Cassidy stared at the Rose before her and couldn't believe this woman was her sister.
"What happened to you?" Cassidy whispered.
How had Rose become the woman she was? She couldn't comprehend how her sister could have changed this much.
"You didn't find that out in your search for me?" Rose questioned.
"If you knew where I was, why didn't you ever come to me?"
"To ruin your pretty happy life you had here for yourself? No, I didn't want to do that. One of us deserved happiness."
"Then why are you here now?"
"That was before I knew who the people adopted you were."
Rose turned to face Martha and Leon who were still bleeding from the wounds inflicted on them.
"Your hate for them is what brought you to me?"
"I've known where you were for over a year. But when I found out they were your parents, I was fuming. And the more I saw the life you had with them, the more I realized that this was my life. You stole my life."
"I didn't steal anything," Cassidy said, confused at the change in her sister's tone.
"You did! It should have been me! I should be the one living in this fancy house," Rose shouted.
"Is that why you hate me?"
"You had all the riches in the world while I was stuck with another man who thought it was fun to hit me until I screamed."
Rose shuddered as though she was remembering what it had been like.
"But you wanted happiness for me," Cassidy argued, not understanding.
Rose's reasoning behind her hate was difficult to comprehend. It almost seemed as though Rose herself had no idea why she hated Cassidy.
"I didn't want my happiness for you. All you've ever done is steal my happiness," Rose accused.
"What are you talking about?" Cassidy asked even more confused.
It was beginning to get difficult to keep up with the changes in Rose's thoughts.
Sounds of cars driving up drifted into the silence. Cassidy looked up, hoping to see anything but the only door in the living room opened up to the back yard. There was no way to see if that was Wyatt that had come to the rescue.
"Sounds like your lover boy is here," Rose snarled.
She walked to the front door to peer out.
"Mom," Cassidy whispered, taking this time to check on her mother.
"Mom!"
"Cassidy," her mother whispered back weakly.
"Help is here," she whispered and hoped.
"Don't...let her...get to Seth," her mother forced out.
"I won't," Cassidy promised.
Even if it meant her life, Cassidy was going to make sure nothing happened to Seth. He was too young to be killed by her psychotic serial killer sister.
Cassidy was about to call out to her father, when she heard Rose's footsteps make their way back to the living room.
"He got here pretty fast. Must have broken all the traffic laws. Do you think he'll give himself a ticket?" Rose laughed.
Cassidy kept quiet.
"I do wonder, what does he see in you? Why is he so invested in this case?"
"He wants to catch a killer," she answered.
"No that's not it. He's heavily invested in this case. Especially in you. I mean they didn't hold you that long when they found your DNA at the scene," Rose mused.
"How do you know about that?"
Cassidy turned back to Rose, her attention back on her.
"How do you think?" she smirked.
Wyatt had mentioned to Cassidy that the family had been killed with the same MO as the others, which meant...Rose had killed them.
"You killed them."
Rose took a bow.
"I have to say I did think they were going to press charges against you. DNA at the scene is pretty hard-core evidence."
"It was circumstantial at best. Not on the murder weapon or even close to where the bodies were found."
"I knew I should have put it somewhere else."
"How did you even get my fingerprints and blood?" Cassidy questioned.
It had always bothered her that the detective had found her prints and DNA at the scene. She had never visited that house before. And Wyatt hadn't been able to provide her with a reason.
"The blood was easy. I cut you walking on the street that day," Rose said smiling.
Cut her? Cassidy ran through her memories. Had she been cut on the street? Wait, that same morning while walking to the bakery. She thought it had been because of someone's clothing.
"And my fingerprints?"
"You leave your glasses unattended at the bakery a lot. I had someone slip in and take it. It took a bit longer to transfer the prints."
"What was the point in all of that?"
"To have you charged for murder, of course."
"What?" Cassidy asked in disbelief.
"Had you done the deliveries that day, you would have found the bodies. You would have called the police and as your blood and fingerprints would have been at the scene, they would have thought you were the murderer."
"But you put the evidence on the back door handle?"
"Well I never intended for you to go to prison. It was honestly just for a bit of fun."
"You thought me getting arrested would be fun?" Cassidy seethed.
Nothing about that experience had been fun. She had been terrified that she really would go to prison.
"It was for me," Rose answered shrugging.
"I don't understand you," Cassidy said softly.
"What?"
Cassidy rose her head and looked at Rose directly. The same brown eyes stared back at her.
"I'm trying to understand how you've become the person you are, but nothing you say makes sense. You like me then hate me. You frame me for murders you committed. You're killing people, innocent people. I don't understand anything you're doing."
"Why do you care?"
"Because I want to understand you. I want to understand why you've become the person that you are. You're my sister. That hasn't changed despite all the terrible things that you've done."
"I don't need you to understand me," Rose shouted.
"Why? At least tell me why you're killing these innocent people. What's your reasoning behind that?"
Rose stared at her silently. Cassidy couldn't tell whether she was thinking of a reason or debating whether to reveal her reason.
"I don't have one," she answered eventually.
"What?" Cassidy asked confused.
"I don't have a reason for killing them," Rose repeated in a monotone voice.
"What do you mean you don't have a reason?"
Rose shrugged.
"There's no reason. I just do it because I want to."
"You kill innocent people because you want to?"
Rose nodded.
"Pretty much. The first few were just for fun honestly. I liked it. And then while I was in prison, I got talking with some of the inmates. They said its much more fun when you have a pattern. Playing with the police is fun. And they were right. Playing with the police was really fun."
The broad grin on Rose's face disgusted Cassidy. She spoke of it with such joy, it was as though they were discussing a happy memory.
"There were victims before you went to prison?" Cassidy questioned.
That statement had stuck with her. As far as Wyatt or the police knew, the first victims had been a family. They hadn't traced any other murders to Rose.
"A few, not many. Just people that annoyed me. It was fun to watch them beg for their life as the blood seeped out of their body," she answered, twirling her knife in her hand.
Cassidy glanced back at her parents, who were looking worse as time went by. Her father's eyes were closed, and the movement of his chest was barely visible. He didn't have much time again.
"How can you do this?"
"Cause it's fun."
Fun? Her sister, the little girl she had grown up with, thought that killing people was fun. How was she supposed to process this?
"I don't know who you are anymore," Cassidy whispered.
Rose walked over to her, grabbing her chin, and forcing her head upwards, the knife dangling close to her cheek.
"I don't care. I never sought your approval to begin with. All I want is them dead," Rose snarled, pointing to Leon and Martha with her knife.
"You will suffer as I've suffered over the years."
"Will that make you feel better?" Cassidy asked, not backing down.
Rose grinned.
"Would making me suffer like you make you feel better about the crappy life that you had?" Cassidy shouted.
Rose brought her knife to Cassidy's throat.
"I'm not sure if I care for you to be alive anymore."
"Are you going to kill me? Just like you've killed everyone else?"
At this point, Cassidy was exhausted. All she wanted was for this to end.
"Don't provoke me," Rose seethed, the knife pressed against Cassidy's throat.
"Or what? You actually would kill me. Go right ahead! I'm not sure I want to live in a world where my sister is a murderer."
The knife pressed further in Cassidy's neck, and she felt it prick her skin and the blood flow.
"All you've ever done your whole life is take what's mine. You took everything I wanted. My life, my happiness. You made me this way, just as much as he did," Rose screamed.
There was no denying that the he she was talking about was their father, though Cassidy was unsure as to why Rose blamed her.
"You always hid behind me. I got all the beatings. You always got the scraps, but I took all the real blows. All the kicks and cuts, I took them all. And you repaid me by stealing the family that was meant for me. You don't deserve to live."
There was no mistaking the anger and rage in Rose's eyes. She was serious about everything she had just said.
Cassidy closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate. There was nothing she could do anymore. She only prayed that Wyatt came soon and rescued her parents and Seth. Her parents had lost a lot of blood, but she was sure they could be saved. She hoped that they could be.
Once her family was safe, that was all that mattered.