TW - mention of a girl's death

Chapter 6

With just one more day until Scilla gets paid, we don’t have to continue laying low for too long. Thus far we’ve just been staying at her place, using up all her sick days at work and trying to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible.

It’s been effective, but now we’ve run out of food so the plan is to do an emergency dash to the supermarket, just to get the essentials.

“Do we need any of those?” I whisper in Scilla’s mind as we walk past an aisle. She softly nods, turning around and going back to the aisle containing dry foods. The kind of stuff that’ll keep. It’s time to escape from where we currently live, and move somewhere else within the city, because I can’t go further than that. 

A young woman walks past us, and I feel Scilla’s legs collapse beneath us. “Jess! What’s wrong?” Scilla whispers, knowing that the weakness came from me, and not her.

“I- I think I know that woman. I think she…” I fade off, staring after the woman and waiting for her to turn around, looking at some pasta or something. And then she flicks her long dark hair over one shoulder, and I get a glimpse of her neck.

There’s a gruesome scar along it, like someone tried to slit her throat.

I choke on nothingness, unable to suck in a breath. 

It all comes back to me.

I know her. 

I don’t even know her name, but…I know she was there. She was another of their victims, just like me. She and another girl tried to escape; they broke through a door, thinking it was the way out, when really it just led to me. I’d never even seen another one of their victims before, but we instantly recognised each other. 

We saw each other’s suffering reflected in our eyes.

They were trying to find a way to unchain me, and the other girl - Milly, I think her name was - she tried to help me. She was so gentle and kind, talking to me softly, telling me that it would all be alright.

And then she asked my name.

“Robert,” I had whispered back, and Milly recoiled in horror. The other girl - the one with the scar to her neck - she grew angry, grabbing Milly’s arm and pulling her away from me.

“He’s their son, Milly. Don’t you even think about helping one of them. We don’t have time for this; they’ll be back soon. We have to go now.” She’d been adamant, but Milly had turned back to me, her smile once again soft.

“It’s ok, Robert. We aren’t going to leave you. We’ll get you out; we’ll save you.” She was so kind, and it’s my fault…

Milly was killed, right in front of me. 

Those monsters shot her, and she fell into my arms, her blood coating me as Milly reached out gently, taking my hand. She tried to tell me something, that soft smile still on her lips. But no words came out, and only blood trickled past her lips.

“Jess? What’s wrong? Talk to me,” Scilla says quietly, hugging her arms around herself to comfort me. She saw the memory when I did - she knows what’s wrong. She saw it happen; felt my grief with me.

“I had no idea that she survived,” I whisper, staring at the woman still looking at the pasta. She must have been Milly’s friend or something, and I really can’t blame her for wanting to leave me where I was, when she learned that I was their son.

If Milly had left me too, then maybe she would have survived.

“This is good thought - if she survived, then maybe there are others who did too,” Scilla reminds me gently, standing up slowly and walking us towards the woman. “You want me to talk to her?” I ask, a massive amount of dread in my stomach.

“Not if you don’t want to. But I have to stop her from leaving. I have to keep her here - we have to know what happened to the others, Jess,” Scilla whispers.

And she’s right. I have to know what happened after that - are my parents still alive? Still torturing others? Or…did the police catch them? Finally?

But most importantly…what happened to the other victims?

“Let me take control,” I decide, knowing that I won’t be able to convince this woman to talk to me if she thinks Scilla is someone random.

Tapping on the woman’s shoulder, she whips around quickly, flinching away from me. “What do you want?” She practically snarls, suspicion clear in her eyes.

I search through the new memory that arose from seeing this woman, trying to see if Milly mentioned this woman’s name at any point…

Lucinda.

“Lucinda? I have to talk to you about something,” I try, willing her with my eyes. She takes a step away from me, shock on her expression. “Who the fuck are you, and how do you know my name? Are you another one of those damned reporters? I already said that I’m not talking about it, so just fuck off.”

Shaking my head, I look into her eyes, hoping that she sees anything there. “It’s me. Robert. You and Milly tried to help me?”

I expected anger, or confusion, or suspicion. What I didn’t expect was gratitude.

Lucinda’s expression completely melts and she steps forwards, pulling me into a hug. And then she steps back, grabs my hand, and pulls Scilla’s body out of the supermarket. Unable to keep up with her pace, I stumble along, still not sure how to walk properly, until I let Scilla take control again.

“We need to talk. I don’t know how you know that stuff, or about Robert and Milly, but whoever you are - a friend of Robert’s or something - just- thank you. What Robert did…saved us. Or- saved me, anyway,” Lucinda says gently, looking into Scilla’s eyes.

Slipping in front of Scilla’s consciousness again to take control, I take a deep breath. “Ok I’m going to talk and can you just listen and try to understand? It’s going to sound insane but I have to do this,” I explain, gripping my hands together.

When Lucinda nods, I start my explanation. “Ok so Robert died. That’s all I know. I’m Robert’s soul, and basically this body - it belongs to a girl named Scilla; my best friend. Although I’ve only known her for like a week. Anyway, we fused our souls together, so normally she’s in control and I just kind of hang out in her consciousness, but now I’m here and taking control so I can talk to you. I don’t know what happened or really much from when I was alive; I just remember this one horrible memory of what- what they did to me, and when I saw you, it brought back another memory. From that time with you and Milly. And that’s literally all I remember from when I was alive. And also- please call me Jess, not Robert. He’s dead, and he never really felt like me anyway.”

Lucinda blinks at me, before nodding. “Ok, I’m going to assume that everything you’ve just said is true, because Robert is dead. And otherwise I don’t know how any of this would make sense. So. If you don’t remember anything, then presumably you don’t remember what happened to those people? Or the other victims, like you and me?”

Lucinda clearly has a very different view of Robert now, than when she and I met when I was alive. She knows something that I don’t.

“Right. I was hoping that you could…fill me in? I need to know what happened, so that I can stop them from hurting anyone else, if they’re still out there somewhere,” I say resolutely.

Lucinda chews on her lips slightly, before shaking her head. “You don’t have to worry about that, Rober- Jess. You sort of already…took care of that.”

Frowning, I clasp my hands together more tightly. “What do you mean?”

Lucinda carefully takes my hands in hers, giving them a squeeze. “Jess. I’m going to tell you everything I know about what happened, but first…there’s something you should know.”

Nodding, I wait for her to continue.

Lucinda takes a deep breath. “You killed your parents.”