Darkness Rising
We're All Mad Here
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A Once Upon a Time in
story by Merrie
Disclaimer: Jeffrey, Sands, Roland, Emily, Susannah and all
others own me.ouldould never even attempt to claim otherwise.
Summary: Sands and Jeffrey, after having a good long
homicidal run have finally been caught. So what happens next? And how the heck
does a wanted psychopath wind up in the CIA anyway?
Characters: Jeffrey, Sands, Roland Rivers, Emily Brisbane,
Susannah Cartwright, Dr. Claire Harrington
Author’s Note: Finally, Sands comes back! All rejoice! Well,
maybe not rejoice. There’s much angst in store for him and Jeffrey, I’m afraid.
Rating: R for extreme violence, graphic imagery and language.
Chapter Seventeen: We’re All Mad Here
Emily and Roland just looked at each other, looked at
Jeffrey, and looked at Susannah, frowning in tandem. It was a bit unsettling to
say the least. “Hello, Emily. Roland,” Susannah spoke up. “Jeffrey’s a
little…out of it.”
“So it would seem,” Emily said dryly.
“Fuck, is he going to be able to tell us anything in this
state?” Roland asked with a frown, moving a little closer to Jeffrey’s side.
The wide grin on Jeffrey’s face gave him pause.
“He’s already confessed to thirty murders, Roland. And I
think he’s telling the truth,” Susannah said with a sigh.
“Oh!” Jeffrey spoke up suddenly, startling them all. “I
remembered one you probably haven’t found! Someone named…Halia.
I met her on the way back from the Halloween party and killed in her home after
fucking her. It’s where I got the gun. She had it in her underwear drawer.” He
giggled. “Can you imagine that? A gun in your underwear
drawer?” He snickered. “A pistol with your panties?”
“Yeah, hilarious,” Roland said with a frown and a raised
eyebrow before turning to Dr. Harrington who stood near the doorway, watching
the proceedings with a detached manner. “What the hell did you give him?” he
asked in sotto voice.
“Something to keep him calm,” she said evenly. “I’m glad to
see its working.”
“Keep him calm?
Good Christ, woman. This isn’t keeping him calm; it’s turned him into a fucking
fruitcake! How are we supposed to trust anything he says to us in this state?
He could be fucking imagining it all!”
“I don’t like your tone, Agent Rivers. Mr. Sands is
with your colleague, Agent Cartwright. If you don’t like my methods for dealing
with him, feel free to leave,” Dr. Harrington said haughtily, her arms crossed
over her chest in an uncompromising manner.
“She’s a real cold bitch, isn’t she? Can I request another
doctor? This one’s broken.” Jeffrey piped in with a laugh that Roland
Dr. Carrington didn’t even bother responding to that. She
just ignored Jeffrey’s off-hand comment as if he were something to be humored
from time to time, but ultimately ignored. “I have other patients to attend to.
You may have,” she checked her watch, “exactly fifteen minutes alone with Mr.
Sands. But if I find out that you are abusing your privileges in any way and
thereby undermining my attempts to rehabilitate him, you will be escorted from
the premises and not permitted to speak with him alone again. Do you
understand?” She looked at each of them in turn sternly, before turning on a
sharp heel and exiting the room.
“Psst,” Jeffrey whispered. “Now
that the cat is away, the mice can play.” He paused. “Not that I consider
myself a mouse of course.”
“Maybe a rat,” Roland muttered under his breath. Susannah
hushed him and moved closer to Jeffrey.
“Jeffrey, is there anything else that you can tell us?
be calming. Jeffrey smiled at her.
“Feel free to lock me up anytime, sugarbutt.
You too, darlin’,” he directed toward Emily, giving
them both a leer and pulling against his restraints in a writhing, sensual
manner. Susannah blushed, Emily just looked intrigued, and Roland looked as if
he were about to shoot him.
“Cut the bullshit, Sands,” Roland said with a scowl. “You’re
caught, you sick son of a bitch. And you’re going to fucking fry. What do you
have to say about that?”
Jeffrey seemed unperturbed about his impending death or
consequent incarceration. “Cut the bullshit, Rivers,” he echoed with a grin,
still rocking against the restraints slowly. “Not Sands, not Sands, not Sands,”
he said with each pull against his bonds. “Sands left. He’s a pussy. He
abandoned me to this fucking place. Don’t know if he’s ever coming back. If he
does, I’m going to beat the shit out of him for doing this to me. You hear
that, you yellow bastard?!” he shouted up to the ceiling. “Come back,” he
moaned afterwards, the anger that had been in his voice seemingly nonexistent.
“It’s as I said. You need him, don’t you Jeffrey? He
balances you, doesn’t he? He keeps the two of you from falling apart,” Susannah
asked cautiously, looking down at the struggling man beneath her, the blush on
her face a thing of the past. She had let him get to her. Such a thing wasn’t
going to happen again.
“No,” Jeffrey moaned, shaking his head violently. “He left
me! But I don’t need him! I don’t fucking need anyone, you bitch!” he hissed,
pulling at his restraints once more as if he wanted to lunge at her and tear
her throat out. From the look of utter rage that passed across his face, that
was more than likely the truth. Then, as suddenly as it had happened, the rage
was gone, and he stared up at the ceiling again with rolling, drug-glazed eyes.
“I don’t need him. Fuck, maybe he’s not even real. Wouldn’t that be fucking
hilarious? Maybe I just imagined him and it’s only ever been me all along.
Maybe there is no Sands! Only me! Me, me, only me,” he
repeated over and over.
“’s w’s where you’ve got it wrong, you bastard,” Roland
hissed at him, leaning in close over Jeffrey’s restrained form. “You’re Sands.
You’ve never been anyone else. I don’t for a second believe this ‘I’m not
Sands, I’m somebody else sharing the same fucking body’ story, and neither will
the fucking jury. I’ll make sure of it.”
Jeffrey grinned. “Bullshit. You believe me. I saw it at the
party; your belief. You knew then as you know now that I’m telling you the
truth. We are two. Separate, divided, split, and yet whole,
same, one.
“Oh yeah? Well if that’s true, then
where the fuck is Sands now?” Roland asked coldly, a smug smirk on his face.
“Pacing, always pacing. Like a
fucking caged tiger in my mind,” Jeffrey murmured absently. “He’s here…but not.
He doesn’t want to come out and play with the other kids. He doesn’t like their
games. He doesn’t want to join in with their fun. He wants to make his own. And
you aren’t allowed to play. I’m not
either,” Jeffrey said with a sigh. “He’s playing hide and go seek and someone
forgot to end the game. He’s still hiding, you see. Buried
away where I can’t get to him. But I know he’s up there. If he
wasn’t…there would be only me. And the others.”
“Others?” Emily asked softly,
moving to stand at Roland’s elbow near Jeffrey’s be/p>
/p>
“Of course. There are always
others. Like me, but not. There are none quite like
me. I’m special, did you know? None of the others have been able to take over
like have. They hao voo voices. Only whispers.”
“You mean other personalities?” Emily continued, casting a
glance over at Susannah who caught her eyes and frowned thoughtfully.
“Oh come on. This is bullshit! Can’t you see that he’s
playing you? This is all a fucking act!” Roland said irritably, his face filled
with disgust.
Jeffrey laughed. “We’re not in a china shop. No bulls here,”
he said gleefully.
“What the fuck is that
supposed to mean?” Roland asked.
“The mad cannot be asked to interpret their madness. It
would never work,” Jeffrey said with a solemn shake of his head. “Confusion
would abound and the madness would spread. Is madness contagious? Are we all
mad here? Are you going to all end up in here with me? That would be fun,
wouldn’t it? I wouldn’t kill you, promise. I’d be good.” Jeffrey let out a
little maniacal laugh. “Well, I don’t think I can be good, actually. But I’d try!”
“Jeffrey, tell me about the others, please,” Emily asked him
gently.
“Others, others, lots of others.
There are those that whisper, and those that shout. I don’t like the ones that
shout. They’re ever so hard to talk over. I try not to pay them any attention.
To pay them attention would be to acknowledge that they exist, and that would
be bad. Very bad.”
“Why would that be bad?” Susannah asked softly.
Roland stalked across the room and sat in a chair against
the wall after Susannah’s question, still disgusted with the whole
conversation, but not bothering to comment on it any longer. Their time with
Sands would be up soon anyway. He’d let them play out whatever fucking little
game Sands was playing for now. But sooner or later he would cut through the
fucking bullshit. Other personalities? Please. The guy
might have a few fucking screws loose-you fucking had to to
h>
have killed as many people as he had-but it was nothing more than that.
one, at that. Roland could see through his tricks. And he would make the other
see through them as well.
“Don’t ask questions to which you already know the answers,”
Jeffrey said with an irritated frow Sus Susannah’s direction. “You’re good at
that; asking questions. Is that all you do?”
“Pretty much,” Susannah said wryly. “Never seem to get the
answers I want though,” she muttered under her breath.
got questions. No answers, only questions. No resolution, only conflict.
discontent,’” he murmured, slumping back on the bed a little. “Have to fly.
Can’t go home but you can’t stay here. I don’t want to be here. Here isn’t
home. Home is where the heart is and I left mine in
Francisco
left it because it’s not here, right? Right?”
No one had an answer for that one.
WWW
Sands floated through the ether of nothingness and never
wanted to return. The world was garish and bright and dangerous, and here he
was safe and warm and without worry or fear. Here he was whole. Out thhe
he
was fragmented; insane and unable to get better. Out there he was a murder who
had been caught and would be made to pay for his crimes. My crimes…how many people have I killed now? Ten?
Twenty? Thirty? This is
would have been fine. I would have been free. I wouldn’t have to be here.
wasn’t even entirely sure where here
was exactly; he just knew he was no longer in the world of the conscious and
sane.
Sands looked over the world he had built up around himself
with a discerning eye, taking in each and every detail from the thick Persian
rugs under his feet to the warmly lit walls surrounding him covered in
expensive pieces of art. If he were being honest with himself, the construct he
had built up around him within his mind was a near exact replica of the mansion
he had grown up in, save the presence of another living soul. He didn’t let
that bother him. He didn’t allow reality to slip in in
the form of one of his parents, or fire-blackened walls either. This was his world.
And yet, the walls were slowly
crumbling down around him. He had been fucking besieged by that goddamned voice
inside his head. Jeffrey was at the front gate with a battering ram, and he
wouldn’t give up until he had gotten through the front door and dragged Sands
out into the real world again. Fuck him.
I like it here. He wanted control? Will he can fucking
have it. I don’t want it. Control out there right now is a fucking joke.
Sands knew what was happening out there. He knew that
Jeffrey had gotten himself fucking shot, caught, and drugged into near
oblivion. That was another thing. As soon as Sands left the safety of his
sanctuary, the drugs would affect him too. He would be just as lost as Jeffrey
was right now, and t hat was unacceptable. One of them had to have a clear head
if they wanted to get out of here. Wait,
do I want to get out of here? Didn’t I just want it to end before? Wasn’t that
why I left? He couldn’t really remember. After leaving that woman’s place,
everything was pretty much a blur. He vaguely remembered bits and pieces-the
phone ringing, walking to the train station-but nothing more than incomplete
scenes in an already confusing play with too many characters. Unfnatenately, as
soon as he had thought of the image of a ringing phone, one appeared before him
and began ringing incessantly almost immediately. Sands just stared at with
irritation, his eyes going over the old-fashioned spin-dial, the spiraled cord
that connected the parts of the phone, the nondescript colour.
He didn’t want to answer it-he had a good idea of who it was
on the other end and he didn’t want to talk to him-but ignoring a ringing
phone, especially one right in front of you, was something he had never been
able to do. He just couldn’t. It was
one of his…quirks, he guessed. Even so, he tried valiantly to ignore it even as
his hand was moving forward to pick it up off its cradle. Anything to stop that fucking ringing!
“Hello?” he asked slowly, prepared to move the phone away
from his ear should the caller grow hysterical. He moved it away almost
immediately.
“What the fuck are you doing in there you fucking pansy! I
fucking need your help and you’re just sitting in here in your fucking little
house like a fucking child! Do you fucking understand what’s fucking happening
out here? We’re fucking caught! They’re going to fucking execute us, Sands! Get
your ass out here and help me get the fuck out of the place!” Jeffrey
his desperation and the drugs running through their body.
“Who fucking cares if they execute
us? I don’t. It’s better than the fucking alternative,” Sands muttered into the
phone.
“I fucking care! There is no
goddamned way I am going to let these ignorant bastards win! No goddamned way!”
Jeffrey seethed.
“What would you do even if you escaped, Jeffrey? They’re
fucking after you everywhere. And they’re not going to stop. Ever.
There are some things that fucking cops just can’t get past, and the murder of
lots and lots of fucking people is one of them. They’re never going to stop
looking for you.”
“I wouldn’t have gotten fucking caught in the first place if
you hadn’t decided to go all psycho on me, you careless bastard! This is
“My fault?!
Excuse me, but before you fucking
showed up, how many people had I killed? None. You
want to start pointing fingers, you’d better take a
fucking look at yourself, Jeffrey.”
“You fucking killed your parents with no help from me. In fact,
if it wasn’t for me, you would have fucking died with them!”
“They don’t fucking count!” Sands responded petulantly. “And
you didn’t fucking do anything. You didn’t even exist then. I got
anything.”
“Bullshit! You were sitting there like the little mama’s boy
you are outside their fucking room, listening to them fucking scream. You
wanted to hear them fucking burn, didn’t you, you bastard? Well you got your
fucking wish. How did it feel? I hope it was fucking worth it, because you very
nearly fucking burned along with them. I
got you out.
didn’t do jack shit.”
“Fuck you! You’ve brought me nothing but trouble since you
fucking showed up, you sick bastard! Fine, I’ve fucking killed, but who was the
one that decided to have their fun with the corpse first? Not me. Who stabbed
psychotic to keep stabbing someone long after they’re dead. But oh, that wasn’t
all. What happened to her eyes, Jeffrey? Why did you take them? What did you do
with them?”
“I didn’t like the way she was fucking looking at me!”
Jeffrey shouted. “She deserved to fucking die! She fucking woke me up in the
middle of thght ght while you were still fucking asleep, the fucking slut. She
was all hands and mouth, moaning your name.
little fucking pissed off at that so I fucking killed her.” His voice was
filled with wicked humor. “And I let her have her fun while doing it. Can you
imagine? The feel of a warm wave of blood washing over your body as you’re
fucking and killing someone at the same time? It was the single most erotic
experience of my life.”
“You make me fucking sick,” Sands spat out into the phone.
“Oh, is that right? I
make you sick? Well, I’ve got news for you, you bastard. I came from you! I am
a fucking part of you, as much as I might want to deny it sometimes. Everyg
Ig
I do, everything I am is a fucking reflection of you! So who’s the fucking sick
one now?”
“You, you, always you,” Sands said without hesitation. “I’m
not like you! I never was!”
“Just how many people have you killed, Sands? Do you even
know? You’ve fucking killed more than me. If I didn’t know that I could
eventually take over that numand and pass it I might be fucking pissed off at
you,” he said dryly. “Now are you going to fucking come out of there or am I
going to have to break the fucking door down? It’s your choice, you cowardly
bastard. One way or another you’re coming out of there, either by your own will
or by mine. Personally, I’d prefer to do it my way, but I’ll leave it up to you
for…5 more seconds.”
“Fuck you,” Sands grunted into the phone with a scowl.
“Three more seconds,” was Jeffrey’s only reply.
“You’re not going to fucking do any—” Sands was cut off by
the sound of the door being broken down and the real world flooding in before
he could stop it.
WWW
“--thing,” Sands finished with a confused frown, taking in
his surroundings. He seemed to be in a white room, laying on something flat,
while people watched him. “Oh fuck. Real. Everything’s
real,” he muttered, giving his head a brief shake in a vain attempt to clear
out some of the drugged confusion he was feeling.
“One big happy family again,” Jeffrey muttered.
“What the fuck just happened?” Roland asked suddenly. In the “Sands decided to join the party. Bring the kiddies and “Caught. Fucking caught. “I was behind the gun but I did not pull the trigger,” was “No more drugs for you,” Sands murmured in response, still “Shot and caught, caught and shot,” Jeffrey chanted, Sands’ “Well look who it is,” he drawled “Sands?” Susannah queried “Give the little bitch a kewpie doll,” he hissed at her, his Susannah watched Sands pull at his restraints like a dog “Two persons; one body,” Emily whispered, startling Susannah “And the true bastard finally shows its face,” he sneered, “I’m going to fucking tear your head off and shove it back Roland’s blood boiled, but he held back. He would just be “There’s always escape, my dear Roland. TBC A/N: So sorry this took longer than I wanted to get posted!
time it had taken for Jeffrey to retrieve Sands, the three CIA agents had seen
quite a disturbing display. First, Jeffrey had closed his eyes and gone as
still as if he had just keeled over and died. Then came the series of violent
convulsions that had them all half running out the door to call someone,
anyone, before they had stopped as suddenly as they had began. And now they
were actinke nke nothing had happened.
enjoy the show! Say hi, Sands,” Jeffrey murmured blankly.
nearly insensible with rage while Jeffrey seemed to not have a care in the
world.
all Jeffrey had to say in response. “Oh! Did I tell you? We made a record! We
should have a party! Where’s my cake?”
scowling at Jeffrey. His head still felt like it was on a fucking
merry-go-round turning at supersonic speeds, but he wasn’t as affected by the
drugs as Jeffrey was. He wondered if there might be something to that. “Shot
and caught. You fucking did that. Not
me.”
scowl miraculously changing into a manic grin and he Jeffrey spoke. The grin
shifted back into a scowl in the instant Sands took over and turned to address
his audience.
coldly, looking over the faces of the gathered CIA agents and wanting more than
anything to rip each of them to shreds. Rage licked through him like tongues of
fire and he pulled at his bonds. All of the rage that Jeffrey was currently
unable to feel seemed to have funneled itself into Sands so that he was
practically shaking with it as Jeffrey rambled on; oblivious.
cautiously before taking a step back as Sands turned his gaze on her, his eyes
black with fury.
struggles against the restraints that held he and Jeffrey fast to the bed even
more. His chest ached from the still tender bullet wound, but he paid it no
mind. He was far too gone with anger too feel any pain now.
running against the length of its chain with something like grim fascination.
The change from Jeffrey to Sands right before her eyes was nothing short of
astonishing. Whatever doubts she had about the source of his insanity-and she was
able to admit to herself now that she hadn’t fully believed that he and Jeffrey
were indeed two persons-vanished.
almost as if she had been listening in on her thoughts. The two women shared a
glance and both of them took an unconscious and simultaneous step backward
almost as if rehearsed. Roland on the other hand took a step closer, heedless
of the dangerous man before him.
looking down at the hissing and spitting man beneath him. “Does this mean you’ve
finally decided to give up the fucking charade? Because honestly, I’m getting
bored with it,” Roland said with a slight frown, his hand absently reaching for
the gun on his hip at a particularly violent reaction from Sands before it fell
back to his side and he cursed himself for his jumpiness. There was nothing Sands
could do to him. The only weapons he had at his disposal right now were his
tongue and his wit. And Roland didn’t think much of either of them.
down your neck you piece of arrogant shit. And what I did to that darling
out of here. And I will get out of here,” Sands promised darkly, his eyes going
black as chips of obsidian in his rage.
letting this fucking bastard in front of him win if he struck him now, and such
an action would only get his ass tossed out onto the pavement by Dr. Harrington
anyway, so he kept a rein on his temper. Barely. “You’re
not going to get out, Sands. Ye cae caught and there will be no escape, you
fucking son of a bitch,” Roland said evenly.
You just have to wait for the opportune moment,” Sands said, a cold smile on
his face as he looked over the room’s occupants. He would escape. He could find it in himself to be patient if the
situation warranted it. He would bide his time; make them believe he was cowed
and harmless, and then he would strike. He was tired of pretending he was
something he wasn’t. He was tired of everyone looking at him without the fear
that should have been chilling their bones. He was a killer; pure and simple. It
was what he had been born to do and it was time the world started remembering
that.
School started and robbed me of a good chunk of my writing time. I promise,
however, that I will still keep writing the new chapters and trying my very
best to post them within a week or so’s time. Thank
you for sticking with me. You guys are the best.