| Title: Across the Tracks..... Author: Priscilla Chapter 7: Devil In a Blue Suit It was about 8:15 p.m. when her phone rang. Jane was bored out of her mind so she practically lunged for the phone. "Hello?" She asked breathlessly. "Jane? It-it's Jeremy." Jane sat there in between feeling relieved for the distraction and upset because the distraction turned out to be Jeremy. "What do you want Jeremy?" She asked, not letting one ounce of emotion leak through and into her voice. "Can you open the door and step outside for a moment please?" Was his only response. Suspision and dread coiled up in Jane's stomach like a snake, still she got up and walked to the door. Looking through the peephole she could only see a perfectly tied, navy blue silk tie. Oh, yeah, it was definitely Jeremy. She opened the door but stayed within the house. Jane spread her palms and shrugged her shoulders as if saying "Well?". Jeremy Irons stood on her porch in one of his thousand dollar suits with a huge bouquet of white roses in his hands. "Jeremy I --" "No wait. Before you start telling me to go to hell, let me get this out. I've been going to rehab. I've been clean for two weeks. I'm going to anger management classes. I'm doing my part, I'm trying...could you please meet me half way?" His words caused a shower of guilt to rain down on Jane's head. It was true. For all Jeremy's faults, he was undeniably loyal and she had left him when his alcoholism was at an all time high, when he needed her support the most. Now he stood on her porch asking her for forgiveness and for a second chance. To meet him half way...... "Jeremy, I'm sort of seeing someone." "I'm not asking you to stop your life for me Jane, I just want dinner. C'mon, Beef Stroganoff over noodles baked Haddock Ala Ritz." He said, the hundred dollar smile securely in place, teasing edging on sexy. No doubt he'd won hundreds of jurors over with that one. "A dinner between friends, no strings attached?" She asked voicing out loud the questions in her own mind. "No strings, unless you want there to be." He said. His voice taking on a flirtatious tone. "OK. Gimme a few minutes to get ready. Come in and sit." Jane said closing the door behind him and walking up to her bedroom to change and do something with her hair. About 12 minutes later Jane came downstairs in black dress pants and a black sequin shirt. She'd gone for the "I'm going out with you but don't get any ideas, cause I'm serious" look. Jeremy stood when she entered the living room, a broad smile on his face. "You look amazing." "Thank you, are you ready?" She asked. "Sure let's go." As she led the way outside. **************** About a half an hour later, they arrived at Jeremy's very secluded, very dark looking estate. It reminded Jane of the old gloomy, dark castles in 1930's vampire movies. Jeremy came around the side and opened her door for her. Once inside, he helped her with her coat and a maid showed them to the rather large dining room. As they walked in relative silence down the hall, Jane realized the deep contrast between the outside and inside of the house. She noticed that the interior of the house was mainly masculine, with thick wood furnishings and leather apparel, but also had a slight homey appeal to it, a woman's touch. The dining room itself was grand and spacious, but more fit for a romantic gala than a "dinner among friends", with it's dark, draping, wine colored curtains and it's candle lighting. Jeremy pulled out Jane's chair as she sat and she gave him a restrained smile. She never did like to be pampered too much. She could pull out her own damn chair, thank you very much. They engaged in small conversation and dinner was served. Jane was thankful for the distraction; this night was a big mistake. In the months since their break-up she had become the President of "The I Hate Jeremy Iron's Guts Club" in order to deal with her new found fear of commitment and her uncertain future as far as serious relationships went. Now here she was eating dinner with him. Jeremy interrupted her train of thought when he said, "I've missed you these past few months, Jane. It's been really hard." "I can't say that I understand Jeremy, because I don't, but I will say that I admire the fact that you have done something about getting better." There she had said it, and it had almost killed her. Geez, Jane grow up. "I appreciate that coming from you." They continued to talk, eat and drink. The food was kind of salty for Jane so she indulged herself in a second glass of White Chardene. As they continued to talk about her parents and how her company was doing, she started to notice her vision beginning to blur at odd moments and then come back into clear focus. It wasn't until she took her first bite of dessert that she began to think something was terribly wrong. She couldn't breathe; the room seemed to be closing in on her. Her vision was deteriorating, now all she saw was a dark blurry figure where Jeremy was supposed to be. Jeremy stopped chewing when he saw her shake her head as if something were lodged inside it. "Jane, you ok?" He asked concern in his voice. "Jeremy, you've got to help me. I can hardly see, the room is spinning!" She shrieked grasping at the sleeves of his suit coat. "Oh Jane, don't be so melodramatic, it'll pass." He said his voice a flat monotone, no emotion. "Jeremy please, I think there's something terribly wrong, my vi--" Jane was cut off by a mind blowing back slap to the right side of her face with such force that she was knocked, along with her chair tumbling to the floor. "Wha-" was all she got out before a large hand wrapped around her throat and pulled her body up. "You don't have to worry about anything, yet." It was Jeremy's voice, only not the voice he'd been using just a few minutes before, it was a dark, amused voice. Jane tried to struggle out of his grasp, to claw at his hand with her fingernails, but it didn't work. As her last resort she brought her left knee up and into his groin. Jeremy dropped her immediately, howling in pain as Jane scrambled for her life. She regained her balance and managed to run, but it was hard to determine where she was going now. She could no longer differentiate between shapes. Jane felt her way down some kind of hall, her fingers gripping into the crevices of the stone walls she could only feel. She stopped when she came to the end of a railing that led into stairs. Using her foot, she felt for the endge of the top step. Just as she attempted to descend the second, Jeremy's voice boomed down the hall. "Where are you little bitch!?" The shock of him coming after her now made her loose her balance causing Jane to loose her balance and tumble down steps. Oh God, she thought before the darkness overtook her, I don't want to die like this..... **************** Gerry walked up the front steps of his house looking forward to his long hot shower and actually having time to start reading the book he'd picked up last week. He stood in front of his door searching his coat and pants pockets for his keys. "Damn it." He cursed himself. He must of left them at Jane's when they'd sat down to talk. Serves him right for not keeping his mind on the things it should be on, now he had to walk all the way back there. This was precisely the reason his sister kept telling him to leave a spare key hidden somewhere on the porch in case he forgot his keys. "You're a disgrace to the Scottish." He said to himself as he wearily descended the steps and made his way back down the street, bracing his tired body for the twenty-minute walk. ***************** Jane woke up, or at least she THOUGHT she was awake. A blindfold blocked her vision, though she didn't know if she would be able to see without it on her face anyway. She tried to sit up in what she thought was a bed only to find that both her hands and feet were bound to what must be the posts. Still she struggled against them, trying to see if any of her restrains would loosen; they only seemed to get tighter. During the minutes it took for her to realize her movements were futile she'd heard nothing, not even a peep. Her brain was going into overdrive trying to figure out exactly what had happened between the time she was eating dinner with Jeremy to fleeing him for her life. What had happened? Had he planned this all out? And if he had, why? She practically screamed out loud when that voice she knew so well interrupted her train of thought. "Stop moving, it's useless." Jeremy said from across the room. "Why are you doing this Jeremy? What the hell is wrong with you?" Jane snapped. "Gee, I don't know Janet, why would I want to hurt you? Maybe because you hurt me? Maybe because our relationship wasn't fully dead before you started screwing around with your famous little actor boyfriend?" "People will look for me, I haven't missed one day of work in three years." "Don't worry. They'll find your body soon enough." "You're sick Jeremy, you need help. You think you telling me you're gonna kill me is supposed to make me afraid of you? Ooh, Jeremy Irons the big bad boogey man that's gonna kill me, you're pathetic." "Don't. Piss. Me. Off. Jane." Jeremy ground out between his teeth. "Why not? What are you gonna do Jeremy? You always were a sniveling coward, you don't have the balls to kill me." No blown out response greeted her taunt. Janet was beginning to think that he'd walked out of the room. She abandoned that line of thinking when she felt the cold, smooth point of a knife on her left cheek. Jeremy leaned in close enough for her to smell his expensive cologne. "I will kill you Jane. I'm gonna enjoy, watching the blood seep out of your body, watching the life drain out of you slowly." He walked away from her then, she could tell because of his loss of body heat next to hers, and from across the room she heard him say, "All I need is the right knife to start off our little party." The fear Janet had been holding down rose up in the form of vile in her throat. She heard as if from underwater, the open of a zipper, and then a ruffling sound as Jeremy searched for his prized possession. "DAMN IT!" He screamed. He was irate, where had he left the Swiss army knife he'd filed almost to surgical scapul precision? Janet's house. He had to find it. Swiftly he walked over to the bed and forcefully grabbed Janet's face. "I'm going out for a while sweetheart, but don't worry, I'll be back soon. And then we can start to play." Then he leaned in and kissed her. Grabbing his coat and walking out the door, he imagined the different angles his cuts would take, and how deep he could cut with minimal bleeding. His plan was taking shape. Now all he had to do was get that knife. Title: Across The Tracks..... Author: Priscilla Chapter 8: Let The Games Begin Gerard made it to Jane's house in fifteen minutes instead of twenty. It had become extremely cold and dark outside since he'd started walking and he only had a thermal sweater on. He arrived at the house and made his way to the back door that led into the library. Under the welcome matt was the spare key Jane had told him about. "Jane?" He asked coming into the house, he wasn't sure if she was asleep or something. Hearing nothing, he made his way to the living room and picked up his keys. "Where could she have gone?" Gerry asked himself aloud. It wasn't even 2 hours after he'd left and she'd told him she had no plans for the remainder of the evening. He went upstairs, to her painting studio, and she wasn't in there either. When he was coming back down though, Gerry heard the distinct sound of a door slamming closed. Thinking it was Jane, he ran down the stairs and bumped directly into someone, a very strong someone. Both men asserted each other with suspicion as they got back on their feet. "Who are you?" Both Jeremy and Gerard said at the same time and broke out into grins for sounding so rude to each other. "I'm a friend of Jane's, I mean Jane,t and just came over to pick up my keys that I left in the living room." Gerard explained his purpose for being there, and offering his hand said, "Gerard Butler." Jeremy shook his hand, the fake smile firmly in place. Inside his head Jeremy wanted to rip this jerk's head off. He was ruining everything, now he had to get rid of him or get out of there, fast. "Nice to meet you, Jeremy Hanley. Janet's brother." Gerard's gears immediately began turning at that one. This guy was lying; Jane's only male sibling had died from cancer at the age of ten. Still, he pretended to be as dumb as this man obviously thought he was. "Are you visiting?" "We'll sort of," Jeremy said casually putting his hands into his pant's pockets, "I'm here to surprise the sis." "Oh, how long are you planning on staying?" Gerard asked, making sure his suspicions were accurate. This guy, whomever he was, looked nothing like Jane and didn't have an accent. Jeremy, became instantly aware of the fact that this "Gerard" knew that he was lying, and had decided to play his game anyway.....did he know something? See something? He couldn't take the chance, had to get rid of him now. "You know I'm lying don't you Gerry?" Jeremy asked, a knowing smile on his face. Gerry was a little taken aback by his forwardness, but answered truthfully. "Yes, I do. Where's Jane?" "You really think I'm just gonna give you that little piece of information?" "You really think I'm gonna let you walk out of here if you don't?" "You don't have the guts kilt boy." Jeremy taunted, bracing himself for the coming battle. "We'll see." Gerry said as he lunged at Jeremy knocking him to the ground. An immediate wrestling match ensued. Gerard seemed to have the upper hand at first but Jeremy let the full brunt of his weight on him. Wrapping his right leg around Jeremy's right one, Gerry tried to again get the upper hand on his opponent. Jeremy twisted his body and swung his arm back in a swift motion, hitting Gerard in the face with his elbow. Gerry hollered in pain as blood spewed from his nose like a fountain. It was broken. And this only served to enrage him further. Jeremy regained his balance and was making a run for the back door. If he could get outside he'd have more cover and it would be easier to ambush. He didn't make it that far. Gerard lunged for his legs as he hobbled to the door, instantly knocking Jeremy and the small table holding a flowerpot over to the ground. Jeremy struggled furiously as Gerry gained a tighter hold on his legs. His eyes caught the overturned oak table and flower pot, more importantly, the stones inside it. Jeremy continued to struggle as a means of keeping Gerard occupied with stabilizing his movements and not on his slowly creeping hand towards the palm-sized stone in the scattered dirt. Gerard scrambled to place his full body weight on top of Jeremy in an effort to get him still enough to hit him, hard enough to knock him out. When Gerard straddled his waist and raised his arm as if to punch him, Jeremy made his move. "AAAAAARRR" He roared, as he swung wildly at Gerard's head with the jagged edge of the stone in his hand, hitting him square in the right temple. Gerry hit the floor backwards, the back of his head thumping against the hardwood floor. He backpedaled away from Jeremy as if getting enough space between them could stop the impending doom. Gerard shook his head to clear his vision witch only made it worse, but he tried to regain his balance anyway. Jeremy stood, shook the dirt off his coat and pants and finger combed his hair back away from his eyes. He smiled as he walked towards Gerard, and swung once again at his head, sprouting blood. Jeremy looked at the stone clenched in his hand colored with blood, at the drops littering the floor around where the first blow had taken place, and at the debilitated figure lying on the floor before him, and smiled as he crouched down, placing his mouth inches from Gerry's ear. "Too bad sweet prince, but I don't think you're going to save the princess this time." Jeremy took hold of Gerard by his sweater and dragged him through the back door. Janet's house was perfect for getting in and out un-noticed. No houses near enough to get a good look and woods surrounded the premises, dark woods. He opened the trunk to his Honda Eclipse and unceremoniously dropped Gerry's heavy frame in and locked it. Then he made his way back into the house and moped the blood off the floor from the earlier battle. He took the broom and swept the spilled dirt from the flowerpot, turned the table right side up again and placed the pot on top. He double-checked his work; no evidence of disturbance was to be left behind, nothing out of place. Jeremy picked up his keys and the knife he'd come to get in the first place. "Let the games begin." He said with a smile as he walked out to the back, locked the back door and drove to his cabin.....let the games begin indeed...... If fear were just a four letter word Would all of this have occurred? They think that their building an empire, without me Well I've got the torch now, I've got the power to burn it all down....... |