Insomnia - PG

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Insomnia - PG

Post by jen »

Don't own Moonlight. If I did and had anything to say about it, we would now be in Season 4. Just sayin'

Many, many thanks to Lionsonleashes for all of her encouragement and suggestions. She is fabulous!

So, here we go!

Insomnia PG Mick/Beth

Beth Turner slid down with her back against the wall of the abandoned cabin and sat on the floor. She didn't plan to rest for more than a minute but once they stopped here, the exhaustion they had held at bay for hours caught up with them. They couldn’t afford to remain here for long, but they had to rest. They could only go so far on nerve.

They were being followed and she knew if their pursuer caught up with them, none would survive but they had to risk it. Their best chance was to keep moving while it was daylight..after they caught their breath.

It was fortunate she was too wired to truly relax. Her left ankle was sprained or broken--she wasn’t sure which--had swollen to more than twice its size and felt unusually warm to the touch. The silent explosion of pain when the rogue had broken her arm and thrown her across the room had faded into a throbbing ache. She longed for an ice bag and an aspirin. The kids--the three who were still alive--were mostly unharmed. David, the oldest at fourteen, helped her walk after tying her broken arm across her body. He was silent most of the time. She suspected he knew more than he chose to reveal.

Children shouldn’t have to grow up so quickly, she thought absently, but the childhood of these brave children had come to an abrupt end several days before. It's a cold world. She thought briefly of how her life eventually attained a type of normalcy after Mick returned her to her mother, and--if they were lucky--the younger ones may have that. She wasn't sure about David.

The rogue vampire following them had apparently never dealt with a human aware of vampires and the rules they lived by. In his overconfidence, he left them in the cabin unrestrained in a locked room. Beth had talked David through picking the lock and they ran.

It was hours later that their captor discovered their escape and was on their trail, but he wasn't as active when the sun was up.

Initially, she had driven up to meet with the local police on a series of disappearances and murders in this sleepy Washington community because of her experience with serial killers in the D.A.’s office. The disappearance of an entire family--parents and their five children a week before was just a missing persons case being worked in another branch of the police department. It hadn't been tied to the case she came to work on until their abandoned car was found within two miles of seven of the disappearances. All the other victims had been found dead and their bodies burned, presumably to hide evidence. A talk with a coroner revealed clues pointing to vampire involvement that no one else recognized! In retrospect, she knew she should've called Mick rather than try to handle it on her own but she wanted to impress them all with her usefulness to the Community. All she succeeded in doing was getting in over her head.

If only I had Mick’s rapid healing abilities right now.

When she found the missing children only three were still alive. Before that, she'd found the charred bodies of an infant and a toddler with their parents in an abandoned shed a few miles from the cabin where the children were being held. She hadn't told them--they would deal with that later. She learned that the older children had been fed on in some sort of rotation. Beth was a little surprised that a rogue would know enough not to drain them outright and felt sure after he had used them up, he would find more.

Little Erin was no more than five -- barely older than she had been when Coraline had taken her, and now she crept over to where Beth leaned against the wall of the cabin.

“Miss Turner?“

“Just call me Beth, Honey. What is the matter?“

“I have astomia.“ the child lisped. “I can’t sleep.“

“Insomnia, Sweetie. It is called insomnia. Aren‘t you tired?”

The child nodded. “Yes. I’m scared the bad man with the sharp teeth will find us.”

“I know, Honey. The bad man can’t be outside for very long when it is light. He has to sleep in the daytime someplace dark and cold.”

“Is that why are we resting in the daytime?” asked David. He sat several feet away, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

Beth smiled at him, ’Partly, but mainly because we're all about to drop in our tracks. After we all catch our breath and get a little rest, we need to be moving again. ”

“That man is a vampire, isn’t he? I thought they weren‘t real.” He reached up and touched the twin wounds on his neck.

“I don’t know what he is,” Beth evaded, aware that too much knowledge could also be dangerous. “There is a mental disorder that makes some people think that they have to consume blood to live, but it's all in their heads. Sometimes they file their teeth into points like fangs.”

“You told Erin that he couldn’t be out in daylight for very long. If it's all in his head, he could be out there right now.”

“Doubt it. If he thinks that is what he is, he'll probably keep to the mythology.”

“Sounds logical,” said David. “We should probably get going while he is hiding.”

Beth sighed and looked down at Erin. “Can you walk a little while longer, Honey?”

The child nodded.

The four of them moved toward the door of the cabin only to freeze at the silhouette of a man appearing before the in the doorway.

Little Erin screamed in terror as, ignoring the presence of the kids for the moment, he rushed into the room and swept Beth into his arms.

They kissed, not caring about the audience. Beth endured a flare of pain from her broken arm as he pressed her close. After a few breathless seconds, giddy with relief, Beth spoke to her young companions.

“It’s all right, kids. This is Mick St. John. He is going to get us out of here.”

Mick looked around the cabin and frowned slightly, he was looking for the others. Beth met his eyes and shook her head slightly. Nothing anyone else would notice but Mick understood--there were no others.

“Are you a superhero?” asked Aimee, here eyes wide.

“No, he's a private investigator, Sweetie. He does an amazing job of rescuing people, though.”

“Is everybody all right?“ he asked.

The children nodded, and Beth admitted to being a little banged up. He already knew their conditions, but wanted to get them talking. He also wanted to explain why he wanted to talk to Beth away from them. “I am going to go and get my car. I left it about an hour from here and will take Beth with me to-”

“No, nononononon,” wailed Aimee, “He'll get us!”

Mick bent down to her eye level and talked to her. “No, he won’t! I made sure that he was not following before I came here. You'll be fine. I promise. I wouldn't suggest leaving you here for a while if I wasn't sure.”

“Why can’t we stay together?” asked David.

“I can move a lot faster carrying Beth to the car. I have some first aid supplies there and she needs treatment. All of you are exhausted. You need rest and would only slow me down. I'll be back with the car in less than an hour. I promise."

David picked Erin up and put an arm around Aimee. He would look after them now. He had learned to be a good judge of character in his fourteen years, and Beth Turner trusted this man. If she did. He would. too.

“Good man,” said Mick. “We will be back shortly. Try to rest.”

As gently as he could, he picked Beth up and walked out the door quickly.

After about ten minutes, he placed her gently on the ground, her back leaning against a tree.

“Why are we stopping?” Beth asked.

Mick answered the question by leaning down and capturing her lips in a deep kiss. “Why didn’t you call me? Do you have any idea how worried I was when I found out what you were up against?”

“I was stupid. I wanted to impress all of you. Didn’t quite work out as I planned.”

“The Jeep Cherokee I rented does a lot better than the Merc would in these woods, but it still can’t handle all the terrain around here. I left it because searching turned out to be faster on foot. Now that I know exactly where I am going, getting to the cabin and the kids won't be a problem, but before we get to the car I can do something about your pain. Just concentrate on your breathing--in and out--close your eyes and listen to my voice.”

Beth obeyed and a faint smile touched the corners of her lips.

“What?” he wanted to know.

“Your voice. Do you have any idea how much I love your voice?”

“That’s all?” he teased gently, a faint smile on his lips.

Her laughter bubbled up. “Not by a long shot," she said. The pheremones he released into the air acted like a powerful painkiller and she sighed with relief.

“I am officially feeling no pain for the time being. How did you find me anyway?” Beth asked, sighing comfortably.

“The GPS chip gets power from the battery in the cell and yours is broken, but we are lucky that the connection was sufficient to send out an intermittent signal. You would be there for a while and then drop out of sight. Drove Logan crazy. Let‘s get moving,” he picked her up again.

The Jeep was in a clearing nearby and he buckled her into the passenger seat carefully.

“Mick, what will happen to the children now?” she asked.

He sighed. “I don’t know. The question is, what do they know? I could smell that the rogue had fed on each of them. Did they witness their parents death?”

“No. They don’t know about that yet. David may suspect, but I don’t think he knows for sure. He doesn’t talk much. Not like the girls, anyway. I told them all about a mental disorder that makes some people think they are vampires, and need to consume blood to live. That they mimic the appearance and habits of fictional vampires and said that is what we are dealing with. The little ones accept the explanation without question. David asked if that were so, why couldn’t the rogue just follow us in daylight and I said that it was because he thought that the daylight would kill him.”

“Very good,” Mick said. “Josef will be proud. David is much more thoughtful and intelligent than he lets on.”

“What about the rogue?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Dead. Also dust by now. I called the local cleaners after taking his head. As far as the police will be concerned, he got away.”

“If I ever do anything like this again…” she began.

“You better not. We were really lucky this time. Promise me?"

After giving her another dose of his pheremone painkillers, he called Josef, telling him about finding Beth and the surviving children. He told him about how Beth had told them that the rogue was an insane person who thought he was a vampire and filed his teeth into points. Josef praised her quick thinking. After that, he telephoned the police to let them know that he had found Beth and three children and was taking them to a local hospital.

When the Jeep pulled up outside the cabin, the Erin, Aimee and David came out.

“We were a little scared you wouldn’t come back.” admitted David, as Mick lifted the girls into the back seat and buckled them in. “How is Ms. Turner?”

“Sleeping.” Mick glanced at Beth in the front seat. “Next stop will be the hospital for all of you.”

“Will the police be there?” David asked, sliding in beside Aimee.

“”Don’t know,” Mick admitted, getting in and starting the jeep. What did David want to talk to the police about? There was something else.

Two hours later, Beth and all three children were in the local hospital, Beth’s arm had been set, her ankle wrapped and she slept under sedation. The girls were taken to rooms and David still wanted to talk to the police.

“David, I have been working this case with the police. Is it something you can tell me?” Mick asked David.

“I never heard the name of that man. The one who hurt us. Do you know?”

“Yes, but I am not supposed to tell you. At least not yet.”

David nodded, accepting.

“You won’t be able to find my parents or Rachel or Garrett--our two youngest siblings. The man who took us told me that he had killed them. He said it would do no good for him to tell Aimee or Erin, but he thought I was old enough to handle it. I asked him if they… hurt…when they died and he smiled, leaned close and whispered to me, ‘Oh, yes--he made sure of it‘”

“Monsters come in many forms,“ Mick said.

“I know. He also talked about burning their bodies and leaving them at a cabin. I want him to die, Mr. St. John, and my parents taught me that if you want to kill another human being, that makes you a monster.”

“What do you think?” Mick asked, placing a hand on the young man’s shoulder.

“I think that it may be a step in that direction, but thinking isn’t the same as acting. He said that to hurt me. He liked hurting people. I don’t want to hurt anybody, Mr. St. John. Are you sure he is far from here?”

“I believe he's left the country. David, what you said about him wanting to cause pain--that he enjoyed it and the fact that you don‘t want to hurt anyone sums it up pretty well. You aren‘t a monster, David. He is.”

David looked down, “Thank you.”

“Have you ever been to L.A.?” Mick asked.

“Yes, a couple of times. The whole family was planning to go again this Summer. I don’t know what will happen to us now. We have no family. Both my parents were only children and our grandparents are dead.”

“I have this friend in L.A., his name is Josef Kostan and he runs a large corporation. I’m not promising anything but maybe I can come up with something. At the very least, you can come down and spend some time with us.”

David smiled. “That sounds good. Ms. Turner is an amazing lady.”

“Yes, she is.” Mick smiled.

An hour later, Mick was back at the cabin scenting the scene to learn what had occurred there. They'd been lucky there wasn't any evidence to what really happened, so he called the police and when the teams started to arrive, he was soundly scolded for not before checking it out himself.

He replied that he wanted to sure of the facts and didn't want them to waste their time following a lead that didn't check out. He had a lot of experience with leads that lead nowhere and they agreed that everyone had lost too much sleep over this case in the last few days.



Epilogue*********



The rogue was never found, and in spite of all the objections, the children were able to spend the summer in L.A. attached to a charity Josef Kostan created specifically for that purpose. Two employees of Kostan Industries, Norma and Allen Taylor, who had lost their four children three years before in an automobile accident, agreed to be foster parents for the three. It was love at first sight for all concerned, and by the end of the Summer, they were awarded temporary custody. The adoptions became final a year later.

For Mick and Beth, it was almost like finding family.

fin

Jenna
Last edited by jen on Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:54 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Lucy
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by Lucy »

Wow, Jen!
You took this and ran with the ball......

A complete tale (would have been a great episode I think!)

I can bet that Beth was having PTSD about being on the run like this.

I can see the little girl tripping over the letters in the word i-s-o-m-n-i-a, a word she heard from adults that she kept to use on just the right day.

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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by lynnrxgal »

Sweet, just very sweet!
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by darkstarrising »

O my!! What a wonderful answer to the challenge, Jenna. Very much in keeping with the ML world, Beth being overly confident of her ability to handle anything, then regretting it when she can't. Like Beth, the three children have had a monster destroy the innocence of their childhood, but unlike Beth, theirs wasn't an entirely happy ending.
Children shouldn’t have to grow up so quickly, but these had done well. Childhood had come to an abrupt end for these three, just as it had for her when she was even younger. It's a cold world.
Indeed it is.

And this rang so true
“I have astomia.“ the child lisped. “I can’t sleep.“

“Insomnia, Sweetie. It is called insomnia. Aren‘t you tired?”
Nicely done, Jenna :flowers:
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MickLifeCrisis
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by MickLifeCrisis »

Very good, Jenna! Just like Beth to get in over her head. Thank goodness Mick came to the rescue! :twothumbs: But the poor children. :bmoon: I thought for a little while that Mick and Beth were going to adopt them.

Thanks for posting! :thanks:
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by Luxe de Luxe »

what a fantastic adventure, jen! Beth off to the rescue again then needing the knight in scuffed black leather (our Mick)! This went into fairly dark territory, and I really liked the courage and intelligence of David. Sweet ending after all the darkness, too. That was a real bonus.
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by allegrita »

What a great story, Jenna! It feels like a piece of a longer story. Even a novel. But I'm so glad you posted this for the challenge. If you do decide to continue it, I'd love to read what led up to these events, and what happens later. It's a grabber of a yarn. I loved the kids, and you know what a soft spot I have for Beth. And Mick... well, Mick is Mick. :rose:
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by francis »

Great story, Jen! All of this from a little prompt about Insomnia! I love how Beth held her own against the monster but then needed Mick to help her. I love how he gently scolded her for trying this alone, but didn't freak out. And I love how he talked to David about being a monster. He seems to be in a good place right now.
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by maggatha3 »

So, Jenna, you had a whole episode in your mind for so long, it took one word to put it down? Typical Beth to find trouble even before trouble finds her, and guardian angel Mick at his best , both with her and with David. He is so thoughtful, he is such a knight! And the kids...as clever as it gets, always surprisingly capturing even the smallest detail. David is such a man of the family now ! I guess it was a dark story, but it didn't exactly feel like that..

Thanks ,Jenna
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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by jen »

Lucy

Thank you so much for reading and leaving your lovely comment.

I'll bet that little one had heard someone use the word and decided this was a way to sound very grown up. Poor baby, she had to grow up a little fast. I hope that a new environment would allow her to salvage a little bit of her childhood.

Jenna

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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by jen »

lynnrxgal

How very sweet of your to read and leave a comment.

I hope you enjoyed the story!

Jenna

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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by jen »

Karen

Thank you for reading and leaving such a lovely comment. The fact that it comes from you makes it all the better!

These children have had a close encounter with a side of vamp life that everyone wish didn't exist, but there it is. Beth was definitely in over her head, but at least she was there for them.

And Mick was on the job.

Jenna

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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by jen »

MickLifeCrisis

I see what you mean about Mick and Beth adopting them, but I thought that they would work better in a family with parents closer to the age of the parents that they lost, with experience being parents.

These two individuals that work at Kostan Industries are, I was thinking, aware of the exisence of vampires and can watch for signs that the children saw and remembered more and either put their recollections in a different light or perhaps one day they will be humans aware of the existence of vampires. By that time, they would have been acquainted with many vampires like Mick and Josef who chose to protect the helpless, if they can.

Jenna

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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by jen »

Luxe

I suppose I did go a little darker than usual in this story, but sometimes bad things happen. If we are very, very lucky, good things happen to (trying to stretch a little).

I adore your description of Mick as our knight in scuffed black leather!!

Fabulous!

Jenna

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Re: Insomnia - PG

Post by jen »

Alle

Thank you so much for reading!

There is room for at least one story before and one after, now that you mention it.

I deliberately moved into darker territory in this yarn but didn't consider what you propose until I saw your post. This will require some thought, but thank you for even thinking that I have the writing chops to handle a multi chapter!

Jenna

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