6 Blood Is Thicker Than Paint

Dawn broke over the evergreen trees surrounding the green of the front lawn. Dew glistened on each blade of grass from the rays of light projected by the sun. Another beautiful day was blossoming in the world around the house as birds flew and landed in the yard looking for food.

Michael sat cross legged on a cherry wood table in front of the large windows overlooking the balcony of the house. His eyes were closed as he focused on the sounds of the new day and tried to find some tranquil peace in the previous day's chaos.

Coming down the marble staircase, Delilah stopped and looked down at him sitting on the table and couldn't help but wonder if he was here and someplace else at the same time. She never knew if he was in more than one place until she entered his mind.

Focusing on his thoughts, she reached out and entered into his world. Chaotic images of Baal and a man in a mask flashed through her head. Seeing splashing images of a man in knight's armor swinging a sword in battle made her jump back and pull away from his world.

"Only here, my love. The images from John are just a little overwhelming at the moment," Michael said with his eyes still shut.

"Sorry, baby. I just wasn't sure, again. I didn't want to interrupt," she said with her understanding and affection apparent in every word. "Mine come too, just not as violent as yours."

"I know. Imagine if you spent all your time in my library. You could have twelve thousand years of knowledge instead of just six," he laughed as he opened his eyes and watched her come down the stairs in all her elegance and beauty.

Gliding toward him, he couldn't help but be overpowered by her presence in a room. She had a way of turning every bad and horrible thought into a good one for him. Goodness and happiness flowed from her mere presence.

Rising from the table, he took her hand and gave her a gentle kiss on her lips. Electricity sparked in ever touching moment they had ever had. This was no exception. He could feel his heart jump as she pulled away.

"Did you find Baal?" asking with some urgency.

"No," he turned away. "Something or someone is hiding him from me. The feeling is just missing now," with a distracted tone.

She found it strange that all of a sudden he couldn't find him. Bonds between the Yin and Yang, as they like to call it, were strong enough to be felt from anywhere. At least, to this point they were that way. Even she was having trouble finding her opposite.

Feeling lost inside of his own chaotic world, Michael walked to the massive front windows and leaned his arm up against them. Worry about his family was consuming his thoughts and feeling in a way he had never felt before. Dealing with those emotions was taking a lot of energy from him.

Delilah walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around him placing her head on his back. Slowly and distinctively she could hear his heart beating inside of him. That heart that she loved so much. To take away his pain and worry would be the only wish she had, but there was no way to take the burden from him. It was his and he would never let anyone take it from him.

"What are we going to do now?" letting him know they were in all of this together and he was not alone.

Facing her, he pulled her up against his body, "Find Matt and my parents."

"What about Bob, Remy and the kids?" she asked fully concerned about their well being.

"They should be safe at The Cactus house. Baal does not know about that one and I will only be there long enough to drop them off," without any thought otherwise.

Baal's only trick to finding anyone was to follow his feelings to Michael. All Michael needed to do was gather them up and put them someplace no one knew about. Knowing this was his best option he looked up the stairs.

Delilah read his mind, "Okay, let's go tell them. Bob might not be happy about leaving them, though." Michael wanted Bob to check in on some other people around the office.

"Tell us what," Bob said as all four of them came down the stairs.

No one in the group looked like they slept a wink. Remy and Lexie's long hair was sticking off in every direction giving it a Pippy Longstocking quality. Puffy black bags were larger than normal under Bob's eyes. Austin's eyes were a bright glowing red and it looked as if he was still shaking a bit. Strange thing to see out of a teenager.

"I want to take you back down to Arizona. I think you will all be safe there, as long as I am not around," the kids smiled excitedly at this news. They always loved hanging out in Michael's hidden houses and the fact they were older now didn't seem to change that.

"That sounds like a good idea," Bob agreed.

"Yeah, that's only half of it Bob," Delilah chimed in and everyone's face dropped.

"I need you to check up on some of the office and board staff with me," the added 'With me' brightened everything back up.

Remy looked down at Michael from the rail, "You take care of him, now Michael." The mother and wife both came out of her mouth.

"I will. I would stay with you as well, but you are safer without me there. They can find me by feeling where I am at," Remy nodded her head. He knew she understood how the whole thing worked.

Michael closed his eyes and instantly a twin appeared standing right next to him. To add some humor to the moment he looked over, "Hello."

The other Michael replied, "Hello, Michael." Everyone laughed at his own stupidity. "Let me take them to The Cactus," he said as he climbed the stairs.

Grabbing the three of them and collecting them in his arms, they vanished just that fast. Within close to two seconds he appeared in the living room standing next to the twin.

"They are safe," one of them said.

Michael began thinking about what to do next. He needed Delilah to get to Florida, Bob to go to the office building and he needed to go retrieve Matt from New York. Both Michaels eye's closed and another Michael appeared standing next to the other two.

One of them stepped away and grabbed Delilah. Putting the lipstick back in her pocket, she gave him a kiss on the cheek marking the one she was with. It was her way and Michael didn't fight trying to explain to her they were all him and they all thought as one.

"We are going to Florida," his eyes closed and they were gone from the room.

"What's in Florida?" Bob asked as one of the Michaels walked up to him.

"Number three of the seven," his eyebrows raised and lowered. "Delilah found him yesterday while we were downstairs."

"You guys have way too much going on at one time. I mean that, too. It always seems like you are doing five things at the exact same time," Bob was voicing his frustration and confusion.

"In this case, just three at one time," he laughed and the two of them disappeared.

Standing in the middle of the entry, Michael looked around the open house all the way to the ceiling. It could be awhile before he sees this house again. He could think of no better way to keep everyone safe than to gather them together in hiding.

Focusing his mind on Matt, his eyes shut. Air whipped all around him for a brief moment and then died away. Opening his eyes, he was standing in the middle of a hotel room looking at a catastrophic mess of a bed. Sheets where tangled and twisted around a body mass in the middle.

Walking over, Michael pulled the sheets back to reveal Matt's face. Snoring loudly, he looked to be drunk sleeping. Shaking his head, he reached his arm out and asked his friends to remove the alcohol from his bloodstream and replace it with water. Yelling cheers of joy and fifteen seconds was all it took to have Matt open his eyes.

"Hey, mate," his groggy voice sounded out with a rasp to it. "What are you doing here?" His arms pushed away as he stretched and groaned.

"Too much to explain. We need to get out of here. I need to take you somewhere safe," Michael sat on the edge of the bed.

"Right. Okay," Matt sat up. "Wait," he smacked his palm into his head. "Did you take the alcohol out of my system?"

"Yes," he smiled.

"That's awesome, mate! Best hangover cure ever! Drinking without consequence," he laughed alone with Michael.

"Do not get use to that. Let's go," Michael pulled the sheets off of him and almost ripped him out of the bed.

Michael walked over to the mini fridge and pulled out a mini vodka bottle. He grabbed a glass and poured it over some ice. It took two gulps to drink it all down.

"Guess you've had a rough morning," Matt said as he walked to the closet and rushed to change his clothes.

He threw of the suit from the day and the night before and put on a newly pressed black one with a light blue shirt and tie. At the sink he brushed his teeth and ran some water through his hair.

"Where we heading to first?" spitting out the remaining toothpaste in his mouth.

"The office," Michael's hands and eyes twitched for a moment and then he staged to the bed and sat on the edge. He looked as if all the happiness in the world had just been taken away. In a way, that was true.

"What is it?" Matt rushed over to his side and placed his hand on his shoulder for support.

"I cannot tell you. We need to go to the office. You can see when you get there," Michael placed his hand over Matt's and closed his eyes.

The two of them rushed through the blue electric tunnel in less than a second and were in Matt's office. Another Michael was by Matt's desk along with Bob. Tears were pouring down both of their cheeks as Matt looked next to him and realized Michael merged himself together.

"What the fuck? What the hell is going on boys?" Matt was pissed that this was taking so long to get to.

Bob pointed out the door, "Just go down to Michael's office. You better see it for yourself."

Opening his office door, Matt walked out into small groups of people. They were all crying heavily by the looks of their red swollen eyes. Matt kept walking across the office floor and soon it was clear some terrible tragedy had fallen on this place. There wasn't a dry eye in the entire company.

Moving faster through the cubicles, he moved with urgency to get to Michael's office. Outside at Alice's desk were a few uniformed police officers. Inside the office were some paramedic and fire department uniformed people along with some men in suits.

Matt entered the office and looked across to Michael's desk. A white sheet was hanging in front of the desk blocking it from view. As he tried to move around, a man put his hand up stopping him.

"Who are you?" Matt noticed a badge hanging from his suit pocket.

"Matt Hickson. I'm the COO and President of the company," he was choked up a bit.

The detective put down his arm and waved Matt around the end of the desk. As he came around the side and looked up the horror of what he saw passed right through into his soul. At least, that's how it felt to him.

Placing his hand over his mouth and turning away, his gag reflex was kicking in. Each time he gagged his eyes closed and he saw the image he just witnessed. Over the top of the desk, Alice Waterman's body was hanging down naked from the ceiling. Her wrists were bound to the cross bars in the ceiling with two knives stuck through them and into the metal. From side to side under her waistline, someone had cut through all the layers of skin to her internal organs. Intestines were hanging down from her body like bloody tubes of sausage, piled up on the top of the desk. A large incision was running from the nape of her neck all the way to the cut below her waist and her ribcage had been spread open revealing her lungs and heart. Blood had run down her body from her wrists and again from her stomach down her legs. On top of Michael's desk was a massive pool of almost every ounce of blood in Alice's body.

No matter how many times he blinked or how hard, the image would not disappear from his mind. It was burned into his vision as if he had stared at a computer screen for too long.

"She stayed alive for awhile after the initial cut, which was the wrists," a man in a lab coat said from the corner behind Michael's desk.

"Excuse me?" Matt only caught part of what he said.

The man in the lab coat pointed up to Alice, "They pinned her to the ceiling and then cut open her stomach spilling her intestines out. She was alive and probably awake when they did it. She would have been conscious through the entire event."

Just the thought of it stimulated his gag reflex again. This time he grabbed the trash can and actually threw up in it. To the right of the trash can he noticed a partial footprint in blood of what looked like a Tactical Boot.

The detective that let him pass finally spoke up, "Where were you last night?"

"New York," as he pulled his head out of the trash can.

"Can someone confirm that?" the detective asked.

"Yes, several people," he could think of the entire bar staff in the hotel not to mention Colin.

"How did you get here so fast between last night and this morning?" asking all the usual puzzle piece questions.

"Company's private jet," he threw up in the garbage can again.

"Ah, okay," he looked up at Alice. "Okay, so I get this crazy ritualistic many in which she was strung up and made to suffer," he waved his hand up at her. "What I don't understand is what the fuck that means?" pointing to the wall next to the desk.

Matt looked at the wall and tried to make out what it was. Some kind of writing, but the blood ran down through some of the letters. He mouthed it out over and over until he had what he thought it said.

"Through me is the way to eternal woe? What the hell does that mean?" Matt said as he kept spitting the terrible taste out of his mouth.

"It is from Dante's Inferno in his Devine Comedy," Michael said as he walked in the room.

"Why in the hell would anyone want to write that on your wall in your fucking office?" Matt yelled out as he puked, again.

"Right now I'm more worried about who would want to kill your secretary in such a sadistic way?" the detective said.

Michael reached his hand out, "I am Michael, the CEO."

"Detective Will Plaggerty, homicide," he shook Michael's hand.

"This is my personal assistant, Bob," Michael motioned to Bob behind him. "Is there anything we can do right now?"

"Sure," he whipped out a small notepad and a pen. "You can start with where you were last night."

Bob filled in the gaps, "We were at home with my wife and two children alone with his girlfriend. We all live in the same house."

Writing down every word, Will stopped and looked up with an odd glance.

"I'm his body guard and driver as well. We live at the house to make it easier on everyone," Bob had to answer that question several times over the years.

Will looked satisfied by the answer, "Okay, the time of death was around 5:00 AM. Can anyone explain to me why she was here so early?"

"I can," Michael said saddened. "She loved to come in early because," a tear rolled down his cheek as he thought about it, "she could be alone and take care of things she could not during the day. It was too busy, you see." Bob put his arm around him.

Writing that down, "Do you have any enemies or know if she did?"

"I don't think she would have any enemies. She was one of the sweetest people we knew," Matt said as he sniffed back the tears.

"I have enemies. I was kidnapped as a younger man for industrial espionage purposes. I could not imagine what the point of this is, though," Michael pointed to the back side of the sheet and then the wall.

"I've seen a lot of things in my time on homicide, but I have never seen anything like this before. This is right out of a movie script," Will said as he closed the notepad and stuck it back inside his jacket pocket. "Well, I'm going to make some phone calls and see if anyone has heard of anything like this happening around town. I'll check to see if anyone in Vice knows anything going on in the streets." Will walked out of the room.

Matt, Bob and Michael all walked back to Matt's office slowly through the crowd. People were walking up to Matt and Michael giving them hugs for the entire route back.

Bob closed Matt's door behind them and then walked over to the mini bar and poured three drinks, two vodka and one Jack and Coke. There was some ice, but Bob filled the glasses to the top with alcohol. He passed the drinks out to the boys and sat on the couch sipping his.

Michael's head was trying to envision the words in blood on the wall. It didn't make a lot of sense for someone to run around writing Dante's on the walls in blood. What point were they trying to make? He knew all too well that Baal was involved in this.

Matt looked at Michael, "Any ideas?"

"It is Baal and the man from yesterday, which you do not know anything about," Michael said and he sipped the vodka.

"Who is this man you're talking about?" Matt looked over at Bob.

"We don't know yet, but he was good enough to give me this shiner," he pointed to the black eye he had added to his face since Matt had seen him last.

"So, you think this guy killed Alice to send you a message hidden within Dante's Inferno?" Matt took a large drink off the vodka.

"Something like that," Michael said from behind him.

Michael walked over to the windows and spread open the blinds. Just about anyone could be out there taking pictures of them from across the way or even recording every single word that ran through this office.

His hands twitched and his eyes rolled as the glass dropped from his hand crashing to the floor. For the first time his images of someone else's thoughts came with great pain. It was in his heart rushing out with his blood through his veins. Giving way, his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground feeling glass cut into his skin. Images of burning fire and smoldering flames bolted through the deepest part of his mind.

Bob rushed over with Matt to help him, "Do not touch me!" he yelled out with a voice so deep and disturbing it sent chills through both of the men's bodies.

Slowly Michael's face rose up and his eyes were glowing like burning flames in a raging fire. Matt and Bob jumped back in unwavering surprise almost tripping over one another. They both looked at one another and saw the horror in the other's eyes.

In a low bass filled hypnotic tone, "I know what he was trying to tell me now. This is just the beginning." His voice trailed off to a whisper and he fell over to the floor with his eyes shut.

"What the fuck was that?!" Matt cried out.

"I don't know, but that was by far the craziest thing I've seen from him since I've known him," Bob whimpered as he grabbed his drink and drank it down hoping it would calm his nerves whish were leaning over the edge of insanity.

Standing over the top of him, afraid to touch his body, Matt leaned over trying to get a glimpse of his chest to see if he was breathing. Chills were running through his spine and he could feel the blood draining from his face as he knelt down closer.

Bob took hold of his shoulders and rolled him on his back. Hands trembling, Bob flexed them as he pulled them back trying to keep them from shaking more. It was the first time he had actually felt afraid of Michael.

Matt wasn't far from feeling the same way. The image of Michael's flaming eyes was burned into every thought he was having. Powers aside, he had always been very gentle and warm hearted, but this version was nothing short of horrifying.

Red stains were covering and soaking through Michael's jeans. Bob took one side of his body and Matt the other pulling him over to the couch and tossing him up onto it.

Matt's cell phone rang as he picked up his drink. Pulling it out and reading the Caller ID, "Holy hell!" He flipped it open, "Are you alright?" Whoever it was on the other end, Bob could tell they were very excited by the way that Matt was moving around. "I know. Calm down. Here too."

Deciding the coke was no longer needed, Bob picked up the bottle of Jack Daniels and started to drink directly from it. Matt took the bottle from Bob's hand and drank some himself.

"Wait, wait. Go back. What did he say?" Matt said into the phone both confused and suspicious. He nodded a few times listening to every word.

Matt pulled the phone away from his ear and turned it off. He took another swig from the bottle and looked out the window. Setting it on the desk, he almost missed and Bob snagged it to keep it from hitting the floor.

"Well, what was that all about?" Bob asked urgently pressing.

"Delilah said he did something similar in Florida. He's still there," they both looked over at Michael lying on the couch. "Thing is," he turned back to the window, "he said something different to her."

Matt was lost in his own world trying desperately to understand what in the world was going on and how this had all come about. Changes had come so quickly to the world they all knew.

"Okay, so what did he say?" Bob tried very hard not to yell by clenching his teeth.

Placing both hands to his head and shutting his eyes, he reluctantly told him what the crying words from Delilah were, "Inside out! You're next Bitch!"

Shattering on the ground, the Jack Daniels spilled all over the carpet. Bob, in a daze, wandered over and sat down on an office chair. To him, that was the same thing as seeing a preacher stand at the podium of a church during Sunday service and renounce God. Even fathoming the idea was almost impossible.

Tears fell down Matt's face as he looked back over at Bob. Streams of water were running down his cheeks as well.

Understanding Michael's love for Delilah was simple; if her heart ever stopped he knew to his last that his too would stop. The possibility of living if she were gone would not even be a choice. Not to say he would ever kill himself, he wouldn't have too. Everyone around the two of them could feel how deep the connection and bond between the two of them was just by seeing a simple glance to each other from across a crowded room. Thinking Michael would ever say anything like that to Delilah seemed so impossible Matt kept hearing the words as if they were in a language he didn't understand.

"Something is so wrong with this I'm not even sure where to start," Matt managed to get out around the still flowing tears.

Bob sat forward wiping his face, "Wait, maybe we're thinking about this wrong." Matt's interest perked up, "In the last few years have you ever heard him talk like that? Ever since John his speech pattern had become more and more formal." Will the detective in the room please stand up.

"Okay, I'm following you," crossing his arms. "You're right about that. I haven't heard him cuss in a long time either, now that you mention it." The possibility was sounding valid in Matt's mind.

"I'd be willing to bet he doesn't remember a damn thing about this when he wakes up," Bob said.

"Oh no. I remember every single detail of what was said," Michael said from the couch. "I just was not the one that said it."

Bob and Matt looked at each other and then at Michael. His eyes were still closed as he had his hands clasped together on his stomach resembling a body in a casket.

"He wanted me to know he was coming for each and every person I know," opening his eyes and running to look directly at them. "And he wanted to get his point across that he does not have one ounce of morality in his entire body."