Page 25 of Sage

Hans looked at his phone, feeling relief as soon as he saw Marcy’s name come up on the screen.

“Marcy, is everything alright?” Hans felt panicked.

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” Marcy’s response was quick. “Did you get any info from Charles?”

Hans was quiet. Apparently she hadn’t listened to his voicemail yet, so he explained everything to her in detail, making sure not to miss a single detail.

“S… Great, he knows I’m here. He’s going to figure it all out.”

“I think we need to add a step to our plan.” Hans encouraged Marcy to rent a car from the next town over so that she could dodge Charles’ attempts at staying hot on her trail.

A few hours later, Marcy picked Hans up from his apartment in her rental and they stopped to pick up a couple of pizzas for their evening together with Sage. Even though Hans still had a feeling deep in his gut that something was still awry.

As they started to pull up to Marco’s, Hans and Marcy took note of a car that was sitting in the driveway.

Charles.

Panic set in.

Where was he?

Marcy slowly drove towards the driveway, if nothing else but to just drive past to get a handle on the situation. As they crept up on the house, Hans realized that no one was in Charles’ car. The front door, however, was wide open.

“Shit, Marcy. We need to go,” Hans demanded. Marcy stopped the car in front of the house and they quickly game-planned how they were going to handle things, promising each other that no matter what happened they were going to stick together. Hans went first, slowly pacing himself as they made their way up the drive with the intent on listening to see if they could hear any movement or struggles.

As he got closer to the door, he could hear Sage sobbing.

“I’m so sorry,” she was crying. “I didn’t mean to.” Hans’ heart sank, hearing how scared she sounded, afraid of the scene that was playing beyond the frame of the front door. Sage just kept crying and repeating how sorry she was.

That was it though. There was no response. No sounds of anyone threatening her, or any noises coming from a second party that should be in the house with her.

Hans put his finger up to his lips, encouraging Marcy to remain quiet and calm, before he waved at her to follow himinside. Cautiously they entered the house, unsure of what they were about to bear witness to.

Inside, Hans could see feet sticking out from around the corner and a feeling of relief came over him. He didn’t know the extent of what had happened, but he did know that there was no movement coming from Charles.

Hans and Marcy quickly walked inside and as they came around into the kitchen, Charles’ body was lying there, lifeless in a pool of blood. Sage knelt next to his body, appearing to have bathed in the blood like she had just performed a ritual sacrifice.

“Oh!” Sage shouted. “You scared me!” Tears had left streaks down her blood-covered face. “I didn’t mean-”

Marcy ran back to shut the front door, wanting to place a barricade between them and anyone else who may show up. Hans took his place to the left of Sage while Marcy returned to her right side, both of them hushing her cries.

“Sage. Sage, it’s okay,” Hans assured her. He pulled her in close, not caring that soon he was also going to be covered in the blood of his enemy. “We’ve got you.”

Sage nuzzled into Hans’ chest, her breaths slowing as she began to calm down. Marcy reached over and ran her fingers through Sage’s blood-soaked hair. Hans and Marcy looked at each other then to the scene in front of them, noticing that Charles had endured multiple stab wounds to his face and body.

“Wow, you sure do go all out, don’t you?” Hans attempted to break the silence and provide some comedic relief.

Sage glared up at him, just as Marcy smacked him on the back of his head. “Really? You choose now to crack jokes?” Sage rolled her eyes and looked back down to the scene in front of her. “What are we going to do now?”

“Don’t worry,” Marcy assured her. “We’ve got this part covered.”

???

While Hans and Marcy were out disposing of the body, Sage gathered enough strength to take a shower, rinsing the memories of Charles off her body and down the drain.

“Did you really think you could hide from me?” a loud, angry voice called out as the front door to Marco’s home burst open. Within seconds the intruder was on top of her.

“Charles! What are you doing?” Sage struggled beneath him, in shock and trying to determine what the hell had just happened. Where were Marcy and Hans?

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