Fractured- UnOrdinary (Original)

Chapter 26: Where's your proof?

Arlo looked at his aunt, furrowing his eyebrows. "Aunt Val, I'm sorry about Remi's behavior. But this is still a really difficult time for all of us. Please, go easy on her."

Valerie sighed. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm being blunt Arlo, but being a vigilante is not something to look up to or be proud of. You know I don't support it and I don't want her to walk down that same path."

Arlo nodded slightly. "And I agree. But I knew Rei personally and he was just a man who wanted the best for everyone."

Arlo paused slightly before exhaling a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Val, remember how during some of our conversations over the phone, I would talk to you about this friend I had and his sister? Rei was that friend."

Valerie's eyebrows went up slightly. "I recall. You talked about them quite frequently."

Arlo nodded as he clenched a fist. "Exactly. So, when I say that Rei was never a bad person and he just wanted to help people, I mean it. Rei was someone who got through to me and understood me when not many others did. What he did may have been obsurd, but that doesn't mean his heart wasn't in the right place."

Valerie nodded as she took a sip of her coffee. Though her thoughts told another story. 'Hmm...is this what you really think Arlo? Interesting...'

.

.

.

Coming back to the table in separate intervals, the girls focused on 'Valerie.'

Honestly, this all felt a little too surreal for Seraphina.

The woman who has been taking the lives of countless superheros, now sitting right across the table and having coffee with them?

It sounds absolutely insane.

But then again, what hasn't been insane lately?

The two girls gaze were trained on the woman, trying to read her in any way they could.

But all they could read off of her was a blank calm.

It was an air Remi was familiar with when talking to other investigators in the authorities.

Out of all the people she's met, they all seemed exactly the same: calm...sympathetic...collected.

And all inheritly fake.

Valerie welcomed them back, Remi apologizing for her rudeness earlier.

The woman only waved it off, a faint smile gracing her lips. "It's quite alright Remi. I understand that this subject isn't easy to talk about."

The smile dropped from her lips but Remi felt no weight to the woman's next words as she spoke. "Arlo's been telling me more about your brother and he sounds like he was a wonderful person. I truly am sorry for what happened to him Remi and I'm sorry for talking ill of your brother."

The girl only nodded, keeping her eyes down towards the table. "Yeah...I am too..."

Remi nudged Seraphina's leg with her foot, a silent que they had agreed upon.

Time to put their plan to work.

Seraphina looked down at her phone, her eyebrows going up. "Hm?"

She tapped on the screen slightly, faking dialing a number and held the silent device to her ear, though her and Remi knew no one was calling her.

"Hello? Really? Hm...ok, we'll be there soon Blyke."

Seraphina looked to Arlo and Remi, feigning a rushed tone. "That was Blyke. He says he needs our help, asap."