Hello my lovelies thank you for the reviews so far!
Big things are happening in this chapter, we really propel into the juicy stuff.
Enjoy!
Chapter 11
Ivy could hardly discern in her memory how she had apparently stumbled from the house onto the road, the smell of blood, sweat and other vile substances staining her through attracting a vast amount of attention before she dropped like a stone to the pavement. Only shapes and colours were visible during the period she was unconscious recovering in the hospital, for as soon as the general public, out on various night owl errands had seen the manacle induced injury gushing from her ankle they had rung for both the Police and an Ambulance. Red, white and blue colours flashed underneath her eyelids and she knew her body had taken to convulsing whenever the haunting image of Lawrence sawing off his own foot would enter her mind, or Adam's look of horror. Yet red seemed to always tinge the corners of her imagination and the sensation of the shackle round her leg had not yet left her body; so whenever that grimy bathroom flickered into her brain again she would begin to believe she had never escaped, as if her mind itself had become a prison that would not release its doors to the outside world. Only when she blearily opened her eyes two days later did she recall anything to do with John Kramer, Amanda Young or her recent proposition. As soon as she was awake the Doctors had begun their routine checks on her to see if her body was functioning at a normal state of being, she hadn't been able to eat a good meal for a few days and absolutely ravished a bowl of soup filled with vitamins and minerals to help her regain her strength. Ivy had refused to speak to any police officers for the first day, preferring to lie awake in bed thinking of the two men she had shared a fate with and reliving the horrid scenarios again and again till she understood they would never be erased from her memory; always lurking just behind her current thoughts, preventing her from acting in such a manner again, just like John had wanted.
She had asked every time she woke up whether Lawrence Gordon or Adam Faulker had been admitted. Neither of them had been sighted anywhere.
On her second day in hospital Ivy was walking round, putting weight on her ankle to which the damage was not altogether that harmful. Every Doctor or nurse that saw her never failed to remind her how lucky she had been. It was on this second day when the police once again came that Ivy decided to finally allow them to question her. She wasn't interested in what they had to say at all. What could she tell them? She knew who the Jigsaw killer was, she could save so many people's lives by putting an end to this insanity. She might be able to help Adam. But another part of her feared Amanda and what would happen to her Uncle if he truly was caught? Surely they would seek some kind of vengeance against her; if John was capable of such intricacies as he had demonstrated in that bathroom then he must have some sort of insurance plan if she spilled the beans? Perhaps it involved Adam, or her being put back in that bathroom. And she would rather drink cyanide than allow herself to be re-chained in that dank, dirty room. So, when the two Detectives entered she kept her mouth tightly shut for the time being and decided to play the role that was already carved out for her. The seemingly innocent victim.
She hardly paid attention to the woman whom had been the first to take a seat at her bedside table and pretended instead to be much more interested in the drip in her arm. The woman introduced herself as "Detective Allison Kerry" and preceded to console her for what she had been through and how "no one would ever be able to relate with the ordeal she must have suffered."
Ivy's eyes however kept drifting to the quiet man hovering near the hospital door, as if to make a quick escape if the need arose. Detective Kerry noticed where her interviewee's eyes kept heading and beckoned the man closer, "This is Detective Mark Hoffman, I apologise for not introducing you before."
The change of atmosphere in the room was noticeable at once. The Detective's dark eyes finally made contact with her own and the corner of his lips quirked upwards once. He was very well built in a dark suit that complimented his dark hair yet it looked like an effortless decision. His posture was stiff yet he had a casual elegance about him that gave him a cross between a puma and a bear with every step he took taking great precision and timing. The man was a walking contradiction, switching from the steadfast officer seeking justice in an unjust world, to a deadly precisionist reaching an inviting hand out to tangle you in his web.
Hoffman remained silent as Detective Kerry took charge of the interview, it seemed to be a frequent strategy in their working relationship. Ivy nodded in accordance with the conversation as the prying woman began to ask her questions that only led to more questions with answers that Ivy could have easily given to wrap up this whole case, but was willingly choosing not to. A small part of her couldn't deny that the glory of being the one to discover who Jigsaw was and to be heralded as the one to close the infamous murder case was incredibly tantalising. Detective Kerry handled the questioning covering how she had met Adam earlier that night, the missing part of her memory in which Ivy had recounted all that Adam told her about the pig masks being used as some sort of disguise, to how she had woken up in the bathroom. It was here she had to pause a little as she began to relive certain memories again. The one where Adam handed her his overcoat kept making a reappearance. She explained to Detective Kerry how they found the tapes and tiredly told them as much of the overall design of the trap as her poor mind could possibly retain at that moment. The hardest part by a long shot though was explaining why she had been tested in the first place, and Ivy found herself naturally glossing over many of the files she had taken. A nurse made an appearance at the door after a while with a lovely tray full of medicine and a simple chicken sandwich which Ivy alternated between scoffing it down her throat and picking at it. An hour with the Detectives passed by seamlessly and still Hoffman refused to say a word. His eyebrows had raised when Ivy spoke of the hidden camera and he had exchanged a couple of quiet words with Kerry before returning to his stoic impassiveness. His lack of dialogue was beginning to frustrate Ivy who wanted nothing more than to be thoroughly questioned by the man she would potentially be spying on. Hoffman seemed to have noticed the increase in her irritated movements as he smirked at Ivy when she left a large enough pause for him to jump into the conversation, the challenge flashing in her eyes before Kerry once again took the reins. Ivy found herself rushing a great deal of the escapade with Zepp and the more gory elements of her bloody tale, she didn't want to witness again the multitude of images just beyond the tip of her tongue.
"So you escaped the bathroom with Dr Gordon." Repeated Kerry and Ivy nodded, her head resting in her hands.
"We were in the cellars of some...place. I don't know what it was. It might have been a house, but it was big." She began, twisting the story to edit out the missing information she already knew. She realised as she was speaking that she would have to do rather a lot of inventing, if she wanted to keep John and Amanda a secret. Especially with their third accomplice listening carefully to every word she said.
"We tried some stairs up to a trap door but we couldn't get through. So we had to back up." Ivy invented half telling the truth. She was betting that Hoffman knew the house and cellars just as well as John himself. "Lawrence was looking extremely pale and we could hear footsteps coming. He was too heavy for me and he was nearly passing out. I couldn't drag him anymore and he told me to stop." The two Detectives looked at each other again mildly surprised. I understood their look, anyone helping anyone else in a Jigsaw game was completely unheard of. Especially if these people were meant to kill each other.
"He told you to leave him?" Asked Hoffman finally interjecting into the conversation. Ivy caught his eye and nodded slowly making sure to hold eye contact with those matching blue eyes.
"He did. I think he knew he wasn't gonna make it. He told me to leave him and make sure his family were okay and then come back for him and Adam; though I think he knew I'd never be able to find the building in time to save them." She invented once again, feeling a little pleased and surprised at herself, and how naturally the lies came to her.
"Well that is certainly very noble of him." Replied Kerry looking to Hoffman once again whom nodded, his eyes never leaving Ivy's face. But he seemed to believe her.
"Yeah well it was that or we both die."
Kerry was giving Ivy a look filled to the brim with sympathy as if this was the plot of a new TV drama being told to her in detail. Hoffman cleared his throat to clear the awkwardness that had settled. "So what happened after you made it out of the cellars without Dr Gordon?"
Ivy paused trying to recall what actually did occur. "I can't actually tell you." She admitted, "It sounds cheesy but it is a blur. I was near passing out as it was, my ankle was bleeding. I think I just grabbed the first person I could find and when I passed out they called for an ambulance."
"And Dr Gordon and Adam are..." Began Kerry.
"Dead." Ivy snapped quickly and Kerry flinched at the savagery in Ivy's tone. "Or they will be soon." She relented, feeling sheepish at her cruelty. "Just please try and find them, they've paid for what they did wrong and I don't even think Adam could have got out at all." Ivy began before breaking off. Now she thought of it Adam's trap did arise many more questions than she could answer.
"You said that all it looked like he had to do was to escape?" Pressed Kerry and Ivy shot her a look for pushing the subject.
"Now might not be the time to pry further Kerry." Warned Hoffman taking note of Ivy's distress. Ivy sent him a nod at which he straightened his posture a little more.
"It does not matter, but yes I'm sure all he had to do was escape the bathroom." She answered. "His tape was nowhere near as clear as mine or Law...the Doctor's."
"Indeed." Murmured Hoffman. His eyes travelled down Ivy's blanketed body and simple hospital gown and onto her still bandaged ankle that was suspended up to ensure circulation could travel to the injury.
Kerry slowly stood and both Detectives backed off, "I think thats enough questions for one day." Stated Kerry.
"You think so?" Ivy quipped back quickly, she felt emotionally and mentally exhausted from not only having to recall the whole ordeal but to speak openly about it. Hoffman nodded once more towards Ivy, an unusual gleam in his eyes before heading silently out the door.
Kerry however lingered. "We are aware of your recent graduation to become an agent, and I have been in contact with a couple of agents who are being made aware of how we are handling the Jigsaw cases. If it gets any worse and we don't know how it can; but they will be pulled onto the case." Ivy's eyebrows knitted together and she found herself sitting up in her pillows a little more. The movement did not go over Kerry's head and a smile appeared on her lips. "But before they do they would like you, as a survivor, to join our local force. You will be acting under me as your boss and also helping me in reporting info back to the higher up agents." Ivy peered closely at Kerry who was now waiting patiently in her chair. Ivy could see Hoffman's shadow waiting outside the door.
"You are being serious? This isn't some kind of sick 'lets get the survivor's hopes up' is it?"
"No I am completely serious, I'd be your boss if you choose to accept it." Kerry pressed a folder with the stamp CONFIDENTIAL on the front into Ivy's hands. Ivy stared at the folder containing the details of her job with disbelief etched onto her face. The police had acted exactly the way John had planned they would.
"I'd be a member of the same department as Tapp and Sing were then?" She ventured.
"Yes."
"Working alongside Hoffman outside and the others?"
"Yes sometimes I won't be able to take on every single case. But we'll make sure that you are. You already have far more knowledge than the rest of us." Reassured Kerry and Ivy went along with her instalments of false security.
"Then why is Hoffman waiting outside the door getting more and more impatient and not in here offering the position alongside you?"
Kerry opened her mouth and then closed it. Ivy popped one of her eyebrows up and smirked back at the self-assured Detective who chanced a look over her shoulder to the shape of the irate fellow officer fidgeting outside the door. "The other Detectives do not know about the connection between myself and the FBI yet." Kerry ran a distressed hand through her hair, "To be completely honest I thought that since this would be your first case and it's such a big one you'd just jump at it, not uh question it so much."
"Well like you just said, this is a big case and I wouldn't want to find myself back in another trap because I was snooping round where I shouldn't." Retorted Ivy enjoying the woman's awkwardness. The shift in power was so tangible she expected Hoffman to walk back in the room to steal it from both the women as he had done before.
"No I'm sure you don't." A moment passed between Kerry and Ivy, a moment where Ivy knew her decision reflected in the keen police officer's determination. She might be assisting the Police to capture her Uncle while also working with said Uncle to ensure his apprentice on the force doesn't go off the rails. But it did mean that perhaps with her outside eyes she could tip the odds the right way.
"I need to rebuild my life." Stated Ivy and Kerry agreed instantly, "I had no job before I was taken and I still have no job. It would be good to actually be doing something; but I don't know if I can be standing in front of other victims." She started honestly, thinking of how torturous it would be to see the men and women she would undoubtedly befriend being slaughtered by their own wrong doings. "But I would like to accept the position in the hopes that I will be of some help and will eventually be able to help put this person behind bars."
She knew she sounded like an actor in a low budget cop movie, but Kerry ate up her words and was shaking her hand before Ivy could really register how she was going to accomplish what she had said. How am I going to be any help if I've just said I don't want to go to the murder sites? She was grateful that Hoffman had been outside the hospital room. No sooner than the thoughts had entered Ivy's mind did the door open again and an impatient and huffing Hoffman had stepped back into the room.
"Kerry for gods sake we need to be going, Fisk thinks he's onto something. It could be a false lead on the Doctor or the other one but we need to check it out in case it does lead somewhere."
Kerry nodded and Ivy made sure to slip the folder to the far side of the bed, so her body would obscure the folder from Hoffman's view. Kerry shook my hand once again, her smile never leaving her face and she quickly darted out of the room to which Hoffman gave a look of confusion to Ivy before closing the door and leaving her to her privacy. Ivy kept her eyes on the door, Hoffman's large shadow had not yet slinked down the corridor and soon split itself into two, there was the sound of raised voices before the hospital door swung open once again and Kerry stepped inside once again.
"Do you mind having a visitor so soon or would you prefer them to wait?"
The question startled Ivy as she had to wonder who on earth would want to see her besides police officers and hospital staff. She gave her assent and lent back against her pillows, her hand stretching out for the glass of water on the bedside table. Her heart sank when Amanda walked through the door.
"Detective Hoffman is staying outside in case there's any trouble." Said Kerry, backing out of the door once again, a keen eye trained squarely on Amanda's back. Amanda herself was rolling her eyes finding the whole situation overtly dramatic. Ivy shook her head as soon as the door closed again finding little comfort in being protected by a man who was as dodgy as the woman in front of her. Amanda sidled over to bedside table and picked up the glass of water Ivy had drunk from a couple of seconds earlier, draining it. Ivy tried to sneak the police files under the duvet but Amanda was too quick and snatched them up, peering nosily inside.
The smile that wound its way around her face was unnerving, "Well I don't think even John expected them to act that quickly. He was right again." There was a hint of complete devoted admiration to her voice that made Ivy feel a little revolted at this woman's attachment to her Uncle. Her Uncle whom she could never picture with anyone but Jill.
"Why are you here?" Ivy asked straight away, snatching the folder back from Amanda, she didn't want to go through a series of mind games to string every answer out of her Uncle's apprentice.
"Relax princess I'm just here to tell you where to meet John when you have your answer and that he'd appreciate one in the next couple of days." Amanda set the glass back down on the bedside table and Ivy pursed her lips at both the forward behaviour and the new nickname.
"Your getting me a refill by the way." Ivy said and Amanda shrugged her shoulders with a grin on her face, enjoying Ivy's challenge.
"Yeah. That's basically it, John just wanted me to check on you and make sure you were still breathing, and you are so...yeah. I think i'll be going now. I have things to do."
"People to kidnap." Ivy added and Amanda stopped in her tracks back to the door.
"Yeah I probably do actually."
"Your putting a lot of faith in me and this room not having any kind of recording equipment." Ivy smirked, toying with her Uncle's apprentice.
"Well we both know this is all fun and games, one survivor's twisted mind against another." Amanda's answer was a clever one and Ivy allowed Amanda to win that round.
Amanda kept heading towards the door and paused once again before tearing back to Ivy's bed. Ivy pressed herself back into the pillows as Amanda bent over her and whispered close to her ear. "I don't think he's got long left...and I don't know what to do."
Amanda pulled away leaving a post-it note in my right hand and exited swiftly out of the door, letting it bang behind her. Hoffman started from his position supposedly on watch and entered the room again casting a bewildered eye over Ivy equally stunned face. "Survivors dispute?" He asked casually, raising an eyebrow and Ivy nodded.
"Yeah, bit of a crazy bitch."
Hoffman let out a snicker of laughter at Ivy's brief description, "You have no idea how bad she was at the interviews."
Ivy returned his smirk, a sense of unity seeming to be bridging the crooked Detective and herself. She blinked a little at his retreating form before pressing a button by the side of her bed to call for a nurse. She badly needed a glass of water if she was about to riddle out what the hell Amanda had meant in her note. He's not got long left. But did she mean Adam, Lawrence or John? Surely it must be Adam if Amanda was telling her. Adam was still alive, but not for long.
A nurse and Doctor both came through the door, both with a serene expression on their faces. They instantly gave Ivy a look of pity on seeing her still suspended leg. "What can we..."
"I would like to leave here and recover at home, if that is alright with you." She stated quickly.
The two Doctors looked at each other, their faces creased with worry. "Well by all means it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Your ankle has recovered well and there was no severe damage to any of the muscles or ligaments so while you may be limping for a while you should be fine as long as you go easy on it and come for a check up every fortnight or whenever you need to."
She was waiting for the 'but or the 'if,' however it never came. It seemed the Doctors had been assessing her mental health alongside her physical health and had been hoping that instinctively she would have been asking to leave. It showed a sense of independence apparently, whereas if Ivy had shown any desire to want to stay in a safe place then it would have been a couple of trips to a psychiatrist. The bill for her stay in hospital was extensive enough though, Ivy believed that any other form of treatment on top would have crippled her monetary wise. It was scary how the pieces were all slotting together, just as they had begun to do in that bathroom. The Doctors only request was that she stay for another night and would leave on the morning of what would be her third day.
Ivy didn't go back straight back to her apartment. Instead at around 7am she took a well paid cab round to a block of apartments and knocked on a grey door what looked as if it was made out of steel. A set of eyes peered into the crack of the door before opening it fully and Ivy shook her head as the woman allowed her inside the room.
"You have a peephole you know." Reminded Ivy as she sank down onto the creamy sofa and her Aunt closed the door.
"I didn't think you'd come here out of all places." Piped up Jill still standing by the door.
"Well you are family and I should be cherishing my life should I not?" Ivy bit back, enjoying the tension rippling through Jill, "It's one of your mottos too isn't it?"
"Yes it is, but I think you'd be safer at your apartment."
"You mean I still have a home? I thought I would have been evicted when I went missing." Ivy was confused once again as Jill took a seat next to her.
"Of course you still have your apartment Ivy." Sighed Jill running an irritated hand over her forehead and rubbing some sleep out of her eyes. It was then Ivy realised her Aunt was still in her pyjamas.
"Sorry about the early call, and thank you for the clothes. I presume they are yours cause we've always been a similar size and I don't wear much white normally."
Jill laughed a little and waved Ivy's thanks away. "I didn't think you'd want to end up back in those tatty yoga pants that would only remind you."
"So you do know about it." Ivy smiled, she wasn't angry that her Aunt knew about her test. In all honesty she was happy to just be making small talk with a family member who knew her well.
"John told me he thought you deserved one." Jill replied sounding a little hesitant, "I mean he didn't tell me any of the details or even when it was going to happen or if it really was, till Amanda came to the hospital to tell me you'd made it out. I went straight there to see if you were okay."
"I am okay now. I seem to be the only one." Ivy rubbed her arms again as goosebumps erupted thinking about the shackles in the bathroom.
"No you're not." Said Jill and Ivy looked up. "Uh would you like some tea?"
"I would love anything that isn't water filled with vitamins and other things." Ivy answered, grateful for her Aunt's tactful stab at normalcy. Jill moved with a cat-like grace at once towards her rather spacious kitchen and began filling the kettle. Ivy decided to follow her and casually lent against some of the pristine countertops. "So I'm not." She prodded knowing that Jill had to be referring to Lawrence, unless Amanda was fucking with her mind which was also a distinct possibility. A part of her certainly hoped it was Adam and not Lawrence.
"The Doctor who sawed his foot off is alive." Jill said adding sugar to her own mug as the kettle came to a boil. "He has been doing something for John, who has replaced his leg. He'll be released in a couple of days."
"I am surprised that you of all people have accepted John's new ways."
"I don't support it." Argued Jill handing a steaming mug to Ivy. "Although it does seem to work. He brought Amanda with him not too long ago as proof probably so I would keep quiet and you are another example."
"I don't think I've proven that I'm going to do something about my life yet."
"But you're here." Pointed out Jill as they made their way back to the sofa. "And that was one of the things John wanted from you most of all."
"Yeah, it was such a simple thing to do and I did have the time, I just never thought to use it that way. I was too busy sniffing round for another case file to steal." She admitted, despite how painful it was to admit to Jill face to face. "It's weird how right he always seems to be."
"I know it is. He has amazing instincts."
Ivy took a sip of tea, which scolded her soft lips and she let out a small hiss of pain. Jill took Ivy's hand in her own and Ivy frowned at the joined hands and the feel of motherly instincts that were swimming off Jill. Occasionally Jill had the habit of mothering Ivy in some attempt to use what was never given to baby Gideon, whom John and Jill lost thanks to a drug addict by the name of Cecil Adams and a patient at Jill's clinic. He had tried to accost her for more drugs and had slammed the clinic door into Jill's swollen stomach causing a miscarriage that nearly cost Jill her life as well. Ivy knew it had been that push, along with the news that her Uncle had inoperable cancer that brought him to a precipice. And the other side of this precipice had been Jigsaw.
"The local police station have offered me a job." She began attempting another sip of tea, this time it was a nice, soothing temperature.
Jill frowned and removed her hand from Ivy's own, "But you don't want to be a regular cop, you trained to be an FBI Agent."
"A special agent yeah." Corrected Ivy and Jill lent back into the sofa her hands playing with her mug.
"Then why would you accept a job there? The local police are the ones tracking down John..." She had begun to piece the puzzle together. "Ivy you can't mean you want to bring John down. He's your Uncle despite how misguided he might be right now."
"I don't plan to help turn him in. But I need a job and it involves working for one of the Detectives, while spying on another for John. I'm sort of his eyes and ears. It's still FBI work, being the guinea pig between the station and the FBI. Apparently if it does carry on or get any worse they are going to intervene."
"Jesus." Muttered Jill, "It's not going to stop for a long time." She whispered, a hint of fear reflecting off her glassy eyes. "I'm scared about whats going to happen to John when he's caught."
"I don't think he'll get caught. If that bathroom was anything to go by then he is very elaborate and covers his tracks very well. I remember reading about those shotguns in that corridor that killed Detective Sing, five of them all suspended above and triggered by a piece of string."
"It's when you do that, John and I get scared." Murmured Jill refusing to look at Ivy.
"I don't understand I'm only repeating facts." Blinked Ivy, she didn't want to be slapped on the wrist and told off for her natural personality.
"Yes and it's the clinical, precision with which you remember them. You've poured over John's case files so much that you can recite details. It's not normal and you need to stop before you end up as obsessed as Tapp was."
"Why what's happened to Tapp?" Asked Ivy. It was then she realised that while Detectives Kerry and Hoffman had questioned her non stop, she had not received one answer to the list of questions that were ready and available for answering. Nor had she cared to ask about Lawrence and his family or what had gone on with the Zepp man if he wasn't Jigsaw like Lawrence and Adam had believed.
Jill looked just as surprised, "You mean you don't actually know?"
Ivy shook her head and Jill smiled, "Alright I'll tell you all I know to help fill in some of the blanks but you have to promise me to leave it at that and to not pry beyond what John or myself has told you."
"Alright I promise." Ivy rolled her eyes at her Aunt's compulsive behaviour. "Please, Jill." She added after seeing the stony look on her Aunt's face.
"Well Lawrence's wife had apparently managed to free herself and her daughter from the bindings that orderly had put around them. He was another test subject and John wanted to see how far he'd go to save his own life. He was dying of a poison in his veins."
"And that meant he had to kill Lawrence's family." Solved Ivy and Jill nodded. "That is pretty disturbing Jill. And it looks like he tried."
"He did." Confirmed her Aunt. "He and the Doctor's wife fought and she got the phone and spoke to her husband along with the gun. Zepp tried to grab the gun and they fought some more, the gun was going off everywhere..."
"Adam and I could hear the gunshots from the other side of the bathroom." Interjected Ivy and Jill threw her a look.
"If your going to keep interrupting..."
"No I'm sorry. I will stay quiet." Promised Ivy and Jill shook her head at her niece again.
"Then Tapp stormed into the room, no one knows how and began struggling with Zepp before chasing him through the sewers. Lawrence's wife and kid were fine and called the cops. So Zepp went to kill Lawrence for failing his test, and maybe Adam as well as he too had failed his test."
"Wait no he didn't." Said Ivy and Jill threw her hands up in exasperation.
"Can I finish and then you can say whatever you want to?" He tone was cutting and impatient. Ivy nodded having a sudden thought of her Aunt chucking her still hot tea over her. "Tapp and Zepp were still fighting on the way to the bathroom and Tapp got shot."
"He's dead?" Ivy repeated incredulously. Jill nodded. "Shit."
"Then whatever happened in the bathroom that transpired between you all happened and Zepp got killed, Adam failed and you and Lawrence escaped." Jill finished now waiting for Ivy to speak.
"But here's the thing, you keep saying that Adam failed but he didn't."
Jill frowned again and the slight wrinkles appeared in her aged face. The cracks of strain and stress finally beginning to show in her beautiful face. "What do you mean?"
"Well Lawrence really got out on a technicality didn't he?" Began Ivy, grateful of the chance to finally examine her theory with someone she could confide in. "Lawrence failed because he was meant to kill Adam by six pm and firstly the time ran out and secondly Adam didn't die. The bullet hit him in the shoulder."
"But Lawrence escaped the bathroom which was the main goal after all and all Adam seemed to do was sit there and let his life slip away."
"But he did try, he tried all the same things that we did." Argued Ivy, not quite understanding why she was defending Adam quite so much. "I'm not saying that Adam should have lived and Lawrence should have died; we all deserved to live after the hell we were put through but it just seems like Adam never had a chance. Especially once I was free."
"He did have a chance as fair as you and Lawrence. You had that knife you kept hidden, Lawrence had the cigarettes and Adam had his key, it's just a shame he didn't think about taking it out before he drained the bathtub. Which was incredibly stupid in my opinion." Explained Jill.
Ivy froze where she was sitting. "What key?"
"The key that was in the bathtub. It fit his shackle so he could walk around the bathroom and escape unharmed. Or he could have sawed through his own foot like the Doctor did."
Ivy could feel her face whitening with every word that Jill said. "There was no key in the game at all Jill."
Jill paused in mid eye roll to stare at Ivy. "But the purpose of John's test is to test the survival instinct."
"And Adam had no chance to try and survive." Ivy pressed her eyes widening as her questions surrounding the soft, brown haired youth begun to fit each other in a nasty spelled explanation. "None of us ever saw a key and his saw broke as soon as he tried to use it. Come on Jill if he saw a key do you really think that he would not use it? He may have been a little clueless at times but he wasn't an imbecile."
"But John told me that the key to the chain was in the bathtub." Stuttered Jill becoming just as confused as Ivy felt, something was missing that both of them couldn't quite fit their heads around.
"And I don't think he was lying." Said Ivy, running a finger round the top of her mug. "I'm just thinking that if John's main message is to help someone cherish their life, then they need the opportunity to live. Adam never had a chance to live, it was like he was put in that room to die. That Lawrence was always destined to win because from what it looks like there was always more at stake for him. I mean you'd have to be one twisted fuck to not try and do everything you could to save your family."
"But he very nearly didn't, in fact they saved themselves." Interjected Jill closing her eyes and stifling a yawn behind her hand.
"But he made the right choice in the end and proved himself to be a better person by doing so." Argued back Ivy, she laughed a little at the sheer absurdity of it all. "Jill we can argue about different things all day long but what you can't deny is that something went wrong with Adam's test ."
Jill sighed loudly and drained the rest of her tea, "So what do you want to do Ivy? He's rotting away in a bathroom somewhere. I don't know where John is and neither do you and even if I did have a way to contact him then I wouldn't tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because as I said before I know you, and you having that sort of information just seems too dangerous to me." Jill's voice held so much concern that Ivy found herself seriously reconsidering the plan that was forming in her own mind. "You could get far more entwined in John's messes than is good for you, you've survived once Ivy lets leave it at that and live your life. Don't get caught up in trying to save Adam because I really don't think you can." Ivy stared at her Aunt and how she had seen through what she had hoped was a rather calm facade. She went to open her mouth to retort when her frantic Aunt beat her to it once again; "Just do your new job, don't go to the murder scenes and do low duty stuff till everything blows over."
"Well it won't blow over until John, or the whole police force is dead." Spat Ivy before she could help herself.
Jill gave her a sad look, her face was creased with misery, "I know that." She murmured so quietly Ivy felt a rush of guilt hit her. Her Aunt didn't deserve the continuous cat that wouldn't give up playing with the string of her life. Ivy knew that the meeting with Jill was over, the atmosphere had become far too awkward now and Ivy knew that for now she had royally put her foot in it. She stood up to leave and Jill nodded at her intention. "Where are you going now?" Her Aunt asked quickly following Ivy to the door.
"Back to my apartment; I'm sure there are bills that need to be paid and I need to sort out my new job." Was Ivy's answer as she slid the lock back that Jill had firmly secured in place before pointing a finger at it. "This is new." She remarked and Jill made a small noise of discomfort.
"The landlord said he has a spare key that he'll give to you." Said Jill, brushing over the lock completely, "He seems to actually be a nice person, unlike my own." She shared and Ivy smiled.
"Yeah he doesn't conform to the social stigma much does he?" She asked rhetorically and Jill smiled. Ivy made a move towards the hallway before pausing just as Jill made to close the door.
"Jill, how long can someone live for without food or water?"
Jill paused for a moment, her eyes didn't meet Ivy's for a long time till she finally answered, "About three days without water and a month without food." She answered and Ivy nodded feeling a ray of hope for the first time since she woke up in the hospital. It was three days today. "But that depends if he's been drinking out of the bathtub or not." Added Jill, catching onto Ivy's train of thought as Ivy began to make her way back to the hallway. Ivy stopped to look at her Aunt and gave her one more tentative smile before setting off down the hallway.
Ahhh interesting no? What a bunch of character's we've met today!
Is Ivy going after Adam? Is he already dead? We know Lawrence isn't.
Read and review please! xoxo
