The Mute [Elliot Alderson]

16 | d i s c o v e r y

sorry it's taken me a moment to upload. school and social shit is kicking my ass.

BES'S POV

When I awaken once again, I see that I've only slept until 9 AM. I'm thankful for the four hours of sleep, but am slightly upset at my internal alarm clock. Usually I'm woke up by the sound of an air horn, but today I've woken to the sound of.. nothing. Except for.. it sounds like.. a fish tank?

My bare feet touch the cold wood paneling and it sends a shiver up my spine, but I lead myself to the other side of his apartment to check out the little fish.

It's a beautiful color, absolutely stunning. I made a mental note to ask Elliot what it's name is later.

The reality of last nights events has not quite sank in yet, but the headache from all of the alcohol is definitely going to kill me if I don't eat some Advil right now.

I check his medicine cabinet in the bathroom, and thankfully find a tiny bottle of Advil and take the last two remaining pills - also making a mental note about that. I'll buy him a new bottle later.

Elliot's sleeping body seemed so peaceful. His mind wasn't tormented, his eyes weren't looking around the room in a panicked way. Just the soft sounds of him inhaling and exhaling through his nose, nothing else.

I wanted to wake him up, but I decided against it because he looked like he could use the rest. I also don't necessarily want to leave quite yet either, but also don't want to over stay my welcome.

My eyes dart around the room to find something I could possibly busy myself with while he's asleep, and my eyes land on something that strongly resembles a CD holder, the kind with multiple sleeves and other pockets to hold each disk. I smile, and wander over to it.

Where it was placed kind of made me question if I was supposed to find it, but I didn't really care as I unzipped in and began looking through all of the kinds of music and bands that he listened to. Maybe it would give me a better insight on who Elliot really is.

My eyes finally land on a Beatles album, and decide that I want to listen to it. I don't really know exactly where someone would keep a CD player, so maybe if I put it into my laptop it will still work.

I set the booklet of disks down and look around for my bag, which I totally forgot I had, and snatched out my laptop to put the CD in the tray and wait patiently for it to begin playing.

As I wait, I look over at the cute stuffed animal, Sid, that Elliot had won me last night and it made my heart lurch in my chest just thinking that he did something like that for me, even when it was obvious these kinds of things are out of his element.

For some odd reason, instead of a track screen popping up; it was a folder titled, "Joseph Brown."

My stomach dropped.

This is just a coincidence, right?

Why does this disk have a folder with my step-fathers name on it?

I felt bile rising to the back of my throat but tried to push it away as much as possible. I should give him the benefit of the doubt, there's millions of Joseph Brown's in this city let alone this country.

I click on the folder and waiting for it to load, it feels like my heart is going to beat out of my chest. I've never felt this anxious before, and at the same time I'm not sure if I should.

Joseph is slightly and important figure around here. He's rich, a doctor, owns a lot of stocks. Could be that Elliot was just doing some basic research. It doesn't necessarily have to relate back to me.

A window popped up, and then another.. and another.. and another.

It was so hard to try and read them all at once but when they finally stopped - I read the first one.

It was a news article titled, "Brown Pediatrics being sued for 5.8 mil."

What the fuck?! How come I had never heard of this before? That was the office that Joseph owned - why had I never heard of this?

I continued reading.

"According to several eyewitnesses, there has been some malpractice spreading in this company, specifically in this New York based office. Many of the female employees have spoken out about sexist mistreatment and even sexual harassment in the workplace. We've tried to contact Mr. Brown for any comments, and we have not gotten through to anyone but his lawyer who is currently declining an interview."

My mouth falls open in shock, and I check the date of the article, knowing it couldn't have been any time recently because I would have had to known about it, right?

May 13th, 2008

What the fuck? I was thirteen.

I kept scrolling through each window finding more and more incriminating things against my step-father, completely forgetting that I was snooping through Elliot's personal belongings - and that he was sleeping on the couch right next to me.

More articles about a settlement in court and other shady shit became a common occurrence, and at least by 2013 Brown Pediatrics had been sued at least five times, all cases resulting in settlements for millions of dollars.

The most confusing part of all of this is.. how could I have not known? How had I been so oblivious for so long? How has he gotten away with all of this without jail time?

In the matter of ten minutes I began hating my step-father rather than being simply annoyed by him.

I need to talk to my mother as soon as possible, but first I need to talk to Elliot and ask him why there's at least a Bible's worth of information on my stepfather on a CD that's supposed to be the Beatles.

Digging into the file a little more, I started finding more.. suspicious things.

Screen caps of Facebook conversations, e-mails, phone call logs.. Things that there's no way Elliot could have. How? Why?

Chewing on my nails, I realize.. he had to have hacked Joe to get this information.

Elliot..

He hacked Joseph, and if I'm going based off an assumption.. all these other CD's could be filled with hundreds of other people's personal information as well.

"Bes? What are you doing?"

I freeze at the sound of his voice and swallow thickly.

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A/N

Well that's the end of this chapter. I know it's kind of short but I wanted to put something out because I haven't updated in a little while. Thank you all for being so patient.