Her Dark Heart

2. fuck you, I'm Good, without you, I'm Good

Athena sat in a brightly lit room with white walls and a large one-way mirror in front of her. She had been sat there for 20 minutes after a touchy cop shoved her into the seat with a little too much force.

He left with a satisfied smirk and she felt the bile rise in her throat as she stared at her own reflection, knowing damn well he was staring back from the other side.

She remained calm. She had been in this situation before, interrogated and accused before her file was slammed shut with a resounding cloud of dust and she was carted off to the nearest foster shit-hole.

Only, this time felt different. They had chained her handcuffs to the table, the kind they did to dangerous criminals in movies, and she could tell there where more than one pair of eyes behind the glass.

What had them so interested? She wondered as she absentmindedly picked at her nails, Maybe they'll let her out for helping catch the big bad boss.

Finally, an older cop strolled in with an exhausted expression, many sleepless nights darkening her already dark skin.

The woman walked with authority and looked much more official than anyone she had ever dealt with before.

Athena had been sat back, her feet on the table moving to a random beat in her head, while her hands remained flat on the table.

The woman barely seemed to glance her way as slumped down in the chair and it creaked under her weight. "I'm Captain Lee Edwards. You can call me Lee,"

Lee threw Athena's phone-book thick file onto the table with a grimace. "Multiple accounts of theft, violence, drug trafficking, evading arrest and not to mention your gang record that put you in juvie; the sureños, el Matón and the Latin Kings. Athena Gray; you're hide to find."

Athena shrugged, staring back at the Lee challenging stare, "It's a talent, my father taught me the act of disappearing at a young age."

Lee shakes her head, "And you're fast little shit too. One of my best officers chased you all the way down from Queens to Williamsburg. Did you do track in school?"

Athena could tell the woman was trying hard to make light conversation before delivering her sentence, like boxers dancing around each other before jabbing the other in the jaw, but she really wished she would just cut to it.

"No," Athena scans the large woman's body, "Did you?"

Lee raises an eyebrow at that, "You talk to your momma like that?"

"She ain't here to tell me not to."

They stared at each other for a long moment, Athena's eyes boring into the woman's, each waiting for the other to back down.

With a dramatic sigh, Athena leaned let her legs fall to the ground as she leaned forward, "How about we cut the bullshit? I helped you catch the boss, you let me go."

She gestures to the chains, wiggling her wrists in the cuffs to emphasize the sound of the off-set melody filling the silent room.

Lee folded her arms across her chest, "You're in no position to be negotiating, Miss Gray. You're on the other side of that table, so I suggest you start talking before I throw your ass into lockup."

Athena wanted to cross her arms in defiance, but her chains pulled together and dug into her wrists.

She took a long dramatic breath, waiting to the last second before replying, "No."

"No?" Lee parroted, "You want to go to lockup?"

Athena sighed heavily, like she was having trouble explaining why the sky was blue to a toddler, "No, obviously not. But the fuck am I supposed to do? If I talk and you let me go, I'm dead. If I don't, I'm as good as dead if I go back to Juvie; I don't win either way." Her eyes seemed far away, a place where the ugly white walls fell away and she could breathe again.