Double Indemnity
Round 1 Part 2
Ursula

Somewhere, somewhere, somewhere, Anson knew he was out there, he could feel the connection calling to him. His brother, his twin, his completion.

Anson had always been the bad luck king. He was always in the wrong place at the right time. Now that had changed. It started with what happened at the court. That Doctor had come to see him, the smart-ass doctor that had tricked him at the hospital, asking those questions and making him remember the bad things.

Covering his ears, Anson sang as loudly as he could to block the man's words. The guard had been angry and he had reached for Anson's hands to drag them down.

"Listen to the man," the guard had said.

When Anson looked up, the guard had grown huge. He loomed over him. Cuffed to the heavy chair, Anson had not been able to run. He had bent, keening in fear, trying to fold up inside his skin. Eventually, he had found a hiding place in the cool darkness of his skull. He curled up there and went to sleep as he had done when Mom brought home the bad men.

That might not sound like good luck, but when Anson woke up, he was in a hospital. A pair of orderlies had just finished giving him a bath. Anson could still smell the harsh soap and feel the chill on his skin. He didn't open his eyes, just stayed still, afraid of what might happen.

Suddenly bedlam erupted outside. Anson heard screaming and shouting. The two orderlies ran from the room. One of them looked behind him and said, "What about the stiff?"

"He's been catatonic for a year. You think he's going wake up and start running around now? Come on," the other man said.

"Fire, fire," someone was yelling. Anson dressed and hid under the bed.

Later, Anson saw shoes. Someone said, "Where did he go?"

"Someone got him already," a man said, coughing.

Waiting until he heard the door shut, Anson took a deep breath, wet a towel and crouched by the door. It didn't feel hot. Anson slowly opened it and smoke roiled into the room.

The corridor was filled with smoke. Anson wasn't afraid. His father, his real father, always said keep low, cover your mouth and nose if you can, and keep your head.

Combat crawling, Anson heard someone crying. He found a nurse trapped under an overturned desk. His muscles ached from long disuse, but his body was still strong. He pushed the desk away and dragged the woman out of the building.

A little later, the nurse pressed keys in his hand, "Take the red Suburu, license plate RVK 347. It's in the east employee's parking lot." She smiled at him and said, "My name is Gwen. I don't believe what they said about you. You wouldn't have saved me if you were capable of killing."

OooOooO

Gwen was an angel, a brown faced, brown-eyed angel. Anson had kissed her cheek, squeezed her hand, and then the stretcher crew took her away, never even looking twice at Anson.

Anson drove the car to a train station, locked the keys inside, and hitched a ride to the bus station. He had blacked out for a night and when he came back to himself, he had five hundred dollars in his pockets. He felt stiff and sore in places, but he couldn't find blood on himself. It was best just not to think about it. Maybe angel Gwen gave him the money.

OooOooO

Anson's inner compass led him steadily southward. He slept fitfully on the bus. Occasionally, when he woke, he had more money in his pockets and that same aching in his body. He picked up papers discarded in the bus stations and checked, but however he was getting money, it wasn't newsworthy. Anson grimaced as he encountered empty foil packets that had held condoms. Flat packets of lube also turned up. He wouldn't think about it.

Waking again, Anson looked out the window and saw that the bus was passing through Baltimore. It was a foggy dark morning. For a moment, Anson thought his twin was keeping pace with the bus, staring wistfully at him. He realized swiftly that it was his own reflection. Anyone could have made that mistake, he thought. He wasn't crazy. He wasn't.

OooOooO

Dreaming, it was the golden time. The good time. Papa was singing as he prepared for work. Mama's voice slightly raised commented, "Tony, you said you would think about a different job."

Papa's voice chuckled as he said, "I'm thinking, I'm thinking, Elizabeth. I'm thinking that I'm a fireman and that's who you married."

Anson turned contentedly, rooting around until he found his brother's hand and brought it to his mouth to suck Alex's thumb. Mama cried for a while after Papa left.

The bad man came to visit. He always poked and prodded at the twins. He terrified Anson who hid from him, but Alex was bolder and was willing to accept candy from stinky man. The man always smelled horrible from cigarettes. Papa hated smoking and yelled at Mom for letting her father smoke in the house.

After the bad man left, Mama took a nap. Anson didn't care as long as Alex and he had milk in the tommy-tippee cups and animal crackers to eat in front of the morning cartoons.

Mama was nice sometimes, but sometimes she was mean. Anson was happiest when Papa was home. Papa didn't always sleep at the house and when he slept at the station, Mama was always upset. She would spank Anson and slap Alex until Anson's brother would say, "You stop. I tell Papa."

Mama would get mad, but she would stop. Once when Mama was spanking Anson for breaking the jam jar, Alex punched and kicked her, saying, "You not hit brother."

Mama had slapped Alex so hard that his nose bled, but Alex still glared at her. Mama locked Alex in the closet. Anson asked her to put him in the closet too because that was the one thing that scared Alex, but she wouldn't.

After Papa came home a long time later, he was angry. He sent Mama away to the hospital for two weeks. That was the best time that Anson could remember. Papa was home for most of it and when he was not, a big soft fleshed Black woman baby-sat he and Alex. Anson and Alex even went to the fire station to visit with Papa. Anson remembered one of the firemen put his helmet on his head and asked if he was going to be a brave fireman just like Papa. Of course, Anson said, yes. Alex said that he was going to be a policeman. He was impressed by the one that found the twins when they wandered out of the house and were lost. The firemen laughed and said that being a policeman was good too.

Anson cried when Mama came home. She was better for a long time, but then the terrible day came when a fireman came to the door. Anson ran to see him, but just then Mama screamed for the longest time.

It took a long time before Anson realized that Papa wasn't coming home.

That was bad, but then the man who smoked too much came and took Alex. Mama tried to send Anson too, but the man said, "No, Elizabeth, Anson is too much like you. I can make something of Alex."

And Alex was gone. Anson never saw his twin, the center of his life, again, but he could feel him sometimes.

If Alex had not been taken, he would have known how to handle the man Mama brought home, the man who touched Anson in bad ways when Mama wasn't looking. He wouldn't have to take Papa's gun and make them go away.

After the hospital, the urge to find Alex was stronger than ever. Anson could feel where he was. He followed the bond to find Alex. He knew that once he was back with his brother that the clouds would lift and he would soon become a fireman just as was supposed to happen.

OooOooO

Washington DC was bigger than Los Angeles. Anson tried to follow the bus route toward the beacon in his soul, but the buses would start out in the correct direction and then turn in a different direction all together.

"Krycek!" someone yelled.

Anson turned and saw a large balding man charging at him. He frowned and then noticed the other man.

It was the bad man who had taken Alex. Anson felt the hot, scarlet rage well up, like hate bleeding from him.

"Alex, what are you doing here?" the smoking man asked.

Anson said nothing, sneering at the stinking, gray-faced creature.

When the man grabbed him and shook him, Anson drew the knife he had found in his jacket. The short blade dug into the gray-faced man again and again. Blood was everywhere. The other man didn't try to stop him until the old man fell to the sidewalk. Anson could hear a strange whistling sound. He could see bubbles in the red gushing from the man's chest.

Panicked, Anson wailed as the balding man made a grab for him. He fled, long legs taking him to safety. He let the darkness take over, knowing his instincts would find him a place to hide. He would have to look for Alex later.

OooOooO

Lynda, you're up next.