Love's Insanity

Meredith hardly slept.

Not that that is in any way, shape, or form, surprising. She did fight the urge to sit on the computer, hitting 'refresh' on the email every ten seconds, but her brave step into her husband's territory was not nearly as liberating as she'd hoped. Instead, Meredith's worry increased ten-fold -- she couldn't turn back, now... A frightening thought.

But, somehow, she found the strength to shower and dress, knock back a cup of coffee, and greet the day -- her son, in particular -- with a bright, if tired, smile. "Please try not to speak poorly of your father at school, today... He's innocent, you know."

"Whatever, ma. I love Dad, but... nobody's perfect."

As Travis slipped his homework into his backpack and half-hugged his mom while running to the honking bus, Meredith felt the overwhelming urge to cry... but for once, no tears came.

Instead, she turned to the computer, still lying on the dining table, and propped it open.



Just what she'd dreaded... A response. "Meet you there."

The rest of the day was nothing but a blur. She tried to play with Bradley, but all he did was cry, or ask for his dad... She tried to paint, but everything she started turned out fuzzy, brightly colored and distorted. Finally, giving up on everything else, she collapsed on the couch, and fell into a deep sleep.

---

"Mom... Mom?"

"Wh--Oh Travis, when did you get home?"

"Over an hour ago... You looked tired so I let you sleep. But now Brad's crying. I think he's hungry."

Meredith rushed into the nursery to take care of her younger son, frustrated that not only did she fall asleep, but that she slept through Travis's whole baseball practice, as well. Just as he'd guessed, Bradley was hungry... It wasn't until Brad was playing with the dollhouse that Meredith realized it was almost 7:30.

"Holy Plumbob!" she cried. At the sound of his mother, Travis peeked in from the other room. She always had weird outbursts, but never quite like that.



"Travis, honey... Come here."

He looked wary as he approached, but before he could stop it, Meredith sweeped her son into a tight hug. "Travis, I have to go out. I... I don't know when I'll be home. The sitter will be here any minute, I want you to be good and watch out for your little brother for me, alright?"

"Is something wrong, mommy? Does it have to do with dad?"

"I... No. It's nothing sweetie, just need to go see a friend. Just remember what I asked, kay? I love you..."

"Kay." Travis reciprocated the hug... But it wasn't enough to squeeze away the nervous growl in his mother's troubled stomach.



Meredith had never driven so fast in her entire life. Finally, the sports car her husband had bought her was being put to good use... If that's what you want to call it. The winding roads of Riverview never seemed to end, and Meredith began to worry that she'd be there late -- or, worse, arrive at the same moment as her husband's framer. No, she wanted ample time to wait, if only to mentally prepare for whatever she may meet at the end of this journey.

But as she pulled up and looked around the small, quiet fishing area, she breathed a sigh of relief. No one was there... yet. Lost Willow Park was beautiful in the afternoon, but even Riverview's most dedicated fishermen didn't enjoy the creepy atmosphere it had once the crickets came out to play.



She found a bush near the road, and curled up inside it. Her car was out of the way, where no one could see... It was just her, the crickets, and the stars.

And now... She waited.

---

"But you always find a way to keep me right here waiting
You always find the words to say to keep me right here waiting
And if you chose to walk away I'd still be right here waiting
Searching for the things to say to keep you right here waiting"
-- Right Here, Staind

Tick, tock.
Tick, tock.

Meredith became impatient. She turned her gaze towards her wristwatch... 8:15. 8:20. "Well, at least I tried,"  she thought to herself, getting ready to get up and leave. There was nothing else she could do.

... But then she heard a crunch of leaves behind her.

Her heart stopped. Meredith could feel the eyes of Carl's murderer on her neck, and hear their quiet breathing only feet behind her. How could she have been so stupid?! Of course they weren't going to walk right up the road...!

With as much courage as she could muster, she turned around.



"Didn't your husband tell you not to play with his toys?"

The voice was one that Meredith had heard many times before... But never so condescending as this. She couldn't understand... She couldn't believe! All this time, it was... "Chandra... Chandra Hawkins?!"

"What, you're surprised to see me? I suppose I should say the same, about you... Clever, but you always were stupid."


As Chandra walked down the hill, Meredith couldn't wrap her head around it. "It was you! You killed Carl Strummer!"

"I'd like to see what proof you have of that, Meredith."

"But... But, you're here! There's no other explanation!"

"No... I suppose not. Ha! You've caught me... Of all people, Meredith Jones is the one to finally see the truth. Still... I'd love to see you prove it."




"I... I... But..." Meredith had no idea what to do. She was caught in the corner -- figuratively -- and now Chandra looked as if she was about to laugh at her... And Mere couldn't have that. "But Chandra -- you were Jebidiah's friend! His best friend! Why would you do this to him?! Why would you murder an innocent man just to hurt him?!"

"Jebidiah was no friend of mine! Not after what he's put me through, for all these years!"

Meredith was, no doubt, incredibly confused. Some of her fury was completely lost in simply not knowing what was going on -- but Chandra seemed to have enough rage for the both of them. "What... I... He what?"



"For years, everything I did, was for him... He was everything to me, everything! But no one ever notices poor, loser little Chandra. No one ever cares about Chandra, pays attention to Chandra... Well guess who's not going to lose this game!"

"I don't get what you're saying, Chandra," Meredith said with her fists curled. "You framed my husband for murder because... You... love him?" There was no room in Meredith's mind for jealousy, anymore -- but certainly enough for hatred of this woman.



"You don't understand, Meredith! You never could! Not when from the moment he laid eyes on you, everything was about you, you, you... Always feeling so sorry for yourself, yet you never thought to think how lucky you were, or how miserable I was! There's no way you could know!"

"Try me," the redhead growled, her eyes and lips thinning in growing, pent up fury.

"Well," Chandra almost laughed. "Let's see..."




"From the day you were born, Meredith, you were born into wealth. Sure, your parents hadn't earned a cent of it, but you never knew hunger, living in a room the size of a closet, or what it was like to sleep in anything but a cozy mansion... My life was different. I was born into a three-room house, with parents who could barely rub two Simoleans together. My mother was old and sickly, and my father was trying to build a criminal empire the likes of Riverview had never seen -- but he was struggling, then...'


"And being poor did nothing for me at school. Second hand clothes, beat up books, and a father that spent most of his time in jail those days, it was inevitable Ithat kids decide I was a loser. Nothing in my life went right... Until I met Jebidiah Kane.'



"For the first time, I had a friend -- out of anyone else in the world, he sought out me. Why? Because I was the only one that understood his goals for the future... Who understood his diabolical humor... Who laughed at his innane jokes, like tying his Grandmother's shoelaces together. Man, that was brilliant.'

"When I learned he wanted to be a criminal someday, instead of abandoning him, I fostered his talents and his goals... I introduced him to my father, who gave him all the tools and knowledge he'd ever need to become a successful thief. And, with my father's confidence in his abilities, he finally began to get us out of debt... Although Jebidiah was the only person who never seemed to care that I never had any money. He was always so generous to me.'



"For years, he was the closest person to me in my life. My friend, my companion... I spent every second of every day with him, helping him plan his next prank on the teacher, or make sure no one was around when he beat up his favorite target... I was the best sidekick an evil mastermind could ever hope for.'



"I never thought there could be anyone closer than us.'


"And when he asked me to be his best friend -- forever -- there was no way I could refuse... But I wanted more. I thought, inevitably, he would realize how much I cared for him, how much I loved him -- the lengths I would go to to make sure he was happy.'


"But then you came along. You, with your long red hair, your shy little seductions -- for whatever reason he liked you, despite how much you despised almost everything about him. What he saw in you, why he wanted you, I have never been able to understand... After everything him and I had done together, I thought for sure that he wanted me to be his. But I was wrong. That day I ran into you having a picnic, he told me to go away. I didn't know why, I was such a loyal friend I went anyways...'


"It was the day he asked you to be his. I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't -- I loved him more than he'd ever know. I knew, someday, he'd come around...'


"But he never did. He started to spend less time with me... I almost never saw him. I thought by dating other guys, he'd get jealous and realized what he was missing... But every relationship ended the same. When I came to him for comfort, you were always there, and he refused to see me -- he left me, more alone than I had ever been.'


"I didn't even hear from him when you two decided to get married -- no, my father was the first person he told of the engagement, I had to hear about it second-hand. It was like he had forgotten all about me! All the break-ups in the world couldn't compare to how much that hurt me...'


"But I went to the wedding nonetheless. And I found out why he had seemed so far away -- he knew how I felt. He had been trying to distance himself, so I would forget about him... But now he was getting married. He asked me not to ruin it for him, because he was happy. Well... I knew I couldn't. I loved him too much to tell him no.'


"Things never got better for me. Break-up after break-up... Eventually, I got pregnant, and married my son's father to try to make my life easier. Not a day went by I didn't cry, but I was doing what Jebidiah asked -- letting him live his happy life, even if it meant that every time I saw him...'


"... that every time I looked into his eyes, I'd see what could've been, and the knife through my heart would be plunged even deeper than before."


"I tried to escape him every chance I got, but it was impossible -- every room of your house, every object you'd bought together, every child you'd born... They all should have been mine.'



"I needed something to comfort me, even if it wasn't real... I sent someone still loyal to my father to take back some momentos of the children that were supposed to be mine -- but I never did get those pictures, did I? All I wanted was something to help me live inside a dream for a little longer, so I could make it through each day without pushing myself back into Jebidiah's life and invading the privacy he'd asked for.'


"But he betrayed me. He knew I'd do anything for him, but no -- when you finally weren't enough for him anymore, he went to his bimbo colleagues for affairs instead of the woman who actually loved him. My friend Holly saw everything, how he stuck his tongue down other women's throats -- when it was supposed to be me he turned to! I had had enough. I decided, if he wasn't going to give me what I waited so long and patiently for, he'd pay the price for the torture I suffered since the moment you walked into his life... And make you suffer for it, too.'

"Holly heard he was having a party, so I sent her in to pick up the date of his 'big heist'. I knew it was happening -- my father had given him the tipoff, after all -- and all I needed was a date. A date to slip a poison into the meals my restaurant prepared for the Strummer's dinner, and a date to call back the favor that my friend Tameka owed for abandoning my father's gang for the Company -- I made sure she didn't follow through with her job, and so Carl Strummer ate the fatal bite of food that would put Jebidiah behind bars forever."

...

There was a long moment of silence after Chandra finished her story. Meredith simply stared, mouth agape, at a woman she had spoken to cheerfully on many occasions... Who she had let handle her children...

"You're insane!" Meredith slowly began to back away. "Jebidiah won't spent another minute behind bars... Not once I tell the police. You'll be the one rotting behind bars, Chandra... After what you've done... All over one man..."

"Well, you obviously don't love him enough if you can't understand how desperate I was!" But Chandra began to laugh, before she continued.

"How dim you are never ceases to surprise me. Of course the police will never find out, Meredith... You don't seem to understand -- if I can't have Jebidiah Kane..."



As Meredith stumbled backwards, now suddenly very afraid, Chandra raised her fist. "No one can."