Chapter Seventeen
AN: IT'S BEEN SO LONG OMG
Vivian was now, in a sense, back at Alcatraz. The replica prison she was in now was so eerily similar to the real thing but almost sterile. It was so bright it burned her eyes when she was first dragged in. At this point, Vivian had nothing more to lose. The key had been ripped from her neck, and they had confiscated her precious hourglass shortly after they arrived. The car ride here had been rather pleasant, it gave her an excuse to prattle on aimlessly about who knows what while she remembered what she had set up fifty years ago. And now she was sitting in front of her new captors who she assumed were all too eager to listen.
"I heard you were rather talkative on the way over here." Dr. Sengupta said.
"Well, I guess I was." Vivian replied.
There was a moment of silence.
"How did you end up with the third key?"
"When I woke up in this era it was already with me."
"Do you know what it opens?"
"I honestly have no idea. But I figured that I needed to keep it from you, and it looked good as a necklace." She said with a wink.
There was yet another long moment of silence.
"Okay. I am going to cut to the chase here. How do we open the box?" Hauser demanded.
"Ah, the box. I figured it would only be a matter of time before you came asking. What do you think it contains?" She leaned closer. "All of my wrongfully attained gains? A severed hand from one of my victims? The secrets you seek?" She laughed and then leaned back again.
"Just tell us how to open it."
"I have already told you."
"Stop playing mind games, Vivian. You haven't told us anything."
"Oh but I did! I told you fifty years ago!"
Hauser and Lucy looked at each other, then looked back at Vivian.
"I don't-"
"Are you really that daft, doctor?" Vivian exclaimed. "Do I need to spell it out for you?"
"Apparently you do."
"How many times did I speak to you while I was in captivity at Alcatraz?" She asked, crossing her arms.
"Twice."
"What did I say the first time?"
"I believe you said 'I aim for the heart'."
And the second time?"
"Target practice."
"There you go."
"I still don't see how that helps us open the box." Lucy said, trying to still sound gentle and patient.
"Really, I need to explain everything? It is a code! A code! Each letter equals a number. You add up all the numbers then, voila! You have access!" She spoke in a rather deranged fashion, and had started to flap about rather alarmingly.
After this statement there was much searching for a calculator, then another long moment for writing out the code translation then adding them all up.
"303?" Hauser asked.
Vivian nodded.
"But there are only three digits, and there are four spots on the lock."
"The first number is a zero." Vivian whispered. She had recoiled into a small ball on the chair. She had her head to her knees but could still hear the light click of the numbers falling into place.
The small red box opened. What was inside wasn't money, or human ligaments, or even a clue as to what was going on with the inmates. What lay inside was half a geode and a large ring. The ring was faceted with a large amber stone, and could be opened. Hauser gently opened the ring and looked inside. The lid held a miniature mirror, and sitting in the shallow dish in the band of the ring was a note. It was immediately unfolded, and Vivian began reading it from memory. It read:
Vivian Antoinette,
Tu seres toujours notre lune, le soleil, et les etoiles.
Nous serons toujours desole que les choses devaient comme ca, mais nous saions que c'etait pour le mieux.
Peut-etre nous pouvons tu revoir un jour.
Adorer,
Ton Maman et Pere
Vivian was sitting with her back almost to Hauser and Lucy. She was finding it increasingly difficult not to react. There was a reason she had buried that box so far away.
"So you went through all the trouble of burying this damned box all the way in New York for this; a ring and a note in a different language from your parents?" Hauser exclaimed. He was getting increasingly worked up and Lucy was trying to calm him down.
"You see, people cope in different ways. I chose to cope with the fact that my parents did not necessarily want me enough to take me back with them when they got deported, or even bother to follow up regarding my wretched, horrid stay in the foster program by burying it in a place I would never visit again. I left it behind. In a sense I convinced myself that I had let go."
"But where is all the money you made illegally?"
"Some things one will just never tell." She replied in a rather smug fashion.
"And why won't you tell us. You have nothing left to lose at this point."
"I will not tell because I worked hard for every cent, just like any other good, hardworking American. And they would most certainly not want to give any of that up, nor would you go and take it from them, would you?"
"Vivian, it's different."
"Is it? I do recall the American dream to be to regarding equality, democracy and material prosperity. I certainly achieved that, even if my parents failed as immigrants."
"In what way does killing people fall under the American dream?"
"In my world, every one is equal. It does not matter what socioeconomic status one is, or what their race is. I will kill anyone and everyone if given the opportunity. Democracy is a hard one, but I do believe that we bring power to the people in some distant and potentially obscure way. And as for material prosperity, I made a pretty penny as a 'paid assassin'."
"You say your parents failed as immigrants?" Dr. Sengupta asked.
"Yes. When I was rather young, say four or five, my parents decided to move from our homeland of France to America to try and make a better life for our family. However, after we had only been settled in the US for about six months, my parents somehow, somewhere, messed up and got sent back to France. They could not bring me with them, so they gave me a ring and left. I ended up in the foster care system and the rest is history."
"Ah, I see," Lucy replied, "When did your criminal tendencies begin?"
"You know, I have been wrestling between the ideas of if a person is born evil, or if something has to happen to make a person that way. I have formulated that everyone is indeed born evil, but it does not make itself apparent until something happens. It is different for every person, someone might never break, yet another could experience something very minor as a child and lose it from there. I believe that my dark side made it self evident when my parents left me."
"And you were, five or six?"
"Yes. Because after that moment I began getting into trouble, I hung out with the bad kids, I threw knives and shot arrows to improve my aim and accuracy, I dealt opiates on the street while in school, I studied up on acids and chemistry. I used my long stretches alone to slowly craft myself into the perfect criminal. And, once I graduated from high school, I started practicing my craft."
"Do you know why you were eventually sent to Alcatraz?"
"Well, I assumed it was because I started on a night time terror spree in the high security women's prison I was in. I worked kitchen detail, and stole a wide variety of knives which I kept inside my mattress. I figured out a way to sneak out of my cell, so at night I would grab a couple of knives, evade the guards, and slowly pick off my enemies. They never even saw me coming. That is probably why I ended up in Alcatraz. They were also probably curious as to what would happen if they threw a woman in the mix, so voila."
"Do you remember how the cops found you when they went in for the arrest? You were sitting in a dark, locked room in a puddle of someone else's blood picking your teeth clean with a knife. I also believe they said you were wearing a party dress similar to the one you have on now." Hauser stated.
"That is true."
"Isn't that an accurate reflection of your sanity?"
"Oh my dear," She laughed, "I never said I was sane."
"When you first came to Alcatraz, I believe you were given an IQ and a personality test." Dr. Sengupta said slowly.
"Yes."
"Your results said you were a highly functioning sociopath with an almost genius level IQ."
"Sounds about right." Said Vivian with a small smirk.
"Do you have anything else to say about this?"
"People like me already make the world go around; I do not think I need to spend time anymore time discussing it."
"What are you talking about?" Hauser asked. "You really don't make sense very often."
"Without criminals and creatures of the dark, what would you do? Nothing. We are the very people who in a sense rule this world. People spend their lives studying us, chasing us, copying us, creating us, defending us, stopping us. What can you say to that?" Vivian leaned forward with that same smirk on her face.
"What are you saying, that one day people like you will rule the world?"
"Criminals are already in power. It would not be much different, I promise. Just a little more totalitarian." She almost sneered.
"What would it be, the New World Order?"
To that, Vivian just shrugged and leaned back. They tried to ask her some more questions, but she had once again fallen silent. There was nothing more that she would divulge. So, she was dismissed and sent once again to a small cell. Fortunately, she was given her hourglass necklace back. Now all she had to do was wait.