The Dark Star - Aftermath Pt. 06

"Sit down Son... I can explain everything"

**********

He takes a deep breath, he composes himself.

Logan Hughes watches as visibly distraught his only son Jack collapses into the booth alongside of him.

With a simple hand gesture, he signals for Jamie to leave them, conscious that she moves away, before he turns his full attention to Jack. Bringing the tumbler to his lips he takes a confident large swig of the harsh liquid that burns his throat as he swallows.

"We normally go to Chinese Restaurants when we've big family news to break... sorry I couldn't get a table" he quips while setting down the glass.

Jack looks up at him with tears in his young eyes, his face contorted in anguish and astonishment "What the fuck ...What the fuck?" He repeats over and over. Logan pours a large glass of Brandy over a single ice cube and slides it across the table to him, watching as the young man's shaking hand reaches for the tumbler.

"I think it's more a question of how the fuck?"

"Either fucking way ... Dad ... either fucking way"

"Well..." Logan sat back and unbuttoned the black suit worn over his black fitted shirt. "Obviously, I didn't stop breathing."

"You died," Jack stated, "You fucking died...Jesus fucking Christ how are you even fucking here."

"He rose from the dead as well," the joke lost amongst the youngster's anguish.

"No..." Jack shook his head "No she told me...she told me ...only fucking days ago she told me how she stabbed you ...how she fucking murdered you"

"I know you and young Chloe were close" Logan stated calmly. "But you didn't really know her... She knew what to tell you ...And what not to tell you... Although she was one of only two... Two who knew the absolute truth."

Logan paused he pushed her face from his mind's eye. "The Two people I trusted most and who served me well... I'm not sure if you know but..."

"She's dead." Jack spat at him, "She's dead ... unless now she's going to pop up behind me and ask me to fucking dance."

"I'm afraid not," Logan shook his head further stifling his remorse. Parking in his mind the question of how Jack knew of Chloe's demise, given how very few individuals actually did know.

"We had a funeral ... we had a fucking funeral for you ... you weren't very fucking popular, but you probably know that."

"Buried in a Paupers Grave," Logan took another swig.

"How ... How?" Jack demanded "Did we bury an empty fucking coffin?"

"No... there was a body... Perhaps that's as good a place as any to start because as none of my family came to identify the body Jack... because that job was left to Jamie Pearce as a consequence... Jamie would have said it was Logan Hughes on that mortuary slab even if it had been Father fucking Christmas in a red suit." He raised an eyebrow as he set down the glass. "She was the other one I trusted... and when the time was right, I trusted her to reach out to you and then you trusted her... Timing is everything and I understand in the end you got to know her very well."

He can't suppress the smirk, that creeps to the corners of his mouth biting his tongue on the suggestion of sharing Mica, Chloe and Jamie being a manifestation of like Father and like Son. Somethings would be far too raw to emotionally touch upon.

"Andrew Baxter is buried in that grave out at the Cemetery... Andy Baxter a loner, no family, modest bank account, owns a flat not far from my old place in the Docks ... not that you ever visited," his gaze doesn't leave his sons. "Andy Baxter who Chloe used to turn tricks for... amongst others... to pay her meagre rent and put food on the table... Chloe was instrumental in everything ... or should that be just mental"

Jack shook his head.

"See Young Chloe ...she was the one who saved me and reinvented me. Her psychotic little plan concocted on a riverbank on a cold winter's morning. The perfect crime. One unknown recluse male who no one would miss replaced by one spiralling male who society no longer noticed... who'd lost everything. Chloe brutally ...and fuck me I mean yeah she brutally murdered him while I took over his life and his existence ...by time they found him in that shitty little bed sit that Chloe had conned herself into under some fake name or another ...he was barely recognisable no wonder he passed for me."

Taking a slug of brandy Logan looked back up to Jack. "I thought she was going to fucking kill me at one point ... that knife held to my throat before she talked me through every sordid detail of how easily I could disappear ... the perfect devious little plan that could only come from the fractured mind of Chloe Macready."

Jack sat there listening to his every word, if he believed him or not, he couldn't be sure. He gave his Son only the truth though, he offered him that much respect.

"So, yeah enter Jamie to identify the body as myself and the perfect scenario played out ...no one's missed Andy Baxter because I guess now, he's me... I wish I could have told you ...it broke me to lose you and it tore me apart to that you thought I was dead ... but I had to ... I had to disappear, and everyone had to believe I was dead ...that included you."

"The Phoenix ... The Party's ...The Blueys." Jack stated second guessing him now, he was smart, he was intuitive.

"All mine and Chloe's handiwork ... with a little help from friends."

Logan refilled his glass as Jack took his first tentative sip. "Income ... look around you ...you never saw this place in its prime ... we reverted to what I knew best... The Dark Star was reinvented in an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere."

"The Girls," Jack took a slug from his tumbler "Dear fucking God those girls at The Mill... Sarah ...Lyndsey ...what happened to them at those parties... That was you...that was?"

"No" Logan stated firmly, his first lie since Jack had sat opposite of him "No ...cancers grow when you give certain people freedoms. I knew Chloe was unstable ... I knew she was capable of the anything but what her and Spider instigated ...what was going on under my own nose ...all of that I was unaware of."

He took a sip again from the Brandy. "And I understand it was you that cured my little arachnid problem... perhaps appreciation is in order"

Jacks' eyes met his. wide in shock, no doubt wide in surprise that he knew the truth about what had gone on at The Mills back in December.

The Wolf spoke before he did, "I'm not sure thanks are appropriate though. There were girls I'm not going to lie there were hedonistic times ... but what was discovered at The Mills a few weeks ago ... that was Chloe and formerly Spider's legacy please believe me."

"Why... why would Chloe... with girls?" Jack could barely articulate the words he spoke

"That takes us back to Chloe's depravity... Chloe's madness... her jealousy her underlying fears." Logan shook his head "There were victims ... there were others that you wouldn't know about from my past... and from your recent history"

"Chloe Davis... Alison Matthews... both former acquaintances of mine... somehow Chloe found out about them," he took another heavy slug of brandy and swallowed hard. "Alongside of Song Akiyama who was another of your dalliances shall we say... I've done my homework Jack... they're all missing, and I have no fucking clue how let alone where... with Chloe now gone the chance of truth may also have passed."

Jack reaches for the bottle of brandy and fills his tumbler. Logan couldn't read his mind couldn't tell what he was thinking as he contemplated everything, he'd spilled to him. The truth mixing with long rehearsed lies. Chloe's death shifted much of the blame conveniently to her. He was grateful of that to explain away the connection to the darker elements of his life.

"I don't know why ... I don't know how she knew who to pursue but Chloe came after women and girls from my past... like they were a threat to her"

"Lies"

"I assure you Jack"

"Lies" Jack spat out again "The Trial... your trial ... Jesus fucking Christ you've ... you've gotten away with murder already ... Gemma Gregson and Rowan Blackstock ... found in the basement of this fucking Club"

Logan looked at his son and fixed him with a sincere stare. "Gemma Gregson ... I had a brief relationship with ...it was over before it began... this place" he cast his hand across the Club "This place was different when I managed it there were things that went on here that made it what it became... things that I could play dumb and suggest you'd never understand but I won't patronise you. Gemma became caught up in that scene ... Gemma met the wrong guy and died at his hand ... here"

Jacks' hands came to his face as he slumps forward in the chair shaking his head in disbelief once again.

"I..." Logan paused to choose his words carefully "I killed Rowan Blackstock in anger... in jealousy... I panicked ... with another man I hid their bodies here... this place was my life I panicked at the prospect of losing it all ... when I lost the club, I knew the truth wouldn't remain buried... another reason I disappeared... like a coward"

"Jamie got my diary to you Jack I'm changed since then ...the drink ...the drugs ...the lurid sexual encounters ...night after night, day after day... this place everything that went on here destroyed my mind made me someone even I didn't recognise"

"Gemma was eighteen... eighteen" Jack sneered "Did you like the young girls Dad did it inflate your desperate fucking ego ...is that why ...is that why you fucked Mica too?"

"She wasn't with you Jack ...she wasn't with you when..."

"Fuck you" Jack viciously fired back at him "Even if she wasn't you knew how I felt about..."

"I can only apologise for what happened... it was mutual... it was consensual," Logan stated cutting across him

"She let me raise that kid thinking she was my daughter ... not my Sister," Jack countered "I assume you know you've a daughter."

Logan nodded, "I told her not too ... I told her she had to tell you ... it was her choice... that was all on her."

"You know she's missing?" Jack retorted

"Then you don't know she was found," Logan calmly stated. "Admittedly the Police seemingly haven't shared all the details."

"At...at the..."

"Yes ...at The Mills Jack"

Once again Jack fell silent shaking his head but slightly more composed now than when he'd first sat opposite him. Logan knew this wouldn't be easy, he'd not relished the conversation, but he knew he had to share the truth or as much of the truth as he wanted to share to earn Jack's trust. There was no scenario in which he had he played this out in his mind where he and Jack sat laughing and joking about the good old days. They were a lifetime ago, if there were good old days, they were history.

"We both done things we regret ...we've both ...we've both killed ...we've both spiralled."

"Don't you dare..." Jack cut him off "Don't you dare compare yourself to me ... You don't even know me... you walked out on me ... you walked out on Mum ...she died in excruciating pain terminally ill while you ...what did you do while I faced all that alone... dealing with the remnants of your warped legacy?"

"I'm..." Logan brought his fingers to his eyes letting his words trail off, pretending to wipe tears that didn't form in his eyes. "I'm sorry I wasn't well ... I regret everything ...so many lives destroyed"

"You're still ill though." Jack laughed "Or was the HIV another elaborate ruse"

"That's real Jack ...that's real," Logan fished a strip of prescription tablets from his jacket pocket and slid them across the table "Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors I don't expect you to remember that... try and remember NRTI's ...they're also known as 'nukes'. Two a day every day for the rest of my life should keep the virus at bay and stop me passing it to anyone... it ever again."

He rubbed his stubbled jaw as Jack picked up the strip of tablets and read the words printed across their foil. "That's one thing I'm grateful to Chloe for ... she was the one who read and researched for me ...small mercies from an evil mind"

Jack slid the tablets back to him with a cold stare.

"So now you think you can just reappear ... Andy ...Andy is that what I call you now... Oh, hey Jack have you seen that bloke that around he's the spit of your Dad ... Oh no that's not my Dad that's some bloke called Andy... he really does look like him though doesn't he."

As Jack took another swig of brandy Logan smiled weakly at the youngster being ballsy enough to patronise him, "I don't know what I want ... I played this out so many times in my head until I came to realise it's not what I want ...it's what you want."

Jack looked up from his tumbler at him, "What I want?"

"Yes," Logan stated calmly, "I can't be fully back in your life ... I can't be with you at the Football."

"I stopped going," Jack churlishly interjected

"I can't be around ...not in public ...not like I'd want to be ...but I need you back in my life my boy ...I need to build bridges I know ...I don't expect the big reunion, I don't deserve the big reunion."

"So?"

"So," Logan straightened. "This place has recently change hands ... a new owner ... well, the old owner is the new owner ... if you follow."

"This place?" Jack stated shaking his head "This place after all that you've just said."

"I know ... it's purely financial ...an investment ...I can't afford to get dragged back in, but I can't live without the excitement ... The Phoenix was always a pale comparison."

"A legitimate business for Andy Baxter," Jack shook his head.

"No ... For Jack Hughes," he raised his tumbler to his Son in salute. "Your name on the title deeds ...I want you to have all this ... run the place with Jamie managing alongside you to start... to get you up to speed."

The disbelief on his Son's face made Logan suppress a smile. "I know I can't buy you ...I know I can't earn your respect or your forgiveness on a whim but this way... this project together ... who knows maybe it can build bridges?"

Jack shook his head not vehemently but in contemplation, silent contemplation.

"I have something else for you" Logan offered.

**********

Sarah McAllister looked at herself in the mirror

Disgusted by the person she saw stood before her

She considered tying her hair back then changed her mind

She cut two lines of cocaine on the dressing table before she sat heavily down on her bed, rolling a twenty note she leant forward swiftly inhaling the two white lines of fine white powder.

She felt the familiar tingle instantly.

She needed the confidence the drug would bring her.

Sarah snatches her Car Keys and heads for the front door.

**********

The chill of the night air strikes me as I step into the alleyway at the rear of the Club via the emergency exit. My Club if I can believe a word of what he says to be true.

I can't quite believe anything that's transpired in the last hour or so.

The mix of emotions following my own Father through the Club into the alleyway. My Father who I'd believed, who I'd been convinced, who the world around him had been convinced was dead. I don't know what to think the mixture of anger and resentment churned with the unexpected elation and the shock that the man two strides ahead of me is undeniably my Father.

"Trust me," he turns to face me. "I can't be involved with this... can't be seen."

"Trust you?" I can't help but keep the exclamation from my voice. "Really ... you expect me trust you?"

He points and nods to a White Van parked at the end of alleyway.

"I've done things I'm not proud of ... this will never make things right, but I hope it helps." he says pressing his hands over my hands the first time he's touched me. "I had no hand in this other than the retrieval... the rescue."

"Rescue?"

"You'll see..." he offered but said no more as he let go of my hands.

My mind racing as I step away.

"Actually... Your phone?"

Pausing briefly, I take my phone from my back pocket and hand it to him.

"Pin?" he requests.

Reaching out I press my thumb to the button at the base of the handset unlocking the screen. Taking my hand away as he types a number into my address book. Before handing my phone back to me and backing away into the shadows of the alley.

I can't find the words

Neither can he it seems as backing away he silently turns and walks away.

As I head towards the Van in trepidation, I hear his voice from the darkness behind me.

"Was good to see you Jack the Lad"

I simply nod, not even sure he sees me.

Approaching the Van, the passenger door slowly opens, and I can't believe what I see for the second time in the evening.

As tentatively as she slipped out of the Van, she steps towards me her head hung low until she finally looks up and recognises me. I move forward wrapping my arms around her, embracing her. Catching her weak smile as she flings her arms around my neck.

"Sophie..." I state, "...Oh God Sophie."

********

Sarah McAllister sat behind the steering wheel of her little Ford Fiesta her eyes scanning the ominously dark Warehouse Buildings, no more sign of life as there had been when she arrived an hour ago.

The aftereffects of the coke now making her antsy and irritable. Stepping from the car dressed in a black tight fitting bra top, pleated leatherette black skirt over fishnet tights and the now ubiquitous black knee boots she lit up a cigarette. Turning her head to look over at the row of haphazardly positioned Storage Containers, that looked to all intents to be abandoned but she knew the dark secrets that were hidden behind the steel doors of at least two of the four Containers. She shivered as she inhaled the smoke from her cigarette.

"This is fucking useless" she stated aloud in frustration to herself.

The plan in her mind to step up and gain his cooperation, earn her sister's freedom as he, the man behind the vile mask had promised so often. The ill-conceived plan was shot. She was never in control he was he always had been, and he always would be. She couldn't cope with this any longer though, she couldn't cope not knowing how much longer she would be his plaything. How much longer or what it would finally take to secure her Sister; she never lost hope Sophie was alive and well, she never questioned she never doubted that.

Sarah wanted to step up this game though as she couldn't hold down her life anymore. The vile truth he'd revealed to her about Jack and that video he'd shown her haunted her. With still no genuine memory of events. She couldn't carry on the pretence any longer if he wanted Jack via her, for whatever reason, she needed to know what she had to do. Letting Jack fuck, her recently had repulsed her, repulsed her more than any of the vile scenarios she'd endured at the hands of the masked assailant. Sarah couldn't bear to be around Jack, but to let him fuck her had been the only solution she could think to keep up the pretence. She hated Jack with more hatred and contempt than which she detested this self-proclaimed, mask wearing, Wolf mother fucker.

Sarah had submitted to his vile perversions already, if that's what it took, then she wasn't happy, but she was willing, willing to sacrifice herself.

Pulling open the Drivers door Sarah paused as a pair of headlights made their way through The Docks heading towards the Warehouse.

Watching as the Car pulled up opposite of hers the bright headlights briefly causing her to squint before they were shut off.

She watched as a male in a black suit over a black shirt stepped out from the black Mercedes.

"Evening Sarah," he stated aloud, "This is an unexpected surprise."

Sarah recognised his voice as she stepped around in front of her car; his face seen for the first time wasn't unattractive, but she couldn't see beyond his vile persona and everything he'd done to her, the physical pain the mental torture.