Post by Hellokitty on Aug 19, 2006 9:18:14 GMT -5
Falling Book Two: Finding Marlena Chapter 15
Laying on her side on the worn linoleum floor in the corner of the room, Marlena held precariously onto her side trying to calm her nerves and trying to make sense of the thoughts running through her head. Nothing made sense to her. Pictures and feelings that she’d never had were suddenly there. The more she tried to analyze what she was seeing the more she felt like her past was not her own, but someone else’s.
“Julie, Julie…Such a little foolie,” he taunted her. She felt his cold hand move up and down her spine slowly, each finger tracing the bumpy path along her vertebrae.
“Stop,” she begged him as she tried to move away from him and his touch. She was so tired and had little energy left. Trying to open her eyes, she was unable to summon even the energy necessary for that one little act.
“I miss you.”
“No you don’t,” she moaned as she slowly covered her ears with her hands in an attempt to still the sound. The cold linoleum against her back chilled her thin frame.
“You’re worthless and will never amount to anything.” The voice suddenly turned cruel.
“Please stop,” she begged again as she cupped her hands tighter over her ears. As hard as she tried to still the sound and the ever-present images she was unable to. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in John’s strong arms and for him to make the world right again for her.
“Men don’t want a smart girl, they just want a tight piece of ass.”
She felt the light touch of his fingers as he moved from her back down lower and was unable to control her gag reflux any longer. She felt him, she smelled him, she heard him. But he was dead. “Stop,” she moaned again as she tried to sit up and validate that what she was seeing was feeling was real and not another cruel illusion.
“I could travel the word and buy things that would make kings and queens drool with envy but none of that would ever compare to your worth to me. You are everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman.”
“Stop,” she screamed. “Just stop.” She knew who that voice belonged to and it wasn’t him, it wasn’t her father. It belonged to Forrest and was one of the last things that he’d ever said to her before fate tore them apart and sent them on paths uncertain.
“Go to sleep Julie….go to sleep.”
“I’m not tired…I want to see Forrest,” she muttered as the odorless gas filled her lungs and rendered her unconscious, her mind still not bridging the gap between John Black and Forrest Alamain being one in the same.
Observing from the small monitor in the adjacent room, Agent Smith and Shane Donovan watched as Marlena Evans laid lifeless on the floor but for the occasional seizure that precariously pulled her from the depths of her unconsciousness and shook her frame without regard.
“Smith, you bloody well better know what you’re doing,” Shane said in disgust as he watched Marlena, unable to take what they were doing to her.
“Relax Agent Donovan, relax. Dr. Gunther says its necessary to do this to unlock her mind,” Agent Smith tried to reassure him, not entirely convinced himself. Everything about this situation, about this woman, seemed contradict to standard ISA procedure.
“Cruelty is necessary? You can see how terrified she is,” he said in anger, his finger shaking as he pointed it at the small monochrome monitor. Marlena was in the midst of a nightmare, screaming out at a force unseen. Shane wondered how much of that nightmare was the result of what the ISA was doing to her and how much of it was due to the demons of her past.
“It’s harmless, she won’t remember a thing,” Agent Smith remarked as he took a swig of the stale coffee from his cup.
“I think that’s what your whole problem is, maybe she is remembering and the more you interfere with the natural process of memory reclamation with your ‘procedures’ the worse its becoming for her.”
“Don’t worry Donovan…this is a standard procedure,” Agent Smith said repeating the standard agency line. Nothing about this was standard. If this was standard then he would have been completely debriefed about the situation before and he would have had some idea of what the expected outcome was. He understood that her mind contained valuable information, but he was somewhat skeptical of the exact nature of the information and its relevance.
Shane watched with hesitation as the door opened and Dr. Gunther entered the room. Kneeling on the floor next to Marlena he took her vital signs. “Pulse and heart rate are within the normal range.”
“She’s out,” he said not bothering to look up, knowing that the unknown cameras and hidden microphones would pick up everything that occurred in the room. Seconds later two armed guards wearing black ski masks entered the room and knelt next to hom on the floor.
“Hold her down, “ he instructed them as he took the protective cover off the tip of his syringe and lowered it towards her still face. Prying her left eye and holding it open with his hand he injected the cool liquid into the thin membrane of her cornea.
“You bastards,” Shane yelled at as he grabbed Agent Smith by the collar of his uniform. “You bloody bastards,” he screamed at him again as he shoved him against the wall.
“I’d strongly advise you to let go of me now or your career is over,” Agent Smith calmly said, stunned by Agent Donovans’ reaction. Agents were taught to remain detached to their subjects. When had Shane Donovan begun to lose that objectivity and start to care about what happened to Marlena Evans?
Shane fought for control of his emotions knowing that he could possibly be making the situation worse for Marlena. “I apologize Agent Smith. That little maneuver was quite unexpected,” Shane said, his demeanor suddenly changing. “It won’t happen again.”
Agent Smith nodded as he continued to watch the monitor fascinated and yet scared at the same time as to why this one woman was so important to so many people.
*******
“Where the hell is my wife?” John screamed at the guard, oblivious to the fact that the man was pointing a gun at him. “Where the fuck is she?”
“Agent Black, it’s in your best professional interest not to fight or make a scene,” the guard finally told him, having long grown tired of John Black’s verbal tirade.
“I don’t give a damn about my career,” John snidely remarked, frustrated that of all the things that the man could think about and say to him, it was about his career. His career was the furthest thing from his mind. Hell, he was seriously doubting his career choice and his commitment to his employer at this point in time. The longer the questioning went on, questioning that he wasn’t comfortable with in the first place, the more he began to doubt his decision and Marlena’s to allow it.
“You should.”
John was about to get up and test the mans orders to shoot when Shane Donovan entered the room, his face a deathly pale color.
“What’s wrong Shane?” John asked as he tried to stand up. He quickly sat back down seeing the intent in the guard’s eyes; he was looking for a reason to shoot John.
“Nothing,” Shane said as he acknowledged the guard and the walked over to where John was sitting and sat down in the chair next to him. “It’s just been a long day…I hear you’ve been giving the guards a hard time,” Shane said as he motioned with his eyes towards the camera in the corner.
Reading between the lines John headed Shane’s caution and responded, “I just want to make sure that my wife is okay.” He’d been so consumed with worrying about Marlena that he failed to notice the typical ISA intel setup. Why’d he think that he and Marlena would be immune from standard surveillance?
“I just saw her and things are going well. I wouldn’t worry about her if I were you,” Shane said, not looking at John in the eyes. John was chilled to the bone. Every hair on the back of his neck was standing up; something was very wrong about the whole situation. The whole time he’d known Shane he’d never been that positive, John always assumed that it was his English nature.
“Can I see her?” he asked, trying his hardest not to let the guard or the people watching him that he knew something was going terribly wrong. He hoped and prayed that whatever was happening, that it wasn’t with Marlena.
“Not yet….The psychiatrist is almost done with his tests,” Shane told John, knowing that if he mentioned who was treating Marlena, he’d go through the roof. After everything had come to an end, if it ever did, Shane hoped that John and Marlena would be able to forgive him for all the things that he’d done in the name of the ISA.
“And then we can go?”
“I’m not sure…that’s the chiefs call,” was Shane’s best guess. He honestly had no idea what the ISA planned next. His orders were to bring them in for questioning and he felt guilty that Marlena had so easily fallen into their trap and demanded to be taken to the one place where they knew she would. So much of what she thought and how she acted had been programmed into her years before. Shane used to lie awake at night wondering who the real Marlena was, but determined that the real answer was fruitless.
“Could you check on the situation for me?” John asked, feeling lightheaded.
“Sure….let me go and see if I can get an update on your situation from the chief.”
“Thanks Shane…I appreciate all that you’ve done for us pal.”
****************************
What the hell was that?” the agent watching the encounter asked the other one.
“I’m not sure….something is up. It’s not in John Black’s profile for him to remain that calm.”
“Call the chief.”
********************
Maxwell Owens slowly set down the receiver on his phone with a shaking hand, stunned by the news. After months of searching for the elusive Julie it looked as if he was finally going to get his revenge. Ever since he received the news almost seven months ago that the fingerprints matched and that Julie had been living a comfortable life as Dr. Marlena Evans in Salem for most of her adult life he’d been obsessed with finding her. He’d seen the tapes that Alexander North had handed over to him showing her brief stay in the Salem University Hospital psychiatric unit.
For hours, over and over again he’d watched the tapes, mesmerized by the image of a grown Julie. He’d often wondered over the years if she was alive and what she might look like. He still saw her as the filthy child with the sad hazel eyes that never talked. He had to stop thinking about her or he was going to go crazy.
“Shirley,” he said as he pressed the button on the intercom. The slight hum of the device the only discernable noise in the room.
“Yes President Maxwell,” the portly woman responded.
“Call Bill and the other men on that list now. Tell them that Operation Golden Arrow is in effect and I expect a full briefing in twenty minutes.” Letting go of the button, he leaned back in his high-back leather chair smiling for the first time in months. All the searching and all the questioning was about to come to an end. The feeling was almost bittersweet to him; justice was finally going to be served.
“Dimera, you are next,” he thought as he stood up and walked to the back of the Oval Office and removed a painting that was a remnant of the Clinton White House; a dog playing poker. Although his wife hated the picture, he found it ironic and insisted on keeping it rather than placing back into the archives. Behind the painting was a wall safe which he seldom used. Spinning the familiar combination he waited until he heard and felt the faint click as the internal lock mechanism opened. “You’re next,” he thought again, his excitement building as he opened the heavy door and located the folder marked ‘MB 04’. Carefully extracting the thin manila he slowly opened it quickly flipping through the dozen or so pages. No matter how many times he read the report and looked at the scant pictures contained within, his reaction was always the same; he was ashamedly aroused. “Should have been me,” he remarked outloud as he carefully tore one of the photographs down the middle and placed the picture of Marlena Black into his pocket.
*****************
Shane paced pack and forth in the small room next to where Dr. Gunther was treating Marlena. For the first time in his life he was terrified, knowing that he was way over his head, with on one to turn to and no one to trust. Whatever they wanted from Marlena it was huge. He’d been with the ISA for most of his career and been involved in countess covert operations, but he’d never seen such a level of secrecy, security and urgency. The halls of the old NATO post were filled with an electricity that he’d never experienced. People seemed afraid to talk, afraid to venture out of their assignments. Something big was going down, the question was when, why and how. Even he felt that he was being watched. He surmised that it was only natural that he was being watched since he was the agent assigned to Marlena Evans for the last twenty years. He knew her file, knew her life almost better than his own. As hard as he fought over the years to remain detached and to treat her as nothing more than an assignment, he was unable to. She had always been more than an assignment to him, becoming something akin to family over the passing years.
As he paced back and forth in front of the monitor her occasional screams brought him back to the present. After years of playing the company man he had a choice to make. He could stand by and let the course of events play out as they were planned and no one would ever know what his role in everything had been. Or he could do what was right, but still morally questionable, and put an end to all of this misery. The time was now and the choice was his.
Watching Marlena writhe in mental plain before him was too much for Shane to take. Reaching into his pants pocket he slowly fingered the sides of his cell phone inconspicuously locating the small thin button on the side that controlled the ring volume on most phones. Shane gently pressed it in hoping that his summon for help would be heard at the same time not sure if he was making the right decision. He had the best of intentions all along but it no longer seemed to matter.
************************
Across thousands of miles of ocean the signal was received.
“Oh thank god,” the man said as his computer came to life and projected the image onto the large screen.
“Germany,” one of his men said stating the obvious, pointing at the screen.
“Send in the team and do what you have to do.” As the homing beacon on the phone projected a red blinking color on the screen the men stared in silence each aware of the great risk in what they were about to do.
***************************
“No,” Marlena screamed as she strained against the thin straps circling her wrists that held her against the wall. “No.”
“What did he tell you?” the man asked once again.
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t….I really don’t.”
“You remember everything Julie….everything.”
“NO,” she screamed again as images from her past returned with surprising clarity. “John…..John….John,” she gasped for air. She saw the guillotine start to drop and felt the heartbreaking pain that this was the end for him. “John,” she screamed again as she felt the binds on her hands where Orpheus tied her up and thew her into the dusty cargo hold of the small prop plane. “Help me,” she screamed again, “Save me.”
Shane watched the scene unfold in front of him helpless to do anything about it. Reaching into his pocket he felt the side of his phone once again and slowly pressed another button, turning off the tracking mechanism on her engagement ring. Knowing that his career and possibly his life was on the line, he calmly accepted his fate.
“Nooooooooo,” Marlena screamed again, commanding Shane’s attention. “Nooooooooo,” she screamed again, lost in a nightmare that was all too real. She saw and felt the ship sinking, saw Forrest drowning before her. But he didn’t drown; he left her alone in her grief, alone when she needed him most. She begged him to stay and stand by her, but he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. “Don’t leave me John.”
Laying on her side on the worn linoleum floor in the corner of the room, Marlena held precariously onto her side trying to calm her nerves and trying to make sense of the thoughts running through her head. Nothing made sense to her. Pictures and feelings that she’d never had were suddenly there. The more she tried to analyze what she was seeing the more she felt like her past was not her own, but someone else’s.
“Julie, Julie…Such a little foolie,” he taunted her. She felt his cold hand move up and down her spine slowly, each finger tracing the bumpy path along her vertebrae.
“Stop,” she begged him as she tried to move away from him and his touch. She was so tired and had little energy left. Trying to open her eyes, she was unable to summon even the energy necessary for that one little act.
“I miss you.”
“No you don’t,” she moaned as she slowly covered her ears with her hands in an attempt to still the sound. The cold linoleum against her back chilled her thin frame.
“You’re worthless and will never amount to anything.” The voice suddenly turned cruel.
“Please stop,” she begged again as she cupped her hands tighter over her ears. As hard as she tried to still the sound and the ever-present images she was unable to. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in John’s strong arms and for him to make the world right again for her.
“Men don’t want a smart girl, they just want a tight piece of ass.”
She felt the light touch of his fingers as he moved from her back down lower and was unable to control her gag reflux any longer. She felt him, she smelled him, she heard him. But he was dead. “Stop,” she moaned again as she tried to sit up and validate that what she was seeing was feeling was real and not another cruel illusion.
“I could travel the word and buy things that would make kings and queens drool with envy but none of that would ever compare to your worth to me. You are everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman.”
“Stop,” she screamed. “Just stop.” She knew who that voice belonged to and it wasn’t him, it wasn’t her father. It belonged to Forrest and was one of the last things that he’d ever said to her before fate tore them apart and sent them on paths uncertain.
“Go to sleep Julie….go to sleep.”
“I’m not tired…I want to see Forrest,” she muttered as the odorless gas filled her lungs and rendered her unconscious, her mind still not bridging the gap between John Black and Forrest Alamain being one in the same.
Observing from the small monitor in the adjacent room, Agent Smith and Shane Donovan watched as Marlena Evans laid lifeless on the floor but for the occasional seizure that precariously pulled her from the depths of her unconsciousness and shook her frame without regard.
“Smith, you bloody well better know what you’re doing,” Shane said in disgust as he watched Marlena, unable to take what they were doing to her.
“Relax Agent Donovan, relax. Dr. Gunther says its necessary to do this to unlock her mind,” Agent Smith tried to reassure him, not entirely convinced himself. Everything about this situation, about this woman, seemed contradict to standard ISA procedure.
“Cruelty is necessary? You can see how terrified she is,” he said in anger, his finger shaking as he pointed it at the small monochrome monitor. Marlena was in the midst of a nightmare, screaming out at a force unseen. Shane wondered how much of that nightmare was the result of what the ISA was doing to her and how much of it was due to the demons of her past.
“It’s harmless, she won’t remember a thing,” Agent Smith remarked as he took a swig of the stale coffee from his cup.
“I think that’s what your whole problem is, maybe she is remembering and the more you interfere with the natural process of memory reclamation with your ‘procedures’ the worse its becoming for her.”
“Don’t worry Donovan…this is a standard procedure,” Agent Smith said repeating the standard agency line. Nothing about this was standard. If this was standard then he would have been completely debriefed about the situation before and he would have had some idea of what the expected outcome was. He understood that her mind contained valuable information, but he was somewhat skeptical of the exact nature of the information and its relevance.
Shane watched with hesitation as the door opened and Dr. Gunther entered the room. Kneeling on the floor next to Marlena he took her vital signs. “Pulse and heart rate are within the normal range.”
“She’s out,” he said not bothering to look up, knowing that the unknown cameras and hidden microphones would pick up everything that occurred in the room. Seconds later two armed guards wearing black ski masks entered the room and knelt next to hom on the floor.
“Hold her down, “ he instructed them as he took the protective cover off the tip of his syringe and lowered it towards her still face. Prying her left eye and holding it open with his hand he injected the cool liquid into the thin membrane of her cornea.
“You bastards,” Shane yelled at as he grabbed Agent Smith by the collar of his uniform. “You bloody bastards,” he screamed at him again as he shoved him against the wall.
“I’d strongly advise you to let go of me now or your career is over,” Agent Smith calmly said, stunned by Agent Donovans’ reaction. Agents were taught to remain detached to their subjects. When had Shane Donovan begun to lose that objectivity and start to care about what happened to Marlena Evans?
Shane fought for control of his emotions knowing that he could possibly be making the situation worse for Marlena. “I apologize Agent Smith. That little maneuver was quite unexpected,” Shane said, his demeanor suddenly changing. “It won’t happen again.”
Agent Smith nodded as he continued to watch the monitor fascinated and yet scared at the same time as to why this one woman was so important to so many people.
*******
“Where the hell is my wife?” John screamed at the guard, oblivious to the fact that the man was pointing a gun at him. “Where the fuck is she?”
“Agent Black, it’s in your best professional interest not to fight or make a scene,” the guard finally told him, having long grown tired of John Black’s verbal tirade.
“I don’t give a damn about my career,” John snidely remarked, frustrated that of all the things that the man could think about and say to him, it was about his career. His career was the furthest thing from his mind. Hell, he was seriously doubting his career choice and his commitment to his employer at this point in time. The longer the questioning went on, questioning that he wasn’t comfortable with in the first place, the more he began to doubt his decision and Marlena’s to allow it.
“You should.”
John was about to get up and test the mans orders to shoot when Shane Donovan entered the room, his face a deathly pale color.
“What’s wrong Shane?” John asked as he tried to stand up. He quickly sat back down seeing the intent in the guard’s eyes; he was looking for a reason to shoot John.
“Nothing,” Shane said as he acknowledged the guard and the walked over to where John was sitting and sat down in the chair next to him. “It’s just been a long day…I hear you’ve been giving the guards a hard time,” Shane said as he motioned with his eyes towards the camera in the corner.
Reading between the lines John headed Shane’s caution and responded, “I just want to make sure that my wife is okay.” He’d been so consumed with worrying about Marlena that he failed to notice the typical ISA intel setup. Why’d he think that he and Marlena would be immune from standard surveillance?
“I just saw her and things are going well. I wouldn’t worry about her if I were you,” Shane said, not looking at John in the eyes. John was chilled to the bone. Every hair on the back of his neck was standing up; something was very wrong about the whole situation. The whole time he’d known Shane he’d never been that positive, John always assumed that it was his English nature.
“Can I see her?” he asked, trying his hardest not to let the guard or the people watching him that he knew something was going terribly wrong. He hoped and prayed that whatever was happening, that it wasn’t with Marlena.
“Not yet….The psychiatrist is almost done with his tests,” Shane told John, knowing that if he mentioned who was treating Marlena, he’d go through the roof. After everything had come to an end, if it ever did, Shane hoped that John and Marlena would be able to forgive him for all the things that he’d done in the name of the ISA.
“And then we can go?”
“I’m not sure…that’s the chiefs call,” was Shane’s best guess. He honestly had no idea what the ISA planned next. His orders were to bring them in for questioning and he felt guilty that Marlena had so easily fallen into their trap and demanded to be taken to the one place where they knew she would. So much of what she thought and how she acted had been programmed into her years before. Shane used to lie awake at night wondering who the real Marlena was, but determined that the real answer was fruitless.
“Could you check on the situation for me?” John asked, feeling lightheaded.
“Sure….let me go and see if I can get an update on your situation from the chief.”
“Thanks Shane…I appreciate all that you’ve done for us pal.”
****************************
What the hell was that?” the agent watching the encounter asked the other one.
“I’m not sure….something is up. It’s not in John Black’s profile for him to remain that calm.”
“Call the chief.”
********************
Maxwell Owens slowly set down the receiver on his phone with a shaking hand, stunned by the news. After months of searching for the elusive Julie it looked as if he was finally going to get his revenge. Ever since he received the news almost seven months ago that the fingerprints matched and that Julie had been living a comfortable life as Dr. Marlena Evans in Salem for most of her adult life he’d been obsessed with finding her. He’d seen the tapes that Alexander North had handed over to him showing her brief stay in the Salem University Hospital psychiatric unit.
For hours, over and over again he’d watched the tapes, mesmerized by the image of a grown Julie. He’d often wondered over the years if she was alive and what she might look like. He still saw her as the filthy child with the sad hazel eyes that never talked. He had to stop thinking about her or he was going to go crazy.
“Shirley,” he said as he pressed the button on the intercom. The slight hum of the device the only discernable noise in the room.
“Yes President Maxwell,” the portly woman responded.
“Call Bill and the other men on that list now. Tell them that Operation Golden Arrow is in effect and I expect a full briefing in twenty minutes.” Letting go of the button, he leaned back in his high-back leather chair smiling for the first time in months. All the searching and all the questioning was about to come to an end. The feeling was almost bittersweet to him; justice was finally going to be served.
“Dimera, you are next,” he thought as he stood up and walked to the back of the Oval Office and removed a painting that was a remnant of the Clinton White House; a dog playing poker. Although his wife hated the picture, he found it ironic and insisted on keeping it rather than placing back into the archives. Behind the painting was a wall safe which he seldom used. Spinning the familiar combination he waited until he heard and felt the faint click as the internal lock mechanism opened. “You’re next,” he thought again, his excitement building as he opened the heavy door and located the folder marked ‘MB 04’. Carefully extracting the thin manila he slowly opened it quickly flipping through the dozen or so pages. No matter how many times he read the report and looked at the scant pictures contained within, his reaction was always the same; he was ashamedly aroused. “Should have been me,” he remarked outloud as he carefully tore one of the photographs down the middle and placed the picture of Marlena Black into his pocket.
*****************
Shane paced pack and forth in the small room next to where Dr. Gunther was treating Marlena. For the first time in his life he was terrified, knowing that he was way over his head, with on one to turn to and no one to trust. Whatever they wanted from Marlena it was huge. He’d been with the ISA for most of his career and been involved in countess covert operations, but he’d never seen such a level of secrecy, security and urgency. The halls of the old NATO post were filled with an electricity that he’d never experienced. People seemed afraid to talk, afraid to venture out of their assignments. Something big was going down, the question was when, why and how. Even he felt that he was being watched. He surmised that it was only natural that he was being watched since he was the agent assigned to Marlena Evans for the last twenty years. He knew her file, knew her life almost better than his own. As hard as he fought over the years to remain detached and to treat her as nothing more than an assignment, he was unable to. She had always been more than an assignment to him, becoming something akin to family over the passing years.
As he paced back and forth in front of the monitor her occasional screams brought him back to the present. After years of playing the company man he had a choice to make. He could stand by and let the course of events play out as they were planned and no one would ever know what his role in everything had been. Or he could do what was right, but still morally questionable, and put an end to all of this misery. The time was now and the choice was his.
Watching Marlena writhe in mental plain before him was too much for Shane to take. Reaching into his pants pocket he slowly fingered the sides of his cell phone inconspicuously locating the small thin button on the side that controlled the ring volume on most phones. Shane gently pressed it in hoping that his summon for help would be heard at the same time not sure if he was making the right decision. He had the best of intentions all along but it no longer seemed to matter.
************************
Across thousands of miles of ocean the signal was received.
“Oh thank god,” the man said as his computer came to life and projected the image onto the large screen.
“Germany,” one of his men said stating the obvious, pointing at the screen.
“Send in the team and do what you have to do.” As the homing beacon on the phone projected a red blinking color on the screen the men stared in silence each aware of the great risk in what they were about to do.
***************************
“No,” Marlena screamed as she strained against the thin straps circling her wrists that held her against the wall. “No.”
“What did he tell you?” the man asked once again.
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t….I really don’t.”
“You remember everything Julie….everything.”
“NO,” she screamed again as images from her past returned with surprising clarity. “John…..John….John,” she gasped for air. She saw the guillotine start to drop and felt the heartbreaking pain that this was the end for him. “John,” she screamed again as she felt the binds on her hands where Orpheus tied her up and thew her into the dusty cargo hold of the small prop plane. “Help me,” she screamed again, “Save me.”
Shane watched the scene unfold in front of him helpless to do anything about it. Reaching into his pocket he felt the side of his phone once again and slowly pressed another button, turning off the tracking mechanism on her engagement ring. Knowing that his career and possibly his life was on the line, he calmly accepted his fate.
“Nooooooooo,” Marlena screamed again, commanding Shane’s attention. “Nooooooooo,” she screamed again, lost in a nightmare that was all too real. She saw and felt the ship sinking, saw Forrest drowning before her. But he didn’t drown; he left her alone in her grief, alone when she needed him most. She begged him to stay and stand by her, but he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. “Don’t leave me John.”