Acting Like A Professional

Epilogue

How long had she been waiting? Mela didn't know. After while, she started looking through the basement, seeing if she could find anything to occupy her time. When she came across some copper wire, the idea popped into her mind to make a necklace out of the diamond that Mr. Pink gave her. So she wrapped the wire around the stone and tied a string onto it. Then she waited some more.

There was an old, small TV in the basement, and it took while for Mela to get it set up. She had to plug it in, mess around with the antenna, and since there was no remote, she had to figure out the buttons directly on the television. As soon as she turned it on, the noise blasted her and quickly muted it. Eventually though, she got it up and working, so Mela began switching through channels. This went on for a minute until something caught her eye.

Mela had skipped over it initially and registered what she saw a moment later, so she switched back to the local news station, and her fears were confirmed. There was arrest footage of Mr Pink. Then a mugshot passed onto the screen, so she turned up the volume.

"-arrested two hours ago was the sole survivor of those involved, according to our sources. On the other side of the law, Lieutenant Holdaway is coming under fire for placing a startlingly young new recruit on the job to catch Joe Cabot. To those just now joining us, a member of the LAPD was required on this case to go under cover in aiding a robbery, which went horribly wrong as one of the robbers opened fire without warning. The undercover man involved, Officer Fredrick Newandyke, has been confirmed deceased. There will be more updates as we gleam more information on the events, although considering the high death count, the police's only source of information at the moment is captured felon Trav-" Mela turned the TV off again.

She didn't want to know his name. Not his full name. Now that all their plans were in the dust, it seemed only fitting that she never learned. All their plans were really done for, it was just now hitting her. This was gonna he the day her life changed, and for the better. Now it's... it's just another day. God damnit.

"God damnit god dammitgod goddammitgoddammit!" She grabbed her backpack full of things and hurled it across the room, screaming.

"Fuck! Goddamnit, we were almost there!" Mela continued to scream but had run out of words, her hands squeezing her head because she didn't know what to do with them. Until she grabbed the TV and pulled it off the stand so it hit the floor with a CRASH!

It jolted her heart to stop for a moment, just enough to halt her momentum. All of her rage dropped at once, leaving her body tired and heavy. Mela had to go see him. Just for closure. I have to. I have to.

She arrived, gave a weak explanation of "Can I see my uncle Travis? We miss him and this is the first time I've known where he was in a long time." Eventually Mela was brought to the booths with the glass wall and the telephones. She saw him waiting on the other side, and he looks miserable. When she sat down, she immediately picked up the phone and spoke, taking note of the guards on both their sides of the wall.

"We were wondering where you'd been, Uncle Travis." She saw him smile a little bit, she hoped it was pride in her lying abilities. Likely he was just a amused she went with the family gimmick.

"Yeah, sorry I let you down, Mela. Things just didn't work out." He kept in tone with the vague language.

"They never do, I guess. After this I was just gonna go back to mom and dad. They watch the news, so I won't really need to say much about our talk, but things won't be so peachy back at home either. I'll miss you."

"To be honest, I'll miss you too. I just wish I could've done something right by you before all this happened."

"Well, if it means anything, I still have that 'peace of mind' pendant." Mela pulled the little necklace she made from the diamond from tucked under her shirt, showing she was wearing it. He grinned in response, but relaxed into a straight face so as not to seem suspicious.

"That's a family heirloom if I ever saw one. Hey, as long as you're happy, at least not everything's bad."

"Yeah... I'm guessing I won't see you after this?"

"To be honest, as far as I can tell I'm looking at life here, so yeah."

"I see... any last advice? It's just about time for me to go."

"Uh... yeah, sure. Whatever you do, don't do it alone. And stay in school. Bye, kiddo."

"Bye-bye, Uncle Travis."