Chapter Fifteen

Alcatraz, 1963

Vivian was sitting in her cell, like any normal day. She was humming a song to herself, and had her ear pressed against the wall next to her bed to try and see if she could hear any signs of Ernest in the next cell. So far she had heard nothing. She figured it was just because of the thick walls. She lifted her head off the wall when she heard a guard shout. It was the directive to open her cell door.

She uncurled her legs from her chest when it started to slide open. What did they want with her now? Hadn't they done enough? She got up from the bed and stood at the back of her cell. Two guards burst in. One of them stood at the door and watched as his partner grabbed her roughly by the arm. He pulled out a syringe filled with a familiar looking substance. Vivian tried to make a break for it. But there was no where to go. The guard with the needle grabbed her by her waist and pulled her to him. She kicked and thrashed and tried to scream. But it was no use. She could feel the needle in her side. It was obviously a larger dose than the two she had been given before. They were smart. They knew her body had already built up immunity to small doses. This must be the end of one thing and a start of another. She could only guess what it was.

The guard let go of her waist and grabbed her arm instead. He dragged her to the entrance to her cell, where the other guard took her other arm.

"What was that?" He hissed to the guard who had stabbed her.

"Just act surprised."

"What?"

"Act. Surprised."

The effects of the substance were starting to kick in. Her vision was spinning and she could barley walk. The guards were literally dragging her. She could hear them telling her things, probably to 'get up' and 'keep walking'. Vivian couldn't take it. The drug was taking over. She collapsed to the floor and could tell they had barely made it to the middle of the hallway in front of her cell. She was on her back, and the cold floor felt nice on her hot skin. She turned her head in the direction of the cells on the right. Vivian could see Ernest sitting on his bed. He hadn't come to the front to watch as many of the other inmates did. His head turned towards her. The two of them locked eyes. And the last thing Vivian saw before the blackness took over was Ernest Cobb turning away from her.

The guards had bent down next to the unconscious Vivian on the cell floor. The one with the needle checked her pulse. It was beating, but slower than usual.

"No pulse." He said, looking up and making eye contact with the guard on the other side of him. He looked unsure, then pursed his lips and looked down.

"No pulse." He said quietly. The guard with the needle nodded.

"Come on. Let's get her to the infirmary." He pulled Vivian up off the floor and slung her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Her arms dangled towards the floor like a doll, and her hair hung down as well, shielding her face. Almost all of the inmates were standing at the front of their cells, watching as the two guards and the 'dead' ward made their way out of the main cell block. The precession made its way to the infirmary. The door opened. Inside were the Warden, the assistant Warden, Lucy and Dr. Beauregard. Vivian was laid on an operation table. The assistant Warden locked the door.

"Ah. Your time has come." The Warden said, pushing the hair out of her face.

Present Day

"So you see, I am not dead. I am very much alive. How old do you think I am?"

Rebecca shrugged her shoulders. She was trying to figure out her story. They must have been preparing for her transition.

"Well. I should be seventy. But I suppose I am encased in youth at the ripe age of twenty-one." She laughed a bit. "I celebrated two birthdays in prison. I was only nineteen when I went in." She ran the knife across the sharpener, and the scraping sound echoed across the roof. From far away sirens could be heard. Rebecca hoped it was back up. She could tell her time was ticking with every scrape of the knife. The sirens were getting closer, she could tell. And so could Vivian.

"Ah. Is that backup I hear?" She said, putting the knife and sharpener to the side, and started leaning closer to her. "Did you call it in?" She tilted her head to the side and pouted a bit, still advancing. "You can't handle me by yourself I see. Well that is quite alright because I can make do with the time we have left together." Vivian leaned back and grabbed the knife again.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"Inevitably yes. But our time is quite short, so I will have to make some adjustments."

Vivian carefully slipped the knife back into her bag.

"I will not personally kill you. But there will come a day when you may wind up with a knife wedged deep into your flesh. The blade will be barely visible. Your vision will spin and your body will tingle and burn at the same time because the life is dripping out of you in small drops of ruby red liquid. The gems will gather and stain. It may very well be the end." Once again she leaned in as if to emphasize her point. "But know that if that happens, it will be at my hand because I have wished for this over and over again. If the universe decides to be kind to sweet criminals like me, then this will happen because I wanted it. My wish will be granted."

"How can you tell?"

"I am a good judge of the future."

Vivian picked herself off the floor and started walking towards the railing. The fog swirled around her legs and sometimes concealed her completely from view. Rebecca pulled and pulled on her loose leg, hoping to get it free. Finally, it did. Her leg swung out and connected with Vivian's bag in front of her. Rebecca's phone flew out and skidded across the ground. She stretched her leg to its full extent, but was only able to touch it with her toes. She scuttled it around in order to push it closer. She succeeded. Her phone was now in front of her, and she was trying to dial a number using her foot. She looked up to see Vivian start to climb onto the edge of the railing. Rebecca's attempted dialing became frantic, Vivian knew too much she had to keep her alive. Maybe this was some sort of weird illusion Vivian had planned, but she didn't know for sure. Rebecca cursed the police department for issuing them touch screens, and kept pushing. Finally, she could hear the phone ringing, and Hauser's muffled voice on the other end.

"I think she's-" Rebecca looked over to see Vivian standing on the top of the guardrail on the balls of her feet, arms outstretched to her sides.

"Oh my God she's going to jump." She finished frantically.

"What are you doing?" She yelled to Vivian. "Stop! Don't do it!"

"You are not going to change my mind. And besides, you can just rip the key off my dead body. You will get what you want." She turned her head to face Rebecca then turned it back forwards. She took off her hourglass necklace and looked at it before swinging her arms back to the sides. As it swung Rebecca could see the sand was all in the bottom chamber. She whispered into the phone for him to hurry, but couldn't hear a response.

"Time has run out." The necklace swung, glittering in the last hint of sunlight as a cloud blocked it and rain began to fall. Vivian tisked before she resumed speaking in her slow methodic voice. "But I still have one more person left to kill. Myself."

Vivian went even higher on her toes, then tilted forward and went over, arms outstretched, her dress and hair blowing against the wind. Rebecca was screaming as she disappeared over the edge and into the fog. She had just lost a valuable piece of evidence.