A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

XVII | Final Warning

MINI

Lights. There were so many lights. Burning down on her.

Her thoughts were slow and sluggish, and it took her a few moments to arrive at the conclusion: Wait, I'm supposed to be dying right about now.

Then: AM I dead?

"Wake up, Detective,"

So she wasn't dead. At least, she hoped not.

She took deep breaths— several deep breaths, to steady herself. Her wrists burned against something— they were bound.

Her feet were bound, too.

She opened her eyes— they burned against the light.

"Where am I?" Her vision cleared, and she saw the two brothers staring down at her.

James was standing in the corner, simply watching. Mark, on the other hand, was preparing a syringe with an ominously sharp needle.

She cringed, trying to distance herself from them.

I'm not going to die, I'm not going to die.

"If— if you kill me, I hope you know that you'll be arrested immediately. We might have had circumstantial evidence before, but they'll find my body—"

"Nobody will know you're dead. Nobody will know you died because of us,"

"Really?" she scoffed, her smug words a smoke-and-mirror illusion for the fear she was hiding.

I'm... going to die.

I'm NOT going to die.

These two opposing thoughts warred inside her head.

"The police force doesn't know you came here, right?" His words were weighed down with a fake sympathy that made her angry. Angrier than she already was.

"And as for your partner..." his tone changed, as her stomach lurched.

"What did you do to him?"

"Oh, he's fine. If I don't manage to get to him... well, there's nothing money can't solve,"

"You really think money will shut him up?" she scoffed, but she, too, was wondering.

"Why not? How do you know that it won't?" James scoffed, from his corner, but the edges of his lips twitched downwards.

From the harsh lights glaring down at the three of them, she could see a sheen of sweat break out on his forehead.

I'm going to die. I am going to die.

Rudy won't... he won't take the money, will he? He won't lie about my death? She tried to cling to the hope, but it dimmed more and more.

"Coward," she hissed at James. "Liar."

"You won't die," he said, with a nervous laugh. "Right, bro?" He sounded uncertain, now.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on my mood."

She glared daggers at Mark.

"Believe me, detective, I would've loved to meet you under different circumstances. Like Aru Shah's wedding, for example."

"Don't you dare hurt her," she snarled, anger bubbling to the surface inside her. Her fingers curled in on themselves.

"Bravado is of no use, here," he said, dismissively, his eyes trained on the syringe in his hands.

"What is that?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

He didn't answer. "This is a warning," he said, quietly. "If— if you shut up, and not speak of this— and erase all evidence you have against me: then maybe your partner and your lawyer friend will survive."