*i feel like there's been so many filler chapters recently :////
there should be some more obvious clues in the next couple chapters ;)

-𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓽𝔂

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"Well, what the hell are we going to do now?" Lucia said. It was clear she was getting frustrated. She hadn't expected this to be so... difficult. She certainly hadn't expected it to be a walk in the park, but she had hoped there might be at least some clues that made any damn sense at all!

It felt like every where they went was a dead end! Like they were trapped in a maze but they just kept ending up back where they started.

And Lucia was tired of it.

"Well," Evan said, a bit hesitantly. He knew Lucia was stressed and he didn't want to upset her. "I might have an idea."

"Yes! What is it?"

"Rosaleen--In her diary, Rosaleen always talked about her therapist. If we can get him to let us see her files, that might give us some clues. 

"What if the police have already taken the files? As evidence?"

"What if they haven't?" Lucia had attached to Evan's idea rather quickly. "This might be our only lead! If there's no files... we might just have to give up. I don't... I don't think there will be anything else for us to find if there's nothing here."

"We can't give up!" Sam cried out, drawing all the attention to herself. "We--We need to get justice. For Rosaleen. She might not have been the... the best person, but she deserves this much."

"Okay. So we'll assume the files haven't been confiscated by the police," Wyatte said, nodding slowly, "Then how could we possibly convince her therapist to let us see them? We're just a bunch of teens.

Aisha had been listening rather closely to the conversation, without contribution. But now, she had a very interesting point to make.

"We could always steal the files."

◈ ◈ ◈

"I think you guys sometimes forget that I know how to pick a lock," Aisha said casually. 

"Shhhh!" 

It was the dead of night. The Mystery Gang strolled around the therapist's office building, searching for an entrance.

They'd already discussed their plans. They figured the front and back doors might have a security system, but then Aisha suggested going through a window. 

Aisha was currently swirling a bobby-pin around in the window lock. After a short time, there was a click and Aisha slid the windows open.

"Ladies first," she said, stepping away to allow everyone else access.

Aisha climbed in last, closing the window behind her.

Now they stood in the waiting room. There was an area behind the receptionists' desk, a heavy wooden door that held a long hallway with several other locked doors behind it.

Lance spotted the desk, then sprinted over to it and slid across it, mimicking and action movie star. He then dropped to his knees, scanned the area, then motioned with his hands for the rest of them to follow.

Lance then peeked over the desk with a wide grin on his face. Everyone did follow, though only Evan copied his action moves.

"See? Even adults can have fun sometimes!" Evan caught himself thinking, then quickly shook the thought away. 

"Okay, so which of these offices is the one we're looking for?"

"Uh-- Hold on," Sam quickly dug into her handbag. "I brought Rosaleen's diary with me. I remember she said which room it was..."

She pulled out the diary, then scanned through the pages.

"Here!" Sam said, then began to read, "'My parents booked me a dumb-ass therapy session after my last fight with Adrian'... umm... 'Room number 3A. I'm sure it'll be sooooo helpful for me."

"Room number 3A..." Lucia's eyes scanned the hallways in the darkness, before Lance pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. 

"There it is! Aisha, can you get us inside?"

Aisha stepped to the door, pulling out her trusty bobby-pin before hesitating. "Shit. I think it locks from the inside... I can't open it."

"Then how do we get inside?" Lucia asked. "I'm not giving up now."

"Look up there!" Wyatte quickly pointed up, above the door. Where a thin, flat window was located.

And it was already open.

"Evan," Lance said, "If I lifted you up... do you think you could fit?"

"No way! I'm not lett--" Sam started, but Evan cut her off.

"We won't know until we try," Evan said, "But I think so."

Sam sat in silent protest while Lance boosted Evan up and he slithered through the open window.

Almost the moment that Evan's feet disappeared, there was a very loud thud on the other side of the door. Sam jumped, pushing her way to the front of the crowd as the door swung open.

Sam rushed towards him, quickly scanning him for injuries as she gasped, "Oh my God, Evan, are you okay?"

Evan flailed his arms, desperate to get out of her grasp. "I'm fine, Sam!"

The room was plain. A desk, a chair behind that desk, a very plush armchair, two bookshelves, and a large filing cabinet.

They wasted no time before heading to the filing cabinet.

Aisha found the one labeled "C-E" and pulled the handle. It slid open easily. Aisha flipped through the files before plucking out the one labeled "Channing". However, she quickly spotted not one, but two other folders also titled "Channing" and pulled them out too.

The first one was labeled Adrian. That didn't really come as a surprise, except maybe none of them had expected that Adrian had ever been to a therapist at all.

The second was Rosaleen's.

However, the third had "Lucille" written on it.

"Lucille?" Lance asked. "That's... Mrs. Channing..."

"Mrs. Channing went to therapy...?"

Aisha flipped Mrs. Channing's open.  Aisha flipped to paper farthest in the back and saw the date at the top.

"August 13th, 2002?"

"That can't have been very long after Rosaleen was born..." Lucia said.

"It says here that it was a part of her recovery from alcoholism," Aisha said, "Guess it hasn't worked very well."

"Well, when was the most recent date?"

"2013."

"Why did she stop going?"

"The last couple papers indicate she was doing much better," Aisha said after scanning the notes, "I wonder if she had a relapse or if she just pretended to get better..."

"Well, we didn't come here for her files, but we can look through them and take pictures of the interesting ones," Lucia said.

Because, obviously, they couldn't actually steal the files. Someone might notice if they were missing. So they planned to snap pictures of them, then put them right back.

Aisha passed the folder off to Arthur, who began to scan for "the interesting ones". She then flipped open Adrian's folder. There was a very small number of papers. 

"Most of his are old too. Most recent is from two years ago. But-- Oh. Oh no."

"What? What is it?"

"They say he was tested for psychopathy. But he tested negative, so they stopped his therapy."

"I have a hard time believing that," Wyatte said, crossing his arms and recalling (not very fondly) the comments Adrian had made about his older sister.

"That's just what it says. Here, you can read them yourself," Aisha handed them over.

There was a long, heavy moment of silence. 

"Well," Lucia said, shifting on her feet. "What about Rosaleen's folder?"

Aisha nodded, keeping quiet as she pulled the final folder off the table. "Rosaleen had only been going for a little over a year. Says she was here to deal with BPD, anxiety, and narcissistic personality disorder."

Sam was uncomfortable. VERY uncomfortable. Of course, Sam already knew about all this, but it had been a very private thing that Rosaleen had begged Sam not to tell anyone. A very private thing that Rosaleen had found important enough to tell Sam in person, when they texted about absolutely everything. A very private thing that Rosaleen cried over every time she tried to talk about it.

But now all of Rosaleen's worst secrets were on public display. For people who never even knew her to hear and judge her for. 

And it felt wrong.

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*i like villains you can feel at least a little empathy for ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

even though she was a garbage human ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓽𝔂