Chapter Sixteen
As Vivian fell, she had realized she was now vertical. She looked up. Water hit her face and she resisted the urge to scream. All was calm. She could see her necklace still firmly clasped in her hand. All was calm. She was closer to the building than was planned, but that was alright. It would all be over soon. All was calm. Vivian was looking down when she saw a hand emerge from the open window of the room where she had killed earlier. She was almost upon it and before she knew it the hand was grasping her wrist tightly. She felt the other hand join it. Vivian was now hanging like a pendulum from the window of the seventh floor. Her plan was dashed. She looked up to try to see who had caught her, but her vision was blurred by the amount of rain that was presently gathering in her eye sockets. So she moved her eyes down towards the ground. She could see police officers, what appeared to be a camera, and her Mary-Jane clad feet dangling high above the ground.
Vivian was never afraid of heights. She had been climbing up the sides of buildings and other assorted things all her life. She had only stopped for a brief period of time when she fell four stories down off the side of her low rent apartment building at the age of fifteen and landed on a fire escape. Luckily she had only broken her wrist and bruised her tailbone. Her foster parents had called her a medical miracle after that incident. That and stupid for climbing up the brick building.
She was moving now, being pulled up through the window. She caught on the edge of the open window and felt the hands let go of her wrist and grab her under her arms instead. She was now on her back on the floor on the soft carpet lying on someone else's blood stain. Her vision was swirling. Vivian could make out several people standing above her. One was older, and looked familiar. One had a pony tail. One also looked familiar with glasses and curly hair. The other was standing behind the latter with a stern face. All of them were swirling around in her vision like a kaleidoscope.
Then it sunk in.
She was wet.
She was covered in water.
Vivian started screaming.
She screamed and screamed while lying perfectly still on the carpet. Her hand was still clutching her precious necklace, and her long pointed nails were digging into the palm of her hand, drawing blood. Her blood trickled down her arm and mixed with the stain on the carpet, deepening the red. The people above her stumbled back from shock of the sudden change in volume.
"Cuff her. Take the key. It's time to go." Hauser said. "And get her to shut up would you?" He left the room after slamming his hand on the living room wall. He could hear a couple of people telling her to 'shhh' and 'calm down'. He heard one person say 'it's just water' followed by him getting a swift kick to the stomach and Vivian getting her leg pinned down. One of them was sitting behind her on the floor whispering in her ear. Rebecca was standing in the hallway rubbing her wrists.
"Hey."
"Glad this is almost over."
"What do you mean over, she's been caught." Rebecca said with an arm gesture in Vivian's direction.
"It's never finished even after they've been caught again. Especially not in her case."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember that drawing we found in her file? The one with the eyes?"
"Yes."
"Well, I found out that the drawing does give a location. She was right all along."
"Where exactly is it?"
"In New York."
Rebecca went silent for a moment.
"Why would she be hiding it in New York?"
"I don't know. But all that matters is that we know where it is."
Vivian was being dragged out of the room. She had finally stopped screaming, and was how handcuffed. Her necklace was still clutched in her hand, and dried blood spiraled its way up her forearm. She turned around to face the two of them and gave an almost sinister smile.
"Just like old times." She said as an officer pushed her back to get her walking again. They watched as the doors in the elevator closed and Vivian Antoinette-Blanch was once again out of sight.