Ritzko Spoilers

[xhesika]

"I had it made when I accepted what I was." Ritz's voice almost cracked, "I got tired of trying to be the girl I used to be. Do you know how exhausting it is to try to be something you aren't?" She shook her head, forcing her voice to remain steady, but her expression was giving her away quickly. "This grave has no name because that girl is a mirage of my past. There is nothing on this world left of her."

Her words caught me off guard, I had expected to be at the grave of her parents or her friend, but this was one she had made for herself.

"There is nothing left of me that is human. I lost it when I killed my best friend. You know they were looking for me in France for the longest time? Trying to take me to trial for her murder." She took a deep breath and lit a cigarette, "I fled back to the States and Gale never yelled at me for losing control. Not once. “She shook her head, "This is my anniversary." Her eyes met mine now, "I begged for him to find the one who did this to me."

And Gale hadn't. As he would have said, it's just not civilized.

"Maybe my ashes will find their way here someday?" She let out a small laugh, very small, "I never did like the taste of garlic."

This unmarked grave was her apology to herself for what she had become. Did she really come here every year since its creation to mourn her own death? Had Gale really never seen this?

But she had chosen to show me.

I shook my head, "You didn't lose your humanity. This grave is proof. If you were some heartless monster you wouldn't have done this."

She took a drag of her cigarette and reached into her coat, pulling out a small stack of papers and a letter, "It's all there. Every damning bit of evidence against Mary. She is the only one who can never be accounted for when it happens. Never. You won't be hunted for this job. There's a copy in there of the letter of pardon that will be sent to every clan on this globe."

I flipped the pages in my hands, testimonies, alibis, and photographs; all leading to the conclusion that Mary was the one responsible for the murders. This would be more than enough for me to put into a report for Johnson.

"Bring me the head of Mary, and I will give you anything you want, even if it is to never see me again." She swallowed, "If you do I guarantee that the massacres will stop."

I looked up at her from the papers, "Ritz…"

"Don't ask me any more questions Bas-ti-an. Please don't do it. The only thing you have left to hear of are awful stories from a time long past that you have no desire to hear. I am tired of this whole ordeal. I want it over." There was a strange urgency in her voice that I hadn't heard before and she shook her head, "Not to say that I don't want to see you again. I mean I want to be able to move forward, and I can't with her pushing me back."

I nodded. I wouldn’t ask her to never see me again; I don't think I would ever be able to ask her that. I let her voice hum in my head with the way she said my name, dropping her jaw with the "a" sounds, almost like she had just learned English.