KILLER QUEEN
chapter sixty-five ; are you the mole?
[ season six, episode nine ]
"I CAN'T FIND MY KEYS," Michaela complained. April, who was standing the closest to her, turned to look at her.
"They're in your hands." Michaela chuckled when she looked down and saw that she was holding them. They were wearing their graduation gowns and caps.
"Hello, is the FBI in there?" Connor called out.
Michaela finally managed to unlock the door. "That joke wasn't funny the first time," she told Connor, annoyed.
Michaela opened the door. "Everyone chug," Asher said. He gave the orange juice to April as they walked in. They were hoping the organs juice would sober them up— they were high.
"Why do we want this feeling to end?" Oliver walked in last and closed the door. They were carrying grocery bags.
"I just want to feel normal," Michaela muttered, taking the orange juice from April. Her phone started ringing.
"FBI?" Connor asked. He was no different now than when he was sober, except now he was thinking out loud.
"Unknown caller."
"Maybe it's Peyton ready for round 2." They went to the kitchen. Michaela declined the call.
"April did give Peyton my number instead of her own." Michaela looked over at April with a slight glare.
April was sitting by the counter. She shrugged. "She's lucky I didn't knock out her fake teeth."
"Only 'cause I stopped you," Asher said.
"Can we talk about what happened right after that?" Oliver asked. He was the most out of it.
"No," Michaela deadpanned.
"Why don't you just say yes?"
"I'm high, not insane."
"Ouch," Connor muttered. Michaela's phone started ringing again.
Michaela looked at her phone. "Now they're FaceTiming me." They all glanced at each other, wondering who this could be. "I'm just gonna answer."
Connor stepped forward. "Michaela, no."
But Michaela didn't listen. And she answered the call. "Hello?" The phone was glitching. The rest gathered to see who this person was.
They were shocked when the phone stopped glitching, and a face appeared. "It's me, Michaela."
"Laurel?!"
"Oh, my god," Connor mumbled.
"Are we hallucinating?" Oliver questioned.
They hadn't seen Laurel in a very long time, and she was calling. "Just— okay, listen."
"Are you the mole?"
"No! It wasn't me, I swear," she told Michaela. "I would never turn you guys in, okay? But, obviously, someone else did."
REWIND; 10:03 am
"You're all wondering why I called you here today," Annalise started. Her students on their seats, paying attention. "You passed your final exam. Tomorrow, you graduate. But I had to say something before we part way for good."
"I know that you all ask yourselves why I'm still here, teaching, considering the hot mess my life has been the last three years. Well, the answer is simple— you."
"No one should be falsely accused of crimes they didn't commit. But it happens to people far worse off than me. And here's where you come in. I teach so that some of you will make sure that the Justice system lives up to its name. Even though I know that most of you will sell out and do corporate, some of you— the brave ones— will forge your own path, a path that doesn't put money or greed or glory first, but your clients."
"So think hard about who you want to be because, in 24 hours, you graduate, and you'll be free of me... free from Middleton... free from your families. So, whoever you decide to be, make yourself proud."
"That was a drunk speech," Connor muttered. They entered the house.
"Yeah," Michaela agreed. "That was a get lost and be nothing like me because my life's a huge disaster speech."
"Annalise gave a speech?" Oliver asked. He was sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Yeah," Connor replied. "She basically told us to go out into the world and be good people."
"Drunk speech," April added. "A good drunk speech."
"On that note, I have gifts." Oliver handed each of them a small box.
"Oooh! Tiny puppies?" Asher gushed.
"No. It's better. Open up."
April opened her gift, and she was surprised by what she saw, especially because it was from Oliver. "Wow," she chuckled. "I was not expecting this."
"What is it?" Michaela asked, confused.
"Are we taking a cooking class, Oli?" Asher asked Oliver.
"They're shrooms," Connor stated.
"They're psilocybin mushrooms that can heal psychic wounds— you know, like, from the last three years," Oliver informed.
"Or unlock all of the deeds that we've worked very hard to bury."
"Okay, which is it?" Michaela asked, glancing between Oliver and Asher.
"Asher's wrong. I'm right. It'll be fun...gi." Oliver chuckled at his own joke.
Connor didn't seem to like the idea. "We're supposed to meet my mom for dinner soon."
"I texted her and told her I was taking you out for dinner, and she should just meets us here tomorrow before the ceremony."
"Looks like you've got it all covered," April said. She was holding the mushroom. "Are we doing this or what?"
"Yes, that's the spirit!" Oliver cheered.
"Screw it!" Michaela declared, wanting to do it as well.
"Yeah, what the hell?" Connor mumbled. A little wouldn't hurt.
"Bon voyage."
꧁ ꧂
"YOU CAN'T FIND HER?" Michaela was standing with her arms crossed, gazing at Bonnie and Frank. They were all in the living room of the house.
"She went to the dean's party," Frank replied.
"Or she took off," Connor muttered. He went to stand next to April.
Bonnie seemed frustrated, and they couldn't really blame her for that. "Annalise is the one with her name spread all over the news. If anyone gets to panic here, it's her."
"How do we know she's not the informant?"
Frank quickly shut the idea down. "Shut the hell up." He knew Annalise more than the students did.
"She gave a cheesy goodbye speech this morning."
"This could be anyone." Frank was not happy that Connor was trying to put the blame on Annalise. "Xavier's making crap up."
"Gabriel?" Michaela asked.
"One of you?" Bonnie shot back.
"It's obvious who it is," Asher spoke up. "Laurel." Frank narrows his eyes at him.
Oliver let out a laugh, quickly covering his mouth with his hands. They all looked at him. "Oliver," April scolded him.
"I'm sorry," Oliver laughed. "I know it's not funny."
Frank frowned. "What's wrong with him?" He pointed at Oliver.
"He took mushrooms," Connor stated.
"We all did," April added.
Frank gave them a look of disapproval. "Morons."
"They're not working on the rest of us," Connor said in an attempt to defend himself.
Michaela was holding her head. "Not true." She sighed. "Oh, no. I think the panic sped up the digestion, and, yeah, it's working." She took a seat. "And I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I hate you, Oliver."
Oliver was still laughing. "Just— stay here," Frank ordered them and turned to leave with Bonnie.
April followed them to the door. "Why didn't you guys tell me about Miller?" She could feel the mushroom starting to take effect.
Frank and Bonnie glanced at each other. "You've been through enough already," she told April.
"What's done is done," Frank added. "Go back to your friends." He then left along with Bonnie.
꧁ ꧂
"ALRIGHT. BUDDY SYSTEM. No man left behind." Asher waved his arm, letting the other walk past him in the aisle. They were at the store, looking for something sweet to eat.
April and Michaela were looking for candy. "This." April grabbed a small bag of sweets. "My favorite." She smiled brightly as she opened it right there.
Michaela laughed as she watched April struggle with opening the bag. "Aren't you supposed to be a genius?"
April laughed with her. "I am?" The laughter soon died down.
"Oh, my god." April and Michaela straightened up and saw Peyton standing there. She looked surprised to see them.
"Oh, my god," April mocked her.
"Sorry, I just... well, I thought you all might be somewhere else," Peyton explained with a shrug. "Like jail."
April gave a fake chuckle, approaching Peyton. "For what?" Her smile dropped. "For beating your ass?"
"Hey, there's no need for that." Asher pulled April back. "We're all friends here."
Peyton ignored Asher. "I'll tell Gabriel you said hi." She turned and left.
April growled and stepped toward her but was stopped by Asher. "Okay. No, no, no. We're not doing that." He pulled her back to the group, and she started eating her candy again, calming down.
"I'm high, not insane."
"Ouch," Connor muttered. Michaela's phone started ringing again.
Michaela looked at her phone. "Now they're FaceTiming me." They all glanced at each other, wondering who this could be. "I'm just gonna answer."
Connor stepped forward. "Michaela, no."
But Michaela didn't listen. And she answered the call. "Hello?" The phone was glitching. The rest gathered to see who this person was.
They were shocked when the phone stopped glitching and a face appeared. "It's me, Michaela."
"Laurel?!"
"Oh, my god," Connor mumbled.
"Are we hallucinating?" Oliver questioned.
They hadn't seen Laurel in a very long time, and she was calling. "Just— okay, listen."
"Are you the mole?"
"No! It wasn't me, I swear," she told Michaela. "I would never turn you guys in, okay? But, obviously, someone else did."
"How do you know about any of this?"
"I saw the news."
"How?" Asher asked, still shocked. "W-where are you?"
"Listen, I can't say in case my brother's listening."
"Laurel, you ruined our lives."
"I'm sorry, okay?" Laurel told Michaela. "But someone who knows everything turned on you. And I swear on Christopher's life, it wasn't me."
Oliver was unsure. "How do we know that Christopher's still alive?"
"He's right here." Laurel pinned the camera down, revealing Christopher.
"Oh, my god," Michaela muttered under her breath. Laurel put the camera back on herself again.
"How do we know that the FBI didn't put you up to this?" Connor questioned.
"They didn't."
"But they're who helped you disappear, right? Y-you're in witness protection?"
"No."
"Christopher didn't crawl out of this house on his own. Someone had to help you do all this."
"I did," April stated. They turned to her, shocked by the revelation. "Tegan and I helped Laurel disappear."
"It's true," Laurel told them. "They helped me. And I'm not the informant, I swear. Okay?"
"We don't believe you!" Connor snapped at her.
"I love you all." Laurel hung up.
"Tegan's not answering." Michaela put her phone away.
"Maybe she's the mole," Asher stated. "Or Laurel."
"It's not Laurel," April told him, starting to get annoyed by that theory. She had always been loyal.
"It's probably Annalise," Connor said. "The goodbye speech, the whole Snow White and the murderous dwarfs exam. It's her. She's the informant."
"It doesn't make any sense," April argued. "I mean, everything would lead back to her. It would make her a bigger suspect to the police and the FBI."
"It makes more sense that it's Tegan," Asher said, somewhat siding with April. "Or Gabriel. Or your mom," he said to April.
"Gabriel doesn't know anything."
"Neither does my mom," April added after Connor. She was looking at Asher, just like Michaela was. They both thought he was acting weird.
"It's Annalise," Connor went back to that. "She's doing what she should've done the night with Sam."
"Fine," Asher gave in. "Maybe you're right," he told Connor. "Maybe it's AK."
"It's not Annalise," April stated. She was staring at Asher. "But you knew that."
Michaela spoke up, siding with April. "It's why you didn't take the mushrooms. You were probably scared you'd reveal something."
"It's not me," Asher insisted.
Connor seemed to believe April and Michaela. "You do keep pointing your finger at everyone else."
"This is how these stupid leaks work. They get us all paranoid, so we turn on each other. And then all the hard work we did to have each other's backs, to be loyal, to trust each other— that goes out the window the second we all turn on our own, okay? We're family. You're my family. I would never... I wouldn't...," he trails off.
April crossed her arms. "Tell us the truth, Asher." Michaela seemed especially hurt by this. She was tearing up knowing one of her closest friends turned on her. "It's you."
Asher seemed regretful. Taking his time to answer because he knew how they would react. They were not going to trust him anymore. He ruined the relationship he had with the people closest to him. "Yeah," he breathed out— confirming their theory.
"And I know that Karen has been working with them too. That's why she was released early. Look, the good thing is, I-I haven't given the FBI anything concrete yet," Asher cried.
April looked at him, feeling betrayed. And maybe that was why she was tearing up, or perhaps it was the mushrooms. She didn't know, but the feeling of betrayal or overwhelming.
"That's— that's why they haven't arrested any of us. Everything we saw on the news about— about them thinking that more than one person was involved in Sam's murder? That's all stuff that they suspected before. I promise, I never got anyone on record saying anything—" Asher was cut off mid-sentence when he was hit in the back of the head with a fire poker. This knocked him unconscious— his body fell to the ground.
"Why did you do that?" Michaela asked, freaked out. Oliver was standing by Asher with the fire poker in his hand.
"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know."
"Someone check if he's dead."
April kneeled next to Asher and checked his pulse. "He's fine." He was bleeding from his head. She was keeping an eye on him, trying to ignore the arguing coming from the other three in the room.
"Guys!" April interrupted their bickering when she noticed Asher opening his eyes.
Michaela kneeled next to him. "Asher?" Oliver kept apologizing for what he did. "Are you okay?"
Asher blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. "I'm calling an ambulance."
"No, no, no, no," Asher protested. "I'm good." He touched the back of his head. His hand got stained with blood, and he wiped it on his shirt.
"Get a towel," Michaela told Connor, who left to get one. "It's probably a scalp wound. Those— those bleed a lot."
April got up. "Excuse me," she mumbled before leaving the house.
Connor and Michaela walked out to the porch and saw April sitting there alone. She looked calmer, and the mushrooms had almost passed through her system. They sat next to her.
"Maybe he's right," Connor said after a brief pause.
"You think so?"
"What choice do we have?"
"I'm not making this decision on shrooms."
April then spoke up. "We have at least two hours before we have to line up."
Connor and Michaela turned to her. He looked at her with a frown, not understanding why she was bringing that up after what happened with Asher. "Are you kidding me?"
April turned to them. "I don't know about you, but I'm graduating."
Michaela nodded, siding with April. "Me too. That's who I am— a brilliant, come-from-nothing badass boss who's not going to let some stupid boy or the FBI get in her formidable way."
"Asher?!" They heard Oliver yell. The three got up and went back inside, wondering what was happening. "Asher?!"
"Where is he?" Michaela asked, running over to Oliver.
"I went to get a fresh towel, and he's gone," Oliver explained. The back door was open.
Oliver had cleaned the floor. "See? Clean as a whistle, like it never happened."
"It happened."
Michaela made her way down the stairs. "We're not talking about that today."
"Right." Oliver looked at his friends, who were all ready to graduate. "You look great."
"We look like ass," Connor deadpanned.
"Looking like ass is better than not graduating at all," April stated. She was sitting on the couch, still thinking about Asher. She looked tired. There was a knock on the door. "Great."
"Pam's early. Twenty bucks says her first question is where is Asher?" Connor went to answer the door, and it was not Pam.
"Are you Connor Walsh?" The woman at the door asked. April went and stood next to Oliver and Michaela.
"Yeah."
The woman walked past him with two men behind her. "Michaela Pratt and April Coleman?"
April and Michaela glanced at each other confused. "Yes," they replied.
"You three are under arrest for murder." The students started arguing with them— why were they under arrest? Why was this happening now?
The woman put cuffs on April— Connor and Michaela were also being handcuffed. "Wait! Who died?!" April demanded. She looked the woman dead in the eyes.
"Asher Millstone," the woman answered. The answer shocked them. Asher left the house alive, so why were they being arrested? April was speechless.
"This is a big misunderstanding!" Oliver called out after them. The students were dragged out of the house by the agent and the officers.
꧁ ꧂
FLASH FORWARD
There was memorial service sometime in the future, and there was a big crowd. A woman was standing in front of them, sharing kind words about the departed. A man, who resembled Wes to a T, made his way through the crowd. He wanted to be at the front and perhaps share a few words.
꧁ ꧂
WORDS: 2920