Rogue Reborn (Part 2)

At the tender age of sixteen, Rogue had left home with no idea of where she was going. Her mother was never coming home to her, and she could no longer face the town which had left her an orphan at an age when she most needed her parents. Aunt Helena had been kind and had done the best that she could for her, but she needed to put some distance between herself and the town of Brookville.

A small amount of money in a bank account of her mother's had been found among her things in her storage unit and apartment. Everything salvageable had been sold or thrown out, Rogue kept a few things as mementos to remember her by. She jumped on the first bus which offered a long journey and settled in for the destination to nowhere or to somewhere.

The bus driver shook her awake.

"Miss, this is the end of the line, did you miss your stop"? He had a kind face.

"No, here is fine, thank you". The driver seemed a bit worried, but she smiled and exited the bus.

Rogue walked around for a while, then returned to the station and slept on the long uncomfortable bench.

Teddy worked in the ticket booth and had watched her leave and return, he had a feeling she was a run-away, or worse; homeless. On his break time he walked over after she woke up. They started talking and he invited her to meet some of his friends. They were college students, bunched into a tiny apartment, eating lots of ramen noodles and trying to make ends meet. With their help she had gotten her GED and enrolled in some college courses online, she worked at the local theatre selling tickets and snacks.

One day she returned to the apartment and everything had been ripped apart and ransacked. The others were not happy and looked to her for answers. She had no idea who could have done it, or why. Then Rogue remembered a set of old tapes which she had found in her mother's things. She always though they contained music but never got around to listening to the tapes she carried in her backpack.

She borrowed an old cassette player from Teddy, they had become quite close and he looked out for her. She heard her mother's voice along with a male companion's:

"They will kill us if we don't give them the tape Jake. We have to record what we know so if anything happens to us, this will be proof and the baby will be safe".

"I know, they don't know about the baby, but soon they will. We will need this as insurance to keep us all safe". The tape whirred and Jake spoke quickly.

"My name is Jake Tapper. I witnessed the young son of the wealthy Fortunado family, along with three of his friends, torture and kill the three young college students who went missing without a trace a month ago. I worked as their chauffeur and know well of their continuous cruelty, I have a tape which will incriminate all four. I helped them clean the crime scene, but I can no longer stand by and watch other young women die. I am recording this and going to the police. If anything should happen to me or my wife, only Helena, Marena's sister, knows of this storage unit. These tapes will protect my unborn child".

Rogue used her measly savings to purchase a live-in van and while saying goodbye to Teddy, someone had taken a shot at her, Teddy had jumped in front of her and saved her life.

After the funeral, she dyed her hair blonde, changed her appearance and knew what she had to do.

When it all started

The Fortunados were taking no chances, their son would not go to prison, and the chauffeur knew too much, they had found the recording device and had tortured him for the location of the tapes. He never told. So they framed Marena for her husband's death. Rogue found this all out after tracking down and befriending the weakest and most vulnerable of the group of four.

Everyone's lives were plastered all over the internet, she had no trouble finding them. After a few drinks and some hard to resist fantasy promises, she seduced the truth out of him. They had to kill her mother, she knew too much and would not tell where the tapes were. Now they knew of the daughter and were making plans for her death. She used her phone to record everything.

After that it was not hard to weasel herself into the group of murderers, their huge egos and rich privilege shielded them from the everyday and the mundane, or so they thought. She met their hitman, he had shot Teddy.

One by one they had paid for their sins, all five of them. Now she had all sorts of incriminating evidence on her phone.

The entire Fortunado kingdom was going down. Maybe. The rich too, can weasel themselves out of everything.

Rogue sent one set of evidence to the police and one to the newspapers.

Two day later, the newspaper headlines read:

"HALF A MILLION DOLLARS AWARDED TO ORPHAN FOR WRONGFUL DEATH OF HER MOTHER WITHIN THE PENAL SYSTEM".

There was no mention of the Fortunados or their crimes.

Will Rogue ever be safe?

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Part 1

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The prompt.