The door clanks open, and there she is in all her trussed glory: black hair pulled back into a barely-there ponytail, a skeletal body inside an orange jumpsuit, an inmate number stamped on the pocket. Wrists handcuffed together, hands limp in front of her. Roseanne can barely muster a sneer, as her trepidation plays out chaotically in her eyes. She looks at him strangely, like she's surprised he's actually there...like she'd seen him coming, but hadn't really been expecting him. He likes that.
"The hell do YOU want?" she grumbles.
Todd rakes his eyes up and down her figure and grins. "Is that any way to greet me, your only 'brother-in-law?' Your 'friend?'"
"Oh, fuck you, you sick bastard," she fires back, then she screams out to the guards. "This sonofabitch isn't my brother-in-law!! Arrest him!!"
"Shut up, Delgado...and siddown," one of the monotone guards responds.
Todd chuckles, "Oh, they SO respect you."
With a disgusted sigh, she plops into the hard chair across from him and hisses, "What do you want?"
"I want to know where Tea is."
She laughs uproariously, finally settling in and staring at him straight on. "Awww, what's the matter, Bo Beep? Lost your SHEEP?"
"Something like that. I think you know where she is...and I want you to tell me."
He watches her lips rub together, a reddish tip of a serpentine tongue wetting them. Then, words slip out, venom spraying towards him. "Mmmm...well, do the words, 'cold day in hell' mean anything to you?"
The air about them suddenly calms...a hesitation similar to the seconds before a rocky tide washes out to sea in a rush of speed. The guards poise themselves to shoot...they are stilled though - time holds them back against the walls, an unseen force pinning them in place. Nothing moves, no sounds intrude from the outside, no sounds from inside. Todd has reached across the table, feet planted firmly on the ground, energy balled up tight - one of his hands has gotten hold of a chunk of Roseanne's hair, the ponytail unraveling. The other hand grips the front of her jumpsuit, pulling it, clenching it into his tightening fist. It's as if a string has been strung right through her, and her chest juts forward, she a fish caught by a hunter.
Roseanne glares back at him, but it's only a show of fury...because behind the fire lurks fear. Todd growls, close, so close to her, "Not so tough now, huh? Cemetery lover of mine."
Her eyes wander to the side, and she sees the frozen men - there's no one to help her. Oba is far, far away now, ill from something...something big, hidden...sicker than anyone can say. She probably doesn't even know about this meeting. The guards…why don't they come, why don't they stop him? She can feel his body, she can feel the radiating energy, the power...almost electrical. And her eyes widen slightly, realizing that he's the one who's stopped the guards, whether he knows it or not. They can't see her, they can't move...and neither can she.
"Talk to me...talk to me..." he says.
"A dream...it was a dream you had," she sputters.
"Nah---ain't no dream."
"You're making more out of this than there really is," she replies, calmly, trying to refocus.
"Stop dancing, you voodoo BITCH!! TALK!!!!"
"You're powerless against me."
"You think so?"
She then notices the bite mark on his neck, and realizes that she had done that to him...and she can remember the taste of his skin, the smell of whiskey on his breath, everywhere. "You're NOTHING in comparison to me," she says, new triumph lacing her words.
But something comes to him...and his eyes brighten even more, throwing her off again. He yanks her closer to him, yanks her hard and she grunts - pain maybe. He then asks, smooth as syrup dripping over her body, "Yeah? Where's my bite on YOU?? Hmm?"
"NOWHERE...you motherfucker," she hisses back.
"Oh, come on, tell me, tell me where I bit you ... here? On your neck?" he purrs, kissing her neck, no...it's more like nibbling. He chuckles as he does it, because he can hear her tortured groan...because she can't fight him. "Or is it HERE?" He's at the base of her throat now, vibrating with her animal-like groan...her head is forced backwards, and he licks her skin.
"Come on...come, little lamb...come to Mary...my little, little lamb," he teases, readjusting his hold on her as he drags her up onto the table. She lies flat, shivering like a fish...a fish, flopping about as the hunter's about to gut it. She starts to scream, her body shaking with building fury.
"Ooooh...she's so MAD," he sighs, as he straddles her on the table now, pulling at her jumpsuit, searching her for the markings he knows he left on her. He finally finds it, black-and-blue teeth marks on her shoulder...and he pops up, his eyes blazing, he laughing, "I was there...oh yeah...I was on you, my sweet, spirited mate!"
"Get OFF me...you fuckin' BASTARD!!" she yells, and suddenly, the room sizzles with a new energy...and Todd looks around him, his eyes quick and aware. The windows begin to rattle and Roseanne sits up, moving now, able to fight now. They are face to face, he on his knees, one knee pressing down on each side of her.
"You're an impotent, worthless, NOTHING of a human," she says, between bit-down teeth, "YOU...are refuse...leftover shit."
He smirks slightly at her, stunned in truth. He tries to answer, but nothing comes out. He wants to push her back down, rip into her, make her pay...hurt her. But he can't seem to make it happen. A strangely warm wind picks up around them suddenly, swirling...distorting space...the sound of chimes in the wind catch his attention and he, animal-like too, looks about again, for the maker of the sounds. Then he looks back at Roseanne, whose big eyes are closed...as if she's meditating...
"Sand beneath your boots, your coat flaps in wild wind." Roseanne is talking to him, it seems, and he's mesmerized by her words, he hangs on to them...waiting, waiting. The windows continue to shake, as if a storm pounds at them, threatening to smash them into a million pieces, an unstoppable rain of glass about to happen.
"Listen, my sweet, listen to their songs of sadness...tears on their faces, the new tears of babies...shhhhh...don't be scared of the man who approaches them. He can only offer peace and the light of heaven."
Todd's eyes mist over, and he watches her lips, so pretty...so pretty as they part and sing to him. He reaches for them and she delicately backs away, eyes open now, getting out from underneath him. He falls back onto his haunches, paralyzed by her power...her endless power.
"Can you see yourself, my lover? Can you see how you tower over the children in their cradles?"
"Yes," he whispers, because he can see himself, he can see himself vividly. He can see his long, untamed hair, he can see the raincoat protecting him against that wind on the beach, and he can see the palm trees whipping about. And then...above all, he can see Brendan and Evan in their cradles...the cradles roll back and forth, and the precious boys are crying...oh they're crying.
"You want to pick them up, don't you?"
"Yes...I can help them."
"Oh yes...of course you can...you will help them. You will pick them up..." She smiles, grinning at him...the sounds of the room keep getting louder, and louder. Todd covers his ears because they hurt and he can see more now...
"You're picking them up, my lover, with your powerful hands...powerful hands, closing around their throats, my lover..." Her voice has changed, now...and Todd can see it all so clearly, can see himself jerking the little ones up by their throats and they dangle so loosely, so dangerously.
"No..." he groans and can't breathe. "Stop..." he gasps.
"Ohhhh...NOW look who's so tough...my sugary pet...my little lamb."
He tries to look at her, tries to gather his strength except it's like being trapped in tar...his feet can't move, his arms are stiff, tied down. He can only gaze at her, trying...trying so hard to get to her.
"You're killing them, Todd..." she continues, "...right in front of Tea. Imagine that...your wife...your beautiful wife...is watching you kill her very own children. Do you see now what she's been seeing all along? She had to run from you...because she knows what you're capable of. You and I...we fuck in the mausoleum because *I*...am NOT afraid of you...because *I* can cripple you - I enjoy crippling you. I am SO much more than you...you little...piece...of...shit."
At that, Todd manages to break loose from his hypnotic daze and he pushes her off the table - shoving her hard to the ground. He scrambles to his feet, intent on doing what he has to do to shut her up, to shut her poison mouth...to punish her for hurting Tea because it's obvious now, why Tea ran. Tea saw him kill her boys, a picture planted in her mind by Roseanne...and she saw him so angry with Starr...which only made the image more real.
But a light zips through the room just then, lightning really...and it halts his advance on Roseanne. They both freeze - waiting ... waiting...because it's so loud in the room now, the windows, the walls, everything is screaming, wailing...and then a blast of thunder explodes along with glass. The thick windows burst apart at last, and rain down on top of everyone.
They all dive for cover, protecting themselves - the guards, Roseanne, and Todd...they all cower under the tables until the sounds of sprinkling glass slows...and stops. Within seconds, Todd finds himself pushed down on his stomach, being handcuffed, his face shoved against the glass bits on the floor. Another large guard jerks Roseanne to her feet, hauling her bony butt up with one hand. Roseanne shakes the glass out of her hair, her eyes drawn to the blown-out windows, as the real rain pours in now, scattering on the wind. It starts to rain, right there inside the room.
Roseanne just stares...blinking, as the raindrops spit and spatter on her face, getting in her eyes. She sucks her lips in, tasting it...tasting the rain...but...something about it isn't right, like...it doesn't belong there. It's not the clean-tasting rain of the country hills where they are...
...it's a dirty, metallic-tasting rain...city rain...
She turns her eyes to Todd, who's across the room now. They stare each other down again, then slowly, a knowing grin spreads over Roseanne's face, as she blinks the rain out of her eyes. Todd watches her with a strange look, he too, blinking the rain out of his face. She knows something...goddammit, I KNEW IT...she DOES KNOW, that fuckin' bitch…
Roseanne starts giggling at him...then laughing, out of control as Todd strains against the guards holding him back.
"Oh, baby..." she taunts, from across the room. "...don't you know? She's with HIM!! She's with Dean Shelton, my pet!! And it'll be a cold day in hell when YOU'LL be able to stop them from loving each other..." she yells, as the guards start to drag her out of the room.
"...open as sunlight on sand, baby!! And bright as blood!! He'll be fucking her...RIGHT IN YOUR FACE, ASSHOLE!!" Her voice disappears into the depths of the prison.
"C'mon!! Get the fuck up!" someone yells, and Todd is jerked to his feet. The same guard spits, "What the hell do you think this IS??"
"Huh?" Todd asks, confused. Not sure what he's done...what the guards saw...or what HE saw.
"I told you no touching - and there you were, grabbing for her...idiot. You're lucky that storm came - I dunno WHAT you thought you were going to get away with," he grumbles as he grabs Todd, and they walk out, down the hall. Todd drops his head down, and...
...Dean...Dean Shelton...oh my god, oh my god... is all he can think.
