"So," Tessa said as she tucked some of her red curls behind her ear, "I heard about the little incident with Tom at the garden. Care to share what happened?"

Vianne shrugged, glancing down at her salad to avoid Tessa's curious stare. The cafeteria seemed to be less crowded than the day before, as she presumed that some of the employees had quit due to the anxiety of the job.

"Tom said some things the guards didn't like. Nothing else happened."

"Oh," Tessa muttered, licking over her lips, "well, Ivy told me you went to the guards first before the whole thing blew over to chaos."

Vianne shook her head, holding back the urge to roll her eyes. "There wasn't any chaos."

"So tell me what happened then." Tessa said with a slight edge to her voice. "After all, I think I deserve some information on what goes on around here."

Vianne raised her brows in surprise. "You think you deserve to know what happened between me and my patient?"

Tessa pursed her lips, glancing shyly at the table before shrugging her shoulders. Vianne immediately felt bad for responding with such crass, her lips pulled into a small frown as she mindlessly flicked the lettuce around with her fork. Tessa sighed, her fingers reaching to the ends of her hair out of habit.

"Vianne, I've been meaning to, uh, ask you about something," she said, changing the topic, "and I know I can come off as a bit clingy, but I've been obsessing over this for a while now."

Vianne nodded. "What is it?"

Tessa's fingers swirled around loose strands of her hair incessantly. "Well, first of all, I need to confess that I've...grown to really like Ronnie - like, really like him," she paused, her cheeks budding roses out of embarrassment, "and I just don't want anything bad to happen to him. So if you can, could you please confirm that it's true what you said about the ones who can't prove to be good? That they would be killed?"

Vianne's blood turned to ice in her veins, her heart skipping a beat as she locked eyes with Tessa. Concern suffused beneath Tessa's expression, and her fingers began to tug tighter on her hair the faster she spun. Vianne swallowed hard, clasping her hands together as she leaned forward in her seat. She needed to be careful speaking with Tessa about the subject matter, as she didn't want to completely break her with such bad news.

"How is Ronnie doing?" Vianne asked after a long, intense moment.

Tessa's eyes were wide as she thought about her answer. "He's funny," she chuckled at the memory, "he's very charming and sweet. And I don't think he's a bad guy, Vianne. I mean, yeah, he was charged for thievery, but if you listened to him speak about his reasons for doing so...I think you feel some sort of...compassion for him. Yeah, he did the wrong thing, but he did what he felt was necessary, you know?"

Vianne glanced down at the table, nodding her head agreement. "That's good," she said quietly, "Ronnie will be fine."

Tessa's cheery attitude depleted from her face. Her brows furrowed in worry, the brown in her eyes slipping into black. "What do you mean?"

Vianne swallowed. She could easily lie - fabricate the story so that Tessa wouldn't have to worry about Ronnie's fate. Tessa would be safe if she lied, but then again, if it all didn't work out, would she feel more hurt? Vianne licked over her lips, glancing up to lock eyes with Tessa. Tessa deserved to know the truth of the dire fates for some of these people, and even though saying such horrible news to her would bring discomfort, Vianne felt that it was the right thing to do.

"I talked with Rowan earlier," Vianne started, "and he told me that the people who fail to show that they are capable of being good will be sentenced to death. Now, I know Rowan can be vague and incredibly rude, so he could also just be...messing with me. And I know he doesn't like me either..."

Tessa's skin bled into a ghostly white, her mouth gaped open and the usual shimmer in her eyes depleted. Vianne squirmed in her seat, glancing back down at the uneaten food on her plate. Her hands fidgeted on the table as the pain throbbed at the back of her head; maybe I shouldn't have said anything.

"Oh geez," Tessa muttered, swiping some of her curls from her face, "can...can they actually do that?"

Vianne shrugged, slowly reaching her hand to the back of her head as the pain seemed to spread around her entire skull. "Well...I'm sure these kinds of projects can get away with a lot of things."    

Tessa put her hands to her face, sighing as her pale cheeks flushed a nervous red. "What are we going to do about this? I mean, are we the ones who make the final call if they're capable of good or not? Do we report to someone and they decide? Ugh, this is...this is crazy."

Vianne remained quiet, the pain in her skull pounding with greater intensity. Grimacing, she took a sip of water while Tessa's gaze was trained elsewhere. Even though discussing the fate of these criminals was important, Vianne couldn't help but reflect about Dante. Where had he gone? Would he come back one day angry and violent? Vianne shuddered. She wasn't sure which was more daunting: Dante returning or never coming back. 

Tessa leaned back, placing her hands on the edge of the table, her expression still dipped in shock. She shook her head again, looking up at Vianne with worried eyes. "I've gotta...I'm going to the restroom really quickly, I just need to clear my head for a second. I'll see you later, Vianne."

Tessa left before Vianne could say anything else, which was fine because Vianne preferred being to herself. She took another sip of water, closing her eyes to will the pain in her head away. After a few moments, she glanced towards the windows, wincing at the bright hues of gray light. The sky was devoured by charcoal colors, and rain drizzled gently onto the open areas of the facility. Everything seemed to be colorless for Vianne; the world was dipped in the ashes of her happiness, decaying more as the days went by. She groaned slightly, the light only making her headache worsen.

With great pain, she finished up her meal in time for the alarm. She only needed to attend two more sessions with Tom; the second session was cancelled as they took him elsewhere to discuss his behavior in the garden, and it took longer than expected. Vianne was forced to wait around in the garden, a slight drizzle drifting across the cold, frost-bitten air.

Vianne followed the others into the separate hallway where the interrogations took place. Swiping her new ID card through the slot, the door unlocked, and she could glimpse Tom sitting still in his chair. Vianne took a small breath in and took her seat at the desk, the notepad displaying her last session's notes.

"Hi Tom," she said, glancing up at his bored expression, "how are you doing?"

Tom scoffed like usual. "Why do you always ask me that? I feel the fucking same as I felt earlier."

Vianne shrugged, running her hand through her hair and stopping at the area that was in pain. "Well, because people's emotions constantly change. You can be happy one moment and sad the next."

"Damn how'd you figure that out?" Tom mocked, chuckling to himself as his eyes drifted across her lazily.

"You don't feel emotions the way others do. You enjoy things that the majority of people cringe at, and you don't seem to empathize with anyone you encounter," she licked over her lips, shivering as the same pain in her head pervaded across her skull, "so why is it that you don't feel the same way that we do?"

He rolled his eyes, running his hand through his long hair. "I feel the same things you do, dear. All of us have the ability of being cruel, so I find that we all are interconnected that way."

Vianne cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

Tom sighed, annoyed to have to explain himself again. His gaze settled on the spot on the wall, invested in his own thoughts before turning back to Vianne with dark eyes. His hand began to wrap around the chains that bound his wrists, and the awful sound echoed throughout the room. Vianne winced at the sharp noise, the pain splitting across the back of her head and intensifying. Immediately, Tom became motionless, his eyes soaking up Vianne's appearance.

"What happened to you, dear? You don't look so well." Tom said quietly, his stare so deep of wonder that it made Vianne shiver.

"Nothing happened," Vianne responded curtly, running her hand through her hair again to try and ease the pain, "why do you ask?"

Tom shrugged, leaning back in his chair again and stretching out his legs. "Are the lights too bright for you?"

Vianne blinked, confused. "What?"

"You keep squinting your eyes every now and then. Are they too bright, dear?" Tom asked again, his hands clasped together on his lap. Vianne didn't know what to say, as he was asking her things that were irrelevant and unusual. She glanced down at her notepad to avoid his stare.

"No, they're not..." Vianne muttered.

Tom looked at her, his eyes calculated and intrigued by Vianne. "You look a little pale there on your cheeks. Where did all the blood go, huh? Why do you look so frightened? And I know it can't be because of me now, I've barely hurt your feelings. So it's got to be something else right?" He waited for her response. When she remained quiet, he grinned and continued on. "Why are you so stubborn, dear? Why can't you confess to me what's irking you so?"

Vianne stared at him with wide eyes, feeling her consciousness slipping back into a dark void where she was watching herself from outside of her body. Tom grinned again, the green in his eyes illuminating as he sat up straighter in his chair.

"When my parents used to take me to mass on Sundays, they made me stay afterwards to talk with Father James for reconciliation. My parents knew him well, as they grew up together going to that same Church down near the river. One time, when I was twelve or thirteen, he brought me to a small, tight room, and he asked me if I wanted to stay behind the door to talk to him or to be face-to-face with him. Personally, I didn't like talking to someone I can't see, so of course I knelt on the floor in front of him. He asked me what sins I had committed that week and to explain all of the factors that made me do the things I did. You know what I told him?"

When silence followed, Tom chuckled darkly at himself. "Of course you don't know - I didn't tell him shit. I only told him how I really felt about God and that whole congregation. Then I asked him if God really did exist, why would He condemn evil even though it was him who created it? Father James looked down at me with no sort of emotion, so I couldn't tell at that moment what he thought of me. Instead of answering me directly, he told me that humans are the only species that can be evil; no animal is evil because they act in order to survive. We are born with the original sin of having the ability of choice - when we are born, good and evil are born with us. After hearing Father James tell me evil was a part of fucking human nature, I confessed that I had mutiliated my pet cat. He was silent for a long time. And I thought there was no way he was going to forgive me for doing something so cruel, after all the fucking Bible preached all the damn time that those who commit murder go straight to Hell. I knew he expected me to say something less extreme, like lying or stealing. But instead of being harsh with me, he made the sign of the cross and told me to say three Hail Mary's in order to be forgiven."

Tom stared down at the floor for some time before glancing up at Vianne.

"That's why the Church is complete bullshit. They bend the rules to their liking, they say all of those things to sound wise when they're just throwing up lies. Sinners can't be forgiven, Vianne. We're evil because we want to be - it's only natural. So you see, the point of telling you all this is that like reconciliation, I'm here to listen to what sins you have to tell me. Unlike Father James, I will be honest with you. So what is it? What darkness is eating at you? Confess to me, I'm right here."

Vianne swallowed hard. "Tom," she said gratingly, "you're not really concerned about me, so please, drop the charades. I want to talk to you about-"

"Charades?" Tom questioned, his expression serious.

Vianne clenched her jaw, her expression neutral while her ireful emotions deepened in her eyes. "If they're not charades, then what are they, Tom? Because you told me you wanted to break my morality...so why would I make you my confidante?"

Tom leaned forward in his chair, the green moss in his eyes wilting into a decayed and molded black. He arched his brow as he met Vianne's seething gaze.

Tom licked over his lips. "Why did you take this job, Vianne? You're terrified of being here. You have no experience, you have no guts, you have nothing. You're intelligent, Vianne, but I think you're incredibly stupid too. So it makes me think sometimes what could have possibly made you take this job..."

She scoffed. "That's none of your business-"

"Oh? But you deserve to know all about my business? Because I'm considered below you? Because finally you're the one in the superior position after years of being treated unequal to your...male counterpart, perhaps?"

Vianne stilled, her eyes widening. She narrowed her eyes after realizing how vulnerable she looked and stood abruptly from her chair. "Fuck you."

Tom laughed hard, relaxing back into his chair, completely satisfied with the outcome of  his pressuring questions. "Did I say something that hit too close to home, dear? Why so defensive suddenly?"

Vianne ran a shaky hand through her hair as she felt the familiar pain spread across her head. She winced a little as she turned towards the door, refusing to look back at Tom.
She heard him laugh again - a dark, morbid laugh that echoed in her mind along with the sharp rattling noise of his chains. He grabbed hold of the chains and shook them so that the noise traveled around the room, and they echoed for what seemed to be interminable.

"Vianne," he whispered as she cautiously glanced his way, "do you hate your husband?"