todd and Tea were really all about and how they should be remembered, blah, blah , blah. But I threw it out a few months back realizing that people will remember them how they want to remember them... no matter what. Good, Bad or Ugly...

I can't really make any promises about when the next instalment will be. Since last September I've rewritten THIS instalment, in full, a good eight times so we'll see. I'm also working on another TnT series and I'm kind of a perfectionist. I don't like to put out half a$$ed stuff so when I think it's *right* you'll get to see it, OK? *vbg*

I welcome feedback about this series @ Elviraxz@yahoo.com. That includes criticism and praise! ;-)

If he had learned one thing in his years at 'home' in Chicago it was how to be quiet. How to be silent.... voiceless, noiseless, lifeless. So he was.

Laying face up in a hospital bed in Chicago, ILL. the urge to close his eyes was almost over powering. The thought of following the flow of medication that seeped through his blood down into the depths of slumber was almost intoxicating. Visions of the Pied Piper leading children into the mountain side danced across his open eyed coma. Evil fairies and jeering dwarfs winged across a waking dream state that no matter how hard he tried to fight it enveloped him. He knew he needed to stay awake but, in his euphoric state, the reasons seemed to just slip through his fingers every time he reached.

As the panelled ceiling above him seemed to swirl and ebb with his own thoughts the idea of slipping into slumber was no longer just a flirtation. The toxic curve of sleep pulled him down, down ...down into worlds he had longed to forget

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Every night I die in your dream...

The pound of his feet on the pavement reverberated through the boy's whole lean body. Bare feet slamming against the hard chilled sidewalk as his arms razored back at forth in drastic strides that mirrored his rapidly moving legs. The cold air of the winters day ripped around him and the slashes of the nude, exposed flesh that flashed through his torn clothing. Tumbling strands of leaves zig zagged in all directions and around in circles across the desolate street as Falls vortex seemed to spin him up in it's flurry.

The grey skies above bulged and swelled in the attempt to weep rain down on the windy cities streets and avenues. With the ground still dry under his heels the boy felt the first streak of water fall from the sky and roll down his already salt ridden cheeks. Across his lower cheek the tears travelled slowly down and over the bloodline that was already coursing from his lower lip. The salt in his wound stung enough to cause his lower lip to quiver in pain.

He was running, now, even though he felt the ghosts following. Running down Marine Drive with the focus of a professional athlete and the feeling of ultimate emptiness coursing through his veins and tearing across the landscape of his whole being.. He ran not because of fear, or terror or even self preservation but because, it was as if, every time his feet hit the pavement, every time his open and torn shirt flapped against this bruised skin everything in his wake was being erased. Every stride he took away from home on Marine Drive was one moment in time that never existed in his life. One second torn from the canvas of his life to evaporate into oblivion with his every panted breath. One millisecond were the ghosts didn't exist..just emptiness. At the age of 14, how was he to know, that the ghosts were the emptiness and the emptiness would be his most haunting ghost.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Mother is the word for god on the lips and hearts of all children...

The sun radiated a deep yellow as the last tips of sunset were pulled into the gapping mouth of the dusk. As Todd watched the sky illuminated the atmosphere like the golden shining's of the contents of a pirates treasure box then fade as if the lid had been shut. For a brief moment everything felt collapsed and dark under the canopy of night. As if a soundless bubble had been pulled down around his ears and over his senses. The smell of the freshly cut front lawn and the sparkling sounds of crickets seemed to be sucked away, along with the last tips of sunset, into the box of night. Moments passed before he heard it, before he heard them.

"You know I don't ask much Irene" The snarling sound of an all to familiar voice blew out from the interior of the house like the shattered remnants of an ever chasing nightmare. "Meals on the table when I come home, a clean and presentable home, and the proper rearing of our son " the voice leapt an octave as if to catch on fire with anger.

Sitting on the shingles just outside his bedroom window Todd slowly turned his head to look back inside the open window of his bedroom. Breathless, Todd could clearly see his father standing just outside the bedroom door. Looming over his mother his fathers face pulsed with a building rage of epic proportions. "And what do I get? A plate of reheated diner, junk scattered all over the house and that kid lounging outside on my newly re-shingled roof!" His father growled jabbing his finger in Todd's direction but keeping his angry gaze firmly attached to his mother. "You were late home for dinner." his mother's voice gasped as she stepped backward and out of Todd's view. "I..I didn't know Todd was-" She sputtered as Todd's father joined her out of the range of view. The sound of a loud bang echoed through the hallway and back into Todd's room. Scrabbling up the side of the roof and in through the window Todd quietly moved back into the house. "Shut up" his father's voice growled as Todd approached the doorway. "I'm-I didn't know!" His mothers voice screeched suddenly. Curling his fingers around the door frame Todd hesitantly peaked through the doorway at his parents.

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

"MOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Marty pulls frantically at the stage doors of the Tanbernale. Her breath coming out in pants and her heart slamming against her the walls of her chest as fear drives her into the hurricane of hysteria. He's coming..One of these doors has to open.

"Nothing behind door number one...Nothing behind door number two..."

A curtain pinned up just behind Marty falls revealing her attacker. Standing only a few feet away his terrifying presences in deafening and Marty lets out a panicked but mute cry.

"Surprize is right behind the curtain, Marty"

Pausing only for a moment her attacker lunges toward her before she has a chance to move. Her back pressed flatly against the splintered wood door behind her Marty's breath is frenzied as her attacker presses close to her.

"What? You think I'm all worn out, huh?"

His breath hot against her face he leans into her with a twistedly seductive ease. As if the horrific situation was second nature to him. As if this was what he was born to do.

"You think I'm through?"

An ice cold hardness floats across Todd Manning's wildly aware hazel eyes.

"I've got plenty..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dreams thicker than the twist of medication adrift in his blood stream. Memories like brutal assassins blades lunging and jabbing...aiming for arteries. Pulling open his heavy eyelids momentarily Todd could almost feel the wounds begin to seep a deep red. "Uhh" Todd's voice cracked softly in the empty hospital room just before the claws of sufaced, pulling him back into the nightmareish reruns of a past better left forgotten.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Ya know, my daddy used to say, every man's got a devil, and you can't rest until you find him." Top Dollar, The Crow

"You know where it ends
it usually depends on where you start" Everlast

To Be Continued....

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