MR. MANIAC

CHAPTER 7

Tug slowly opened his eyes. He couldn't tell where he was for a few moments. He had the fading memories all coming back to him now. A sharp pain in the neck, the feeling of utter defeat and failure, white streets made of pure pearls with golden sidewalks and marble archways, an ominous voice that was nurturing like his Irish mother, though commanding like his masculine father, the feeling of his soul lifting into the air, and the sudden falling down a spiral, like he was being sucked into a black hole, and finally the painful aches in his neck as he opened his eyes. Back into the real world, so close to heaven, so near paradise. But no, work wasn't done yet, and besides, damned doctors... they could heal anything.

Montgomery and Chase stood in the room, looks of happiness and concern drenched on their faces.

"Welcome back, old man." Chase said with a sincere smile
"We thought you were gone for a second there." Montgomery sullenly chimed in

"The doctors said the knife missed your spinal cord by two inches. And it didn't break any major blood vessels. You got lucky." Montgomery continued, not sure if Tug could speak just yet

"I guess it pays to be Irish." Chase joked meekly

Tug opened his mouth to speak, his throat wasn't bothering him, but it still hurt to talk.

"Where's... Prescott?"

Chase and Montgomery's faces suddenly dropped, they knew this question would pop up. But they didn't know how they would answer it.

"We don't know, Matthews." Chase said carefully, placing his hands on the side of Tug's bed, ready to restrain him.

"She went after him, and he got her. She's with him now. We don't know where they might be." Montgomery exclaimed, standing up from his chair.

Tug struggled to speak, Chase stopped him.

"We got round the clock surveillance. We're looking the best we can. If we get a lead, we get Prescott."

"The cameras..." Tug coughed out

"We're checking now, you need to rest, Tug. For a minute there you could've been gone. Just rest, we'll handle this." Chase said in a motherly like tone.

Montgomery had already left the room, he couldn't stand to see Matthews in this condition, he had to keep focused on work. He went to the surveillance room, he had to review the cameras. "Something's gotta be there. That bastard has to be there. No one's invisible." He thought to himself. He sat in the uncomfortable chair, eyes piercing the screens direly; looking for something, anything, one thing.

∞

Dean hadn't, at first, the slightest idea where to take her, until it came to him as he was driving, "The safe house! The sanctum." The only place he went to consistently, he was always on the road, on the go constantly killing and killing, everyone had to sleep, even Dean Harris. He had a room he could put her, maybe even torture her if the urge came about. But he knew he couldn't just zoom straight there. Someone would catch on; the feds would catch his scent and know that he's weak. Then they'd begin closing in. He had no desire to be caught, nor to be killed. He would have to leave cookie crumbs. To hide his escape, he knew just the thing. But first things first, he kidnapped her out of desperation, she had seen his face if only for a second, still. He didn't at first bother taking away her phone, they were alone now, he parked into a dark business garage downtown, the most crowded area, the place the feds wouldn't think to look.

Getting out he popped the trunk, she was still asleep, that crash could've killed her. He took her cell phone out of her pocket, gun and wallet too. He started to close the trunk, but an urge compelled him, boyish yes, silly, of course... but hey. He grabbed her breast and squeezed playfully