MISSING LINK》t. briggs & v. stirling

Chapter 《02》

Felicity thought she was ready to see them again.

It was all she had thought about for months. 

She'd been put into WITSEC for her own safety. That's what everyone had told her. After Nightshade had killed Scarlett, her mom and dad had been terrified that Felicity would be next. She'd seen his face; she'd watched him kill Scarlett. To him, she was a liability, a snag in the perfect plan he'd executed. To this day none of them quite understood why he hadn't killed her that night. All logic and reason said that he should have. She should be dead.

It was a strange thought for Felicity to have come to terms with from such a young age.

She should be dead.

The fact that she wasn't did nothing but leave them all wondering why.

Because even if it hadn't been in his original plan to kill Felicity that night, she'd seen his face. That alone should have been enough to damn her.

At least, it would have been if Felicity could remember anything.

Much to her parent's disappointment, amid the vivid memories of her aunt's dying moments, Felicity's memories of the man known as Nightshade were painfully blank. They had been then, they still were now. No amount of sketch artists or cognitive interviews had been able to bring even the tiniest bit of information about the man out of her mind. She could remember the blood, the screams, the way her aunt's body had contorted and jerked, but she couldn't remember the man.

But he didn't know that.

And that left the rest of them waiting for the other shoe to drop—for him to target her next.

It was for her own safety. She knew that. But, was it bad that she didn't care about that anymore? Was it bad that she'd rather be killed by the monster who haunted her dreams if it meant she could see them one more time, than spend the rest of her life alive, but away from them?

She wasn't sure.

That was probably the kind of thing you talked to a therapist about.

Felicity made a face.

Therapists were overrated.

She sat outside the principal's office where the loudspeaker had summoned her, shortly after her last class had gotten out. As she'd walked down the halls towards the office the whispers bouncing through the halls confirmed what she'd already suspected.

The FBI had arrived.

She was surprised by how fast they'd gotten there. Part of the way WITSEC worked was that no one knew where she was, especially not her parents. She wondered what part of her email had gotten them so intensely interested in the case. Maybe they'd just had a free weekend.

"Abigail?"

Felicity looked up at Principal Woo who had stuck his head out of the office. "They're ready for you."

She nodded a little too eagerly, standing up and smoothing the skirt of her school uniform.

"They just want to ask you some questions about this morning," he said, taking in her behavior as nerves and trying to reassure her, "I'll be here the whole time." He guided her inside his office, shutting the door.

"You're the one who discovered the body?" A voice so familiar it was painful asked without looking up from the file in his hands.

Everything Felicity had planned to say died on her lips at the sight of them. It was as though she'd forgotten how to speak. Five years and there they were. At least, some version of them. Her father stood behind the desk, his posture, his outfit, his tone all so familiar it was jarring. Her mom on the other hand stood slightly behind him, her posture and body language all wrong. Instead of standing next to him, her body language open and comfortable, she was on the opposite side of the room about as far away from her father as she could get, her back to him as she looked out the window, observing the courtyard.