Justified Betrayal

Prompt: After being told a deep, dark secret from someone, you decide to return the trust and also tell a deep, dark secret. One of you is lying.

Word count: 690 words

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The figure of a young woman with blonde hair could be seen waiting on the porch of Suzanne Reynolds, her posture tense and rigid as she rang the doorbell.

The door opened to reveal a woman in her early fifties, with grey hair amidst her blonde curls and tanned skin. Her azure eyes glowed with recognition as she pulled the young woman into a warm embrace.

"Arianna! My baby! How are you?" Suzanne, her mother, greeted her. Her smile fell as she took in the fearful expression on her daughter's usually happy face.

"What's wrong, Arianna?", her mother asked, worried for her uneasy daughter.

When Arianna slightly shook her head in reply, Suzanne led her to the couch, sitting next to the troubled blonde, and asked, "Tell me what happened, darling?"

"Have you ever done something so horrible that others would hate you for it?", Arianna asked, her voice full of guilt and shame.

The question made Suzanne take a sharp intake of breath. 'She couldn't have found out, could she? There was no way she could have, right?' Suzanne thought fearfully as she hesitated, hoping that her daughter hadn't noticed it.

"Yes," Suzanne whispered, unaware that Arianna's trained senses had caught it.

"Tell me what happened, dear?" Suzanne pleaded.

"I-I killed John," Arianna whispered, her eyes suddenly finding the green carpet very interesting.

Suzanne gasped. John was Arianna's partner against crime for five years now. They have been best friends for even longer.

"H-How?"Suzanne managed to ask through her shock.

"I-I-We were chasing this crook on a mission and he was getting away. John was catching up with him. I shot at him to slow him down but I underestimated the crook. He used John's body as a shield. I-I didn't know. A bullet pierced his heart, killing him instantly. " Arianna stuttered out, her eyes fixed on the carpet.

Suzanne sighed deeply as she embraced her daughter. Self-preservation battled against motherly instincts.

'I should tell her about my murders. That will make her feel better, right?' a part of Suzanne thought.

'Arianna is a police officer now. Would I be safe?' she doubted.

'I am her mother. Surely she won't betray me? Besides, she killed someone too. She wouldn't sell me out like that.'

Finally convinced of her decision, Suzanne admitted to her daughter, "I will tell you something that will make you feel better. I have killed people too."

"W-What?!" Arianna gasped, her voice faltering.

"I didn't mean to!" Suzanne protested, panicking before she sighed in defeat.

"Who am I kidding? That was a blatant lie. I did it on my own free will. I am so sorry, Darling. I have been hiding it for so long that I have gotten used to it.", Suzanne admitted, twirling a strand of Arianna's hair nervously.

Suzanne stared at the strand with glazed eyes, as if in a trance.

" It was wonderful. Exhilarating.", Suzanne confessed, her eyes gaining a mad glint they had previously hidden. "The fear in their eyes. Their lifeless gazes. Their terrified screams. Oh, it's like music to my ears! The sound of blood gushing out, glistening a beautiful shade of red. The rush of adrenaline. It's all so addictive."

Suzanne was so entranced that she failed to notice her daughter straighten, all traces of guilt, shock, and fear gone as she glared hostilely at her.

"You were never the same after Dad died." Arianna spat bitterly.

"Arianna? What do you mean?" her mother asked, confused.

Arianna explained as she got off the couch, "I was lying the whole time. I never killed John. In fact, he is listening to us right now." She revealed the tiny mic hidden in her person before continuing, "I didn't want things to turn out like this but I guess duty calls."

She took out her trusty loaded pistol and held it in her mother's direction as she said the words that made Suzanne reel back in her couch in shock and betrayal.

No one noticed the tear falling down her cheek as she said," Suzanne Reynolds, you are under arrest for multiple murders in the name of Law and Justice." 

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