LOMAN HOME

Detective Joel Kincaid parked his car outside the Loman house and climbed outside, where he found the front door wide open. Joel approached the house with a stern look on his face, wondering what it was that his brother wanted from him.

"Duncan, this had better be goddamn good," Joel muttered.

Once he reached the door, Joel found that it had been kicked in. If anything came out of this, Joel could assume his brother was breaking and entering and arrest him for that. It was the little things that counted.

As Joel entered the house, he found Duncan sitting on the couch with his face in his hands. Duncan was babbling to himself and looking about as crazed as he had been when Joel confronted him at the library.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Kelly was here," Duncan said. "She was lying on the couch, and she was…she was bleeding."

"Did you just…what the fuck is wrong with you?" Joel demanded. "We are not talking about my wife, Duncan. Is that why you called me here?"

"Yes," Duncan said. "Look, I was here looking for evidence to prove that I didn't kill Kelly."

"I told you to leave this alone, Duncan," Joel said.

"I think the guy who lived here killed her!" Duncan cried. "If you would just let me explain, then I could."

"No!" Joel shouted. "No, Duncan. I am not going to sit here and listen to you talk about my wife."

"Ex-wife," Duncan corrected, rising to his feet. "She's rather deceased."

"You son a bitch," Joel said, shoving Duncan. "Why did you bring me here? To talk about this goddamn serial rapist you want to blame for Kelly's murder? Why can't you just admit that it was you, and the court system let you go anyway?"

"I'm not a rapist, Joel," Duncan snapped. "Stop being irrational."

"I'll show you irrational," Joel said, balling his hand into a fist. "Stay the hell out of my life, Duncan!"

The photographer standing outside the house watched as Joel swung and punched Duncan in the face, knocking him unconscious. Duncan slipped and fell onto the floor, while Joel nursed his fist with his free hand.

The photographer smiled. "Just how I remember."



MADDOCK HOME

Valerie Hanley-Holden released her grip on her purse and prepared to remove the envelope she had stashed away with the evidence on Melissa Maddock's past, when Felicia Bale stumbled through the front door. She was walking on her crutches, but just barely.

"Am I the only person who didn't know about the party at my own house?" Melissa demanded. "And Felicia…have you been drinking?"

Felicia ignored Melissa's comment and started toward Valerie, barely able to stand. "I came as soon as I could."

"You're just in time," Valerie said, not even noticing the strong smell of vodka that surrounded Felicia. "This is the moment we've all been waiting for."

"What are you talking about?" Melissa asked, becoming increasingly irritated with Valerie. "And why is Felicia here?"

"She's here to watch me destroy your life like you destroyed hers," Melissa said, turning to Felicia. "Isn't that right, Felicia?"

"Yes…that's…that's right," Felicia managed to utter, moving toward the living room so she could take a seat on the couch.

Valerie grinned and closed the front door before removing her purse from her arm and opening it. She reached into the purse, removing an envelope. "Tell me, Melissa. How good does it feel to hurt someone who's done nothing to you? Do you get off on it?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Melissa snapped.

"Shut up, you bitch," Felicia interjected. "Valerie, hurry up and show me whatever it is you have on…on…"

"Melissa?"

"I know your name," Felicia insisted.

Melissa rolled her eyes and started toward Felicia. "You can barely stand, Felicia. I don't think you should be driving either, in your state."

"It's a fine time for you to worry about her now," Valerie said.

"Shut up, Valerie," Melissa said. "Don't you see that she's drunk? And she was driving? Felicia could get in another accident and die this time."

"Just like when she caught you banging her husband?" Valerie demanded.

"That's enough!" Melissa shouted. "Get the hell out of my house!"

"I'm not going…not going…anywhere," Felicia moaned, as she collapsed onto the couch.

Melissa sighed and hurried to Felicia's side to see if she was still breathing. Valerie, on the other hand, was only concerned with the contents of the envelope she was carrying — and she wasn't going to be leaving Melissa's house until she showed her every single photograph.



ABANDONED CHURCH

Discourse tossed Vincent Moore into the back of the church, sending him flying across a row of seats. Vince landed on his back near the church's entrance, just as Alec Bale stepped around the corner. He quickly ducked out of view, as not to be noticed by Vince or anyone else.

"What the hell is going on?" Alec wondered.

Discourse continued walking toward Vince, his eyes glowing a bright red color as he prepared to rip Vince apart and see if the secrets he wanted to uncover were inside him. But as Discourse approached him, Vince suddenly began to feel different. His own eyes were beginning to glow.

He was no longer in the heart of Discourse's lair…Vince was closer to his own world. Vince's face curled into a smile as the knife from Ronarr's lair materialized next to his arm. Discourse had just unwittingly made this a fair fight.

Vince used his mind to slice the ropes binding his hands and feet together. Once he was free, Vince reached for the knife and stood up, slashing it at Discourse's neck. Slicing open his flesh, Vince laughed as he saw what happened.

"Tear him open," Vince whispered, echoing a voice that he heard in his mind.

Vince used his free hand and shoved it into Discourse's stomach, tearing through his skin and grasping at his innards. Vince moved his hand higher and grabbed Discourse's heart. Once he had his fingers around it, Vince pulled the heart out and shoved it into his mouth.

From where he was watching, Alec covered his own mouth to keep from throwing up. Discourse cried out and fell to the ground lifeless, as the voices in Vince's head grew louder. He picked up his knife and walked down the church's aisle, feeling a burst of energy running through him.

Vince bent over and released Blake from his restraints and flashed a smile at him. "You ready?"

"Ready for what?" Blake demanded, unsure what was going on since he hadn't seen what transpired between Discourse and Vince.

"To kill them," Vince replied. "To kill every single one of them."

"What's going on out there?" Julia demanded, rising from her seat in the room Tanya and Vanessa had her locked in.

"Nothing for you to worry about," Tanya insisted. "Your friends are merely being —"

Before Tanya could finish, the door to the room burst open and Vince appeared in the doorway. Vince stepped inside the room and grabbed Marcia by her arm, pulling her close to him. He kissed her on the lips before stabbing her through the heart with the knife he was carrying.

Julia and Tanya both screamed in terror, though for different reasons. Julia, forgetting what Vince had been wearing for a moment, assumed that it was Discourse exacting anger on his followers, which currently included her. Tanya, on the other hand, knew that it was Vince and also feared for her life.

Tanya didn't have a chance to react, though, once Vince slit her throat and slammed her body into a nearby wall. Vince grabbed Julia around her neck and leaned in closer to her. As he stared her down, Vince frowned. "Are you with me?"

"Vince?" Julia asked.

"Of course it's Vince. Are you with me or not?"

"I…I always was," Julia said.

"Good answer," Vince said. "Let's get out of here."

Alec rushed down the aisle to where Blake was standing, and took his arm to lead him away from the direction Vince had headed in. He stopped near the destroyed pulpit and tried to find out what was happening.

"Is Vince…is he nuts?" Alec demanded.

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"He just ripped out someone's heart!" Alec cried. "That's not normal!"

"Look, whatever happened, he's on our side," Blake said. "He's trying to…for lack of a better phrase, save the world."

"One heart at a time?"

Blake tried responding, but he and Alec were soon met by Marcia and Alistair approaching them. Blake took a deep breath and turned back to Alec.

"Let's hope Vince gets back in here soon," Blake said.



MADDOCK HOME

"Thank God, she's still breathing," Melissa said, checking Felicia's pulse. "I need to call her an ambulance, just to be sure."

"Stop being so worried about Felicia," Valerie said. "She's fine. She's a survivor."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Melissa demanded. "She's unconscious! She could have alcohol poisoning, for God's sake."

"And you'd love that, wouldn't you?" Valerie asked. "Just love to finally kill off your competition."

"Felicia isn't my competition," Melissa insisted. "He and I are very happy together. So much that we're having a child together."

Valerie smirked. "Oh, so that's how you roped him in."

"You're disgusting, Valerie," Melissa said. "I think it's about time you started acting like an adult, instead of a teenager. You have your own family to worry about, and a son at home. Stay out of my business."

"I'm sorry, I can't do that," Valerie said. "Not with what I know."

"And what is it that you know?"

"I know everything," Valerie said, opening the envelope she had in her hands. "I know everything about your past as a…lady of the night."

Melissa didn't respond.

"Is that all it takes to shut you up, then?" Valerie asked. "Then I wonder…how will you react to this?"

Valerie removed one of the photographs from the envelope and showed it to Melissa. It was from Melissa's past a prostitute, and featured her having sex with one of her clients. Melissa cried out and stumbled back, falling onto the couch next to Felicia.

"How did you…how did you get those?" Melissa demanded weakly.

"Surprise," Valerie said. "Your life is over."



EMERALD PARK

Kelli Anderson returned to the park where Chris Server and Ricard Branch were seated on a bench, discussing something that probably had to do with drugs. She had intended to search for Blake Thomas, her best friend and Chris's boyfriend, but she was unable to find him.

Kelli opened the door to Blake Thomas's former house when she found that it was unlocked. Which lead Kelli to wonder why no one had stolen anything from the house or even bothered to enter since he moved out, since the door wasn't locked, but Kelli assumed that Blake might be inside since it was the anniversary of his brother, Michael Thomas's, death.

"Blake!" Kelli cried out. "It's Kelli! I need to talk to you about Chris!"

When she heard no response, Kelli reached into her jacket pocket for her cell phone and tried dialing Blake's number. He still wasn't answering his cell phone, however, just as he hadn't been answering the phone at Kelli's house where she was staying.

"This is ridiculous," Kelli said. "I can talk to Chris about this myself."

Kelli started toward the door.

"I'm going to get to the bottom of this with or without Blake," Kelli decided.

As Kelli focused on what Chris and Ric were doing, they both stood up and started heading in the opposite direction. Groaning, Kelli hurried to follow them. She wasn't going to let Chris get away without finding out what he was doing and stopping him before he got himself into trouble.



ABANDONED CHURCH

Vince quickly disposed of Alistair and Marcia by slitting their throats. Soon after, it wasn't only Alec who noticed Vince's animalistic nature of slaughtering his enemies. Even so, Alec was the only one who didn't understand the context of the situation.

"Will someone tell me what's going on?" Alec demanded.

"They're evil, so I killed them," Vince said.

"But you can't go around killing people!" Alec cried. "It's —"

"No, they weren't human," Julia said. "I don't think…Vince, that was kind of brutal."

"And why is there some guy who looks like you dead on the floor?" Alec continued.

"We'll explain everything once we get out of here," Vince said, calming down. "Trust me. What are you even doing here?"

"I followed you…or someone who looks like you," Alec said. "He was...I tried apologizing to you about Jessica. I wanted us to start over."

"Oh man, really?" Vince asked. "Because I wanted to do the same."

"How sweet," Blake said. "Can we get going? Before someone else tries to come and kill us?"

"Alright, let's all get out of —" Vince was cut short as the ground began to shake, almost as if the church had just been struck by an earthquake. He cried out as he was knocked to the ground and pieces of the building began to fall from the ceiling and crash onto the ground. "Everyone out of here! Now!"