Revenge Is Best Served..

Take it to the Grave

"Manda, come on, you have to let me in, it's cold out here." My knuckles were starting to hurt from knocking.

"I don't care, I didn't ask you to come."

"Look, I don't know what's up with you but we really need to talk, about Sam and Hale but if you rather I..."

The door opened and I was dragged in before I could finish the sentence.

"Thank you?" I said shrugging off my coat. "What's going on?" I asked when I saw the state of her apartment.

"I'm packing, isn't it obvious?!" She spat.

"Umm, okay but why? Is this why you haven't been to work since last week?"

She stopped and looked me dead in the eyes, her cold stare had me in a trance.

"Always with the fucking questions Viv. Why, what, where, how when? Do you always have to know every fucking detail of our lives? Let me answer that. No!"

"I only ask because I care about you, you know that." I couldn't recognize the person I was looking at. This was not the same person I knew from a few weeks ago.
I walked over to where she was throwing some books into a small box and touched her hand to get her attention but she shrugged away.

"Don't touch me. I'm sick of you and your motherly angelic ways. Let me ask you a question. Why are you here?"

"That's a dumb question. I've been calling and coming by for days and you've been ignoring me. Then I get a call from Mr. Shaw about you..."

"I see," she said cutting me off again. "So he couldn't get me to say anything so he sent you right?" She laughed menacingly. "So what, you're recording our conversation for evidence?"

"What are you talking about?"

She stalked towards me with the look of a predictor. This was not our Amanda.

"Don't be coy Viv, show me your phone, now!"

"Okay, okay." My fingers fumbled as I took the phone from my pants pocket and gave it to her. "See, it's not even turned on. It died on my way over here."

"It doesn't matter, either way, wiretapping, recording, whatever it is, it's useless." She threw my phone on the ground and stepped on it.

"Are you out of your damn mind?!" I screamed at her.

"It seems I am," was her simple answer as she returned to packing the books.

I took my jacket and started for the door. I wasn't up for facing her as she was at the moment. I'd come back in the morning.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"Home. I won't waste your time any longer."

"Oh come on, you came all the way out here and now you're leaving? When was it that you started giving up so easily Viv?"

She was jeering me and enjoying it. Has she really lost it? "Who said I've given up. You need to cool off," I said facing her, "so I'll come back tomorrow."

"I won't be here tomorrow. So you might as well say your goodbyes now."

Walking back towards her my foot hit a pile of boxes and the contents of the top one fell out.
Slowly I stooped to get a better look at what I saw. They were pictures of Sam and the guy that died.
Dropping my jacket I scooped them up with both hands and stood up to find Manda looking at me.

"What is this? Why do you have these?" My throat was dry. Did Sam really kill him? Or was it Manda?

"See, now I'll have to tell you the whole story." She walked passed me to the door.
I hadn't realized earlier but there was a lock that needed a key to open. Why was...?
My thought stopped as I heard the jingling of her keys.
"Now then," she said putting the keys in her pocket, "where do I start?"