LITTLE DARK AGE

chapter eleven

𝐱𝐢.

𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬

A SICKENING FEELING OF DEJA VU CAME
OVER her as she sat down in front of the man who caused her so much pain. She felt like that helpless little girl all over again.

"You came all this way to be quiet. Looks like some things haven't changed much these years." He laughed sickly.

His stupid laugh made her furious, without a care in the world she flashed her red eyes at him. "Shut up."

The prisoned man dropped his smile, leaning a little further. "What are you here for?"

"The truth." Valerie spoke loud enough for him to hear.

"The truth about what?"  He furrowed his bushy eyebrows before sinking into his seat.

"About why you're such an asshole... what do you think?" She spat sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

He laughed again but this time he wasn't as amused. His wrists were on top of the table, dark bruises that were mostly like from the shackles.

"Why would I tell you anything Valerie?" Her name sounded like a deadly weapon coming from his mouth, it made her uneasy.

"Don't you think you at least owe me that? After using me as a punching bag my whole life, after ruining me physically and mentally!" She snapped.

His silence answered her question well enough, as she was about to exit the door she heard his voice.

"Wait." Mr. Harrington interrupted, his eyes gluing to the ground.

She slowly walked back to the seat and wait for him to speak again.

"When were one, I overheard one of my friends at the time talking about how the secret government company was paying millions of dollars for a family to adopt this girl. I though to myself 'how could this one girl be so expensive', so I asked for the details." He began to tell the story of her childhood.

"My friend clowned me about it but I was serious. The process took two whole years, they told me that you were special and that I would have to take you to this lab during the weekends but never to tell you where you were going. It was too good to be true." He added on.

"When you were old enough to understand and still didn't remember that's when I realized they were wiping your memory. I confronted the man in charge and he said it was too dangerous for you to know about it. He said he'd kill me and my family if I told you... so I didn't."

Valerie sucked in a deep breath, overwhelmed that Dr. Brenner was behind this thing the entire time but it still wasn't making complete since.

"I never knew your real father but you loved him, more than anyone. I actually started to get a little jealous. Everything was going well until...

"One day, you came running home covered in blood, you told us you knew everything and that you hated us. You went raging on everyone...even my pregnant wife." Mr. Harrington's voice cracked slightly.

"I killed your baby..." She realized.

"That's not it. You told us you killed your biological father. The guilt was eating you up, you were out of control so I had no choice but to take you back to the lab but Dr. Brenner didn't want you there anymore. He wiped your memory of killing those kids at the lab and told us to never take you back to him because you were—

"A monster." The mage squeaked out, letting the tears endlessly flow from her eyes.

Even though she knew she wasn't responsible for killing the kids she still killed his unborn baby and her own father.

Maybe Vecna was right, she was just as much as a monster as he was.

Mr. Harrington and the police officers looked up at the flickering light. "Valerie, I— I'm sorry. I was just so upset about you killing my child that... it felt like a evil just took over me... like it put me in a curse. I couldn't never forgive myself and I know you can't ever forgive me. I'm sorry."

Valerie couldn't speak, she sat up in silence from the chair, walking out of the visiting area and back to her safe space. Mike.

He could feel her off energy, instantly suffocating her with his hug. "It's okay, you're okay, i'm right here, okay?"

"Okay." She cried back.

He did the only thing he could, be the heart, because his heart belonged to her heart and always would no matter how broken it was.

"I'm so sorry you're going through this, this isn't right, I just wish I could take your pain away." Mike sniffled his nose.

"I know, Mike."

...

"WHERE ARE THEY?" VALERIE WHISPERED TO MIKE, stepping over the branch inside of the words. He placed his hand on her back to make sure she didn't fall.

"I don't— ahh— I don't know!" Mike squinted his eyes when she accidentally put the bright light in his face.

"Sorry." She giggled.

Mike smiled at her laugh, it had been a while since he heard it.

They searched the woods until they finally found Lucas, Dustin and Max.

"Where's the rest?" Valerie asked, confused where her brother disappeared to now.

"They went looking for the water gate." Dustin answered.

The couple looked to each other with furrowed eyebrows. "What the hell's a water gate?"

Max and Lucas seemed to have saw something, looking behind them.

"I think it's a gate...underwater?" Valerie thought.

"Exactly!" The henderson-boy pointed to her, excited that finally someone understood.

"We'll that's stupid." Mike murmured.

"Guys..."

"It is kinda stupid, Dust." She agreed.

"Get down!" Max exclaimed pulling Val down with her.

She looked around confusedly but quickly realized that the cops were approaching near by them.

"Shit."

...