Time Waits For No One

Chapter Eight: Time Waits For No One

Chapter Eight: Time Waits For No One

Jane cautiously pushes the door open and steps inside. The complete utter silence of the house has his senses on high alert and he can almost hear the erratic beating of his heart in his chest. Taking a deep breath, he heads towards the staircase and reaches his hand up to grasp onto the railing. Firming up his grip, he ascends up the wooden stairs – cringing when he steps on a squeaker – and finally reaches the top. Throughout the entire duration, his heart has to have escalated to the tipping point. Recently he had received a note telling him of what Red John had in store for the future, and it involved killing her. She was the one woman he wants to put his life back on track. She is the one woman who keeps him sane and most of all, whom he can trust.

He stops outside his bedroom door, his hand barely hovering over the brass knob. Behind the hard wood he hears laughter. It's haunting, menacing, and horrifying all at the same time and he quickly reaches down to grasp the knob, but he pauses at the soft sound of a soft whimper. It belongs to a woman.

"Why are you doing this?" he hears and his heart all but stops. Red John is holding none other than Teresa Lisbon behind the door, no doubt savouring in his plans to torture and kill her, but just waiting for the right audience: Him.

There are no words after hers, and Jane finds this as his cue to turn the knob to the right and push into his barren master suite. Inside the bedroom he finds blood everywhere. The once-white walls have been painted red and the carpet is stained. Thicker droplets of the crimson liquid slowly descend down the walls and onto his mattress on the far side. A woman with mousy brown hair lies flat on her back, eyes and mouth open wide in silent screams as she pleads to her captor in death. Her has been slashed open and her chest punctured, and her once pristine toenails are stained. Lying over her midsection is a small child with curly blonde hair. Dry tear stains run down her cheeks as she lifelessly clings to her dead mother. Even in death, the love between a mother and child is still ever-present.

At this sight, Jane stumbles and falls back slightly. He catches himself on the brass doorknob, but pauses when he suddenly feels warm blood seep through his fingers on contact. He looks down, his hands are no covered in a thick coat of blood and he has to fight the urge to vomit. Breathing hard in hopes of trying to re-claim the control of his stomach, he looks up and sees a petite woman lying in a fetal position in the middle of the floor. A few moments ago, much like the blood on the doorknob, she was not there. Blinking curiously now, he takes a step towards the body of a woman hugging onto her midsection. Kneeling down, he takes in the pale lifeless eyes of Teresa Lisbon.

"Hey Patrick! Wake up!" Jane feels someone rocking his shoulder back and forth almost violently. With slight effort, he tries to shake them off, but the shakes only grow more vigorous, "Wake up! You're having a nightmare!"

Jane jolts awake when he suddenly feels the palm of a hand make contact with the flesh of his cheek. His eyes are open wide and his chest is heaving and he knows that he is indeed disorientated. He blinks and looks around the room and concludes with a sigh of both great sadness and relief that he is in a prison cell.

"That must've been some dream. You were shaking the entire bunk!" Norm's face softens a little, "Are you okay?"

Jane blinks, feeling wetness seep around his eyelids, "Yeah, I'm fine." He shuts his eyes and reaches up with his thumb and pointer finger to brush the runny tears from his eyes. Opening his eyes, he looks up at Norm, "Not to worry, I've had a lot worse than that."

Norm steps back and shrugs his shoulders, "All right then." He turns and starts to climb back up his bunk and Jane just leans back against his pillows. There was absolutely no way he was going to get anymore sleep tonight. Whenever he would relive the deaths of Angela and Charlotte – and occasionally seeing Lisbon die – he could never go back to sleep after wards. Or at least he couldn't sleep without human contact, and it would be rather odd to ask that of Norm.