Dark Princess | K. Jones

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑣𝑒

hyperion heights, present

"You'd think a girl hocking watches wouldn't ever be late" Rogers sighed as he and Courtney sat on a park bench, waiting for Tilly.

"Can I ask you something? About what you said, earlier, about Eloise?" Courtney asked.

"As long as it stays off the record," he said, only half joking. But Courtney nodded and laughed.

"100%," she said. "But this...connection, you said you have with her. Is it just....is like a cop thing or is there something else?"

"It isn't just a cop thing," he told her. "The night she vanished...I was drinking. Instead of patrolling her neighborhood, I was en route to the bottom of a bottle."

Courtney nodded like this added a whole new level of understanding to everything that was going on. "That's why you don't drink anymore," she said.

"It's my fault she disappeared," he said.

Before she had the chance to tell him that wasn't true, he glanced behind them as Tilly caught his eye. "Hey!" he called out as Tilly took one look at him and started to run off. "Hey!"

"Where the hell is she going?" Courtney asked as they got up and rushed after her.

"Hey! We were waiting, did you find anything?" Rogers asked.

"Yeah, I found something," Tilly said as she stopped and brushed a hand through her hair, shaking her head rapidly. "But you don't wanna hear this."

"Of course I do," he said.

"No, I should go," she said, trying to rush off but Courtney stopped her.

"Tilly. It's okay. Just tell us what you found" she said.

"Okay," Tilly sighed. "I spoke to a few of the runaways from the old group home. There was a guy who used to go out with a girl, going by the name of Rain. She wrote poetry, loved Salinger, was constantly drawing in her notebook. So...I checked him out, okay? And...and, uh, he gave me this."

She pulled out a folded-up piece of paper and handed it to Rogers. When he opened it, it was a drawing of a sunset. One that had obviously been ripped out of a book since the edges of one side were all jagged.

Immediately, Rogers pulled out the book he'd been carrying along. "This...this drawing's from her. This is from Eloise. That guy, did he say where she is?" he asked but Tilly didn't say anything, refusing to look him in the eyes. "Hey, what?"

Tilly sighed, digging into the grass beneath them with her boot. "She's dead."

"What? How?" Courtney asked.

"Car accident. There was a stolen car and...since her real name wasn't Rain..."

"They couldn't identify the body" Courtney mumbled before turning to Detective Rogers. "Hey. I'm so sorry. I don't-"

"I just...I need to be alone" he said, not saying anything else as he walked off. Seeing how upset he was, Tilly stormed off too.

Courtney was about to follow him when she pulled out her phone, feeling it vibrate in her pocket. It was an SOS text from Roni. Groaning she decided to go see what was wrong before finding Rogers later.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

When she got to Roni's she was surprised to find the bar empty. "Hey. You said SOS, I was expecting to see the place up in flames."

"No. No, the bar is fine. But I did need to talk to you about something" Roni said. "You should probably take a seat."

"This is eerie. You're not firing me are you?" Courtney asked.