The Lonely Hearts Club

Chapter 69: Interrogation (Bree)

I don't know what just happened.

My mind feels all muddled, it's like I'm trying to piece together a puzzle, but every time I get close to finishing, more random pieces are added out of nowhere. Pieces that don't make any sense.

What the fuck just happened?

Lana's hands are cool on my arms as she steers me into a dimly lit room with steel walls.

There's a chair in the middle of the room, bolted to the ground.Is she going to make me sit on that?

Lana closes the door behind me and locks it, I glance warily at her, not knowing what to do.

"Oh Bree," she finally says, finally looking at me once we're safely in this room.

Fear tightens itself like ropes around my body, a feeling I haven't felt to this extent in a very long time.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that." She says, pulling me into a sweet-smelling embrace.

I cautiously hug her back, my mouth still too dry to try and talk to her.

"What are you thinking right now?" She asks. Well, at least she didn't try to ask some nonsensical question like asking whether or not I was okay.

"I don't know what's going on," my voice cracks. "I don't...I don't know what that was."

Lana's green eyes look me over thoughtfully as if she's contemplating something.

"Do you want to know what that was?" She asks.

After a few moments, I finally nod. I guess I do, I don't really have a choice. I need to know what that was.

"Alright, let's sit down." She says, sitting on the cold floor.

Somehow, her vampire makeup is still perfect. I find myself wishing I was back in the moment before the party when we were getting ready together.

I don't want to be anywhere near here.As I sit down, she takes my hands in hers.

"Malice is more than a bar," she says carefully. "It's a lot more than a bar."

"And Hades is more than a security guard?" I ask, already knowing the answer. I mean, obviously.

"Yes," Lana nods. "We're an organization that specializes in attempting to bring justice to individuals who have been failed by authorities."

So they're essentially vigilantes?

"Is everyone a part of it?" I ask.

"Yes, everyone," she says. "Even Coco." She adds as an afterthought.

Wow.

"Now Bree, that man in the other room, what Hades was doing to him, I understand it was very confronting to see, but trust me, Bree, when I say he deserved it, he deserved it."

She squeezes my hands.

"The names Hades was carving into him, were all the names of the women he raped, the women he abused, the women he did unspeakable things to, he deserved it, and if we didn't do anything, he would have kept getting away with hurting others."

My chest tightens and I pick at my nails. I know firsthand that the Winterville Police Department does absolutely nothing when you try to come forward about situations.

I know how devastating and heartbreaking and invalidating it is when you finally speak up about something that happens to you and no one believes you or no one takes you seriously.

If that's why Hades was hurting that man, then I'm not mad. But why didn't he tell me anything himself?

I don't understand. Did he feel like he couldn't trust me? Does he not want to let me in because any day now, he's going to cast me aside?