Killgrave has a plan, Jessica has some crysis... Trish has an obsession.
Chapter IV: AKA Is it purple enough?
"Let her go and forget she was in prison."
Nine simple words and, added to his innate charisma and, oh yes sure, also his power to control minds and manipulate them as he pleased, and the Prosecutor had been at Killgrave's complete mercy.
The result? Within five minutes, two guards were escorting him to the prisons.
When he arrived at the prison he was interested in, he stayed at the beginning of the corridor, letting only the attendants go.
"Hope Shlottman?" the first called, opening the cell.
The young blonde girl got up from the cot, a little bewildered, walking towards them.
"You are free. You're here by mistake. " the second said, confusing her even more.
They accompanied her outside, where everything became frighteningly clearer to her.
"No, not you, bastard, not again!" she yelled, exasperated.
Killgrave only offered her a sinister grin in response.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, this is certainly not the proper way to welcome me, little girl," he shook his head negatively, approaching her. "Besides, considering the favor I'm about to do to you. Smile." he commanded, obviously getting what he required.
"Let it be clear, I care less than nothing about you, I'm only doing it for Jessica; for reasons I don't know, she foolishly cares about you, "he explained coldly, brushing her hair away from her face, not because it was an affectionate gesture, but only because he hated the messy looks.
"You know, she told me that I am Evil, well, I'll show her what this Evil can do." he continued with an eerie light in his eyes as she followed him to the car.
The girl was increasingly terrified but the smile did not leave her features. Simply because she couldn't stop smiling.
"Wait for me here with my guards." he forced her once the car reached its destination: the New York Bulletin.
He walked through the building's reception, but was immediately stopped.
"Sir, I'm sorry, I can't let you pass, without an appointment." the girl who was on duty that day did her job.
"But I have an appointment." Killgrave replied rather annoyed.
"Sure Sir, you have an appointment." the girl smiled cordially.
"You see, Marie ..." he stretched his eye on the badge that the girl had pinned on the pocket of her uniform. "That we are beginning to understand each other? And now tell me, where are the editorial offices? "
"On the eighteenth floor, sir." Marie informed him.
"Very well. One last thing," he added, on his way to the nearby elevators, pressing the button to call it. "Do you know who Hope Shlottman is?"
"The girl who shot her parents? Of course I do, Sir, we have released numerous front pages about that awful matter and many more will follow. "
"Oh no, I don't think so. Hope Shlottman has never shot anyone and now forgets everything you have read or heard about her. " the persuader tested her, enjoying the girl's clouded expression.
"Excuse me, I got distracted for a moment, did you ask me something, Sir?"
He nodded negatively, satisfied, seeing the elevator arrive.
"Have a pleasant meeting, Sir!" the receptionist greeted him, returning to her counter.
Reaching the indicated floor, Killgrave made his way among the abandoned desks where papers with notes, old newspaper copies, archives and a few books were piled for further research. He headed for what he understood it was the director's office, where the meeting was being held.
" All the better, at least I'll talk to everyone in one fell swoop," he mused.
Without even knocking, he lowered the handle, but the lock was locked.
This would certainly not have stopped him.
"Open the door!" he shouted, not having to wait long for his order to be carried out.
"Who are you?" one of the editors asked bewildered.
Killgrave didn't even bother to answer.
"Is there any of your colleagues missing today?" he asked in turn.
"No, there's the whole team." the oldest man in the group, as well as the best dressed, answered him and Killgrave had guessed he might be the director.
"Good, very goodl." he was pleased.
At least he wouldn't have to come back another day to manipulate someone else in the editorial office.
"Follow me to your desks." he urged them on and they did it without asking further questions.
"Get rid of everything you have about the Hope Shlottman case, remove everything you have published from the internet, destroy any paper documents concerning her. The Hope Shlottman case never existed. " the persuader exercised his power, walking around the desks, pleased to see the files deleted on the pc, the sites updated, removing the existing articles, and various sheets of paper in the paper shredders that worked at full speed.
"You have never seen me." he declared when the last of the tasks he had given was also completed, walking away.
He knew this wasn't the only newsroom around, but it was certainly the largest.
"Where did you go, what did you do? What did you make people do? How else do you want to ruin my life? Aren't the atrocious things you've done to me already enough? You despicable… "Hope growled as she saw him getting back into the car.
The contradictory and at the same time disturbing thing was that despite being angry with him, Hope continued to smile at him.
Her jaw muscles must have started to ache a little too, not that he cared much.
"You don't want me to command you to keep that mouth shut, do you? You don't have the right to ask me questions, when the time comes I'll talk to you too and you'll have to listen to me very carefully. " he silences her, without even using his powers, this before telling his driver the next destination.
- It will take the time it will take but, you'll see, Jessica, I'll leave you speechless! - he planned.
Jessica had no news of Killgrave all day, but she didn't get too upset, quite the contrary, she took the opportunity to devote herself full time to her investigations.
The second day she was already more puzzled, but more than anything else she was busy denying herself that she missed him.
- No, that's not true, Jess, you can't miss that psychopath, his cynical jokes, his impertinent arrogance, his boundless ego, his total indifference towards mankind ... except for me. And I certainly don't miss his piercing looks, his genuine smiles without any malice, his voice that cradles me like his hands do ... and his kisses, like when he starts from the shoulder, he rises ,slowly and damp the right amount, along the neck, then gently bites my earlobe ... ironic, that same ear that tried to make me cut once!- she reflected bitterly, touching the top of her ear, where she could still feel the scar with her fingertips.
That should have been enough to remind her of what kind of violent freak she was dealing with.
The rational Jessica would have done it, but it was the addicted Jessica who prevailed at the moment and she preferred to focus on imagining his kisses again.
- His tongue inside my ear, before he moves on the cheek, and then reaches the mouth, and then when sometimes first he kisses only my lower lip, licking it with his tongue, holding it between his teeth, knowing really well that I will give in , that I will open my mouth to allow him access and it drives me crazy, whether his tongue woos mine gradually, without haste, tenderly or if he wants to take everything immediately, impetuous, violent, passionate, devastating me like a tornado ... -
When Malcolm entered Jessica's apartment, as the door was open, he found her standing in the center of the living room, her hand moving from her neck to her ear to her face, eyes closed and mouth open.
"Jess?" he brought her back to reality.
She recovered immediately, returning composed and looking at him between puzzled and angry.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she snapped.
"You know what? It wouldn't hurt a fast-track course of good neighborly rules." the boy snorted.
"You don't look like someone who has run out of sugar or wants to ask me if I have an extra egg left over." she retorted bitingly.
"Actually no, I came to tell you that, if you like, I'll meet up with the Killgrave Victims Listening Group tonight. Will you be there? You can't even begin to imagine what support your presence would give, " the handsome AfroAmerican guy encouraged her.
He also had been a victim of Killgrave's for months.
- Distract me from thinking about Kevin by recalling all the horrible things Killgrave did with people I don't care about ? Yes, maybe it could work ... - she pondered.
"Well... you know what, Malcolm? I don't have anything better to do tonight, so why not? " she shrugged.
-
The night with the listening group hadn't given her the desired effect and by the morning of the third day Jessica was more frustrated than ever.
So frustrated that she tries to call him and finds the phone turned off.
Perhaps because at that moment Killgrave was on a flight to Missouri and he wasn't alone, but she couldn't know that.
The detective, however, remembered that she also had a confidant, the only one who knew about her dirty little secret, and decided to visit her.
She tried several times to ring the video intercom and knock, without any result.
It was then that she recalled those three days of 'serenity' she had made Killgrave give her had now expired.
Luckily, on the evening of the first day of influence she had returned to visit her, taking advantage of Trish's excellent mood to ask her permission to make a copy of her keys.
Copy that could not have been more useful than at that moment.
"Trish, sorry, I went in because you weren't answering, okay? I didn't want to..."
The sentence died in her throat when she saw the scenario in front of her eyes.
On the floor, on the walls, on the furniture, on the ceiling it was written over and over again 'IGH, don't forget!' but most of all, which worried her the most 'Don't trust Jessica!'
And Trish was in the room, almost as if possessed, continuing to write those sentences with a red marker that Jessica could only wish were not indelible.
"Trish, please stop!" she stopped her, grabbing her hand that held the marker.
"Stay away from me, traitor!" the blonde furiously barked. "You allowed your boyfriend to mess with my mind!"
"He's not my boyfriend!" the brunette pointed out.
"But he remains a dangerous depraved manipulator and you didn't hesitate to let him put his mental claws on me," Trish continued. "But as soon as I came to my senses, I started writing everything I remember, all the results of my researches, notes scattered everywhere, in places that you don't even know, but that I do, so I won't forget." the other revealed.
"My 'letting him put his mental claws on you' as you call it just kept you a little quiet for three days, but really, Trish, forget that shit, it's dangerous, you have no idea what the consequences are! " she tried to make her give up. "If I could find the IGH scientists I would just like to punch them until their face is no longer their own for what they did to me!" she growled.
"They could help me ..." the speaker moaned, in a more subdued tone.
" I can help you… and that's what I tried to do. Maybe I got it wrong, "the detective acknowledged. "But if I really wanted to mess your mind, I would have asked Killgrave to permanently erase your memories of the IGH and with the power-ups he's had he's able to do that, you know? Erase an episode from someone's mind forever, would you like it? " she challenged her.
"Oh my god, that would be awful," the blonde frightened, putting a hand to her mouth.
"Yeah, but don't worry I wouldn't let him, under any circumstances. If you want to follow the advice of your writtens go ahead, but I assure you that you can still trust me. " her sister smiled at her.
Trish smiled back.
"Would you mind taking a wet cloth and helping me clean up? Maybe I'll do some repainting first," the speaker muttered.
"A little manual work will do me good and help distract me." Jessica agreed.
"Distract yourself from what?"
"And so you haven't seen him for three days," Trish summarized, after they'd refurbished the room. "It doesn't seem so strange to me, you spent even two weeks without looking for him ..."
"But it's different!" Jessica sat down on the sofa, now cleaned of all the writtens. "Before it was about forcing myself to avoid him, now he got me accustomed to a sort of continuity that now I am starting to miss ..." she found the courage to admit.
"Maybe he has decided to leave, since by now he had you, over and over again, I seem to have understood ... so he no longer sees you as something to be conquered ... it has become too easy and this has tired him." the blonde speculated, sitting next to her.
"No, he would never go away like that, nor would he get tired of me so easily. For eight months I was an achievement equal to zero, since he commanded me as he pleased and I assure you that he could never get enough of me ... it is impossible that he could be tired after these few weeks ... "Jessica protested, a little insulted in her ego.
- Not after what he told me last time… wait a minute… What about what I told him? Yes, okay, it was the truth… but it's also true that he has such a bad temper and an angry Killgrave is a very dangerous Killgrave! " she grew alarmed.
"Shit, Trish! Do you know what's the matter? Last time I saw him, we had a fight. Sort we also made peace, I think ... but maybe he's not completely over that and somehow he wants to make me pay for my behaviour. Who knows what atrocities he might commit! I have to find him or at least try! " Jessica understood, coming out of her friend's house like a fury.
- Maybe I should write on the walls 'Who knows with Jessica?"- ' Trish mused, watching her running away.
Jessica had tried to find him.
For three days, non-stop throughout the city and surroundings, in all places that might be of interest to the handsome persuader, but it seemed as if he had evaporated.
Disconsolate, at sunset, Jessica just wanted to go back to her apartment, sleep long enough to recharge the batteries (hers and those of her cell phone) and resume the search.
Too bad the door was open and this prompted her to enter with the utmost caution, ready to surprise any possible attacker from behind.
She was stunned to say the least when she found Kevin, lying down on her couch, reading.
"I looked around for a while and I found that book you were saying ... I'm halfway there, I haven't found that Bounty Crunch you had mentioned, but this Hermione with her temper, her sense of justice and her a little reckless courage reminds me of you!" he chuckled nonchalantly, as if they had met yesterday.
"It's not a snack, it's Barty Crouch... and you only can find him in the fourth book, both Junior and Senior ..." she explained but then remembered the current situation "Why the fuck am I talking about books? You disappear for almost a week and then reappear like this, as if nothing had happened! " she snapped.
Kevin put the book back on the sofa and walked over to her.
"Is this your way of telling me you missed me, chérie ?" he stroked her hair, tenderly. "Why don't you kiss me instead of talking?" he murmured and she initially gave in, thanks to the fatigue that made her not very combative or that French nickname that drove her crazy every time.
"No! First the book, now this ... stop taking my mind off, powers or not! " she pulled away but he laughed at her.
Jessica was almost afraid to ask him where he had been and what he had done but then asked that fateful question.
"Oh, you'll see. I'm here to enjoy the show with you when the time comes. " he grinned, making her even more apprehensive.
TBC
Notes:You'll get the meaning of the title in the second part ;p
Did you like addicted!Jessica?
And creepy!Trish? Believe me, she was that obsessed in season 2 lol
Feel free to tell me anything ;)
More to come…