Page 40 of Kill Me

“Have you got their names?” She reaches for her laptop, opening it up and typing in her password. Trident gives us access to certain systems that most civilians wouldn’t have access to, which can be beneficial. I’m kicking myself because I hadn’t thought about that until now.

“Yeah. The mother is called Andrea, the father is Kirk, and the brother is Eric. Surname is Burrows.”

“With a name like Eric, it’s no wonder he’s a cunt.”

“Cuz! You can’t tar all Erics with the same brush. What about Eric Northman from True Blood?”

“You just proved my point because he’s a cunt as well. He tried to steal Sookie Stackhouse from Bill, and I’ll never forgive him for that. FUCK THE ERICS OF THIS WORLD!” She holds her arms above her head like she’s running into battle. She’s absolutely fucked.

“So, what’s your goal?”

“The goal is to get her out of that facility and back to mine.”

“Oooooo, kinky. I like your style.”

“Stop being a little hoe. I meant to the annex so she can heal and recover. She said she hears voices and feels like she’s losing her mind. But, after meeting her mother and brother, I can’t help but feel there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that I will never find out without getting her into therapy. I don’t think traditional therapy will be as beneficial for her as it would for others, but ketamine therapy could help her massively.”

“Is this purely professional, or is there another reason you want to help? No judgement, but I need the full story, you know this.”

“Honestly? There’s something about her that totally eclipses my world. Like she’s the sun and I’m a measly planet orbiting around her.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re an absolute cheeseball?”

“Yeah, you.”

“Ahh, well, it must be true if I’ve said it then.” She cackles to herself like she’s a stand-up comedian who just delivered the punchline to the audience.

She types for a few minutes. “I’m worried that I’ll be too late and she’ll have already had the ECT therapy. I looked into this place online, and the reviews were less than flattering.”

“Cuz, if that’s the case, then she will have the perfect support system around her to help her get better when she gets out. We can’t worry about the what-ifs; we need to focus on what we can do now.”

The laptop beeps, signalling the search is complete. “Fuck.” Her face drops.

“What?”

“Eric owns a garage. He has two employees listed here. One who is clean, the other who has multiple incidents of violence against women, and Eric has a restraining order against him from an ex-girlfriend. From the looks of his secret social media account, he’s in a relationship with someone called Millie…”

“Wait, Millie?”

“Yeah, do you know her?”

“No, but Quinn mentioned her. She said she was the only friend she had had and that things had become distant recently.”

“Well, that makes sense. Best friend falls in love with narcissistic evil brother. I can only imagine the things he’s told her to contort her vision of Quinn and their friendship.”

“What about her mum and dad?”

“Her dad is clean. Seems like a hard-working guy who just wants to provide for his family. Works away a lot.”

“Which would explain how they’ve managed to abuse Quinn without him really observing it.”

“And her mother is a walking red flag. Debt up to her ears. Member of multiple groups on social media about narcissistic families, reports to social services about her parenting that were either never followed up on or she talked herself out of it. Previous instances of the police responding to noise complaints and an incident of attempted suicide where she tried to take the brother with her.”

“I’m sorry, what? And she didn’t go to prison?”

“No, looks like they put it down to untreated depression.”

“Typical. Untrained people making decisions about what people with depression do. It’s a joke. Plenty of parents have depression and don’t try to kill their kids.”