Post by Hellokitty on Aug 19, 2006 8:40:37 GMT -5
Falling Book 2: Finding Marlena – Chapter 3
After 20 minutes of running through the dark night, crisscrossing up and down the sand dunes and around low-lying shrub, Marlena didn’t know how much longer she could continue. John wasn’t jogging; he was flat out running for his life. Putting one foot in front of the other, she willed herself to follow him, knowing that being captured was the alternative.
“Just a little while longer,” John whispered loudly behind him to Marlena. Although rationally he knew that there was little chance of anyone hearing him, there was still that chance. Marlena meant everything to him and he wasn’t going to risk her capture by carelessness on his part. He could see her out of the corner of his eye struggling to keep up. Months on the run tempered with abject social isolation hadn’t been good for Marlena or her body. She was a thin woman before, but now looked emaciated. John knew that she struggled to keep weight on since the twins’ birth, but slowly she was becoming nothing more than a skeletal mass.
Marlena said nothing as she ran behind him watching his feet as they slammed against the black soil, kicking up small amounts of fine dust that obscured her path. She had no idea where they were or where they were going, having long ago stopped paying attention, knowing and trusting that John would lead them safely. She wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand, trying to concentrate on the feeling of the warm liquid on her fingers against the cool night air.
“You’ve been a bad girl Julie,” she heard her fathers’ voice. Frantically she looked around trying to find where the voice was coming from. “You know what happens to bad girls.” His voice had almost a lyrical quality to it, breathless yet sing-song like. Shaking her head to try to clear the memory from it, she mumbled “No” to herself, trying to abolish all thoughts of him. He was dead. She had to let him stop controlling her. She was Marlena, not Julie.
“You can’t get rid of me so easily Marlena,” he taunted her. She saw him running beside her, his black hair slicked back, red T-shirt ringed with sweat.
Looking down, she followed John along the narrow path, trying not to look over where her father was running beside her. The pale blue nylon from his Nike sneakers shone against the moonlight. “I’m a part of you and always will be. My blood runs through your veins, don’t you ever forget that,” he threatened maniacally. “No,” she told herself once again as she picked up her pace.
“Do you think you’re smarter than me Julie, just cause you’ve got a some fancy degrees?” He laughed as he reached out and touched her. The hair on her arms stood up from the contact. Suddenly she was very cold. Pulling her arm out of his grasp, she felt his finger nails scrape against her skin. She felt the throbbing on her skin where he had touched her. Faster she ran trying to keep up with John.
Adrenaline rushing through her thin veins, she fought to outrun him. Looking behind her, she couldn’t see her father; she could only sense his presence. His warm breath against the back of her neck as he placed his lips against the nape propelled her faster.
“No, this is not happening,” she mumbled as she passed John, sprinting as if her life was in danger.
“Marlena, wait up,” John yelled, losing sight of her as she ran around a tree covered bend. He was exhausted, but forced himself to move faster to catch up with her.
“Marlena,” John yelled again as he started to panic. Coming around the bend he slowed down as he saw Marlena standing in the middle of the trail in a heated conversation with someone or something he couldn’t see.
“No,” she yelled out. “No, this is not happening…this cannot be happening.”
“I told you I don’t know. Why are you doing this to me?” she cried as she placed her head in her hands and wept. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“Marlena,” John said as he stood before her and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. She was trembling, a combination of her sweat and the cold night air. “Marlena,” he said trying to get her to respond.
“John,” she whispered as she looked up through her fingers at him. “Is he gone?”
“Is who gone?” John asked, concerned.
“My father,” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
“There was no one here honey,” John said trying to figure out what was going on with his wife.
“He was here John,” Marlena insisted.
“Honey, your father is dead.”
“I know that. I don’t know how he did it, but he was here. I swear to you John. I’m not crazy…He was here.” Eyes wide with fear, she looked frantically around as she held her arms protectively around her chest. Did John believe her?
“Maybe it was someone else that you thought was your father,” John offered her as an alternative, concerned about Marlena’s mental state.
“Maybe,” she whispered, as she looked around him, frightened that her father would reappear.
“Nothing to worry about though…just don’t run so far ahead of me… I was worried,” John said as he checked his watch. They didn’t have much time to get to the drop site before help arrived. As usual, he wanted to be there early to make sure that they weren’t walking into an ambush. “Are you okay to walk a little farther? We are almost there…help should be here soon.”
“I’m okay,” she said staring ahead in disbelief, still shaken by her encounter with her father.
Deviating from the well-marked trail, John abruptly grabbed Marlena’s arm and pulled her close to him, leading her down the steep embankment that led towards a small lake, not more that five hundred feet wide and two hundred feet long. Leaning into John for support, she felt the beating of his heart through her thin cotton shirt.
“John, where are we going?” Marlena asked in a panic as she tried to calm her nerves hating the fact that she no longer had control over her emotions. Everything was so raw and real. The defense and coping mechanisms that she had developed over the years no longer seemed to be working.
“Shush,” John said as he put two fingers to his mouth and motioned above them towards the ridge where they just came from. His blue eyes were as black as coal, making Marlena uncomfortable. She couldn’t see or sense what he was feeling. She needed for his eyes to be blue; she needed to be able to look into them and see that everything was going to be okay.
John held onto her tighter as he led them towards the lake. The sun had long since set, the dusk of the night barely illuminating the lake. The sound of leaves being crushed under the weight of their shoes was the only sound to be head, save their heavy breathing. Once he reached a canopy of trees, he ducked behind a trunk, pulling Marlena with him. Slowly he pulled her body next to him, mere millimeters separating them. He could feel her gasping to catch her breath. “Marlena, listen to me carefully and don’t talk,” John whispered into her ear.
He felt her start to relax. “Something is wrong.” Marlena started shaking her head and struggled in his arms. “Honey, you have to relax,” he whispered trying to calm her down. A panicked Marlena would get them captured.
“They’re onto us,” he whispered again, contemplating on how much to tell her. Realizing that she was her equal, his partner, his soulmate, he knew that she deserved nothing less than the truth. “I’m going to reach down and undo your belt. Please don’t move and don’t panic,” John said as he lowered his hands and skimmed them down along her body till they came to rest at her waist. Slowly he undid the buckle and tugged on one end of the belt. The sound of the leather belt as it rubbed against the denim of her pants reverberated in Marlena’s ears. She tried to focus on what was happening, trying to understand why John was thinking that they were being followed, but couldn’t. She saw her father in her mind.
She felt the final tug of the belt as John freed it from her waist. She felt the coolness of the night air as her pants gaped at the waist. “Stand here,” John ordered as he let go of her and calmly walked towards the small lake. Leaning down, she saw him place the belt in the water, watching it as it sank.
“I hope I made the right decision,” she heard him mutter as the belt vanished from sight into the dark murky water.
Turning around, he slowly walked towards Marlena, noting the terror in her eyes. Taking her into his arms once again, he whispered, “The GPS device was on the belt…I couldn’t take the chance of being followed…. Something is wrong…I can sense it…. we need to get out of this area now…It’s not safe to talk and we need to be very quiet…they are expecting us at the safe house in a couple minutes…when we don’t show they’ll be an all out manhunt for us….I figure we have about twenty minutes to find a damn good hiding place for the night,” John whispered as he looked down at his watch. He could hear the sounds of dogs howling in the distance knowing that they were using bloodhounds to track their scent.
“We need to wade through the pond to the other side,” John whispered. Marlena tensed up in his arms and shook her head no.
“No,” she whispered as she backed away from him.
“We don’t have a choice,” John whispered as he grabbed her arm to stop her. “This might buy us some extra time.”
“No,” she mumbled once again. “I’m not going in there…. Please let me go. I won’t tell anyone,” she pleaded with him, not seeing John before her, but the man she tried unsuccessfully to banish from her mind: Congressman Channing Owens.
She slowly backed into the water, trying to get away from him. She started moving herself backwards in the water, not knowing where she was or where the other side was.
“Marlena, what’s the matter?” John asked as he followed her lead. Her mouth was open and he could see her mumbling but couldn’t understand a word of what she was saying.
“No, Marlena. You belong to me and I’m never going to let you go,” Channing said as he started swimming towards her. She turned over and started swimming as fast as she could away from him. She felt him grab onto her hair and pull her towards him. She continued fighting him as he grabbed her neck from behind and pulled her under the water. She struggled to come up to the surface but he prevented her from doing so. She kicked hard and connected with what she assumed was his shin. He lost his grip on her and she made her way to the surface grasping for air.
John watched helplessly as Marlena struggled in the water. Quickly swimming over towards where she was, he tried to pull her body close to his. He felt the sharp jab of her shoes as she connected with his shin. “No,” she pleaded as she struggled against him.
“Julie, Julie, Julie,” Channing whispered into her ear as he held her tight. “Don’t you know by now that any attempt to escape is futile.”
“Please let me go.” She wasn’t going to beg him, not this time.
“Never. You belong to me and always will.” She felt his hot breath on his neck and felt his arousal poking into her backside.
“We’re going to go back to the house and you are going to apologize to my guest for your rude behavior.” He ground his erection into her buttocks.
“He was an ass. I won’t apologize.” She shook her head and tried to escape from his clutches.
She felt him as he grabbed her face and squeezed her chin, “You will or I’ll drown you right here in this lake.” She knew that he was capable of doing it, but just didn’t know if she cared. Maybe death would be an easier way out.
Summoning strength she didn’t know she had, she pulled out of his embrace and swam towards the shore. Reaching the shore seconds before him, she ran towards the forest as fast as she could, hoping to outrun Channing this time.
“Marlena,” John whispered loudly as he furiously ran to catch up with her. “Marlena.”
Slowly John started making a gain on her lead as she raced towards an unseen target. He was thankful that she was moving so fast but concerned by her behavior. He saw the vacant look in her eyes; she was running from something else.
“Stop,” he ordered her as he grabbed onto her shirt.
“No,” Marlena cried out as she pulled out of her grasp. “Please leave me alone,” she begged as she struggled against his tight hold on her. She was dripping wet and shivering. John tried to hold onto her to calm her down.
“I won’t tell anyone, please let me go,” she begged him once again. He felt her small frame shake as she tried to hold her emotions in check. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to do it…I didn’t…please let me go.”
“Marlena, it’s me John,” he said tenderly as he held her body against hers. “It’s me John… I’d never hurt you…you have to believe that.”
“John,” Marlena said as she lifted her head. “John?” Slowly she turned her head towards the sound of his voice.
“Doc?” John asked as his eyes made contact with hers. He was relieved to see recognition reflected in hers.
“John…oh thank God its you,” she whispered in relief. “What’s happening to me?” She asked him as she looked for an answer. “What’s happening to me?” she repeated, this time with more fervor. “What’s happening to me?”
“Doc…I’ve got you…you’re going to be okay,” John tried to reassure her.
“No, it’s not okay John…It’s not,” Marlena said loudly as she pulled out of his embrace and turned around and faced him. “It’s not okay.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” John said softly as he leaned down and looked into her eyes.
“There’s nothing you can say… Something is wrong with me John…. I can feel it.”
“When we get to a safe city we can have a doctor check you out…”
“That’s not what I need,” Marlena interrupted. “I saw him John… I saw my father and I saw Channing…. I don’t know to explain it…. It doesn’t make any sense, I know that rationally it can’t have happened John, but I know what I felt and I know what I saw.” The tears in her eyes and the obvious pain on her face pained John. Looking at her he felt a tightening in his chest and lump in his throat. Taking her face tenderly in his hands, John looked up in the sky for guidance. There was nothing he could say to make things better for her. There was no one there; everything was in her head.
“Tell me about Channing?” John asked, not wanting to waste the moment. In the months on the run this was the first time that Marlena had ever mentioned Channing Owens. All that he knew of Owens was from Shane and ISA intel records. Maybe this was the opening into her mind that he had hoped and prayed for, for months.
Marlena closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“It might help you to talk about him,” John said softly as he stroked her face. “Tell me what was happening with him just now….”
“He was chasing after me…” Marlena whispered barely loud enough for John to hear. She tried to fight off the image of him in her mind. She shuddered as she saw him chasing after her in the night; this time she was no longer a child, but an adult.
“What else?”
“He was holding me under the water….”
“Do you know why?”
“Yes,” Marlena said simply as she looked down, signaling that she was ending the conversation.
“Marlena, I can’t help you unless I know what’s going on in your head…. You have to trust me.”
“I do trust you John…I do trust you,” Marlena said as she opened her eyes and smiled at him. “I do trust you…. I trust you with my life.”
“Why was Owens chasing you?”
“Because I made him mad…. he tried to kill me.”
“Was this a memory? Did this really happen?” John wasn’t clear as to what was real anymore. He knew that she was starting to remember things from her past, even though she tried to hide it. Her actions this time weren’t the same; he wasn’t convinced that she was remembering.
“Yes.” She closed her eyes tightly as the memory of his violent death at the hands of Mason Jones flashed through her mind. “Mason tried to help me John…he saved me.” She needed for John to understand that Mason wasn’t the enemy here.
“Marlena, do you know why Mason Jones and Alex North are after you?”
Marlena shook her head furiously. “They were my friends…they helped me.” Mason wasn’t the enemy.
“Marlena, Mason tried to lock you up in the hospital and have you committed.”
“No,” she said as she shook her head and backed further away from him. “He wouldn’t do that John…. I know him… He wouldn’t do that.”
“I saw with my own eyes Marlena…. he did it.”
“No…. I would remember that if it happened.”
“I’m telling you…. It happened. You trust me don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you about something as serious as this Doc, I wouldn’t…. We need to figure out why they are after you…we need to figure out what’s inside of you that they so desperately want.”
“I don’t know John…. If I did, don’t you know that I would tell you?”
“I know that you would… I know that you would.”
“I’ve been seeing a number in my head…. I’m not sure what it means, but its something that Channing Owens said to me.”
“What?” John asked as he took her elbow and guided her down the path. Although this discussion was important, they had already lost precious time.
“25…. He told me the number 25.”
After 20 minutes of running through the dark night, crisscrossing up and down the sand dunes and around low-lying shrub, Marlena didn’t know how much longer she could continue. John wasn’t jogging; he was flat out running for his life. Putting one foot in front of the other, she willed herself to follow him, knowing that being captured was the alternative.
“Just a little while longer,” John whispered loudly behind him to Marlena. Although rationally he knew that there was little chance of anyone hearing him, there was still that chance. Marlena meant everything to him and he wasn’t going to risk her capture by carelessness on his part. He could see her out of the corner of his eye struggling to keep up. Months on the run tempered with abject social isolation hadn’t been good for Marlena or her body. She was a thin woman before, but now looked emaciated. John knew that she struggled to keep weight on since the twins’ birth, but slowly she was becoming nothing more than a skeletal mass.
Marlena said nothing as she ran behind him watching his feet as they slammed against the black soil, kicking up small amounts of fine dust that obscured her path. She had no idea where they were or where they were going, having long ago stopped paying attention, knowing and trusting that John would lead them safely. She wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand, trying to concentrate on the feeling of the warm liquid on her fingers against the cool night air.
“You’ve been a bad girl Julie,” she heard her fathers’ voice. Frantically she looked around trying to find where the voice was coming from. “You know what happens to bad girls.” His voice had almost a lyrical quality to it, breathless yet sing-song like. Shaking her head to try to clear the memory from it, she mumbled “No” to herself, trying to abolish all thoughts of him. He was dead. She had to let him stop controlling her. She was Marlena, not Julie.
“You can’t get rid of me so easily Marlena,” he taunted her. She saw him running beside her, his black hair slicked back, red T-shirt ringed with sweat.
Looking down, she followed John along the narrow path, trying not to look over where her father was running beside her. The pale blue nylon from his Nike sneakers shone against the moonlight. “I’m a part of you and always will be. My blood runs through your veins, don’t you ever forget that,” he threatened maniacally. “No,” she told herself once again as she picked up her pace.
“Do you think you’re smarter than me Julie, just cause you’ve got a some fancy degrees?” He laughed as he reached out and touched her. The hair on her arms stood up from the contact. Suddenly she was very cold. Pulling her arm out of his grasp, she felt his finger nails scrape against her skin. She felt the throbbing on her skin where he had touched her. Faster she ran trying to keep up with John.
Adrenaline rushing through her thin veins, she fought to outrun him. Looking behind her, she couldn’t see her father; she could only sense his presence. His warm breath against the back of her neck as he placed his lips against the nape propelled her faster.
“No, this is not happening,” she mumbled as she passed John, sprinting as if her life was in danger.
“Marlena, wait up,” John yelled, losing sight of her as she ran around a tree covered bend. He was exhausted, but forced himself to move faster to catch up with her.
“Marlena,” John yelled again as he started to panic. Coming around the bend he slowed down as he saw Marlena standing in the middle of the trail in a heated conversation with someone or something he couldn’t see.
“No,” she yelled out. “No, this is not happening…this cannot be happening.”
“I told you I don’t know. Why are you doing this to me?” she cried as she placed her head in her hands and wept. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“Marlena,” John said as he stood before her and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. She was trembling, a combination of her sweat and the cold night air. “Marlena,” he said trying to get her to respond.
“John,” she whispered as she looked up through her fingers at him. “Is he gone?”
“Is who gone?” John asked, concerned.
“My father,” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
“There was no one here honey,” John said trying to figure out what was going on with his wife.
“He was here John,” Marlena insisted.
“Honey, your father is dead.”
“I know that. I don’t know how he did it, but he was here. I swear to you John. I’m not crazy…He was here.” Eyes wide with fear, she looked frantically around as she held her arms protectively around her chest. Did John believe her?
“Maybe it was someone else that you thought was your father,” John offered her as an alternative, concerned about Marlena’s mental state.
“Maybe,” she whispered, as she looked around him, frightened that her father would reappear.
“Nothing to worry about though…just don’t run so far ahead of me… I was worried,” John said as he checked his watch. They didn’t have much time to get to the drop site before help arrived. As usual, he wanted to be there early to make sure that they weren’t walking into an ambush. “Are you okay to walk a little farther? We are almost there…help should be here soon.”
“I’m okay,” she said staring ahead in disbelief, still shaken by her encounter with her father.
Deviating from the well-marked trail, John abruptly grabbed Marlena’s arm and pulled her close to him, leading her down the steep embankment that led towards a small lake, not more that five hundred feet wide and two hundred feet long. Leaning into John for support, she felt the beating of his heart through her thin cotton shirt.
“John, where are we going?” Marlena asked in a panic as she tried to calm her nerves hating the fact that she no longer had control over her emotions. Everything was so raw and real. The defense and coping mechanisms that she had developed over the years no longer seemed to be working.
“Shush,” John said as he put two fingers to his mouth and motioned above them towards the ridge where they just came from. His blue eyes were as black as coal, making Marlena uncomfortable. She couldn’t see or sense what he was feeling. She needed for his eyes to be blue; she needed to be able to look into them and see that everything was going to be okay.
John held onto her tighter as he led them towards the lake. The sun had long since set, the dusk of the night barely illuminating the lake. The sound of leaves being crushed under the weight of their shoes was the only sound to be head, save their heavy breathing. Once he reached a canopy of trees, he ducked behind a trunk, pulling Marlena with him. Slowly he pulled her body next to him, mere millimeters separating them. He could feel her gasping to catch her breath. “Marlena, listen to me carefully and don’t talk,” John whispered into her ear.
He felt her start to relax. “Something is wrong.” Marlena started shaking her head and struggled in his arms. “Honey, you have to relax,” he whispered trying to calm her down. A panicked Marlena would get them captured.
“They’re onto us,” he whispered again, contemplating on how much to tell her. Realizing that she was her equal, his partner, his soulmate, he knew that she deserved nothing less than the truth. “I’m going to reach down and undo your belt. Please don’t move and don’t panic,” John said as he lowered his hands and skimmed them down along her body till they came to rest at her waist. Slowly he undid the buckle and tugged on one end of the belt. The sound of the leather belt as it rubbed against the denim of her pants reverberated in Marlena’s ears. She tried to focus on what was happening, trying to understand why John was thinking that they were being followed, but couldn’t. She saw her father in her mind.
She felt the final tug of the belt as John freed it from her waist. She felt the coolness of the night air as her pants gaped at the waist. “Stand here,” John ordered as he let go of her and calmly walked towards the small lake. Leaning down, she saw him place the belt in the water, watching it as it sank.
“I hope I made the right decision,” she heard him mutter as the belt vanished from sight into the dark murky water.
Turning around, he slowly walked towards Marlena, noting the terror in her eyes. Taking her into his arms once again, he whispered, “The GPS device was on the belt…I couldn’t take the chance of being followed…. Something is wrong…I can sense it…. we need to get out of this area now…It’s not safe to talk and we need to be very quiet…they are expecting us at the safe house in a couple minutes…when we don’t show they’ll be an all out manhunt for us….I figure we have about twenty minutes to find a damn good hiding place for the night,” John whispered as he looked down at his watch. He could hear the sounds of dogs howling in the distance knowing that they were using bloodhounds to track their scent.
“We need to wade through the pond to the other side,” John whispered. Marlena tensed up in his arms and shook her head no.
“No,” she whispered as she backed away from him.
“We don’t have a choice,” John whispered as he grabbed her arm to stop her. “This might buy us some extra time.”
“No,” she mumbled once again. “I’m not going in there…. Please let me go. I won’t tell anyone,” she pleaded with him, not seeing John before her, but the man she tried unsuccessfully to banish from her mind: Congressman Channing Owens.
She slowly backed into the water, trying to get away from him. She started moving herself backwards in the water, not knowing where she was or where the other side was.
“Marlena, what’s the matter?” John asked as he followed her lead. Her mouth was open and he could see her mumbling but couldn’t understand a word of what she was saying.
“No, Marlena. You belong to me and I’m never going to let you go,” Channing said as he started swimming towards her. She turned over and started swimming as fast as she could away from him. She felt him grab onto her hair and pull her towards him. She continued fighting him as he grabbed her neck from behind and pulled her under the water. She struggled to come up to the surface but he prevented her from doing so. She kicked hard and connected with what she assumed was his shin. He lost his grip on her and she made her way to the surface grasping for air.
John watched helplessly as Marlena struggled in the water. Quickly swimming over towards where she was, he tried to pull her body close to his. He felt the sharp jab of her shoes as she connected with his shin. “No,” she pleaded as she struggled against him.
“Julie, Julie, Julie,” Channing whispered into her ear as he held her tight. “Don’t you know by now that any attempt to escape is futile.”
“Please let me go.” She wasn’t going to beg him, not this time.
“Never. You belong to me and always will.” She felt his hot breath on his neck and felt his arousal poking into her backside.
“We’re going to go back to the house and you are going to apologize to my guest for your rude behavior.” He ground his erection into her buttocks.
“He was an ass. I won’t apologize.” She shook her head and tried to escape from his clutches.
She felt him as he grabbed her face and squeezed her chin, “You will or I’ll drown you right here in this lake.” She knew that he was capable of doing it, but just didn’t know if she cared. Maybe death would be an easier way out.
Summoning strength she didn’t know she had, she pulled out of his embrace and swam towards the shore. Reaching the shore seconds before him, she ran towards the forest as fast as she could, hoping to outrun Channing this time.
“Marlena,” John whispered loudly as he furiously ran to catch up with her. “Marlena.”
Slowly John started making a gain on her lead as she raced towards an unseen target. He was thankful that she was moving so fast but concerned by her behavior. He saw the vacant look in her eyes; she was running from something else.
“Stop,” he ordered her as he grabbed onto her shirt.
“No,” Marlena cried out as she pulled out of her grasp. “Please leave me alone,” she begged as she struggled against his tight hold on her. She was dripping wet and shivering. John tried to hold onto her to calm her down.
“I won’t tell anyone, please let me go,” she begged him once again. He felt her small frame shake as she tried to hold her emotions in check. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to do it…I didn’t…please let me go.”
“Marlena, it’s me John,” he said tenderly as he held her body against hers. “It’s me John… I’d never hurt you…you have to believe that.”
“John,” Marlena said as she lifted her head. “John?” Slowly she turned her head towards the sound of his voice.
“Doc?” John asked as his eyes made contact with hers. He was relieved to see recognition reflected in hers.
“John…oh thank God its you,” she whispered in relief. “What’s happening to me?” She asked him as she looked for an answer. “What’s happening to me?” she repeated, this time with more fervor. “What’s happening to me?”
“Doc…I’ve got you…you’re going to be okay,” John tried to reassure her.
“No, it’s not okay John…It’s not,” Marlena said loudly as she pulled out of his embrace and turned around and faced him. “It’s not okay.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” John said softly as he leaned down and looked into her eyes.
“There’s nothing you can say… Something is wrong with me John…. I can feel it.”
“When we get to a safe city we can have a doctor check you out…”
“That’s not what I need,” Marlena interrupted. “I saw him John… I saw my father and I saw Channing…. I don’t know to explain it…. It doesn’t make any sense, I know that rationally it can’t have happened John, but I know what I felt and I know what I saw.” The tears in her eyes and the obvious pain on her face pained John. Looking at her he felt a tightening in his chest and lump in his throat. Taking her face tenderly in his hands, John looked up in the sky for guidance. There was nothing he could say to make things better for her. There was no one there; everything was in her head.
“Tell me about Channing?” John asked, not wanting to waste the moment. In the months on the run this was the first time that Marlena had ever mentioned Channing Owens. All that he knew of Owens was from Shane and ISA intel records. Maybe this was the opening into her mind that he had hoped and prayed for, for months.
Marlena closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“It might help you to talk about him,” John said softly as he stroked her face. “Tell me what was happening with him just now….”
“He was chasing after me…” Marlena whispered barely loud enough for John to hear. She tried to fight off the image of him in her mind. She shuddered as she saw him chasing after her in the night; this time she was no longer a child, but an adult.
“What else?”
“He was holding me under the water….”
“Do you know why?”
“Yes,” Marlena said simply as she looked down, signaling that she was ending the conversation.
“Marlena, I can’t help you unless I know what’s going on in your head…. You have to trust me.”
“I do trust you John…I do trust you,” Marlena said as she opened her eyes and smiled at him. “I do trust you…. I trust you with my life.”
“Why was Owens chasing you?”
“Because I made him mad…. he tried to kill me.”
“Was this a memory? Did this really happen?” John wasn’t clear as to what was real anymore. He knew that she was starting to remember things from her past, even though she tried to hide it. Her actions this time weren’t the same; he wasn’t convinced that she was remembering.
“Yes.” She closed her eyes tightly as the memory of his violent death at the hands of Mason Jones flashed through her mind. “Mason tried to help me John…he saved me.” She needed for John to understand that Mason wasn’t the enemy here.
“Marlena, do you know why Mason Jones and Alex North are after you?”
Marlena shook her head furiously. “They were my friends…they helped me.” Mason wasn’t the enemy.
“Marlena, Mason tried to lock you up in the hospital and have you committed.”
“No,” she said as she shook her head and backed further away from him. “He wouldn’t do that John…. I know him… He wouldn’t do that.”
“I saw with my own eyes Marlena…. he did it.”
“No…. I would remember that if it happened.”
“I’m telling you…. It happened. You trust me don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you about something as serious as this Doc, I wouldn’t…. We need to figure out why they are after you…we need to figure out what’s inside of you that they so desperately want.”
“I don’t know John…. If I did, don’t you know that I would tell you?”
“I know that you would… I know that you would.”
“I’ve been seeing a number in my head…. I’m not sure what it means, but its something that Channing Owens said to me.”
“What?” John asked as he took her elbow and guided her down the path. Although this discussion was important, they had already lost precious time.
“25…. He told me the number 25.”