After the flight, I left the airport and found myself in a cab to the Central Clinic in Los Angeles.

The first human to sight me was the little red-haired girl who initiated my return to the dreadful city. 

Tina McQueen. 

She gave me a tight hug and whispered in my ears, words I loved.

"I knew you'll come. I know you love Wes. I think he loves you too...Thanks for coming Ramona." She said.

The red-haired girl held my right hand and led me towards Wes' ward.

I saw him while he lay on a bed dressed in plain white sheets. The room he stayed in had an uncanny look. I hated it.

Everything was white, except the red in a little bag whose content flowed through a narrow tube into Wes' skin. He was asleep. He looked so peaceful.

Maybe I was wrong. I promised myself that I was just going to take a closer look at him and find my way back to Denmark. After all, I did tell him I did not need him in my life. He must have adjusted to that routine.

I let my luggage rest upon the white wall and I made a few steps towards the motionless Wes.

The upper part of his lips was scarred and a few parts of his skin seemed to be filled with colour. Red colour. 

The bandage on the back of his head had a few red prints and the blood that crawled into his body from the drip was so dark, it scared me.

I took a few more steps towards him, until my hands rested on his forehead. It was warm. He looked even more handsome when he was asleep. I brushed his dark coloured hair and let my fingers stroll across his scalp. 

I felt tears roll down my cheeks. How could I think he was the killer? It was Wes. 

I was saddened by my thoughts but I was glad he lived.

I kissed his forehead it felt warm. In that moment his eyelids moved slightly and there they were his lovely hazel eyes. 

Lord I loved those eyes; they were still filled with mystery. I was pissed at myself for believing Wes could be the killer.

I saw a smirk on his lips. He smiled at me after a second or so, but I was too ashamed to smile back at him. The words I told him the last time we spoke rang over and over within my mind.

I looked at the weak Wesley, who lay on the bed. I was the cause of his predicament. I knew that at a point the vengeance and unsure speculations a voice within me wanted him dead and I almost got what I wished for.

I was about to leave the white-walled room in search of a nurse as an excuse to leave Wes' sight. 

He pulled me back to his side; I slipped and fell on him.

 A part of my heart melted completely and I stared at his eyes. 

While the other part of my girly soul grieved due to his condition, I was truly grateful to my clumsiness at that time. 

I felt his short breaths sweep my blushed cheeks. He still had a little difficulty in breathing. Horrific thoughts began to chase themselves in my brain.

"What if he had died?" "What if he was already dead before I got here?" "What if he's about to say his last words?" "What if he takes his last breath right now?" 

In the midst of my thoughts, tears were let loose on my powdered face as they crawled out of my eyelids. I tried to stop them, but they kept gushing out until I began to whimper. 

Just then I noticed I was hurt on the inside, but exceedingly grateful that Wes was alive. 

Stark patted my back and swept my hair with his hands.

"Shhh...Hey...Hey...I'm alright Ray. I know what you're thinking and I'm not going anywhere. I can't die just yet. If I'm meant to leave this world,  that Crucifier's leaving with me. I'm either going to be the first to kick his ass to hell or we'll get there together. You know what? I think I might even go to heaven. I've had an angel by my side all this time." He smiled. 

I laughed. 

"And Ray about what I told you the last time we spoke, I was damn serious. I do love you. Even if you don't feel the same...No worries...Forget it. Maybe it was too early to say all that...That's not the point...I...Things may have gone wrong between us but I'll still help you bring that killer to justice. Your life has always been of great importance to me since the day we became friends. And I'd kill anyone who harms you." 

He held my hands tightly and gazed at my eyes. I watched his lips move and my heart skipped several beats.

"I know this sounds crazy Ramona, but I do love you. You might be in love with someone else and I...I just think...What I'm trying to say is, even if you loved someone else, there's no problem. I just want you to be happy. I know I'm a fool for telling you this again. After all, I did it before while we were in high school and that didn't end so well, but I just had to let it out. Trying can't kill anyone now can it?" 

He looked like a joker.

"He's really stupid. Me? In love with someone else?" Thoughts filled my head again. 

I crept out of them and while Wes was about to make more excuses and explanations, I pushed my lips against his and planted a kiss.

"My first love story isn't supposed to be boring. This isn't a homicide case Wes, it's love. I love you too...No...I've always loved you Wesley Stark. I love you." I confessed.

It took Stark a while to regain his normality.

"I...I...I'm so stupid. I never noticed. I was just stuck on how much I loved you. I mean I never thought about you loving me for a second." He laughed.

"Of course. You're a guy. How would you know? When you love someone, you totally become blind. You men are just concerned with your part, so you're unable to notice a girl that really likes you. And when you become cowards refusing to make an attempt, you proclaim the girl 'Out of your league'. If you hadn't said anything and I had kept my feelings to myself we'd both die with our true emotions. Guys! You're all stupid specie of the human race." I said.

"And yet you're in love with one of this stupid specie." Wes replied.

We both laughed.

We were filled with joy and the room was lit with our excitement. 

For a while I forgot I once left Los Angeles.

An hour passed and a doctor arrived. So did several nurses, cops from the L.A.P.D and people who knew Wes, but that was a totally different world. I did not care about them. 

For all I knew I was with Wesley Stark and he was healthy. 

The gap in my heart had been filled and the sorry scar had been healed half way. He was back, the man I loved. Wesley Stark.And this time I was sure he loved me too.

The day I arrived in Los Angeles was long but it seemed too short for the love I had found. 

I became a creep to those who watched me walk out of the medical building. For a smile pasted on my face after my first kiss with Wesley Stark had refused to leave. 

I felt like I could jump and skip all through the day but I kept my self-composure for the sake of adult hood.

Soon, I was back at Wes' home, the huge mansion. 

Wes had told me that he was attacked in my old home during an unauthorized investigation, so somehow I felt safer in his house than at my old apartment. 

Well I could not take any chances. I got into the house and locked every open exit I knew of. I dropped my luggage in the large sitting room and climbed the long stair case to the bedroom I used to sleep in.

The house was quiet. Too quiet.

The smile I had on my face a while ago disappeared as fear filled my heart once again. I felt weird. Something was not just right.

Suddenly an appalling sight before me, let me slip. I would have broken my neck that day, but courage of some kind let my arms get caught in the railings. Blood dripped from a cut on my knee. I crawled up the stairs.

There it was. No. It's not just one. They were two. Three. Four...

Sixteen roses aligned to the closest bedroom door with a letter at the far end. 

My legs shook vigorously and my knees knocked. 

I fell once more and hit a glass vase. 

Red prevailed again. My palms and legs were cut deep by glass. I removed the glass and in pain I limped to the doorstep of the bedroom. 

I opened the letter and in an instant the world of the dead seemed not so far from the world of the living as an evil cold breeze crept down my spine. 

The letter was encrypted in slanted writing with what I hoped was red ink. It read;

"I was so close to eliminating your dearest but I failed. No worries I've gotten warmer now. Once I get hot it'll be you next. Hope your grave is ready Taylor. Worst intentions only. – The last face you'll see in this world."

He was back. The Crucifier.