Trying To Heal

Chapter Fourty-Seven

April

I scroll on my laptop, criticising and judging the pictures of the listed suspects that Nova Collins gave. I established that many of these possible offenders had been given opportunities once they conducted an immoral action. One footballer was listed to play for a Premier League Team this season after he brought a twenty-four-year-old woman for sex work. An actor assigned for his first movie; this happened once he had 'fun' at the orgy party.

For a reward, you pay the price. For a reward, you make a deal with the devil.

The devil could be Grant Everston, who has been named 'The Director'. The leader. The god of his kingdom. He has an organised agenda to sell high-quality, A-class drugs that ninety-nine percent of drug dealers could not even afford, nor find. It is not solely drugs. It is all things named temptatious and gluttonous, all things that fall into the categories of the seven sins, to fulfill the seven sins.

Michael Martin was the distributor. If Grant is really what we think he is, Michael must require Grant's permission to introduce any plan.

If you have that much of power, and that much of money (which can never guarantee any form of poverty), then why do you want to sell humans like objects?

It is five in the afternoon, and since ten in the morning, I had these questions scribbled on a neat sheet of paper. Formatted in a brainstormed diagram, the questions all correlate and link back to the one, final answer.

Boredom.

I double-tap my phone screen, hoping to see a response from Derek. He did. My heart rate quickening, I unlock with my fingerprint. We are close to Los Angeles. About fifteen minutes till we arrive. I might not respond for long hours, so do not worry about me.

He took his dogs. His dogs have been trained as police dogs, by Lin. Atlas and Duke are very smart. Derek never did drugs or indulged in intoxication at the Manor. If he did, the dogs would pick up the scent immediately and would have snitched him to his aunt. He did those things at other places.

What are you going to do?

Look around. See who is there. If there are victims, we would need to act at once. Luke got six hundred Mediators prepped. If the police comes and tries to defend the suspects, there is going to be violence. This is a war wanting the right winners.

Once the Azrael capture every horrid grime at this orgy party, Luke will abduct them to the base and imprison them in the underground cells. From time to time, Luke wants them to be questioned. From time to time, Derek wants them to be tortured. From time to time, Tanner wants to send them to prison centres, for them to be killed by their prisonmates. There is a hierarchy in prison. The prisoners want to build their domains, by exerting dominance to show who is the big boss. The prison guards will establish their authority to show true power.

If there is one thing that can unite the prisoners and guards, then it is their hatred for sex offenders. Sex offenders have no respect in a prison justice.

The dimming screen brightens at Derek's next message. This is going to be on the news.

Because of the celebrities.

Yes, he said. If we find a survivor wanting to confess, either to your father or someone else trustworthy, and if this incident at the orgy party is on the media, it can help a viewer to connect the dots together.

Could Bodie being on the news help that, too?

Possibly, he thought. I am going to switch off now.

Stay safe please.

I will. You stay safe also. He sent a smiley face and a heart, and logged off.

Dad knocked on the door. "The announcement is going to be in fifteen minutes. You should go downstairs."

I close the laptop. "Dad, why did you want to be in the Army?"

"I wanted to help people."

"From the terrorist groups."

He leans on the doorframe and crossed his muscled arms. He is wearing a white tank top, which did little to hide that outrageous, large scar on his chest — the wound that Mum stitched, the time when he first her. It never seems to fade. "And from the governments."

"The governments?"

"When Mike told me he wanted to join the army, I told him he had to know who he was fighting. Much of these wars exist to deter us from who the true enemy is, by giving a false and invisible one that strengthens the one in hiding. War is expensive. It makes governments rich. It gives them power, and motivates greed. In my past fifteen years of service, I came across hundreds of soldiers influenced by propaganda. I hated it. I only corrected them twice, in simple terms. If they do not listen, I removed them from my team."

"So why did you join, if you hated it?"

"To teach. To show them they should not obey out of fear. Everyone has free will. It is better to know where you stand in your moral ground, rather than let it go for your safety."

I tap the smooth surface of the closed laptop. "Do you think the governments have power?"

"Meaning, could they be puppets?"

My eyes widen at his instant comprehension. "Could they? Like, is there anyone more powerful than them?"

"It is a possibility. I wouldn't be surprised. They don't care about us, April. They never did; they never will."

Bodie Banks. Charlotte Marin. Ishaan Ali. Hunger. Poverty. Discriminations and prejudices. The sex ring. They never care about us.

Some nights, I wonder if the Matthews could be the enemy, too.

"I wish people can revolt against them."

"They can. But people are consumed in a nonexistent fear. They love their privilege too much to fight, and they are lazy. If we tell this truth to people, you know what they are going to say — 'Oh, what can we do?', 'Why are you telling me? You expect me to do something?'." Dad shook his shoulders miserably. "It's their ignorance. They would rather live in a superficial world and be a zombie. We are in an age where we can access whatever we want, access all sorts of information, and a lot of us do not consider to dive into the rabbit hole. Now, come on. We might miss it."

The TV, broadcasting BBC News live, shows Wimborne Court in its' glory, bombarded of a compact crowd. The left is of haters, the right is of hopers. A podium is set up, police officers ligned behind Judge Vella who is adjusting the curved microphone.

"I have promised at least a week to conclude," she says. "It has taken me more than a week, for the August to end into the second week of September. With consistent judgement, criticising, and logic, Bodie Banks is now officially declared as innocent —"

I never watch football. Ethan does. Whenever his favourite team wins, he jumped out of the sofa and threw out his arms for a at-the-top-of-his-lungs scream, "YES!"

That is what I did right now.

"His accusers — Camila De La Cruz, Aasvhi Varma, and Destiny Byrne —, are sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for the accounts of drugging, manipulation, rape through penetration, prejudice, discrimination, and falsehood in the court of law."

I rambled, "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. Yes, yes, yes! We won!"

I spun to Ethan and hugged him. He hugged me back and we both jumped up and down, full of excitement and gratitude, causing Rose to cutely giggle.

"We won! Bodie Banks won!"

"He won!" he screamed. 

🌺

i think this tiktok kind of shows how derek looks like: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFvMf3om/