10. Chapter 10: The Detective (1/2)
october 2018, 9:35 am, dahlia's cell
'a detective? how's that going to help ms. hawthorne?'
'well, she's seen a doctor, a psychologist and a therapist, but none of them have been able to help her. what happened to her was a crime, and who better to resolve it than a detective?'
'detectives investigate crimes, but we don't need an investigator here. we already know what happened to her, dee.'
'well we're running out of options, frank. she hasn't left her cell for four months now. and it just so happens a detective has recently received a guilty verdict. he'll be joining us later today.'
'fine. it's worth a shot, i suppose.'
dahlia could hear dee and frank discussing her situation outside the cell, but she wasn't really listening. that would take effort, and dahlia didn't have to strength of will to put effort into anything since july. she had loved matt engarde, or at least thought she had. but his betrayal had re-affirmed her beliefs since childhood. nobody could be trusted. her mother, her father, even her worthless sister. none of them gave a damn about dahlia. so why should she give a damn about anyone? and to blame matt engarde for his actions would be hypocritical. he simply did what dahlia had done her entire life.
but that didn't make it any less painful.
they found matt's body the morning after de killer had come across the two of them. at first the guards didn't realise who they were looking at, since de killer had taken his sweet time torturing matt at dahlia's request. in the end, his face was unrecognisable, and they only figured out it was matt when they compared his teeth to the police dental records. de killer had escaped, of course, so only dahlia knew what really happened. dahlia learned all this information from one of her trusted guards, and had remained in her cell ever since.
and now her 'friends' were going to send a detective in here? ridiculous. she had rebuffed everyone else they had sent her way, and this one would be no different. why couldn't they just leave her alone? even morgan fey had visited her, not out of compassion, but to see if dahlia was willing to carry out the original plan to kill maya fey. dahlia had screamed at her until she ran away. revenge held no interest to her anymore. she had gotten revenge on matt, which had been satisfying for a moment, but afterwards it left her feeling empty. no reason to think that killing maya fey would make her feel any better. but killing herself... that seemed like a valid option now.
6:58 pm
the clock was ticking, and dahlia had made up her mind. at midnight, she would jump off the tower and leave this world. no hesitation this time. god forbid she run into acro again and receive some more terrible life advice.
'zvarri! the truth has once again been elegantly been revealed to me!'
the irritating voice stirred dahlia from her thoughts. she looked up to see a man on the other side of the bars, glaring at her through a monocle. he had spiky blonde hair, a beak-shaped nose and a giant purple ribbon on his chest. dahlia got a headache just looking at him.
'the lovely ms. vasquez has given me the task of investigating your condition. a strange request, to be sure, but i am confident in my ability to see through your fog of deception and retrieve the jewel of truth!'
dahlia said nothing.
'stunned into silence, eh? a natural reaction when one beholds my genius for the first time, to be sure. but we shall have to communicate if we are to solve this dilemma of yours.'
dahlia said nothing.
'hmm, no matter, i suppose i shall lay the groundwork for the investigation by asking a few simple questions. this all began when matt engarde so cruelly took advantage of your relationship in an attempt to escape this facility, am i correct?'
dahlia said nothing.
'ms. hawthorne, i really must insist that you respond why i-'
'i think that's quite enough.' dahlia said, cutting him off. she stood up and stepped forward.
'and where might you be going?'
'well, i was planning to kill myself at midnight, but listening to your nonsense made me realise it's not worth living a second longer.'
'no, you can't! not yet!' atmey barked, grabbing dahlia's arm. she looked down at where his glove made contact with her skin, then looked up at atmey, no emotion in her eyes at all.