Epilogue

"Well. That's not what I expected."

Why were her parents here, in this place, this room? She would have expected anyone but them. It was a complete surprise for the little lady criminal.

"How – how are you?"

Celine watched them sit down in their chairs, still wondering if this was all a bad joke. These people had never cared about her, her feelings or her problems at school. Now they were sitting in front of her and talking as if nothing had happened. This had to be a bad joke or a test to see if she'd attack her own parents. Even if she wanted to do that, she couldn't. Stupid handcuffs.

"Okay, I get it, boys. It's a joke. Haha, so funny. Now can I go back to my cell? Pleeeeeeeese?"

She was not in the mood to talk with her parents about the idealized past and what a happy childhood she'd had; always locked in a golden cage with no self-determination, hardly the best way to care for a child. They always told her what to do and where to go. Celine would be happy never to see her parents again, and this creepy meeting wouldn't change that.

"I'm not going to talk with these people. I told that to Miss Evie before and she said it wasn't a problem, so get them out of the visitors' room."

"Your mother asked you a question. You should answer her," said Lennard. Celine looked at him, a cold smile slowly forming as she considered her father. He was always so strict, so strong, so cold. Why should she pay any attention to him or his words?

"Should I? I don't think so. You're not interested in me or what happened to me, not ever. Your own daughter disappeared overnight. What did you think happened? Huh?"

She didn't expect an answer. Lennard and Claire Tesson were so selfish, always wanting the best for themselves. Why would they search for a teenage runaway? They had no reason and it was a mystery to Celine why they wanted to visit her in this wonderful place."

"We looked for you, but you were gone. Why? We gave you the best life you could have," said Claire, watching her daughter's reactions closely.

"Wait, you're seriously asking this question? Think about it!" the little girl said, angrily. She couldn't understand why they were so blind. Why couldn't they see that her life was worse?

"If you had started studying law everything would be fine now!" Lennard hissed.

"Let me think about that. No!"

They kept doing this: showing her the future they wanted for her and blaming her because it hadn't happened. This was the last thing she wanted. Maybe her parents were enoying this, but she wasn't.

"You never trusted me to do things on my own. Do you know how horrible that is? You always locked me away. It was like a prison and you were the devil," she continued. "Oh, come on, don't look so surprised. What did you expect? That I'd be happy you came? No. I have a lot of friends here and even if you wanted to help me, it's too late."

They should just leave now, like they did years ago when they didn't care that Celine had run away from home, met the professor, and been destroyed by the experiment. When Lennard and Claire Tesson left the room everything would be perfect. They would life their lives and she would live hers – perfect for everyone.

"Don't talk to us like that! We're your parents and you should answer your mother's question now, you failure," Lennard snapped at her.

His words hurt the little criminal. She was no failure! She was great just the way she was and he had no right to say otherwise. Why didn't they get that she had no interest in talking to them?

For a few seconds she closed her green eyes and tried to breathe normally. Just stay calm. No, that would not work here. She ignored her positive plan to calm down and jumped off the chair.

"Shut up! SHUT UP! You have no right to say that! If I weren't wearing these handcuffs I could hurt you so much! As much as you're hurting me right now!"

Before she had the chance to reach out for her parents and bite them, two guards came in to hold her back.

"Let me go! They should pay for what they've done to me! Like professor "I'll destroy your life and you'll wake up in the body of a toddler!" she screamed.

"Well, I think that was an interesting family meeting, wasn't it?" Griggs came into the room and stared down at the little girl who was now trying to bite the guards.

"It's too bad, but after what she's done, I think this is the right place to leave her," said Clair, and Lennard nodded slightly.

"Yes. It's the disappointment of our lives that she should die in this place," he added.

"Wait a second! You think I'm some kind of disappointment? How dare you say anything like that? I have lots of friends here that like me. Floyd, Harley; I think that Harley would make a better mother than you did, Claire!" Celine finished finally, a crazy look on her face.

"We'll take care of this insane girl," said Griggs. The two guards took Celine back to her cell so Griggs could exchange a few words with Mr. and Mrs. Tesson before they left Belle Reve behind them and drove away from their daughter forever.

"That was not what I'd hoped for, Alfred."

"The family meeting didn't bring the desired effect, sir?"

"No. I had hoped that Tesson would show some signs of human behavior that was not so dangerous."

"What will you do now, sir?"

"I told you about plan B, Alfred."

"You said you had a plan B, sir, but you didn't give any details."

"The details are not so important at the moment. I want to help this ruin of a woman."

"She killed people, Master Bruce."

"I know, but she reminds me of myself."

"That is interesting. How would you help her?"

I have to contact an organization that mediates for children in foster care."

"Foster care? With all respect, Master Bruce, the little lady is criminally insane. How could foster care help her? Or rather, how could you protect the foster family from Miss Tesson."

"Believe me, Alfred, I have ways to deal with this. Maybe I can help the girl to find a way back to a normal life."

The end.