Chapter 24: Effigy
The first thing that Adrian did was search the lobby, in case Cybil had been hiding somewhere. He checked all around the stairwell, glanced in any open doors, and peered behind any desks. No use. He knew the chances were slim to nil, but he had hoped in his mind that Cybil was somewhere down there with him. However, those hopes were quick to vanish.
He slowly tip toed upstairs. His every movement he controlled to the tiniest muscle in his body as he inched higher and higher, until he stopped. Stopped, leaned over slightly, and picked up his shotgun that was stuck in the chipped stairway railing. A couple deep breaths later, he continued.
He reached the top and looked to his right where the broken in door was. He stepped through it cautiously so much as to not scratch himself on the jagged wood. After that, he walked with a purpose to room 105, with one sole intent: the intent to end the game Raven had been playing with him. To end this 'Sam'. It was all going to end.
He flicked the golden key into his right hand, and slid it into its proper place in the door. It fit perfectly. But with the sound of the key turning the lock, a shrill voice came with it.
"Are you sure you are willing to step into this room?" The voice beyond the door asked Adrian this question with the illest of meaning. Adrian didn't answer.
'Don't let her get to you... gotta stay strong... have to finish this.'
He opened the door with a spine-tingling creak.
He put one foot into the doorway. Then the other.
Inside, was something that immediately startled him.
"Say hi to daddy!" Raven held the blanketed baby up with one craned arm for her to see her father. Adrian locked eyes with the innocent child, and he fought hard with himself not to cry at the sight. It was tough, though, and even tougher with the sight that in Raven's other hand was a small hatchet.
"Let her go, Raven," Adrian mumbled slowly. He even failed to realize that Cybil was nearby, sitting idle in an uncomfortable looking wooden chair. She was bound to it by her wrists and ankles, her mouth taped. But if Cybil could have said anything, she would have mentioned her relief that Adrian was fully focused on saving his child.
Raven smiled and held the baby close to her, swaying her softly back and forth. "I'm afraid I can't do that. I can't imagine what kind of impact you would have on our child." Adrian tilted his head in shock. Bewilderment. Anger.
"What the fuck do you mean by that?"
Raven looked at Adrian as if he just stated the answer, and he knew it. He sighed. Raven carefully rested the hatchet on the baby's chest and walked across the room to Cybil. That was when Adrian noticed she was in the room.
"Oh, God.. Cybil, I-"
"Mia is her name, sweet heart," Raven cut him off, taking the paper from Cybil's lap and handing it to Adrian, "our child's name is Mia. Isn't it cute?"
Adrian snatched the paper wearily. He shook his head as he read the birth certificate quietly to himself- he was almost stupified in a way. "Raven... she's not your child."
Oblivious to the information the paper held other than the child's name, Raven laughed and replied with a brazen naivity to her voice. "Why of course it is, hun. Who else's could she belong to?"
Adrian flared his nostrils and shot a concerned look at Cybil, but he wasn't going to get any answers from her. He would have to settle everything on his own. And with that thought embedded in his mind, he raised his shotgun. "Let her go, Raven." He and Raven searched deep into eachother's eyes, as if they were waiting for the other to bend, but neither did such a thing. Especially not Adrian. "I'll blow you away, I swear to God."
Raven didn't seem very fazed by the threat, however. In fact, she still seemed as if the ball was in her court. "Shoot me? Tell me, love, how good of a marksman are you?" Adrian took in a breath and held it, almost feeling defeated yet again. "Are you sure you could hit me without hurting our baby?" Adrian could not give a response. "Well?" Raven seemed wanting to hear an audible answer, but after not getting one, she shrugged with indifference.
"I guess you won't answer me. No matter, I will give you an opportunity to hold Mia. Maybe even let you take her home with you."
Adrian's eyes lit up, beaming at the chance laid down before him. "What do you want?" He lowered his shotgun to the floor. Raven smiled, and slowly, her eyes locked on to Cybil's. And with that subtle gesture, Adrian felt his heart sink.
"Cybil..."
"I'll let Mia go on the condition that you could kill another human being. If you could kill Cybil, I'll let Mia go. If not..." Raven took the hatchet that lay over Mia, and gripped it tightly with one hand.
Adrian recoiled, before growling in anger. "You fucking hurt her and you'll have nothing else to hide behind."
Raven shrugged. "Try me." It was then that Adrian knew that she was deadly serious. "I'll give you thirty seconds. And don't use your gun, either, you'll hurt Mia's ears. If you want our child to yourself, you strangle that woman in front of her."
Adrian glared in Raven's direction, but that only wasted time. He couldn't bear to look Cybil in the eye- how could he? He felt so vulnerable walking up to her as she sat defenseless in her seat, practically letting him kill her.
"I'm sorry, Cybil, I'm so sorry..." Cybil, unable to talk with the tape around her mouth, could only shake her head in protest of the tears that were being shed by the person in front of her. And slowly, he wrapped his hands around her throat. Not with any pressure, though- he was still too shook up to really choke the person he thought of as his friend all this time.
"Thirty seconds!" Adrian glanced at Raven but only for a quick moment before he tried to focus on part of the floor while he tightened his grip on Cybil's neck.
'Kill her...'
"Twenty seconds!" Adrian squeezed as hard as he could. He could hear Cybil choke and sputter from the behind the duct tape that otherwise silenced her.
'Kill her...'
"Ten seconds!"
'KILL HER!'
At this point, Adrian could not help but look over at Cybil, and into her eyes. It was then, that the next gasp had come from him, before he released his grip on her neck. Cybil coughed loudly as a result, and Adrian backed away from her, a nervous wreck. However, he wasn't the only one who looked nervous.
"Five seconds..."
To Adrian's surprise, Raven sounded unpleasantly surprised as she began to finish her countdown. She looked down at the two of them, almost in a frightened manner. "Four... three.. two.. one..." she trailed off, scared to eye the man across from her as the hatchet she clutched fell to the ground at her feet. "He didn't do it..." she mumbled in a shocked tone, before she ran with the child into the door that was next to her. Adrian started after her, but was stopped by the sound of the lock being turned on Raven's side of the door.
"You fucking bitch!" He ran at the door and pounded on it ruthlessly. "Open this door! Fucking open it!" Raven did no such thing, and Adrian slid to the floor in both physical and emotional exhaustion.
He sat in anger and helplessness. His child was just beyond a mere wooden door, and he couldn't reach her. If only Maria had told him about her perhaps the little girl wouldn't be in danger, but he couldn't think that way. Although it bugged him that she said nothing to him, neither could be bring himself to blame her for any of the actions that preceded that very moment where he found himself slumped on the ground.
He remembered Cybil's predicament across the room and crawled himself over to her, undoing her bonds and carefully taking the tape from her mouth.
"I'm sorry," she quickly confessed, "I should have been more careful."
Adrian looked at her with a sense of dismissal, pulling himself to his feet. "Don't worry about that, I have to get my baby girl." In the middle of his sentence, he began to move back to the door- hoping there could be some way to open it. He was soon distracted, though, if only for a moment from what Cybil had to say next.
"Be careful.. she took my gun, too." Adrian's head shot back in Cybil's direction with that comment, but he slowly let it drift out of his mind as he pressed against the bathroom door. And in doing that, he could hear the sounds of crying on the other side.
"You changed afterall..." Raven sobbed out weakly. "I, I wanted you to change so much.. I didn't think it would work, but I had no other option but to do it."
"What?" Adrian replied in confusion. "What, take my kid? You thought doing that and threatening her life would solve anything?"
"No," Raven sniffled back, "no, not that." She paused, presumably to keep her composure. That was when she said it. "I'm not like you."
Adrian's eyes narrowed. "Huh? What the hell do you mean by that?"
That was enough to cause Cybil to stand up from the chair and inch forward. "What is she saying, Adrian?" Adrian turned, looking to acknowledge the question, but his attention was abruptly drawn back to the voice behind the door.
"Why did you have to pick her over me, huh? Why?" Her voice was so incredibly wrought with sadness, it was hard not to take her seriously. However, with the way she had been babbling all that time, it was hard to believe a word that left her mouth anymore.
"I'm sorry, Raven," Adrian said bluntly, "I'm sorry, but.. you're fucking insane."
"I- it doesn't matter anymore," she replied softly, "that medicine worked... it finally worked..."
Adrian shook his head and turned to Cybil, who was listening in as well. He looked around the room and then looked himself over, as if he would find the answer. Sensing his disorientation, Cybil locked eyes with him. "White Claudia..."
Adrian blinked. "What?"
Cybil then quickly realized he had no idea what she was talking about, and frowned. "I... I think I understand what she did."
They kept looking at eachother, before Adrian's eyes trailed downward as he brushed a hand over his stomach, tracing the scar there through his shirt.
"No."
That one word caused Adrian to look up and once again look at the door. "No. It would never work." Raven's voice was suddenly taken over with anger. "It didn't work for me! Wh- why would it work for you and not me?!"
Adrian pounded on the door, possibly with the hope that it would bring Raven back to reality. "Raven, you need to tell me what the hell you did! Please, I.. I've gone through enough. Please open this door, please don't fuckin' hurt my child, please..."
"Why not?" Raven answered coldly. "You wouldn't take care of her. Your music is more important to you than your family."
"No, that's not true."
"Then what is true, dear? Tell me what the irrefutable truth is."
Adrian paused. "The irrefutable truth.. is..." he trailed off. He could feel a jolt of pain hit his stomach once more- an all too familiar pain, but that time he was able to subdue it. He was no longer controlled by any pain. He remembered everything.
"The truth is there's something. Something that I've either forgot.. or kept myself from for a long time."
And, almost as though those were the only words needed, the sound of a turning lock made its presence felt. Adrian grabbed the doorknob and that time, he was able to turn it. It opened with ease, and revealed Raven's figure clutching an object shrouded with the blanket that covered it. Adrian smiled. It was his child.
And then, with a shriek, Raven let the blanket fall to the ground and showed him what the item truly was. The sleek black pistol jarred Adrian's senses like nothing else had in recent memory. Raven held the gun and pointed it with purpose at Adrian's face, just as he lunged forward and grabbed her, throwing her aside into the sink next to them. Her head bashed cruelly into the mirror above it, and caused fragments of glass to clatter to the ground, shimmering around them both like snow. With the shards, were droplets of blood that came from Raven's cut forehead.
Adrian looked to the mirror, and the sight made his eyes widen. In the third of the glass that remained unscathed, Adrian saw his reflection, but that wasn't what scared him. What scared him was Raven standing right next to him, but her reflection was nil.
The pain in his stomach hit him again and that time it made Adrian fall to one knee, along with the added help of Raven jabbing the butt of the gun into his ribs before she fled through the door at the end of the bathroom.
He grew dizzy there, his hands pressed against the tile floor to keep him up amidst the sharp glass that cut into his palms. The mixed sound of air raid sirens and the crying of an infant permeated his ears, leaving him unable to recover easy. Cybil stepped in the room, hearing one of those two noises. She looked the bathroom over, then pulled away the shower curtain to the bathtub on the right, and there was the source. Little Mia, crying at the bottom of the otherwise empty tub, clothed in tiny pink jammies and kept warm by the baby blue colored blanket underneath her.
Cybil picked her up and checked her. She sighed in the relief that soon came when she found no signs of injuries to the child, but found herself once again in distress when she took notice to Adrian lying out cold on the bathroom floor.
