Delilah was in a daze. Red, white and blue lights flashed in her vision as she stared emptily at the lake she had just been submerged in. She hadn't stood a chance. She felt as if she didn't stand a chance for any of this going on. Eddie had been banging on the boat's engine, trying to yank at the draw string and get it going, but nothing he did worked. The only option they had was to swim away. Delilah sat in the back of the cop car, shivering and covered in a blanket. She glanced over at Jason Carver who was speaking to another police officer, also wrapped tightly in a blanket. She wondered what he was saying. Hopefully the truth. However, she doubted the likelihood of that happening. She continued to gaze back out at the lake as she remembered the young boy being lifted into the air- just like Eddie said she had and Chrissy. Vecna had gotten someone else, almost immediately after she had narrowly escaped him.
Eddie had been paddling away as Delilah looked on in horror at the sight of the bones cracking and the eyes . . . Holy shit his eyes. A shudder ran through her body as an officer opened the door she was sitting next to. She didn't bother to look up at him though. She was still horrified by what she had seen. Hell, by what she had just been through. How did she explain that to the police? How did she help clear Eddie's name now? The cop had begun to speak but Delilah couldn't focus on their words. All she kept thinking about was the boy's body and where the hell Eddie had gone. She felt a pang of hurt when she thought about how Eddie had swam away without looking back. At least she hadn't seen him or heard him calling her name or anything. It was like he just ran away. By the time she had been able to look away, Jason had caught up to her.
He kept asking her how Eddie did it. He didn't understand and couldn't begin to. She almost couldn't blame him for his wild accusations of Eddie being a devil worshipper and being capable of some kind of magic. It was just as outlandish as what was really going on.
"Miss Henderson? Miss Henderson?" The cop called out to her, slowly but finally dragging her attention to him, "Are you ready to answer some questions now?" Delilah shook her head no, not ready to relive what had just happened. "Do you want to see your parents?" Another question she shook her head no to. "Do you know where your little brother is?" Delilah could have rolled her eyes, but instead just continued to shake her head no, "Do you know where Edddie Munson is?"
Delilah looked up at the cop before she barely got out a, "No, I don't."
"How long have you been held here against your will? Do you know anything about Chrissy Cunningham?" The cop began to rattle off questions, she assumed in an attempt to grate on her and get some answers.
"You have no idea what's going on here," She spoke softly, shaking her head.
"Well that's why I'm asking you these questions," The cop went on, "Because I'm trying to understand, but between you just telling me no and that kid breathin satan worship down my neck, I don't really have a chance to get what's going on."
Delilah glazed over to focus on Jason once again, her eyes heavy and wet with tears. She knew he had concocted some grand scheme to make it look like Eddie was guilty. She bit down on her bottom lip before feeling tears jump at the inner corners of her eyes as she wondered what would happen to Eddie. What was going to happen to the whole town if this Vecna guy couldn't be stopped? Her skin crawled with goosebumps as she swore she could feel an empty hole in her mind where Vecna once reigned supreme. For some reason, as terrified as she was of him, she felt as if something was missing now that she had escaped him. Was that the only way to beat him? She wondered, clueless as to what the others had discovered by now.
"Come on, we'll take you down to the station and call your family," The cop said, shutting the door on her.
Her heart skipped a beat. Her mom, she could handle. She was almost sure she would just be thankful that Delilah was alright. She could also get her on board with Eddie being innocent she thought. Her father on the other hand was something she wasn't sure how to tackle. He had already displayed some disdain for Eddie in the past and also had made a comment about them living in sin once. She wasn't sure what kind of tirade he would be on. Especially if Jason Carver got out to the public. Surely no one would listen to him. He was just a dumb kid. Surely people in this town weren't /that/ impressionable. As the police car took off, she glanced around for any sign of Eddie. Just so she could know that he was safe. It was all she wanted in that moment. She didn't care about getting into trouble for harboring a fugitive and she didn't care about disappearing for a bit. She just wanted Eddie home safe.
Her breath hitched in her throat as she let out a couple of sobs. They didn't have to wait long at the police station for Claudia and Charles to show up.They were able to take their questioning, though Delilah was pretty much unresponsive for the most part. She just said no to almost everything and she wasn't completely lying. Except for the part about her younger sibling, she knew they were investigating Vecna but she couldn't very well tell the police that nor did she know where the group were holding their investigation. Delilah sat in a small room before she saw her parents come down the hall. Claudia immediately embraced her daughter in a tight hug, tears springing from her eyes as well. Delilah had hugged her back, realizing this was the first time since Christmas that she had been able to hug her mother. When they separated, Charles opened his arms for a hug but Delilah merely pushed past him. On the car ride home, it was deadly silent until Charles spoke up, of course.
"So you really don't know where your brother is?"
Delilah sat in silence, deciding to disregard his request for information from her.
"Delilah, if you know, you can tell us. We won't tell the police, we just want to make sure he's safe," Claudia spoke up this time.
"I said I don't know where he is. Or Eddie or anyone for that matter," She kind of snapped, but she didn't mean to sound so cold to her mother. It just had been coming naturally to her that evening.
"I swear to God, if I ever see that Eddie kid again I'll-"
"You'll what Charles?" Delilah raised her voice so loud, she could tell it startled both her mother and father, "Go on, finish your sentence please, I'm dying to know what you'll do once you find an innocent guy who had protected your son and daughter through all of this," She added, leaning up in her seat, waiting anxiously for her father to respond.
He didn't though. He went back to being silent in the front passenger seat. Delilah had managed to stay quiet and so did the rest of the car the rest of the way home. Upon their arrival, Delilah made a B-line to her bedroom. She tossed the blanket in the corner of her bedroom before she began to change her clothes. It felt strange being back in her old bedroom. She had stayed away from it for so long, only returning to swap out clothes or movies from staying at Eddie's for so long. She missed him terribly. She looked at her polaroids and saw one someone had taken of her, Dustin, ,and Eddie all in Hellfire Club t-shirts. Simpler times they were. Now she wasn't even sure if she could keep the love of her life out of jail. Let alone away from Vecna.
Delilah had spawned an idea as she slipped on a baggy Runaways t-shirt and a pair of bright red gym shorts. She took slow, hesitant steps out of her room and headed down the hallway to her brother's bedroom. She wiggled the handle to see if it was locked and luckily the door fell open softly. She saw the light illuminating the hallway she was in from the living room television as she stepped carefully into Dustin's room, shutting the door softly behind her. She immediately began rifling through his things. Various experiments, things he had built at science camp, comic books, a couple of horror movies he had forgotten to return to Delilah and then she saw the charging dock. A walkie talkie rested inside of it and she looked up, thanking a god she didn't believe in.
She removed it and turned it on, hoping it would be on the right channel. The walkie registered that it had been turned on by a small green light appearing at the top of it near the antenna. She pressed down on the talk button and began to plead into the radio.
"Dustin, Dustin are you there?" She called, releasing the button to wait to see if anyone came through. She waited for another moment or two before speaking into it again, "It's Delilah, the police found me but Eddie got away. Please call me when you can. Please," She begged.
As she decided to give up for now, she held the walkie close to her chest before exiting Dustin's room carefully. However, as she closed the door behind her, she was face to face with her mother. Adopted mother, but still her mother in her eyes. She had jumped lightly and hit the talk button on the walkie again for a split second, hoping they didn't come through right then.
"Everything okay?" She asked, looking down at the walkie talkie in her daughter's clutches.
"Oh yeah," She said, running a hand through her curly locks, "I just wanted to have this in case Dustin tried to contact me," She admitted. She didn't admit that there was a chance that Dustin knew where Eddie was.
"Oh, smart idea," She cooed at her eldest daughter, "Did he . . . . did he hurt you?" She asked, gingerly.
"No mom, he never touched me. I was there on my own accord," Delilah reassured her by reaching out and gently touching her arm, "Eddie is innocent, I'm telling you. All this hellfire is a cult thing . . . it's just a dungeons and dragons club. You have to believe me!" Delilah hadn't realized her voice was getting that loud until her mom shooshed her. Naturally so her father didn't over hear the conversation. If there was a time when his input was the opposite of wanted or needed, it was then.
"I believe you Delilah, I do," She said, still extending her hand towards her daughter's arm, "I just want to make sure Dustin is okay," Her eyes began to swim with tears before Delilah nodded in agreement. She wasn't sure what this Vecna guy was capable of nor did she understand the extent of Jason Carver's wrath.
"I'll make sure he's safe, no matter what," She promised.