Todd Manning: Enigma, Ch. 8

Chapter 8

Todd was quiet on the ride home. John kept looking to make sure Todd was still with them, he had been as shocked as Bo when they had found Todd passed out. Todd really wasn’t in any shape to take on Hesser and Kipling, but Nora said the attorneys for the defense were pushing for a speedy trial. Nora was afraid they had something up their sleeves so she needed Todd to be ready to testify. If she had seen Todd earlier, Nora would have been pressing for a postponement. John pulled up in front of Dragonheart.

Todd climbed wearily out of the car. He noted the very visible cop car parked nearby. The damn vest, Bo had insisted he wore, felt like it weighed a ton. He lost it the moment he entered his house, leaving it sitting by the front door. He no sooner got it off, when Blair flung her arms around him.

“Todd I’ve been so worried. I got this weird call from Momma, and then no word from you. Where have you been all this time?”

“He’s been at the station, Blair,” replied John. “We had a couple of incidences. It appears Todd’s dream is still right on target. Shots were fired at both Todd and Jake today.”

“My God, Todd are you okay?” She looked him up and down and saw no signs of any wounds.

“I’m fine Blair, John was in the right place at the right time today. Jake is fine too.”

Todd disentangled himself from Blair and headed straight to the bar. His thoughts were a mess. and he needed a drink.

Blair was bewildered by Todd’s reaction and frowned when he headed for the drink. She looked at John, “What the hell happened?”

John motioned Blair away from the living room and told her what happened at the police station. From, Blair’s reaction he could tell she was as baffled as they had been as to the cause of Todd’s collapse. “Blair, he’s got to be careful. Do you think he’s up to this trial? I don’t know him all that well, but he looks pretty ragged to me. You need to talk him into taking it easy. Something about that dream is getting to him isn’t it?”

Blair was looking at Todd and then back to him. “John the dream is overwhelming him and if he can’t get free of it, it’s going to break him. Do you know when this trial is going to happen?”

“I only know it’s soon. Nora is counting on Todd and Jake, and after today’s attempts, she’s going to be even more worried about the outcome. The killers think they got “Todd Manning” today. So they’ll be doubling their efforts to get Samuel out of the way too. Bo has assigned a couple of officers for your protection, but he would prefer Todd to stay put and not make himself a target again. You need to convince him to do just that.” That said, John took Blair out to meet the officers so she would know they were from the force.

Todd poured himself a stiff drink and sat down staring out the back terrace. He knew John was telling Blair all that had occurred at the station. He had been trying to make sense of it since it happened. The last thing he remembered was feeling incredibly tired and sitting in Bo’s chair. According to Bo, he was unconscious when they arrived back from The Manning building, but he could have sworn he had just fallen asleep. “Samuel, are you there?”

“Yes, and I know what you’re going to ask. I have a vague memory, but I don’t think it’s going to be much help to you. I recall hearing some voices. In particular a young girl’s voice but that’s all.”

Todd reached up to touch his cheek, for just a moment he recalled a soft kiss there, but it didn’t make any sense. He felt cold and drank the rest of his drink feeling the liquor burn its way down his throat warming him. The sensation of warmth was short-lived and he began shivering. “Things just keep getting weirder. I’ve lost more time? Why would a dream have almost knocked me out?” Todd closed his eyes. “What the hell am I missing?” He leaned back and rested his head on the couch. Once again, his arms began to feel heavy and he drifted off. The empty glass rolled out of his limp hand.

He watched as Pete pried the boulder loose and sent it rolling down over Carlo’s legs. Todd felt a perverse pleasure as they crunched down. Pete was on cloud nine viewing this whole escapade while Samuel uttered various reminders and cautions. Tom was nowhere to be found; they had sent him away to the care of Ms. Perkins and Rodd. Todd looked over at Samuel and for a moment saw his friend Sam staring at him with concern and pity. He turned his back on that look. He wasn’t going to be dissuaded. Hesser had it coming to him.

The scene switched. He watched Pete hook Carlo to the damn machine. It was fascinating to watch the strange implant make its way up Carlo’s skull and embed its prongs. He had watched as Carlo screamed in terrifying pain, the exhilaration of being in control was heady. In the background, Samuel had turned away, unable to watch any longer. He felt a dark joy seeping into him. Pete silently cheered; Peter’s laughter started, and instead of making him cringe, he started laughing along with Pete and Peter.

Todd moaned.

He was still laughing to himself as Pete exacted his torture then played with both Victor’s and Carlo’s minds instructing them to tell all their secrets to John McBain. He listened gleefully as Pete left the anonymous tip with the police and gathered up the remaining implants. Todd felt euphoric as he realized it had all gone the way he wanted.

Once again the scene changed and Pete was walking through the basement of the Sun, The door opened to reveal Jake’s Gallery of pictures of Blair. Todd looked through Pete’s eyes at his beautiful wife. He had never seen these portraits. “They’re beautiful Samuel,” he turned, and once again, he felt like Sam instead of Samuel was staring at him, disappointment all over his face. “You went there. I can’t believe you let Pete take you down that path. Do you think she wanted you to go that far? What were you thinking?”

Todd looked around and Samuel’s words began sinking in. She surrounded him like an angel and suddenly he felt dirty. He listened as Pete hummed softly and placed the remaining implants in the hidden safe at the back of the vault. The humming got louder and Peter’s laughter began again. He was on the terrace at home and Pete began to laugh out loud. Then he was laughing out loud ...suddenly pain ripped through him as the enormity of his actions hit home. Todd awoke gasping for breath. His guts felt all twisted inside. Todd felt sick and looked up to see the portrait of Blair gazing down on him. Unable to stop himself, his stomach heaved and he rolled off the couch on his hands and knees as he lost his drink. He leaned against the couch grateful his stomach had been empty but for the drink.

Blair walked into the room in time to see Todd roll off the couch and hear what was going on. She ran to the kitchen and grabbed several clothes, wetting one down with cold water. She went and knelt down next to him putting the cool cloth around his neck and mopping up the mess. “You shouldn’t have gone out. Larry told you to take it easy and now you’re suffering for not heeding him.”

Todd wearily gazed at her still feeling dirty from the dream. She looked at him with such love, while having no idea of the brutality he was capable of. He had tried his whole life to distance himself from Peter and his cruelty, especially when Pete had taken out his anger on Marty. He had thought himself better than that. He was above those despicable acts. Ha, you been fooling yourself all this time. You’re exactly like him. You‘ve been hiding from it, but you can’t hide anymore. You believe in your heart the dream is real. Admit it, Manning, that’s why you can’t get rid of it. Struggling to get his roiled emotions under control, he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Blair I’m sorry,” he had nothing else to say at that moment. He reached for the couch to pull himself back up as Blair steadied his elbow. He needed another chat with Ray, that was for sure.

“Well, then do me a favor. Let’s forget the dream for the night and concentrate on the kids. John told me they’re going to let the world think ‘Todd Manning’ is dead. You need to have a chat with Sam to let him know everything is alright.”

Todd closed his eyes and straightened his shoulders. “Okay Blair, you’re right, I’ve got to stop with the gloom and doom.” He wrinkled his nose at the odor hanging in the air. “I’m going to get cleaned up, tell Sam, I’ll see him in a few.”

Blair watched him depart upstairs, then she finished cleaning up and opened a terrace door to let some fresh air into the room. Standing at the edge of the terrace looking down at Llanview, was one of the officers John had introduced her too. It was just another sign of how out of kilter everything had become. She looked up running her fingers through her hair. “God! Let this nightmare end. He‘s not a bad man. Can’t you give him a break just once?” Blair turned away from the door, her prayer unanswered. “Alright, Blair, follow your own advice, concentrate on the present,” she headed to find Sam.

Todd let the water wash over him. All he could think of was how dirty he felt. It was like there was this film covering him, and no matter how hard he scrubbed it wouldn’t come off. He rubbed till his skin felt raw and then leaned wearily under the water grateful for the sting. The images of the dream stayed with him and he debated talking to his Alters. “Enough of that, you idiot, you promised Blair you’d get off the dream. Sam is waiting for you. Suck it up, Manning.” Todd grabbed a towel. he wrapped it around him and carefully stepped out of the shower, feeling for the countertop and his ring. Putting the ring on everything came into focus and he looked into the mirror. “You’re a fool, Manning. You‘ve been hiding behind the coincidences of the dream because you can’t face the real reason the dream scares you,” he shivered at the stranger staring coldly back at him. He closed his eyes unable to look at himself.

“Todd, don’t do this to yourself. If you shut down and wall this off, you’ll never get to the truth.” Samuel chimed in.

“You didn’t see what I dreamed Samuel. You would be ashamed of me if you knew.”

“Don’t you see Todd, even if we can’t see your dreams we feel what you feel. You feel like you’ve committed some horrible deed. It’s insidious, Todd, the more it affects you the more all of us are affected.”

Todd knew Samuel was right. He shook his head knowing it, but unable to agree with Samuel. “I don’t want to get to the truth, haven’t you figured that out, Samuel. It’s obvious to me, instead of wanting to get to the bottom of this dream, I’m making myself sicker, just to avoid it.”

“Well, then it stops now. You faced so much these last few months, we’ll face this together.”

“It’s all just words, ‘face things together.’ Enough talk, for now, I got to get my mind on Sam.” Todd shut off Samuel like a switch and finished getting dressed. He picked up his watch, but instead, he held two small bloody implants. Todd dropped the items and backed away. He ripped off the ring tossing it on the counter and backed out of the bathroom grateful he could no longer see. Todd found the chair by his bed and sat down. Even with his vision blurred, he felt like the image was burned into his brain. He was still sitting there lost in his thoughts when Sam found him.

Sam walked into his Mom’s room. It was so big and dark. The only light entering the room was the moon shining in the window. He spotted Samuel sitting over by the bed. “Samuel, why are you sitting in the dark?”

Todd turned his head in the direction of Sam’s voice. “Hey Sam, I’m sorry I didn’t realize it was dark. Hang on.” Todd reached up and switched the light on close to his chair. Now he was able to make out Sam’s small shape. “So Sam, did your mom send you up to get me?”

“Uh-huh, she said you had something to tell me.”

“Come here, Sam.” Todd waited for Sam to come to him. “Sit down on the bed, you and me, we’ve got something really important to talk about.”

Sam got settled on the bed, facing Todd. He kicked his legs in and out as he sat on the edge.

“Sam, you know all about good guys and bad guys right?” Sam nodded, “Good, well right now some bad guys are trying to hurt your dad and me. Today something happened at the Sun where your dad works.” Todd reached for the control of his TV and turned on the news. “Sam, we’re going to start a game to fool the bad guys. You, me, and your Mom, everybody in the family, are going to play pretend. Your Dad is going to pretend to be dead so the bad guys will stop trying to hurt him. We are all going to pretend that we’re sad. Do you think you can do that Sam? Can you pretend to be sad?”

Todd heard the late-breaking news announcement and reached for Sam and pulled him onto his lap. “Now listen, Sam, what you’re about to hear and see, didn’t really happen, okay?”

“This is Blanca Morales with WVL News I’m standing outside the Manning Building where it is reported that infamous Publisher Todd Manning has been struck down by a bullet. Word has it that Manning was supposed to testify against Carlo Hesser and Ivan Kipling in the upcoming trial. Wait, there is some activity at the door. Yes, it looks like the reports are true. Today, Todd Manning, former Rapist and son of Publisher Victor Lord, appears to have met his maker.”

He turned the TV off and held tight to Sam, giving him a hug. “Okay now you’ve heard the news, but I’m telling you here and now it’s not real. Do you believe me?”

Sam was scared, “it seems real,” he said. Sam looked at his friend. “It really is okay, my dad is alright?”

“Yes, Sam your Dad is alright. I wouldn’t lie to you. You won’t be able to see him for a little while, but he is okay. But this is where it gets tough Sam. You have to pretend that you think he’s dead if anybody talks to you about him. You can’t let people know he’s alive. This is a secret just for the family and it’s really important that we keep it.”

“I think I can do that, but what about Hope, she’s just a baby. How can she keep a secret?”

“She can’t Sam, so you can’t tell her. Starr will take care of Hope. Now, how about you find my cane and we’ll see your Mom.” Todd set Sam down and waited for Sam to hand him his cane, then the two of them made their way back downstairs. Todd’s thoughts were all about the little guy and how he was taking what they had just talked about. He quickly turned his thoughts to Blair and letting her know that Sam had seen the news report and they had talked.

He wondered if the word had gotten to the county lockup. If so, then Carlo and Kipling were aware that one of their problems was supposedly out of the way. Todd decided to make a visit to see them. He didn’t want them to get complacent thinking he would be too scared to testify because of Jake’s “death”.

Todd spent the rest of the evening with his family and they discussed the events of the day. Jack and Starr had both come home extremely upset by the news they had heard but were relieved to find out that it wasn’t true. Both agreed to also keep it a secret and pretend to grieve. Vicki had called and informed them she was having Tea and Dani stay with her until after the trial since Jake had been spirited away into protective custody. A memorial service was being arranged for the benefit of the assassin and Hesser’s partners.

Todd was sitting on the couch thinking about Hesser when he felt Blair plop down next to him.

“Hey, you’re a million miles away.” Blair reached up, playing with his hair. “You know, when I sent Sam to you this evening, I never expected you to let him hear the report about Jake’s “death”. I don’t think I could have done that. It amazes me how you made him understand that it wasn’t real. He put his faith in you that you wouldn’t lie to him, and that tells me a lot. Because of your talk with him, I think he really understands the importance of the secret and he’s going to keep it. By the way, thank you.”

“For what? Talking to Sam? That was just as important to me as to you. He’s a great kid, I didn’t want him to hurt so I had to explain to him.”

“Thank you for that, yes, but what I was really thanking you for was the fact that Jake is still alive because of you. If you hadn’t warned John, we all would really be grieving tonight,” she leaned in and kissed him ever so gently. “Let’s go to bed,” she got up and he took her hand. With their arms around each other, they retired to their bedroom.