Marie (Teumessian Trilogy Book 1) (9 page)

Chapter 13

Marie found a rundown motel at the edge of town. It was in rough shape, and looked like no work had been done on it since the 1970s. She walked into the motel office, and found a man at the counter watching an old box TV on the desk. She heard the door ding as she walked in. He didn’t even look up from the television.

“Welcome to Heavenly Motel, how can I help you?” He said in a brash depressed tone.

“I need a room.” Marie replied.

The man reached onto the desk grabbed a set of keys and a clip board. He placed both on the counter. “Sign in,” he said still not looking up from his television. Marie signed in as ‘Mary Stanley’ and grabbed the key. It had 6F on the tag.

“I take it I am in room 6F?” Marie asked

“You’re quick” the man replied still not looking up from his television.

Marie didn’t even bother to ask if that was a room on the ground or second floor. Marie gripped the keys and walked out. She found room 6F on the second floor. The motel had no sense of its numbering system. Her room was next to 9J. At least all the doors were outside so it wasn’t too hard to find. She just had to wander around the two levels connected by a metal set of stairs until she had found it. The motel appeared pretty empty. It looked like most of the rooms were vacant, and there were only two cars in the parking lot. She figured she was pretty safe there at least for the night. She put the key in the lock and turned it. She opened the door and found exactly what she expected, the motel basics, a double bed with a hideous floral duvet, a large box television anchored to a wooden dresser drawers with half the drawers missing. The carpet was an ugly green shag and had stains from, well, she didn’t even want to guess. Marie walked in and instantly took off the nasty hoodie and tossed it into the open door to the bathroom, its smell was on her and it was making her sick. She stood in front of the large TV. She could see her reflection in it. She instantly turned the TV on as she didn’t want to look at herself. She wasn’t even paying attention to what was on the TV she just needed to have some noise to keep her mind busy. She put her backpack down on the dresser and opened it up. She took out the box of hair dye. She opened it up and instantly began mixing it up in the bottle with it. Once she had shook it up she walked into the bathroom. It was all white, no clean white but it was probably supposed to be white. The pedestal sink had a large oval mirror above it. She stood in front of it and took her hair out of its pony tail. It had gotten quite long, Michael liked it long so she always kept it that way. She just kept glancing at the beautiful blonde hair Michael loved so much. He was gone and so should it she said to herself. She went back out to the bedroom and grabbed one of her knives walked back into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror, she grabbed her hair put it back up in the pony tail and chopped the pony tail off. The long bundle of blonde hair fell to the floor, the remainder of the hair fell flat to her head. She felt her body growing weaker. She picked up the bottle of hair dye and she began to apply it to her hair, she was not focused she had no idea how much or where she was putting it she was just making sure she got all of it. Once it was all applied she was struggling to stand, she put the lid down on the off white toilet and sat on it just staring at the floor she couldn’t bring herself to look in the mirror or anywhere else for that matter. Finally the hair dye started to burn, she figured she had it on long enough. She unzipped the boots and removed them then she stood up unlaced her top and unzipped her leather pants, she dropped them to the floor. She reached into the shower, there was no shower curtain or door just a tub with a shower head. She turned the water on and stood there just staring at it as it ran from the shower head, as the steam started to rise she knew it was warm enough. She stepped in but her strength was failing. She instantly fell, sitting in this filthy shower and it didn’t both her. She just sat there holding her knees to her chest as the water ran over her body. The hair dye was running down her face and by now it was mixing with her tears as they were running down her cheeks. She glanced at her hands and saw it. She hadn’t looked at it once since she lost them but there it was staring back at her, her wedding ring, that beautiful gold band with that sweet little round diamond that Michael had given her the day they were married, the day he promised to love and protect her forever. Marie was shaking. It was all real. He was gone. James was gone. And she was alone. Her pain turned to rage and she began punching the grey tiled wall of the shower, over and over until the little diamond fell from the ring into the tub, she let it run down the drain. She just wept now blood from her hand mixed with the last bits of hair dye running from her hair. She just stared at the deformed ring and her bloodied knuckles, she would make them all pay for what they did, they would all die for this. A calm started to come over her, her strength was coming back. She stood up and turned the shower off. On the wall was a brown bath robe, she had no idea if it had been cleaned in the last century, but she didn’t care. She grabbed it off the wall and put it on. She stepped out of the tub and over the leather outfit still on the floor and walked into the bedroom and sat cross legged on the bed and just held her head in her hands. She noticed that her hand wasn’t as badly hurt as she had thought there were only a couple small cuts. It had looked much worse in the shower. The ten o’clock news had come on the television she had left on.

The news reporter finally caught her attention when he announced, “Man found dead in alley behind his home.”

Marie looked up, well they found him fast, she thought to herself.

The news reporter continued, “And inside his home they found the bodies of his two step-sons, both shot in the head.”

Marie felt her heart drop. She left them alive. She knew it. She would have never hurt two innocent children. How could this have happened? She looked closer to the TV and she saw it. The news reporter was live on scene and in the background she could see him, Kenneth, in a police uniform and all. They had tracked her or at least he had. They must have found her clothing and killed the boys since they didn’t know where she was. Marie could feel rage overtaking her as she saw Kenneth’s goofy face. That worthless excuse was smiling. Marie instantly got up, dropped the robe, and grabbed the leather bound outfit off the floor and laced and zipped it up. She pulled the boots over her feet and zipped them up as well. She went to her backpack and got out her knives and their holster; she strapped the holster to her back and slid the knives into it. Her hair was still wet as the now brown hair hung curling up now that it was shorter. She knew where the police station was. She had passed it when she was looking for a place to stay. It was only a few blocks from there. Marie stormed out of the room slamming the door behind her; the 6F on the door falling as she slammed it shut.

Marie moved fast to the police station, maybe Kenneth was still there. She went to the back of the three story brick building and found the metal fire escape ladder. She climbed it to the top of the building. The roof had sky lights she started searching looking into the sky lights hoping to catch a glimpse of him or an easy way to access the building. She hit the jackpot on the third sky light. There he was, Kenneth, ugly as ever, celebrating with five other men in police uniforms.

“Gentlemen, thank you for your assistance and very soon you will all be rich men when we bring this bitch in.” Kenneth said to the group.

They let out a cheer as they were toasting with beer bottles. Marie felt sick. Those little boys let the police in because they should be able to trust the police to protect them and these sick men executed these children just for some money. Marie knew it was time to go to work. She took six paces back, pulled her knives from their holster and gave them a twirl. She cracked her neck and smiled, “I hope they don’t mind party crashers.” She said with a smile. Marie charged the sky light jumped and crashed through the sky light; glass went flying everywhere. The six men were shocked as they all took cover. Marie landed on the metal desk below the sky light. She quickly flipped off the table and planted her right knife in the back of one of the men who had ducked for cover from the glass. She assessed and saw the other four officers starting to get up. She moved fast stabbing the one to her left with her left knife by thrusting her knife in his gut. She holstered her right knife and pulled his pistol from its holster and fired it into the two officers now charging at her, firing their pistols. The last officer was now in her sights. He had an automatic rifle and began a barrage of bullets in her direction. She flipped a nearby metal table and dove behind it holstering her other knife and allowing him to continuously fire at her until he ran out of bullets.

“Is that all you got?!” She yelled, she heard him lock another magazine into the gun              

“Nope!” He yelled back and began to fire again.

Marie turned and began to push the table as she charged at him using the table as a shield. She got closer and lifted the table and smashed him with the table into the wall. His body slumped to the ground under the weight of the table. Marie started to search the room for Kenneth,

“Where are you, you worthless piece of shit?!” She yelled.

She searched under desks and behind chairs till she found him, dead on the floor a large piece of glass stuck from the top of his bald head. She stood over his dead body, pulled her right leg back and planted a kick to his head. She couldn’t just let him be dead without her getting a blow in on him. She looked around the room at the carnage but this time the feeling was different. She felt nothing. They deserved death and she just gave it to them. She felt almost satisfaction with what she did.

She retrieved the pistol clips from the dead officers and threw them into the blue duffle bag she found hanging on the coat hook by the door. She opened the large metal cabinet by the door and found four stacks of cash, all $20 dollar bills wrapped in sets of $1,000, ammunition, and several variations of rifles, shotguns, and grenades. Marie grabbed the four stacks of cash and placed them in the duffle bag along with the additional ammo clips and several grenades from the cabinet. Everything else was too big to carry in the bag so she left it. She had all the weapons she needed she thought to herself. She threw the bag over her shoulder and moved to the windows that lead to the back of the building. She opened one and climbed out and onto the ledge moving onto the fire escape. She then quickly made her way down it and into the night.

Chapter 14

‘The management’ was well aware of what Marie was up to. They had sent Kenneth after her when they found her handiwork at the house. She was priority number one. After they did not hear back from Kenneth after his update on finding the boys who aided her, the decision was made for Frederick and Samuel to go follow up. It was Frederick and Samuel who found her destruction at the police station.

“How is she capable of this?” Samuel asked Frederick as they entered the briefing room at the police station where she had killed six. “She was never like this, before she barely held her own in a fight, how is she taking out this many people with such strength and force?” Frederick just shook his head,

“We underestimated her, she has more potential then we imagined. You have to find her and return her.” Frederick ordered.

“Yes sir, do we have a lead on where she is going?”

“The last we heard she was spotted at the ‘Heavenly Motel’ at the edge of town. Start there.” Frederick ordered. “Don’t underestimate her like the others”

“It’s a good thing Sir didn’t have to see this.” Samuel replied,

Frederick nodded his head “Go find her and bring her back alive.” Samuel turned and left. Frederick stood up and looked around, “You have become quite a nasty girl haven’t you?” He said with a laugh.

Samuel went alone to the motel, he felt that he didn’t need any help, he could handle her on his own. He casually walked into the motel office. There at the desk was the same man who Marie had met earlier that day. He was still watching that box TV.

“Welcome to Heavenly Motel, how can I help you?” He said in that same brash depressed tone he had spoken to Marie with.

“I need to see your sign in log.” Samuel said in a calm but stern manner.

“Why?” the man replied, still not looking up from his TV.

Samuel became agitated, but calmed himself, “A friend of mine is staying here and I want to surprise her and I don’t know her room number.”

The man picked up the sign in clipboard and placed it on the counter, “If it’s that sweet piece of ass in room 6F, enjoy yourself.” The man said finally looked up from his TV to Samuel.

Samuel just smiled, “Oh I will. Where is 6F?”

“Upstairs forth room down from the stairs.”

‘Thank you, you have been most helpful.” Samuel replied as he walked out of the door.

Samuel assessed the exterior of the hotel and visually located room 6F from the ground floor. He determined that there was in fact a person in room 6F, he could see a shadow in the window. He made his way to the stairs and casually moved up them. He didn’t want to raise outside alarm by charging the room. As he approached the door, he saw that the 6F had fallen from the door and lay on the ground next to it. He could hear noise in the room but couldn’t make out that it was in fact her. She wasn’t expecting him; however, he thought to himself, surprise could work to his advantage. They keep saying that she can heal, at what rate they didn’t know, but Samuel figured a few slices with his sword wouldn’t kill her but defiantly disarm her and make it possible for him to capture her. He pulled his sword from its holster on his back; he thought it funny the idiot at the front desk never even asked about it. Samuel readied himself in front of the door and kicked the door, breaking the weak door’s lock and causing it to fly open. The room was empty, the only light from the TV lit the room. Samuel cautiously entered. He knew she was there somewhere or at least someone was. If it wasn’t her it didn’t matter he couldn’t leave a witness. He slowly made his way around the room. The bathroom door was shut. She must be in there, he thought to himself. He slowly began to walk past the bed when suddenly he felt a horrible stabbing pain in his foot, he looked down to see one of her knives sticking from the top of his right foot. From under the bed, Marie grabbed the back of his right leg and pulled herself up knocking him forward onto the floor. Samuel tried to regain his composure and swung his sword at her, but he missed. She rolled away and was now standing up in front of him, knives in hand. Blood was running from his foot as he struggled to his feet.

“So now you’re good at this?” Samuel said to her.

Marie said nothing she just stared at him.

“You know this only ends one way. You come back. Even if you kill me, they will send more and you can’t win forever. Save yourself the aggravation and come back with me.” Samuel was always the practical one but this time he wasn’t going to win. Marie just continued to stare at him. “Do you not speak now?” Samuel questioned but it was only agitating Marie.

“You’re bleeding out so I suggest you kill me before you do.” Marie replied with a smile on her face.              

“With pleasure,” Samuel said as he swung his sword at her. She blocked the attack with the knives, flipped, grabbing his neck with her ankles and slamming him to the ground. She had dropped her knives and had her hands on his left arm trying to wrestle his grip from his sword. She was able to get hold of his sword and now stood in front of him holding his sword in her left hand, as she kicked her knives away from him.

‘To die by your own weapon, Sir would not be proud.”

Samuel was panting on the floor; he has lost a lot of blood and was growing weaker.

“I told you before and I will tell you again, this will not end well for you. No matter how many you kill, it will never end until they have you back!”

“Then it looks like they will all have to die.” Marie said as she swung the sword, decapitating Samuel. Marie stood over Samuel’s body and again she felt nothing. The thing that she struggled with the most, her attachments, were gone. His death meant nothing to her but to ensure her survival to another day. Marie knew she couldn’t stay there much longer so she grabbed her backpack and put everything into it. It was quite full and heavy but one bag was easier to transport than two. She strapped it onto her, turned off the TV and left, placing the door in place.              

As soon as she left the room, she turned to see four men coming up the stairs. She knew those outfits, they were guards from the facility.

“Shit!” she said and launched herself over the metal banister in front of her; she landed on the ground and began to run. The men were in pursuit, quickly moving down the staircase. They were firing their guns at her. She took cover behind a pillar by the motel office as bullets flew past her. She took the backpack off her back and loaded a gun and began firing back. She struck two of the guards, then she stopped firing. They had taken cover behind pillars as well. Suddenly she heard a sound she knew well. It was a grenade tapping the pavement. As it rolled towards her, she looked to the motel office and dove through its glass window just as the grenade went off. The explosion broke the remainder of the windows and shook the whole office. The man inside had been knocked to the floor. He looked dead. Marie shook her head trying to re-establish herself, assessed her surroundings and heard the remaining two men approaching. Unfortunately she had lost her gun in the commotion. She had no weapons, her backpack was somewhere in the office, she had been able to grab it before she dove through the window, but lost it once she fell through the window. She concealed herself under the debris of the front desk, got a grip on a large piece of wood in her right hand and steadied herself. The two men approached, guns drawn. She waited until they were almost right on top of her, then emerged from the pile and grabbed the guard to her left’s gun, aiming it towards the man to her right. She fired the gun into his chest, then struck the other guard with the wood in the back of the head knocking him to the ground. She took his gun and examined it, then threw it across the room. At that moment she spotted her backpack in the front corner of the room, walked over and picked it up. She got out one of her knives, walked back to the barely conscious guard, stood him up and pushed him against the wall. She gave him a swift upper cut kick to his genitals. He slumped to the ground moaning in pain, grabbing his crotch as tears of pain began to run down his face. Marie knew it was time to send her pursuers a message. She laid down on the floor next to him on her stomach and propped herself up on her forearms. She looked him directly in his face. He looked to her.                           

“Hi, we haven’t met but you were apparently here to ‘get me back’. Well, that’s not going to happen; however, I do need to keep you alive because I need you to take a message back to your bosses. Can you do that for me?”              

“Fuck you” he moaned back to her.

She took her knife and pointed it directly at his crotch.

“Now I can either leave your manhood for the most part in-tact and you verbally relay a message or I can cut it off feed it to you and pin a note to your chest, your choice.”

“Ok ok” he pleaded back.

“You tell your boss if he wants me back he can come and get me himself.” Marie said with a smile. The man continued to moan, “That’s a good boy” she said tapping him on the head. She stood herself up and brushed off the debris and placed her knife back in her backpack, zipped it up and strapped it back to her back and calmly walked out.      

Frederick arrived on the scene of the motel several hours later.

“Sir, we have a survivor this time,” Several guards were on scene and Frederick had just arrived on the scene of the motel. Frederick made his way to the guard Marie left alive who was now leaning against the wall,

“So I take it she got away?”

“Yes sir, I’m sorry” the guard replied his voice was coarse from the pain.

“And you’re alive, because?” Frederick asked, pulling his gun from its holster on his hip and pointing it at the guard’s face.

The guard threw up his hands, “She wanted me to tell you something.”

“And what is that?” Frederick took a step closer to the guard with his gun still drawn.

The guard took a deep breath, “You aren’t going to like it but she said if you want her you will have to come and get her yourself.”

Frederick’s face turned red with anger as he fired his gun hitting the guard directly between the eyes, his head falling back against the wall. “Clean this shit up” Frederick walked away, gun still drawn in his hand.

Frederick drove immediately back to the facility to bring an update to the rest of the ‘management’. The room was silent. They had lost three in a twenty four hour period, one of which was one of them.

“Do we actually need her alive?” Bruce asked with anger in his voice. Bruce had lost all compassion for Marie, she had cost him too much.

“Yes she has to be alive to be tested. I can’t complete the research without a pulse,” Jones nervously replied

“So I can put her in a comma and you can still get what you need?” Frederick asked with a grin.              

“Sounds good to me,” Bruce replied.

Jones took a gulp, “Yes but she has to be alive so we can see how the cells are re-generating and at what pace.”

“You know we would have some data if you hadn’t killed the only fucking person to witness her in action,” Henry yelled at Frederick.

“He died for his failure to capture her. I was not aware we were in the business of letting such failure exist in this company,” Frederick replied.

“Are you fucking kidding me? This whole dam program has been a failure and has cost us a god dam fortune and we have nothing to show for it but a bunch of dead fucking bodies,” Henry barked back.

“It has not been a failure. We have one success. We just have to get it back and when we do we can figure this out and more than make our money back. Now calm down Henry.” Ivan calmly reassured the group. “She apparently wants you, Frederick, so you should be the one to go after her. She may reveal herself in an effort to get your attention.”

“Agreed. How do you suggest I find her? I doubt she will go back to the motel.”

Jones raised his hand.

“Do you have something to add?” Frederick asked.

“Does she know Justin gave her and Michael up? If not, we could use him to get in touch with her.” Jones nervously replied.

“Look, someone with a fucking brain in this place.” Henry laughed.
              Jones nervously smiled

“Even if she knows he gave them up, we can still use him to get to her. He’s useless to us at this point. I’m pretty sure he is high on something all the time so it wouldn’t matter if she killed him and it would set her up perfectly for an ambush,” Ivan replied. “Bruce work with Frederick to set it up.”

“Gladly” Bruce replied.

“Then you are all dismissed.” Ivan replied

Justin had fallen apart after giving up Michael and Marie. He had no joy left. He had sunken deeper and deeper into depression and had found refuge in drugs, heroin to be more specific. The needles never bothered him since he had spent his whole childhood getting two injections a day. It was almost comforting to stick a needle in his arm. Getting them was easy for him, the management had been allowing him off the grounds more and more or they just weren’t paying any attention to him anymore. He was physically a mess and was not helpful in any way. He had a small haven in a run-down apartment in nearby Los Angeles where he would go to get high. It truly was a dump. All he had was a stain covered mattress and an old brown leather chair full of rips and tears. He didn’t need much, he only went there to escape physically and mentally from everything, even though he would spend days at a time in a drug induced daze.