TEN YEARS AGO

---

 

When she got home, she felt at once that he might be there. The pretender’s presence was all around her, Parker could almost smell his cologne in the air. She loved that perfume, even if she’d never told him. It made her knees weak. And she didn’t like feeling weak.

Parker closed the door behind her and whispered, looking around her living room, “Jarod?”

He didn’t answer.

“Jarod?” she called him again.

She couldn’t see him anywhere, so she looked in all the rooms. Jarod wasn’t there.

Parker tried to catch any signs of the pretender, but there weren’t. She was probably mistaken. But when she came back from her bedroom, she found a recorder over the kitchen counter. It still contained a tape. Parker took it and pressed play.

“Miss Parker, it’s me. I’m sorry I’m not there in person, but I couldn’t wait for you to come back from work. I’ve found Ethan!”

Parker gasped and went straight to the door, taking her keys and exiting again in the direction of her car.

“He’s in a warehouse of a fish shop in Dover, it’s close to the town bank where we met Fenigor. I guess he was trying to come back to Blue Cove. I’m on my way out!”

‘So am I’, she thought, her hands already on the steering wheel.

“I’m really sorry, I must get there before anyone else. If I was able to find him, somebody else might be aware of his presence…”

Parker was horrified. Jarod was right, and she hoped at once that he would find their brother before the Centre.

“I’ll let you know when I get there.”

Parker thought his speech was over, but she was proven wrong when Jarod’s voice continued to speak.

“I miss you. Please, follow me as soon as you listen to this message.”

Parker smiled and stopped the tape, then she threw the recorder on the backseat. She would exceed speed limits, but she didn’t care. Ethan needed her. And so did Jarod.

---

Parker took her gun from the holster and walked silently towards the back door. She’d found the place almost immediately, because she still remembered where the Dover Town Bank was located. Now, she was aiming her Smith & Wesson right in front of her, trying to avoid making any noise. Outside the warehouse she’d found a car, probably the one Jarod had rented lately.

The engine was still warm, which meant he hadn’t been there for long.

When she opened the door, it creaked loud, causing the sound to echo all over the damned place. Parker swore to herself, then she continued her walk inside the building. It took her one minute to see some movements. As soon as her eyes got used to the darkness, she noticed someone kneeling on the floor.

“Jarod?” she whispered.

When Parker recognized the pretender, who was wearing his usual leather jacket, she ran towards him with a smile on her face.

But her happiness vanished in one second when she realized what was going on.

The voices inside her head exploded and she noticed that Jarod was rocking back and forth, moaning and muttering something she couldn’t understand. He was crying desperately.

Ethan’s lifeless body was lying in front of them. A hole through his forehead left no doubt about how their poor brother had been killed.

A perfect execution, with ‘Compliments of the Centre’ written all over it.

Parker fell on her knees next to Jarod and left out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She reached for her brother’s body and found the courage to close his eyes, for his eyelids were still open.

“Ethan…” she murmured. She wanted the voices to disappear, the intensity of their screams was unbearable. Her mother’s voice, more than others, seemed to be almost mouning in pain.

Jarod was still crying in disbelief. His eyes were wide opened and so was his mouth. He simply couldn’t believe the truth. Ethan was dead. Another brother taken away from him.

He tried to speak, but words seemed to fail him. He couldn’t breathe, the shock starting to sink in.

Parker looked for his hand and took it in hers. She couldn’t deal with this all on her own. She needed to rely on Jarod, he was the only one who could help her to get through this moment. Memories of another man in another time came to Parker’s mind. She remembered the day she’d found Tommy lying on her front porch, blood coming from the hole Brigitte had shot in his forehead. Two men she’d loved so much, taken away from her in the very same way. She held Jarod’s hand stronger, but he didn’t react. He was lost in a different world.

Parker sighed and looked at him. He was trembling and Parker started to worry.

“Jarod, you need to calm down, now…”

“They killed him.”

“I know. Jarod, this is a setup, they’re certainly arriving at any time…we need to go.”

“He’s dead. They killed him.”, he repeated.

Parker understood that Jarod was in a trance. She didn’t have time to take care of him, they had to leave at once. If she was right, this was a trap and sweepers would come inside the building at any moment.

“Jarod. We can’t do anything for him, now…we must go.”

“I won’t leave him. I’m not going anywhere. He needs me. I’ve found him, we have to stay with him.”

Parker started to hear signs of insanity in Jarod’s voice. She had never seen him like that before, not even when Kyle had died in his arms.

“I had to find him before. I left him alone. I killed him.”

“Jarod, don’t do this to yourself. It’s not your fault. It’s nobody’s fault.”

“It’s all my fault!”, he shouted, “I killed him! He was all alone, we had to protect him!”

Parker heard noises coming from the outside. There was no more time. They had to go.

“Jarod, I know how you feel. I know. But we have to go, now. They’re coming. Sweepers will be all around this place in a couple of minutes, we must run!”

Jarod bent to take Ethan’s hand in his one. It felt so cold and lifeless. Just like Kyle’s when he’d died in Dry River.

“Ethan…I’m so sorry, little brother…I’m so sorry…”

Parker’s heart broke into a thousand pieces, but she didn’t have time to be sad. She had to take Jarod out of that place.

She stood up and pulled him closer, trying to convince him to stand. She dragged him, but he wasn’t cooperating.

“Jarod. I’m gonna tell you once. We get out of here. Now!” she said through clenched teeth. Jarod saw her resolution, but he knew she was feeling as bad as he felt, maybe even more.

He stood up behind Parker while noises were getting closer to their actual location. They both looked at Ethan once more. Jarod made up his mind: he couldn’t let his brother behind.

“I’m gonna take him out of here.”

Parker stopped him before he could bend once again.

“We can’t carry him, Jarod. You know that. They’re already here.”

“I – won’t – leave him!” he replied. Parker realized that was the first time she saw a very furious pretender. She was scared.

“He’s dead, Jarod.”

“I can’t let Lyle have him…”      

"It's necessary, Jarod."

Parker grabbed his arm with her free hand, trying to pull him away from the corpse, but Jarod didn't want to. She heard a voice coming from the alley and she realized it was Lyle's.

"Jarod, I don't want to leave him either, but we must go. Lyle's here and he's not alone...you asked me if I trusted you, now I'm asking you to trust me. We can't do anything for Ethan..."

Jarod's tears streamed down his face. Parker dragged him away from Ethan just as sweepers entered the huge room with guns in their hands.

"Find them!", Lyle was screaming.

Parker and Jarod hid behind a tank full of fish. She was still holding her gun, her hands were sweating. She could hear her companion crying silently next to her, his breath was getting deeper. Parker knew they would never make it out of there if Jarod didn't recover from the shock of Ethan's death.

Parker waved her hand towards a door that would lead them to the exit of that damned place, then she hushed him. She didn't know if Jarod would follow her lead, but they had to get out of there. She waited for Willie to move past them, then she started to crawl silently. To her surprise, Jarod followed her. They'd almost reached the door, when she bumped against a big tank that fell loudly to the floor.

"Shit", she screamed.

Miss Parker stood up at once and dragged Jarod with her, while at least five men ran in their direction.

"Right there! Take them!"

Lyle's voice roused something inside Jarod's mind. He turned around, ready to get back and fight against him. He was sure he'd been Ethan's killer. Just as he had already killed his other brother.

Parker noticed in a glimpse that Jarod was going back, but she stopped him. She grabbed his shirt and she pulled him to her, causing the pretender to lose his balance.

"This is NOT the time for revenge, Jarod!"

"Let go of me!" he shouted. Then he did something he'd never done before. He took the weapon from her hands and started to fire blindly. He didn't care about killing other people, he just wanted to put a bullet inside Lyle's head and scatter his brains all over the place. He shouted out loud while Parker couldn't do anything but stare at him in disbelief.

The sweepers sought for repair and so did Lyle, who bent just in time to see a bullet missing his head but hitting his left shoulder instead. Two sweepers fell down, probably dead.

When Parker's cartridge was over, Jarod was still pulling the trigger. Parker took advantage of that moment to take Jarod outiside. They ran as they've never done before, pushed by their instinct and will of survive and with bullets whistling all around them.

Jarod had escaped many times before, but that night he couldn't even feel his legs. His limbs were acting by themselves.

"My car, there!" she screamed, using her hand to show him the place where she'd left her black sedan.

Jarod reached the passenger side and opened the car door, waiting for Parker to sit and finally start the engine to get away as fast as they can.

He was out of breath just as much as Parker, who stepped on the gas stronger than she thought she ever could.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, afraid that some bullet might have hit him.

He didn't answer, he was looking at his hands, still holding Parker's gun. Worried, Miss Parker moved her right hand and started to inspect his chest and arms to find out if he'd been hurt.

When she noticed blood on her hand, she looked at him, trying to keep en eye on the street.

"They hit you!"

Jarod stiffened at once, he used his own hand to touch the wound on his left arm. It didn't hurt at all, the bullet had probably entered and exited. 

Parker was frightened by his silence, she didn't know what to do and she needed Jarod to help her. She'd never felt so powerless and vulnerable before. Every time she felt lost, she had Jarod to try and comfort her. This time he was the one in need of attention, he really seemed to have lost it. Ethan's death had been the last straw.

"Jarod, I can't go back. They saw me, they know I helped you."

He looked at her for the first time in that terrible night.

"We left him. We abandon him with that crazy brother of yours..."

"Don't call him that. We came out of the same uterus, but that doesn't change the fact we don't have anything in common. I'm nothing like him."

Miss Parker watched carefully at the rearview mirror, nobody was following them. She increased the speed, annoyed and disappointed by Jarod's words.

"He killed Ethan. He killed my brother."

"Our, brother", she reminded him. "We need to get somewhere safe, Jarod. One of your typical lousy motels will be fine. We need to calm down and sort things out."
"There's nothing to sort out. Ethan's dead."

Parker sighed and shrugged. She couldn't deal with him, not now. She saw her weapon in his hands and took it. It was still warm. She threw it on the backseat and it landed just next to the recorder. Then she used her free hand to grab Jarod's one.

She wasn't surprised to feel it slip between her fingers and to see a very shattered pretender leaning his head against the window and beginning to cry again.