her job?”
“I said I didn’t kill her!” Vincent said again. “Ah!” He was crying out because he was being whipped again, over and over. I shut my eyes tightly and sobbed silently.
“Please stop…please make it stop,” I pleaded inaudibly as my heart beat hard in my chest.
I found myself wishing I could teleport out of there taking Vincent with me. I wanted to go as far as I could, away from this interrogator’s bullshit. Closing my eyes was the only way I could get away from this reality, but it did not seem to be working. I could still hear the guards hitting him harder and harder and Vincent trying as bravely as he could not to cry out. But eventually even with all the superhuman strength, he could not hold it in much. I heard him crying out over and over; I was in agony and so was he.
“I didn’t kill her,” Vincent said again when the guards finally stopped. The beating seemed to have been going on forever. I had never been more worried about him.
“You didn’t kill Gloria Darling, really Vincent?” The interrogator asked. “Then why, pray tell, was her body full of teeth and claw marks?” She paused and looked at me and then at him. “You look like you need a refresher course, so maybe you would like me to dig her up and show her dead body to you?” I looked at Vincent. By this time, I was struggling to breathe thanks to all the crying I had been doing.
“You know what, Vincent, here’s a better question. Do you even remember killing her? Do you know if you took her life or not?” I was looking at the woman as she prodded Vincent. “Can you tell me with certainty that you did not kill her?” I wanted to hear Vincent say yes. I wanted to hear him admit that he did not kill Gloria, but he didn’t speak. He was just standing there, holding on to the bars of the cage. I looked up at the screen, hyperventilating.
“Did you… did you do it?” I asked as I looked at him. “Was it…is it that…” I was struggling to get the right words out of my mouth but it seemed almost impossible to say anything close to audible. “Was it before you were cured?” I finally managed to ask. “Was it an accident?”
Vincent shook his head.
“Don’t believe anything they tell you, Winnie. Don’t let them get you twisted in their sick little game,” he looked at me, and I could almost see the honesty in his eyes, the honesty I had come to know and love… and even fall in love with.
“There is more to the story, baby. There is so much more to explain more than I can from this cell but no innocent man or woman…” He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. He groaned again, and I cried silently as the interrogator shocked him again.
“Please…please stop it,” I cried as I watched his almost lifeless body reach to the current that was going through him.
“Enough with the lies!” The interrogator said.
I could sense the anger in her voice. She was getting antsy, and I knew that would not be good for Vincent. She seemed to have been taking her anger out on him more and more in the last few minutes.
“You want to know what the truth is, Winnie?” She asked as she looked at me. But I was not really looking at her. I was looking at the love of my life wondering how life could be so mean as to give me this perfect man only to take him back in the worst way possible.
“The truth as I am trying to show you, as we are all trying to show you, is that Vincent Muse is more than just a dangerous man,” she said.
I shook my head. “No!”
“Yes he is, Winnie. He is a beast, and the sooner you accept this, the better it will be for you.” I was still shaking my head, crying uncontrollably. “I mean really, would you trust a snake to its word?” I looked up at her. My vision was already hazy thanks to all the tears that had welled up in my eyes.
“Well, I wouldn’t, but I think you might. But there is no