The Psycho Is Innocent | ꪜ

Chapter 16: Thoughtless

Present

          "THEY THREATENED MY sister. My sister Larson, how can I protect her—a human being—when I can't protect myself! Scratch that, I don't–I don't care about myself. I care about her and whoever this is, wants to hurt her. My sister, Adele!" Larson tugged her into his arms and hugged her to his chest tightly. "Ariel, you can't protect your sister all by yourself, you have to report this to the authorities."

          Ariel's hands fell limply at her side as she pulled away from his arms, her bloodshot red eyes glaring daggers through his head, "and tell them what exactly? Someone is threatening me? You of all people should know they don't take these threats seriously. They'll brush it off as a prank because they have actual detective work to do. The only time they'll look my way is if I get hurt. I just–I just want Tob–"

          "Not everything is about Tobias, Ariel," Larson interjected, his hands completely slipping away from her as his face hardened, "you're in the middle of a crisis right now. You just found a pig's heart on your doorstep and someone is threatening to kill your sister and all you can think about is Tobias? He's sitting in prison right now, safe from whoever this psycho bastard is whilst you're out in the open vulnerable to any attack, any day. This person knows your address! All this bullshit! The blackmails, the murders, the lying, the deception! It all started when he came into the picture!"

          "Tobias is sitting ducks in jail right now and you have the balls to say he's safe and all of this is basically his fault? Larson–just–I get it okay!? You've made yourself perfectly clear that you hate Tobias! But if this did start with him then what makes you think it won't end with him too!? You say one thing to me and in reality, it looks like you mean something else. If you truly don't want to help me with this just say it, don't lie to my face and make me believe you care."

          Ariel shoved him out of the way and began to strut towards the foyer. However, before her feet could carry her forward, Larson wrapped his hand around her arm and tugged her back so that she was facing him. He laid his palm against her cheek and brushed away a tear that trickled down her puffy red face. "Ariel, I care, okay? Can't you see that's why I'm saying all of this? It's because I care, a lot. I want you safe just as much as Parker and Evelyn, but to keep you safe I need to be in a place where I can always see you, p–protect you. So I'm not going anywhere.

          I'm just trying to tell you to care for yourself as much as others do. You're focusing so much on Tobias you're forgetting to focus on yourself, your health, mental state and safety. So if you won't care for it then I will. From today, I will. I promise I won't let anyone hurt you or Adele okay?" She nodded her head vigorously and forced a smile on her lips, finally free of all the fight she had within her tonight. "Larson," her eyes fell to the ground, "do you wanna stay tonight?" He blurted out.

          Ariel's eyes met his. Going home tonight wouldn't change the outcome of this situation. At the end of the day, whoever was threatening her had no intentions of acting on their words yet or else they would have already hurt Adele. Ariel knew this was a game of cat and mouse, she had a gut feeling that her sister would be hurt the moment she grew closer to freeing Tobias. For now, Adele was safe and that thought alone was enough to calm her nerves.

          "You can stay the night if you want. I just promised to protect you didn't I? So let's start from here. My parents are on a business trip in Canada for the entire week and my sister is staying over at my aunt's house. I mean–I was supposed to go as well because my parents didn't want us alone for the week but I'm 17, I can take care of myself. So stay, call your mom and tell her you're staying over. I'm sure if my mom were here she'd agree in 0.5 seconds." Ariel chuckled under her breath as her eyes roamed around the living room, "I missed her, I miss your parents, Kendra. . .you."