DNA Valkyrie - Vol. 5 - Chapter 25: Train Ride

Chapter 25: Train Ride

The return home was going smoothly.

They were now halfway through their ride and Cynthia could hardly wait to get off the train and report everything that happened during this mission to their chief, Trix. Widdowfield was sitting with her arms folded together, still sharing the same wagon with Protea and Quentin. Cynthia wished she had been able to find some sleep during the ride, but other than occasionally dozing off there and there she was, unfortunately, never able to truly fall asleep.

The blue-haired detective knew full well that she desperately needed the rest.

It was a drag that she couldn’t get it…      

Cynthia grabbed her head and rubbed her hair, frustrated she wasn’t able to fall asleep.

“You alright, Cyn?” Quentin asked her, worried about her. 

“Yeah, I’m fine…”

“You don’t seem fine, at all. You look like shit,” Protea didn’t hold back to tell her like it was. 

“Thanks. I need to go freshen up!” Cynthia told the two of them after rising. She left the wagon and headed for the restroom. Once there, she shut the door and took one good look at her reflection in the mirror. 

She tried smiling, but she couldn’t. Not right now. She was too exhausted to do so at the moment…

She was so out of it and feeling so defeated that she wished she was back home already and that she could resource herself and restructure, so the mission could continue. Right about now, she felt like shit and she felt like nothing was going well…

Cynthia continued staring at her reflection for a while longer… 

Everything was calm inside the restroom until it wasn’t so much the case—the restroom had a shower built-in and the curtain for the shower was suddenly slid to the side—Cynthia witnessed everything in the mirror! Someone was here with her in the restroom this entire time, awaiting this perfect moment to strike! 

That person in question was no other than Amber! 

Amber from beyond the curtain stepped forward, jumping out of the shower compartment, so she could reach the blue-haired detective on the other side of the tiny room.

Amber! 

Everything happened so fast.    

A split-second after she first saw her in the glass, Amber already had her arms around her. Cynthia had been taken hostage. She even shoved one hand over her mouth, so she wouldn’t scream or say anything to alert the others.

She desperately wanted to tell the others, but she couldn’t.

That didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to fight back. She was going to give it everything she had. She was hitting her with her elbows—hitting her in the stomach, trying everything she could to push her away from her. 

“Stop this! Stop fighting!” Amber whispered to her in her back. 

Is she fucking out of her mind? Of course, I’m not going to stop! She’s still after me… When is she going to let go of me? I never saw her coming aboard the train… How was she able to sneak onto the train like that? I shouldn’t have underestimated her. I always saw Amber as just a blonde bimbo stripper and nothing else. I’ve made a big mistake… I keep making more and more mistakes… I never learn… Cynthia was losing more and more hope. She was unable to push Amber away from her and she was certainly unable to slip away from her grasp.

“I don’t want to hurt you…” she whispered in her back.

I don’t think she knows what she’s talking about—she’s hurting me right now and she has been doing so ever since I began working on this case… 

“I swear—calm down!”  

I don’t want to! That’s the point! She thought.

“I’m giving you one more chance to make the right choice.” 

“I’ve already my choice…” Widdowfield finally made more efforts so she could move her head up and be able to say something, even though, she only whispered a little…

“You still have time. You still have one more chance. Do it. Side with us, otherwise Richard will find you and you will hurt you. You know it in your heart. Please see it…” Amber was desperate to save her pupil’s eyes. Amber was her stripper mentor for so long. It was clear that she didn’t want to have her stripper disciple going by the wayside and to see something horrible happen to her.

“It is you, who still has one more chance…” Cynthia whispered to her again.

“What do you mean?”

“You still have one last chance to leave him and come with me… Why are you even with him to begin with…?” she questioned, still whispering when she spoke to her… 

Amber finally softened a bit as she listened to her… 

She calmed down a bit and she stopped holding her as tightly as she used to a few seconds ago…      

“It’s… Because I always wanted to be with him… Ever since I first started as a stripper… Back then, it was still Joss’s club…” Amber finally let her guard down and her grip on Cynthia loosened up more and more… It became to the point that she was no longer holding her anywhere near as much as before… 

In a lot of ways, Cynthia was able to remove herself from her while in the restroom and they regained control of her movements. The private investigator could very well make a run for it and escape her grasp, but there was a part of her that no longer wanted to leave her… Cynthia stayed. She turned around, so she could look at her better and face her. Amber was trembling. She was not doing well, at all…

“Are you alright?” Cynthia whispered to her.

“Yeah… Fine…” 

“Something tells me you’re not happy right now… You are not happy. I care about you. You were the first one who gave me a chance. Without you, I would have never been able to be a stripper as I became without you. You were my mentor. You did so much for me and it’s not too late if you want me to help you. We can do this together…” This time, it was Cynthia who had her arms around her, not to squeeze her and hurt her as Amber had done to her seconds ago, but to comfort her and hug her.

“Cynthia…”

“Amber…”

“I messed up…” she admitted to Cynthia.