The Curse Of Eden
Chapter 30- Finale; The cat is out

"Kristen." Collette called, as she stumbled into the tech room. Her breaths were short and her face flushed.

"Oh my God Collette." Kristen and Elliot ran to the weak woman by the door, preventing her fall to the ground. "Collette, what happened?" Elliot asked.

"I-I'm not really sure. One minute I'm having a nightmare.......next thing I know, I'm waking up on......the sidewalk, the only thing on my mind was to replace Adam. Where is he?" Collette's words were coming out in pants as she struggled to form a complete sentence.

Elliot and Kristen shared confused looks.

"We traced E's cellphone to your house. Adam and the team went there to catch him. We thought he was there to get you again." Elliot explained. "Don't you remember anything Collette? How did you get to the sidewalk?" Kristen questioned.

"I remember seeing a reflection in the window but I thought I was dreaming." Collette looked up at the couple with furrowed eyebrows. "But that was the last thing I remember before going back to sleep and waking up again on the sidewalk." "You think he drugged her?" Elliot asked Kristen in a calm voice.

"I guess he was just trying to lure Adam in or mislead him somehow."

Collette's senses heightened and she was suddenly in full swing of her mind.

"We have to get to Adam. If E was trying to lure them in by using me then they're all probably in danger!"

Elliot instantly got up to his full height to his gadgets.

"Adam." He called into the team's earpiece. "Guys, someone give me an update. We think this is a trap, is everything alright?" His voice held urgency and something in the pit of his stomach told him that everything actually might not be okay at all.

"Elliot." Ken replied, his voice heavy. "Adam fell off the roof. We're on our way to the hospital right now." The detective's voice was stained with worry for his partner and best friend.

Elliot turned to look at the two girls behind him with a stoic expression.

§§§

4 days later

Collette found herself once again standing by her husband's still figure. The monitors peeped nonstop beside them and her hand never left Adam's motionless ones.

They were cold, just like the rest of his body that even Collette's burning tears didn't help warm them up.

"Hey, how's he doing today?" Ken spoke once he entered the hospital room, startling Collette.

"The doctor said that he's doing better. The infection left his body completely and we're just waiting for him to wake up from his coma."

Ken placed a comforting hand on Collette's shoulder from behind. "It's Adam we're talking about, he won't give up easily."

"Did you replace anything on E yet?"

Ken sighed. "Not yet."

Collette turned her full attention to the man standing behind her, getting up to her full height.

"I honestly don't get it, I told you that I saw someone's reflection in the window, and we know that according to forensics, Adam was pushed off by someone. How can we not replace a single fingerprint or even a strand of hair!" Collette breathed heavily, her face flushed with blood.

"Calm down Collette. Did you forget? It's E we're talking about. We've been running after him for months now. If he was like any other serial killer, leaving clues behind we would've caught him a long time ago." Ken tried to reason. "I promise you we'll replace him. We're working our soul's off."

Collette let out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry Ken. I just-" her eyes turned to Adam's calm face. "I feel so angry at what he did to Adam. I swear I'll kill him if I ever lay hands on him."

"Then you'll just be stooping down to his level. He'll get what he deserves."

The room fell into momentary silence as the two gazed down upon Adam. The teary eyes of a loving wife and the determined ones of a friend who both are vowing to catch the culprit no matter what.

"I'll go get you something to eat." Ken broke the silence.

"I'm not that hungry."

"Adam needs you strong Collette and you can't do that on an empty stomach. The team has already agreed on having dinner together. I'll see what I can get until they arrive."

Ken left the room, leaving Collette once again, alone with Adam and the peeping machines. It was already a melody she got used to.

Her gaze traveled towards Adam's stitched up head, the wound tainting the bandages with their red hue. Her eyes then got drawn to his fractured arm as it rested on his rising chest.

"I'll at least give him a beating for this." She promised under her breath. "Please wake up." Her beg was laced with a heavy sob as she buried her face into the hand that held Adam's.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated with the arrival of a new message. Thinking it was from Ken, she fished for her phone, yet her guess was wrong.

A strange number had sent her a scheduled message and Collette opened it with confused curiosity.

'I don't want to play this game anymore. I've already done what I can and it's time to leave it to their own conscious. Meet me where it all began. Alone. - E.'

Collette let out a gasp in reflex and as quick as her gasp left her lips, her surprise was changed to anger laced determination.

She stood up from her place in a hurry, not caring about the consequences of her meeting their sworn enemy alone. All she wanted was for him to pay for everything he's put Adam in.

Snatching her bag from the small, leather couch, and with a chaste kiss to Adam's forehead, she marched her way outside the room and out to her car.

She knew exactly what E meant by meeting him where it all began. He was back at her childhood home, his first crime scene. And like any serial killer, he loved going back to where he started his creations. Along the way, Collette's phone rang, a call from a worried Ken.

"Where are you Collette?"

"I just have somewhere that I gotta be Ken, I'll be back soon don't worry." Collette replied vaguely.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes of course. Everything is fine." She lied. "Okay Ken, I gotta go okay."

Ken sighed from the other line but said nothing in protest. "Okay. The rest have just arrived downstairs, we'll wait on the lunch till you return okay."

"Sure."

Ken hung up the phone, his stomach gnawing at him that something wrong was just around the corner and he couldn't shake the feeling that everything is not alright with Collette.

His train of thought was brought to a halt when the door opened and in came his teammates. Their faces though were not that of comforting ones.

"Where's Collette?" Ruby asked bitchly.

With a scrunched up face, Ken replied nonchalantly. "She said she had someplace to be. She'll be back soon."

"Shit." Alex ticked under her breath.

"You shouldn't have let her leave!" Ruby yelled in urgency.

"What the hell is going on?" Ken was not in full defense mood, his instincts kicking in. He knew Collette wasn't just going to someplace unworthy of worrying about.

"You gotta see this Ken. It was sent to us today by a neighbor who videotaped everything that happened the other night on his cellphone." Elliot shoved his tablet towards Ken who stood as still as a statue.

And Adam chose that perfect time to come back slowly to consciousness.

Collette on the other hand, was still speeding up to her old childhood home. She parked the car carelessly, making sure she had Adam's gun tucked between her back and her pant's waist.

She looked up at the old, rundown house with a trembling heart. There was not a single source of light illuminating the eerie inside and a flashback of when she came here with Adam before played in her mind. But unlike last time, she wasn't as afraid.

With careful steps, she walked up towards the door that has already been left slightly ajar.

She opened it fully, allowing some moonlight to come in with her and aid the flashlight from her phone.

"Hello?" She called into the dark space.

"I already know that you're here Colly."

Collette gasped loudly when the voice she heard was not that of a man, but of a woman instead.

"Surprise right?" The voice joked. It was a familiar one. A voice she's heard before and for the life of her, she couldn't shake the feeling that sounded a little similar to hers.

"Where are you?" Collette asked.

"I'm everywhere around you Colly. I can't believe that you'd be one of the people trying to stop me. I saved your life."

"Oh don't take it personally, I'm someone who stops crime, and you're doing it." Collette replied as she started taking quite steps towards the voice. It was hard for her to pinpoint a direction as it echoed all around the house.

"I did that to save victims like you. You were too weak to help yourself and they are too. I had to step in!"

The voice got a little louder when Collette got closer to the stairs. She looked up into the dark staircase, climbing up with no hesitation.

"I know all about serial killers. You might have a valid purpose but once a person gets a taste of blood, they won't be able to stop." Collette spoke.

"I was not born to kill Collette. I came into this world to protect you and I've been doing so ever since. What if one of the Holers tried to hurt you again?"

The voice got clearer as Collette moved closer to the bathroom in the hallway. She refrained from answering. She didn't know what to respond to that.

She stood in front of the closed bathroom, readying herself for what she'll meet inside.

Her hand unconsciously felt for the gun she stole from Adam, keeping it there as she took a step closer.

"Open the door Collette." The oddly familiar voice urged. The voice that daunted her in her sleep, and was the reason for all her nightmares.

With a shaky hand, Collette grasped the doorknob, carefully opening the door. Yet the bathroom was void of any living presence.

Collette's heartbeat picked up pace as her eyes searched the empty bathroom until they landed on the dusty mirror where I stayed there for her eyes to meet mine.

"It's been so long Colly. I've done nothing but try to protect you. Dad was going to kill us and mom if I didn't do what I did."

I watched as Collette's tears fell down our cheek in a silent cry.

"I-I..." She stuttered. "I- H-hurt Adam."

"No, no." I objected from the mirror reflection. "It was me, Eden, and not you."

Collette's mind started turning hazy. I felt her pain, and as she got more dizzy, I got stronger and more in control. But before I could take over completely, she shook her head and cleared her mind.

She looked up at our reflection in the mirror, a look I know all too well and my eyes widened.

"Collette. Collette, what are you going to do?" I asked in urgency and it didn't take me much effort to know what she wanted to do.

Collette turned around and marched her way towards the front door, ignoring all my calls.

"Collette, please, we have a great purpose to achieve. If we come together we can become invincible. We can save the world from the Holers and their likes. We'll be saviors!" I begged in her mind. I tried to take control but for the first time, she was stronger.

She opened the front door and both of us gasped at the scenery in front of us and right then and there I knew that it was over.

"Adam." Collette strained out, her voice broken and weak.

Adam stood with a pained face, the team, and several other police cars surrounded the place.

Adam took a painful step forward, his eyes already watering down his face and it only made Collette's tear up in return.

I surrendered and hid away at the back of her mind, watching silently. How can she not see that I was doing this for her own good? That she and I together can become greater than anyone in this world?

But I had no control over her actions like she had no control over mine.

She let out an audible sob. "I-I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." She cried louder and it pained me. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't know. It wasn't me."

Adam pulled her into his chest. "I know baby. I know."

Collette let go too soon, looking deep into her husband's glassy eyes.

She slowly lifted both her wrists, holding them in place between their bodies.

"I'm not going to cuff you Collette. I already know the truth."