Episode 5: Cheated By Fate

Episode 5: Cheated By Fate
by Toni Walker

"Don't do it! Tucker MacLeod ran to the overlook where the waterfall met the edge of the cliff and fell into oblivion. He had seen the woman from the roadway below. At one point in his life, he had been exactly where this woman was. He couldn't let her make a mistake that could change her life forever.


"Don't do it!" he yelled again, pratically clawing his way up the steep incline to the overlook.
The woman glanced tenatively behind her. If she was going to do this, it was going to have to be now. She watched the water as it fell. Her husband had fallen over this very cliff protecting her from a psychopath who had chosen her as his next victim. Trey, a police detective, and his partner, Leo Sutherland, had trailed her and the madman to the old Park Ridge Overlook.


Everything seemed so vague and disconnected now. So unreal, as if it was a part of a dream that had quickly faded from her memory.


"What am I going to do without you, Trey?" Rena St. Claire whispered The water flew by at such a quick pace. It was just like her marriage. It had barely started out the gate and then, suddenly, it was over and he was gone.


She leaned closer and closer to the edge. Rena didn't want to go on without him. All she needed to do was take one little step. One little step and she could join Trey. She couldn't imagine a life without him.


One step.


She leaned forward more, mezmerized by the water. A voice from behind called out to her. She didn't want to listen. She didn't want to think. She just wanted to end the pain.


The voice became louder and louder until the man sounded like he was right behind her. It was in that moment she made the decision and stepped off the overlook.

***

Wayne McKenna didn't appreciate being tricked, especially when it took him away from finding out what happened to his girlfriend. He thought he could let it go, but all the unanswered questions kept him up at night. It seemed no one in Park Ridge was brave enough to admit the truth.

What in the hell was really going on? He needed to talk to Charlotte Cooper to start putting the pieces together. He didn't want anyone to start questioning his presence at Charlotte's house. After all, his being there twice in one day could start a rampant rumor. He knew what the town gossips were like.

Wayne parked next to the cemetary, then ran toward her cabin through the shortcut. He exited the woods just as he saw Charlotte shoved into the street straight into the path of an oncoming car.

"Oh, my God!," he said, pumping his legs harder.

Charlotte was staring at the Jeep in shock. If he didn't get there in time, she was going to be dead as well. Everyone in his life had to stop dying on him!

The Jeep started to skid sideways. Wayne jumped the ditch and tackled Charlotte getting her out of the street just as the car came to a hault inches from where she had been standing.

Charlotte shivered and glanced unseeing into Wayne McKenna's eyes.

"She's going into shock," a male voice behind Wayne said.

"I can see that," Wayne snapped. "I'm a doctor."

"So am I." Jaxx Sinclair threw a blanked he'd grabbed from the backseat toward McKenna

***

While the two men worked on Charlie neither noitced Muse Williams and Marcey escaping back to their vehicles.

"What in the hell is wrong with you?" Marcey Chamberlain asked once they were out of earshot. "I'm all for you trying to one-up Charlie Cooper to get your hooks in McKenna, but you just tried to kill her!" Marcey grabbed Muse by the shoulder. "Do you understand what I'm saying? You just tried to make her dead."

Muse was strangely silent. Her face was ashen. Marcey helped her friend into her car and found an empty bottle of some drug on the passenger seat. She didn't know much about drugs, but she wasn't going to take any chances. She pushed Muse into the passanger seat and hoped she could get to the hospital in time.

***

"NO! Dont' do it!" Tucker yelled. At some point he'd known internally it was Rena up on the falls. Something about her must have psychically called out to him making him stop his car and climb up the precarious pathway to the old Park Ridge Overlook.


"Rena, stop."


She felt a pair of hands grab her shoulders and pull her up. Rena struggled against her savior. She didn't want to be saved. She wanted to be with Trey. She wanted to die.


"Let me go! I can't live without him." Rena clawed at the man's hands, her fingernails digging deep into his flesh. She could feel the man wince, but he didn't cry out.


"No!" Tucker was adamant. "I'm not going to let you do this. I'm not going to let you kill yourself." He pulled Rena back up and into his arms. "My brother would never forgive me if I allowed you to kill yourself to be with him in the here after."


"Brother?" Rena turned around.


It was him. It was Trey.


"Oh, my God, Trey. You're alive." Her hands trailed up his face quivering.


He shook his head. "No, not Trey. Tucker. Trey's brother."


"No. It's you. It's really you... I never thought I'd see your face again.."


Tucker MacLeod pried Rena's hands away from his face. "You have to listen to me, Rena. I'm Tucker. I'm Trey's twin brother."


"Twin?" She shook her head in disbelief.


"That's right."


"But he didn't say..." Rena couldn't believe this. "He never told me he had a brother." As he held her on the ledge of overlook, Rena St. Claire fainted.

***

"What happened? Wayne asked as the EMT loaded Charlie into the ambulance.


"I don't know. It happened so fast. It looked like someone pushed her into the street." Jaxx said, confused as ever.


"Pushed her?" Wayne blanched. It was happening again.


Jaxx knew that fact shocked Wayne.


"Why would someone want to kill Charlotte Cooper?"


Jaxx recognized the name. Charlie was the name of Paul's wife. And Paul Cooper was involved in the car accident that had taken his sister, Joy's life. This was a little too coincidential for his taste.


"How do you know Paul's wife?" Jaxx asked innocently.


"I don't, not really. I came by to ask her a few questions about my fiancee's death. She was involved in a car accident with Charlotte's husband.


Wayne had Jaxx's full attention. "Your fiancee was Joy Sinclair?" He asked the question but he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.


"Yes, Joy and I were going to be married the next day." Wayne leaned against the car for support. "Did you know her?"


Jaxx shifted his weight from foot to foot. "You could say that. She was my sister."