Jessica's name finally gets a reaction from Hope, even causing her to swing her head around to lock wide eyes with me for a second before she quickly bowed it again, swallowing thickly. Ah, Hope is feeling hope. Well damn, now I just feel bad given that I'm going to crush that hope soon enough. Shaking my head, I decide not to continue on with telling Hope about the planned prison break. It's not important that she know just how quickly I thwarted Jessica's latest attempt at helping her.
"Enough about me though, it sometimes seems like it's always about me. Let's talk about you Hope."
That finally gets a verbal answer, even as she continues to stare at the floor of the vehicle, "What do you mean?"
I speak as sincerely as I can with this, my features solemn even as I tell her what I want, "Tell me how you hurt Hope. Pour out your pain, your anger, your despair. Every little bit of agony you've been put through, I want to hear about it. Look me in the eye while you do so."
She stares at me with horror filled eyes, but her mouth opens and she begins to speak. I don't look away, no matter how much I want to hide from what she's telling me. I asked for this, and so I sit there and embrace all of her pain and suffering as my power forces her to do the same. We both end up crying, which I think disturbs Hope more than anything, but she just continues on.
This right here is what I need to hear, what I need to experience. Fuck, the things Kilgrave had put this girl through. It might seem silly, but I did consider myself better than him. Yes, I was subverting minds and essentially shaping the lives of those around me in directions that would benefit me first and foremost. But I wasn't outright destroying people. I wanted to believe that I would never stoop so low as to force a nineteen year old girl into shooting her parents just to get to someone else.
Eventually Hope petered off, truly having let it all out. She was even out of tears, just sitting there silently, still staring at me with those wide eyes that contained so many different emotions. Wiping my own still slightly teary eyes, I reached out and cupped Hope's face in my hands, startling her badly. She couldn't exactly pull away though, so I was uninterrupted in my ramblings.
"He hurt you so bad Hope. You deserve revenge, but unfortunately I can't give it to you. I do have some good news though. Kilgrave is gone, he's dead. He's been gone since I woke up in that cell. I wish it had been sooner, perhaps before he ever met you, but alas, it wasn't. I can't bring back your parents Hope, but I can take away the pain. So I'm going to do that."
I can see from her eyes that she doesn't believe me, but I didn't really expect her to. That's okay, she really doesn't have to believe a word I say. Smiling, I turn from her and lean back in my seat. We'll be at the mansion soon and I have a lot of work to do.
By the night's end, Hope Schlottman will join her parents in death.
XxScenebreakxX
When Malcolm finally texts me two days later, I'm not exactly surprised, though perhaps I am at the amount of time it took Jessica to find out Hope had been released. His texts explain that well enough though.
jess figured out u didnt leave town
I raise an eyebrow at that, but before I can answer, another text comes in.
she nos Hope was released and is ranting that it had 2 b u
Dear god the grammar and spelling, it wounds me! I send him a quick reply.
What's she doing about it?
The response makes me grin just a little bit.
tryin 2 get ahold of Trish but her phone is off
I resist the urge to cackle maniacally, such a thing doesn't really seem appropriate to do over the contents of a text conversation. Instead I give Malcolm his orders.