Life’s not about Happy Endings…
Jackie shut her eyes knowing what was going to come. Her whole life flashing before her eyes, her wedding day with Kevin, the smell of his overly sweet cologne as he held her close during their very first dance. “You look Beautiful Tonight” Sung by Eric Clapton. That was their song. Then she saw the birth of each one of her children, remembered the feel of them in her arms as she held them for the first time, the smell of their heads, how soft and fragile they were to the touch. Her beautiful eldest son on his graduation day, how proud she and Kevin were of him. How they knew he would grow up to be something.
All those thoughts swirled around in her head as she heard the gun go off, waiting for the impact she actually smiled knowing that soon, she would be reunited with her one and only true love.
The impact never came though.
She opened her eyes, probably only a few seconds went by between the time she closed them and reopened them but yet she still felt like she was dreaming as she saw Tyler fall down on his knees, blood coming out of the hole the bullet had put in him. His eyes wide as he was still very much alert to what was going on. He was dying slowly and somewhere in the back of her mind, before she even had time to process the fact that someone had to do that to him, she was glad for his suffering.
When he finally dropped all the way to the floor she saw him once again, the man who brought her here in the first place holding a gun in one hand and her son in the other. In all the commotion she hadn’t heard his cries but now she saw that he was in tears, his eyes wide with fear and excitement as he saw his mother there right before his eyes.
By instinct she tried to run to him but forgot she was tethered to the chair, a site which she was sure scared her baby to death. Instantly she went into her strong mode, hiding her own fear to save her son.
“Mommy’s okay baby.”
Nicky looked at her but was afraid to speak; he just stayed in John’s arms as if he was a rag doll.
“He is of no use to me any longer.” The villain finally said as he walked towards Jackie and kicked Tyler out of the way.
Tyler grunted, still very much alive and it was then, he let Nick run to his mother. When he did the child ran with such speed he almost knocked her over. How she wished she could throw her hands around him, her baby was safe and that was all that mattered for now.
“Mommy’s okay.” She said once again as he climbed on her lap and threw his arms around her neck.
“I want to go home.” He kept crying over and over again.
“Soon baby…soon.”
“Why?” Tyler managed to get out in the middle of his groans of pain as John went behind the table and took out a red jug.
“Why what?”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
Opening up the jug John poured out some of the contents right onto Tyler who chocked when his skin made contact with it.
“Why not?” Then he took the fluid and began throwing it everywhere all over the carpet and the furniture.
“Mommy what is he doing?” Nick asked through his sobs.
Even though she knew what was happening she refused to let her son know, “I don’t know baby, but it’ll all be over soon.”
“You’re son is here Jackie.” John said just as he was finished throwing the last bit of fluid in the room, the smell of gas hung heavy in the air and it gave Jackie a headache and made her eyes water.
“Kevin?”
“Yes, he’ll be breaking down my door any second, so I had to speed this up a bit. I had always pictured this going down a bit differently.”
“Please don’t…”
“It’s too late Jackie; this is the way it was meant to be. I’m sorry.”
John walked over and grabbed Nick right off of her lap which made the child scream as he tried to grab at her shirt, anything to keep himself bound to his mother. “Please…he’s just a baby…” She begged.
“He’s not going to stay here, don’t worry. You on the other hand, I acted on impulse and I’m sorry about that. I should have never brought you here.”
“MOMMY!!! I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE!!!” Nick was screaming at the top of his lungs now, but it was too late he was now firmly in John’s grasp as they made their way to the top of the stairs. Once again John kicked Tyler as he passed by but this time the agent didn’t even make a sound.
“Lucky son of a bitch is dead I guess.” He said as he started for the stairs, you might want to say goodbye to mommy.” John said to the little boy in his arms as he took one last look at Jackie who was now crying so hard she was barely able to breath.
Once again she saw her life flash before her eyes as the match was lit and thrown down the stairs, flames shooting out everywhere so fast and quick, heading right towards her. At least she got to see her son one last time as she closed her eyes and took her last breath.
Just as they reached the top of the stairs, Kevin and Howie barreled through the door. In time to see John light the match and throw it down the steps.
“Freeze you son of a bitch!!” Kevin said holding his gun out along with Howie, both pointing at the man’s head.
“KEVIN!!!” Nick screamed still in hysterics.
“It’s okay Nicky, everything is okay…I’m here now.”
“He’s lying to you son, your mom is downstairs being burned alive isn’t she?” The words made Kevin’s eyes grow wide as he smelled the smoke from below.
“Seems like you have a mother to go save or maybe you should save the little brother? What on earth to do?”
Nick was still crying in the man’s arms and even though Kevin was pretty sure he had a good shot at hitting John straight in the head, he wasn’t going to take the chance. “Back away from the door slowly.” Kevin said, moving closer to John who didn’t budge from his spot.
“I am going to take Nicky here and we are leaving out the back. If you come after me, your mom is going to die and I swear to God so will we. He said now taking the gun he had in his pocket and aiming it at Nick’s head. “So put your gun down Kevin. Make the right choice.” The sounds of sirens in the distance screaming towards the house made John take another step towards the back door, “You have messed up my plans already by showing up earlier than expected, don’t make me do something I might regret!”
Hesitantly Kevin placed his gun on the floor as did Howie, “Now say goodbye to your brother Nicky…”
“Kevin…” Nicky cried once more which caused the older brother to move forward only to be stopped by the gun aimed at Nicky’s head.
“It’ll be okay Nicky…I’ll come and get you.”
“I want to go home.” He said as John slowly backed away from the agents and made his way to the back door and hurried out.
The second he left, Kevin turned to his friend, “Howie…”
“I’m on it!” Howie said barreling past Kevin and running down the steps.
As Howie made his way down the stairs it grew increasingly harder to breath as the smoke was now almost up to the ceiling. The flames were high and the smell of flesh burning was in the air. He was hoping the smell wasn’t coming from the woman he considered a second mother, but yet he had prepared himself for the worst.
“Jackie!!” He called out, chocking in smoke as soon as he did.
There was no answer, so he tried again this time screaming as loud as he could, “JACKIE!!!” but still, nothing.
He got down on his hands and knees to avoid further smoke inhalation and by this time he heard help coming down the stairs. He was grateful because then he saw her, lying on her side in the chair she seemed to be handcuffed too. Quickly he made his way over and softly said her name. “Jackie can you hear me?” but there was no response.
He checked for a pulse and panicked when he felt none, “We need help over here!” He screamed to the people that had made their way down the steps. Within a heartbeat of that someone was there to help. They cut the chains on her hands and carried her up the steps as the firefighters controlled the blaze as best they could. Howie looked down and realized the flesh he smelled burning came from the other body in the room, at the time he had no idea it was Tyler but the smell would stick with him for the rest of his life.
Once out of the house that was now slowly beginning to burn on the first floor as well as the basement, they lay Jackie’s lifeless body down on the ground and began to work on her. Howie stood there with a blanket wrapped around himself and an oxygen mask on and watched as they tried to revive the woman while a few feet away they were doing the same thing with her husband.
“Kevin please be safe…” He whispered to himself as Rob and another team of agents went running into the woods to try to find John, Kevin and Nick.
Kevin ran at full speed to try to catch up with John, he had him in his site but with the gradual darkening sky it was getting harder to keep an eye on him. He couldn’t lose him now, this was the end game. After this there would be no more second chances. He knew this was a suicide mission for John. It had to be; he was caught and had run out of options. Those people were the most dangerous of all; they had nothing to lose and would be willing to take anyone down that they needed to.
The sound of his little brother whimpering is what kept him from losing them completely. Still as it got darker it got increasingly harder to keep up until suddenly and without explanation, John just stopped.
“I know you are right behind me Kevin so I thought I’d slow down for you.” That made Kevin stop as well, even though he could barely make out the man’s face he thought he could see a huge smile. That was never a good sign, ever.
“Kevin…help me. He’s a bad man.” Nicky cried as he was held in John’s arm.
“Let me go, I hate you!” He screamed as he pounded on the man’s chest with his little fist but John completely ignored it, in fact he acted like there was no one there except for Kevin.
“I’m here.” Kevin said as he slowly approached the man once again raising his gun as he did.
“I know you are. Sorry about the abrupt exit back there but we couldn’t let everyone interfere with what comes next.”
Kevin inched his way a little closer now, able to finally see the faces of the two people before him. Seeing his brother continually hit John and cry.
“Nicky stop doing that, everything is okay.” Kevin said, afraid that the boy’s actions would suddenly enrage the crazy man.
“He hurt mommy…I want to go home.”
“It’s going to be okay baby, just relax, I’m right here.”
“Why don’t you come even closer Kevin, so this way he can really see you?” John sounded eerily calm.
“See Nicky, everything will be okay.” He said now moving within arms length of his little brother, that’s when he smelled it. Gasoline.
“Oh God…” Kevin said in horror.
“There is no God Kevin.” John replied as he took out a lighter from his pocket. “I wanted you to be able to see what happens at the end of this story. Tell my daughter I love her.”
Kevin now pointed the gun at John’s head, “DROP IT!”
“That’s why I needed you close Kevin, I think you should shoot the boy. I mean isn’t it better he die that way then being burned alive?”
“KEVIN!” Nicky screamed now terrified.
“It’s okay Nicky.”
“He’s lying to you Nick. Soon you and I are going to die and there’s nothing your brother can do about it.”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Kevin, you are just bitter because I won this little game. You never once figured out it was me. If only you had, maybe your mom and dad would still be alive huh?”
“And maybe if you weren’t so consumed in this stupid game of yours YOUR wife and daughter would still be alive.”
At that, the man tensed up. “What are you talking about? Patty is fine.”
“Oh is she? You did leave her in a burning building didn’t you?”
“But she was upstairs safe and sound.”
“Apparently not John, you killed your daughter just like you killed your wife.”
“I didn’t mean too…she was just in the wrong place…I didn’t want to hurt Anita.”
“But you did and you killed your daughter.”
“NO! Stop saying that!” Kevin’s scheme was working as now he was making the man off balance. What he wanted was to get the guy to drop his brother then he’d take aim and fire.
He wasn’t sure if Patty was even in the house but he took a gamble that he had locked her somewhere safe. “It’s true John, so I guess in the end no one wins huh?”
“Patty is fine, she has to be!”
“She’s not and it’s your fault!”
“Shut up!” he yelled forcefully now as he took the lighter and held it out with his thumb on it ready to flick it open.
“This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, it was supposed to end differently. You were supposed to come here and then…this wasn’t how it happened in my head.”
“Well, seems like that’s your own fault! Now drop the lighter John…please? Patty would want you to not hurt her friend.”
He seemed to contemplate this for a few seconds before making his decision, as the search team was now approaching the clearing. “You know what my father used to tell me Kevin? He said that in life there were never any happy endings. And you know what? I used to never believe him… but now I do.”
He grabbed Nicky tighter now and held the lighter close to both of them, Nicky was shaking from freight. “Time to check out of here now, see ya later!” He said as he began to flick the lighter.
“NO!” Kevin said running to stop him.
Nicky sensing his life was in danger bit down on John’s shoulder as hard as he could which took the man by surprise as he howled in pain and flung Nick off of him. That was just long enough for Kevin to raise his gun and shoot the man in the shoulder. As much as he wanted to kill the bastard he knew it was better if he was brought in alive. All he cared about at the moment was making sure his brother was safe.
John groaned as he fell to the ground and quickly Kevin kicked the lighter and gun away from the man rendering him helpless just as the search team broke through the woods and began to approach them.
Quickly he ran to his baby brother who lay on the ground and fell to his knees to check him, “Nicky! Are you okay?” He pleaded as tears began to fall from his eyes as all of the events that happened to him in the last hour or so began to catch up in one violent swing of emotion.
“Please Nicky answer me…” He said grabbing the boy and holding him in his arms.
“Kevin?” The child finally managed to say as he sat up and embraced his big brother in a hug crying hysterically.
Kevin began to cry as well his grip on the little boy never letting up, “I love you so much Nicky and you are okay now…I’m so sorry you went through that but Patty is okay…I was lying. Patty is fine.”
“What about mommy?”
“I hope she is okay too.” He said now standing up and carrying his brother away from the scene as the team of agents, Rob included, came in and read John Nicosia his rights.
Coming out of the clearing, Kevin met up with Howie who pat Nicky’s back as he led them to the front of the house which was now swarming with activity. “My mom?” He asked the second he saw his best friend. He had wanted to wait until his brother was not clinging to him but he knew that was a long time coming and he needed to know and Nick had a right to know. No more family secrets after this.
“I got her out; they rushed her to the hospital along with your dad.”
“How are they?”
Howie shook his head and looked over at Nick. Once again the tears started flowing freely as he hugged his baby brother even tighter.
“What about John?”
“In custody.”
“We found Patty upstairs, she was locked in a room and shaken up but other than that she’s fine. We brought her to the hospital as well just to be looked over.”
Kevin nodded, “See that Nicky? Patty is going to be okay!” He kissed the boy on the cheek as he placed his head in the crux of Kevin’s neck.
“I want to go see mommy.” The little boy said and Kevin nodded.
“I do too baby, I do too. Let’s go see our family okay?”
“Okay, can we get something to eat? My tummy is grumbling.”
As Kevin wiped another tear away he smiled and nodded, “Absolutely anything you want.”
As they all piled into the car to go to the hospital the words John had spoken echoed in Kevin’s mind. “Please Lord let this have a happy ending.” He prayed as they raced to the hospital as both of his parents were fighting for their lives.
Hey all! Well, the countdown is on to the end of this story...so i'll be back next Wednesday with the second to last chapter :O) Thanks so much for the feedback!
