Tic tac teeth; part 5

“I think it’s best I finish my story now.” Simon says. He clears his throat, and starts to talk, but I cut him off.
“Can we go somewhere else?” I ask, motioning towards the room. Thankfully, Simon nods, and follows me into the lobby. Barney is gone, probably on a break, and the desk is empty. I sit on one of the lumpy couches, and Simon sits across from me. I play with the rings on my fingers as he starts to speak.
“Arnold opened the door, as I said, and Isabelle was right behind him. She had a look of pure terror on her face. There were dark, purple, bruises on her face, and her lip was dripping blood. She held her arms behind her back, though I was sure there were marks on them too, in the clear shape of Arnold’s fat fingers. I was so stunned, that I almost forgot about Layla for a moment. “Who are you?” Arnold asked in a gruff voice. I shook my head, and started to tell him about Layla. “Your daughter came to my room tonight, and wanted to play a few games with me. She stayed at my apartment for awhile, then she went back to her.... or your apartment.” I told him. I went on to tell him about how she had disappeared after I had mentioned Mr. Durmy. Arnold showed no emotion at all while I told him about how Layla had said they were missing, but the whole time Isabelle’s eyes had been getting bigger and bigger, until they were the size of saucers. When I had finished telling them about this, Arnold had almost slammed the door in my face, but Isabelle restrained him. “That’s poppycock!” Arnold thundered. “Our daughter is asleep in her bed, and this conversation is over!” The door narrowly missed slicing off my ear as it slammed shut." He looks me straight in the eye as he says the next part. “Later in the night, I heard a timid knock on my door. It was Isabelle. She told me that Layla wasn’t in her room, and that she had been missing for the past week. She started to cry, and explained that Arnold didn’t think they needed to order a police file, and that Layla would just come home on her own. This explained why I hadn’t seen Layla until that night. She told me that Arnold hated Layla, because he wasn’t his blood related daughter. “She was from my first marriage”, she told me. Isabelle then told me to “stay out of it”, and that I should just forget about Layla. She said that she and Arnold could handle it.” He paused to take a breath. “She left me standing at the door, but I took her advice, and tried to forget about Layla. It wasn’t as easy as it would seem, though. I started to have nightmares about her, and would wake up frequently during the night. I started taking sleeping pills, and because of these I didn’t eat as much. I was becoming thin, and weak. I knew it had to stop. One day I decided I was going to go to the authorities and issue a report for Layla. However, when I opened the door to my apartment building, I saw Isabelle and Arnold walking down the hallway, holding in their arms a few boxes and bags. I rushed up to them, blocking their path. “Get out of the way!” Arnold boomed, but I stayed where I was. Looking into Isabelle’s violet eyes, I asked where are you going? “We’re getting away from you people in this apartment!” Arnold growled. Isabelle said nothing, but I could see tears beading at the edges of her almond eyes. Without a word, Arnold reached out an arm and pushed me out of the way. He took Isabelle’s arm, and dragged her down the hall after him. Isabelle looked back at me once, and there were tears streaming down her face. “Good bye…” Isabelle mouthed, and then she was gone around the corner, and out of sight.