Looking Into the Past

Chapter 5: Finding Closure!

Finding Closure!

In which Neff starts over when she didn't think she deserved to.

~x~

I spent hours in that interrogation room.

They wouldn't stop asking me what the murderer wanted.

A search squad was send out for V3ll. Apparently cops had a suspicion amongst him, because of how many times security was called on him at work. They found several journal entries in his office about the sadistic things he wanted and planned to do. A warrant was sent out just minutes ago to search for any evidence in his office.

There was a feeling in the back of my mind that things weren't supposed to play out this way. That I was supposed to agree with him and let him cure me. This stupid disease has gotten me into more shit than I had hoped. At first, it was just random visions. But now, it was real. And I don't know how it's possible to see into the past. Was there some sort of secret cosmic camera that played these scenes? Was it some ghost using its powers that relayed directly to my brain?

"Officer," I asked him calmly as he wrote down on a legal pad.

"Yes?" he said, not looking up.

"You know I didn't commit any of those killings, right?"

"Yes, I know. But since you knew about them, we're questioning you," he said.

"I didn't do it. I have Farrel-Butzen's disease."

His writing paused, and he looked up. "Excuse me?"

"I have... Farrel-Butzen's disease," I repeated. I remembered from when the whole thing was explained to my parents in the vision, it was mentioned that people like me had worked for the police because of it. But they were also hunted down. I was convinced now, that V3ll wasn't trying to help me. He wanted to hunt me.

He was so close. But why was he so lenient? Why didn't he just grab me and point a gun to my head?

I replayed the scene in my head over and over. But I wasn't going to suggest the scene to the cops until they actually found something from V3ll. The last thing I needed was me looking like an over-analytic fool.

"You're shitting me, right?" the police officer asked, laughing and looking around. "Is that why you came all the way from Elmore?"

I nodded.

"Jesus, kid. You really did it. I thought I was going to have to be the bearer of the bad news. The headlines. Oh, what the headlines would have said. 'Superstar's daughter commits homicide on own family', that doesn't sound right. You're too young for that."

"People may have thought I'd do that because of the big move. It was so stressful. My dad's retirement from fame pissed off the media. But I didn't listen to any of it. I was too concerned with how big this would affect my life," I explained.

"I never knew your dad personally. But I know he had problems. I just hope he worked them out before all of this."

"He did. Don't worry."

I was still forced to be in a holding cell until the police found my medical documents and the fingerprint results came in. I did some thinking all alone in that cell. About how my life would change after this. Who would I go with? I wasn't 18 yet. Someone had to take me in. Either that, or be emancipated. That would take forever though. But the biggest question was where I was going to live.

Would I stay in Elmore, or move back home with the big brick house? No doubt it would now be mine because of inheritance. But who would I have now? Everyone is fucking dead. And I'm still here wondering who did it. Most likely that sadistic killer that V3ll shot down. But my question was this: How did he know when this was all going down?

"You're out, kid. They found evidence," an officer said as he came to my cell and unlocked it. I got up.

"What happened?"

"Follow me."

I did so, and he lead me to the officer in another room. I sat down with him.

"Well, kid, you're in safe hands right now, if that's gonna make up for what I'm about to tell you."

I gulped.

"V3ll has been under our surveillance for months. He's crazy, to put it plain. And, well, you just got lucky. He was coming to kidnap you, kid. I don't know why he didn't force you with him, maybe it was to make you think you weren't gonna be taken. He was trying to cover it up, but did it extremely badly."

"Why did he want to kidnap me?" I asked, worried.

"He wanted what was in your head. That disease. Turns out he came up with this device that extracted it and put it into his head."

I remembered instantly how my kind were hunted down for this sort of thing. I figured it was because they wanted to know about their past, or have some sort of way of finding other things out. It was a cruel thing, honestly.

"I just got lucky," I said quietly.

"You sure as hell did."

"But what now? Who do I live with?"

"You have one of two options: stay in foster care and wait until you're 18, or become emancipated if you show responsibility of living on your own."

"I'm not responsible, I can't even drive yet."

"Not if you don't start. Plus, your dad was rich, you're getting his inheritance. You're set for life," the cop said, and I saw a bit of envy in his eyes.

"But I don't think I deserve it. I'm getting a dead person's money? And for what, to hold me off on going hungry? I can take care of myself."

"Uh, yeah, sure. Look, if I had 26 million going into MY bank account, I wouldn't bother to deny it."

"But I don't deserve it!" I said again. "I literally do not. I'm not entitled to it, it's not my money, I don't WANT it."

"Mhmm. Okay. I'd rather take the money and stay outta foster care. Those families don't need another person to feed, especially a millionaire."

"There's no convincing you, is there?" I asked. irritated.

"Nope."

The bright side, I was left with money. The downside, was that I was still in a mentally corrupt state that if anyone witnessed my thoughts aloud I'd be put into a mental asylum.

A week had passed before I was officially emancipated. Newshounds constantly emailed me or tried calling me, and a few times I witnessed them knocking on the door of my old house. I was just up in my old room, packing the few belongings I left here because I was convinced I was coming back there one day.

But it looked like Elmore was my permanent new home.

I didn't want to stay back in this shitty town, where the memories of my dead loved ones constantly haunted me each time I looked at Sunny's window, or my dad's favorite recliner. All that stuff was being taken to god knows where. I even put up a sign in front of the house once I had gotten done taking my valuables, saying "Take what you want".

I even left the car.

The train ride home was a long one. Not a text from Tobias that whole week. Figures. My dad ditches him one night at his house and that's the last he sees of him. Ever.

I wonder how Tobias would react to what happened.

I don't know why this clusterfuck of events came over me. And I certainly know that I may have not deserved it. People died at the cost of me, and this was karma biting me in the ass. For what? I didn't know. But what I did know, was that I was going to try and start over in Elmore.

I was going back there to forget about what all happened.