"Good afternoon, Amethyst." Dr. Maheswaran greeted the silver haired girl upon being let into the cell by Garnet. The police woman closed the cell door behind her, locking it once more.
"Hey, doc." Amethyst replied, waving her hand lazily. She sat up in her bed, allowing the good doctor to sit down beside her.
"When you're ready to get out, just jiggle the bars a little." Garnet instructed, making her way from the room. "I'll hear you." And she left the room.
Dr. Maheswaran smiled at Amethyst. Actually, she was positively beaming. Actually, she looked as if she had just won the lottery and was able to pay for Connie's college tuition in the future with thousands left to spare.
"..so I'm guessing you heard the good news?" Amethyst asked, looking Priyanka up and down. She started to feel a little uncomfortable at being stared at.
"I'm so happy for you!" Priyanka almost yelled in her excitement. She gripped Amethyst's hands in hers, looking her patient in the eyes. "You remembered that friend of yours, and you're even in a relationship with her! All barely with my help at all! I can't tell you how many amnesiacs took months for just a fraction of their memory to return to them, but you! Oh my god, you.." The doctor had tears in her now twinkling eyes.
Amethyst couldn't help the blush that crept to her face because of Priyanka's complements. "Y-yeah.." She wanted to look away, to hide her embarrassment at being so close to her doctor like this, but she decided to let the woman milk this for as long as she could. But Priyanka was a therapist, and she could easily tell that Amethyst was less than comfortable in such close proximity.
"Oh, I'm sorry." She apologized, pulling away from Amethyst. "I'm just so happy for you, Amethyst. You're a very lucky person."
Amethyst chuckled and gestured to their surroundings. "I wouldn't consider myself the luckiest girl in the world, doc, but yeah.." Amethyst smiled, Peridot's face forming an image in her mind. "..I'm pretty lucky."
Oh shit oh shit oh fuck oh shit this is not my lucky day!
Peridot thought this as she watched the scene play out in front of her, having broken out in a cold sweat.
Pearl was in just as much of a sweat. She never imagined that she'd actually be pointing a loaded gun at someone, let alone a homeless man that she was supposed to feed. "Please put the rock down."
"Where's the fucking food?!" The man yelled, pushing the tip of his sharpened rock against the throat of the woman he had taken hostage. She looked scared as all hell, barely grabbing at the man's arm in a meager attempt to keep him from slitting her throat. Pearl could understand that.
"We have food." Pearl explained calmly, though her hands were shaking. "We just need to wait a few more moments for my friend to get back with more bowls. You'll get to eat."
The man didn't reply this time. He only stood there, seemingly willing to wait for the bowls to arrive. Peridot chose this time to step into the street. She clutched the stack of bowls to her chest, not keeping her eyes glued on the man. She didn't want to seem threatening, so she kept at a slow pace so as not to startle him. Luckily, Pearl noticed her first out of the corner of her eye.
"My friend's coming now.." She instructed the man, and he took a quick glance to see that Peridot indeed had the bowls.
"Hurry up, I'm starving!" He yelled at her, which caused her to jump and pick up the pace. She hurried to Pearl's shack, edging her way behind her so that she could lay the bowls on the counter. Pearl didn't move an inch from her position, so Peridot had to take the initiative and took a bowl from the stack and her ladle from under the counter. As she poured the soup into the bowl, the man shifted his weight back and forth on his feet. "Come on.."
When Peridot finished, she made her way around the counter and approached the man. He immediately jumped forward, throwing the woman he held to the ground, as well as his weapon. He snatched the bowl from Peridot's hands, drinking from it hungrily and sloppily. He didn't care. He just wanted to eat. Peridot backed away from the man, not so much as scared anymore, but to give him his space.
Pearl let out a breath she had been holding for a long time. She turned the safety of her gun on and returned it to it's place between the back of her jeans and her underwear. She would have to buy a holster at some point.
"Alright, you've had your food.." Pearl stated flatly, staring daggers at the man. "Now please leave, and find another soup kitchen. You're no longer welcome here."
"I-I want more.." The man stammered, taking steps toward Pearl. "Please, I'm so hungry. Just one more.."
His personality changed so quickly after having gotten food in him. Peridot watched from the side as Pearl judged the man. But, knowing her, she wouldn't let a man starve. And thanks to Amethyst, they did have plenty of rations.. Pearl sighed and held out her hand. "Alright, I'll fill you again, but you must leave." She insisted, her voice firm.
He nodded, handing the bowl to Pearl for her to fill. She took it, and did as she said she was going to do. But as she held the refilled bowl out for the man to take, he reached passed it, grabbing Pearl's wrist instead.
"Dumb fucking bitch!" He yelled, pulling her forward. The bowl went flying, and Pearl could barely let out a scream before the back of her head was grabbed, and her face smashed against the counter she hung over.
The other homeless people watched this scene take place in terror. None of them knew what to do, none of them could move as they watched Pearl's face be repeatedly slammed into the wooden counter. Her nose had already broken, and she was well on her way to losing consciousness. She tried to reach for her gun, if just to scare the man off, but.. she found that it had disappeared from her person.
Instead, a loud bang filled the air. The man's hand was removed from the back of her head. She was finally able to lift herself enough to see the world around her, or what she could see behind her blurred vision. Her right ear was left ringing, so she turned her head to that side to see what had made that noise.
A purple figure stood on her right side, holding.. something. Pearl assumed it was her gun. But it fell from the hands of the figure. Then Pearl heard a quiet thump with her ear that wasn't ringing, and she turned her head to look at the man that was just assaulting her. He wasn't standing anymore. He was laying on the ground, a red color growing around him. Pearl blinked, and her vision started to return.
The man had a hole in his chest, and that red color was blood.
In that instant, Pearl realized what had happened. She quickly turned to face Peridot, and the sight of the blonde girl just broke Pearl's heart.
Peridot sat on her knees, hugging herself. Her eyes were wide behind her glasses, and her whole body was shaking with such an intensity that one would think she were naked at the top of Mt. Everest. All that ran through Peridot's mind was that there was blood on her hands. Peridot Diamond just killed a man.
"Oh, Peri.." Pearl whispered, but her speech was stifled due to her broken nose. She could feel the blood run down her mouth. Slowly, Pearl used the counter as a crutch to slide herself to where Peridot sat. She wrapped her arms around the shivering girl, trying to be as consoling as possible, rubbing Peridot's back. "Is's o'ay." Pearl spoke through her temporary speech impediment. "You'll be o'ay.."
"So she spent the night in here. She told me about things she did in the orphanage, and all of it just.. came back. Piece by piece." Amethyst explained to the doctor, kicking back in her place at the bed, hands behind her head and legs crossed.
"That's very fortunate. It doesn't usually work that way." Priyanka explained, hands resting neatly on her lap. "Normally, you'd have to go through some sort of hypnosis, maybe visit other people who came from the same orphanage, that kinda stuff."
"You believe in hypnosis?" Amethyst asked, not able to understand the act. "It's just a bunch of bullshit to me."
"It is rather skeptical." Priyanka admitted. "The difference in whether it works or not is how much you believe it's actually real."
"So it wouldn't work on me?"
"Most likely not." Priyanka reached into her pocket and pulled out a shiny, silver plated pocket watch, swinging it from its chain. "But we can try, if you want."
Amethyst declined the offer. "Nah, I'm good. Like you said, it wouldn't work if I don't believe it will."
"Alright." Priyanka returned the watch to her pocket, and instead decided to ask more questions. "How did it feel to regain your memories?"
"It felt pretty good." Amethyst replied without missing a beat. "Like, I knew I was missing some stuff, but it didn't feel like it, you know? I knew that I knew her, but.. She wasn't missing in all of my memories. It was like she never even existed. Then when it came back, when she showed up in my brain again, bit by bit, it was like I was living my childhood again."
"That's the most beautiful description I've heard from any of my patients." Priyanka had her hands clasped in front of her, beaming again at the silver haired girl with tears in her eyes.
"Hey.." Amethyst started with a laugh. "Don't you go starting anymore waterworks. I've seen enough crying today."
Priyanka immediately began wiping her eyes. "O-oh.. I'm sorry. I'm just so happy for you."
"I'm pretty happy myself, doc." Amethyst said with a sigh, closing her eyes. "I don't think anything could bring me down."
Both women jumped as Garnet practically burst through door to the cell room. She rushed to Amethyst's cell door, fumbling with her keys to unlock it.
"Woah, G, where's the fire?" Amethyst asked, worried for the police woman. She's never seen Garnet look so.. nervous before. She was visibly sweating as she struggled to unlock the cell door, and when she finally did, she swung it open.
"Get out. Both of you."
"What's going on?" Priyanka asked, standing from the bed. Amethyst followed Priyanka out of the room, just as curious, but not really complaining since she was being let out of her cell again, and so early too.
"Pearl just called me." Garnet began to explain, leading the three out of the police department and to her cruiser. She opened the back door for Priyanka and Amethyst. "Get in."
"What's up with Pearl?" Amethyst asked, sliding into the back of the police car, followed by Priyanka. "Is everything alright?"
Garnet didn't answer, climbing into the driver's seat. She started the engine and nearly floored it, turning on her lights to alert civilians of her speed. With all this hurry, Amethyst was starting to actually get scared.
"Garnet, answer me." Amethyst commanded, leaning up to look at the police woman through the grate between the back and the front of the car. Priyanka stayed quiet in her seat, allowing Amethyst to ask about her friends alone. "What the fuck is going on?"
"A man was killed during lunch hour at Pearl's station." Garnet whispered, just loud enough so that the company present could hear her. Amethyst's breath caught in her throat, and Priyanka brought her hands to her mouth in shock.
"Holy shit.." Amethyst sat back in her seat. "That's insane. Do you know who did it?"
Garnet took her time to answer. In actuality, she didn't want to answer at all. But Amethyst deserved to know. She had the right to know.
"It was Peridot."
Author's Note:
Please forgive me! This is my first time actually writing a death scene, so I hope it's okay.
Be on the lookout for the next chapter of "Dirty Ambitions." That's right, I'm not done with this yet. I'll try to get the next chapter out as quickly as I can. I'm honestly excited to see the outcome myself.
As always, so long for now.