Detective Todd Sweeny opened his eyes and surveyed the semi-darkness that his hospital room presented. He was not in intensive care any longer. His stay in there had been fairly short. He had managed to get out of the burning house before his lungs had been burned, and surprisingly he had also lucked out in not having his skin burned beyond measure as well. All in all, considering both the gunshots he had endured, as well as the fire, he had been fairly lucky. Stupid, he thought, but lucky. He could not believe that he had once thought Detective Anderson to be so foolish for getting himself into a compromising situation and then ended up letting Wraith get the drop on him too.
Sweeny had been moved to a normal hospital room after the bullets had been removed from his leg and his wounds had been treated. There had been no bullet to remove from his right hand since it had passed all the way through. Sweeny did not know if he would ever be able to use that hand again. He did not have nearly as much hair as he once did, but it would grow back as would the damaged skin. The ultimate result of Wraith's attack was not that Sweeny had been left crippled and unable to continue his pursuit of the madman so much as that it had instilled in him a greater burning hatred for the killer.
It took Sweeny a moment to recognize the shadowy outline of his visitor that sat completely still in the chair beside him. He knew that the presence of this person was the reason for him to have woken up from his disturbing sleep. Call it cop instinct, or maybe just the natural instinct that comes to all people who feel as if they are being watched. Whatever it was, it had brought him to alertness and now he stared intently at the dark figure that sat in silence.
"Wraith." Sweeny rasped.
"Bless me father, for I have sinned." Wraith said with amusement in his voice.
"I am not your damned father." Sweeny said. He felt an aching in his stomach at the thought of it.
"So you are claiming that you didn't know Gloria Harper twenty seven years ago?" Wraith asked, his voice smooth as silk.
"No." Sweeny said, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. "I didn't."
"Why does everybody think they can lie to me?" Wraith asked in mock exasperation. "Come now, detective, do you really think I am ever ill prepared for my adversaries? Oh, wait, I forgot. Dear old mom did not go by Gloria back then. She preferred her middle name. I don't suppose Jessica Harper sounds more familiar?"
"J…Jess?" Sweeny swallowed hard. No, this couldn't be. Was it really Jess that he had seen hanging upside down and mutilated? Jess Harper? His first love? No! No! This was all wrong.
"Oh." Wraith said savoring the emotions pouring out of Sweeny. "That name rings a bell does it? The woman you knocked up and then abandoned as you went about earning your badge in police academy. How ironic for it to come back on you now. Talk about sins of the father."
"I didn't abandon her." Sweeny said, feeling himself getting defensive. The thought that he needed to justify his actions to this man of all people was just ridiculous. "I never knew what happened to her. I was getting ready to go into police academy and she called me up to tell me that she didn't want to see me anymore. She said that I did not need her and her issues in my life. She said that I had my career to focus on and that she would have only gotten in the way. I tried to get her to talk to me about it, but she just said goodbye and hung up. After that she would never answer her phone or even her door when I would come knocking. I finally gave up."
"You gave up?" Wraith asked incredulously. "From everything I know about you, you never give up on anything. Is it really that you knew she was pregnant and you did not even want to try? It's okay, you can tell me. It won't really change anything between us. I am still going to kill you when I am done with James."
"Shut your mouth you little insect." Sweeny rasped through his raw throat. "I loved her more than anything, but she wouldn't let me in. She wanted to go through it all on her own. She never even told me that she was pregnant. She ruined me. After her, nobody could compare and no relationship would last. I became married to my work because I could never be married to the only woman I could love. Damn it, I would have done anything for her. She never told me she was carrying my child."
"Well she told the hospital." Wraith said. "She put you down as the father on my birth certificate. So I hope you will forgive me for not believing you knew nothing about this dad."
"Don't you dare call me that." Sweeny spat out angrily. "You are not my son. You were not her son. James is her son. You are nothing but a sick freak on the outside looking in."
Wraith reached over and backhanded Sweeny across his face. The detective did not give him the satisfaction of even so much as grimacing in pain. Instead, he just regarded the young man as coolly as he could. Wraith could not stand the way Sweeny looked at him. He felt like he was being looked down upon. Like he was nothing more than an errant child. It enraged him even more than being told that he was the imposter.
"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up." Wraith hissed with pure poison on his breath. He knew that he sounded like an errant child for this outburst and that made him even angrier. He forced himself to calm down and breathe easier. It was not like him to let people get to him like that. Link was one thing, but real people were something else altogether.
"That pathetic little man is not your son. He is not your precious little Jessica's son either." Wraith said much more smoothly. "You know this. He is too weak to be your son. I am the strong one. I am the only one that could have come from your bloodlines. Link says he is my brother, but I do not have a brother. I would not have put up with the presence of a rival. Not even in my mother's womb. I only put up with Link because there is no way for me to kill him."
"You are not my son." Sweeny said, regarding Wraith like an insect. "No son of mine could do the things you do."
"Oh, but I am your son." Wraith grinned, showing his teeth like a shark. "Search your heart. You know it is true. Ironic isn't it? You gave me my life and I am going to take yours just like I took my mother's. The great circle of life in a whole new light."
"What are you waiting for? Get it over with. It won't change anything. You will always be nothing more than a freak. Always on the outside looking in. Never knowing what it is like to have the love of your parents. Just finish it you little puke." Sweeny growled at him.
"You have goaded a response out of me once, but it will not happen again." Wraith said calmly. "Do you think I ever wanted your love? All I ever wanted was your death."
"Then just do it already. Do you think you are going to break me? You can never break me. I am stronger than that. I am stronger than you and I always will be. Just kill me already." Sweeny wished that he had not been in such a weakened state or he would have lunged at Wraith instead of just laying there waiting for his end to come.
"No." Wraith said. "I did not come here to kill you. If I wanted to kill you when you were helpless, I would have done so in Vixen's basement. I came here to see your pain at knowing who you brought into this world. I came here to let you know what a horrible death your first love experienced at my hands. How very sad that you did not even recognize her as she hung upside down from her own wall."
"If you walk out of here without ending me, I swear to god I will hunt you down and kill you. I don't care how long it takes or how far you run. I will follow you to the ends of this earth in order to make sure you never hurt anybody ever again." Sweeny promised him.
"I am sure that you will." Wraith said as he stood up and looked at the clock. It was nineteen minutes after ten o clock. Perfect. "In fact I am counting on it. Now if you will excuse me, I have some loose ends to tie up. So many people to kill and so little time."
He moved to the door and let one more evil smile part his lips and show his predatory teeth as he turned to look back at his estranged father. In an instant, he was gone and Sweeny was left alone in the room once more. It was only after Wraith had left that Sweeny realized he could have hit the button on his bed to call for help. Not that it would have done anything helpful. All that really would have happened would be for an innocent nurse to get murdered right in front of him. A few seconds after Wraith disappeared out of the room the clock turned to ten twenty, and Sweeny was left to ponder everything he had been told.