Smoke and Glory

•20•

"What.. what I'm.. im next?" I say barley able to mutter out the words as I think everything through. My head is throbbing, my vision is blurry and I feel myself going weak in the knees. "Hey. Hey it's okay. It's okay. Yours going to be okay don't black out on my again. Please luc" Nola says crouching down next to me and placing her hand on my leg as she lifts up my head with her other hand and kisses me. "It's okay. I'm going to be okay" I say standing up from the chair despite the headache I still have. "We have to protect the doc" Nola says to Captain Scarlet who is standing watching us and watching the room at the same time, I don't know if she saw me and Nola kissing but even if she did it doesn't matter, what does matter is this threat, and this threat is very real. "Alright, Doctor we will station 2 unmarked police cars outside your house and one will accompany you to work however there are officers and other members of security all ready there, so we won't need them to be with you then. Everyone should just continue as normal, alright? Go about your day as normal we can't have the killer suspecting that we have seen this place and that we know that the doctor here is the next victim." Captain scarlet says as Nola nods her head and looks at me, squeezing my hand reassuringly but not even her warm soft hand can keep the fear I feel at bay but I don't mention it because if everything needs to be normal then I need to be normal. "Captain request to take doctor snow home and stay for the next few days?" Nola says as we exit the basement and the men who knocked down the door are reattaching it to its hinges so that Micheal Thames doesn't know we've been here and that we've been poking around. "Request accepted, detective I need you to have eyes on the doctor at all times okay, and I want hourly check ins from both of you, obviously these can be flexible if for say you are doing an autopsy or at a scene." Captain scarlet responds and I smile slightly knowing that Nola will be with me for the next few days, "alright Captain" I say as I clamber back into Nola's car, I don't feel tired but know that if I don't sleep I'll crash eventually and that won't be good, I grab one of the flasks of coffee I filled up before we left and start sipping it. It's warm and refreshing and the small traces of caffeine do nothing to calm my already jumpy nerves. I'm afraid. I don't want to admit it but I am afraid. I don't want to end up on a gurney having my cold and lifeless body being cut up by people who work for me. I don't want to die. Nola climbs into her car in the drivers seat as she has a sip of her coffee flask, "alright captain wanted me to give this to you so you can check in" Nola says passing me a walkie talkie that is identical to the one she is wearing currently around her waist on her belt that is definitely not meant for something so heavy as it looks as if some of the seams are fraying. "Are you okay?" She then asks and I look at her, not sure how to answer or what to say. "I'm scared" I blurt out as I feel the tears forming in my eyes and I try so hard not to cry but I can't help it. "I'm scared that he's out there, that's he's watching us that's he's coming and know that we've been here and I'm terrified of what he might do." I say tears falling down my face as I look away from Nola and out of the window at the house of the killer and his murder basement. "Don't be scared, and don't cry, please don't cry. Now listen, I'm not going to leave your side I promise nothing is going to happen to you because if it did I don't know how I'd live with myself okay? I promise that you'll be okay I swear it. I love you okay, and I will never let anyone hurt you." Nola says as I look at her before I grab her face and pull it in kissing her, and kissing her again and again, "I love you too" I say as we continue to kiss, seemingly forgetting the fact that we are in the driveway of the killer at 3:40 in the morning.

It's been 3 weeks since we raided the house of the killer and discovered that I was the next intended victim, Nola hasn't left my side which has been great because I have realised that there is a chance that we could be together. I've been working as normal, on many different cases but no more bodies have turned up that belong to the playing card killer, and I know why. Because my body will be the next one. I've also received no more calls and the police are now more heavily tracking my phone so if he does call me again there's a much higher chance that we could get his currently location although we already found the phone he called me on theres a chance he could just do it from a cell phone. "So, you ready to go?" Nola asks entering my office as I've finished the 3 autopsy's I had to do today and it's now what is meant to be the end of my working hours at 8:00pm. "Yeah lets go" I say grabbing my jacket that is currently lying over the black office chair as we exit my office closing the door as I lock it with the key I later return to my back pocket. We climb into my car and soon pull up outside my house as I unlock the door, turn off the burglar alarm and throw the keys down next to the door. "Alright doctor and I have got home safe and tonight I will be outside the house in a unmarked squad car with my partner police detective Lewis Graphen." Nola says into the walkie talkie that she then reclips onto the top of her grey trousers. "You going to be okay?" Nola asks and I nod my head, "yeah I'll make myself some dinner and then go to bed I'm really tired" I say yawing as I keep blinking struggling to keep my eyes open. "Alright. Love you" Nola says as she kisses me before exiting the house and locking the door behind her, as I wonder into my kitchen and feel disgusted in myself as I pull out a microwaveable ready meal because I'm far too tired to cook. I shove it in the microwave and follow the instructions to cook it and feel less then hungry when I pull it out and I grab a fork as I sit myself down on the kitchen chair and I eat it while trying desperately not to fall asleep. I finish it quickly, finding it revolting yet filling as I then take myself upstairs and to the back of my house where my bed room is. I put on my pyjamas and brush my teeth before grabbing my gun out of the locked cabinet in my bedside table and placing it on the top of the table next to me. I then get into the warm and stuffy covers and find myself asleep quickly. Creek. I sit up quickly, not sure if I'm just being paranoid or if I've heard something, better yet, someone. I turn on my bedside light and reach for my gun as I clamber out of bed as my feet hit the cold wooden floor as I walk slowly and carefully towards the door of my en-suite bathroom where I believe the noise came from. The door bursts open and standing there dressed fully in black is Micheal Thames, and he's holding a silver knife in his hand. He swings it as me as I start screaming, praying that Nola gets up here and puts an end to all of this. I duck down as he slices at me, getting his knife caught in the wooden frame of my bed giving me a chance to run for the door. But upon yanking it it's not opening and it's occurred to me that he somehow locked it from the outside so that I wouldn't be able to escape. He runs at me again and I dodge only narrowly missing it this time as I continue to scream and fiddle with the gun that I am holding in my hand. He runs at me again, slicing and stabbing and I feel it as he plunges the knife into me, down by my left hip and the blood starts pouring out as I attempt to apply pressure before falling onto the floor, still fiddling with the gun. "I'm going to kill you" he says as I pull myself back across the room using my elbows as the pain from the stab wound gets worse and worse. I keep fiddling with gun unable to get it to shoot as he runs at me, knife aimed right at me. And then. Bang. Bang.