Side Effects

13 - Confrontation

Goosebumps had appeared on Bree's arms long ago, and they still were not used to the sheer coldness of the cell. Even when she breathed through her nose, she could not smell anything but sharp air that froze her brain.

She stared bleakly outside at sections of the building under construction. The Periculum Prison, though not completely obliterated, was in the sorry state of being surrounded by scaffolding. She wished deeply that she would never have to see it reconstructed.

"Miss Hext." A dreaded voice sang as the cell door was unlocked with easy force.

"Miss Klaus," she corrected, "Donnamira Klaus is my adoptive mother."

Mayor Cermentia Grates sat at the other end of the room, the edge of the bed creaking as she did so.
"I see. So you decide to respect your parent's name as soon as you get into trouble."

Bree gave her enemy a sharp look, but Cermentia did not respond. Instead she sat tall in an expensive coat and a brown pencil skirt, smiling with sly, sickly kindness within her.

"Now, Bree Hext," Grates almost seemed to enjoy this mockery, "you know why I am here?"

"For entertainment?"

"No," Bree had grown used to her lies, and Cermentia felt that aura, but she continued even so, "I am here to inform you on your sentence."

The Periculum Prison sentence went without saying - it was a life sentence - and "life" was never defined by how old you grew within the cells, but by how many days passed before you were fit to be executed. Of course, Cermentia did not word it this way, but the meaning behind it was still clear.

"There's no reason for me to even be here," Bree interrupted, "the bottom line is that you're scared, the Chief of Police is too lazy to carry out any investigations, and you need someone to pin everything on."

Sighing, Cermentia gazed towards the door, expecting a long speech from this delinquent. But it never came. The room, once again, fell silent.

Thoughts always circled Bree's head, but she did not speak them aloud unless absolutely necessary.

The dominant thought at this moment was the very law that kept criminals and "criminals" in place. The normal prisons were for people who were dangerous as people. The Periculum Prison was for people who were deemed dangerous for their abilities - not their morals.

So why was she still here? Invisibility was not a danger - the danger was whether she chose to abuse the power or not - which she never did.

Silence was broken once again by the Mayor as she asked the simple question, "how are you today?", to which Bree did not respond. Her eyes stayed fixated on the only view to outdoors' freedom. Somehow, the room grew even colder.

Silently but surely, Bree whispered something; it was something that Cermentia could not quite make out. Bree was thinking aloud, but she did it ever so quietly to not spoil the realisation she was pleasantly about to drop on Mayor Cermentia Grates.

"Not long before I came here, I decided to investigate all of the unsolved crimes myself. The break-ins, the robberies, the murders - everything..."

"And?" Cermentia expected a different outcome towards the answer she was given. Bree stepped a few paces away from the window and began her story, finally seeing eye to eye with the dark witch people called their leader.