Post by mrsscarecrow on Jul 4, 2006 13:47:31 GMT -5
I know...I said I wasn't able to write a fanfic...but some days ago I saw the movie "A history of violence", and suddenly an idea for a fanfic started buzzing in my head...i decided I had to write it down, absolutely!!!
I made a "red eye" version of that movie...that it a kind of sequel.
Sorry for all the mistakes you may find...I made a huge effort to write it in my best english...and reading some fanfics helped me for my vocabulary.
so...here you are the first part (the other parts will come as soon as possible
) of....
AN ORDINARY LIFE ("A History of Violence" meets "Red Eye")
Part #1
That was a day like the others in Brillion, a little and very quiet town in the east of Wisconsin.
A cold November day.
Daniel Ramsay woke up early in the morning. Like every morning of his normal life.
His wife, Margaret, was still sleeping beside him.
He bent down on her, kissing her long, blonde hair.
“Good morning, sunshine…” he hissed softly in the woman’s ear.
Margaret murmured, half asleep.
“Daniel…it’s so early…I’m so tired…”
The man jumped off the bed, and quickly reached the wardrobe.
“Your breakfast…” she yawned “…is in the refrigerator…”
The icy-blue-eyed man took a shirt, a sweater and a pair of jeans out, and went into the bathroom.
He shaved himself and washed.
In front of the mirror, studying his own image in the frail morning light, the man rubbed his fingers on a little, not very noticeable scar on his throat, losing himself in thoughts for a while. His blues shone an odd spark.
Then, he got dressed.
He could hear his wife speaking in a very low voice, without making a move, “Have a nice day, love…”, and then she fell asleep again.
Daniel smiled at her, amused to hear his loveable sweet-pie snoring in such a funny way.
The house was so quiet and peaceful. The kids, an eight year-old boy, Christopher, and a four year-old girl, Elizabeth, were sleeping, too.
He felt so relaxed and full of happiness, eating his half-frozen breakfast and preparing himself to go to work, namely the direction of a little café in the eastern suburb of the city.
A new, beautiful day of his ordinary life was about to begin, and nothing seemed to be on the way to spoil it.
“sh*t!!!”
“Oh, shut your f*cking mouth, James!! Please!!”
Robert Finley shouted to the man sitting beside him inside the truck.
He was cleaning his blood-splattered hands while his fellow was counting the money in his own hands.
“That f*cking biatch!!! She gave us only 300$!!! I should have shot her in that $l*tty-face!!!” James Nolan continued in a hungry voice.
“Jesus, you damned arsehole!!!! Shut up!!!” he replied nervously.
Then Robert continued, taking off his shirt full of red spots.
“You didn’t shoot her in her face…but, anyway, you shot her in her chest…I think that doesn’t make any difference…”
The other man gave him a cold look, without saying a word.
“Keep cool…and change clothes, please…you look like you’ve been taking a blood-bath…”
“Right…” he replied, more relaxed.
While changing his shirt and cleaning up his face, he asked a little worried “D’you think police is stalking us right now?”
Robert thought for a while before answering dryly “No…but, if we don’t move quickly, they’re gonna find us…so…hurry up, please…”
In a few seconds, James had his new and clean clothes on.
They hid the faster they could the splattered clothes in a sack under the back-seat, and thrust their pistols under their belts.
After only half a minute they were driving very fast towards Brillion.
Margaret Ramsay entered ‘The Hungry Fox’, her husband’s café, with a big smile on her face, feeling joyful and happy.
She searched with her eyes Daniel, who was serving a young man sitting on one of the stool at the counter, in front of him.
He raised his head and saw his lovely wife.
“Honey…” he smiled gently to her, not expecting the view of the woman.
She felt those sparkling, amazing blue eyes straight on her face, and she was about to melt down, like everytime he gave her that look. The woman loved it so much.
Margaret run towards the husband, bending to kiss him.
“Love!! How’s today here?” she purred.
After kissing her, the man answered peacefully.
“Like every day…everything’s going great!” and he blinked at the blond-head.
She passed her fingers through his long, reddish-brown fringe, trying to tidy her husband’s hair up.
He kept it too long, according to Margaret. But that hairdo made him looking younger, even if his face itself looked like a younger man’s one. Daniel Ramsay actually didn’t seem to be nearly forty.
His nice freckles gave him a pretty boy look, and his particular facial features did the same.
The woman gave him a gaze full of love and sweetness.
“I’ve just popped into…because…I was around here and I wanted to see you…” she hissed gently.
Daniel kissed her on her cheek. “I’m glad to see you.”
Then she started “I was thinking…maybe that would be a good idea to take the children to the lake this week-end, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s perfect…absolutely...they’d have so much fun!”
A light shone in her green eyes.
“Right then!!” she replied excited. “You’re the most adorable man on earth…the best of the world…”
“Oh, well…I’m just a normal, ordinary man, Margaret…like many others on earth…I’m just…nothing special…”
“No, you’re not an ordinary man…you’re my man…” his wife told him softly.
“Now, love…I must go…see you later!!” she added.
“Ok honey…that’s ok…me too, I must go back to work, otherwise people will complain very badly” he laughed pretty loudly “…see you…”
The blond woman reached the front door and hissed softly “I love you.”
“I love you, Marge…”
She smiled and went out, fading out into the streets.
Daniel stared at the closed door absent-mindedly, repeating in a low voice “Yeah…I’m just a normal man…”
Then he came back to take the order of a red-head woman who had a pretty angry look on her face, had been waiting for a long time to be served.
“Sorry, ma’am” he tried to apologize, feeling a little bit awkward.
It was just closing time for ‘The Hungry Fox’, late in the evening.
Daniel was settling some things beyond the counter.
Lois Wellington, the waitress, was cleaning a ketchup-spotted table.
Jim Smith, Ramsay’s helper, was washing, next to Daniel, the last mug left to be cleaned.
On another table, there was Lois’ daughter, Ann, waiting for her mother. Sometimes, like that day, she helped her mom at the café.
The blue-eyed man was thinking about his children, while closing the cash till.
Suddenly, he heard the door opening with a loud noise.
Two strange men entered.
Daniel turned his icy blues to them, while the others stopped and looked at the two guys with a questioning glance.
“Sorry, sirs…we’re closing…” he said harshly to the men, frowning. He really didn’t like their faces.
“Oh…” replied quickly one of them, with a strange tone “…really? Well…we wanna eat something…we’re really hungry, man…right, James?” he gave to his fellow a conspiratorial look.
Daniel tightened his jaw and swallowed nervously. There was a weird atmosphere.
Lois, her daughter and Jim didn’t say a word and observed silent the strange, dark glimpse on Ramsay’s face.
The two fellows took a seat at the counter, one beside the other.
Daniel leant his hands on the cold surface in front of him, repeating with a very slow and sharp voice “I said…we’re closing…sorry…”
“I don’t think so…” Robert answered coldly, with a worring grin.
Daniel clenched more his jaw, making two steps backwards, keeping his eyes on the two men sitting in front of him.
“Right…” he hissed, a disquieting look on his face could be seen. “We have only some cold coffee and some cheesecake…nothing else…” he added.
“Ok, then…” the other man smiled at him. A cold, creepy smile.
Jim stood next to Daniel, not really at ease. “Jim…” the man said sharply, his freezing eyes still on the two guys “…please, take two pieces of that cheesecake and bring it to our customers…”
“S-sure…” replied quickly and nervously the helper.
The two ladies were breathing very fast, following the whole scene with a worried glance.
While taking the coffee jug, Mr Ramsay told the woman airily “Lois, you can go home with your daughter now…you’ve finished for today…see you tomorrow…”
Ann got nearer her mother, smiling, trying to hide her uneasiness.
“R-right, Daniel…s-see you tomorrow…” the woman hissed.
She took her purse and led the girl in front of herself, going towards the door.
Daniel could see Robert giving a quick look at his fellow.
“James…” he stated without making a move.
Suddenly, James grasped with a rapid movement one of Ann’s forearms.
The girl screamed terrified, and her mother tried to set her free from the man’s grip.
He pushed the woman towards a table with violence, and yelled at Ann “You’re not going anywhere, honey…”
Panic filled the café.
Daniel tried to keep cool.
“We don’t have much money…take all the cash…if that’s what you want…” the man said quietly, with his hands raised.
He could see that the two guys had guns under their belts.
Ann was crying. Lois was trembling with fear, some blood running down her arm. Jim stood silent.
“That’s what we want to…and after it…we’re gonna kill you all…” James replied coldly, laughing in a creepy way.
Daniel felt a chilling shiver running on his spine.
“But first, I wanna have some fun with this little flower…” he caressed Ann’s cheek, wet with tears. She didn’t move, paralysed and shaking horrified.
Her mother shrieked “Took that f*cking hand off of my daughter, you…you…” her voice suffocated with the crying and fear.
James aimed quickly his gun at the woman. “…otherwise…what are you going to do, you dirty biatch? Huh?!” he gave her a freezing glance, touching with the other hand Ann’s breast.
“James…c’mon…don’t play the fool…” laughed ironical Robert, with his gun in his hand.
It all happened very fast.
Daniel took a knife from behind the counter, jumped beyond it and, with a precise stroke, cut Robert’s throat deeply, spreading the man’s blood all around. The robber fell backwards, on the ground, bleeding and gasping.
The gun fell from the man’s hand, and Ramsay caught the weapon in less than a second.
James shot Daniel, causing only a superficial wound on his right shoulder.
Coldly, with an astonishing, freezing look on his face, Daniel shot the other man, one time,
two times, three times, very quickly and frantically, not giving James enough time to realise what was going on.
The other robber dropped on his knees, before collapsing on the ground, blood running from the gunshots on his chest.
Silence fell all around. Only the rapid and nervous breaths of the three people cold be heard, together with Ann’s desperate sobs.
There were huge red spots everywhere.
Jim looked oddly at Daniel.
He was standing steadily, blood dropping from his right hand, his fringe untidy on his forehead, the gun still aimed at the dead man laying on the ground in front of him. His breath was rapid, and a disquieting, freezing, strange look was pictured on his face, dirty with spurts of blood. His blues had a terrible creepy emotionless glance.
The others had never seen him like that. Lois felt really deeply scared by the man and, especially, by those eyes.
For that short moment, Daniel Ramsay totally seemed another person.
He actually looked like a cold-blooded, merciless killer.
“Daniel Ramsay: a local hero. The thirty-nine year-old man from Brillion, Wisconsin, last night saved himself and three other persons from Robert Finley, forty-five, and James Nolan, forty-two, two dangerous criminals wanted by the police of thirteen states for mugging, murder and rape…”
Daniel turned off the television of his hospital room with the remote, annoyed by all that fuzz about the event.
There was something that really disturbed him. An eerie feeling that didn’t seem willing to go away.
He passed his fingers on his right shoulder, now covered with bandage. It didn’t hurt much.
That wouldn’t have taken too much to heal.
The man took a look out of the window, staring at the sky lost in thoughts.
“My hero!!!”
A sudden and familiar voice caught back his attention.
He turned quickly and saw his wife, with the children, standing there with a big, proud smile on her face.
“Daddy!!! Daddy!!” Christopher run towards his father, jumping on the man’s bed.
Daniel embraced his son and kissed the top of his head.
“You’re great, dad!!!” the child smiled eagerly.
Margaret got near her husband, with the little Elizabeth in her arms.
“Oh, my boy…I’m not so great…” he replied, a little awkwardly.
“You are, Daniel…” pointed out the woman, glad to see her lovely hero. “You saved four lives yesterday…not everybody can do a thing like that…”
He lowered his blues, tightening his grip on Christopher.
Margaret was a little bit worried by the dark look of the man.
“What’s the matter, love?” she asked softly, sitting beside him and rubbing his left forearm.
“Mh…I’m just a little…tired…you know…” he murmured.
“Oh, yes, I see…it hasn’t been a quiet night this one…”
She stood up, caressing gently her daughter’s blond curls.
“The doctor says you can come back home now…that’s great, isn’t it?” the woman stated with a huge, happy smile.
Daniel gave her a rapid glimpse, with a sigh. “Yes…it is…I’m really looking forward to go home…” he hissed with a strange uneasiness in his eyes.
Elizabeth put her little arms around her dad’s neck. The girl gave him a sweet kiss on his cheek and told him with her little voice “I love you, dad…”
The man stared at his daughter’s green eyes, smiling, and then he leant his chin on her head.
“Let’s go home” Mr Ramsay said, his gaze lost in some dark thoughts.
“Oh god…journalists everywhere…” Margaret noticed, rolling her eyes with resignation.
The Ramsay family was trying to make its way to the car, surrounded by people with microphones and cameras.
“Mr Ramsay!! Mr Ramsay!! What did you think when you reacted to the criminals’ threats?!”
“Mr Ramsay, please!!! A comment for our tele-viewers!!”
“Mr Ramsay!! How does it feel like to be a hero?!”
Daniel felt terribly nervous and annoyed. He cast a sharp glimpse at the people all around, but didn’t say a word. He kept his children and his wife very tight.
They finally reached the car and quickly jumped in. Before closing the car door, the woman said harshly “My husband is really tired…and his family, too…so please leave us in peace, ok?”
“Mrs Ramsay! Please!! How…”
She shut the door with a big slam and after only a few seconds they went away, driving home, leaving behind a huge, unsatisfied crowd.
In front of Ramsays’house there was a Channel 4 crew, the reporter Natalie Thomson and her cameraman.
“Right! We’re here, in front of Ramsay’s habitation. The man has just left the hospital and we can see his car coming nearer! We’ll be able, in a few seconds, to talk with this local hero!” the young woman said enthusiastically to the camera.
The man’s car reached the house, and the journalist approached it very quickly.
The family went out, clearly annoyed and tense.
“Good evening, Mr Ramsay! This is Natalie Thomson, for ‘Channel 4 News’! How do you feel right now, after the extraordinary events of yesterday? How could you manage with such a coolness so dangerous a situation? What did you think in those moments?”
She bent the mic towards the man.
He screwed up his eyes, giving a freezing look to the woman, who felt a creepy shiver through her back.
“I just did what everybody should have to in that moment…there wasn’t much time to think it over…that’s all…and now, I beg your pardon, but I’m feeling really tired and dizzy…” Daniel answered coldly, going straight to his home’s door, followed by Margaret and the children.
They slammed the door behind their backs, leaving the reporter and the cameraman alone, very upset.
“Oh…sh*t…” Natalie complained, frowning, after the camera was turned off. “This guy is so f*cking rather unsociable…”
She went on the Channel 4 truck with Bobby, the cameraman, and before closing the door she hissed “And…god…have you seen his eyes?! They were so scary…and so terribly…icy.”
Margaret watched them go away from the living room window, sighing with relief.
“They’ve gone” she told Daniel.
“Oh, holy Jesus…” he leant on the sofa, closing his eyes.
Suddenly, the woman cried out “Oh, hell!! There are more outside!! Why can’t they leave us in peace for a while?!” and she left the room.
Daniel jumped on his feet, reaching the window and looking outside.
There was a black car, parked on the other side of the street, with black glasses. A huge limousine.
The man had an odd feeling all so sudden.
“I don’t think they are journalists…” he murmured worried, a dark glance on his eyes.
“Have you said something, love?” Margaret asked him from the kitchen.
“No…” he replied sharply and thoughtful, raising his voice.
After a moment the black limousine had gone away.
Daniel kept staring out absent-mindedly for a while, before reaching his family in the kitchen, and trying to act as the usual.
That eerie feeling was still there, inside him.
“They’re all for you, ‘sweet hero o’mine’!!” Margaret pointed at the huge crowd sitting at the tables and on the stools of ‘The Hungry Fox’.
She leant her elbows on the counter, smiling at her husband, who looked very busy.
The café was really full of people, all there to see the ‘great’ Daniel Ramsay, the new hero of Brillion. It had never been so lively that little cafeteria. Everybody was chatting and laughing and so on.
Every now and then, new people came inside and told him how much they respected him for what he had done and many other similar things, which got Daniel not very at ease. He didn’t like to be so popular.
He made only a little cold smile in response to his wife’s words.
The man was serving an old woman, sitting beside Margaret, when he heard the door opening again.
“Other customers…” Mrs Ramsay told him very amused.
He turned to the people just entered, and felt suddenly an icy shiver.
There were two men dressed in black suits, with black sunglasses. Between them, there was another shorter one, in a dark-blue suit, with black sunglasses, too. The shorter one reached the counter and put off the glasses. There was a creepy look on his face.
“Good morning, sir…how could I help you…” Daniel asked in a sharp voice from behind the counter, after swallowing.
The two other men took a seat beside the dark-blue dressed one, one on his left and the other one on his right..
“Good morning…me and my ‘friends’ would like to eat a piece of cake and drink something…” he replied calmly, but there was something very strange in his voice.
“Right…we make the best apple-pie in the whole state of Wisconsin…” Daniel added with an odd spark in his blues.
“Ok, then…we take it…and also some coffee, if you don’t mind, Jack…” the other man told Mr Ramsay airily.
Daniel clenched his jaw and screwed up his eyes. His wife made a questioning and worried gaze.
“Or…do you prefer to be called with your full name, Jackson? I know you didn’t like it so much…because with your surname it sounds like ‘Jack the Ripper’…” the strange man added with a disquieting grin.
Daniel smiled nervously. “Sorry…but I think you have mistaken me with someone else…my name is Daniel…Daniel Ramsay…”
“Really?!” the other said pretending to be surprised, raising an eyebrow.
The blue-eyed man poured some coffee in three mugs and gave them to the three strangers.
“Really.” He stated dryly.
“Ok, then…if you say that…” the dark-blue-dressed man added ironically.
“And here’s your cake…” Daniel lowered his gaze.
“Thanks, Jackson…”
Ramsay took a big breath and leant his hands on the counter, giving a dark smile to the stranger.
“I told you…” he stated nervously “I’m Daniel Ramsay…”
The other man replied in a sharp voice “Don’t play with me…I could recognize those f*cking creepy eyes among a thousands…You are Jackson Rippner.”
Daniel shook his head slowly, keeping his eyes on the man’s face.
“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t really know who this ‘Jackson Rippner’ is….” he hissed, with a freezing glance.
The stranger laughed. “Oh, now you pretend you don’t even know me…but…if this is what you want…ok then, ‘Daniel’…”
The blue-dressed man put his sunglasses on again, and stood up slowly, followed by his ‘friends’.
Daniel kept his eyes on them, frowning.
Before going out, the man look backwards to Daniel.
“See you soon, Jackson…bye bye…” and smiled in a creepy way.
The door closed behind their backs.
Margaret gave her husband a terrified gaze.
He kept steadily his hands on the counter, staring at the door, tightening more his jaw.
The woman quickly took her mobile and dialed a number.
“Daniel…I didn’t like those men…who the hell they were?! And what do they want from you?! Why did he call you that?! I’m calling the sheriff right now…” she cried out, with a horrified look.
“I don’t know, Marge…really, I don’t know…” he replied with an icy, slow, low voice, still staring at the closed door with an eerie feeling at the bottom of his soul.
I made a "red eye" version of that movie...that it a kind of sequel.
Sorry for all the mistakes you may find...I made a huge effort to write it in my best english...and reading some fanfics helped me for my vocabulary.
so...here you are the first part (the other parts will come as soon as possible
) of....AN ORDINARY LIFE ("A History of Violence" meets "Red Eye")
Part #1
That was a day like the others in Brillion, a little and very quiet town in the east of Wisconsin.
A cold November day.
Daniel Ramsay woke up early in the morning. Like every morning of his normal life.
His wife, Margaret, was still sleeping beside him.
He bent down on her, kissing her long, blonde hair.
“Good morning, sunshine…” he hissed softly in the woman’s ear.
Margaret murmured, half asleep.
“Daniel…it’s so early…I’m so tired…”
The man jumped off the bed, and quickly reached the wardrobe.
“Your breakfast…” she yawned “…is in the refrigerator…”
The icy-blue-eyed man took a shirt, a sweater and a pair of jeans out, and went into the bathroom.
He shaved himself and washed.
In front of the mirror, studying his own image in the frail morning light, the man rubbed his fingers on a little, not very noticeable scar on his throat, losing himself in thoughts for a while. His blues shone an odd spark.
Then, he got dressed.
He could hear his wife speaking in a very low voice, without making a move, “Have a nice day, love…”, and then she fell asleep again.
Daniel smiled at her, amused to hear his loveable sweet-pie snoring in such a funny way.
The house was so quiet and peaceful. The kids, an eight year-old boy, Christopher, and a four year-old girl, Elizabeth, were sleeping, too.
He felt so relaxed and full of happiness, eating his half-frozen breakfast and preparing himself to go to work, namely the direction of a little café in the eastern suburb of the city.
A new, beautiful day of his ordinary life was about to begin, and nothing seemed to be on the way to spoil it.
“sh*t!!!”
“Oh, shut your f*cking mouth, James!! Please!!”
Robert Finley shouted to the man sitting beside him inside the truck.
He was cleaning his blood-splattered hands while his fellow was counting the money in his own hands.
“That f*cking biatch!!! She gave us only 300$!!! I should have shot her in that $l*tty-face!!!” James Nolan continued in a hungry voice.
“Jesus, you damned arsehole!!!! Shut up!!!” he replied nervously.
Then Robert continued, taking off his shirt full of red spots.
“You didn’t shoot her in her face…but, anyway, you shot her in her chest…I think that doesn’t make any difference…”
The other man gave him a cold look, without saying a word.
“Keep cool…and change clothes, please…you look like you’ve been taking a blood-bath…”
“Right…” he replied, more relaxed.
While changing his shirt and cleaning up his face, he asked a little worried “D’you think police is stalking us right now?”
Robert thought for a while before answering dryly “No…but, if we don’t move quickly, they’re gonna find us…so…hurry up, please…”
In a few seconds, James had his new and clean clothes on.
They hid the faster they could the splattered clothes in a sack under the back-seat, and thrust their pistols under their belts.
After only half a minute they were driving very fast towards Brillion.
Margaret Ramsay entered ‘The Hungry Fox’, her husband’s café, with a big smile on her face, feeling joyful and happy.
She searched with her eyes Daniel, who was serving a young man sitting on one of the stool at the counter, in front of him.
He raised his head and saw his lovely wife.
“Honey…” he smiled gently to her, not expecting the view of the woman.
She felt those sparkling, amazing blue eyes straight on her face, and she was about to melt down, like everytime he gave her that look. The woman loved it so much.
Margaret run towards the husband, bending to kiss him.
“Love!! How’s today here?” she purred.
After kissing her, the man answered peacefully.
“Like every day…everything’s going great!” and he blinked at the blond-head.
She passed her fingers through his long, reddish-brown fringe, trying to tidy her husband’s hair up.
He kept it too long, according to Margaret. But that hairdo made him looking younger, even if his face itself looked like a younger man’s one. Daniel Ramsay actually didn’t seem to be nearly forty.
His nice freckles gave him a pretty boy look, and his particular facial features did the same.
The woman gave him a gaze full of love and sweetness.
“I’ve just popped into…because…I was around here and I wanted to see you…” she hissed gently.
Daniel kissed her on her cheek. “I’m glad to see you.”
Then she started “I was thinking…maybe that would be a good idea to take the children to the lake this week-end, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s perfect…absolutely...they’d have so much fun!”
A light shone in her green eyes.
“Right then!!” she replied excited. “You’re the most adorable man on earth…the best of the world…”
“Oh, well…I’m just a normal, ordinary man, Margaret…like many others on earth…I’m just…nothing special…”
“No, you’re not an ordinary man…you’re my man…” his wife told him softly.
“Now, love…I must go…see you later!!” she added.
“Ok honey…that’s ok…me too, I must go back to work, otherwise people will complain very badly” he laughed pretty loudly “…see you…”
The blond woman reached the front door and hissed softly “I love you.”
“I love you, Marge…”
She smiled and went out, fading out into the streets.
Daniel stared at the closed door absent-mindedly, repeating in a low voice “Yeah…I’m just a normal man…”
Then he came back to take the order of a red-head woman who had a pretty angry look on her face, had been waiting for a long time to be served.
“Sorry, ma’am” he tried to apologize, feeling a little bit awkward.
It was just closing time for ‘The Hungry Fox’, late in the evening.
Daniel was settling some things beyond the counter.
Lois Wellington, the waitress, was cleaning a ketchup-spotted table.
Jim Smith, Ramsay’s helper, was washing, next to Daniel, the last mug left to be cleaned.
On another table, there was Lois’ daughter, Ann, waiting for her mother. Sometimes, like that day, she helped her mom at the café.
The blue-eyed man was thinking about his children, while closing the cash till.
Suddenly, he heard the door opening with a loud noise.
Two strange men entered.
Daniel turned his icy blues to them, while the others stopped and looked at the two guys with a questioning glance.
“Sorry, sirs…we’re closing…” he said harshly to the men, frowning. He really didn’t like their faces.
“Oh…” replied quickly one of them, with a strange tone “…really? Well…we wanna eat something…we’re really hungry, man…right, James?” he gave to his fellow a conspiratorial look.
Daniel tightened his jaw and swallowed nervously. There was a weird atmosphere.
Lois, her daughter and Jim didn’t say a word and observed silent the strange, dark glimpse on Ramsay’s face.
The two fellows took a seat at the counter, one beside the other.
Daniel leant his hands on the cold surface in front of him, repeating with a very slow and sharp voice “I said…we’re closing…sorry…”
“I don’t think so…” Robert answered coldly, with a worring grin.
Daniel clenched more his jaw, making two steps backwards, keeping his eyes on the two men sitting in front of him.
“Right…” he hissed, a disquieting look on his face could be seen. “We have only some cold coffee and some cheesecake…nothing else…” he added.
“Ok, then…” the other man smiled at him. A cold, creepy smile.
Jim stood next to Daniel, not really at ease. “Jim…” the man said sharply, his freezing eyes still on the two guys “…please, take two pieces of that cheesecake and bring it to our customers…”
“S-sure…” replied quickly and nervously the helper.
The two ladies were breathing very fast, following the whole scene with a worried glance.
While taking the coffee jug, Mr Ramsay told the woman airily “Lois, you can go home with your daughter now…you’ve finished for today…see you tomorrow…”
Ann got nearer her mother, smiling, trying to hide her uneasiness.
“R-right, Daniel…s-see you tomorrow…” the woman hissed.
She took her purse and led the girl in front of herself, going towards the door.
Daniel could see Robert giving a quick look at his fellow.
“James…” he stated without making a move.
Suddenly, James grasped with a rapid movement one of Ann’s forearms.
The girl screamed terrified, and her mother tried to set her free from the man’s grip.
He pushed the woman towards a table with violence, and yelled at Ann “You’re not going anywhere, honey…”
Panic filled the café.
Daniel tried to keep cool.
“We don’t have much money…take all the cash…if that’s what you want…” the man said quietly, with his hands raised.
He could see that the two guys had guns under their belts.
Ann was crying. Lois was trembling with fear, some blood running down her arm. Jim stood silent.
“That’s what we want to…and after it…we’re gonna kill you all…” James replied coldly, laughing in a creepy way.
Daniel felt a chilling shiver running on his spine.
“But first, I wanna have some fun with this little flower…” he caressed Ann’s cheek, wet with tears. She didn’t move, paralysed and shaking horrified.
Her mother shrieked “Took that f*cking hand off of my daughter, you…you…” her voice suffocated with the crying and fear.
James aimed quickly his gun at the woman. “…otherwise…what are you going to do, you dirty biatch? Huh?!” he gave her a freezing glance, touching with the other hand Ann’s breast.
“James…c’mon…don’t play the fool…” laughed ironical Robert, with his gun in his hand.
It all happened very fast.
Daniel took a knife from behind the counter, jumped beyond it and, with a precise stroke, cut Robert’s throat deeply, spreading the man’s blood all around. The robber fell backwards, on the ground, bleeding and gasping.
The gun fell from the man’s hand, and Ramsay caught the weapon in less than a second.
James shot Daniel, causing only a superficial wound on his right shoulder.
Coldly, with an astonishing, freezing look on his face, Daniel shot the other man, one time,
two times, three times, very quickly and frantically, not giving James enough time to realise what was going on.
The other robber dropped on his knees, before collapsing on the ground, blood running from the gunshots on his chest.
Silence fell all around. Only the rapid and nervous breaths of the three people cold be heard, together with Ann’s desperate sobs.
There were huge red spots everywhere.
Jim looked oddly at Daniel.
He was standing steadily, blood dropping from his right hand, his fringe untidy on his forehead, the gun still aimed at the dead man laying on the ground in front of him. His breath was rapid, and a disquieting, freezing, strange look was pictured on his face, dirty with spurts of blood. His blues had a terrible creepy emotionless glance.
The others had never seen him like that. Lois felt really deeply scared by the man and, especially, by those eyes.
For that short moment, Daniel Ramsay totally seemed another person.
He actually looked like a cold-blooded, merciless killer.
“Daniel Ramsay: a local hero. The thirty-nine year-old man from Brillion, Wisconsin, last night saved himself and three other persons from Robert Finley, forty-five, and James Nolan, forty-two, two dangerous criminals wanted by the police of thirteen states for mugging, murder and rape…”
Daniel turned off the television of his hospital room with the remote, annoyed by all that fuzz about the event.
There was something that really disturbed him. An eerie feeling that didn’t seem willing to go away.
He passed his fingers on his right shoulder, now covered with bandage. It didn’t hurt much.
That wouldn’t have taken too much to heal.
The man took a look out of the window, staring at the sky lost in thoughts.
“My hero!!!”
A sudden and familiar voice caught back his attention.
He turned quickly and saw his wife, with the children, standing there with a big, proud smile on her face.
“Daddy!!! Daddy!!” Christopher run towards his father, jumping on the man’s bed.
Daniel embraced his son and kissed the top of his head.
“You’re great, dad!!!” the child smiled eagerly.
Margaret got near her husband, with the little Elizabeth in her arms.
“Oh, my boy…I’m not so great…” he replied, a little awkwardly.
“You are, Daniel…” pointed out the woman, glad to see her lovely hero. “You saved four lives yesterday…not everybody can do a thing like that…”
He lowered his blues, tightening his grip on Christopher.
Margaret was a little bit worried by the dark look of the man.
“What’s the matter, love?” she asked softly, sitting beside him and rubbing his left forearm.
“Mh…I’m just a little…tired…you know…” he murmured.
“Oh, yes, I see…it hasn’t been a quiet night this one…”
She stood up, caressing gently her daughter’s blond curls.
“The doctor says you can come back home now…that’s great, isn’t it?” the woman stated with a huge, happy smile.
Daniel gave her a rapid glimpse, with a sigh. “Yes…it is…I’m really looking forward to go home…” he hissed with a strange uneasiness in his eyes.
Elizabeth put her little arms around her dad’s neck. The girl gave him a sweet kiss on his cheek and told him with her little voice “I love you, dad…”
The man stared at his daughter’s green eyes, smiling, and then he leant his chin on her head.
“Let’s go home” Mr Ramsay said, his gaze lost in some dark thoughts.
“Oh god…journalists everywhere…” Margaret noticed, rolling her eyes with resignation.
The Ramsay family was trying to make its way to the car, surrounded by people with microphones and cameras.
“Mr Ramsay!! Mr Ramsay!! What did you think when you reacted to the criminals’ threats?!”
“Mr Ramsay, please!!! A comment for our tele-viewers!!”
“Mr Ramsay!! How does it feel like to be a hero?!”
Daniel felt terribly nervous and annoyed. He cast a sharp glimpse at the people all around, but didn’t say a word. He kept his children and his wife very tight.
They finally reached the car and quickly jumped in. Before closing the car door, the woman said harshly “My husband is really tired…and his family, too…so please leave us in peace, ok?”
“Mrs Ramsay! Please!! How…”
She shut the door with a big slam and after only a few seconds they went away, driving home, leaving behind a huge, unsatisfied crowd.
In front of Ramsays’house there was a Channel 4 crew, the reporter Natalie Thomson and her cameraman.
“Right! We’re here, in front of Ramsay’s habitation. The man has just left the hospital and we can see his car coming nearer! We’ll be able, in a few seconds, to talk with this local hero!” the young woman said enthusiastically to the camera.
The man’s car reached the house, and the journalist approached it very quickly.
The family went out, clearly annoyed and tense.
“Good evening, Mr Ramsay! This is Natalie Thomson, for ‘Channel 4 News’! How do you feel right now, after the extraordinary events of yesterday? How could you manage with such a coolness so dangerous a situation? What did you think in those moments?”
She bent the mic towards the man.
He screwed up his eyes, giving a freezing look to the woman, who felt a creepy shiver through her back.
“I just did what everybody should have to in that moment…there wasn’t much time to think it over…that’s all…and now, I beg your pardon, but I’m feeling really tired and dizzy…” Daniel answered coldly, going straight to his home’s door, followed by Margaret and the children.
They slammed the door behind their backs, leaving the reporter and the cameraman alone, very upset.
“Oh…sh*t…” Natalie complained, frowning, after the camera was turned off. “This guy is so f*cking rather unsociable…”
She went on the Channel 4 truck with Bobby, the cameraman, and before closing the door she hissed “And…god…have you seen his eyes?! They were so scary…and so terribly…icy.”
Margaret watched them go away from the living room window, sighing with relief.
“They’ve gone” she told Daniel.
“Oh, holy Jesus…” he leant on the sofa, closing his eyes.
Suddenly, the woman cried out “Oh, hell!! There are more outside!! Why can’t they leave us in peace for a while?!” and she left the room.
Daniel jumped on his feet, reaching the window and looking outside.
There was a black car, parked on the other side of the street, with black glasses. A huge limousine.
The man had an odd feeling all so sudden.
“I don’t think they are journalists…” he murmured worried, a dark glance on his eyes.
“Have you said something, love?” Margaret asked him from the kitchen.
“No…” he replied sharply and thoughtful, raising his voice.
After a moment the black limousine had gone away.
Daniel kept staring out absent-mindedly for a while, before reaching his family in the kitchen, and trying to act as the usual.
That eerie feeling was still there, inside him.
“They’re all for you, ‘sweet hero o’mine’!!” Margaret pointed at the huge crowd sitting at the tables and on the stools of ‘The Hungry Fox’.
She leant her elbows on the counter, smiling at her husband, who looked very busy.
The café was really full of people, all there to see the ‘great’ Daniel Ramsay, the new hero of Brillion. It had never been so lively that little cafeteria. Everybody was chatting and laughing and so on.
Every now and then, new people came inside and told him how much they respected him for what he had done and many other similar things, which got Daniel not very at ease. He didn’t like to be so popular.
He made only a little cold smile in response to his wife’s words.
The man was serving an old woman, sitting beside Margaret, when he heard the door opening again.
“Other customers…” Mrs Ramsay told him very amused.
He turned to the people just entered, and felt suddenly an icy shiver.
There were two men dressed in black suits, with black sunglasses. Between them, there was another shorter one, in a dark-blue suit, with black sunglasses, too. The shorter one reached the counter and put off the glasses. There was a creepy look on his face.
“Good morning, sir…how could I help you…” Daniel asked in a sharp voice from behind the counter, after swallowing.
The two other men took a seat beside the dark-blue dressed one, one on his left and the other one on his right..
“Good morning…me and my ‘friends’ would like to eat a piece of cake and drink something…” he replied calmly, but there was something very strange in his voice.
“Right…we make the best apple-pie in the whole state of Wisconsin…” Daniel added with an odd spark in his blues.
“Ok, then…we take it…and also some coffee, if you don’t mind, Jack…” the other man told Mr Ramsay airily.
Daniel clenched his jaw and screwed up his eyes. His wife made a questioning and worried gaze.
“Or…do you prefer to be called with your full name, Jackson? I know you didn’t like it so much…because with your surname it sounds like ‘Jack the Ripper’…” the strange man added with a disquieting grin.
Daniel smiled nervously. “Sorry…but I think you have mistaken me with someone else…my name is Daniel…Daniel Ramsay…”
“Really?!” the other said pretending to be surprised, raising an eyebrow.
The blue-eyed man poured some coffee in three mugs and gave them to the three strangers.
“Really.” He stated dryly.
“Ok, then…if you say that…” the dark-blue-dressed man added ironically.
“And here’s your cake…” Daniel lowered his gaze.
“Thanks, Jackson…”
Ramsay took a big breath and leant his hands on the counter, giving a dark smile to the stranger.
“I told you…” he stated nervously “I’m Daniel Ramsay…”
The other man replied in a sharp voice “Don’t play with me…I could recognize those f*cking creepy eyes among a thousands…You are Jackson Rippner.”
Daniel shook his head slowly, keeping his eyes on the man’s face.
“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t really know who this ‘Jackson Rippner’ is….” he hissed, with a freezing glance.
The stranger laughed. “Oh, now you pretend you don’t even know me…but…if this is what you want…ok then, ‘Daniel’…”
The blue-dressed man put his sunglasses on again, and stood up slowly, followed by his ‘friends’.
Daniel kept his eyes on them, frowning.
Before going out, the man look backwards to Daniel.
“See you soon, Jackson…bye bye…” and smiled in a creepy way.
The door closed behind their backs.
Margaret gave her husband a terrified gaze.
He kept steadily his hands on the counter, staring at the door, tightening more his jaw.
The woman quickly took her mobile and dialed a number.
“Daniel…I didn’t like those men…who the hell they were?! And what do they want from you?! Why did he call you that?! I’m calling the sheriff right now…” she cried out, with a horrified look.
“I don’t know, Marge…really, I don’t know…” he replied with an icy, slow, low voice, still staring at the closed door with an eerie feeling at the bottom of his soul.
” she shouted full of anger. Tears began to run down.