Yes it's me, it's meeeeeeee!! I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in a long time, but I had writers block and some of my interest in Twilight was sapped when I read the rather ominous information for Breaking Dawn on wikipedia. I'm really nervous about what's going to happen to Bella.
In other news, I managed to procure the special edition of Eclipse, and obviously I put Team Edward onto a yellow shirt that I bought immediatley after.
Anyway, in this chapter I'm going to focus a little bit more on Riley, and there's going to be some new characters introduced. I suppose I should say that i'm watching the Spice Girls documentary on youtube while writing this. I have the oddest creative stimulance.
ooo000ooo000ooo000ooo000ooo000ooo
Riley shuffled quickly down the corridor, his eyes out of focus. He was only vaguely aware of the noises of the police and other doctors from down the hall.
As a professional, he would have doubted what he had just seen and what Bella had just told him. He normally would have diagnosed her and locked her up. But as of now, he was certain that she was in danger.
He had no clue where he was going. All he knew was that he needed somewhere to go to think. Somebody to talk to or even just an inanimate object.
He looked up. He was close to the end of the hall way. Victoria was standing there, her face starkly white and talking to two police officers. She looked up.
Oh fuck me. Riley thought bitterly.
"Riley, get over here." Victoria said tensely. Riley walked the rest of the way and stood next to Victoria, and faced the two officers.
"These officers want to know exactly what you saw." Victoria said.
Riley tooka deep breath. "Some freak in a mask chopped off Tina's head." he said flatly.
"White mask?" one of the officers asked, taking out a note pad and a pen. "What exactly did it look like?"
"Well," Riley continued, slightly more flustered than before. "It...it looked sort of like a lop sided happy face. It was fucking creepy. And it looked more like a potato sack than a mask."
The officer was scribbling speedily over the notepad. After a few minutes he took a look at the paper and grimaced.
"Did it look something like this?" he asked, holding up the notepad. Riley nodded, surpressing a satisfied smile. The drawing on the note pad resembled the mask worn by one of the killers in that new horror movie.
"Yeah...that's it." he said quietly, convincingly looking sorrowful and fearful.
"Did you notice anything else?" the other officer asked.
"Not a lot. It was too dark to see what they were wearing."
"Thank you. Victoria, we'll be in touch in the morning."
Victoria nodded and the officers left. She watched them walk down the hall. Once they were in the elevator, she turned to Riley.
For the first time in his entire years of knowing her, Riley was shocked by the expression on Victoria's face. She looked...was it possible? ... sympathetic?
"Riley," she sighed, "you'd better come in here."
Riley followed her, keeping his head down. Victoria took a seat behind her desk and turned to look at him.
"This can't be easy for you." she said finally. "I mean...all this in just a year and a half? I'm worried about you."
Riley finally looked up. Victoria was looking genuinely concerned.
"I'm...well, I'm not feeling like a kid at Disneyland right about now, but I'm doing okay."
"No you're not." Victoria said a little more sharply. "I've been in this business for twenty five years. I can tell when people are evading the truth."
There was a silence for a minute.
"So what are suggesting?" Riley asked. "That I be releaved of duty or something like that?"
"No...I'm suggesting that you might not be okay enough to do this alone."
Riley stood up.
''You're gonna give me a partner?" he asked, his voice shaking.
"Yes." Victoria said simply. "As a matter of fact, I have just the person in mind."
"What if I refuse?"
"Then I will releave you of duty."
They stared at each other harshly. Riley was about to say that he wouldn't mind that right about now, but then he remembered what Bella had told him. Any other person might lock her away.
So he simply sighed and slumped back into his chair.
"I'm doing this because I'm worried about you." Victoria added more gently. "Jenna jumped off of that roof, and with all the crap going on around here, I'm surprised that you haven't locked yourself away."
She stood up and picked up her phone and turned to the wall. She muttered so indistinclty that he couldn't make out what she was saying. After a few minutes, she said goodbye and turned to a cabinet where she kept medicine.
She shoved a bottle over to him.
"Sleeping pills?" Riley asked.
"Yes. Just so you can actually sleep easier. And, "she added significantly, "I've taken the liberty of calling in your partner. She'll be here tomorrow."
"She?"
"Yes Riley, she. Now, goodnight."
Riley stood up, grabbed the bottle of pills and walked out of Victoria's office and back to his office. Bella was curled up on his bed, fast asleep. He set the sleeping pills next to her and then sat in the chair, attempting to make himself a little more comfortable.
He really wanted to sleep, but on the other hand he didn't want to let Victoria know that she'd won him over.
Therefore, he took to looking aimlessly at the walls, wondering just who the heck his partner was.
Maybe he could make it miserable for her, or just show her around and make her creeped out about the other patients in the hospital.
He was walking down a dim hall. There was a door at the end, light filtering out from under it. He opened the door.
He was standing in a large room, with christmas decorations all around. Jenna was sitting under the tree, opening presents all alone.
A lump came to his throat. He knew this. She'd told him about this before she'd gone to the hospital.
He watched as Jenna opened present after present. Some of them weren't really suited for her, such as an expensive drill and a large green house coat.
The scene changed. Now he was standing in the kitchen, watching himself talking rapidly to Jenna about treating a patient with electro shock therapy.
He noticed her touch her stomach and then excuse herself from the table.
Now he was standing in the bedroom. Again, he was talking to Jenna about working at the hospital. She looked up at him and then smiled.
"I'm pregnant." she whispered.
The scene changed. He saw himself sitting anxiously in a chair in the hall of a hospital. A doctor came out and muttered something to him.
He saw himself put his head in his hands.
Jenna was in the attic, rocking an old crib back and forth. He came up and looked over her shoulder, a look of mingled disgust and pity coming over his features.
Now Jenna was in the psych hospital. She was looking dully out the window, clutching an old doll. She stood up and slowly walked out of the opened door.
"Wait!" he called.
She didn't stop, but continued to walk out the door.
"Jenna...please!"
Jenna turned.
"You don't care." she whispered, before continuing to walk down the hall way.
He was standing in front of her body...and he was screaming in anguish.
"Riley...RILEY!!" he felt a sharp slap and woke up.
Bella was leaning over him, looking worried and scared. Riley got a grip on himself and sat up. Sunlight was filtering through the windows. It was nine in the morning.
Shaking himself, Riley stood up and got a glass of water.
"Are you okay?" Bella asked.
"Yeah...I'm alright..." he breathed.
There was an awkward pause for several moments.
"Are those for me?" Bella asked, prodding the sleeping pills.
Riley shook his head and took a gulp of water.
"No, those were given to me by Victoria. She wants me to start taking them." He took another drink of water, staring out the window. There was no point in keeping it from Bella. "And...she's assigning me a partner."
"What? Who?"
"I have no idea. A woman. She's probably going to be here any minute."
Bella looked at him fearfully. "Should...should I tell her?"
Riley shook his head and set the glass down. He turned to her.
"She'll not only rat me out as being un able to perform my job, but she'll reccomend that you be locked away for the next twenty years."
Anger flashed through him and he continued un-necessarily. "No doubt she's probably some fourty year old cow named Dolores who has a lot of cats and rats out everyone she can."
"Actually," came a pleasant voice from the door. Bella and Riley whipped around. "She's a twenty two year old pixie named Alexa who has a malamute and hates ratting people out."
A woman was standing in the door. She was petite and very pretty, her blonde brown hair was straight and hung to her shoulders. Oddly enough, she was dressed casually in black jeans and a blue sweatshirt.
Alexa continued, "She'd also like to know what the hell you guys are trying to hide from me."
oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo
Okay, there. It's a little short, and for that I'm sorry. So what do you think of it? I really didn't intend for Victoria to be so understanding.
Theres a poster for this story on my profile if you're interested. It's not exactly masterful, but it's okay.
If you're a little disappointed by this chapter, don't worry. The next one's gonna be better, I promise.
Also, I hope you got the reference to the mask that Riley made it up. I haven't seen the Strangers, but I do think that that mask is really creepy.
Please review and be kind.
