Falling For The Bad Guy.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Derek's Point Of View:
Waking up from my sleep, I look over and see Rebecca next to me. She looks like an angel, and she's perfect as she pouts her lips. Her eyes are fluttering, and it looks like she's having a nightmare.
Rebecca's Point Of View
"What do you mean he's gone?!" I cry. "He didn't make it through surgery. His heart failed him." Derek, he's dead.
I wake up with tears in my eyes and my heart beating out of my chest. "Derek!" I scream, seeing him awake. I nearly jump on top of him as I throw my arms around him, hugging him. He runs his fingers through my hair, slowly and calmly. "What was the dream about?" He asks. "You. It's that you died, that you didn't make it through the surgery." I begin to cry harder. I don't know why I'm so emotional from a fake dream, but the feeling of losing him felt so real. "I'm okay. It's okay." He says, embracing my emotions. "I love you." I say. "I love you." He responds. Wiping my tears away, I get up from the bed. "Open one of your presents." I say. "Okay, but you're not getting yours until Christmas." "No problem." He gets up, and I hand him the plane tickets. Opening up the envelope, he sees two tickets to Connecticut. "We're going just the two of us? For Christmas?" He says, with excitement spread on his face. "Yes! Just me and you." I say, getting on top of him. "That sounds perfect." "It will be. We could get a tree and we could decorate and drink hot cocoa!" "Isn't that a little corny?" He asks. "Christmas movies and hot cocoa is not corny! How dare you say something like that!" I say, offended. "We could watch as many Christmas movies as you want and drink hot cocoa until we're sick, as long as I'm with you I'm good." Chief ruins the moment with his phone call, "Rebecca, there's something going on." "What?" I ask. "Come to the station. You'll see what I mean when you arrive." I kiss Derek goodbye, and drive up to the station. Holy Shit.
There's a line of people protesting in white masks. Masks- a thing of the cult, something I found out when kidnapped. There's posters of Daniel's face with the words "INNOCENT" Written on top. The image of people supporting him, and not seeing this clearly, terrifies me. But the worst part of all, on the top of the station, lies Carlee's body, pinned to the area below the roof. So she wasn't dead, he was holding her captive all along. How did I not know this? How did my dad not know this? Chief comes out and screams, "Don't!" "What are you talking about?" I ask. I look up and see someone jump from the roof. Someone just killed themselves off of our station's roof. They're protesting in Daniel, a murderer's favor. These people have been manipulated further than anyone suspects. The people here are the cult members. We rush over to the dead girl lying on the floor and they take her out in an ambulance. "Chief, lets go inside." "We need to arrest them." "We can't Rebecca, they have the right to protest." "They're protesting a guilty serial killer! How the fuck is that a right?" I nearly yell. "Unfortunately, it is." "Can we make any arrests at all? I know they're part of the cult." "We can't make random arrests without a warrant. We have no control over this. They're not on our property, there outside. The one person who was trespassing, is now dead. There's nothing we can do about this." "This is going to affect our careers. The news reporters will be here any minute. I've never cared about image, but I'm a good detective. I finally get Daniel arrested, and now we have to worry about this. We've worked so hard." I say. When we step back outside, the protesters are everywhere. "Let Daniel go! Let Daniel go!" They're shouting. Chief looks fed up and screams, "Okay, everyone, listen up! This isn't how it's going to work. We're shutting down the station, you'll be protesting to nothing!" His words don't work, but his actions do when he shuts all the lights off, locks up everything, and leaves in his car. There's body guards controlling everyone, stopping them from walking up the stairs to the station. I get in my car, and rush to the private office, following Chief. He makes a phone call and orders everyone to get to the private office, but to take separate routes. Once we all arrive he says, "We're shutting down. Daniel's trial is January 2nd, There are people killing themselves and protesting right in front of the people who brought this place to justice." Pete and I object at his statement. "With all due respect, you can't just take a break from the chaos. If you take a break, they'll think they won." I say. "This isn't us taking a break. We're closing down the station, but we will each pursue our leads on this case independently. There's a new leader in town, I know it, but I just don't know who it is." Chief responds. "That's even more of a reason to not give up right now! We'll have more deaths in this next week than any other time." Pete suggests. "He's right Chief." I say. "I just said we're not giving up! Involve the case into your personal lives, but don't spread any information to anyone besides the other close fitted people investigating this." I see his point. We all nod at him, and he says, "It's December 21st. We'll meet back at the station on December 27th to organize everything for the trial, and investigate further. With the holidays coming up, we all need a mental vacation. We'll keep the bodyguards at the station and they will change there shifts every few hours. Deal?" We all agree and come to terms with how this has to go. I make an announcement before leaving, "We have to keep everything low key. I won't be in town until December 26th. I hope everyone has a very good holiday."

We would all go on to have a great holiday. But every moment leading up to Daniel's trial, and every moment during and after, would hurt us all. Anticipation, Pain, Threats, and more Destruction was yet to come.