Talia's Torment

Chapter 27: Fickle Fate.

                Tanner was looking at Talia, the phone in his hand and its horror video long forgotten.  She was repeating the word no over and over again while her eyes were glazed over seeing a different scene than the one before her eyes.  He reached out and tried to break her from the grip terror had on her as his mind raced to find a way to comfort her.  He could tell what ever had triggered her was taking her to a place that she never would have let herself go normally.  The pallor of her cheeks despite the stains her tears were leaving as they tracked freely from her eyes told him that it was a memory that she would rather die than experience again, and he knew in an instant that it had something to do with Laurent.

                He gently touched her shoulder with the tips of his fingers.  Her sudden inhale of breath let him know that she had been released from her unbidden return to the past.  She was shaking and looked like she wanted to vomit, but she was breathing and that was a start.  She looked around her as if to be sure that she was truly here and not stuck in some other twisted version of the memory she had just escaped.  Focusing on Tanner she tried to swipe the tears from her face and look away from him, shame evident in her eyes.  He was not about to let her get away with it, whatever she had just experienced he could tell from the look of fear on her features that she had not been complicit in it and was in no way responsible for any shame she was feeling now.  He knew she would not want to talk about it by the way she was steadfast in avoiding his eyes.  He would wait for her to be ready to tell him what she had just re-lived and he knew that he would wait as long as she needed him to, he could be very patient.

                “Are you okay, do you need to sit for a bit?”  Tanner reached out and touched her cheek to get her to look at him.  He wanted her to see the comfort in his eyes and know that she would not have to speak about anything that she didn’t want to talk about.

                “No, I’m fine, really.  Who is that in the video?”  Talia asked him in part to change the subject but she also had a genuine look of interest on her face.

                “I thought by the way you just reacted that it was Laurent?”  Tanner was confused now, if it wasn’t Laurent what about the video had registered with her?

                “No, not him, the other man strapped into the chair.  The other one was definitely Laurent, but I don’t know who the man in the chair is.  I figured since the message was sent to you that you would know him.”  Talia was looking at him now for the information she knew he had but had not given her.

                Tanner took a breath; he was going to tell her what Duke had been up to.  It would not sit well with her, but she needed to know everything so that they could get Duke away from that monster and stop this nightmare from continuing.  “That is my buddy Duke, the one who found out where Laurent was staying.”

                “Okay, then I just have one more question.  What the hell is he doing strapped to a chair in Laurent’s “Art” room.”  Talia used air quotes around the word art.  Tanner figured it had something to do with what had happened to her and he would ask her one day when she was ready to talk, right now he was trying to find some kind of explanation that would not stoke the fury that he saw raging in her eyes at the moment.

                “He was supposed to be doing some discrete surveillance so that we could have our date without feeling like we were getting behind on anything.”  Tanner winced as he saw her purse her lips getting ready to let him have it for going behind her again and trying to get to Laurent.  Before she could get a word out he was giving her all the details about how Duke was just supposed to survey and not get close or be seen. 

                “Well, epic fail on that one don’t you think?”  Talia was standing with a look of anger on her face, her arms crossed over her middle.  “Well, it doesn’t matter now; you and I will deal with this later.  For now we have to get your buddy back while he is still in one piece.  Trust me; the longer you spend down there with Laurent, the more of you gets whittled away.”  The haunted look in her eyes only served to push the urgency in Tanner’s chest.  He knew how terrified she had looked a moment ago.  Duke and Tanner had seen so many things when they were enlisted together, but he had a feeling that Laurent had a line on a whole new brand of horror.

                Tanner and Talia had gone back to the cabin, dust flying behind them on the narrow road as they broke every posted speed sign on their short journey.  They needed to get everything they had about Laurent and try to figure the best way in to get Duke out without costing them any of their own people.  They didn’t know if it would work, but it was the only plan part they had agreed on so far.  Talia was insistent that they go right now while Tanner knew that if they rushed in right away they would be walking into a definite trap.  They needed to take a second to gear up and look at their entrance options, this way they could make sure that everything went smoothly.  Well, as smooth as possible anyway.  If Tanner knew one thing, it was that the times you need everything to run smoothly the most are the moments when fate would shine down on you laughing at your foolish presumptions.

                Now they had a battle plan in place and gear to back them up.  Tanner crossed his fingers and kissed his lucky coin while Talia looked at him like he had lost his bag of marbles.  He knew that to her it would look silly, but it was something he did on every mission he had ever been on and as far as he was concerned, if it isn’t broke don’t f**k with it.  He tucked his lucky coin into his right boot and his switch blade into his left one.  Looking up at Talia and seeing that all her gear was in place and she was placing the duffel of weapons on the counter, he gave her a small smile, letting out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding when she returned it back to him.

                Tanner silently thought, “Hold on Duke, we’re coming.”  Now if only his friend could hear him, maybe it would give him the strength he needed to hold on.  Hopefully this time things would go smoothly and Fate wouldn’t be so fickle, maybe.