Final Truth

Chapter 37: Word Got Around

Henley's point of view:

"Play the footage again," I tell one of my guards, still not able to really believe what I'm seeing.

The room goes dark and the projector plays the video for at least the third time, the familiar scene of my former headquarters building collapsing in a pile of debris.

One second standing, the next demolished.

"Who sent this again?" I ask, unable to tear my eyes from the screen.

"One of your brother's policemen," the guard responds.

"But no word from Will?" I question him, wondering how impossibly careless he could have been to lose an entire building on his watch.

But only when the guard doesn't respond am I able to tear my eyes away from the screen.

All my guards look the same in such ways that I had begun to think of them as objects of mine, but this guard differentiates himself from the others through his eyes:

There's fear in them.

"Word got around. Will's police suspect that he could've been the cause for the building's collapse...and that he might be dead."

My head falls into my hands at this, but I take special care to not touch the parts of my face that are still trying to heal from when Julia burned me.

"You think my brother is dead?" I repeat, not entirely sure what to feel.

Sadness isn't exactly the right word since I always knew in the back of my mind that his foolishness coupled with that power would come back to bite him. Disappointment fits better, I suppose. Perhaps anger as well.

"It's a possibility," he replies. "If that is the case, Ms. Collins, then I'm truly sorry for your loss and-"

"Your sentiment isn't needed," I cut him off sharply, wanting to just ignore everything and everyone and finish what I started here so I can go home and get back to the way life was a long time ago.

The footage is still going by this point, and my eyes return to the screen when I notice something a bit out of place. The video was taken from some distance away and is over ten minutes long, but for the first time, I see something odd amongst the debris:

Some of the bricks piled on top of each other begin to fall over, as if being disturbed by something underneath.

I move closer to the screen and zoom in, watching intently.

After more disruption of the ruin, I can vaguely make out something that looks to be like a hand shooting out from under the rubble.

A second later, a flash of blonde hair.

And then the video cuts off.

"I know who that is," I growl dangerously under my breath.

"Pardon?" The guard asks in response.

"Never mind. We're running out of time to finish these tests. If any of Julia's friends survived that collapse and if my brother is dead, then there's nothing to stop them from coming after her. Go get Julia and prepare the lab for testing; I want to have all of them finished by as soon as possible," I tell him, composing myself.

He nods and walks out of the room, fear in his demeanor.

I leave the room as well for the lab, but instead of taking the usual path, I round a different corner that takes me right past the room that holds Peter.

I stop in front of the window that allows me to look inside, and I see Peter just standing in the middle of the room looking straight at the door with malicious eagerness as if he were expecting someone.

But as soon as I do stop at the window, his head slowly cranes away from the door in my direction and his eyes seem to land exactly on mine, odd considering the fact that I can see him but he can't see me.

He cracks a wicked grin before focusing his gaze to the chains around his wrists instead, fiddling around with them and only making his injuries worse.

Ever since he became this way, he's seemed almost happy. Peter seems to revel in the fact that almost all the doctors here are scared of him, joyful at the notion that he unnerves even me of all people. It's almost as if he has more power as an insane prisoner than he ever did before, and to think of him ever walking free like this is enough to make my hair stand on end. Plain and simple, he's scary.

I won't be sorry to destroy what's left of him when Julia's tests are over.

Perhaps he'll say hi to Will for me.