James sat down on Jennifer's couch and put his face in his hands. She was sitting right beside him, but he had never felt so alone. Family had never mattered a whole lot to him; it had just been him and his mother while he was growing up. He did not have any cousins or aunts and uncles. His grandparents on his mother's side had died years ago. None of that had ever mattered much to him until today. It was only when he had been one of two people at his mother's funeral service that he had realized how isolated it made him.
Sitting in a small side room at Martin's Mortuary and listening to the preacher talk about God and heaven with only Jennifer beside him had made him feel very small and alone. If only there had been more family in his life. Maybe then the end of his mother's time on earth would not have been such a horrible thing for him. Sure, the circumstances surrounding her death would have been the same. He would have surely still been horrified at the brutality with which she had passed, but maybe having more shoulders to lean on after her cremation would have felt better.
Jennifer had done everything she could do to be supportive in the last couple of days, but their relationship still felt strained. He had a hard time feeling like he could trust her. She had chosen to view him as losing his mind rather than put faith in his story about a psychotic killer. Now she believed him, but it only came after his mother had been savaged by the ‘wraith’. He knew that Jennifer really did love him, but it was hard to feel like he could rely on her. He was trying not to make her feel his anger toward her, but it was obvious that she felt it anyway.
This thought alone made him want to lash out. Only a very short time ago the two of them had been so much in love that his proposal was considered a foregone conclusion. After his encounter with the wraith, however, it seemed as if they were strangers to each other. First Jennifer had done everything she could to gain separation from him, and now he found himself giving her the cold shoulder. All because of the wraith.
The fact that he had been left alone for the last couple of days did not help. Nothing new and horrific had occurred. Nothing more had been taken from him, but he knew that the game was not over. James did not know why he had not been put through any more hell this time, but he would take all the relief he could get. Maybe even the wraith had a respect for the need to grieve. James almost laughed at the idea. The wraith clearly had no regard for the feelings of others. Otherwise, he would not do the things he did.
There had to be some other reason for why he had been left alone. Maybe it had something to do with the unmarked police cars that were constantly parked outside his place. Maybe it was only because the insane man was plotting something truly horrible that needed time to set up. Who really knew? Sure, James felt at times as if he could actually read the mad man's mind, but it was only for the kinds of thoughts and feelings that he imagined his counterpart was going through. It was not really like he could understand exactly what the wraith was planning.
James wished that he could read his mind. Maybe then he would understand what the real motivation was. He would also know what his connection was to this man. He knew that the wraith claimed he was stealing from him, but he did not believe this to be the real reason. He did not steal from anybody. Maybe he was being targeted for whatever connection they seemed to share. He wished that he could have gotten more out of his mother. She obviously knew who he had been talking about, but it had shaken her too much to say anything before he had been shooed out of the house.
Maybe the wraith really was his twin brother. Maybe he had found out about James and thought that he should have had James' life. It could be that this was the reason for his assertion that James was also stealing his identity. Or maybe he had suffered from some sort of amnesia. If they really were twins, he might have had his DNA tested and been told that he was James Harper. When he came to claim his life, he had seen James and thought that he was being robbed of both money and an identity.
Maybe James was just reading too much into this. Maybe the only answer was that the man was completely off his rocker. He could not remember where he had heard it, but someone had said that the simplest explanation was usually the correct one. The man that he referred to as the wraith had certainly been on the south side of sanity. It did not seem to be overly out of the question that James had simply managed to have the wrong face at the wrong time. Perhaps this freak had noticed their similarities, found out as much as he could about him, and decided to have some fun with him.
James decided not to focus too much on the reason why he had been targeted too much. He was tired and stressed out too much right now. What he really needed to do was rest. He didn't know how he was going to get any of that, but he needed to try. Maybe the next day things would start to make more sense to him. James hoped his police protectors would stop any evil that might try to sneak up on him as he headed for the bedroom.
Jennifer had sat in silence beside the man that she loved. She did not know what to say to him. How could she say anything that would let him know how incredibly sorry she was for not trusting his word. In the last couple of days, she had been with him for nearly every minute of the day as he went about making the arrangements for his mother’s funeral. She had tried to show him in every way that she could that she was always going to be there for him, but it had felt as if it was too late for that. He had not come out and said so, but it had been very apparent that he did not trust her enough anymore to put his head on her shoulder. Maybe he thought that as soon as he tried, she would yank it away from him.
She had sat there on the couch with him, wishing that she knew what to say or how to act, but she felt completely shut out. It was as if they were worlds apart even though they were only inches away from each other. She just wanted to take him and hold him close to her, but he was too distant. He was pulling into himself more and more with each passing second. Jennifer did not know if he would ever let her back into his world or if she would spend an eternity on the outside of the wall that he had built up.
When James stood up and moved to the bedroom, she had simply followed him in. She just needed to be wherever he was right now. Jennifer couldn't explain it even to herself, but she could not allow herself to be separated from him. As it was, she could only do this for the rest of the day. She had been allowed to take a couple of days off of work in order to help him deal with the loss of his mother, but since it was not actually a member of her family, she did not even get the standard three days off. In the morning, she would have to return to the hospital and get back to work.
When James was only a few steps into the bedroom, he turned and faced Jennifer. He wanted to tell her to leave him alone, give him some space. When he looked at her, however, he was overcome by the love and concern that he saw in her eyes. It was not guilt that he saw.
Until now, he had only seen guilt in her face before now, and it had made him feel angry. She should have felt guilty, but to see it in her face only drove the point home to him that she had betrayed him. That had made him want to get away from her. He was sick of looking at her and seeing the evidence of that betrayal.
This time, however, he was reminded of the overwhelming love he felt for her. She no longer hovered over him because she felt she was duty bound because of her sins in the past, but because she really wanted to be there for him. She loved him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. He could feel her need for intimacy with him and it was a need that they shared.
Without thinking, he reached out to her and pulled her up against him. For a moment, the two of them just held each other with their foreheads pressed up to one another. Then, ever so gently, James brought his hand up to her neck and pulled her face forward. Their lips embraced passionately. Both of them felt a desperate need for tenderness from the other. Almost in slow motion the two of them fell into bed together.
The love they made was sweet and painful at the same time. Their bodies moved together in harmony, fingers searching and finding intimate places. For Jennifer, it was one of the more beautiful moments of her life, and yet it felt as if her heart were breaking as they bonded. She realized this was because she could no longer imagine life without James. He was everything to her, and she felt like she had been on the brink of losing him forever. When they finally fell apart, Jennifer sobbed softly and clung to James as if he were a life raft in a violent sea.
As for James, he finally felt as if he could relax. He was aware of Jennifer's soft sobs and he could feel her tears as she pressed her face into his neck, but he knew that she was okay. They were okay. As much as their sex had always been terrific in the past, this time had been completely different. It was not so much that they were pleasing each other as it was that they were becoming one with each other. She felt like so much a part of him now that it was impossible for him to think of them as being two separate individuals. For the first time in days, James no longer worried about the wraith. All that really mattered in the whole world was right there in bed with him. The two of them never let go of each other until morning came and it was time to return to the real world