Hope Falls Season 2 - Eagle Valley (14 page)

SUSAN: Daddy? But…

CLEO: Yes, darling, the crash. The night the car blew up. I escaped, but your father didn't have my luck. He wanted Howard to revoke your contract; we did love you, darling, but money was stronger than parental love at the time. Your father died because he tried to save you.

SUSAN: Why did you wait so long to find me?

CLEO: Because I knew that Howard was always watching, I knew I was in danger. But then when I heard about Miriam, I knew I had to find you, darling daughter. Don't you see? It was all done for you, we did everything for you.
Hope
Falls
is a pretty place. Even if the beautiful die young. Howard finds and kills anyone who leaves, tries to leave. Sometimes he kills just to remind others that he is serious, that he is deadly. Now that you know the truth, my daughter, what are you going to do? You know the truth now. May it set you free….

* * *

Susan stared down at the pages with renewed anger. Her parents had sold her to Howard. Her parents had signed her own death warrant. And now they were all sitting ducks. If she was in here, chances were that there was trouble inside the house in
Eagle
Valley
.

Susan knew that the people she loved were in danger. The strange thing was that she didn't feel any hate towards her parents. She tried, god knows she tried. But she couldn't hate them. She mourned again for her father and wondered if she would ever see her mother again.

She looked at the bars around her and screamed with frustration. Who was keeping her here? She pulled at her hair with frustration and felt something small fall from her hair and fall to the floor of her cage with a soft click.

What was that? Susan got on her knees and felt around the floor like a blind woman. Then she felt it. She grabbed it and held the object in the small ray of light that fell inside her cage.

It was a bobby pin.

Chapter Thirty

INT: EAGLE VALLEY: Living Room

Derrick spoke first. "So you're Howard's lackey now are you?"

Sophie smiled wider. "Figured it out did you?"

"Sophie, how COULD you?" Cleo asked. "How could you do this to us? After what happened? To Miriam? To…" Cleo was about to say Susan, but couldn't bring herself to. A tear slid down her cheek.

"I have my reasons."

"Yeah?" Madder said. "Like what?"

"Oh, like you have a say here, just shut up." She cocked the gun in Madder's direction. "You have no say here."

"Sophie." Cleo said softly. "Why?"

"What about what happened to me?" Sophie whispered.

Derrick looked at her as if he didn't hear her correctly. "What do you mean, what happened to you?"

"WHAT?!" Sophie looked outraged. "YOU LET ME DIE!" She screamed. "You left me there to rot and bleed to death! If it weren't for Howard finding me, if it weren't for Dragon's Cove, I would still be dead!"

"What's Dragon's Cove?"
Erin
asked softly.

"It's where I went to get better. It's where Howard saved me."

"Sophie…" Derrick looked at her pleadingly. "You were dead. They slit your throat, don't you remember?"

FLASH!

Walking down the hallway towards the back of the house, she took a cigarette from out of her purse and headed out the back door of the small farmhouse. She knew she shouldn't smoke, but to hell with it.

Stopping for a moment, she turned and went back inside, pouring herself a glass of wine. If she was going to relax, she was going to do it right. The whole day had been weird. She was starting to feel as if she were right into the middle of a soap opera. Sophie knew from reading Oprah that drama was not good for a healthy life style. She wished that it would all stop soon.

She walked out into the tall sunflowers that grew on the edge of the yard. They reached towards the sky and it's early dawn grayness. She inhaled and exhaled, enjoying the play of the smoke in front of her. She took a sip of her wine and smiled. It was the last thing she did before she died.

It was done in a flash. A knife blade across the throat, her own blood running down her front. She saw the blood running down her shirtfront and tried to scream but could only gurgle.

She gaped, not making a sound. Looking down she saw that blood had collected in the curve of her wineglass, staining her wine to a nice rose color.

The last thing she thought, before she fell backward into someone's strong, hard arms, was that she was finally getting her wish. She smiled. FLASH! Sophie clutched at her head as if it hurt. "WE HAD THIS CONVERSATION!" She screamed. She shook her head from side to side, as if to clear it. "I KNOW what happened! I…"

"You're not sure, are you, Sophie?" Cleo asked softly. "You're not sure what happened. Don't you remember dying?

"Howard is just using you to get the job done from the inside." Madder said.

Erin
looked over at Madder and, even though she may be dying, she admired how strong he still looked, how handsome. "He's using you, Sophie."
Erin
said softly. "This is all a game to him and we're the pieces."

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Sophie screamed. She clutched her head in her hands and tore at her hair. "None of you cared about me, none of you went back to get me."

"Sophie, listen to me." She stood and Madder took her place at
Erin
's side. He held her close and pressed a hand to her wound. "I won't let you go that easily." He whispered to her.

"Sophie," Cleo said again. "This isn't you. Don't you remember what happened?"

"I said SHUT UP!"

Sophie raised her arm and fired the gun point blank into Cleo's forehead. Blood spouted like a fountain from the hole and Cleo slumped to the ground like a rag doll.

The silence that rang out after the shot was deafening.

And was broken by another gunshot.

Chapter Thirty One

INT: THE DARK CAGE

Susan pulled at her hair with frustration and felt something small fall from her hair and fall to the floor of her cage with a soft click.

What was that? Susan got on her knees and felt around the floor like a blind woman. Then she felt it. She grabbed it and held the object in the small ray of light that fell inside her cage.

It was a bobby pin. She clutched as it like a lifeline and was working the lock when she heard footsteps approach the door to her room. She heard the click of her padlock giving away just as the door opened, light showing a shadow in the doorway.

Susan sat back, pretending as if all was as it was. Her captor must not know that she was free until the very last moment.

Her captor stepped into the room and stood before the cage. "It's too late, Susan." The captor said. "Howard is coming and someone else has died. I did all of this for you, Susan. All of it."

Susan was shocked. The voice was not electric sounding. It was a woman's voice. Susan watched in horror as the woman removed her hood and mask and a gorgeous head of blond hair fell to her shoulders.

Susan could still not see the woman's face. "Miriam?" She whispered.

The woman laughed. "No, I am not Miriam, though I wish I was. I wish I could have saved her too." She stepped into the light and Susan saw her captor for the first time. She was tall, striking and beautiful. Susan recognized her.

"DeDe." She whispered.

"The one and the same. You watch my show?"

"I did, up until recently." Susan said. She still wasn't sure what was going on here. "I love you on Days of Our Lives."

DeDe smiled. "Thank you. It's always good to get praise from a fellow actress."

"DeDe…" Susan whispered. "What am I doing here?"

DeDe seemed not to hear her. "I was involved in the plot to kill Miriam, you know. I tried to keep her safe too, to warn her that she was in danger. But Howard succeeded in killing her too. All my effort for nothing and that tears at my heart. I couldn't let him get you too."

"You call this safe?" Susan spat.

"Would you have preferred to die? Would you have preferred to perish? I thought Howard couldn't get you here….I was wrong."

"DeDe, what is going on? What is all this about?"

"Things come in threes, you know." DeDe seemed not to hear her. "The three of you are Howard's prizes."

"The three of us? Miriam, Sophie and I?"

"No, Sophie is one of them. You, Miriam and Erin."

"
Erin
?" Susan's head was spinning. "What does she have to do with all this?"

"More than you think." DeDe said. "Howard is branching out."

"His snuff films? Branching out? What do you MEAN, DeDe?"

"When Miriam died, when she was gone, I escaped, I left with my life, but I promised myself that Howard would not get you, that he could not have you when I wanted you for myself."

Susan could not think of what to say, but she had to keep her talking. "I don't know what you mean." She said.

"It's all very simple. If I kept you, he couldn't have you. Your husband is a wonderful lover by the way."

"He's not my husband yet." Susan said. Then the words sunk in. "Lover?! What are you talking about?'

"I've been living in your house, hidden in the attic." DeDe spread her arms wide. "This house."

And suddenly it dawned on Susan. "This house? THIS house? We're still in the house in
Eagle
Valley
?"

"Yes. The very same. We're in the basement. For people so concerned with their safety, you don't check too thoroughly. It was so easy to break in, to watch all of you. I wanted to have what Miriam had, what Miriam had loved. I wanted you, and I wanted Derrick."

"You sick bitch."

DeDe laughed. "It was all quite simple really." She came forward and wrapped her hands around the bars of the cage. "I wore another blond wig to seduce him. He thought I was Miriam, so distraught with grief that he was easy to take advantage of. He's got a wonderful package, Susan. No wonder you wanted him so badly."

Then they heard the gunshot. Susan took that moment, when DeDe was momentarily distracted, to push the cage door open as hard as she could.

It smacked DeDe square in the forehead and she fell to the ground unconscious. Susan was free. She stepped out of her cage, sure that her friends, her loved ones were in danger. She was almost at the door when she looked back.

She looked at DeDe on the ground and considered letting her live. DeDe would have answers, but the woman was clearly nutty like a fruitcake. With her mind made up, she went back to DeDe's still form. A gun lay beside her fallen form. It must have fallen out of her pocket when she fell.

Taking the gun in her hand, she fired two quick shots into DeDe's forehead. She was a killer now, just like them. The thought comforted her instead of filling her with guilt. "That's what you get for sleeping with my husband, you stupid bitch."

With one last look at her fallen captor, Susan hurried upstairs.

Chapter Thirty Two

INT: EAGLE VALLY HOUSE

They all looked around for the next one to get Sophie's bullet. But then they saw the small red patch of blood forming on Sophie's shirtfront. Sophie stared at it with mild shock. She touched a finger to the blood, as if to see if it were real.