“I can,” Wilbur agreed, puzzled by the question.
“Good. Please meet me at the guild hall in two days after your shift.” He offered his arm to Stacia, “I wish you both a good night,” They left the couple to their embrace, making their way to the front of the restaurant. Alburet asked about the bill, only to be told it had already been taken care of. “Remind me to thank your family later,” he told Stacia as they teleported to their home.
“Aye, Asthore, I will. Did ya wish to start by thankin’ me personally?” she asked as she unlocked the door, looking back over her shoulder at him with a playful grin.
Chuckling, Alburet followed her inside, “Now that sounds like a very good idea, my little fire kitten.”
Chapter Seven
When Seamus arrived at work that morning, he knew his coworkers would probably hate him for what was going to happen. He stepped out of his car and made sure his gear was in place. The bastard who’d hurt Kaylee should be appearing before the judge today. No one knew yet that he was connected to the victim, technically he should have informed his sergeant of that as soon as the inmate came into the facility. He entered the sally port and put his gun in the locker before entering the building. He kept his face carefully blank to make sure he didn’t give anything away.
“Hey, Seamus,” Tony called out to him. “Looks like an easy day, only one person for court. Quiet weekend, mostly. ‘Cept this one guy. Rape, assault with intent, assault with a deadly… and those are the minor charges. Sick fucker. Why do people do shit like this?”
Seamus felt his eyes tighten but his face stayed blank, “In that case, I’ll take court today. You can handle housing and deal with all of the inmates wanting to complain about petty shit.”
Tony rolled his eyes, “Fuck, knew I should have kept my mouth shut.”
“You never learn,” Sergeant Gray said as he came into the room. “Can’t blame Seamus for taking the easy duty when you just offer it up like that.”
“I’ll transport my weapon and be ready to get the inmate after breakfast,” Seamus added as he left the room.
“But, Sarge,” Tony said as Seamus left, “what about the rotation?”
“Seniority has its perks,” Gray laughed. “Head on down and get ready for wake up and breakfast.”
The next two hours went by in a daze. At one point, Gray even asked him if he was feeling okay. Seamus was able to play it off as just feeling a bit under the weather, maybe coming down with something. Finally, it was time. A few minutes before eight in the morning he went down to housing to shackle up the inmate, his hands twitching slightly as he considered attacking the man there. Tony was there when he arrived, though, and already had the inmate shackled and ready to move.
“Hey man, Sarge was saying you might take off after court today. You should have said you weren’t feeling well,” Tony said, motioning the inmate to follow the lines.
“Thank you, and sorry,” Seamus was able to say as the man who had hurt Kaylee walked past him. Turning to follow the shackled inmate, he said, “Follow the lines. Any deviation from the lines will be met with corrective force.”
The prisoner walked silently, taking the turns as Seamus directed him. They paused in the court sally for Seamus to retrieve his gun. In the small room where the guns were stored inside of locked boxes, there were no cameras. Seamus double checked that his weapon was loaded with non-standard rounds and ready for what he was about to do. He came back out of the room and resumed walking through the connecting hallway to the back of the court building. As they rounded the corner, Seamus stepped forward and firmly pinned the inmate’s ankle shackles under his boot.
The prisoner cried out as he fell to his knees hard. Seamus clamped down on the inmate’s shoulder, drawing his gun and leaning down to hiss at the inmate, “You thought you were going to see the judge today. But scum like you doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air that she did. You deserve so much worse than this for what you did to my daughter. When I see you again in hell I’ll kill you all over again, for eternity.” Seamus fired twice into the man’s head from point blank range, covering the hall with brains and blood.
His heart seemed like a dead lump inside his chest and his blood was ice. He clicked on the safety for the gun then set it down gently, before he laid down and cuffed his hands behind his back. He could hear frantic voices and the pounding of booted feet drawing near as the court bailiffs responded to the shots. The running stopped abruptly as the bailiffs turned the corner on the scene of carnage. One of them puked noisily, all over his own feet.
He ignored the questions directed at him until Sergeant Gray tried to ask him why he’d done it. He roused himself enough to answer simply, “Kaylee.”
~*~*~
Sitting bolt upright in bed, covered in sweat, Alburet’s whole body trembled as the emotions triggered by the memory crashed through him. Stacia’s arms were around him, holding him tightly to her and he was aware of her asking questions. His mind, though, was still locked into the scene of his nightmare and his replies were disjointed at best.
“MASTER!” Stacia screamed at him, and slapped him hard across the face.
Gasping, Alburet blinked as the world around him snapped into focus. Stacia was crying as she clung to him, begging him to be okay. He put his arms around her gently embracing her, his hand stroking her hair to soothe her even as he wondered what he had just experienced.
It was many minutes later before Stacia regained her composure enough to speak, “Master, what happened? Why did ya nay respond to me when ya woke from the nightmare? Are ya okay?”
Alburet took a few deep breaths before he replied, “I had a nightmare about a murder. I don’t know why I keep having them, but they haven’t stopped yet. I was stuck in my head thinking about what happened until you slapped me, Kitten. I don’t know if I’m okay. I think I need to speak with someone.”
“Ya nay leaving me are ya?” She asked and tightened her embrace.
“Not if I can help it, Kitten,” he told her and stroked her hair some more. “I don’t think getting back to sleep is likely now. Why don’t you go start breakfast for us, okay? I need to send a message to someone who might be able to answer some of my questions.”
“Ya will nay leave?” she asked again, pulling her head back to meet his eyes.
“I won’t leave. I never want to leave you, Kitten,” he told her as their eyes met. “Now go on. I’ll be along after I rinse the sweat off and get dressed.”
She kissed him hard as if to reassure herself before she got out of bed. She walked out of the room nude, not pausing to put clothes on. Alburet watched her go, but the memory of his nightmare floated still before his eyes. He got out of bed and grabbed his Mindstone, sending Vicky a message then going to the bathroom to rinse off and dress. He was dressed before the message icon started flashing at him.
Message from Victoria AI:
We’re looking into options to help with your nightmares. It is disturbing that they are beginning to invade your waking mind as well. For now, you are cleared to tell Stacia your full history. Only Stacia, and make sure she understands that she is not permitted to tell anyone else herself, to do so would be considered a violation of the NDA you signed. Please do continue to keep me informed when you have these nightmares, and I will let you know when we’ve reached any further decisions regarding treatment.
Alburet hesitated, half afraid to leave the room. He feared what Stacia would say to him or think of him once he told her. He couldn’t withhold it from her though, they were married and his father had always told him a marriage can’t have secrets. His hands shook as he went to open the door, so he stopped and tried some breathing techniques to calm his nerves. After a minute or two he was feeling a shade calmer and went out to find Stacia.