Mad, Mad World

by J. D. Sloane

  Jessica followed the sound back to a second set of French doors and felt all the air leave her lungs at once as she saw Ronan White punch Michael against the tile floor, reaching for his knife as he began to speak rapidly. She glanced back down the hallway, knowing it was too soon, that they couldn’t possibly be in position yet and then threw the door open as she walked into the pool room briskly, spinning her gun in Ronan’s direction she crossed the floor to meet him.

  “Police! Drop your weapon and put your hands up now!”

  Michael spun his eyes to the side as Ronan looked up and snapped his hand upwards sharply as he felt his grip loosen. He rolled his body to one side as Ronan let out a quick yell of frustration and brought down his knife in a sudden violent downswing, nicking the side of his neck as Michael elbowed him in the side of the head. Ronan dropped backwards slightly, his face twisting with rage and Michael swung his weighted glove into the front of his throat, a sick thrill of bloodlust rushing through him as Ronan gasped.

  “Drop your weapons!” He heard someone yell behind him. “Do not move a fucking inch!”

  Michael felt Ronan crumple to one side as he clawed at his neck and got to his feet quickly, running for the edge of the pool as he heard the sharp crack of gunfire echo in the room around him. He dove into the deep end without pausing, opening his eyes as he felt the water drag him downwards and dove wildly as he saw what looked like a black blur below the surface. He grabbed for the edge of the wheelchair as he saw Byron struggle weakly and then slump forward and yanked at the coil of rope around him as he felt frantically for some give.

  No, no, no, no, no…

  Michael yanked at him wildly as Byron’s eyes opened and tried to drag his body back up to the surface as he felt his lungs go tight.

  God, please, it’s only a couple of inches, I can see it. Please, just a little give…

  He looked up suddenly as he felt the entire metal ramp begin to climb upwards and held onto Byron as the chair broke the surface, coughing quickly as he saw another officer look down at him from the edge of the pool.

  “He isn’t breathing,” Michael said, sliding his body up the side of the pool. “Help me get him on the ground.”

  He unraveled the ropes around Byron’s chest with a sudden violent pull as some officer he had never seen before helped him lower Byron to the ground, and then waved him off with one hand as he knelt down in front of him.

  “I’ll do it. I know CPR.”

  Michael pressed his hand over his mouth as the officer crossed his hands over Byron’s chest and began to pump his chest in quick jerky motions, watching Byron’s still face with a rush of anguish so deep he felt like screaming. He looked around the room rapidly, trying to make sense of the scene around him as one image after another entered his mind without meaning and then looked down as Byron let out a deep wheeze and coughed up a mouthful of water, his eyes fluttering rapidly before creaking open.

  “Oh look,” a low gravelly voice said from behind him. “Our brave girl in blue saves the day. What is it with you Nolans? Don’t you ever know when to quit?”

  Michael snapped his head in Ronan’s direction as he spit out a thick wad of blood and then cracked his back lightly as he stood up.

  “On your knees, now!” Jessica shouted, and Michael felt all the hairs stand up on the back of his neck stand up as Ronan let out a soft laugh, giving her a smile laced with blood.

  “What did I tell you, Michael?” he said, his voice warm and generous as he threw him a wink. “Give some women an inch…”

  Michael swept his eyes across the room as he saw Jessica’s partner holding his gun on two men on their knees, a third man lying in a pool of blood. He picked up a gun off the floor and walked over to Ronan quickly, snapping it into his face as he cracked the chamber.

  “So you said,” he spat, his back teeth grinding together so sharply her felt like his jaw would shatter. Jessica’s brow furrowed, and she took a step forward as Ronan raised his brows, his expression light and mocking as he leaned towards him across the floor.

  “Oh, well. Now there’s a man I can relate to. Not sure what the chief will have to say about it later, but at least you have your principles.”

  “I have more than that, Ronan,” Michael said, his cool blue eyes becoming hard and still as he tracked his face with his gun. “I have your wife. And she doesn’t remember you at all. You’re going to be buried in an anonymous grave somewhere and she’s not even going to remember you existed. How’s that for cosmic revenge?”

  Ronan face darkened as he spoke, and Jessica took a step closer to Michael, her gun tipping slightly in his direction.

  “He’s going in, Michael. That was the plan. That was the deal.”

  Ronan tipped a brow in his direction, smirking slightly as he took a step to the left, angling his body away from Michael’s gun.

  “Change of plans,” Michael said, his face screwing up with hatred as stepped in front of Ronan again. “No one else dies because of him. We end it tonight.”

  “Getting a little touchy, aren’t you Archie? After all, you were the one who crashed my party, not the other way around.”

  “Shut up, you diseased fuck…” Jessica said her voice hard and clipped and then she let out a muffled cry as Ronan swung his elbow back into her face into a sudden vicious motion, yanking the gun out of her hand as she stumbled backwards. He shot Michael quickly, firing two rounds into his ribs and then jerked Jessica in front of him as she let out a low cry, holding the gun against her temple as both officers spun their weapons in his direction from the opposite side of the room.

  “I think I’ve had just about all of the feminist grandstanding I can take for one day, to be honest,” Ronan said cheerfully, jerking Jessica’s body in front of him as he cocked his gun hard enough for both officers to hear him. “What do you think? Anyone else feel like entertaining an opposing viewpoint?”

  Ronan shook his head as he knocked Michael’s gun into the pool with a hard kick and rolled his gun under Jessica’s chin as she held her breath.

  “I wouldn’t do that, gentlemen,” he said, his voice smooth and vicious as he dragged her backwards across the floor. “Guns on the floor. Nice and easy.”

  “Don’t,” Jessica said, meeting O’Neill’s eyes across the floor before her eyes rolled to Michael’s still face, her lips trembling slightly. “Don’t do it. You have to bring him in. It doesn’t matter what he says…”

  Ronan let out a low frustrated sigh as he yanked her backwards sharply, rolling his gun away from her head as he slid the muzzle towards the floor.

  “Isn’t she a trooper?” He asked, firing a quick shot into her lower leg as she let out a sudden scream, her entire body slumping towards the ground as he spun the gun back against her temple.

  “Guns on the floor. Right now. Before I start to get really. Upset.”

  He jerked Jessica in front of him as O’Neill held up his gun and then placed it on the floor, rolling it towards Ronan as he kicked it towards the pool.

  “You,” he said glancing at the other officer. “Throw it into the pool. Right now.”

  Ronan looked down at Michael as he shifted on the ground and dragged Jessica towards him, looking over his chest as Jessica tried not to scream.

  “How’s that bulletproof vest holding up?” He asked, bringing his boot down on his chest in one smooth brutal motion.

  Jessica felt tears well up in her eyes as Michael let out a low scream and Ronan dragged her backwards towards the balcony, looking down at the parking lot as three police cruisers rounded the corner at seventy miles an hour.

  “Hmm,” Ronan said lifting her feet off the ground easily as he dragged her through the door wall to the balcony. “Looks like neither one of you were playing by the rules. Now why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  He whistled under his breath as he jerked her towards the edge of the balcony and she bit back a scream as she almost toppled over the side, throwing her
arms out in front of her as Ronan picked up something near his feet.

  “Now,” Ronan said looping a length of rope around her throat with a casual swing of his arm. “We’re going to play a little game. No, don’t get upset. Nothing like the other night.”

  Jessica swallowed hard as she felt Ronan let the slack of the rope go slightly and then stepped away from the ledge, her lower leg curled and useless against her side. She dug her nails into the stone in front of her, feeling the weight of her body drag her forward and then gasped as he jerked her back an inch, a thick gust of snow sweeping across her face.

  “You won’t get out of this,” Jessica said, trying to keep the soft edge of panic out of her voice as she dug her nails into the shallow lip of the balcony ledge and tried to find some purchase. “There’s no place for you to go. Even if you kill me.”

  Ronan let the line go slack again and she grabbed the line with one hand as she toppled forward, closing her eyes as he jerked it tight.

  “That’s not really bravery, is it?” Ronan said, his low voice curt and vicious as he shifted his body behind her, the movement sending another terrifying sensation of forward motion before the rope went still again. “I think I have you and your family all wrong. You’re not heroes. You’re fatalists. Now, you’re going to tell me everything Michael told you starting with where she is. Or guess what? Dear old dad is going to have a hell of time putting the yearly Christmas card together. So, let’s begin, shall we?”

  Jessica felt her teeth rattle together and closed her eyes as she felt a wave of vertigo sweep over her, the night Ronan had hung her from his balcony flashing though her mind in a wave of perfect, blood-curdling clarity.

  “Why?” She asked. “You’re going to kill me anyway. Why should I bring her down with me? Why shouldn’t she have a chance at happiness?”

  “Spoken like a true fatalist. Let me be honest, Jessica. This isn’t going to end well for you. But. If you tell me what I want to know, I promise that it will end here. Just you and me. One last date with destiny before the night is through.”

  “Don’t you care at all?” Jessica said, her voice low and pulsing with angry sympathy for a girl she had never met. A girl her father had thought of like another daughter and who was now enjoying a happy, normal life somewhere on the opposite side of the country.

  Until he finds her, she thought swallowing around the sudden knot in her throat as she exhaled slowly. Until the devil shows up at her doorstep with that sick, flashing grin of his and convinces her that it’s better to be his than to be nothing at all...

  “She doesn’t remember any of this,” Jessica said with her eyes closed, trying to capture every moment as she felt her life slipping though her fingers one second at a time. “It’s as if it never happened. She’s happier without you. If you really did love her why wouldn’t you give her that? Why wouldn’t you just walk away?”

  Ronan stepped closer to her, tightening the rope as he moved, and Jessica opened her eyes as she felt him slide up behind her, speaking into her ear as the snow whispered around them.

  “That’s the thing about love,” he said, his gravelly voice so low and reasonable it was almost a caress. “I don’t care if she’s happy or not. I really don’t. I don’t care if she’s living a wonderful life somewhere with someone who can give her everything I never could. I will track her to the edge of the world if I have to. I will drag her kicking and screaming away from everything she has ever known. Because she’s mine. Because we belong together. And anyone who tells you otherwise has never really loved anything in their entire life.”

  Jessica’s eyes widened as Ronan took a step away from her and gave her a little slack, letting her pirouette towards the edge of the balcony like a puppet before he jerked the rope tight again.

  “Last chance, Jessica,” he said, his voice low and vicious as she felt him step towards the doorway, casting her eyes over her shoulder as he ran out the slack. “Otherwise this party is just getting started. Not for you, maybe. But for your father. Your family. All the people you care about. This can end with you or it can go on long after you die. Your decision. Feel free to take a moment to think it over.”

  Jessica looked out over the river, the beauty of it suddenly so perfect and complete that she turned around to face him, the rope twisting around her neck more tightly as she turned.

  “You’re wrong,” she said calmly, her hazel eyes burning so brightly they were almost on fire. “There is another choice. Take the shot.”

  Ronan’s brow furrowed as he glanced over his shoulder and Jessica flinched as his body flew forward, the gunshots tearing through his chest as he toppled over the side. She grabbed for the rope quickly, feeling it slip through her fingers and then felt herself jerked backward over the side as the strap yanked tight, taking one last deep breath as she closed her eyes.

  Michael dropped the gun as he heard O’Neill yell behind him and ran for the balcony ledge, throwing his hand over the side as he felt Jessica’s body glide past his fingertips. He leapt towards her in the darkness as he saw her arm fly forward and felt his legs slam against the railing as he closed his hand around her wrist, her body dropping towards the river as he leaned over the ledge. He gritted his teeth as he felt the hard lurch of gravity try to drag her from his grip and wedged his right knee against the slatted curve of the railing as she looked up at him in the darkness, locking her other hand around his wrist as he tried to pull her back towards the balcony.

  Michael threw out his other hand as he felt her start to slip and planted the top of his boot against the slats as he finally found some purchase, shoving his body backwards as he dragged her up over the railing. He took a quick stutter step backwards as Jessica slid to the floor in front of him and felt his heart constrict painfully as she took a sudden shuddering breath, her shoulders slumping forward as he knelt down in front of her. He brushed her hair out of her eyes as she began to cough and unwrapped the rope from her throat gently when she sat up, biting back a wince as he looked down at her leg.

  “You should stay away from tall buildings,” he said, his voice low and rough as he doubled the rope briskly.

  “I should,” Jessica said, her voice low and strained as she tried to catch her breath. “I really should.”

  Michael knotted it below the knee, watching the wind whip her hair around her neck as she leaned back against the ledge and glanced up as he felt her fingers brush his face, her expression so gentle and grateful that he looked away.

  “Archangel,” she said, a ghost of a smile touching her lips.

  “No,” Michael said his brow furrowing as she ran her hand into his. “Not at all.”

  “No,” Jessica said, pulling her hand away as her partner rushed forward and gave him a wry grin as he tucked his coat around her shoulders. “Not for everyone. Maybe just for me.”

  O’Neill looked down at her and then shifted his eyes back to Michael, rolling his jaw slightly as if he couldn’t decide whether to thank him or arrest him.

  “They’re coming,” he said finally. “This place is going to be flooded with cops in about three minutes flat.”

  Michael looked down at Jessica as she glanced in her partner’s direction and then reached for his sleeve as he started to stand.

  “You can’t go,” she said her voice tight and rushed. “You’re the hero. People will understand. I’ll make them understand.”

  Michael shook his head and then crouched down in front of her as he adjusted the jacket over her shoulders, staring at her with his clear blue eyes as if trying to commit her face to memory.

  “No, I’m the man who killed the monster. When I leave here I’ll just be a fugitive like before. You’re the hero, Jessica. And no matter what they say, it’s your city now. If you want it.”

  Jessica followed him with her eyes as she watched him reach for his gun, tucking it into the pocket of his coat.

  “What about Byron?”

  Michael raised his b
rows at her, his face softening slightly as he glanced in Byron’s direction.

  “Byron will understand. He’s a professional. Take care of him, will you? Tell him I’ll see him in a few days. When things get back to normal.”

  “They may want to question him,” O’Neill said, tipping his chin towards the room behind him. “About you.”

  Michael smirked and turned towards the door.

  “Let them. Like I said. He’s a professional.”

  Jessica watched him head for the door leading down to the back exit and felt her stomach twist in panic as she realized that she had no way of knowing when she would see him again.

  Or if I’ll see him again, she thought, letting out a deep sigh as she stopped herself from calling out to him. Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll have to throw myself off a rooftop again and put that Archangel reputation to the test.

  Jessica pressed her lips together as Michael disappeared into the maze of hallways beyond them and then picked up the short, frayed remains of rope on the balcony, looking it over closely for a moment before tossing it towards the railing. She watched the wind catch it, twisting it delicately for a few moments before it drifted over the balcony and then dropped out of sight.

  “Jessica?”

  Jessica glanced over her shoulder as she felt her leg began to ache again and tried not to search for Michael in the darkness, her hazel eyes scanning the snowy landscape with something that felt a lot like regret.

  “Yes?”

  O’Neill looked at her seriously and then crouched down next to her as he met her eyes.

  “You are coming back, aren’t you?”