Lightspeed: Drug Detectives

Chapter 20 (Act II): My Deepest Secrets

What's happening, everyone? My name is Ariel Axilas, and welcome back to yet another chapter of my second novel, "Lightspeed: Drug Detectives"! I'm still stuck on a ten-story balcony back at the drug junkies' apartment complex, but in the last chapter, I gave you a peek at what's been happening back at Celeste's Clairvoyance Shop during my recovery. If I remember correctly, we had all finished dinner at that point and I had already left.....and Celeste, Erica, Marle, and Herman were all sitting in a rough circle in one of the waiting areas, chatting the evening away.

Celeste told the others about her life—particularly her husband, though she refuses to name him—which ends up neatly segueing into Erica's habit of being a bad driver when Celeste briefly offers her husband's services as a tutor, which Erica declines. The topic then transitions slightly when Celeste starts staring at Marle once again—obviously interested in her appearance—to which Marle shifts into talking about her upbringing and how her past hasn't exactly been the happiest.....as both Herman and I can attest to after our respective stints working under her. She tries to affirm that she's glad that 85% of the entire world's police forces are dead, choosing to uplift the world's superheroes in their stead while constantly belittling the cops.

This, of course, unnerves Celeste. And why wouldn't it? More often than not, Marle would end up hearing people calling her crazy after these remarks. And yet.....Celeste seems to treat it with quite a bit of patience. Herman also chimes in by stating that even though Marle's organization, the Mastermind Conspiracy, has adjusted its practices from what they used to do, they're still remarkably ruthless in their methods, which Marle confirms. Erica then alerts Marle that she's agreed to do a palm reading with Celeste that night, to which Marle looks about ready to blow up at her for the reminder. Wish I could've been there in person to see that; she must've been so pissed off.

At this, though, Herman calls for an end to the discussion, saying that he and Erica will start sleeping while Marle goes for her palm reading with Celeste. Beforehand, Marle admits to Celeste that she wasn't completely truthful during the group's discussion, which intrigued Celeste—and even intrigued me even though I'm still on a damn apartment balcony—but nonetheless, she ends up bringing Marle to a special second-floor room for the reading, going up the pair of stairwells at the back of the hub room that I still don't know the destination of.

But I guess you're about to find out.

This time—while I'm still stuck on the ten-story balcony waiting for my leg to stop hurting the hell out of me—you're going to watch as Celeste does a palm reading on Marle. You and I are going to learn so many new things, just you wait.....

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The fortune teller shop's owner, Celeste, reaches the top of the two stairwells nestled at the back of the central hub room on the first floor. Now, she and her client—Marle Atkins of the Mastermind Conspiracy—are now at the front of a long and mesmerizing corridor with white baseboards, a dull gold ceiling with ornate designs laced with purple lining, sprawling and eye-catching galaxy-pattern wallpaper, and a few sconces that glow with blue light.

The corridor itself is wide; Celeste and Marle could both stand shoulder-to-shoulder and they still wouldn't be able to come close to covering the full length of the hall. Along both sides are doors leading into what appear to be reading rooms.....but Marle doesn't bother to look into any of them out of curiosity, for fear of how Celeste might possibly react. She also recalls how excessively Celeste was staring at her during both dinner and the evening chat.....but her patience was long, and she figured that Celeste might've simply been a bit shaken from her recent experiences.