MISSING LINK》t. briggs & v. stirling

Chapter 《03》

Felicity left the classroom.

She needed to get out. She needed air. 

The last thing she heard as she rushed out of the room was her mom telling her dad to let her go, that they could get her statement from the police.

In other words, they didn't need her.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

Without even thinking about where she was going, Felicity's feet carried her to one of the empty classrooms in the chemistry department, the dark room lined with odds and ends from different labs. It was about as close to a safe space as she could get, surrounded by things she knew, things that made sense.

Felicity crumpled onto the floor of the dark room, her head in her hands, angry tears falling from her eyes. Why did she ever think sending that stupid email was a good idea? Gods, what did she think? That they would just show up and everything would be fine? That it would all go back to normal? How stupid was she? Even if her parents did still care about her, Scarlett was still dead. Nothing was ever going to change that. There was no going back. Her old life was gone.

She thought back of the way her parents had been standing in that small room, of the distance between them, of the way the girl they'd called Lia had addressed her parents as 'Briggs' and 'Sterling'.

Gods, she was stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Why did she always mess everything up? It was her fault, all of it.

Her mind went back to that night in the lab—the way it always did. She never could seem to escape it. She thought of the way her aunt had looked up, of the way she'd been distracted—only for a moment—screaming for Felicity to run, of how that moment was all the monster who'd killed her had needed.

There was no denying it.

Scarlett Hawkins's death was Felicity's fault.

Her fault, her fault, her fault.

Felicity rocked back and forth from her spot on the ground, her hands going over her ears. Wasn't it bad enough that she'd killed her aunt? Did she have to live with the fact that she was the reason they'd never been able to catch him too? No wonder her parents wanted nothing to do with her. Maybe if she'd been able to identify Nightshade she'd feel less guilty about being the reason her aunt was dead. But she couldn't. Her aunt was dead and Felicity couldn't identify the man who'd killed her.

She was worthless. Worthless.

Felicity wasn't sure how long she sat there before she realized her phone was ringing. Head still fuzzy, she dug through her backpack until she found the source of the ringing. She pulled out the small burner phone and cringed, noticing the several missed calls.

That wasn't good.

Letting her head fall back up against the wall, she answered. "Hello?"

"Abigail," her court marshal's voice came, harsh and accusing. "We've talked about this. You need to pick up when I call. "

Felicity rubbed her eyes, an ache filling her chest. "I was in class." she lied, "I forgot to turn my ringer back on."

He let out an unamused grunt. "The FBI just opened an investigation at your school." He said, straight to business. "We have reason to believe that if you stay there any longer, your cover could be compromised-"

Felicity fought the urge to snort. Her cover could be compromised—yeah, funny story about that.

"-Don't panic." He continued, "You're not in any immediate danger, but if your cover is blown you will be."