Beware The Water

Tell Me More

Lux had been hospitalized for a week before being emitted back to her parents. In that time police were in and out the the room to further their "abduction" investigation but left with no new information. Lux's parents became angry with the detectives knowing that their daughter didn't remember anything and just wanted to go home. She cried to them and said she couldn't remember what happened no matter how hard she tried. They believed Lux and told the cops to leave her and their family alone.

"I brought this for you." Yuji held out a picture frame that had a graduation diploma displayed on the inside. "Since you're gonna miss graduation."

Lux reached out and stared at the piece of paper that she had worked so hard for. She must have resided her valedictorian speech at least a hundred times in the mirror only for it all to mean nothing in the end, just like her perfect attendance record that had gone down the drain. Lux tossed the award to the corner of the room like it was a piece of dirty laundry and went back to cleaning out her backpack that shared no purpose to her now that the school year was practically over. Yuji looked over at the diploma with a sad frown.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, not knowing what else he could say.

"How am I supposed to be feeling? My arms broken. My body hurts. I'm not going to be able to walk the stage to receive my diploma. Do you even know how embarrassing it'll be to go out there looking like this?" Lux stopped herself before she would begin screaming. All of her hard work was wasted and the girl she competed against her entire school career was going to be the one speaking for the graduating class on her behalf. "I just want to hide and be left alone."

While the two teens talked, downstairs Lux's mother was arguing with Voight to leave their house. She and her husband had made it clear to the police that Lux didn't have anything else to say, so prying her was pointless. "Lux has been through a lot." Her mother said, "If she can't remember then what's the point of asking the same question every day?" Voight sighed and gave Lux's mom a look that she knew all too well. "You think she's lying?"

"It's a gut feeling."

"Why would she? Lux is a good girl. We raised her to tell the truth."

"Have you noticed any changes in her behavior at all?"

Lux's mother thought back to the talks she's had with her daughter about staying out late, the attitude, the new revealing clothes. She mainly wanted to forget when cleaning out Lux's room she had found condoms and birth control but that was something in Lux's life that she couldn't stop. "She's seventeen. Going on eighteen in a few weeks. What girl that age doesn't act rebellious?"

Voight could tell that the woman was in denial about the possibility of her daughter not being as well behaved as she had hoped for. She'd rather have that perfect image of Lux in her head than taint it with the truth. "Has Lux ever mentioned a boyfriend?"

"No." She answered quickly with a straight face. "Lux doesn't have time for a boyfriend."

"Do you know any of her friends? Any that give you a bad vibe?"

"Lux has only ever been friends with Oz. And she's friends now with that boy upstairs. They seem like good kids." As she went through the mental list of people that Lux had mentioned, there was one name that stood out to her. "Oh. There's Sing. Sing Soo Ling. You've had encounters with his older brother in the past. Lux would tutor Sing before he got kicked out of school. You think he has something to do with this?"

Voight recalled the conversation outside the hospital with Shorter. He knew the mafia boss was behind this, he just needed the evidence to move further. "Couldn't say. Has Lux ever ran away before?"