S2, E10 | Devil in a Daughter's Guise

Season 2 Finale

> 22nd May, 2031 <

“Honey, don’t-” Hugh sighs, looking disapprovingly at his wife as she bums a cigarette off a nearby officer, his exhausted plea cut short by her stern response. “Keep your dirty-fucking-words away right now, Hugh” Anne snaps back, striking a light to the end of the tobacco stick as her husband gives into the demand, forfeiting the conversation as he returns his eyes to the quiet road ahead, joining the rest of the group in doing so.

Surrounding the street light-illuminated street as the clock passes midnight, officers in unspecific uniforms surround the road, waiting for the arrival of the young woman they’ve been tasked with leading away in handcuffs. Whilst the Stewart parents stand at the bottom of the Carrion household’s front steps, the eldest Nurse folks occupy the steps a few paces from the top, unable to keep themselves from passing a glance at their son’s vehicle every few minutes.

Sitting in the driver’s seat with one foot one the ground and the other resting on the vehicle’s floor mat, Caden watches the road ahead through his windshield, eagerly waiting to bring justice to his girlfriend’s senseless killer. Out of the corner of his eye, Caden returns the glance to his parents, meeting their eyes before presenting them with the closest thing to a smile he can offer, wanting to prepare himself for the weight that he anticipates being pulled off his chest any moment now.

Stood at the top of the Carrion household’s top step, Andrew stands in wait with his arms crossed, the woman he’d come to devote his heart to standing by him just as she always has. “Everything’s going to work itself out” Elaine whispers, resting one hand on the man’s shoulder whilst holding his hand with the other, her words giving the grieving father the only source of hopefulness he can carry.

Weakly freed from its latch, the front door’s locks undo as a soft voice speaks up, prompting both the parental figures to turn back. “Daddy?” Olivia whispers, stepping onto the front step in her onesie pajamas, a teddy bear carried in her right hand as she rubs her eyes. “”Liv, go to bed sweetie” Elaine begins to whisper, only for Andrew to release his arms from their coupling and drop to his knee, letting the girl walk into his arms before picking her up.

Surrendering her request, Elaine keeps quiet as the father cradles his youngest daughter in both arms, pressing the side of his head against hers as he resumes his patient wait for their final family member to return. “Daddy, where’s Sophie?” the young girl asks, wrapping her arms around her father’s neck as she yawns, the teddy bear sitting in her lap as she rests her head against her pop’s chest.

With the most disheartened looks they can muster, the Nurse and Stewart parents hide their sorrow for the innocence they know will be lost by the end of the night, only able to feel sorry that they can’t keep the girl from experiencing the pain they know awaits. Pressing his lips together, Andrew keeps himself composed as he stares straight ahead, trying to rid himself of any indication that everything’s not alright.

“She’s going away for a while, honey” he answers honestly, only able to shut his eyes tightly as the little girl follows her question up with another, nearly breaking the man she sits in the loving hold of. 

“When is she coming back?” Olivia replies, forced to wait as her father forces away the heartbreak he wishes not to show her, Elaine’s inability to hold herself together forcing her to turn away and return to the home, not wanting the sweet girl she’d never known to be anything other than a bundle of joy to see her burst into tears.

Inhaling a deeper breath than he ever had before, Andrew parts his eyes the moment he musters the ability to respond, “she’s not.” From his car, Caden watches the conversation unfold without being able to hear anything, only needing to see the look of intense concentration on the father’s face to know what’s being said. Stricken to the core with emotion, the young man turns his head away to keep from having to watch for a moment longer, only for the fast-approaching car to regain his attention.

“Why not?” Olivia asks, the question being raised just as the first sounds of burning rubber catch the collected group’s ear, prompting Andrew to place his hand against the back of his daughter’s head and avert her eyes. “Because, honey-” he murmurs, a single tear running down his cheek as he watches the lights in the distance grow closer, arriving with great haste and intention, “-Sophie did a bad thing.”

Swiping at her eyes to clear her face as best she can, Elaine returns to the patio, her makeup-less face puffy and red from tears. On high alert, Caden’s hand reaches for the side of his steering wheel and twists the key, letting the crowd hear his engine roar in preparation for what may be soon to come.

“Gentlemen, be ready” the lead officer commands, pulling his eyes away from Caden’s vehicle, aware of what he plans and neither interested in, nor legally capable of stopping him. Drawing their firearms, the officers take cover behind whatever they can, the barricade of patrol cars that cut off the street from the Nurse residence and lower acting as a makeshift middleman.

Slowing as it approaches the final stretch of road, Sophie’s vehicle comes to a stop as its lights illuminate the various blue-striped white vehicles cutting it off from any further journey. “Turn off the vehicle and come out with your hands raised” the lead officer demands through his megaphone, kneeling behind a squad car whilst the rest of his unit prepares their aim.

Though slightly-blinded by the bright headlights, Caden pulls his second foot into the vehicle and wraps his right hand around the base of his wheel. “Is he gonna go after her?” Rebecca whispers to her husband, drawing his eyes to their increasingly-prepared son as he places his left hand against the open door. “Oh god, no” George mutters beneath his breath, certain of his son’s intentions though powerless to stop him.

Yet to move, the vehicle in the middle of the road remains hesitant to oblige, its occupant remaining behind the wheel, uncertain of how to respond. “Sophie!” Olivia shouts, her eyes wide as she tries to climb down from her father’s arms, though his grasp refuses to release like it would any other time, his tight hold of the girl keeping her from leaving his arms as he responds with a whisper.

“That’s not Sophie” Andrew murmurs, only loud enough for Elaine and his youngest daughter to hear, a second tear falling from his eye as he doubles down on his proclamation, “-not anymore.”

Through the position of her driver’s seat, Sophie watches her distraught father refuse to release her baby sister through the passenger’s window, a tear of her own falling down her cheek. Through the tinted windows of her vehicle, the wanted criminal looks out at the line of officers waiting for her to cooperate, both eyes drifting toward the dark, cloudy night sky as thunder begins to rumble in the distance.

“Nobody has to get hurt here, Sophie” the lead officer responds again, stepping out from cover in a show of good faith, basking in the light of his own patrol car’s headlights. “We’re not authorised to use force unless you give us a reason to- so don’t do that and you’ll walk out of this alive” he remarks, unaware of the scoff the mentally-ill young woman responds to him with.

“I can’t walk out of this alive when I’ve already got one foot in the grave” Sophie mutters, resting her left hand over the top of her steering wheel whilst holding the firearm with her right. Looking past the lead officer, her eyes fall upon Caden’s vehicle, the only one of all the cars that line the road that appears to be ready for a chase, a sight that prompts her mind to chase fascination just as the peace-talker opens his mouth once more.

“Your family doesn’t want it to end like this” the man remarks, finally saying something that she doesn’t react poorly to- but rather- drops her head at. Almost as if finally reminded of something worth caring over, Sophie listens to the man speak as he attempts to make good with whatever leverage he has to work with, only wanting this standoff to end without bloodshed.

“Don’t leave your father living with regret that he doesn’t deserve to have” the man remarks, prompting Sophie to turn her head back toward her home, a residency she knows she’ll never step foot in again. “Don’t leave Olivia without her older sister, Sophie” the peacekeeper adds, earning yet another tear from the driver’s eye with his words, though not for the reason he’d hoped.

Looking at the woman beside her father, Sophie takes solace in her presence, knowing she can fill her shoes much better than she’ll ever be able to again. Letting out a sigh, her eyes move to the heartbroken face of defeat that Andrew wears before watching her sister’s face pull away from his chest, looking to her for perhaps the final time she can ever expect it to.

Letting out a gasp as she turns away, Sophie wipes her teary eyes as her hand falls from the steering wheel, falling into her lap momentarily before reaching for the door handle. Forced to clear her throat, the cornered serial killer rests her fingers on the handle and takes in a deep breath, holding it as her eyes look back to her family, knowing she’ll never have the chance to stand beside them again.

Letting the breath free, Sophie wraps her fingers around the handle and pulls it, pushing the door open as she places her weapon in the passenger’s seat, using her free hand to shift gears. With a nod, the peacekeeper directs one of his subordinates to carefully approach the vehicle, both hands presented to the girl in a show of persuasion. Aware of his presence, Sophie rests her head against the back of her seat as she stares at her family, a sorry look in her eyes as she whispers.

Reclaiming her firearm, the young woman lets out a final sigh before uttering her well wishes to the loving relatives and close friend. “Take care of them, ‘Livy” Sophie whispers, nodding in the family’s direction before turning her attention to the intentionally-unarmed officer, her apologetic expression subsiding as she shakes her head at him, “come and get me.”

Without a second of hesitation, Sophie turns her weapon on the officer and opens fire, putting a bullet through his eye before slamming her door shut and pressing on the gas pedal, her gear put into reverse as fire is opened. Ducking for their home, Andrew and Elaine lead Olivia into the home as she screams, both Rebecca and George hurrying past the Stewart’s and away from cover as they race for their home.

“Caden, don’t!” George screams, unable to say a word more before his son slams his door shut and throws his car into drive, speeding past the initial wave of officers as he follows Sophie’s car down the road, her quick k-turn directing her back the way she came whilst he hotly pursues. Gripping the wheel tightly, Caden follows Sophie around the first corner and into open road, he and his adversary’s vehicles pushing far past the speed their follow squad cars can reach.

Whilst some race to each other’s aid as others hurry for their cars, the squad unit disperses whilst the families bundle together, accepting their individual terms in the standoff whilst taking refuge in the Carrion household. Flooded with flashing blue and red lights, the public police shine an early-morning street in their colours, chasing after the teenage drivers as well as their cars can allow them to.

= Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards =

> 22nd May, 2031 <

Rolling through red lights to the sound of displeased horns, Caden follows closely on Sophie’s tail, her uncommon tail lights presenting him with a specific red-shaded beacon to follow. Tightening his grip on the wheel, the man sneaks through traffic at every call to do so, the clinically insane woman ahead of him unable to lose him regardless of the risk-taking manoeuvres she attempts.

“Incoming call” the speakers proclaim through his blue-lit interior, not needing to read the name associated with the other line for him to know who requests his answer. Tapping his knuckle against the screen, Caden accepts the request, remaining quiet so as to open the air to the other line first. “Look at Caden Nurse now!” Sophie exclaims, genuinely impressed at his ability to keep up, “you’ve come a long way since last year.”

Both angered and increasingly irritable, Caden keeps his mouth shut until he knows the girl ahead has concluded her thought. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but there’s no going back for us” Sophie remarks, rolling her window down as she continues, “you’re either gonna have to run me off the road or get me to crash, ‘cause there’s no other option.”

“I can keep up with you until that tank runs empty” Caden responds, the answer one which Sophie had already expected to receive. “And when it does? How’re you gonna stop this?” the driver ahead inquires, raising her left hand into the air and firing a bullet into the heavens, “it’s like I said- there’s no going back.’

Grimacing, Caden shakes his head and keeps his eyes on the road ahead, watching the woman’s hand dip back into the car. “I’ve got five bullets left, and all I need is one” Sophie proclaims, clipping a sedan as she turns off a main road, leading Caden onto the on-ramp of the I-57, “you can do the maths, right?”

“When I told you that you should die, this is not what I had in mind” Caden replies, following the taillights ahead as vehicles begin to veer off to the side, at this point already knowing to steer clear of the excessively-fast cars.

Rolling her window up, Sophie shakes her head and moves with the traffic as the road ahead is shined with a bright spotlight from the helicopter that follows from above. “I don’t think anyone did and yet-” she replies, her smile losing its strength as it weakly lowers into a frown, her voice following in its deflated footsteps, as if she’s finally recognising the weight of what she’s done, “-here we are.”

Peering away from the road for just a moment, Caden looks at the centre console to see Sophie’s name, his eyebrows furrowing as he, too, realises what happens after the chase, regardless of its outcome. “After everything we’ve been through. After everything we’ve-” she continues, her voice increasingly more dejected the more she speaks before concluding her point in a mere whimper, “who would’ve thought?”

The other line going silent, Caden waits for a follow-up that never comes, continuing to sit through seconds of uncomfortable silence before hearing the reply of a few sniffles. “It doesn’t have to end like this, Sophie” he finally says aloud, only to hear the tears begin to fall harder as what is still to come finally sinks in to the fullest extent.

Joined by a second and third spotlight, Sophie’s vehicle finds itself shrouded in light as she breaks into tears, listening to the request made from her pursuer without having any chance at obliging, “just pull over and give up so no one else has to get hurt.”

Though fully surrounded by the results of her actions, Sophie laughs through her tears as she wipes them aside, nothing but open road ahead as every car keeps itself from harm's way. “You don’t get it, do you?” she asks aloud, her smile turning into a frown out of acceptance. “I hurt you, I hurt Izzy, I hurt the investigator, I hurt my family, I-” she remarks, her emotionally-conflicted expression turning cold and lifeless, a blank stare held at the road still to come.

“-I just keep hurting people” Sophie finally concludes, shaking her head as she looks to her side, eying the opposite side of the freeway with a frown, “and now it’s my turn to hurt.”

Looking to the car ahead with confusion, Caden takes a look at his screen to find the call having been severed, the woman in the other vehicle having uttered her final words before turning to the left, taking herself off the straight-away in favour of driving into oncoming traffic. With no care for the consequences, the man behind the wheel follows Sophie’s suit, only needing to follow the circular lights that tail her car without the slightest intent of losing her.

Pulling out of her immediate shadow, Caden veers to the side just slightly, watching cars ahead dodge that pair of vehicles that near closer, pressing his foot into the pedal as he tries to exceed his childhood friend’s speed. Passing his attention between the car that he slowly gains on and the road ahead, Caden spots a large set of lights close in from afar, the eighteen wheeler they belong to driving in the same lane that Sophie steers into, making the move her mind had decided on.

Pressing his teeth together, Caden gains further on Sophie’s car, the front of his hood now in line with her front seat, the leverage held to make a call of his own. With a look to his own passenger’s seat in the final seconds, Caden pictures Izzy’s hand atop his own, holding it to the gear shift as the clock nears zero.

Holding in a breath, Caden pulls his hand from the gear shift and takes the wheel in his full possession, throwing it to the left and slamming into Sophie’s getaway vehicle, knocking it off the road and through a set of guard rails as the consequences to his decision steps on the brake. Blowing its horn, the eighteen wheeler puts on a fruitless attempt to stop, its speed too great to avoid the collision that is now inevitable.

His face illuminated in the tanker’s headlights, Caden’s world stands still for a moment, his rapid speed and inability to change course set aside as time pauses. As his hands squeeze the wheel, they’re taken by a second set of hands he knows the feeling of well, leaving him one final chance to lock eyes with his angel before being whisked away to paradise.

Feeling as if he were floating, Caden closes his eyes as the world around him resumes its natural plan, returning his vehicle to reality as it slams into the big rig at full force, leaving the ground and flying through the air with incredible velocity, ripping apart and tearing itself into shreds as it screams across the barren stretch of road, slowly crashing to a stop in a mangled, horrifying heap.

Filled with the sounds of nightmares for just a few, brief seconds, the road soon becomes still as the semi truck’s horn shuts down, the vehicle having slowly forced itself to a halt. Soon revisited by the overlooking helicopters, their spotlights shine upon a road covered in the debris of a car appearing less like a vehicle than it does a hunk of scrap metal.

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> 22nd May, 2031 <

Bleeding from an open wound over her head, a concussed Sophie sprints through a thicket that gradually becomes a larger set of woodland, the pistol carried in her left hand as the sun begins to rise whilst dogs bark in the near distance. Missing one tooth whilst another sits in a cut just above her upper lip, the dizzy-minded young woman stumbles her way across rocky and unsteady terrain before crumbling to her knees, exhausted beyond the point of return.

No longer able to stand let alone travel, Sophie lowers herself onto the ground and leans against a tree, her glossy-eyed face joining the rest of her head tilting toward the sky, looking into the grey, cloudy heavens whilst the police remain on her tail. Lowering her chin, the slaughterer looks to the ground as her mind tries to recall what’s at stake, not finding much difficulty in doing so, but failing to let it fully sink in that she’s run out of time.

Catching her breath, Sophie musters the wherewithal to look back at the way she’d come, listening to the barks draw nearer as the officers that lead them close in. With a look to her scraped, cut and bruised legs, the girl comes to grips with the fact that her life is over, not a single step left to take now that the tank has run empty, her freedom having found its resting place in the exact spot she resides in now.

Letting this truth settle with her, Sophie’s face twists back into the despondent wreck of emotion that had overtaken her the night prior, the tears beginning again as she shares her departing thoughts with the world she knows. Covered in dirt, blood and sweat, her face takes to the sky as the police draw nearer, the hand she holds her gun in lifting the weapon to her chin, leaving her finger to sit on the trigger as she steadies her breathing.

Prepared to close her eyes and travel to the next life, a final rush of valour consumes her, driving her eyes in the direction of the officers, who now close in just enough for her to distinguish their figures from the flora that surrounds her. Holding off on pulling the trigger for just one moment, Sophie presses her lips together and pulls in a deep breath, slowly letting it out as she pulls the gun away from her neck, staring into the heavens as she does so.

“It’s my turn to hurt” she whispers, removing her finger from the trigger and biting her bottom lip, tossing her hand to the side to throw the weapon out of reach, refusing herself the ability to escape responsibility for what she’s done. “Put your hands in the air!” the leading officer shouts out, his words catching Sophie’s ear as she closes her eyes. As told, the girl lifts her hands from her sides and surrenders, allowing herself to be captured and time to expire.

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> 22nd May, 2032 <

Flooded with the sharpest of buzzers, the concrete-walled passageway Sophie resides in releases her to the custody of another guard, her greatly-damaged hair lighter than the orange jumpsuit she wears. With his hand on the grip of his firearm, the uniformed correctional officer leads the young girl past a number of booths before a familiar face steals her attention away, the man sitting on the other side of bulletproof glass looking to his lap with a handset phone in his hands.

Frozen stiff, Sophie looks through the view yet to process what she finds, her distraught father unable to pull his eyes away from the distance. With her hands shaking, the incarcerated criminal lowers herself onto the stool as her father’s jittery head lifts to her direction, his face filled with an inconsolable pain words could never begin to describe. Her shaky hand reaching for the phone, she presses it to her ear as Andrew musters the will to do the same.

Silent, Sophie leaves the air open for her father to speak first, his trembling lip fighting to get off anything other than a heavy breath. Pressing the phone between his shoulder and head, Andrew presses his hands together to alleviate the tension that builds within them the best he can, carefully reclaiming the handset as he tries to speak.

“We visited Caden’s grave today” Andrew begins, his voice holding a chillingly cold tone as his mind begins to form sentences, breaking the ice he hadn’t yet figured out how to. “It took them a little while, but- the Nurse’s, they- they finally got him a headstone” the man continues, listening to the dead air from the other end of the call, Sophie’s breaths so quiet he can’t hear even the slightest bit of them.

“‘Liv just finished fifth grade- barely” the man continues, scratching his eyebrow as the lost year he’s missed with his eldest daughter has given him the chance to look inward. “She had to pass a maths test just to get above failing, and the rest of her classes weren’t much better. She-” Andrew moves forward, refusing to look at the dejected look on his imprisoned daughter’s face, “-she hasn’t hugged anyone since that night.”

Having thought he could hold it together for a short few minutes, the swell of emotions that he holds back refuse to be ignored any further, tears streaming down his face as everything he says is accompanied by an open weep. “She won’t even let me touch her because it reminds her of you” Andrew sobs, forcing himself to pull away from the phone for a moment before gathering his bearings, trying to find the question he came to ask.

“What did I do?” the man pleas, finally looking his daughter in the eyes with the need to receive an answer, his beat red face expressing the toll not owning one takes. “What did you say? what did I not do? What should I have done?” Andrew lists, stopped when Sophie finally breaks her silence, shedding her own tears as she refuses him the right to take any responsibility for what she’d done.

“This is not your fault” Sophie urges, watching the man shake his head at her declaration, “all you ever did was love me!” Violently pulling his head back, Andrew slams the base of his hand against the short counter in front of him, shaking his head rapidly before putting his head back to the phone, dropping his voice to a near-whisper. “That’s not true” the man responds, resting his arm on the same short surface whilst looking at his daughter with his head tilted to one side.

“That can’t be true- it just can’t be” he sighs, letting one tear trickle out of the corner of his eye with no reluctance, its stream carrying it down his face. “If all I ever did was give you love, then how-” the broken vessel of a person begins, losing sight of his heartache as he stares behind the eyes of the person he knows committed more heinous deeds than he could have ever imagined, ready to finish his question “-then how could you give back so much hate?”

Moistening her dry mouth, Sophie looks her father in the eyes and smiles through her teary eyes, unable to answer without losing control of her breathing. Rocking back and forth as she looks at the ground, the orange haired slayer composes herself as she looks back at the man, their connection separated by a pane of glass that will never remove itself from the equation, “I’m sick.”

Remaining in silence, Andrew presses his bottom lip between his teeth and stares into the eyes of the young woman across from him, her silent patience spent waiting for him to respond. Coming to terms with what he sees looking back at him, the man’s demeanour changes just slightly, as if he’d been freed of a burden and accepting of his loss. “That’s not you in there” he murmurs, the subtle shake of his head sending chills down his daughter’s spine, “that’s not my daughter.”

Swallowing a gulp of air, Sophie’s expression sours, her eyes squinting as she looks at the man on the free side of life as if unsure what he means. “I don’t know who you are and I don’t really want to, because the person I’m talking to right now is not my daughter” Andrew repeats, grimacing at the pain it gives him to say such a thing, “my daughter? And Olivia’s sister?” She’s not with us anymore.”

“Dad” Sophie sighs, refused to say even a word further as Andrew cuts her off, finishing his point with every need to do so. “I don’t know what happened to her, but I know for certain she’s not in front of me right now” he declares, his head shaking as he refuses the inmate’s suggestions otherwise, “she’s not that monster facing life without parole.”

“Dad?” Sophie repeats, trying to speak to the man before finding her efforts futile, his hand pulling the phone away from his ear and returning it to the receiver, severing the conversation just as he severs the relationship with his eldest. “Dad!” Sophie exclaims, leaving her seat and smacking the protective glass as her father turns his back to her, returning to the room’s exit as the guards arrive to reclaim the redheaded executioner, “Dad, come back!”

Refusing to even look back, Andrew steps into the next corridor and embarks on a new life whilst his oldest screams for his return. “Dad!” Sophie exclaims, wrestling her arms away from the armed men that approach to bring her back, “Dad, please come back!” Prying her arms free, the young woman grunts as force is used against her, both large officers wrapping their arms around her to subdue the struggle.

“Let me go!” Sophie cries out, brought to the ground as the guards radio for assistance, her father ignoring her desperate pleas as he keeps his head forward, “Dad, please! Come back!” Pulled off the ground, the prisoner is carried by both men through the door and back to her cell, the buzzer sounding off as she reaches for the door frame, holding on for dear life before she’s ripped away, returned to her imprisonment with nothing but the clothes on her back and the debris of burned bridges.

== Generation Alpha ==