SilverSheWolf

“Tilly, you have a visitor!” the voice echoed down the hallway, bouncing off the metal walls. Tiffany stood up, tidied up her bed, and started to fix her hair in the mirror. She heard the door open and shut. Then it was quiet. She saw him approach in the mirror. She stopped bothering with her hair. She glared at him in the mirror.

He didn’t look great. He had clearly lost weight since she last saw him, and his clothes seemed to hang off him. Had it not been for the beard, she imagined his face would look gaunt. Despite having seen him a year ago, he looked like he had aged a decade since. 

“How do you look even shittier than the last time I saw you?” Tiffany asked. She didn’t turn around. She looked at him through the corner of her eye. The very act of standing seemed to hurt him. And he was quick to sit down once a guard brought him a steel chair.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Andy responded. Tiffany scoffed turned around and sat beside the bars at the edge of her cot. 

“Oh please, you and I both know, I look great. Especially in black leather,” she responded.  

“You looked prettier without the head,” Andy responded. Tiffany grimaced at the memory. 

“What do you want, Andy?” Tiffany asked with barely hidden malice.  

“Well, I’d like for you and your husband to rot in hell,” he started, “But that’s been a thirty-year pipe dream,” he finished, trailing off.  

“Well, he does love to disappoint people,” Tiffany responded, amusing herself. “I take it you already know about the straggler,” she continued. 

“Which one, I’ve heard about two of ‘em,” Andy replied. 

“Oh you ‘heard about two of them’,” she responded skeptically. 

“What are you getting at, you crazy bitch?” Andy asked, frustrated and confused. Tiffany laughed. 

“You knew about the backups, don’t pretend it was a surprise,” Tiffany responded, waving him off. 

“You honestly think I would knowingly leave Chucky alone with an eight-year-old?” Andy asked, kind of floored.

“I don’t think you’d fill him full of lead if you didn’t think he had a backup,” Tiffany responded. “I also think you know him well enough that you knew he would and where he’d leave it.” They were both quiet for a moment. 

“Have you been interrogated yet?” Andy asked. Tiffany laughed at him changing the subject. But she went along.

“They tried, but it’s not my first rodeo,” Tiffany answered, “I demanded a lawyer and didn’t say a word.” 

“You know, there’s no version of this where you aren’t found guilty of homicide,” Andy responded. 

“Did you come here to gloat?” Tiffany asked. 

“No,” Andy answered, “I came here to ask you to do something right for once,” he finished. Tiffany was silent and confused. 

“What are you getting at?” Tiffany asked. 

“I’ll make this simple for you,” Andy said. He leaned over, setting his elbows on his knees. 

“Your lawyers going to tell you to confess to dozens of murders,” he started, “I just need you to confess to a few more,” he finished in a hushed tone. 

“What’s in it for me?” Tiffany asked. 

“A chance to do something decent for a person you’ve repeatedly fucked over,” Andy said. 

“This is about Nica,” Tiffany clarified.

“You helped Chucky murder her entire family and everyone at Harrogate, I just need you to own that,” Andy said. 

“I’ve never been one to own up to something out of the goodness of my heart,” Tiffany responded. 

“Not according to the Miller’s,” Andy said. Tiffany was quiet as she took that in. She swallowed and closed her eyes. 

“What do you know about Jesse and Jade?” Tiffany asked. 

“I met them,” he started. Tiffany tried not to react. “We were all invited to the premiere of ‘Chucky Goes Psycho’ as some publicity stunt,” Andy finished. 

“How are they?” Tiffany asked with a softened tone. 

“Last I heard they both took the payout from the film hired ghostwriters, and made a fortune off the books,” Andy started.

“And they’re still together… And happy?” she hesitantly asked. Andy was silent for a minute. 

“Well,” Tiffany pried.  

“I don’t know, they seemed happy when I met them, he kept showing me pictures of their son and she was pregnant,” Andy finished. Tiffany tried to look up and blink away the forming tears. 

“You care about them a lot,” Andy observed. 

“I’m happy they're happy,” Tiffany said, she was a bit choked up. 

“They’re good people,” Andy continued. Tiffany nodded as she wiped her eyes on her sleeves. 

“They had a lot of good things to say about you,” Andy said. Tiffany didn’t try to hide her surprise and confusion. 

“Really?” Tiffany replied. 

“I know I don’t see it either, but apparently you had a positive impact on them,” Andy said. 

“According to Jesse, you were always a good neighbor, and you gave him advice that helped him be a good husband,” Andy continued, Tiffany didn’t bother to hide how happy that made her. She was smiling from ear to ear. 

“And according to Jade you saved the love of her life,” Andy continued, “So they think you must have something akin to a soul. Which is more than anyone could say for Chucky,” he finished. 

“So you came here thinking you could convince me to the right thing by appealing to my better nature,” Tiffany said, amusement in her tone. 

“No,” he answered, “But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give you a chance to prove Nica and I wrong about you,” he finished. 

“What did Nica say?" Tiffany asked. 

“She said you were a psychotic monster who likes to use love as a justification for every horrible action you’ve taken, while not even understanding the meaning of the word,” Andy quoted. Tiffany shrunk in on herself a little bit. 

“I know what love is,” Tiffany defended softly. 

“From what I can tell you don’t,” he continued, “if you did, you wouldn’t have told Nica you loved her” 

“I do love her. And she loves me.” Tiffany asserted. Andy started laughing so hysterically that he nearly doubled over, and he continued to laugh for a moment, and then another. Tiffany got progressively more irritated.  

“You sound like him when you laugh,” Tiffany said. Andy abruptly stopped laughing. The smile fell from his face. He took a moment, closed his eyes, and took a breath. 

“Isn’t love all about sacrificing for the other person?” Andy asked

“I’ve spent my whole life sacrificing for love,” Tiffany started, “For over forty years, I gave up everything for the man I loved,” she continued. She started to get a little lost in herself. “My family, my friends, my hobbies, my dreams, my body, my youth, I gave it all away for Chucky,” she continued, her voice getting softer. She leaned closer to Andy, “because I loved him,” she finished. Andy hated to admit it, but he felt a deep empathy with her, if only for a moment. 

“I gave up years trying to bring him back,” she said, she laughed a little at herself. “And he laughed in my fucking face,” she said. She took a deep breath, “Right then, I promised I’d never throw away my life for people who don’t give a shit about me again. And I’ve kept that promise for 24 years”

“Well, now you’re gonna break it. Because I’m not giving you a fucking choice,” Andy replied, suffocating his empathy and burying some painful memories. 

“Oh yeah,” Tiffany laughed, “What are you gonna do if I don’t?” Tiffany asked. 

“The current Chucky on the loose, he was a part of the army in the van right?” Andy asked. 

“Yes?” Tiffany responded, perplexed by the non sequitur. 

“So he doesn’t know about what happened in Hackensack,” Andy started. Tiffany pursed her lips and avoided eye contact. 

“He doesn’t know what you did,” Andy continued. He leaned in closer, “What you admitted to,” he finished almost in a hushed tone. 

“So what if he doesn’t? He wants me dead either way,” Tiffany replied, she tried to keep herself blasé. 

“You and I both know if that were true, you wouldn’t have made it to this cell,” Andy responded. “I give it a month before he starts spam calling and sending you flowers,” he finished. 

“I don’t care what he thinks of me,” Tiffany said. 

“Even if that were true, I doubt you want the added hassle of fending him off,” Andy said, “You’ve got enough shit to deal with,” he finished, gesturing to their surroundings. 

“Maybe you should worry more about yourself, you’ll be the first,” Tiffany responded. 

“And if I talk you’ll be the second,” Andy said. They were silent for a minute.“You might be delusional, but you’re not an idiot Tiffany. Do the right thing.”

“Oh, you mean like shooting her in the face” Tiffany asked. Andy was taken aback. 

“Chucky loves to talk about you, y’know,” Tiffany said, Andy swallowed and tried to hide his concern. 

“He’s got a wife and two kids, but for some fucking reason, you’re his favorite topic of conversation,” Tiffany continued. Andy started avoiding eye contact and picking at something hidden by his sleeve. 

“Does she know about that?” Tiffany asked. Andy didn’t answer. 

“Anyway, I’m just a bit confused about why you feel like a moral authority here,” Tiffany concluded. Andy straightened himself again. 

“I was doing what I’d want done to me,” Andy stated, trying to get his bearings. 

“So you were thinking about yourself,” Tiffany started, “because Nica doesn’t want to die, and she didn’t the year she lived with me,” Tiffany continued. Andy’s hand found its way back to picking at the scarring under his sleeve. 

“You know, there’s a reason I didn’t let Chucky get involved with the kids growing up,” Tiffany said, she has a Cheshire cat smile. Andy almost felt relief at the seeming non-sequitur. 

“Because I knew, how damaging that kind of influence could be to a poor innocent set of children,” Tiffany said, her voice taking on a mock concern. 

“I mean I saw what he did to poor Eddie,” Tiffany continued, letting out a deep breath. 

“And he met him at ten and was only with him for a little bit growing up. Could you imagine how damaging he’d be with a younger child? And to keep seeing that child as he grew up,” Tiffany continued, she started shaking her head. 

“I couldn’t let that happen,” she said breathlessly. 

“I mean, I’m sure Chucky would find some twisted sort of affection for the child, but the child…” Tiffany trailed off a bit, taking in Andy’s growing discomfort. Andy swallowed. 

“I’m sure they’d be fine,” Andy forced out. 

“Oh they wouldn’t,” Tiffany continued, “They’d grow up to love him, despite themselves. All twisted and contorted by his nihilism and fucked up morality.” Andy’s breathing picked up and he dug his nails into his arm. 

“They’d be alone beside him, completely unloveable, and completely fucked in the head,” she said. She leaned closer to the bars. Andy backed up a bit

“But you already know that Andy,” she started in on him, “you might pretend to be better than Eddie and I, but you’re not. And you have no real reason to think you are,” she said.  

“Why would you be?” she asked, “because you hate him, because you tried to kill him” she said. He gave her an impotent glare. 

“We all hate him Andy, and we’ve all tried to kill him, it doesn’t change a thing about what he’s done to you,” Tiffany finished, “Your his kid, through and through.” 

Andy got up abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor as he did. Tiffany sat back on her cot. He walked toward the exit, ignoring the burning pain in his leg. 

“I’ll tell them I did it,” she shouted, “but not because of you.” 

“I want her to think of me. I want to be in her mind every morning when she wakes up and breathes free air. I don’t want her to have a day in her life where she doesn’t have me to thank. She can hate me. She can fear me. But I’ll have my place in her heart and mind for the rest of her life” she said.