Chapter Sixteen
When Madeline woke up she was lying in a very comfortable bed. The sheets were white and made of silk, the hypoallergenic kind. The pillows were big and puffy but had just enough give to make it feel like you were sleeping on a cloud. The mattress was firm but not like concrete, good for sleeping and for your back. Even the room smelt nice, a slight hint of honey and milk to make you feel more at ease. It was such a comfortable bed Madeline almost didn't want to get up, she could have happily slept for a couple more hours, but when she remembered what had happened back at the orphanage, relaxed was the last thing she could be.
She sat bolt upright and looked around. The room was also white, everything was white. White walls and white tiled floor, white ceiling and white furniture, even the television was white which was strange because Madeline didn't think they made white televisions. The door was white and almost blended into the wall but the white handle cast a small shadow in the white florescent light to reveal its presence. It was a very sterile room, like a clean room in a hospital, or something from science fiction. It made Madeline feel more uncomfortable by the second, even more uncomfortable than she had been in her tiny cell. She was definitely in the secret facility again, but not being treated as a prisoner. Still, she most certainly wasn't a guest.
They had dressed her now human body, in a white singlet and white shorts, baggy and loose for comfort but still so sterile and authoritarian she just wanted to trade them in for some good old stained sweatpants and oversized hoodie. It was a little chilly so a jumper would have been nice but there was no alternative clothing available in the white dresser.
"Suppose it's just for show." Madeline muttered to herself as she closed the draws and turned her attention to the door. It was most likely locked but like every person in every cliché movie she went to jiggle the lock in a vain attempt to open it. Naturally, the door was locked tight.
"I would be so lucky." Madeline sighed to herself, turned around and scanning the room for another way out. There weren't any windows so what other possible escape could she manage.
The door clicked and opened from the outside. Madeline jumped back and raised her arms up in defence. She was prepared to fight off any intruder. Sure, she didn't know how to fight as a human, but perhaps her skills were transferable. She had expected people in hazmat suits to barge in and restrain her to take her for more testing or something, but oddly enough to the person intruding walked in rather casually and looked surprised to see Madeline on the defensive. Madeline was surprised to see them too, but also very enraged by their presence.
"Jason." She spat, his name now acid on her tongue. "Traitor." Jason chuckled lightly and opened the door fully, leaning against it casually but also blocking the doorway so Madeline couldn't escape.
"You're mad at me." He said so very matter-of-factly, as if it was no big deal. Well to him it had all been some scheme or ploy to make Madeline trust him so she'd give him details to feed back to the facility and the doctors. The whole thing about being a subject as well was most likely a lie. Madeline couldn't practically imagine it. Jason sitting on a deck chair sipping cocktails next to Madeline's cell pretending he was in the same situation.
"I didn't..."
"Don't talk to me!" Madeline hissed, dropping her guard and folding her arms. "You traitor. What was your objective huh? Make me trust you so I'd tell you all the little details you needed to capture Waylon or something?"
"Well I didn't get much..."
"What did I say?" Madeline snapped, silencing him. Okay, she had told him to not speak and then asked a question, but she was pissed she was allowed to be indecisive. Jason pursed his lips and glared at her, but a smile was creeping from the corners of his mouth until he chuckled once more.
"You are something else you know that?" He said quickly before Madeline could interrupt and silence him again. Madeline didn't know why but that comment made her blush like a school girl and turned her legs to jelly.
"Can I speak now?" Jason asked after Madeline stayed awkwardly silent for an uncomfortable amount of time. Madeline nodded quickly, she was still trying to figure out why her heart was racing and the butterflies in her stomach were being sent into epileptic fits. She didn't dare look at Jason now, and she had no clue why she couldn't look at him anymore.
"I didn't lie to you about being a subject. I really was trapped in the cell next to you." Jason began, sounding sincere. "Just like they took you out for your missions once a day, they took me out not long afterwards to re-capture you."
"Why you?" Madeline asked, looking up as she spoke. That was a mistake because her voice went all silly and awkward. Once her eyes were up she couldn't get them back down again. She hadn't realised it before but Jason was fucking gorgeous. Strong jaw, cleft chin, roman nose. He had a firm brow and piercing blue eyes that had seen horrors that beggared belief, but soft lips that added just enough softness to his face to allow for a cheeky grin to be so good looking. He had the letter J carved into his cheek, scared over but still very noticeable, but other than that his face was flawless. What was Madeline thinking, she wasn't allowed to find another guy good looking. Well, she was allowed to find another guy good looking but she wasn't allowed to feel all girly and about to swoon when looking at him. What was wrong with her? She had a boyfriend, and he was trapped somewhere in the same building, maybe even in the room next door.
"They put you next to me so we'd get along which would make their master plan run much more smoothly. That was their intention, not mine. I just unwittingly followed along."
"Why? You're smart and you were a good guy once. Why work for the bad guys now?" Madeline asked, feeling like merely talking to Jason was equivalent to cheating on Waylon with him.
"Well I was a bad guy for a bit before all of this, being the Arkham Knight and all." Jason corrected, sounding a little bitter when mentioning his previous alias. "But now I work for them for the same reason you are going to."
"I am not working for them." Madeline snapped in protest.
"Oh yes you will." Jason said, tilting his head to the side and tapping the side of his neck with his finger. "Or else, boom." Madeline clutched at her neck and felt a small, new scar.
"They put another one in." Jason answered before Madeline could ask. "And this one is electricity proof so its staying in there."
Madeline didn't respond, she was looking at Jason again with a puzzled expression. Why was he making her feel this way? She felt like she had fallen for the high school heart throb and was some love struck teenager fawning over him and drawing cute little love hearts all over her chemistry book with their initials in the centre. What the fuck was with that?
"Anyway, I've been sent to bring you to the Director." Jason said, stepping to the side of the doorway so the exit was clear again. "Also don't worry, it'll wear off."
"What?" Madeline asked, caught off guard in her unwilling fantasies about high school.
"Being in love with me. Its caused by a chemical imbalance, a side effect from being transformed from human to lizard and back again. Before now they'd correct it before waking you up but this time they let you sleep on your own."
"Wait so this is all a side effect?" Madeline asked, hopeful that she wasn't going to end up being a cheating bitch. Jason grinned.
"Yep, all chemical." Jason reassured, laughing a little as another thought came to mind. "It also explains why whenever they turned you into a lizard you got all horny and starting trying to rub yourself against the person you were supposed to be fighting."
"Wait, I did what?" Madeline gasped, outraged that they'd made her do such a thing.
"Come on, the Director is waiting for you." Jason said, stepping out into the hallway and beckoning for Madeline to follow without even giving her a response to her outrage.
Madeline begrudgingly followed him down the white hallway and into a white elevator with large glass windows that allowed for them to look out over the facilities main space. It was a big pentagon shaped room with large doors at each side leading to different parts of the facility. One had 'Testing' written on it, another 'Bioengineering', 'Containment', 'Training rooms' and whatever name was on the side of the elevator, Madeline couldn't read it from that angle. She could see lots of people walking about below them as the elevator moved up, some in hazmat suits and others in regular clothes, as well as one or two in similar white clothes to Madeline. Other subjects perhaps?
The elevator continued up and eventually onto the floor above the main room where it came to a stop. A panel on the elevator lit up and showed the face of a woman in typical secretary ware with her hair slicked back into a tight ponytail that seemed to make facial expressions limiting. Jason pressed the button just below the panel and spoke into the microphone.
"This is Agent Todd, security number 3256. I have subject 3871 here to see the director." He said rather quickly, the formal jargon no doubt irritating after a while. The secretary appeared to type in some numbers onto a computer and then reached for a button.
"Letting you in now. Just a moment." She said, and the panel switched off. Sensors appeared in each corner of the elevator and began to scan them both.
"Don't worry. It's just making sure we don't have any weapons." Jason reassured Madeline before she'd even had a chance to object. She wasn't actually that stressed out by a couple of scanners.
"Security number 3256, huh?" Madeline asked as the scanning continued. "I thought that was your subject number?"
"Well once you sign a contract of employment it becomes your access number. It's easier that way, and the staff can always check in the systems to see what they need to be wary of when working with you."
"Isn't that a hindrance?" Madeline suggested, the scanners finally stopping and the door to the elevator opening into another sterile white room.
"No." Jason replied rather cheerfully. "Actually it kinda helps. People tend to leave you alone when they learn you were trained by Batman."
The room before them was sterile and white but also uncomfortably long considering it was the secretary's office. The white desk was the only piece of furniture in the room, that and the white chair the secretary dressed in white was sitting on to do her work at the white computer. Every footstep echoed as they walked forward, bouncing off the walls around them and encouraging a daunting feeling of dread to form in Madeline's stomach. She was going to meet the woman in the hazmat suit again, this time in a more professional manner, she had good reason to feel uncomfortable. The idea of trying to kill the woman had crossed her mind, but no doubt the bomb in her neck was rigged to explode if she got so close to the director or something like that.
When they reached the desk the secretary continued to type into her computer and didn't even look up to acknowledge them. Jason stood patiently but Madeline couldn't keep still. She was nervous about meeting this woman, it felt like she was back in primary school and had been sent to see the principle for the first time, the amount of authority the figure behind the door held was unknown to a young mind that had never faced it. Of course that was in the days when kids didn't know that the principle, or any teacher for that matter, couldn't actually do anything to them. Then again, that was back in the days when it was perfectly acceptable for a teacher to drag a disobedient child into the time out corner, back in the days before so much as looking at children got the child protective services foaming at the mouth and clawing at the front door.
"Card." The secretary said after an uncomfortable amount of time, still not looking up at them though. Jason handed her what Madeline assumed to be his ID card. The woman glanced at it and then handed it back.
"Card." She said again, holding her hand out for Madeline to give her hers.
"She doesn't have one yet." Jason corrected and the secretary looked up, staring at Madeline with suspicion.
"Can I see the stamp?" She asked, peering at Jason as if he were trying to sneak Madeline in or something. Stamp? What stamp?
"Madeline turn around." Jason said, but then forcefully swived Madeline on the spot out of impatience and lifted up the back of her shirt.
"Hey!" Madeline protested, yanking her shirt back down and holding it fast. "What the hell!"
"Yeah I saw it." The secretary said plainly, sounding slightly relieved that they weren't here to cause trouble.
"Saw what? I have a stamp on me?" Madeline protested, trying to look over her shoulder to see it but with no such look.
"It's just an ID tag." Jason sighed, as if having identification tattooed onto you without your knowledge was no big deal. He turned around and lifted up the back of his shirt to reveal a small round tattoo, completely white with two black circles for eyes. It was a strange tattoo, especially for identification, but then again everything about everything was strange with these guys.
What was also strange but quite predictable was how muscular Jason's back was. Madeline had always had a thing for muscular backs and oh my god his back was just gorgeous. Strong muscles, smooth dip with the curve of his spine, and plenty of scars to give them that worn warrior kind of vibe in a Hugh Jackman's Wolverine kind of way. It must have been those hormones acting up again because she couldn't tare her eyes away from him. He was amazing. She managed to avert eyes just in time to see the secretary staring at Jason too, and biting her lip as well. She averted her eyes just in time to make eye contact with Madeline before they both looked away and pretended nothing had happened. Jason seemed oblivious to the amount of oestrogen he had just added to the room through that simple act of showing his muscular back. Or maybe he was aware and just enjoying it, Madeline couldn't tell.
"I'll send you in now." The secretary said quickly, obviously very flustered, and she certainly didn't have any hormones screwing her brain up after being turned from a lizard into a human.
"Go on in." Jason said, stepping aside so Madeline could go through. "I'll wait outside." Madeline took a deep breath and went to move but her legs wouldn't obey her commands. She was nervous. She was about to talk to the woman responsible for bringing her back to life, for turning her into a lizard creature to fight Waylon. The reason he was now back in irons in their facility and Madeline was their... what? Honoured guest? Potential employee?
"Go on." Jason encouraged, crossing his arms and raising his brow at Madeline's hesitation. Madeline scowled at the open doorway and forced her legs to obey her commands. She strode in and the doors shut very quickly behind her.
There was no one in the office. No director, no woman in a hazmat suit or wearing pinstripe. It was completely empty. It was a very small office in comparison to the room they had just been in, and the fondness of open spaces this facility seemed to have. It was more like a tax accountants office than the office of the person who ran a secret facility for creating monsters and super soldiers. The white desk was covered in stationary and there was a rug on the floor so it didn't feel so sterile. There was even a potted plant in the corner with big leaves that spilled into the rest of the space almost making the room feel kind of cluttered. There were generic pictures of sunsets and landscapes on the two walls that weren't being used for the door or the big window that looked out over the... ocean?
Madeline darted over behind the desk and peered out of the window, her face pressed up against the glass like a child desperate to outside play in the snow on Christmas morning. She couldn't believe it, they were on some sort of tropical island with palm trees and a golden beach. The ocean looked stunning, so tropical and blue she just wanted to go for a swim. But it was so strange, what was a facility like this doing on a tropical island? She hadn't imaged there were many places like this left that didn't have multistorey hotels built on them.
"It's not real you know." A familiar woman's voice said, and Madeline spun around to see the woman she had been having nightmares about standing in the doorway. Now that they weren't in dimly lit abandoned orphanage Madeline could see her features properly. She was old. Really old in fact, yet still held a level of sass and 'school teacher' authority in her stance that could seduce a man maybe ten or fifteen years younger than her. Her hair was more blonde than grey, permed into a short 50s style. She wore a black suit with a charcoal blouse, black tie and black shoes. The suit was tapered in at the waist giving her an hourglass figure. Her eyes were outlined in black but she didn't have so much makeup on that it made her look like mutton dressed a lamb, just enough for regal beauty while ageing gracefully.
"Hello Madeline. Nice to finally meet you in more civilised circumstances." The woman said with a smile of satisfaction and triumph. "My name is Kathryn, I'm the Director of this institution."
"You're the woman in the hazmat suit." Madeline accused, feeling a flood of hatred wash away any nerves she had been feeling. Kathryn chuckled.
"Indeed I am. I have to say Madeline, you exceeded my expectations." Kathryn said, sounding impressed but in a way that made it about her and not Madeline.
"What are you talking about?" Madeline snapped. "You expected me to get killed or something?"
"No, of course not." Kathryn said simply, shaking her head. "Can you please come and sit in this chair so I can go and sit in mine. We're all back to front here." Kathryn gestured to the chair on the other side of the desk. Madeline scowled at her but did oblige. She really wanted to punch the old lady in the face but as much as that went against her personal beliefs she could also feel the bomb in her neck start to buzz as the thought entered her mind. Was it psychic or something?
Madeline slumped down in the chair and Kathryn settled down very elegantly in hers. She rested her arms on the desk.
"Can I get you anything? A glass of water perhaps?" Kathryn asked, not really offering to get it herself but rather suggesting the secretary get it for her.
"No way." Madeline snapped, suspicious of poison or something else. Her attention turned back to the window and the ocean view. The view was skewed somehow, rather than showing her more of the view to the right like it should from the angle she was sitting, it instead just warped sideways. It wasn't a real view. It was a screen with the image playing on it. Kathryn reached around the side of the screen and switched it off. The room felt so much more colder now that the beach wasn't just outside.
"Let's begin shall we?" Kathryn suggested, reaching into her desk draws and pulling out a small collection of papers stapled together. She put them on the desk and swivelled them around to slide them across to Madeline. She placed a pen next to the documents.
"If you'll just sign your contract at the bottom." Kathryn encouraged after Madeline didn't make any attempt to sign it.
"And if I don't?" Madeline hissed. "Do I get to go free?"
"Hmm." Kathryn sounded through pursed lips that formed into a tight smile. "How about I go over some of our 'employee benefits'."
"What, you gonna tell me about your great dental plan?" Madeline sneered, slightly amused by her own joke. Sarcasm was always a great place to go when you were feeling as pissed off as she was feeling. Perhaps it was the hormones again, or perhaps she really did have the desire to rip this woman's head off and shove it down the exposed throat hole.
"We have a great range of benefits for our staff members." Kathryn began, deliberately sounding like an advertisement for a holiday resort. "They include accommodation with a maid service and free laundry, access to a buffet for three meals a day and access to the canteen in-between meals for snacks and treats and the like. We provide a free gym membership for our staff as well as access to an Olympic swimming pool, and we even have a bar that serves cocktails until eleven."
"What's the catch?" Madeline asked with a cocky grin. Jesus she was making this place out to be a holiday resort and not the living hell Madeline had already experienced.
"You simply allow us to perform whatever experiments we want to on you and do whatever tasks or missions we require. And of course you can never leave but who would want to." Kathryn explained, sounding like the idea of someone wanting freedom could be easily subdued with cocktails and laundry service. "It's so hard to survive in the outside world, especially Gotham. Young women such as yourself have to turn to alternative means of income." Madeline felt a pang of searing hatred claw its way through her chest. Kathryn was taking a person jab at Madeline's career choice. Sure being a stripper wasn't the classiest of jobs but how dare she even suggest that it was on a par with prostitution. Was she suggesting that? Madeline wasn't sure but it felt like she was.
Sensing Madeline's irritation, Kathryn slide the document back over to her side of the table.
"If you don't want to sign the contract then I suppose I'll just put you back in your cell."
"Wait!" Madeline called out, her body launching forward of its own accord. She had one hand on the table, standing now and reaching out across the desk for the document Kathryn was about to put back in the draw. She hadn't meant to react so emotionally but the fear of going back into that hell hole was far too real. Kathryn hadn't even flinched when Madeline had made a move, which could have been interpreted as an attempt to attack her. It was like she'd expected it. Heck, she'd probably planned it.
"Changed your mind?" She asked with a sinister smile and a raise of an eyebrow.
"Give it here." Madeline sighed, snatching the document as Kathryn offered it and signing her name down at the bottom. It was only then she realised she hadn't actually read the document itself but Kathryn had snatched it back and filed it away before she'd had the chance. She could have signed up for so much more than just experiments and tasks, but now she'd never know.
"Wonderful, I'm so glad you chose to join us. I told my employers you'd be a tough nut to crack but we got there in the end." Kathryn beamed, seeming very pleased with herself.
"Your employers? I thought you were in charge?" Madeline asked, sitting back down and crossing her arms. She felt very foolish and helpless.
"I'm the director of this facility. I have many superiors. In comparison I'm just a pawn in the operations. Scratch that, actually you're the pawn, I'm more of a knight."
"I don't care for your stupid chess analogies." Madeline grumbled, not interested in learning about who was in charge. She didn't have any desire to hunt them down out of vengeance, she'd be happy just dealing with Kathryn and then leaving for good.
"What do you care about then?" Kathryn asked, suddenly sounded like a psychiatrist.
"Waylon." Madeline answered quickly, regretting not asking about him sooner. She'd been so caught up in the hormones raging over Jason's bare back that she'd almost forgotten about her actual boyfriend. Damn, she was a real bitch.
"What about him?" Kathryn asked, actually sounding eager to answer any questions.
"Where is he?" Madeline asked softly, she really should have been demanding his location but she was feeling rather drained all of a sudden. "Are you going to offer him the same contract because he won't take it."
"We aren't able to offer Waylon Jones this contract. He is too different to allow among our staff and to give free rein over the facility." Kathryn explained, actually sounding disappointed. Madeline was still trying to figure out if Kathryn was the world's best actor or actually genuine.
"I thought companies had to have an inclusion initiative or something. Equal opportunity for all races, religions and cultures." Madeline suggested with a smirk of her own.
"Yes well, I don't think the human resources department has anything about giant, cannibalistic crocodiles in their guidelines." Kathryn explained with an equally satisfied smirk. "No, he will be kept in a cell in the containment division. Don't worry, it's a big cell and we'll feed him three times a day..."
"DON'T talk about him like he's an animal." Madeline hissed, getting to her feet. Okay, now she was getting the energy back and defending her boyfriend like a good girlfriend should.
"But he is an animal, darling. And you were too not so long ago." Kathryn reminded, again not fazed by the sudden movement that could have been perceived as threatening. "Do you have any questions? I am a very busy woman."
"Yeah, I have a few." Madeline grumbled, sitting back down and trying to think of something to ask. If she couldn't hurt Kathryn she could at least put her behind schedule.
"Ask away."
"How did you find us at the orphanage." She asked, peering at Kathryn to make sure she'd detect any lies.
"You already know that." Kathryn replied with a heavy sigh and a smile. "The tracker on Edward Nygma's tie."
"Yes, but how did it get there." Madeline asked, correcting her question before her pride was too greatly wounded.
"Easy. During their little plan to capture you a few days ago so they could zap you back into sanity, I still have no idea how that even worked."
"So what? You got someone to sneak it on? Someone to go up and seduce him or something?" Madeline suggested. She was clutching at straws here, Waylon and Riddler hadn't told her anything about that night.
"Oh no, nothing so flashy. Besides, Edward is a smart man, he'd realise something was amiss when a beautiful woman went up to him and started playing with his tie. No, I put the tracker there myself."
"You were there?" Madeline gasped, surprised that Kathryn actually left the facility.
"Of course, I have an identity to upkeep. It wasn't hard. In all the rush to get out of the building after you showed up he bumped into me. Nearly knocked me over but I did manage to get the tracker in place."
"Okay..." Madeline said, trying to think of another question. "Why me? Why go to the trouble of bringing me back to life and turning me into a lizard creature, only to have me escape and for you to have to go and catch me again? Was that just so you could re-capture Waylon?"
"I'm afraid I don't know why my employers wanted us bring you back or why they want you at all for their experiments. I personally saw no use for you, but then again, I'm old fashioned. As for Waylon, we could have easily recaptured him at any time, but my employers needed him free in order for their plan to work."
"What plan?"
Kathryn grinned and tapped the side of her nose.
"I can't answer all the questions." She beamed with a grin. "Anything else?"
"Yeah. Can I see Waylon?" Madeline asked, standing up to leave. She prayed Kathryn said yes.
"Yes you can. Through the glass of course but you can see him whenever you like." Kathryn replied, and Madeline was taken aback by the answer. She had expected them to deny visiting rights to their biggest and baddest of inmates. Employee benefits did pay off.
"If that is all, I really need to get back to my work." Kathryn reminded, turning her computer. "You may leave."
"One last question." Madeline said as she stood in the doorway, about to go.
"Yes?"
"Who are you people?" She asked, and did not expect an answer. Kathryn turned to her and smile, clasping her hands together on the desk.
"We are the Court of Owls."
Edward dropped his cigarette onto the floor and crushed it with his foot, rubbing the burn out tobacco and paper into the ground. He didn't usually smoke but he was feeling very stressed and very angry. It was raining, pouring down with a low, rumbling storm approaching. The Gotham River looked black and bottomless, void of all life. It almost looked like the river Styx, filled with dead souls. The Gotham river was indeed filled with dead souls, and Edward planned to add another to the long, long list. He popped the trunk of his car and revealed a terrified, teary eyed girl dressed in stained finery, her makeup running down her face as she struggled against the bonds that held her fast. Her auburn hair, that she had no doubt spent hours preparing for the wonderful evening she had anticipated, now messy and scraggly, making her look like a drowned water rat.
Edward hauled her out of the trunk which was very easy due to how slight she was, and dragged her over to the water's edge. She was still gagged so her muffled protests just went in one ear and out the other. Edward didn't want to hear what pathetic excuses she had, nothing would make him forgive her for tricking him like that. Sure, he could accept the fact he was socially awkward and could not get any woman to pay him the slightest bit of attention. But she had tugged at his heart strings in a way no one had ever done before. He had actually fallen in love with her, or rather, the person she had pretended to be in order to slip the tracking device under his tie when pretending to fix it for him. He had watched from within the walls of the orphanage when the militia had shown up and that woman in a suit had revealed the location of the tracker on his tie, his tie that this woman had placed there. It had been a while since he had killed anyone, and he usually chose to pay someone else to do it for him. But this was personal, he had to be the one to do it.
He left Adalicia by the edge. She had her hands and legs tied up so she wasn't going to go anywhere. He went back to the trunk of his car and struggled as he lifted a cinder block out. He quickly carried it over to Adalicia and dumped it next to her. She screamed from behind the gag as it thudded down. Edward collected the second cinderblock and then a bit of rope to tie them to her legs. Adalicia screamed and tried to kick her legs free as Edward fastened them to the cinderblocks. One leg per block. Her wriggling made it very hard to tie them.
"Silence!" Edward screamed, swinging his hand around and slapping Adalicia across the face. It silenced her screaming and halted her wriggling but she continued to weep and sob in a very unattractive manner.
"This is your own fault you know." Edward hissed as he tied the last knot. "Get up!" He pulled Adalicia to her feet and stood face to face with her as she quivered before him.
"Your people invaded my home, destroyed it and took my friends. Left me homeless and without any of my documents. But more importantly you tricked me, and I hate to be tricked." He growled, staring straight into Adalicia's bloodshot, crystalline blue eyes. He took a deep breath. He tried to think of a riddle to say, some clever riddle about death or drowning but he couldn't think straight. Damn her, the thought of her death actually made him sad. He felt tears welling in his eyes and couldn't bring himself to speak. So he didn't. He kicked off the cinderblocks and Adalicia fell into the water, screaming. There was a splash that settled quickly, and a flurry of bubble floated to the surface for a good while. Then, the bubbles stopped, leaving the water as still and tranquil as death itself. Edward turned around, got in his car, and left.
Noooo, Edward it wasn't her. Oh well. Sorry this was late, I have no excuse other than Mass Effect, drawing and singing on my Instagram. I will try to be better. I hope you enjoyed that chapter and I promise you the next chapter is going to actually have Waylon in it.