❝Sometimes you need to run away just to see who will come after you. But it's the monsters you ran from who come.❞
☒
In which an accidental murder leads to accidental discoveries that should've stayed in the dark.
The small town of East Vienna is h...
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RUNNING AWAY WAS not the answer to every one of Kiera's problems. But then again, confrontation is easier said than done. Even if she chose flight out of the fight, flight or freeze options of a reaction to panic, Detective Knowles would undoubtedly find a way to clip her wings.
Unconsciously, Kiera began to slowly close the door until only half of Knowles' face and the police car parked in the driveway could be seen. That was, until she saw that there was another car parked right beside it.
Her car.
Knowles put a hand to the door and pushed it back, snapping Kiera out of a daze and putting her back into a reality where confusion was to be dealt with now.
"Is there a problem, Detective?" She made sure to raise her chin and straighten out her back. A superficial display of normalcy would at least throw off any suspicion he had temporarily. Her eyes couldn't do the same. They directed themselves between the crooked welcome mat and repaired headlights of her car.
"Yes, actually. We're just checking around the neighborhoods because there is a report of a missing woman."
A report? Already? It hadn't even been twelve hours.
She was aware that Knowles looked directly at her with every word he said. She prayed her mother would interrupt and break the tension with a witty remark or even a gentle smile. It would calm the questions that were hammering in her head and begging to be answered.
"We keep to ourselves anyways. I don't think we can help," Kiera gulped, hoping he didn't see the tremble in the fingers that kept themselves on the door.
"Are you sure? At least take a look at the picture and tell me if you've seen her around?" Knowles dug into his pocket to take out a passport sized picture. He held it between his fingers and in front of Kiera's face.
It was the woman.
Kiera brought a strand of hair to tuck behind her ear and grabbed the picture with her hand. If she had stood still for another moment, she would've been frozen with established trauma.
The woman smiled into the camera and her shining eyes followed the person taking the picture. She had her wiry arm around someone, but the picture cut them off. Compared to the ostentatious impression she had given Kiera, she was modest in her appearance—her hair was longer and her face was free of makeup.
"She's Genevieve Burdin." Knowles took back the picture, slipping out of Kiera's hands like water, and put it away, all the while keeping his sight trained on Kiera's movements.
Another shock jolted her senses and she felt her grip on the door loosening. The woman was a person with a name. But most of all, she was Genevieve Burdin.
