Metanoia

Chapter 12

We hushed towards the door, all sweaty and freaked out. The door was open, so we walked as quickly as possible to the living room where two police officers and my parents were. The police officers looked really strict. One of them was tall, had brown hair and green eyes, and the other one was smaller but heavier, with blond hair and hazel eyes.  Since Zoë wasn't there, I first had some bad thoughts running in my mind. What if something had happened to her too? I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.

-Where is Zoë? I shouted with my eyeballs almost coming out of my head, giving me the look of someone who had just escaped an asylum.

The police officers turned around, and my parents lifted their heads up to look at me. Mum and dad rushed to me and hugged me so tight I thought my soul was getting squeezed out of my body. I was so confused... Before I could ask anything else, dad said to me, sobbing:

-They found him...they caught him, Liz, this crazy psychopath who took Acacia away from us...they found him and he's going to pay for everything he has done to this family.

A tear shed from the corner of my eye and slowly rolled on my pink cheeks. When my parents let go of me, it was my friends' turn to come and hug me tight, all whispering things that I did not understand but that I didn't really pay attention to anyways. I was too busy thinking about how all of this was such a relief. I couldn't believe it. I could finally serenely sleep , without worrying about anything, knowing that the horrendous creature who took away my sister's life was finally caught. Justice was done. My friends finally let go of me and hugged my parents, all of this under the proud gazes of the police officers.

-Please sit down. We have some explanation to do. Firmly said the blond officer.

We all sat down on the couch, ready to hear everything. I've never been that ready for anything in my whole life. I was so glad. Luke was sitting between Kai and Elena on one couch, and I was sitting between my parents on the other couch. We were all looking at the police officers like they were going to give us the answers to all our questions ever. Which was a little bit the case, in reality.

- Acacia Johnson's family only please. said the same officer, a little bit embarrassed, I could feel it.

My friends got a bit disappointed but they completely understood so they left the room, with a smile on their faces. They were happy for us, which made me even happier. Now it was just me, my parents and the officers in the room. My mum leaned in and whispered to me:

-Zoë is in her room. We asked her to stay there because we wanted to wait for you and we were scared there was something that would shock or scare her in what the officers are going to say.

I just nodded and smiled at her for a response. The tall officer finally decided to talk and tell us everything:

-As you all know now, we finally caught the killer, after 3 years of hard and harsh labor. Actually, she's a serial killer. We caught her thanks to other really similar cases.

-Wait, you said "she"? It's a girl? my father said in shock, cutting off the officer.

-Yes sir. Her name is Ethel Jazzlin Allende. She has already killed about twenty-eight people, more precisely twins, like in Acacia's case. Ethel suffers from a rare form of an obsessive-compulsive disorder, where she cannot stand the fact that some people just look alike. According to her, every single person should be unique. That's why she kills twins, because they look alike so much. She says that only one of them has the right to live, and that no one deserves to live with a perfect replica of themselves. She, herself, had a twin sister that she killed. Her twin sister was making her life a living hell, and was making her feel worthless and inferior, and we think this is what led her to think the way she thinks today. Right now, we are keeping her in a psychic hospital, until the trial. The trial will take place in three weeks.