Tales of the Blood Moon

The Least Harm

Chloe hops back into the driver's seat of the black panel van, firesit up and quickly drives out of the gas station parking lot. Sheglances into the rear view mirror, brushes back a strand of hercoal-black hair and fixes the gaze of her steel-gray eyes on Matthew,who is seated at the rear of the van.

"Sorry about all the noise," Matthew says, shifting nervously onthe bench seat.

"Don't mention it."

"Did anybody notice?"

Chloe shakes her head. "There was a woman filling up her Jag, butI think we're okay."

Matthew looks down at the bound and hooded man struggling on thefloor. Matthew hadn't expected him to suddenly start struggling, butMatthew assumes that once the van came to a stop, the man decided tostart kicking and making all sorts of noise in the hopes someonewould come to his rescue. Unfortunately for the man, no one iscoming.

"Want to try to get one more read in?" Chloe asks.

"Nah," Matthew says, reclining his head a bit and rubbing thebridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. "I've alreadylooked a bunch of times. Once more won't make any difference."

Chloe nods and continues driving without saying another word. Herexpression suggests this is just another day at work. Matthew enviesher ability to remain emotionally detached despite all that'shappened today - and all that will happen.

The man at Matthew's feet is Robert Parsons. A few days ago, Matthewreceived a vision of Robert entering a church and opening fire on thecongregation before taking his own life. Hoping to find a way ofaverting disaster, Matthew began considering various actions he couldtake to prevent Robert from committing mass murder, then gazing intothe future to see whether any of those actions would be successful. Sadly, no matter which course of action Matthew chose, the resultremained the same and only the location of the massacre changed. Theonly choice left is the one that causes the least harm.

The van stops on a winding dirt road set amid thick woods. Chloeleaves the driver's seat and joins Matthew in the rear of the van. Matthew inhales deeply, accepting what must be done, then straddlesRobert. Robert struggles vainly as Chloe removes one of his shoes,takes off his sock, then pulls a syringe from her pocket. Clenchinghis ankle in the crook of her arm, Chloe inserts the needle of thesyringe between Robert's toes with an ease Matthew finds unsettling. The syringe (which contains a chemical that induces cardiac arrestand is almost invisible during autopsy) acts quickly and in less thantwo minutes, Robert twitches for the final time. Chloe replacesRobert's sock and shoe and Matthew helps her carry Robert's limp formfrom the back of the van.

James has already pulled up behind them in Robert's car and flattenedone of the tires. Chloe and Matthew lower Robert to the road andremove the hood and Velcro restraints. Chloe was adamant about usingVelcro straps so as to avoid leaving the easily identifiable marksleft by ropes and handcuffs. James walks to Robert's corpse and putsa tire iron in his lifeless hand while Chloe calls the police on herdisposable mobile phone to inform them of Robert's location. Thestage set, the trio enter the van just as a rapidly descending,single-engine plane goes hurtling overhead, leaving a thick trail ofblack smoke in its wake. They pause for a second, listening for acrash that thankfully never comes, before rolling away from thescene.

"You okay?" James asks Matthew from the driver's seat.

"Yeah," Matthew replies. "I just wonder if we did the rightthing. Maybe we should have..."

"Don't over-think it," James interrupts. "Your visions arenever wrong. The weird thing is that he'll be mourned by the verypeople he likely would have shot. I guess it's better this way thanthe other."

Nodding resignedly, Matthew sighs, "So, who's going to finish thething with Natalie?"

"I will," James says quickly. "Chloe, you did your partalready. Let me finish that thing my way."

"I can go deal with the Rabbi Cohen situation," Chloe says.

"If neither of you need any help, just drop me off at the motel,"Matthew says. "I'm going to try to take a nap." He lowers hishead, closes his eyes and wonders if they've truly done the leastharm.