In Time | The Flash

Chapter Ten | Trillium

"Tragedy is the greatest art form of all. It gives us the courage to continue with our life by exposing us to the pain of life. It is unsentimental, it takes us seriously as human beings, it is not condescending. Paradoxically, by seeing pain we are made greater, it becomes a need."

- Howard Barker

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Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope it's a blessed one for all!

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CHAPTER TEN

>>> Trillium's P.O.V. <<<

Julian drives like a mad-man to get to the school in record time. We're stopped at the entrance by a police officer, his hand put up in front of us to stop our advance. Julian rolls down the window to tell him we're here because of Aspen. I look out my window for my sister, spotting her brown braided hair a hundred feet away from us. I see her leaning into Barry, who's chin is resting on her head. If it weren't such a tragic day, I might've teased her about it.

Without permission, I get out of the car and run through the crowd of officers, jump over the line of crime scene tape, and up to my sister. She sees me coming before I reach her and leaves Barry's arms for mine. Her eyes are red from crying. I hold her tightly, looking over her shoulder at a very concerned Barry.

After a minute, Julian joins us, standing by my side. "We're going to find her," I tell Aspen in a whisper as she pulls back. "Where do we start?"

"Julian and I have the ear of the CCPD," Barry mentions. "Anything they know, we'll know."

"You should have Cisco scan the web for anything," I suggest.

Barry nods and fishes his cell from his pocket, dialing Cisco and telling him what's happened and what he can do to help.

I turn to Julian, saying, "Maybe you could start talking to the police? You might be able to get something out of them."

Julian nods, gives my hand a squeeze, then walks off towards one of the officers.

After the boys are out of range, I turn back to my older sister, asking, "I know this is a stupid question, but are you okay? Your powers?"

Aspen nods hesitantly, wiping the tears from her brown eyes. "I'm overly emotional, you know that."

I chuckle once, looking at her with a sad smile. "I swear to god I won't rest until we find Persephone. I will make sure whoever did this will never do it again." Aspen nods, silently agreeing with me. "You don't think it could've been..."

Aspen's eyes grow wide. "Oh, goddess, I don't think so. My mother is cruel and selfish, but she had no need to take Seph. She already got what she wanted: the Boulevard Building. I already told the police about her, anyways. I think they sent someone to question her, just in case Seph went there for some reason."

I sigh, taking a moment to tie my dark hair into a high ponytail. "This week has officially sucked."

Barry returns from calling Cisco, saying, "All right, Cisco and Cait are on it. Stein and Ronnie are helping where they can. Joe's on his way. Maybe he can strong-arm some of the information out of the officers."

I hear Julian speak behind me, "Already on it, Allen." He sighs, running a hand through his blond hair. "I have good news and bad news."

"What's the good news?" Aspen asks, hope in her eyes.

Julian's gaze shifts away from the mother of the missing child. "The detective on the scene has seen this person before. They know of the person who took your daughter. No name yet, or gender, but they know it's the same person."

"How do they know it's the same person?" Barry inquires.

Julian sighs, "That's the bad news. Whoever they are, they've taken two children in the past forty-eight hours. Each child that was taken was from your daughters school."

"Two?" Barry nearly shouts. "What kind of ps--" Barry cuts himself off, taking a stabilizing breath. "That's it. I'll be right back." And he's gone, in a flash of yellow lightning and a gust of wind.

I groan, rolling my eyes. "I hate it when he does that." I turn back to Julian, taking my sister's hand in my own. "Do they have any suspects? Could they be a Metahuman?"

Julian shakes his head. "I have a list of the children," he replies, handing a piece of paper to Aspen. "Do you recognize these names?"

Aspen takes a moment to carefully read off the paper. "Abigail Gomez, she's in Persephone's gym class. Teddy Marshall, he's the English teacher's son, but I think he's in Seph's gym class, too."

"So we should be looking into a gym teacher?" I ask, perplexed. "Wow, evil gym teacher it is. This day just keeps getting better and better."

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Joe West pulling the crime scene tape over his head. He spots us and walks over, flashing his badge to the officers on scene. "Hey, I got here as quick as I could." He gives a soft look to Aspen. "Are you okay, Aspen? I can get a car to send you home."

Aspen shakes her head, giving the detective a thankful look. "I appreciate it, Detective West, but I'm not leaving until my daughter is found."

After Joe nods, Julian fills him in with everything we know. "Has the kidnapper called for a ransom?" Joe asks, after he finishes.

I shake my head. "Not yet. Is that good?"

Joe tilts his head to the side, as if saying that it might be. "Usually if the child is kept for ransom, there's a good chance that this person we're dealing with has no interest in hurting the child or you. It's usually just about the money. Without a ransom call, however...it makes it harder to determine why Persephone was taken." He pauses. "So, we have a suspect? The gym teacher?"

I nod. "Barry ran off before we figured that out from the list of names of the kids who were taken. We haven't told the police yet."

Joe nods, placing his hands on his hips, deep in thought. "All right. Here's what we do. I'll partner with the detective on the scene and take over the operation. Captain Singh owes me a favor. Tril, call Cisco and get him to get Barry back here. Julian, make some calls to the station and get everything you can on this gym teacher. I wanna know every place they've worked, every place they've lived, their record, even where they buy their groceries." Joe turns to my sister and I. "You two, stay here with me. When Barry get's back, I'll get a team and we'll head to this person's house."

Aspen smiles softly, mumbling, "Thank you, Joe."

Joe barely returns the smile. "Just doing my job. And whatever you do, don't let Barry run all over this gym teacher before we get there. We have to do this the right way, or he might get away."

END CHAPTER TEN