Chapter 170 – A Difficult Conversation – Silver Brooks

This was shaping up to be an unusual Thursday night. Not only because I spent most of the evening alone with Alyssa, but because she gave me a bold idea. Alyssa, for all her shyness, had big ideas lying beneath the surface. Maybe that was why Holly kept her so close.

I’d hesitate to come out to the shady part of town on my own. It was literally and figuratively thanks to Alyssa that I was here now. She dropped me off in front of a house that could only be described as little more than a slum.

This house wasn’t just old. It was post-world war II old, hastily converted during a city-wide housing project a few years before I was born. Every house in this part of town was like that, often with the wear and tear to prove it.

This house in particular had a broken screen door and a discolored wood door that was chipping away around the edges. Most of the windows were boarded up crosswise, as if to deter potential thieves. The only one that wasn’t boarded up was the porch window that had an A/C unit poking out.

I took a deep breath in preparation.

“Here goes nothing, I guess.” I whispered to myself.

I knocked on the door just loud enough to interrupt the muffled conversation I could hear coming from inside. Their conversation immediately faltered. They probably weren’t expecting a visitor at this time of night. It took a moment for anyone to respond to my knocking. There was likely some apprehension.

A little girl peeped her head from behind the curtain of the nearby window and gave me a funny look. I smiled and waved, trying to appear as friendly as possible. I expected that she’d go get her parents, but no. She opened the door immediately after seeing me.

“Hello…?” The little girl asked.

“Hi, I’m here to…”

I was cut off by an older woman coming to the door.

“Nicole! What did I tell you about opening the door to strangers?”

“But she looked nice!” The little girl said.

“You shouldn’t answer this door for anyone without permission from me or your dad. Do you understand?”

“But look mama!” She said, pointing at me, “She’s got that uniform!”

“What unifo-… Oh…” The woman said, turning her attention to me. “Oh! She does!”

“You must be Mrs. Jakeman. My name’s Sylvie Brooks. I’m here to speak to…”

The woman snapped a finger at me.

“I remember you!”

“You do?”

“I talked to your mom a few years back during that enrollment meeting at the school.”

My eyes widened as I recalled the event in question. She was right. My mom briefly talked with her while we were waiting in line to turn in some enrollment paperwork. That was long ago. I was surprised that she remembered something like that so readily.

“That’s true…” I said. “I forgot about that until now.”

“It’s nice to see you! You look well! How is your mother?”

“She’s fine. She’s been taking off work recently to help my father out around the house. He was hurt a while back and he’s been recovering slowly.”

“Oh? I hope your dad gets well soon. Come on in! Come on in!” She said, waving me inside. “Nicole, go get your big sister! Tell her that a friend from school is here.”

“Okay!” The little girl said.

I shut the door behind me and stepped inside. There were a few other kids on the living room couch watching TV and playing games. I waved at them casually. That small action caused any hesitation they had to melt away. They excitedly sprang into action and ran towards me in excitement.

They grabbed me by the hands and tried pulling me into the living room. The youngest girl attached herself to my leg like a little parasite.

“Who’s she, mom?” The little boy asked.

“Wow! She’s got pretty hair!” The youngest girl said. “It’s just like my Barbie doll!”

“Mom, can you do my hair like that?!” Another girl asked. “I want color streaks in my hair too!”

“No, let go of her! She’s our guest!” Their mother demanded. “She’s here to see your big sister.”

Their mom disengaged them from me by pulling them away one-by-one. All the excitement caused their pet dog to run over and join us. The little Maltese had so much white fur on its small body that it looked like a mop head. It came right up to me without any fear.

I kneeled down to pet it. It flinched away at first and started sniffing my hand curiously. It let me pet it after that with no resistance.

“That’s our dog, Princess.” The little boy said.

I smiled.

“Princess, what a cute name.” I said.

“We call her that because she’s a spoiled brat.” Their mom said. “You should see the tantrums she throws when she’s begging for treats. She’s a handful.”

I laughed.

“That’s cute.”

That’s when the little girl that answered the door returned with her big sister following behind her. They were coming down the hallway when she finally got a good look at me. Black Brittney stumbled and subsequently froze in place upon seeing me kneeling in front of the doorway.

“Brittney!” Her mother said, “You didn’t tell me your friend was coming over! Ask her if she wants a drink or a snack.”

“I wasn’t expecting her.” Brittney said.

“This is a bit of a surprise visit.” I admitted. “I was hoping that the two of us could talk somewhere privately. I can’t stay here long. I’ve got to get home before curfew.”

Brittney gave me a suspicious look, but nodded.

“Let me get my shoes and we’ll talk outside.” Brittney said.

“Take Princess with you.” Brittney’s mother said. “She hasn’t been outside since you came home from school.”

“Fine.” Brittney said. “Give me one second.”

I waited for Brittney out on the porch. She didn’t look too enthusiastic about my surprise visit, unlike her siblings. I wondered how often Candace and the others visited her place. She had plenty of gang members, but it was hard to guess how many true friends she had. Was she close with any of them?

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Brittney walked outside with Princess trailing behind her on a leash. She gave me a passing glance before walking right by me without a word. She was just going to continue on walking her dog as if I weren’t even there. I had to run to catch up to her before she could leave me behind.

“Princess is cute.” I said. “I didn’t know you had a pet dog.”

Brittney hummed noncommittally.

“Your mom remembered me. Can you believe that?” I asked. “She recalled talking to my mom during the enrollment process after answering the door.”

Brittney gave me a confused look.

“What…? She…?” Brittney trailed off as she thought about it. “Holy shit, that actually did happen, didn’t it?”

“We turned in our enrollment documents at the same time.” I said. “We even talked about the classes we shared together back then, remember? I asked you about which electives you chose and why.”

“That… That was a long time ago…” Brittney said.

“Yeah…”

A silence hung in the air for a moment as we continued walking down the sidewalk. Her dog was trotting around the sidewalk in zigzags randomly as we walked. Brittney was wearing sweater pants and a white t-shirt. She might’ve been preparing to go to bed before I came over.

“So…” She asked. “What’s this all about? Don’t tell me that Sam sent you to talk to me. If you do, I’m going to punch you.”

“No…” I said with a slight smile. “I came here on my own initiative.”

“To tell me that you know where I live?”

“What…? No…! What do you think this is?”

“I don’t know. You still haven’t told me.”

She really wasn’t the patient type. I was just going to have to get to the point.

“I came here to talk about letting bygones be bygones.”

“So Sam did send you!”

“No!”

“Then Holly Hayfield…?”

“Ugh! Is it so hard to believe that I came on my own?” I said. “Listen, after Leigha died…”

Brittney stopped walking and spun to face me, yanking her dog’s leash in the process.

“Don’t say her name!” Brittney said while waving her finger in my face. “Don’t you dare bring that up!”

I put my hands up in a placating motion.

“You can hate me for saying it, but I’ve got to say it. After Leigha died I was thinking about how that entire situation could’ve been avoided.”

Brittney groaned in anguish and started walking again. She walked at a faster pace so that I’d have to catch up to her. I didn’t bother trying.

“And you know it!” I accused, letting more anger slip out than I intended. “She died because you decided to attack us!”

Brittney froze in place, turned around robotically, and gave me an overall look like she wanted to burn through me with her eyes.

“It was re-…”

“Revenge…?” I asked. “It didn’t work out for you, did it? Don’t you see what this senseless violence leads too?”

Brittney furiously stomped back over to me in order to get up in my face.

“Leigha died because Naomi and all her drones crossed a line!” Brittney said. “You can accuse me of a lot of things, but I’ve never killed any of you! Not like you girls…”

“You’re wrong… Not just about this, but about a lot of things!”

“Whatever,” She said and started to turn away.

I grabbed her by the hand. She spun on her heels and slapped me with her other hand, dropping her dog’s leash in the process. Her dog wandered off the sidewalk and waddled over into the grass to sniff something. Brittney and I remained frozen in the moment for a second. I lifted a hand to my cheek but didn’t let go of her.

“No one from Naomi’s gang killed Leigha.” I said carefully. “I know this, because I saw the killer firsthand.”

Brittney continued staring at me angrily whilst searching my eyes for any hints of deception.

“You’re not lying about this?” She asked.

“Why would I lie about this?”

“Because you want me to talk to Sam.”

“I do want you to talk to Sam, but this isn’t about that. I didn’t come here solely to ask you to let go of the past. I came to tell you the truth about that night.”

She stared intensely at me again for a moment and then sighed overdramatically. I let go of her hand when I saw that she wasn’t going to blow our meeting off and run away. She walked over to retrieve her dog’s leash.

“Tell me.” She said in an apathetic voice. “Tell me what you saw so that we can get this over with.”

I exhaled deeply. Nothing about this was going how I planned. Would she even be receptive to my story at this point? There was no loss in trying. This was for my sake, as much as hers. I always felt torn about the way Leigha died. It was about time that someone learned the circumstances of how it happened.

Rather than telling Brittney what she wanted outright, I reached into my bag. She watched me suspiciously as I fished around for the item I was searching for. She was especially alert when I pulled out the Killing Cat’s knife. She jumped back in surprise when I pointed it in her direction.

“What?!” Brittney asked. “Why do you have that?!”

I flipped the knife in my hand and offered it to her.

“This was one of the knives used to kill Leigha.” I said. “Take it.”

Brittney reluctantly reached out for the knife. She almost dropped it upon accepting it from me.

“It’s heavy…” She noted.

“It’s weighted towards the tip. That brand of knife is meant for throwing. If thrown correctly, it’ll make a predictable arc without flying out of control.”

“You’re saying someone used this against her?” Brittney asked. “Who?”

I gave Brittney a grim look.

“I think you know whose knife that is.”

Brittney tore her attention away from the knife to stare at me again. She narrowed her eyes at me, perhaps unwilling to believe me.

“The…” She hesitated to say it, “The Killing Cat…?”

I nodded grimly.

“Why would she…”

“Because she did it to save me.” I said. “I sought the Killing Cat out for information back when I made that shrine behind the school. This turned out to have an unexpected side effect. She started watching me and paying attention to the people I was hanging out with.”

“So it’s your fault?! You summoned the demon!”

“In a way… I didn’t know that Leigha had a grudge against me. I didn’t know that she’d chase me down with a bat on that night. Hell! I didn’t even know that you were planning to attack our warehouse party!”

“No shit! It was a secret that-…”

“It wasn’t a well-kept secret!” I said to cut her off. “The Killing Cat cryptically hinted at it when I managed to get into contact with her. I didn’t know what she meant at the time and didn’t think much about it. Leigha had me backed into a corner with her bat. That’s when the Killing Cat appeared.”

Brittney quickly glanced between me and the knife repeatedly as if trying to divine something.

“And you never told anyone that you were in contact with the Killing Cat?” She asked. “All this time…”

“I reached out to the Killing Cat after I saw Angelica Morelli hide a dead body.”

“That cop that worked at our school?!”

“The very same one that recently died. She was involved with a lot of illegal activity before she was killed. That’s why the Killing Cat targeted her. She’s a vigilante, not an unscrupulous psychopath.”

Brittney let out a short, mocking laugh.

“Easy for you to say! How can you say that after Leigha was murdered in a cold, dark alley?”

“Leigha was hardly innocent, as much as you don’t want to hear it. She instigated the situation when she hit me across the face with her bat. I thought she was going to kill me before the Killing Cat intervened.”

“You expect me to believe a killer saved you?” Brittney asked in disbelief.

“As crazy as it must sound, given the Killing Cat’s history… Yes, she saved me. She saved me because that’s the type of spirit that the Killing Cat embodies. I’m sure you’ve heard about Malorie Noelle and the story surrounding that. The Killing Cat is a spirit of vengeance.”

Brittney gave me a sideways glance.

“Honestly, I’m not sure how much of this I believe. It all seems too fantastical.”

“As far-fetched as it may sound, it’s the truth. Leigha was killed by the Killing Cat when she was trying to beat me to a bloody pulp. I’ve been thinking about it since it happened. It never would’ve happened if our two groups just saw eye-to-eye for once instead of speaking past each other. I think you’ll agree with me when I say that something like this should never happen again.”

Brittney studied the knife in her hand while tapping her foot. Her dog was pulling against the leash, trying to wander off somewhere in the grass. Eventually Brittney flipped the knife in her hands and gave it back to me.

“I don’t think you’re lying.” She finally said. “But I’m not sure where that leaves us. Our groups have too much history. I don’t think I can ever forgive Naomi.”

I accepted the knife and put it away.

“It isn’t Naomi’s group anymore.” I noted. “And soon, your group won’t be yours anymore, either. Let’s end the cycle here.”

She sighed and turned towards Princess. She loosened the leash to let Princess walk closer to the bush she was sniffing.

“The fact that you came out here to speak to me today means that you’re at least more sincere than Naomi ever was. It’s cold as hell out and my dog needs to take a piss before I let her back in. You’d better get back home before your curfew is up.”

“Does that mean you agree with me then?”

“It means we’ll talk about this at school when I’m not in my pajamas.” She said. “I was in the middle of watching a movie, you know. What bad timing. Anyways, tell Sam that I’ll check out her stupid casino thing if she’s still having it. I’ll be expecting a generous contribution when I get there.”

I smiled and gave Brittney a hug. She instantly shoved me off with her elbow.

“Don’t get too cocky!” She warned. “I’m agreeing to this against my better judgment. You’d better hope everything goes well or I’ll peace out faster than you can blink.”

I suppressed a laugh.

“Alright.” I said contently. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow,” She agreed irritably.

I walked away from her to leave her alone with her pet dog. I took out my phone to contact Alyssa now that I was ready to leave. It didn’t take long for her to come pick me up since she was waiting around the corner the entire time. I put on the spare helmet she handed me and hopped onto her scooter.

“How did it go?” She asked curiously.

“She said we can talk again tomorrow at school.” I said. “So about as well as I could hope for. Thanks for helping me.”

“No problem.” She said. “It beats cleaning up at Lilith’s place again. Speaking of which, Holly asked us to help them out with that tomorrow after school.”

“I’m already looking forward to it.” I said sarcastically.