sorry it's been so long - as usual i hope you like it and if you do please review. Thanks also to my beta.
"God! I hate my Dad so much sometimes! I showed him my grades and he freaked. A C in Science is good! I don't think he'd be pleased even if I got an A. I can never do anything right for him. I get an A in art and he doesn't even notice it. I knew he would ground me for that D in maths. No TV, no phone calls and no shopping trip on Friday. I was so looking forward to it as well. No other kid at school has an overbearing dad like mine. He treats me more like one of his sailors than a daughter. I can't get dessert unless I've finished everything on my plate, no pocket money unless you can bounce a quarter off my bed, lights out at 10pm. 10PM? The girls in my class can stay up way later. I'm 16, I'm not a child, why can't he see that?"
Tony flicked through the diary and found another entry to read.
"I want to draw, I want to travel and just enjoy life, not get trapped on a ship in the middle of nowhere. My dad will never understand me. He thinks that I'm going to follow in his footsteps and join the navy. Yeah, maybe when hell freezes over. Every day is a new attempt to brainwash me. Join the navy and you can travel the world he says; join the navy and you'll have so many opportunities; it's your duty! There's no way I'm going to take orders from anybody. I'm a free spirit. I hate being paraded around at his navy gatherings like I'm some sort of prize. "My girl's going places! She's going to follow in my footsteps and those of her grandfather." I have to listen to war stories, hear all those stupid acronyms that I don't understand and have them laugh and joke like they're in some special club. It's not a club. It's the Navy, it's war and fighting and killing. It's about going down with your precious ship."
Finally Tony turned to the last entry in the book.
"Today's my 18th birthday. 18! I can't believe how fast it all went. Mom and Dad took me sailing today. Just us, the boat and a picnic. I might hate those big battleships but there's something so free about a wooden ship with sails and rope. You don't have anyone to tell you where to go, no huge guns with people to tell you where to point them. It was the best birthday ever!
Dad gave me the most beautiful pendant. It has the brightest blue stone set into silver. I will never ever take it off. I know me and my dad don't always get along but I know he'll always be there for me. He's been so proud of me that I can't bear to tell him how the navy isn't for me. I just don't want to disappoint him."
Tony closed the diary with a sigh. He needed to find Lucy West, any way he could.
"Kevin, what are you doing in here?" Tony asked as he entered the art room. He'd already searched all the other rooms on the ward for Kevin with no luck. He didn't understand how Kevin had managed to escape the ward. Patients from that ward weren't allowed out of it without supervision. He sat by the window hunched over a table furiously scribbling in his precious journal, his long hair hiding his face. Tony walked up to Kevin and sat down at a table next to him.
"Drawing huh?" Kevin didn't answer. "I'm not much of an artist myself, never really had the patience." Tony sighed when he realised Kevin wasn't going to answer him. It was as if Kevin didn't even know Tony was there. "Well, I've been looking everywhere for you. I know you don't like a lot of questions but I have some stuff I want to ask you." Tony spoke softly as if talking to a child.
"Shhh, quiet," Kevin finally spoke.
"Those pictures you've drawn of Lucy," Tony carried on in a whisper, "when did you meet her?"
"Can't meet drawings."
"The real Lucy."
"Killed her."
"Do you remember killing her?" Kevin shook his head. "Do you remember anything about her?"
"Lucy."
Tony sighed; it was like talking to a brick wall. He slid a photo from his pocket and placed it in front of Kevin. Kevin's eyes flicked to the photo. Tony had found the photo slipped in-between the pages of Lucy's diary. Lucy sat alone in what looked like her bedroom, her eyes cold and sad as if she was trapped. Tony didn't know who had taken the photo but he knew why she had hidden it.
"You know me and Lucy had a lot in common, Kevin. We both had fathers who never really understood us, never really living up to the high expectations set. Fathers who had our lives mapped out for us and who didn't really see how unhappy we were living a lie. They don't understand that there is more to life than a 9-5 corporate job…or the navy. Do you know what it's like to see disappointment in the eyes of your own father? She hid this photo. Never wanting to burden her parents, never wanting them to find out the truth. I don't think she ever got a chance to tell them how she really felt. The same way her parents never got to say goodbye properly. Help me restore some peace to a broken family, Kevin. Tell me what you remember about her?"
"Killed her."
Tony, losing his patience, dragged his chair closer to Kevin. "Where did you kill her, Kevin?" Kevin shook his head. "Where's Lucy?"
"Black." Tony watched as Kevin picked up a black crayon and filled a whole page of his journal black. "Drip drip drip, shhh, quiet."
Either a brick wall or a broken record, Tony thought. "Why don't you show me where you killed her, Kevin, it can be our little secret."
"It's too dark to see, you have to watch where you go."
Tony shook his head. "It's not dark in here."
"You have to watch out."
"Watch out for what?" Kevin didn't reply. "Come on, Kevin!" Tony snapped.
Kevin's head snapped up. "Don't say my name like that!" he shouted back. "I try to tell you and I tell you what you want to know but you just don't listen!"
"I'm trying!"
"No you're not!"
"Tell me where you put Lucy's body!"
Kevin shook his head. "I told you." Kevin's voice deepened, something calm, yet sinister, emanating off him.
"Told me what!"
"I told you to watch out."
"Watch out for what?"
"For me," a third voice spoke before Tony felt a sharp pain and then darkness.