"Give a hand everyone! For your first contestant in who wants their memories back!!!!" Lazarus shouted and everyone's hands rolled into a waterfall of applause.
*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*
I was not only confused as to what was going on with the little child trapped in my neural interface but also Gracewell on the other side.
'Why do I have more problems than solutions after the memory recovery procedure?' I wondered with a heavy heart.
'Isn't that just the way life is?' the little kid spoke as if he had experienced all heaven and hell on Earth.
"Sergeant Dave! Would you like to say a few words about your experience tonight?"
"Of course, god forbid the reporters don't mob my house because I did not reveal what I felt."
"Hahahaha~~!!"
The crowd laughed as Lazarus's assistants worked on freeing me from my leather restraints.
Under the rock-steady gazes of the audience members, Lazarus walked closer to me and whispered in a low voice, "I'm ready."
I looked Lazarus in the eyes and found him holding a resoundingly firm gaze that looked like it would accept anything I threw at him.
With a resigned sigh mentally, I stood up from my position as the test subject and introduced myself again.
"Good morning everyone.", To begin with, I greeted everyone.
"A lot of you might be wondering, why I accepted today's mind wipe proposal. How could I risk my brain which is used to catch the city's toughest criminals to an experimental memory-restoring machine."
I could see the silhouettes of people nodding as I continued, "This was beca-"
*BBBBZZZZZZZZZ*
"WAIT! YOU'RE MAKING A MISTA-"
Before I could complete my sentence, Evelyn was on the stage, her hand holding a waver that obliterated Lazarus's head.
*THUD* *SQUELCH*
Lazarus's body fell onto the stage with a remarkable thud and a squelch that carried over into the peculiarly silent crowd that had witnessed everything happen.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!""
The shout of the closest person turned into an echo of multiple people screaming, as the hall instantly turned into a hotchpotch of a crowd nearing a stampede.
"SILENCE!!!" I shouted and with the help of the speakers, allowed my voice to be carried to reach every corner of the circular hall.
The movement slowed down and then stopped to a static silence as I looked at Evelyn.
Evelyn stood alone on the stage, the island of light that highlighted her also kept her separated from mixing with anyone. The waver in her hand had fallen long ago, tossed at the ground, while the hurry had gripped everyone.
Tears rolled down her face as her eyes looked hollow and broken.
The holographic projector was still displaying Lazarus's dead body with Evelyn standing over it depressingly.
And I just stood there for a few moments, taking it all in, trying to figure out what had just happened.
'Not a great police offi-'
'Shut it.' I thought to the teasing voice of the child.
Although annoying the voice had set me in motion as I stepped towards Evelyn.
"Why did you do that?" I asked immediately, she wasn't going to get out of this one since there were plenty of eyewitnesses.
Evelyn turned to look at me as her hollow eyes spoke volumes about the blame she laid on Lazarus.
"Because he killed Prometheus.", Evelyn explained.
"*sigh* the younger generation is truly stupid.", I mumbled, but it was clearly audible for everyone in the hall to hear.
"He didn't kill Prometheus.", I said, revealing the truth in an anticlimactic manner.
Evelyn's eyes looked shocked as some depth returned to their hollowness.
"Wh- What do you mean!?" Evelyn asked with fresh tears welling up in her eyes.
"I mean what I just said. Lazarus did not kill Prometheus." I said once again, this time a little forcefully since I was angry, angry at Evelyn.
"Bu- but he said he was responsible for Prometheus's death!" Evelyn said pointing at the headless corpse of Lazarus.
"That was all. He was only responsible. He didn't actually do anything."
"But he was still responsible!!!"
"....*sigh* then by that logic even you're responsible for his death.", I whispered loudly, I was tired, too many things were going wrong.
"Ho- How!?"
"Prometheus didn't kill himself for no reason you know."
"Why did he kill himself?"
"Because people can use the tech you invented to wipe out memories precisely, instead of just aiding in recovery."
*GASP*
The people in the crowd immediately recognized how problematic the issue had become.
"..." Evelyn too was speechless as she wordlessly stared at me and then at Lazarus.
"But then…why did he tell me he shouldn't have let Prometheus die!?" Evelyn grasped at the last straw that unravelled the knot.
"Because Lazarus killed himself along with Prometheus."
"..."
The hall fell silent as everyone took time to process that statement I'd just said.
No one understood what I said especially Evelyn, since she then asked, "What!? But I just killed him! How was he dead!?"
"Because when Lazarus jumped off of the landing deck with Prometheus, he forgot he had Elixir syringes. Syringes that healed him as soon as he 'died'."
"Elixir syringes….but still!!! Why did he stay alive if he was going to die anyway? He could've just jumped off again!!" Evelyn argued.
I snapped at that statement and rambled off in a chillingly calm tone.
"Firstly because he did fall a second time, he was thrown out of a window after the PTV he landed on, crashed inside an office. But he had enough elixir left in him to get up after that."
"Then he could've jumpe-"
"Because he was going to die either way." I cut off Evelyn's attempt at trying to paint Lazarus as the murderer.
"...what do you mean?"
"Ever heard of Elixir poisoning?"
*GASP*
The audience released a collective gasp as Evelyn too understood what had happened.
The stream of tears on Evelyn's face thickened as she collapsed to her knees by Lazarus's side.
"What have I done.", Evelyn whispered in a deranged state as her dress was wet with the blood of the man she'd killed.
"Due to taking so many elixirs in such a short span of time, Lazarus's body although fully healed, began to expend a lot more energy than it usually would."
Seeing Evelyn not respond I continued.
"This energy growth does not come from the elixir but from destroying the cells of the body. The Elixir works as a poison, slowly draining the person of energy by destroying the body."
"..."
"Lazarus was on his deathbed even while walking. He only remained alive to complete today's event. Probably thought God wanted him to stay alive just to introduce the tech and then die. Poor guy. I pity him for having friends like you."
"Why didn't you arrest him then!?! If you knew so much!"
"...why would I want to rid a man of the opportunity to obtain his last wish. And...he never actually committed a crime in the first place. What was his crime? To fail to kill himself?"
*Sigh*
"The younger generation truly is stupid.", I mumbled once again.
"Lieutenant Gracewell and trainee Cadet Anneliese, if you could work together to cordon the area that would be much appreciated.", I said and walked off the stage.
I didn't want to stay in this depressing place anymore.
It was as if the devil had made the place his home.
From my neural interface getting hacked to Lazarus's death, I didn't know why everything only went wrong on that stage.
"At least nothing truly bad happened."
'I can still just change the neural interface chip and Lazarus got his final wish to be able to present the tech he wanted to. At least the event will surely go down in history.'
'Haha~! I hope you don't change the neural interface chip. That would be embarrassing for me.'
The little boy laughed and tried to convey his feelings, but I got none, just like how he was completely hollow on the inside.
'You aren't even a full-fledged life, you're just a parasite, living off of the energy my body generates.'
'I will accept whatever it is you want to name me as! Just please don't get rid of me!'
I ignored the babbling of the little boy and spoke directly to Vanessa through my AR glasses.
"Vanessa, could you book me a PTV, please? Make it Raivesh if possible." I asked.
"On it.", Vanessa responded quickly as I continued walking out of the labyrinthian maze of buildings around myself to the parking lot from where Raivesh would have to pick me up if he could.
I was rather eager to see my Mom and Dad after having spent nearly thirty years away from them.
'Is this how they felt when they first saw me?'
I wondered.
'Obviously not.' The child chided but I ignored it.
'You can't ignore me forever!'
'Lalala~lala~!'
'Dave is mad!!'
'Dave is mad!!'
'Lalala~lala~!'
Doing my very best to ignore the kid and treat him like background noise, I spotted Raivesh standing in the parking lot of the marble eye.
'Although I have a mom of my own, I could still do with the sagely advice his mother seems to always have for every situation.'
"Not a good day sir?" Raivesh asked me as I sat inside the PTV.
"No, not a good day." I replied clicking my seatbelt into place.
"Another murder?"
"Yep, another murder."
"My mother sir, she gave me some good news!"
"Oh? There's good news about murders too?"
"No sir! Not murders! My mother doesn't allow me to watch murders, she says they bring bad energy into the house."
"Then what's the good news about?"
"Sir my mother said okay sir!"
"Ok? For what?"
"For the contracted driver job sir! The one you proposed that day in the morning sir!"
"Ah! I see. That's good, I'll get the documents in order and ready everything, give me a few days, and you should be set. Until then don't worry about anything. I'll send you the advance so you don't have to worry about money for a few days."
"Thank you very much, sir!" Raivesh politely bowed.
"Haha~ Don't worry, I'm only hiring you because you're a good guy."
"My mother also said the same sir! It is all thanks to my mother only sir! I should thank her also!"
I internally and externally nodded my head.
'I truly wouldn't have accepted him without his mother's advice.'
"Then off we go, sir! Hang on!"
As we were off on a smooth speedy ride, I paid close attention to the buildings around me to see if anyone was jumping off once again.
Luckily I found no one.
'I didn't want to have another PTV accident, especially not with Raivesh when I'd just promised to take him in as a contracted PTV driver for the Police Department.'
'The cost to fix his PTV would be too much when we don't have an insurance for his PTV right now.'
Raivesh dropped me at home and I opened the door, surprised by how clean everything was for a second until I found my mom cleaning things and rearranging them.
A strange emotion welled up inside my chest as I looked on at my mother that was humming along with the weird tune she'd put on the sound system.
"Dave! You're back!" Dad said as he rushed to wrap me in a hug.
"Welcome back!" He said patting my back.
"What's this red do-" Dad was cut short when Mum arrived beside him and hugged me deeply instead.
"You're back." she whispered with emotion that crossed the boundaries of her eyes.
"H- How did you know?!" I asked, a little shocked.
"A mother knows. She knows all."