Thanatophobia | VICTOR ZSASZ [DISCONTINUED]

forty one | ghosts

James said to her, "Lee... please."

Leslie scoffed as she replied, "Please? Please... what?! You didn't have to kill him."

Lucius started to say to her, "Dr. Thompkins, if I may, your husband took a drug that tri—"

Leslie retorted, "Nathaniel Barnes was infected with the same virus. He's alive. Jim spared his life." After a couple seconds of silence, she said, "And yet he gunned down Mario on his wedding day."

After she walked closer to James, Leslie told him, "You're the real virus, Jim. You seep into people's lives until you destroy them. You haven't heard the end of this."

Then she turned away from him and left the precinct with Carmine's man following closely behind her.

While choosing to stay behind, Annabelle slowly walked towards James as she said to him, "Well, it sure was nice knowing you, Gordon. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day before you get what's coming to you."

James started to say to her, "Annabelle, listen—"

Annabelle scoffed as she said to him, "I don't have to listen to you. Who do you think you are that makes you believe that I have to listen to you?" After she sped towards him and stopped a mere couple of inches from his face, she said to him, "Don't think that I forgot that you not only knocked out Victor, but also attempted to hit me. Now there's the fact that you killed Don Falcone's son. I mean, don't get me wrong. I wasn't a big fan of his, but that doesn't change the fact that you killed his son and if I were him, I would've sent Victor after you the second I left the funeral."

As she started to back away, she said to him, "Oh, and by the way, when you do see Victor, be sure to tell him that I need to speak with him right away. It's urgent and I can't wait another day."

Before he could say anything more to her, she was gone.

* * *

With her arms folded behind her back, Annabelle silently stood beside Carmine Falcone, while Leslie told him, "The autopsy showed that Mario did have the virus."

Carmine replied, "Mario was my son. Whether he was sick or not is of no concern to me. Gordon took his life."

Leslie asked him, "What are you gonna do?"

While Annabelle walked closely behind him, Carmine told Leslie, "I cared for Jim Gordon. In some ways, he was more like my son than Mario. His life is mine to take." After stopping when he was standing not far behind Leslie, he said, "That's the natural law. Blood for blood."

As she turned to look at Carmine, Leslie said to him, "I hate him. God, I hate him. Everything bad that's happened in my life has happened because of him."

Carmine told her, "If Gordon dies, it's a weight we'll both have to carry. I'm used to such burdens. You're not. He'll die by my hand, not yours. But this is something you'll need to live with. Can you?"

Leslie only nodded her head and after the two finished talking to each other, Carmine turned to Annabelle and said to her, "Annabelle, from my understand, you need to talk to Victor about something that's quite urgent and so, because of that, I'm going to tell you that you can go back home. The last thing Victor needs is being distracted by his feelings for you."

When Annabelle's eyebrows furrowed, he said to her, "Please don't take offense to that. I'm merely saying this for the sake of Victor. I think the last thing you want is that, if I were to send you to go with him, he would get distracted by what you're saying and get hurt, or even killed, in the process."