Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Off-Guard

           

 

            He soaked in every bit of information that he could scour from his various sources that were scattered over his messy desk. So far, Pierce had learned much from what he attained on the Internet at the library.

            He discovered that the Black Widow spider was called so because it was rumored that she often ate her mate after they had reproduced, and that the spider was considered to be one of the most venomous spiders in the world.

            But how, he asked himself, did this fit in with Willow?

            The resources he had acquired from the hacked government database revealed that some sort of illegal testing had been going on. But, unfortunately, the source didn’t state any real names or any definite animals. All he knew was that the experiment had been shut down years and years ago for dangerous outcomes. The head scientist, a Dr. Severin Struthers, originally came up with the idea of mutated human soldiers, but the project was deemed fatal when the human test subjects began to die from serious blood poisoning. That had been caused by the mutation serum.

            Apparently, as he had learned, the soldiers’ bodies and DNA weren’t strong enough to hold the serum steady enough to work right, and therefore resulted in their deaths.

            Pierce shook his head at this evil thought, the notion of so many people dying in the so-called “noble name” of science too horrible for him.

            How could so many people have died? Whoever this “Severin Struthers” was…or is…is a murderer. How could one person kill so many in the name of science? Those poor people could have been spared the pain and suffering. I can’t believe it. I simply can’t. It’s too unbearable.

            He threw the paper down on his desk in mild frustration and disbelief. How could something so, so horrible and wrong be connected with Willow? She never showed any signs of being a mutated human being.

            A thought crossed his mind.

            I never knew why, but it makes perfect sense. And so does her abnormal strength. I’ve never met anyone in my entire life that strong and determined. It’s like it’s…natural.

            He shook his head again. He was worried.

            What in the world was he going to do if Willow really did turn out to be Arachne?

 

_____

 

            “Why?” Willow balled her fists in hatred. “Why? What did I do?”

            “Willow, please. You know as well as I do that you were found at the crime scene with Viola’s blood and body in your hands.”

            “And so that automatically makes me a killer?”

            “I didn’t say that, Willow,” sighed Detective Eberhard. She leaned back into her chair as Willow stood up. “You’re twisting my words.”

            “And you’re twisting reality. I didn’t kill her. She was my best friend. Why would I want to kill her?”

            “Maybe because you had a reasonable motive to.”

            “I never had a motive. Viola was killed by someone else.”

            “Someone that doesn’t exist. Believe me, we’ve searched for a woman like the one you described. We would know.”

            Willow sank back into her chair, placing her forehead into her hands. She shook her head from side to side, crying and sniffing.

            “I didn’t kill her.” She stared up at the detective, her ivory skin blazing red. “I swear I didn’t. I would never hurt my best friend.”

            She sniffed. Eberhard looked at her with a simple blank expression, but her eyes, she could tell, were swimming with sympathy.

            “Willow…look. I can’t change what the department thinks. I can’t say that I believe you, either. But…it may just be possible that we overlooked something in our investigation. Sometimes we brush right over the smallest and least important looking details that often turn out to be really major in the end.” She smiled at Willow with a hint of mercy showing through and placed a hand on hers that had been on the table. “I promise you that I’ll try, all right? I’m not guaranteeing anything just yet.”

            Willow sniffed and grinned in return.

            “Thank you.”

            Eberhard bowed her head slightly but frowned.

            “But there’s one thing I’m wondering, Willow.”

            Willow caught her breath. For a moment, she almost felt her heart stop beating.

            “Uh…what?”

            “Well…was there any important reason that you were wandering around in an alley beating boys up instead of being at school and actually trying to get an education?”

            “Um…yeah, that’s kinda hard to explain, actually.”

            The sympathy that was there in Eberhard’s eyes a few seconds before drained down to a cold glare that sent shivers down her spine. She willed herself to stay calm; unfortunately Willow detected her hands becoming moist and slippery as she held them. Her nervousness was getting the better of her.

            “Any logcical explanation for being out of school?”

            “Uh…I…uh…um…man…”

            “Yes?”

            “Well…okay, I admit that I skipped school. But it was only because this on guy was being a complete jerk towards me and I had had about enough of him. I was too agitated to go back.”

            At least that’s partly the truth, anyway. Al was being a complete idiot, groveling on the ground for forgiveness, she thought. He deserved what was coming for him. Though…

            A stab of guilt pierced Willow’s heart. She felt almost bad for what she did, but hastily shook the thought away, replacing it with disgust and hatred.

            I can’t forgive him that easily. I’ve trusted people way too many times already       Willow darted her eyes up to the frowning face of Eberhard, who was still glowering at her menacingly, one eyebrow raised expectantly.

            “Some kid was bothering you? I can certainly understand how irritated you must have felt, but when dealing with people like that, please try notifying the school counselor or principle instead of using physical violence.”

            “That guy deserved what he got, Detective. I had to do it.”

            “Had to or wanted to?”

            “Fine, then. I wanted to. But what else could I do?”

            “Deal with it calmly. Like an adult would. That there would be a definite sign of maturity.”

            Willow scowled at Eberhard and launched herself out of her chair and crossed her arms.

            “Who do you think you are? My mother?”

            “I’m probably being a much better one than yours. She obviously doesn’t know anything about raising a child if you’re resorting to violence to fix your problems,” Eberhard hissed coldly.

            A wave of rage swept over her body. Willow’s eyes grew hot with angry tears.

            “Y-you don’t know anything about my mother,” she growled softly, calming herself just as Eberhard had said to do just moments before.

            She jerked the door open regardless of her injured arm and slammed with a loud bang. Eberhard was taken off-guard but recovered and remembered something; it had been a very small detail that she had failed to remember up until now. When she had been looking over the background file on Willow Elaine Halliwell’s past, she found something very disturbing and unbelievable. Lily Amelia Halliwell, mother of Willow, had been found dead in her house one autumn evening. Her child was no where to be found and suspected of running away.

            But the thing that had rattled her was that Lily Halliwell had been murdered by a gunshot wound to the heart, dying instantly. A fact Eberhard knew was that Lily had never once kept a gun in her house. But who had killed her then? That was once case that had gone unsolved by the authorities.

            And now Willow’s best friend Viola Whitmore had been killed, too. Were their deaths somehow connected? Guns killed them both and Willow had been supposedly in both their presences when their murders occurred. Fingerprinting at the crime scene of Lily’s death had proved that then and there. But there was no way a young child like Willow, who was then seven-years-old, have a gun much less have handled it that easily.

            Eberhard sat down at her desk and placed her head into her hands, letting Willow escape despite her skipping school.

            She delved into the old memories of that day when she had seen the body Lily Halliwell. She had touched it; the skin had been deathly cold and she had pulled away quickly in disgust and horror. She was young back then, she remembered. A rookie. She had observed the fingerprinting specialists applying dusts to almost every surface in the crime scene.

            They discovered that there had been an intruder, but he had left no fingerprints or any other signs of his existence besides the fact that he had left the window open in his escape.

            Problem was that Lily Halliwell had no known enemies. No one that hated her enough to want to kill her, that is. Then for what reason did the intruder kill her for? And why had he been so desperate according to evidence?

 

_____

 

            “God…where is she?”

            He slammed his fist into a nearby fence. It rattled and shook from the impact, jingling lightly in his ears. Allister removed his fist and shoved both hands deep into his pockets, shivering against the cold of the late morning. Oh sure, it was warm. Warm as the North Pole in winter.

            Despite the sun being high at the moment, it shed barely any warmth.

            That fact only made him all the more irritated. He looked everywhere. Where else was there for Willow to go?

            “I said I was sorry. Jeez, wasn’t that enough for her? I was only trying to apologize. She didn’t have to go and slap me like that. Jesus.”

            For at least the fourth time today, Al rubbed the still-tender spot where Willow had slapped him. And hard. It still stung from the impact, though that had been, like, two hours ago. He looked down at the cracked cement of the sidewalk as he strolled lazily along.

            Maybe I should just give it up. Willow…she’s complicated. I’m just making her life way more worse than it already is. She doesn’t need me. Never did, never has, he thought.

            He stopped and gazed with melancholy eyes up at the overcast sky above him. What the heck was he supposed to do? When it came to tough decisions like this, he always drew a blank in his head. He knew that Viola wouldn’t want him to leave Willow’s side. He knew that she would want him to stick by her no matter what. But what about him? He was getting sick and tired of the act she was always putting on. Sure he loved Willow. To the death. Her behavior towards him lately was irritable.

            “I don’t know.”

            As he said this, he kicked a small gray stone hard out of his path. The stone rolled along until it slowed and stopped. Allister kept walking, but this time to his house where he knew nobody would bother him. Especially Willow.

 

_____

 

            Sun spilled from the array of clouds overhead, illuminating the sidewalk�"It looked so pretty and peaceful�"until the sun descended back into complete darkness. The shadows enveloped Willow’s frail body, her pale skin glowing like a dead person’s. Her ivory skin it was pink because of her crying.

            A single tear rolled on down her cheek, but no more emerged from her eyes. She sniffed and rubbed her nose on her sleeve. She hugged her legs even closer to her chest and rested her head on top of them.

            “God, I am such a wimp. Crying over every single thing and then running away. If it had been Severin, I would’ve had to act like a mature adult and act more sophisticated about these sort of matters. And here I am, weeping like a damn baby in this filthy alley. Jesus, whatever happened to my stronger side?”

            She sighed heavily, her breath shuddering as it escaped; she wiped the one tear on her cheek away.

            “I should’ve stood up for Mom. No one insults her in front of me, yet I ran away from the problem instead of facing it up front.” She shook her head and closed her eyes, scolding herself within for being a complete idiot about it. She opened her eyes and looking straight at the grimy brick wall in front of her. “That’s what learning from the past is about: making sure you don’t repeat the same mistakes you made.”

            She placed both hands in the dirt beside her and bolstered herself up from the ground, dusting her pants off and inhaling a deep breath, forcing herself to chill.

            “And I’m gonna make sure I won’t make the same mistake when I finally find Severin. I’m gonna start searching for him despite the circumstances.”

            At that, Willow took off out of the alley and into the daylight, never looking back. For the first time in a long time, she was sure about where she was going and what she planned on doing.