If Only She Knew

42. The Last Crime

Two months ago, Cluj-Napoca
Inside Bernard Johnson's villa...

"I love you, Ariana," Simon whispered softly, but she heard him.

He was a psychopath but she loved him more than herself.

They were both deluded psychopaths, but they had a special bond. He had controlled her, but it was all consensual in order for her to be able to live her double life. Or at least that's what she liked telling herself.

At day she had been a detective, investigating the inexistent trail of a few killers, one of which was herself, and at night she was actively taking revenge for her mother's death.

Now all that was left from their hitlist was to kill Bernard Johnson. Her father.

After that, they could both go to hell.

Simon walked away as he gestured for her to follow. She'd follow anyway. She always did.

Are you ready to be an orphan, Ariana? A voice from deep within said. That voice was new inside Ariana's head. Are you ready to finally get justice for your mother? Are you ready to kill your father?

"By the way, your father is mine to kill." She heard Simon say.

Ariana's conscience was mixed, for the first time, as she walked, slowly, driven foreward by a curosity rather than a conviction. She had had two lives, two personalities, two lovers. Who was she?

Today would be the last day she was free anyway. She wanted to pay for what she did. She had to let Simon, whom she adored, go.

She had to let Joseph go, as well.

And then, a text message from Joseph appeared on her phone screen and she got transported back to reality.

"Are you alright baby? We're all out here waiting for you. Please be alright, Ariana."

She willed herself to feel nothing at the text. She had never loved Joseph and she should've known it wasn't love even in her detective life.

So what she did next was shut her phone. She took out the sim card and snatched it in two. She simply threw it on the floor.

She wouldn't go back to her detective life ever again now. Everything was over.

Something deep inside her chest hurt, though. She followed Simon like the kids followed the pied piper.

"You have to leave here soon or they'll come get you. And we're surrounded by cops," Ariana shouted after Simon as he opened a door that led to the basement.

"That's exactly what we're doing", Simon said as he climbed down and walked quickly. Ariana ran after him. "Your father has a secret escape route that takes us directly to the haunted forest nearby."

"Ok," Ariana murmured.

"I've prepared a car there. I'll grab Bernard and your grandma and we'll go to your father's secret laboratory in the northern Carpathians. They won't follow us there..." Simon fumbled with the keys as he unlocked a heavy, thick steel door and stopped just before opening it and turned to Ariana, gravely.

"They won't follow us if you go and give yourself in."

Ariana looked down at the floor, suddenly sad.

"On second thought, you could text a message to the dear Joseph and tell him that you're alright and you're negotiating with me or something along these lines-"

"Oops, I just destroyed my sim card three minutes ago," Ariana told him blandly and he got angry.

"What? For real Ariana, how could you be so stupid?"