"He couldn't be more evil." She says after a long pause. Her gaze is fixed on an object, making her forget everyone that is in the room. Olivia's eyebrows shoot up, Carisi slowly leans over to Nick. "No shit Sherlock." He whisers into his ear, making him chuckle. Dodds gives them a disapproving look, before he turns around to Melinda.
After a whole lot of struggle, Melinda had accepted being there for the interview- more like hearing her story-, but had showed up twenty minutes late. After she flooded them with fake 'sorrys', she had finally settled down on the brown chairs, sitting across everyone. The eyes had made holes into her head and she had been quiet for a while. Her gaze had scanned the room for possible objects to stare at and landed on a lilac vase that was standing right in the centre of the wooden table.
Now, since the detectives are finally gathered in front of the middle aged woman, she has no chance to turn around and never look back. The hands of the woman start sweating and she starts to fumble around with her hands. Realising, that the detectives were staring at her with expectation and pity at the same time, Melinda tries to push back the nausea that treathened to spill and coughs a few times. After fixing her gaze on the lilac vase, she finally speaks.
"The fist day..." She starts, her voice fading. "He took turns raping both of us. He said: 'Normally, I would let one of you choose who to rape, but you deserved it.' He then took us to a hotel. After a while, Amanda returned from the doctor -she had banged her head against the SUV when Sam threw us into it- and he dragged us to another" Melinda stops, to find the right word, her gaze still locked with the vase. There was something special to it. The most beautiful ones were plucked, killed to decorate the plain, orange room. Somewhat similiar to Melinda and Amanda.
"He brought us to a room." Melinda continued. "There was this whip. He cuffed one of us us to the bed and demanded to whip the other one. If the one with the whip didn't obey, he would whip us." Her eyes get glassy, as if she was living in that time she spoke about. "I had to whip Amanda. A person I knew. And she had to whip me. A person she knew. That was the point of it. And if we did what he told us to, we got to see the sunlight. If not, we were raped." She snaps out of her trance, shaking.
Melinda stands up from her chair, backing up against the wall, as if Sam was right in front of her. The detectives knew something was wrong, because they, also, stood up trying to calm her down.
"Melinda-" Olivia starts, but before she can do anything, Melinda had already backed out of the room, getting face to face with George Huang, the short, Asian psychiatrist. Melinda's eyes have trouble focusing on one face, but she can sense the presence of her lawyer, Rita. The tall, brunette woman, who was wearing a tight skirt, looked panicked at the sight of her client.
"I'm not insane!" Melinda shouts, making a few faces turn toward her, the squad room becoming uncomfortable silent. Every head in the squad room is looking at her and if you dropped even a feather, you could have heard it falling onto the hard, marble ground.
The detectives, that had interviewed Melinda before, come one by one out the door, not knowing what to do.
"Melinda, why don't you sit down?" George Huang asks, trying to calm her down. Melinda's eyes continue to flicker around the room, looking at every face staring at her. How many people here have gone trough what I have gone trough? She thinks, as she scans their expressions.
The ice in the squadroom begins to melt, as heads slowly torn back to what they were doing and Melinda takes a deep breath, adjusting what just heppened.
Rita's eyes are like little ping pong balls, treathening to pop out. "No one." She says in a whisper. "No one has gone trough what you've gone trough." She slowly steps forward, her eyes asking for permission. It's like they are approaching a scared, wild, but dangerous animal, Melinda notices. Maybe I am a scared, dangerous animal, that's ready to bite if anything suspicious happens. She's ripped off of her thoughts, ash she feels a warmth, warm hands being wrapped around her.
She feels safe. Melinda isn't with Sam anymore.
YOU ARE READING
25 Acts of Happiness | Law and Order SVU
FanfictionWhen the squad receives a creepy message about Amanda and she hasn't showed up in the squad room that day, the whole squad tries to find her. Where is she? What happened to her? What was the creepy message? Will they come across another big surprise...
