Safe Haven

Come Get Me

"You do realize Coop and Liz are going to kill us when they find us here? And that's if Max doesn't find us first," Bo commented, giving Rosabelle Sage a boost over the fence. Since Cooper had taken the only car available to them, the duo had to make the trip on foot. They had just arrived at Safe Haven, but Coop and Liz and some other guys that were definitely cops but also undercover were loitering about. If one of them saw them, their plan wouldn't work. So they had to sneak around back and jump the fence.

And hopefully Max or Travis or whatever that guy's name was wouldn't spot them.

Rosabelle Sage reached a hand down as she straddled the fence to help Bo. He straddled the fence, his eyes scanning around for their target. "Which enclosure belongs to Skittles?"

Rosabelle Sage scanned the area, trusting Bo to keep an eye out for people who would stop them. She could actually see where the snow leopard hid all the time. He was a magnificent beast. Had she known she could see him for here, she would've come to that spot long ago. He spotted her and Bo watching him, but he didn't run. His eyes glinted, his tail twitched, but he didn't move.

She continued searching for the right enclosure. "Over there," she said, tapping Bo's arm and pointing slightly past the snow leopard's cage.

Bo nodded, slipping down the fence and landing nimbly on his feet. He reached up, helping Rosabelle Sage down, only to have her fall awkwardly enough to knock them both down on the ground. She managed to roll the both of them until they were behind a bush. Bo was about to ask what was up, but Rosabelle Sage clapped a hand over his mouth as somebody walked past.

They snuck the long way around, dodging anyone that would stop them. As they stopped by the sand cats' cage, one of the cats dashed over and started spitting at them.

"Shush, Peanut!" Rosabelle Sage whispered, bending down to speak to the cat. "Shush! Shoo! Go away!"

Bo's shoe struck the fence hard enough to startle the cat, but not enough to draw attention. "Beat it!" The cat stalked away and Rosabelle Sage took the chance to start climbing to the top of the enclosure.

She motioned for Bo to walk around the other side. "I'm going to jump over there and we'll jimmy Skittles's cage open."

"You sure this is going to work?" Bo asked, gripping the handle to the cage. Skittles lurked a small distance away, pacing back and forth and watching the two of them.

"It has to," she answered, tugging on the top of the door. With one quick jerk from Bo, the door swung wide open, allowing Skittles to escape. Bo literally had to throw himself out of the way to dodge the cat before he got trampled.

That was when the chaos started.

"One's loose!" Liz yelled, waving her arms to gain attention as she yelled orders. Bo caught Rosabelle Sage as she jumped from the enclosure and the two crouched behind a bush and watched the commotion.

"It's Skittles!" Max hollered. "Sage is going to kill us if he returns to the wild without her!"

Bo and Rosabelle Sage took that opportunity to sneak out from the bush and dash inside to get into her office. The distraction caused by Skittles was enough to keep anyone from seeing them, but they felt slightly bad at putting lives at risk. However, Rosabelle Sage had trained her workers for this sort of situation, so she doubted anyone would be severely injured.

Bo shut the door as Rosabelle Sage began rifling through her desk. She pulled a gun out and tossed to Bo while he stared at her incredulously.

"I thought we were coming in here to get some top-secret thing to blackmail Travis with, but all you wanted was this gun?" Bo asked, watching as she slid a knife into her boot. "Are you preparing for battle?"

She rolled her eyes, taking the gun from him and somehow managing to tuck it where it was hidden in her dress. He considered making a snide comment but something told him she wouldn't hesitate to yank the gun back out and shoot him between the legs.

"I'm hoping it won't come to this, but if what they said about Max is true, I need all the help, I can get." She rolled up a magazine and shoved it into a pocket. At his puzzles expression, she sighed. "If I can break glass with a rolled up newspaper, I can break Max's face too."

"How did you learn all this stuff?" Bo questioned, opening a cabinet that was filled with weapons. How had not noticed it before?

She shrugged. "Single girl in a strange place. I refused to be defenseless. Guess Max doesn't remember that." Rosabelle Sage handed him a file. "That file is all we need to blackmail Max. When I met him, he made the mistake of underestimating me. And I found out some stuff about him. At the time, I didn't know what any of it meant, or if it was even useful. Now, I know what the whole thing means."

He opened the file and stared down at all the faces that looked back at him. Some of them looked similar, others looked battered and worn. "What is this?"

"His family. Or some of them. These are the ones that were either adopted or married into the family. Others are just people he'd come in contact with," Rosabelle Sage explained. "However, every person in here has one common relative. That relative was murdered about ten years ago." She tapped the page. "Notice something they all have in common?"

Bo observed every picture, noticed similar facial structures, the some smiles, some frowns. But one thing did stand out. "The eyes. They're the same as yours."

Rosabelle Sage nodded again. "That one common relative? Turns out, they were lovers. But she broke his heart, or ran off with his money, or his best friend. All the stories claimed something different, but they all ended the same: she died."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"All the faces in this file are faces the world will never see again," she replied, sadness creeping into her voice. Only Bo could tell, but her love for animals stretched as far as humans. "After he killed her, he decided to make the world rid of her. As one gypsy story-teller put it: he fell in love with her eyes, so anyone with those eyes is in danger."

Bo flipped the page and almost lost his breakfast. It was a picture of a jar, but what was in the jar was the disturbing part. It was filled with eyes. Human eyes. The color of Rosabelle Sage's. "He keeps their eyes as trophies?"

"Like any other serial killer, yes, he has trophies," she replied, choosing to stare at Bo's face instead of the page.

"What about his mark? Serial killers usually have some sort of signature thing that they leave behind, right?"

Rosabelle Sage swallowed, obviously uncomfortable. But she flipped to the next page anyway. Bo took a few seconds to gag. The pages were filled with pictures people posed in a certain position. Some were provocative. Others were modest. But the corpses had been posed where their faces were clearly shown so that the lack of eyes would be noticed.

"How did you not know what any of this meant before?" Bo asked, shutting the file.

"Those that told me the stories never gave me a name. They usually started with some line like 'your eyes will lead to your demise' or 'beware the one who treasures your eyes'. I figured them for just some old folklore or something. I didn't think Max would actually be trying to kill me because I have purple eyes. It's genetics. I couldn't help it. Honestly when I did think of someone who treasured my eyes, I always thought of--" she stopped, bit her lip and looked away.

"Thought of who?" Bo pressure, tilting her face back towards him. "Me?"

"We didn't end things very well, I'll admit. I didn't think you'd literally want to kill or hurt me, just figuratively," she explained, stroking his cheek. "But I did always remember how you loved my eyes, and I'd start thinking about what you were doing and if you ever thought about me. A few times I even considered coming back home and finding you and begging you to take me back. I'd even try to replace you with some other guy, but it was never good enough."

"I think someone just started writing her vows," Bo teased, brushing his lips across hers. She fisted her hands in his hair, dragging him in deeper. After a few minutes, she broke them apart. "Now, let's go finish thing."