CHAPTER TWELVE // SIARA LYNN DUPONT | PART II
[WORD COUNT: 3223]
[TOTAL: 32633] 

woo 30k words! :)

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The cool lemonade managed to calm my nerves but only slightly. My fingers were shaking and I attempted to hide them in my coat pocket where I tightly grasped my cell phone that was still buzzing. I truly didn’t know if I was going to go through this. I didn’t know how I was going to keep my composure when I was already so fragile, I was afraid that any news that happened to disturb me in the slightest could have me on the floor sobbing like a little child. Keeping up with my facade of being the youngest detective in the city without breaking down was more difficult than I anticipated. The closer we got to the exit the more I wondered why I cared so much about what people thought of me.

I had already been through enough, why should they criticize me for shedding a few tears of something so gruesome and so inhumane? They didn’t have the right–none of them did. They shouldn’t care if I cried in public, as if they expected more coming from me. They didn’t know me. None of them knew me like Jacob, Lisa, or Bona did at all.

“I don’t know if I’m going to hold back my tears, Jacob,” I admitted, my voice shaky as I imagined the worst waiting for us at the station. “It’s already hard enough making it seem like I’m indestructible, but I don’t know if I can hold it any longer.” 

Jacob stared at me with an emotion I couldn’t decipher. He pulled me closer until my face was resting on his chest. I felt his lips press softly on the top of my head, causing tears to sting my vision. “You’re only human, Siara. You can only hold back for so long.” I don’t know how long we spent there, in Jacob’s brothers restaurant, him holding me and whispering comforting words. I honestly had no clue how he did it; how he managed to conceal his emotions with such ease that I was envious. I wished I had that ability, to shut off my emotions but ever since the death of Mason, it has become increasingly tiring to hide what I was feeling in front of everybody. 

I didn’t realize that we were in the car until I felt the deep hum of the car turn on. I snapped out of my daze and pulled out my cell phone from my pocket, my fingers still grasped tightly on the screen up to the point where my knuckles were white. I clicked the home button and managed to pry my sweaty palm off the exterior of the case and noticed immediately how I had a missed call from Bona. I clicked on the missed call and noticed how I had another message. With hesitant fingers I clicked on the message. 

Bona; 22:46; Come to the station now. You need to see this.

I exhaled a shaky breath, feebly sneaking a glance at Jacob, who seemed to not have read his own message from the chief. “Did–Did you read the message Bona sent us?”

Jacob shook his head while licking his lips. “Not yet,” He reached into his pocket once we stopped at a red light and managed to read the message. He shut his phone off and slid it back in his pocket, stepping on the accelerator. The rest of the ride was silent, up until there was less than a mile left to arrive at the station. I dug my nails in my tender palm and winced at the contact, hoping the pain could distract me from the persistent lump in my throat, from the prickling stress under my skin that couldn’t be scratched away, and from the uncomfortable twisting of anxiety tumbling around in my stomach. 

As Jacob pulled in, there were reporters everywhere, flashing lights blinding me momentarily. Their voices could be heard from the interior of Jacob’s car but I found it increasingly difficult to push their voices away, especially when I was seconds away from snapping. How did they know about this already? 

“Why are the reporters here?” I snapped, clenching and unclenching my fists. Reporters stuck their noses in places where they weren’t supposed to be. This was a terrible time for them to come.

“I have no idea,” Jacob’s tone matched mine as he parked right in front of the entrance. “Stay there, I’ll get you.” Before I could protest, he had already shut off the car and was ambushed by the reporters, asking questions about what just happened. I tried, I really did try to block them out but their voices were too much for me to handle.

Jacob opened my door, snapping me out of my reverie as I crawled out. I hung my head low as we both ran as fast as we could–considering the fact that cameras and microphones were being shoved in our faces–to the entrance of the station. 

“Have you found any leads concerning the massacre that occurred last week?”

“Siara, is dealing with the death of your brother affecting your job as a detective?” 

“Siara, Jacob! Are you two in a current relationship?”

I wanted more than anything in that moment to shove the microphones in their faces and throw their cameras that were most likely recording our every moves on the floor. But if I did that then my reputation I worked and dreamed for ever since I was a child would crumble to the floor in mere seconds. For once I couldn’t let my emotions show and I settled for a blank face, ignoring every single crude remark the reporters shot at me. 

I let out a sigh of relief when we were inside of the station, although the relief was quickly replaced by fear and terror for the news that awaited me. The station was slightly empty, since it was after all a saturday night. All of the rookie police officers were sent home while the detectives and other high-class officers stayed and handled situations like these.

“I never hated reporters as much as I do now,” I mumbled, harshly removing my coat and holding it with one hand.

Jacob pursed his lips. “Why?”

“They’re making so much accusations and I–I wanted to smack them for prying into my personal life,” I said, obviously frustrated as we made our way to Bona’s office. “I understand the questions concerning the case, but they have the audacity to ask me if the way I’m ‘dealing with the death of my brother’ affects the case or not? If I’m in a relationship with you?” I scoffed, settling for shoving my hands in my pocket to stop myself from digging my nails in my palm like I did earlier, twice. “They aren’t helping me at all, as if being in a relationship with you is newsworthy.”

I clenched my jaw as Jacob didn’t answer, his expression flashing with an emotion I once again couldn’t decipher. In an instant I felt the closeness between us disappear, making me frown in confusion. Why was he being so distant and weird for? I shook my thoughts away and focused on staying calm as we both stood in front of Bona’s office. Somehow swallowing the large lump in my throat, I hastily wiped my sweaty palms on my pants and opened the door, not expecting what I saw at all. 

“I need to speak with Siara for a moment,” Bona said as he saw Jacob. I furrowed my eyebrows, feeling my confusion rise a few notches. What exactly happened? Bona only called me by my first name when things when something terrible happened.

“What happened, Bona?” Jacob voiced my thoughts, concern seeping in his tone. I faced him, hoping to exchange our blatant confusion but he didn’t bother looking at me, making me more angry and confused than I had been previously.   

“This is a matter that concerns Siara and I only, Jacob,” Bona’s voice was stern and hard, leaving absolutely no room for argument. With a scoff, Jacob left the room while I stayed in the same position, watching with betrayed eyes as he walked passed me without sparing me a glance. What was wrong with him? Did I do something? Before I could ask him, Bona gestured for me to sit with impatience. 

I hesitantly sat down, setting my jacket on the armrest. I finally spoke. “Bona what the hell happened?”

“Before I tell you,” Bona swallowed and blinked a few times. “I want you to promise me that you won’t freak out.”

I breathed in and out, the curiosity killing me. He was acting so out of character. The Bona I knew would never act this way. He was a man that never showed what he was truly feeling, always masking his emotions and transfixing his face so that it betrayed nothing. While I admired and envied him for having the ability to do that, it scared me down to my wits seeing him like this.

“I promise,” I breathed out, nodding to reassure him. After my mothers death and after she was placed in a psychiatric ward for being physically unstable to tend to children, Mason, Lisa, and I were sent to live with Uncle Wilson since he was the only living family member. Considering the fact that he was on my mothers side of the family, he seemed to partake in my mothers footsteps, resorting to smoking and drinking alcohol every chance he got. I don’t think there was ever a chance where I’d never seen Wilson sober. 

One day he invited a man over, who introduced himself as Bona. He was Wilson’s closest friend at the time and came over and managed to see us sleeping in one small room, with a stench that was unbearable. Due to the fact that Wilson spent all of the money he practically stole from the streets on alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs, there barely any money to pay the rent, food, clothing, and even water. The super turned off everything, leaving us frozen and huddled together for warmth. We stayed with Wilson for a year until Bona came over that one winter night, seeing us suffering for survive. 

He managed to leave Wilson behind and took us in after he reported him to the police for being unstable to raise children. No later than a week Wilson disappeared and I never saw him again. Ever since I had viewed Bona as a father figure, someone who filled the aching spot my mother dug a hole in when she killed my father. I cared for Bona deeply and it pained me to see him like this, so out of character and unlike his usual self. The curiosity was burning me from the inside out. I needed to know.

Before I could ask the questions that were lingering on the tip of my tongue, Bona finally began to speak, his eyes roaming all over the place before they settled on mine. “Siara, I don’t have a clue where or–or how to start so I’m just going to tell you.” He blinked several times, searching for his words while I waited in anticipation. “You remember when I rescued you from Wilson and we just left him be?”

I swallowed hard at the memory. Living with Wilson brought up memories of shivering nights and a hunger so fierce and desperate that it hurt to breathe or even swallow. It was torture for me, and I couldn’t imagine how worse it was for Lisa and Mason since they were a few years younger than me and had to have more nourishment than I did. I cringed, flashing back to a memory when I was so cold that I ended up fainting, also because I hadn’t eaten a full meal in weeks.

“I–I remember,” I breathed out. “What does this have to do anything concerning what happened–” 

“Let me finish,” He interrupted, once again looking for words. I waited patiently, knowing how it feels to be rushed when you didn’t know how to say things, even though I wanted to know so badly what happened to cause the indestructible Bona to be like this. “I–uh, shortly after your mother was imprisoned in a mental institution, I met someone. Her–Her name was Reese. We’ve dated on and off for a few months and then things got serious.” Bona’s eyes watered, as if being transported back to a memory. 

“She wanted to get married and I didn’t. I still had to build my career as a detective and she hadn’t finish college yet,” Bona continued, traveling off to his own little world. “She got mad and left me for a while, and we somehow managed to drift back to each other after all of these years. For nearly ten years we’ve been dating on and off, hooking up with each other every once in a while. For me, it was perfect.” I had to forcibly bite my tongue down in order to stop myself from blurting out unnecessary questions. I needed Bona to explain all of this to me fully, even if he was in this little daze of his. I feared that if I interrupted him then he wouldn’t be able to find a way to explain to me what his little ‘girlfriend’ had to do with all of this.

He sighed, his expression betraying the hurt and grief he tried to mask earlier. “I proposed to her two weeks ago, since she said that she was pregnant.” I couldn’t hold back the gasp that escaped my lips. “But for some reason she said no. I went all out, Lynn. I brought her to one of those fancy stuck-up places because she likes those kind of things, had the cellist playing one of her favorite pieces and I even bought her favorite meal and dessert. I went down on one knee and I asked her, in front of everyone else in the restaurant and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said no.” 

“Bona,” I was at loss for words. I didn’t know what to say that would somehow make the situation better, especially since I had absolutely no idea that Bona was in a relationship, nonetheless one that would escalate to a marriage. He gave off a vibe that made it blatantly obvious that he was a workaholic, so imagine my surprise that he had been hiding her from me for almost ten years. “Why–Why didn’t you say anything? When did this happen?”

He smiled sadly, reminiscing in a faint memory from the twinkle in his eye. “I didn’t want to introduce you to someone that you would soon forget. Like I’d said, we were on and off so it would be difficult explaining that to someone as young as you. Besides, I didn’t want to disturb you with your problems.” 

“Disturb me?” I frowned. “Bona your romance life would never disturb me. If anything you had me thinking that you were gay since I had never seen a woman in your arms.”

Bona rolled his eyes, a glimpse of his usual self appearing. “Anyways, this happened yesterday.”

My eyes widened. “Y–Yesterday?” In a way I felt kind of hurt that he didn’t tell me something as special and big as this. I understood the fact that he wanted privacy–or so, I thought he did–and that he didn’t want to introduce Reese to me but he should have at least told me about her before he proposed. I hid my hurt and waited for his explanation.

Bona sighed, pursing his lips while running a distressed hand through his hair. “There was a reason why I called you in to tell you this myself.” He paused, searching for words again while I felt my irritation rise. I wanted to know already what happened and with him pausing abruptly left me hanging on the edge for a hand that he wasn’t offering me. “I didn’t want Jacob to know because I felt like I at least owe you this by telling you personally.”

“Bona,” I said, not bothering to mask my annoyance and confusion. “What happened?” 

He exhaled, lines of distress appearing on the corner of his eyes and lips. “Another black bag came in tonight. The security cameras were off during the time it happened and both of the guards were knocked unconscious when it happened. I was the first one to check what was inside, it was Reese–” Bona’s eyes filled with tears as he tried to hold it all in. He really did love her. It made me tear up and the twist in my stomach dance some more as he continued speaking. “There were three other girls and one male, there–there was a n–note.”

I raised an eyebrow, trying to keep my composure as well. I couldn’t help it, the fear crawled underneath my skin settling beside the stress and it made me more ansty and filled with more anxiety than anything. It made me want to puke and scratch my skin until the feeling of pure fear went away–I wanted it gone, gone, gone. I wanted this to stop. I wanted whoever was doing it to stop. I was so afraid that I didn’t even want to know what the note said but Bona’s piercing voice managed to break me out of my fear-induced daze.

“Lynn, it would be better off if I just showed you,” He said, sliding a piece of paper in my direction. I snatched it away from his hands. “The team scanned for fingerprints but there was none. We are dealing with an experienced serial killer...” I stopped listening and focused on the note. 

                “The bitches: Pamela, German, Reese and Ambrosia (What kind of name is Ambrosia? Isn’t that a color for something? Also, who named German? The way his name is pronounced– ‘Herman’– is terrible and repulsing. I hate them all.) are dead and died a terrible death. They did hear me sing songs while I stabbed them endlessly, it was very enjoyable. It’s such a shame that your precious detective, Siara ‘Lynn’ Dupont couldn’t find the clues, it’s just that she looked in the wrong direction. (I am going to kill you soon, I despise you as well. But I would like to play some… games with you first) 
                Oh, and Bona? If you’re reading this, your whore of a girlfriend Reese confessed to cheating on you with multiple other men, claimed that she loved you and is ‘terribly sorry’ for saying no to marrying you. I thought it was quite pathetic and decided to welcome her into the hands of death. As for the others, I don’t really care for them. Their screams were something I would love to hear again.
                This is all fun and games for me, only just the beginning. You all will pay for digging your noses and heads where they aren’t belonged. Accept this gift of heads (along with the previous ones I sent last week, did you like them? I spent hours making it as perfect as possible.) as a warning to what will happen to you when you attempt to dig too deep.
                We will meet again soon. Expect many other peace offerings next week.”

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