Chapter 6

Padmé was sure Teckla's cries of fear were the absolute worst thing she had ever witnessed.

She was sure those screams would accompany her till her very last day: The despair… the trepidation… the absolute terror! It was impossible to listen without feeling her heart bleed.

From the floor where she lay helplessly, Padmé cried out again, this time to ask for help; but as no one came to their aid, she had to do something. She wasn't exactly unafraid, but she ran towards the remote dark corner, where the assailant had pushed Teckla.

Padmé couldn't see her young friend behind the darkness of the night and that grim shadow of a man who completely swallowed her. "Let her go!" she shakily cried as she strongly banged her fists on the Shadow's back; an action she quickly realized did nothing to help, as he just ignored her, while Padmé just heard Teckla's cries intensify—then oddly diminish.

As Padmé continued her useless but determinate hits she could feel his one arm snapping up and down, harshly. She was growing desperate and mad, so she thought of something—and she actually did it… it was insane. Stupid. Suicidal.

Instead of hitting the attacker, Padmé wrapped her arms around the Shadow's body—she was horrified since as she did that she could get a better sense of what he was doing to Teckla—and she whispered behind the hood, "Please, stop! I beg you, don't do this! Stop!"

She could almost swear the attacker stopped for a second, but at once, the loud sound of voices and steps reached them—and he swung his knife again; slashing a last time at his victim.

Teckla fell into the floor and in a matter of seconds, the assailant disappeared from their sight.

For some moments, Padmé wished it was her lying on the ground. She felt she deserved to die. "Help!" she cried when she recovered her senses. "Help! Please, someone!"

The noise that drove the attacker away came from a group of frat boys. They had come from a football game; more than intoxicated, yet aware enough to hear Padmé's cries for help.

The group of young men gathered around Padmé and Teckla. The sound of gasps and cries of terror invading Padmé's ears again, as the young men saw the scene of the crime.

Teckla's eyes were still opened, and a pool of blood fell down her throat; staining her neck and breasts.

Padmé's hands were also moist from the spilled blood, from when she had touched her friend in fear and pity.

Padmé could feel again the suffocation of that California night; despite the cold wind, she felt smothered as the group of men cornered her and Teckla. Her mind was in such a twirl, she didn't realize from where so much pain was coming from. Everything became a blur, and she never even saw the face of the young man that caught her as she lost consciousness and fell into his arms.

"Really, sir, I am sure she won't be long," Mrs. Luminara Unduli, the cleaning lady said in a polite voice inside Kappa Kappa Delta's living room as she offered the male guest a cup of tea.

"Yeah, maybe they stopped to eat something," Dormé said in a careless manner.

"Is it usual for Teckla to be out so late?" Mr. Minnau asked, gravely.

Dormé repressed a mocking laugh. "No," she said, the truth sounding like a lie in her pretty mouth.

Teckla's father had had enough of calling non-stop only to receive no answer from who she thought was his daughter's caretaker. So he drove from Malibu in an attempt to speak, and reprimand, Mrs. Mothma. He arrived at the sorority house only to discover there was still no house mother, and to his great shock, no daughter.

"And on a school night!" he cried, sounding more disappointed than angry.

This time Dormé couldn't hold her irreverence anymore, and she laughed loudly. "I assure you, sir," she then said, sounding as respectful as she could. "She's a good girl. She's not doing anything bad out there. Hell, I wish I could tell you otherwise—but she's just out with one of the girls."

The old man hardly looked soothed by Dormé's words.

"And what is she doing exactly?" Mr. Minnau inquired after taking another sip at his tea.

"Oh, I couldn't really say… I don't know." Dormé muttered.

The old man looked unsettled. "And who's the girl accompanying my daughter?"

"Padmé," Dormé answered. "Another good girl. So you have nothing to worry about."

"Didn't Padmé have a date with Anakin tonight?" one of the sorority sisters said, and Dormé immediately turned angry eyes on her.

"Yeah… but..." Dormé stammered.

"Child, I beg you," Mr. Minnau said, almost sadly. "Don't lie to me. If my daughter is out with a boy—I'd rather know."

Dormé bit her nails, almost frustrated. "But I swear! She's with Padmé. I saw them go out together."

"The girl who's out with a boy?"

"I don't know…" Dormé really didn't know what to say anymore. "Maybe they…" she almost held her tongue, but her stupid joke escaped her lips. "Swing?" and she laughed as the old man watched her with a frown of displeasure and shock. "I'm kidding!" she cried, thinking that would ease him. It didn't. "Look, maybe Teckla went to the library? Maybe Padmé just walked her there? Or maybe—"

The sound of the doorbell ringing interrupted her sentence. The cleaning lady left for some moments, and when she came back, she wasn't alone. "Shit," Dormé muttered under her breath when she saw him.

Opening her eyes again was the last thing she wanted to do. She breathed rapidly, clearly reliving the past scene, imagining the man —the killer—, under the black hood. When she found the courage to keep her eyes open, the contrast of the dark memory and the whiteness of the room made her eyes watery with pain.

"Are you alright?" a man she didn't know asked.

Padmé made an attempt to be seated. The question felt like a cruel mockery at her life.

She nodded along nonetheless.

"Are you ready to talk about it?" the man said in a quiet and almost kind voice.

Again, she felt his words had a double meaning; of course the officer was just doing his job.

"Where's Teckla?" Padmé asked at once. "I want to see her!"

"Try to be calm," the police officer said. "I hear you're unscathed. You are a lucky girl Miss…"

"Padmé," she breathed and this time the irony in his words made her choke up.

Lucky?

"I was almost killed tonight," she said, her voice now sounding off and far away, barely above a whisper. "And I saw my friend…. Please, tell me. What happened to her?"

The officer sighed. "I am Officer Piett," he said. "I want you to trust me, Padmé. What happened tonight was horrible, I am sure. But you need to make a declaration—"

"You want me to trust you?" she snapped, bitterly. "But you're only here to interrogate me."

"It's what needs to be done, young lady. I don't mean to be insensible, but there's a very dangerous man out there. We have to find him to avoid anything like tonight happens again—and you're the only one who can help us."

Padmé's silent tears became loud and unnatural sobbing. "Oh my God!" she cried. "Teckla! Is she… oh!"

"She's alive," Officer Piett said, gently. "But she cannot help us."

Padmé tried to get up from her hospital bed but Piett stopped her. "I tell you, you must remain calm."

"W—why can't you ask her?" Padmé asked, her voice almost dying from her fear.

Piett sighed. "She can't speak."

Images of her friend with blood falling down her throat attacked her mind.

"She's in quite a state of shock, too," the officer went on. "It is all in you, Miss Padmé."

"Please don't make me talk about it," she begged.

The young officer looked at her with pity. But he had no choice... "Miss Padmé, do you have any idea of who the attacker could be?"

She knew she was on a moral and now legal obligation to say everything.

"No," was her weak response.

"Miss, did you see him?"

"Not at all. He was too well concealed."

"What was he wearing?"

"I am not entirely sure… I mean, just black clothes. He was wearing a hood, I couldn't see a glimpse of skin or hair. I couldn't possibly tell you anything about him."

"But you know it was a man? How? Did he speak at all? How old did he seem?"

Padmé shook her head, nervously. "I tell you I don't know anything!" she snapped. "Just leave me alone!"

"Miss I understand you're in such a state but… well you have to be aware. He's out there right now."

His last sentence made her crying return. "I want to go home," she muttered. "I want to see my sisters!"

"Pardon me? Sisters?"

"My sorority sisters, I mean."

"Oh yes, of course. Kappa Kappa-something?"

"Delta."

"Well, the doctor said you could go as soon as you wish. But Miss, I will escort you, with my partner. You won't object, right?"

"Of course. But Teckla...?"

"Your friend will stay in the hospital for a few more days."

"Will she ever speak again?" Padmé trembled.

Officer Piett sighed sadly again. "I don't know."

The second Padmé entered Kappa Kappa Delta she saw a small crowd of people running to welcome her.

The first person she recognized was Dormé. Then there was Luminara; and a few sorority sisters; they all gasped when they saw the policemen that had brought Padmé home.

"What happened?" Dormé quietly asked Padmé.

Padmé was sure she would rather stab herself than talking about it. Being home reminded her of why she had gone out in the first place. "Mrs. Mothma hasn't returned?" she asked, pressing Dormé's arm.

Dormé shook her head.

"What about Cordé?"

Same silent response.

Padmé glanced at the policemen, who watched them very attentively.

"Good evening," Officer Piett greeted, politely.

"May we speak to the house mother?" the other policeman, Officer Ozzel said.

"Didn't you go to report her as missing?" Dormé said before she could stop herself. She bit her tongue when she realized she was getting Padmé into trouble.

"What?" both officers asked, confused.

Fuck, Dormé cursed silently. "Padmé," she whispered at her ear. "There's something you should know…"

"Not right now," Padmé stammered. "I can't talk right now… I am going to bed!"

She ran to the stairs. "Padmé!" she heard as she was called but she was already disappearing behind the dim darkness.

Padmé entered her bedroom and locked the door; without turning on the lights she ran to her makeup table and she just stared at her own reflection for a few moments. She picked up any object she could find and threw it at the wall. She grunted like an angry child and cried, more bitterly and angrily than she had in all her life.

She did a mess of the place, pulling at her own hair every so often.

She screamed and screamed until she was too tired to do anything anymore.

At last she threw herself on her bed, falling roughly on the little space, almost instantly feeling the man that was lying there.

She could see nothing of him in the darkness, yet she recognized instantly, like always, his familiar touch. "Padmé?" Anakin asked.

She couldn't help her first impulse; she started to scream savagely, for help.

He tried to grab her. "Padmé, why are you yelling?" Anakin asked, his beautiful voice sounding afraid and preoccupied. "My love, stop it. What's wrong?"

She never could answer his question. The next thing they heard was the sound of someone trying to force the door to open it, then the sound of the bullets that at last allowed officer Piett and Ozzel to enter Padmé's bedroom.