Book I: The Others - Chapter 7 - Conner (Part 4)

“Who the hell are you?” Conner’s voice was calm but menacing. His Scottish accent had only slightly dulled in the year since his disappearance. She recognized the voice but not the tone. It was rougher, meaner. It scared her.

“Uh ... my name is Catherine ... Catherine Connley.” She searched his eyes for even the slightest flicker of recognition. This was the moment that would decide everything.

She saw in his eyes only the cold reflections of a nearby streetlamp and nothing else.

“Do I know you?” he inquired. “Do you work for Smitty?”

Taking a chance, Catherine decided to try to draw him out. “Do I remind you of someone? Someone you used to know. My name is Catherine or maybe you’d remember Cat.”

He was clearly confused but still held the gun rock solid. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’d better get out of here before I have to do something we’ll both regret.”

She pressed on with one final effort. She pulled out the photo of Jesse and her father under the tree and showed it to him. “What about Jessica? Do you remember her?”

She could almost see the thoughts whipping back and forth, the memories struggling to surface.

His gun began to waver with his concentration. He struggled to form the words; fighting an internal battle that actually raised beads of sweat on his forehead. “Jesse?” he whispered.

His eyes were glued to the photograph hungering for every detail feeding a chain reaction of memories.

A veil seemed to lift from his eyes as he finally focused on Catherine. “Jesse.” The gun clattered on the ground as it dropped from his limp fingers.

“Conner?” Catherine began to weep as she saw the recognition in his eyes. “Are you ... you?”

“Cat ... I ... I don’t understand. What’s happening to me? Where am I?” He started to lean to the side as if he was going to fall, but before he could, she caught him up against the wall of the alley and embraced him.

She could hardly speak as tears of joy and relief coursed down her cheeks onto his shoulder. “Oh, Conner. Conner. I knew it. I knew you couldn’t leave me.”

He held her just as tightly and wept along with her. “I love you so much .. so much. I felt so empty in that prison. Then there was the light ... so bright ... it seared and it froze.” He paused for a second and looked her in the eyes. “Oh Catherine, I love you so much.” He kissed her lips over and over again as if trying to make up for lost time, and she was right there with him.

“... so much ... Cat ... Jesse ... Jesse”

“I love you I ... missed you ... ” she squeezed in between kisses.

He stopped and embraced her again.

“Jesse ... where’s Jesse? Is she ...”

He jerked suddenly in her arms and wash of warmth flowed over her neck and shoulders. “Conner? What’s wr ...” She turned her head and saw that half of Conner’s face was missing. Before she could scream, something slammed her head and body against the wall.

In some distant part of her mind she marveled at the fact that even after a traumatic gunshot wound, which could be the only cause of all of this painful numbness, she could still process enough information to notice everything was sideways ... including the pair of wingtips. She found it amazingly funny that someone with enough style to wear those shoes would not bother to repair the loosened stitching around the toe panel.

The wearer of the shoes knelt down near her. His left hand held a handgun of some kind and the other was checking for vital signs. She made a feeble attempt to reach for the man, but he deflected her hand easily before she could touch him. She saw smoke flow slowly from the barrel of the weapon.The man stood up and turned to leave. As his shoes walked out of her field of view, she closed her eyes; her breathing slowed, then stopped.

Chapt. 8 - An Ending (Part 1)