James rushed to the side of the hospital bed that Jennifer was laying in. He was nearly hysterical with grief and concern. He could not believe it when the police officer that had been camped outside his apartment had knocked on the door and told him that Jennifer had been attacked. Knowing the kind of man that the wraith was, he had been certain that her entrails had been scattered all over the place. In spite of the reassurances he had been given that she was okay, he refused to be comforted until he could see her. The cop had generously offered to drive him to see her since he was not in a good enough mental state to drive.
Jennifer cracked her eyes open and looked at him. She had bruises and bandages on her face and it broke his heart to look at her. She looked weak and broken. He did not even want to know what the rest of her body looked like. He was filled with anger at his lack of ability to protect her. He was the man, damn it. He should have been there. She should have been able to rely on him. He felt so helpless. The wraith had seen that he was being guarded, so he went after Jennifer instead.
"James, where did you go?" Jennifer asked. She had not seen him since he had saved her from that awful woman.
"I didn't go anywhere." He said. "I have been at home. I came as soon as I heard. I am so sorry that you got hurt."
"You came when you heard? James, you saved me. She was going to kill me. She was so horrible. You came and you…you…killed…her." Jennifer said. It was so hard for her to say the words. She remembered seeing him shove the woman's head through the window, but it just was so hard to believe that he could have killed somebody. She was so grateful to him, and yet it was as if she had seen something from him that she had never seen before.
"I don't know what you are talking about." James said. "I wish that I had been here for you, but I was at home. I would have never left your side if I had been here earlier."
"But you were." Jennifer insisted. "You came and…and…"
"You said her." James said. He could tell that she was still in some sort of shock, but he wanted to know just a little bit more. "A woman did this to you?"
"I think I might be able to answer that a little better at the moment." A familiar voice said. James turned to find Sweeny leaning against the doorframe. "I think maybe we ought to let Jennifer get some rest right now."
James squeezed Jennifer's hand lightly and stood up. He smiled as best he could at her as she closed her eyes. He was so thankful that she was still alive. He simply could not imagine life without her. If she had died, the wraith would have surely convinced James to end his own life in order to escape the pain.
"Hello detective. Do you have any idea what happened?" James asked.
"Yes, James, I do." Sweeny said. "It seems that our man Wraith has a disciple. A woman that we have identified as April Pensicotti. She was either asked by him to come and attack Jennifer as a way of hurting you, or she decided to act on her own accord. We would love to ask her about it, but as Jennifer said, you killed her."
"I didn't kill anybody." James insisted. "I haven't left the apartment all day. I didn't know about any of this until your officer knocked on my door."
"I know. He verified that for us already." Sweeny said. "The only problem is that we have you on camera and a number of witnesses place you as not only being here, but attacking the woman that was trying to kill your girlfriend."
"I don't understand." James said.
"I do." Sweeny responded. "Or rather I should say that I both do and I do not, all at the same time. It wasn't you. It was Wraith. I just can't figure out why he pretended to be you and stopped the execution. If he had not interfered, Jennifer would have surely been dead long before anybody knew what had happened. Now why would he do that?"
"I have no idea." Now James' head was really swimming. He could not believe that he actually had the wraith, or rather Wraith to thank for the fact that Jennifer was still alive. None of this made an ounce of sense. Wraith had promised to take away everything that he held dear. He did not hold anything dearer than Jennifer. Had he changed his mind? Did he decide that he no longer needed to torture James?
"Neither do I." Sweeny admitted. "I do intend to find out, though. The man I am after is not the type to rescue anybody if he did not have some sort of motive behind it. One more thing before I let you go. I need you to take a look at the woman that attempted to kill Jennifer. If you can recognize her, even as somebody that you only saw once, it might be able to help us out a lot."
"Sure, detective." James said. "I would be willing to do anything that can help you get your hands on him."
"Great." Sweeny said and led James down the hall. They went down to the basement of the hospital where bodies were kept before being transported to morticians. On a gurney with a sheet over it was the body of Vixen. Sweeny walked up and removed just enough of the sheet to allow James to see her face. There was no need to let him see the rest of her body.
"I am sorry, but I don't recognize her." James said. The woman that he was looking at appeared to be very attractive, but he had never seen her before. "I am sorry that I couldn't be more helpful."
"It is okay." Sweeny said. "It was a long shot. Thanks for looking."
"How did you already know her name?" James asked.
"Hospital security cameras in the parking lot caught her getting out of her car." Sweeny said. When we searched it, we found her license. It was a lucky break. Otherwise, it usually takes a while to get a positive ID on an individual that doesn't have anything with them. In her case, she wasn't wearing anything at all, so we would have had a hell of a time."
"She wasn't wearing anything?" James asked. "You mean she was naked?"
"Yes. She wore scrubs into the hospital with a fake badge, but she didn't have anything on underneath. Once she was alone with Jennifer, she removed her clothes and then cut them off of your girlfriend too. It seems that she was not only trying to kill her, she was having some sort of sex with her in the process." Sweeny informed him.
"What?" James nearly lost control of his voice.
"Yeah, it wasn't pretty." Sweeny said. "Look, James, she is going to be in a bad way for quite some time. I don't just mean from her injuries, but also mentally. Nobody can go through something like that and come out unscathed on the other side of things. You might want to consider getting her some counselling as soon as she is up for it."
"Okay." James said. His voice was still shaky. He could hardly bring himself to believe that Jennifer had not only been nearly killed, she had been sexually abused by another woman. All of this was simply too much to take in all at once.
"Hey, I know this is a lot to handle, but you need to be there for her okay?" Sweeny said and the concern was evident in his voice. "I will make sure that we have armed officers watching over you guys. Oh, and you might want to go ahead and let her believe that you did, in fact, rescue her. I would hate to think about how she would react right now if she knew the truth."
"I will. For now anyway." James said. "Eventually I will let her know the truth. I don't think I can handle her thinking of me as a killer."
The two men shook hands and James went back to see Jennifer while Sweeny stepped out to make some phone calls. Sweeny thought about it all some more. None of it made any sense. James had not left the apartment, but he was wearing the same outfit as Wraith had been wearing in the video surveillance. He knew that Wraith was thorough, but how could he have known what James was wearing without being seen by the officer watching over the young man? For that matter, why had he impersonated James in the first place? Sweeny scratched his face and then raised the phone to his ear.