Would I Lie To You? by Nicolette
Summary: Maybe you can find out whom I am talking about >:-)
Categories: Post Pretender 2001 Characters: Alex, Miss Parker, Sydney
Genres: Angst
Warnings: Warning: Character Death, Warning: Violence
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 1212 Read: 2241 Published: 09/06/05 Updated: 09/06/05

1. Would I Lie To You? by Nicolette

Would I Lie To You? by Nicolette
Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc.and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM, TNT and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.

This was written for the Pretender Movie Challenge from N.R. Levy:

Write a story of 1,500 words or less inspried by one of the following Lines from the movie.

Ethan (re: MP to Jarod). "She wants you back, you know."
Alex: (re: MP to Jarod). "You have no idea how important to your life she is, and after today, you'll never know."
Jarod (After he and MP get the picture). "First one to the answers wins."






Warning! Definitely PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and character death.

1063 words + title


Would I Lie To You?
By Nicolette




“You were absolutely right. As soon as I told him who I was really after, he rushed over to help her.”

“What have you told him?”

“I just said. ‘You have no idea how important to your life she is, and after today, you'll never know.’ I used the exact words you gave me. I still think it was a stupid move. So they both know I am still alive. I doubt Jarod believes that I am dead just because I dropped off this cantilever. He is not half as smart as you all think, but he is not that stupid either,” Alex added with a disgusted snarl.

”You really think you are better, don’t you?” came the reply with a noise like a dry, not amused laugh. “You should never forget what I am telling you now: You are nothing without me. You are only still breathing because I allow you to breath. If I ever decide you are not worth taking oxygen from us, you will be dead the same second. No matter where you, there is no place far enough and no hole deep enough to hide. Never forget this!”

“But you gave me your word,” fear was evident in every word, “you promised! I have done everything you wanted, just because you wanted me to do it. Now I want…”

“Not so fast, my dear friend, there are still some small things to do. I hope you remember!”

“But…”

“No buts.” The voice was now deep low like a distant thunder. “I will consider giving you one thing you desire. We are going into the final round. If you still succeed like you have done before, you will get the things you desire…step by step.

“Please….”

“You have your orders, follow them, or…” there was no need to finish the sentence.

“Yes, Sir.”

The almost inaudible answer brought a satisfied smile into the face of the other man. No more words where needed. “Click,” he flicked the cell phone closed and terminated the phone call. For a second, the dark phone in his hand was all he saw. Adrenaline was rushing through his veins. Alex might be a pretender, a genius, but he had the power. He always knew they had the right way to catch Jarod right in front of their noses, but he had never been allowed to use it. Soon it would all belong to him. This was like it was planed for years now.

The adrenaline left his system and all it let was a hunger, a kind of hunger that could not be stilled with a simple meal. Tonight, he promised himself, tonight was a good night for hunting. His mood lifted at this prospect and a small almost crazy snicker escaped his lips, if they would know who he really was…if they only knew.

***

The night was nearly over. Blood was dripping from the wall. It was so hard to paint with blood, but there was no other color that could be used for his work, it was to important to waste his gift. In the dim light of the first morning light he could see the red fading in some parts to a reddish brown. Just one more … yes now it was perfect. He turned and took out a single dark red rose and placed it over the pale body of a man lying close to the wall. The man looked like he was sleeping. There was no blood. The only thing that could be described as unnatural was his color, he looked like he had no blood in his body.

The mystery man snickered, well if they would take a closer look they would see there was really nearly no blood left--he had used the better part of it to paint his picture--a picture of a rose matching the one so carefully draped on the dead man. He looked around. The area was clean, no dust, no dirt, nothing. The blood he had left, he filled into a small plastic bottle and labeled it. This would be his gift to her, the first in this last round of the game. A game nobody but him could win.

***

“Miss Parker?” Sydney pushed the door to his college hesitantly open. He was not sure how she would react to this. Ever since the discovery from Ethan she seemed to be on the edge.

“Come in Sydney,” came a low voice from the direction where Sydney knew was her desk. “No matter what you have nothing can be worse than the dream I had tonight.”

Sydney crossed the distance from the door to the desk of the young woman, worried he saw her sitting there staring into a glass full of amber liquid, whiskey from the smell of it. He should scold her for drinking this so early and with her stomach and all, but after what he had to show her she would need it and if not, he would take the drink for sure.

“This came about 30 minutes ago.” With this he dropped a small package in front of her.”

“From Jarod?”

“No, I don’t think so.” At least he hoped so

Carefully Miss Parker opened the box, first she took out a small plastic bottle. Confused she knit her brows, a think red liquid swashed inside while she was turning the bottle… almost like blood. She shot a quick glance over to the older man who now supported himself heavily on a corner of her desk. Blood…but whose?

A small nod from the older man indicated she should look at the other things inside. There was only one other thing in the container and she would have given anything if she had never had to see this.

It was a picture, beautiful in a morbid way. Perfectly arranged lights on the right spots to get the viewer to discover the important part at first sight.

A white wall with an over dimensional rose painted in red. A perfect painting. She didn’t need to ask anybody, somehow she knew for sure it was a blood painting. The sick scene alone made her stomach turn and twist.

But what made her nearly fade was the sight of the victim sitting against the wall with a rose on his lap and clearly labeled with a big “1”.

“Broots….”
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