TOPPER THORNTON SAT IN NEWLY APPOINTED SHERIFF SHOUPE'S OFFICE, HIS FACE BURIED IN HIS HANDS. He was taken here after coming out of the church impersonating John B. He tried to think of what they could charge him with, but as far as he knew, pretending to be John B was not a crime.
His mind wandered over to his sister, unable to get the picture of her distressed face from the attic of the bell tower out of his mind. She had gone through so much shit in the past few days, more than he knew he could handle, and yet she was still holding it together. Maybe they just had a different way of coping, but Topper always thought Talia was the emotionally stronger one of the two twins.
Topper never truly hated his sister. In all honesty, he was jealous of her. Their mother had always taken more of a liking to him, and he know how much it hurt Talia. She would never admit it, but all she wanted was her mom's approval. When Talia realized she would never get that, she deviated from her mother's plan that had been set in place for her since birth and made her own. Topper wished he could do that, and that's where his anger towards her stemmed. He wished he was strong enough to do that, but Talia, once again, proved to be the stronger one.
Seeing her tonight in the bell tower with John B showed Topper another side of his sister. She showed that her loyalty to the people she loves and cares about knows no end. In the moment, he couldn't help but think that Talia was blinded by John B and that he had somehow brainwashed her. Now, with knowing the truth about who shot Sheriff Peterkin, he couldn't help but admire how far she was willing to go to protect the people she loved.
He was brought out of his thoughts when Shoupe entered the room, his jacket soaked with rain from the storm. Topper immediately stood up, and he watched the him close the door behind him. The man ran a hand through his hair, and looked up to the distressed boy.
"You're gonna want to sit down for this." Shoupe told him, and Topper looked at him expressionless.
"I'm fine, thanks." He responded, and Shoupe took a deep breath.
"It's about your sister." He said quietly, almost as if he was afraid. What did he have to be afraid about?
"Okay, what about her? Did she tell you what really happened? She was there, you know." Topper rambled, and Shoupe put his hand up to stop him.
"She and Routledge got a boat somehow and were trying to escape. They went straight into the storm." He spoke in short sentences, as of he was holding back tears. Topper looked at him in confusion.
"So? Did you find them, or what? What's wrong?" He asked, his voice becoming slightly louder as he moved closer to Shoupe. The man bit his lip and looked away, before looking into the angry teens eyes.
"You know what happens when you go straight into a tropical depression, Topper." He told him, and the realization of what he was trying to say hit Topper like a ton of bricks.
"No. No." He shook his head in disbelief. "They're still out there, you're just not looking hard enough!" He fully shouted at Shoupe, trying to blink away the tears in his eyes.
"We're still looking, but it's not likely we're gonna find them, you know that-" He stopped speaking when he noticed Topper staring out the open window of the door. He turned his head to see what he was looking at, and he saw Maria Thorntom slightly stumbling into the police station.
"Top-" Topper shoved past Shoupe and swung open the door, almost breaking it off of the hinges. He pushed past the other police officers in the busy police station and stood before his mother.
"You, this is all your fault!" He cried, moving closer to his mother and pointing in her face. "If you weren't such a shitty mother to her, she would still be here! She would still be alive!" He screamed, having the other officers pull him back. Maria's eyes were bloodshot, either from crying or the booze, most likely the alcohol. She watched her son in bewilderment. She had never seen him like this before.
"How are you gonna live with yourself knowing you killed your own child?" He growled, and Shoupe shouted for the officers to let go of him. Tears ran down Topper's face in thick rivers, and he was shaking uncontrollably. Shoupe clapped his hand over his shoulder, pulling him in and wrapping his arms around him. Topper completely broke down, sobbing into Shoupe's soaked jacket, gripping the fabric as tightly as he could.
"I hate her, how could she do this?" He sobbed, and Shoupe held him tighter, looking over his shoulder to Maria, who stood frozen in place.
As Topper stood in the middle of the police station, he realized why Talia had told him that she loved him in the bell tower. It was her way of saying goodbye. She knew that against Ward Cameron, John B's name would never be cleared. He knew that she didn't intend on dying, his sister would never do that. The storm was unexpected, and her and John B had no choice but to go into it.
He knew his mother wasn't the sole cause of Talia's leaving, but she sure didn't help to prevent it. If she had only treated Talia and Topper equally, she could still be here.
He thought he had the rest of his life to be with her. He wanted to reach all the milestones with her, just like they had done all their lives. He knew that eventually, they would put aside their differences and be as close as they were when they were kids. But now, that day may never come. He knew that the cops would keep searching, but they could never find her, dead or alive.
Topper thought he would know if something bad had happened to her. Like he would feel a pit open in his stomach, or he would get a sinking feeling in his heart. But right now, he didn't feel any of those. All he felt was pain and anger. Pain that he could never see his sister again, and anger at his mother for being one of the reasons that Talia was put in this situation in the first place. Maybe someday he could feel if Talia was really gone, but right now, all he felt was pain, anger, and the emptiness in his heart that he could never see his twin again.
i'm back bitches 😎 i got this idea from a comment on my last chapter, and i decided to destroy myself and write this. if you want more chapter like this with preseason one moments, let me know! i hope you enjoyed this mini chapter, and it would mean the world to me of you would check out my jj fic golden hour! love y'all and thank you for all the support and love on this book, it means the world to me.
love, brooke :)