Heart & Soul
Episode 40
Tears and Rain
By Allan Craig
Somewhere in Oakridge
Megan woke up to find herself bound and
gagged, tied to a chair in a damp, cold warehouse. She looked over to see Marc
in the exact same position, his eyes filled with fear. Megan could tell that
Marc was terrified of Ally, who stood in between them both.
“Megan, you’re awake!” Ally grinned, giddy
at the thought of having Marc and Megan held captive, “I was beginning to think
I might have hit you just a little too hard. Now the fun can really
begin!”
Sterling Enterprises:
“STOP! I cant let you go through with this
Joseph and Diane’s Penthouse: Lounge
Diane sat on the sofa, dialling Greg’s
cell phone number for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. But still no answer. Diane couldn’t believe she’d driven
another of her kids away.
“I don’t think you’re getting this,
mom,” Greg yelled, “I love Carrie, and I’m not going to give up until I find
her.”
“You’re deluding yourself Greg,
Carrie left you. She probably ran away, leaving everyone else to pick up the
pieces. Typical selfish Carrie.”
Greg laughed, “I don’t believe I’m
hearing this. The only selfish person in this situation is YOU. If it wasn’t
for you, Carrie and I would still be together. But no, you couldn’t bare the
thought that anyone might come between me and you. Don’t you see what you’ve
done to all of us mom?
“I don’t mean to meddle, I only have
your best interest at heart” Diane placed her hand on Greg’s shoulder, but he
pulled it off.
“You don’t know what’s best for me!
Not for any of us! You only know what’s best for you, and that’s how you want
everything to be. The world doesn’t revolve around you, mother, and the sooner
you realize that, the better.”
Greg stormed out the room before
Diane had the chance to say anything
Diane buried her head in her hands, trying
her best to hold back the tears. She’d managed to drive away almost everyone
who she loved, and for no reason except she didn’t think before she acted. Her
eyes couldn’t contain the build up of tears for another second and Diane buried
her head further into her hands as the tears began to flow rapidly.
Josh’s Apartment: Kitchen
Natalie sat on the sofa, flicking through
the channels in the hope of finding something decent to watch, although her
mind was far from the TV. How could she tell her family that she was pregnant?
She’d only been in Oakridge for a few weeks and already she’d got knocked up by
some guy she barely knew....the only things she knew about him was that he was
called Leo and he was a millionaire. How could she tell Leo that she was
pregnant? How could she tell anyone? She looked over to the kitchen, where Josh
was emptying the trash can, she didn’t know how on earth she could tell her
brother that she was about to make him an uncle…she could never bring herself
to have an abortion, but how could she go through with the pregnancy? Natalie
tried to tell herself this wasn’t happening to her, but the more she tried to
block it out, the more it forced its way back into her thoughts.
“Shit!” Josh groaned, looking at the trash
on the kitchen floor, “I hate these stupid garbage bags, they ALWAYS rip.
Remind me next time I’m at the store to buy better ones, the ones Jessica
bought are paper thin.”
“You sound like an old man,” Natalie got
up to help her brother clean up the mess.
Josh saw a little box that read “ProLine
Pregnancy Test” in amongst the trash and picked it up. Natalie’s heart sank to
the pit of her stomach when she saw what was in Josh’s hand.
“What the hell is this?” Josh asked his
sister as the colour drained from her face.
The Abbot House: Lounge
Will stood in the
lounge, frozen. He couldn’t believe what Alex had just told him.
“Spit it out, mom, what is it you’re
keeping from me?” Will demanded, urging Alex to let him know what was troubling
her.
“Okay! The truth is, Wesley isn’t
your father,” Alex waited to see Will’s reaction, but it felt like a weight had
been lifted off her shoulders. Still, she knew this was far from over.
“What? This is a joke right?” Will turned away from his mother.
“I wish it was…but it’s the truth,”
Alex edged closer to her son, “Wesley isn’t your father.”
“Who is then?” Will rolled his
eyes…thinking…hoping that Alex was lying.
“John Sterling”
Will turned back around to face Alex.
“I cant believe I’m hearing this…why would
you wait my entire life to tell me this? Why would you keep this from me for
all these years?” Will was overcome with so many emotions: shock, anger,
confusion…confusion was definitely there.
“I didn’t want to tear this family apart,”
Alex insisted, sitting down on the sofa, her heart beating faster than ever as
she began to realize the repercussions of her revelation.
“Like you walking out on us all those
years ago didn’t do that?” Will rolled his eyes.
“I left because I couldn’t keep that secret
any longer. With everything that was happening between you and Megan…”
“OH MY GOD Megan? Megan who was my
girlfriend but all along we were brother and sister?” Will
felt sick to his stomach at the thought of Megan being his half sister, “Did
you not think to let me know about that BEFORE we got involved?”
“I couldn’t…it would destroy your father.”
“My father? What one? To you this is just keeping the fact that you cheated on the
man I thought was my father a secret, but this is MY life! This secret is all
about ME! And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“Will, I am so sor-”
“SAVE IT!” Will grabbed
his car keys, “I’m done with this.”
“Wait! Where are you going?” Alex ran
after her son.
Will stormed out the house, slamming the
door behind him before even acknowledging what Alex had said. Alex buried her
head in her hands…what had she done?
Somewhere in
Jessica sat in the passenger seat of Rex’s
car, leaning her head on her hand as she stared blankly out at the endless
miles of desert she and Rex had been driving through to reach the next town.
She tried to reach a signal on the radio but they couldn’t pick up any radio
station.
“My iPod’s in the glove if you wanna
listen to that,” Rex offered, not taking his eyes off of the seemingly never
ending road.
“Thanks,” Jessica smiled, reaching into
the glove compartment and pulling out the small mp3 player. She placed one of
the headphones in her ear and began to browse through the tracks, “Spice
Girls…really?” she laughed.
“One song!” Rex rolled his eyes, a half smile emerging on his face, “Don’t tell me
you don’t love it too.”
“You got me there,” Jessica laid her head
back on the head rest, “So how long until we get to this town?”
“About an hour.”
“And we’re not taking the freeway
because?”
“If Carrie’s driving anywhere, she’ll be
going on these roads. This way she’s out of public sight and therefore it will
be harder for anyone to track her down.”
“But surely she wouldn’t be that stupid?”
Jessica wondered, “She’s seven months pregnant. What if she were
to go into labour early or something and she’s stuck in the middle of nowhere?”
“Calm down Jessica, I’m sure she’ll be
fine.”
Somewhere in Oakridge
Ally stood in front of Marc and Megan, who
were staring at each other through the corners of their eyes, trying to
reassure each other that everything would be okay without talking. Both wanted
the other to know how much they loved them, but neither could say a word.
“You’re probably wondering what’s going
on, right Megan?” Ally rested her hands on her hips, “Well, you see, Marc left
me. He left me all alone without so much as a goodbye,” her stare shifted to
Marc, “You didn’t really think you’d get away with that, did you? Silly boy,”
Ally rolled her eyes and looked back at Megan, “You see, Marc was a naughty
boy, and I punished him for it when he was bad. Boys like Marc need to be
punished, or they’ll keep doing it.” Ally walked over and unbuttoned Marc’s
shirt, exposing his rippled torso. She ran her hands down his smooth, washboard
abs, but he resisted, breathing in and straightening up, turning his head away
from her. Ally took hold of Marc’s face and turned it back to face her as she
pushed her other hand inside his pants. Marc groaned, as he wriggled around to
avoid Ally’s wandering hands.
“I just had to get one last feel,” Ally
winked, delirious, as she got up from him and turned back to Megan, “What you
don’t know about Marc, is that he just doesn’t know when to give up. He was a
very bad boy, and he never learned his lesson.”
Megan couldn’t understand what Ally meant,
as she looked out the corner of her eyes to Marc, willing him to break free and
rescue her.
Nate’s Yacht, somewhere in
Carrie sat out on the deck, watching as
Nate headed off into town to get some food. She picked up her empty glass and
headed back inside the yacht to get some more water, closing the sliding glass
door behind her.
Outside, Michael DiCenzo watched from a
car as Nate disappeared around the corner. He got out of his car and edged
towards the yacht. He walked on board and edged along the deck, his back up
against the wall.
Back inside, Carrie looked around the
kitchen area for her vitamins. She opened the final cupboard and, nope, no
vitamins there either. She opened the other sliding doors on the kitchen side
and out onto the deck, approaching the staircase that lead upstairs to the
bedrooms.
DiCenzo opened the sliding door into the
lounge and slid it shut behind him. He guessed the yacht was pretty much empty,
Carrie must have been upstairs. The sliding door shut with a thud.
Upstairs, Carrie jumped. What was the
noise? She stopped, dead in her tracks, listening for any further noise. She
could vaguely make out the sound of footsteps from downstairs. She knew it
couldn’t be Nate; he always let her know it was him when he came back. She
didn’t know who it was, and she wasn’t going to wait around to find out, no,
she knew she had to get off the boat as soon as possible.
Downstairs, DiCenzo walked around the
yacht, looking for a place to hide until someone came in.
Carrie tiptoed down the stairs and along
the deck. She peered in the sliding door to see DiCenzo poking around. Her
heart rate increased rapidly as her mind went into overdrive trying to think of
what to do, but there was only one solution for her; get off the yacht as fast
as possible.
Josh’s Apartment
Natalie’s mind went blank as her heart
sank to the pit of her knotted stomach. She urged words to come out, she opened
her mouth, willing her brain to function and let her speak, but she couldn’t.
Words totally failed her. Those few seconds seemed like a life time as she
struggled to find the words.
“Well, do you wanna tell me what’s going
on?” Josh waited for Natalie to reply. Of course, Josh knew exactly what was
going on, but he refused to believe it until it came from Natalie’s mouth.
“I-I….”
Natalie couldn’t bring herself to tell
Josh the truth…she couldn’t bring herself to tell him anything…she was
absolutely mortified.
Sterling Enterprises:
Joseph could barely contain his rage at
Leo’s abrupt entrance, just as he was about to gain control of Sterling
Enterprises.
“Can this wait, Leo?” Joseph folded his
arms, “It’s really important that
“Really?” Leo walked further into the office, “See, there was me thinking that it
was really important for
Joseph’s eyes filled with rage…he couldn’t
believe Leo had rumbled his plan. Wait, no, there was still time, he could
still cover up.
“What’s he talking about, Uncle Joseph?”
“Who knows, he’s probably high on
something,” Joseph rolled his eyes, “Sweet heart, it’s really important that
you sign those so they can be sent off.”
“You lying bastard!” Leo shoved Joseph up
against a wall, his hands around Joseph’s neck, “Tell her!”
“Put him down, Leo, you’re hurting him!”
“Tell her!” Leo yelled. Joseph remained
silent, “Tell her or I will!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Joseph managed to get the words out, despite Leo doing his best to strangle
him.
“Tell her or I swear to god I’ll kill you,
right here, right now!”
“Leo STOP!”
Leo couldn’t say no to his sister; he let
Joseph go. Joseph pushed Leo off of him and headed out the office, but Leo
grabbed him before he could leave.
“I said tell her, Uncle Joe, or I will.”
Leo folded his arms.
“Tell me what?”
“Okay, it looks like our loving Uncle
isn’t going to tell you what he’s been up to, so I will,” Leo began, “Joseph
here, has slipped a document into that pile of things for you to sign that
would give him full ownership of Sterling Enterprises if you signed it. He’s
been plotting to steal this company from you ever since you got it.”
“Is this true?”
Joseph rolled his eyes, “You are making a
big mistake,
Joseph turned and stormed out, slamming
the door behind him.
The Gates of the
Will sat outside the mansion in his car,
tapping his finger on the steering wheel as one thousand thoughts ran through
his mind. He didn’t know what to do; go into the mansion or drive on, and keep
on going until he was as far away from Oakridge as possible. He wanted answers,
but he didn’t want to hear them. He wanted the truth, but he wasn’t sure if he
could handle it. He looked up at the mansion, he knew he had to go inside, but
he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
Nate’s Yacht, somewhere in
Carrie tiptoed along the deck of the
yacht, heading to the back of the boat so she could get off before DiCenzo
could see her. She climbed onto the dock just as DiCenzo walked out onto the
deck and saw her.
“Hey! STOP” DiCenzo yelled, pulling a gun
from his pocket. Carrie started to run as Nate walked around the corner.
“What’s going on?” Nate asked, confused by
Carrie’s distress.
“DiCenzo…he’s found us!” Carrie exclaimed.
“What are you talking about?” Nate’s face
dropped when he saw DiCenzo approaching them. He let the bags of food fall to
the ground and took Carrie’s hand.
“Run!” He whispered. If she wasn’t in
grave danger of being killed Carrie would have laughed at the sense of déjà vu
she had just felt. They began to run away from DiCenzo as they mingled into the
crowd in the town. DiCenzo started to run after them. They made there way
through the town’s main streets and out onto the desert at the back of the
town. A wide open space with a road that seemed endless met them, and they
wondered what would be their best option; the desert would make them too easy
to find, but they couldn’t hide out in the town forever; sooner or later
DiCenzo would find them.
Josh’s Apartment
Natalie had managed to move herself to the
table, Josh sat opposite her, staring right at her. She felt queasy, she hadn’t
managed to say a word. There had been hundreds of thousands of thoughts running
around in her head, but none of the solutions she had thought of worked. Nothing
she could say would make the situation any better.
“It wasn’t meant to happen,” Natalie
finally managed to bring herself to say something, “It just…happened.”
“So you’re saying that you’re pregnant?”
Josh felt sick, he couldn’t believe his baby sister was having sex, he wanted
to kill whoever had put her into this situation.
Natalie nodded.
“Well, who’s the father?” Josh asked,
already mentally planning what he would do to the guy.
Natalie gulped, feeling sick to her
stomach. There was no way she could tell Josh that Leo was the father, but
there was nothing else she could say.
“Leo…Leo Sterling.” Natalie looked down,
keen to avoid eye contact with Josh.
“I’ll kill him!” Josh got up from his seat
and headed towards the door. Natalie pulled him back.
“You cant tell him! He doesn’t know!”
Natalie begged, breaking down into tears. Josh stopped and turned around. He
couldn’t let this go, but he couldn’t leave Natalie in this state. He wrapped
his arms around her and let her cry. He wanted to tell her everything would be
alright, but he knew he couldn’t lie to her.
The
“Alright, alright, I’m coming!” John
Sterling walked through the hall to the persistent banging on the door. He
opened up the door to see Will Abbot standing on the porch, “Will, what can I
do for you?”
”I want answers, John…or should that be dad?” Will’s face was dead,
emotionless, as he waited for John to respond.
Somewhere in Oakridge
Ally had bundled Marc and Megan into a car
inside the warehouse, and was now sitting with them inside the car.
“You see, Marc would never do what he was
told, and so I’m going to have to punish him once and for all,” Ally had a
wicked smile and blank eyes, it was as if she had been possessed by a spirit.
“But despite the fact he’s a bad, bad boy, I can’t bear to be away from him.”
Marc and Megan frantically scrambled to
undo the rope that bound their hands behind their backs. Ally switched on the
radio in the car as loud rock music began to blare from the speakers.
“You better say your goodbyes, kids,
because this is the end,” Ally turned the key in the ignition. There was a pipe
going from the exhaust into the window, and the car started to fill up with
gas.
“Marc, I love you.” Ally smiled. Marc and
Megan took a deep breath as they continued to fiddle with the rope behind their
backs. Marc felt like he was making progress, he could feel the ropes loosening
around his wrist.
Rex’s Car
As Rex and Jessica approached a small town
in the car, Rex slowed down the car, seeing two figures running away from the
town.
“Do you see what I see?” Jessica asked,
wondering if that really was Carrie she was seeing or she was starting to
imagine things, “Oh my god it is! It’s Carrie. Stop the car.”
Rex stopped the car and Jessica started to get out of the car, but Rex pulled
her back in.
“Wait here, it might not be safe for you.
Radio in for support, just say emergency reinforcements needed just outside Los
Palmas.” Rex got out of the car and closed the door behind him. Jessica heard a
bleeping sound; Rex had locked her in the car. She slouched down in the seat
and reached for the radio transmitter.
Rex watched as a third figure emerged,
pointing a gun. Carrie and Nate got closer.
“Carrie Sterling?” Rex asked. Carrie
nodded, too out of breath to speak, “I’m Detective Rex Davis, I’m here to help
you.”
“That man,” Carrie pointed, “Is trying to
kill us.”
Rex took a gun out of his pocket and
pointed it at DiCenzo. Before he had the chance to shoot, DiCenzo fired his
gun, and Nate fell to the ground.
“NO!” Carrie screamed, dropping to the
floor to tend to Nate.
“You’re safe,” Nate whispered, holding
Carrie’s hand, “That’s all that matters.”
DiCenzo continued to fire bullets that
seemed to go nowhere until his gun stopped firing. Upon realizing he had run
out of bullets, DiCenzo turned and started running, but Rex was on him, and
managed to grab him, pulling a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket
A swarm of cop cars emerged and surrounded
the scene, as Rex lead DiCenzo away, holding a gun to his back, and Carrie
knelt over Nate’s wounded body.
“Don’t you dare give up,” Carrie ordered
Nate, fighting back the tears, “We’ve come too far for you to give up.”
“It’s over now, Carrie,” Nate managed a
weak smile despite the blood beginning to stain his white t-shirt; “We’ve won,
no matter what happens. Michael DiCenzo will never hurt another person again.”
Carrie pushed the hair out of her face as
she leaned in closer and kissed Nate.
TO BE CONTINUED….