The Son and the Sparrow

Chapter Fifty One(v3)

Chapter Fifty One

Leon sat on the couch with a book on his lap, looking over the top of it to glance annoyingly at the television. It was too loud for him to concentrate on reading. The show looked like brain-numbing crap. He watched it for a few moments then shook his head and stood up to retreat to his room.

Leon laid on his cot staring at the wall. Heat radiated through the cell like a powerful storm of steam. Haley, his mind ached automatically. It was like a reflex now, to miss her, to want her. He missed his wife, he missed his son, he missed his family and his life. He had nothing to live for now. Even the promise of death had lost its sparkle in the time he had been here. As much as he didn't want to, he was beginning to move on. The hurt wasn't as bad as it was before. It seemed impossible. He had been through so much pain and hurt and trauma. It was even more than it had been at the beginning of all this. Yet he was handling it better than he had before. He cried, he grieved, and he felt their lost. And all that mourning over their losses was helping him recover. Karen was even helping him recover. Although he couldn't tell her everything, he could at least talk about losing Clay and even Haley. At least he could explain how much pain he was in.

In two weeks Leon would have to be let go from the mental hospital, but he was sure that before that or a short time after they would find some evidence tying Leon to the crime. It wasn't very difficult with the lack of care Leon had given. They'd find a way to keep him here. Then what? He did feel that he needed to be punished, to properly suffer for what he had done. And he had to do the direct suffering. Only him. Not his friends, family, or someone close to him. Him alone. Perhaps prison was a proper way to do that. Unless they gave him the death penalty and killed him instead.

The only thing he hated was having those loose ends. Sure, chasing after those loose ends had only led him to a world of pain and trouble, but it angered him to know that his sufferer was still out there, still free without justice. He had been such an idiot, had played right into Alexander's hands. Why the fuck did he believe Daniel's claim that Alexander was dead? Daniel wasn't on his side at that time, hell, he had threatened the man and his lover with a knife! He had trusted Daniel's word just as he had trusted Philip's. Why did he think they would just play along?

It ended up being Leon that had been played. Leon thought all this was his game, that he had been chasing after a murderer and winning. But everything had been set up perfectly, from beginning to end. He remembered his own sadness when he heard about Alexander's supposed demise and laughed at his own foolishness. He thought about how many people he had murdered and tortured all of those years. Remembered their faces and expressions and the glee he took from it. He deserved all this. He did without a doubt, but Clay and Haley were innocent. They didn't deserve their fates. Their deaths were meaningless pointless, just tools to mess with Leon's emotions. He hoped that in the end Alexander would get what he deserved. He deserved exactly the same as what Leon had suffered through, maybe more. Leon had never shattered somebody's life so thoroughly.

He and Alexander had always been incredibly similar though. There was this interesting charm to him, like some super villain out of a comic book. He almost expected the man to wear an eyepatch and a white suit and talk with an English accent. He had a talent and flair for the business that not even Leon could surpass. However, there was something dark about him, something far more serious than villainy. Leon had a hunch that more people were tortured and killed than the ones brought to him. In fact, sometimes he wondered if the ones he cut bloody but were supposed to live had their lives taken privately by Alexander. Everyone who crossed him feared him on some instinctual level. Especially if you weren't on his side. On the other hand, Alexander also felt like a kindred spirit to Leon. He used to respect Alexander and the way he conducted business. He was also an incredible fighter, and extremely crafty. Too crafty. His only downfall was that people tended not to trust him on some level. It was the reason why he couldn't be the sole leader of the flock. No one would follow him; they'd all expect to be stabbed in the back and skinned alive. Leon was the one who attracted fellowship and determination from the flock's followers. Iris, Daniel, even to a certain extent Philip trusted to follow him and make the right decisions. If there was a problem, they came to him, for they feared for their life if they approached Alexander for anything. Together they made quite the team. Fearsome and efficient. But that was a long time ago. Leon had betrayed his fellow leader even more than the others. He had claimed Alexander had been the one who killed those cops. Made prison even more of a hell for him. Given Alexander's disposition, it made sense for him to plan something so terrifyingly elaborate. To create more agony than Leon had even thought possible.