Autopsy of a Mind

The hours passed slowly. For the next meal, the food was lesser than expected, but the medicine Lucy brought was enough to help Jade out. It was still within the seventy-two-hour frame for her to take the medicine and I really hoped it worked.

She had been strong for the longest time, but in the face of kindness from strangers, she broke down. She was sure it didn't make a difference.

She was resigned to the fact that they were not going to be saved.

"Why do you think that?" I found myself asking in the middle of the night. I had come to sense the change in temperature in the room after the drugs wore off.

"You are a cop, right? It's been almost two days since you got kidnapped and they still can't find us," she told me. She was not at fault for thinking this. When I was sixteen and didn't know police procedure, I wondered how incompetent they were to not find me. And I thought they would never rescue me.

But I knew who the perpetrators were, I knew the procedure, and I knew that there was more to the situation than meets the eye. I couldn't blame her for feeling hopeless.

"I'm not a cop. I am an intern. But yes… it will take time," I assured her. "Ask Benny. His dad has been a cop for years." I turned to Benny.

He looked like a deer caught in the headlight. He finally nodded. "The cops will try to look at every other possible victim. If they have suspects, they will interview and if they have a particular name, they will hunt down all the properties and locations where we could have been kept." He glanced at me. "Isn't that right?"

I nodded in acknowledgment. "The people on the case scientifically look at people and their behavior. They have worked in the industry for decades. They know what they are doing. The only reason we haven't been rescued yet is that something is stopping them from finding the exact location."

Jade looked confused. I looked at Gene's sleeping face. After crying for a long time, she got tired and fell asleep. Which was good. She needed sleep to recuperate faster.

"I don't know what it means," Jade exclaimed.

I hushed her. "No need to panic. They'll have to kill me first if they want to harm any of you, understood?" I asked her.

Her eyes widened with panic. "You said none of us would die!"

I shook my head urgently. "None of you will die. As I said. If I don't die, you won't die either. But I am not omniscient." I gave her a sad smile.

"Do you think you will die?" I pretended to think about it for a while.

"I don't think I will. I have a lot to go back to. I am not allowed to die." Sebastian's face flashed in my mind and I felt tears prickle my eyes.

"Your… family?" she asked tentatively.

"I don't have a family. My grandparents and parents were killed by a serial killer. My dad was the lead investigator, you see." Jade gulped, visibly shaken. "I was taken from my house and kept in captivity for seven months…"

"Serial killer? You said you encountered four that threatened you. Why?"

"The two captors? They are serial killers. But they have let a lot of women go, as well, so you were kind of lucky." I stopped short. I didn't know how to come back from that. "That's not what I mean—"

She shook her head. "I understand. Better physically injured than killed."

I sighed in relief. "Right. This way, at least you get the chance to get better." I forced a smile.

"How did you survive?" she asked finally.

I shrugged. "I was allowed to live because the serial killer's partner had an invested interest in me. He wanted me alive because he had a sick and twisted fantasy of turning me into his accomplice."

I took note of Benny's dispassionate expression.

"What kind of psychopath does that? Watch someone get tortured because they want to be romantically involved with them? They need therapy."

I threw my head back in laughter. Benny gritted his teeth. "You're right. Imagine not having the courage to show himself while I was hurting." I shook my head pretending to be offended.

"But you found a nice man, didn't you?" she asked.

It was for her own hope, so I nodded. "A very nice man who stopped me from killing myself or someone else," I admitted.

Jade blinked. "And he's… a good detective?"

"Criminal psychologist," I corrected. "You've heard of the recent surge of cases, right? The Magician Killer, the Stone Man…" I grinned. "He solved all of those. Even if it is a hard cold case, he finds the answers. He's that kind of guy."

Jade nodded but she was tearing up once again.

"Once you get out, you'll find someone too. If you want."

The room fell into silence until the temperature in the room returned to normal. It was probably day and I waited for a long time before anyone came to check on us.

When Lucy did come, she had nothing in her hands. No food. They were out of rations, that was for sure.

She didn't pretend to care about the others and walked right up to me. Suddenly I felt my hair being pulled painfully and I gritted my teeth.

"You little bitch!" she screamed. "You've been lying all along, haven't you?" she yelled.

I heard the whimpers in the room. Even Benny pretended to be shocked by the turn of events.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, my voice no longer calm. It was a good thing I had become a good actor, but I had to say, the pain helped in giving a powerful speech.

I wondered why I was so apathetic to this situation. It was unnatural to be this calm. Maybe it was the familiarity of being at the brink of death. I had almost forgotten it since I went to therapy. But this was a place my body and mind had always known I would be back.

Now, it was confirmed that I hadn't been too wrong with my thoughts.

"You… you tricked me into doing what you wanted," she hissed. I felt her spit on my face, but I was unmoving.

"Doing what I want? What did you do?" I asked my eyes searching for any sign of weakness and doubt in her eyes.

"You made me buy medicines to buy time, didn't you?" she sobbed. Her hands untangled from my hair, leaving behind a dull ache. I bit my lip as she lowered her hand to grip my swollen wrists.

"If you didn't give Gene the insulin, she would die. Do you want murder and torture charges?" I asked. "I didn't lie to you. Not a word," I told her firmly.

Her grip on my wrist wavered.

"The medicine for Jade was so that she didn't die from infections and wounds you and your father inflicted. It would be sexual assault and kidnapping… not manslaughter. Think about it. Haven't I helped you all along?" I begged her to understand.

"The drugs?" she whined.

"Same reason. You've never had four captives, have you? It has always been one person. When there are so many people, there is more noise… more conspicuous activity." I blinked. "Why? Did Bernard say that you were duped? Is he not angry anymore? Or was it him?"

My look must have been piercing.

"Him?" Lucy whispered. "We did dose off during the night… I was wondering why no one came in when morning arrived. This was why… You got talked to and manipulated."

I snickered.

"Do you want to call your dad and ask him what deal he made?" I pressed. "I'm sure it's going to be something magnificent that makes him have less punishment. He'll tell the prosecutor that he only assaulted those women… but you… you knew everything and to cover for your father, killed all those women on his behalf. He had no knowledge of it."

Once I planted the seed of doubt in her head, the picture she thought of was vivid. "The last time your benefactor personally came to meet me, he let someone else take all the blame. He made sure each and every person who had ever seen him was killed off. Just to save himself," I announced.

The air in the room froze. "If you really want to get a lesser sentence, you would have listened to me and thought for yourself. But you fell for his trap. He's going to kill you, you know?"

I glanced towards Benny surreptitiously. He saw me looking.

And then I saw it spread across his lips. The smile.

I remembered what Carol had said. He smiled politely and warmly, but his eyes… his eyes were dead.

I saw what she meant. I saw it clearly.