Morphine (Complete)

𝟏𝟖

Chapter Eighteen

Subtlety had always been a part of Rannia's life.

Be it living in a well-known and obnoxiously destructive family, or disguising in the night as nothing more than a shadow, Rannia had done it, and done it without anyone knowing.

The bus she'd taken was a twenty minute trip out of town. Spindly woods lined the two-lane road, and darkness was quickly coaxing in from the horizon. Pines and firs disrupted Rannia's vision out the bus window, clouded by her small breaths that fogged up the glass. It had been over a month since she'd travelled home. She missed it.

The bus was empty except for her and the bus driver. It was eerily quiet with only the whirring of the motor and the crumbling of the wheels-on-concrete to fill the void. Her fingers drifted through a knife flipping pattern absently, missing their toy.

The bus squeaked as breaks pulled it to a stop. Doors opened and Rannia eyed the bus stop outside; a small outcropping of bare earth beside the ever-fading lines of the street. She slugged up her bag with one arm and mosied off the bus, hearing the doors snap closed just as she'd exited. Her eyes closed and she inhaled the deep earthy scent of the forest for a moment. She opened them again and began walking through the woods.

There was no distinguishable path by any standard. No special markers marked a direction and no plants were trampled. Rannia passed tree by tree in the fading light, breath becoming heavier as she walked with not her eyes, but her senses. She'd run through these woods as a child many times. Racing with the air on her face, breath on her lips, and a laugh on her tongue. Her fingers brushed against a groove in a tree made by a knife accident. She grinned slowly, spotting an line of light in the distance. Her feet picket up their pace and she hurried over tumbled weeds and overturned roots until she reached home.

No one could have seen her in the dark woods. It should have been impossible, but when Rannia looked through the front window, her mom's eyes were already on her. Motion detectors lay around the forest floor, and though they were usually set off by rodents and birds, that's what the cameras were for.

There was no subtlety when something was watching.

Rannia saw her mom drop whatever she was holding and rush to the front door. Just as Rannia had trekked up to the front lawn covered with weeds, her mom was out of the door and racing down the steps.

Rannia had to keep a smile from her face as her mom enveloped the girl in a crushing hug, hoping to never let go. With strength, her mom managed to pull away, a stern look on her face.

"Where the fuck have you been, Rannia?"

Rannia gulped.

"Y'know, out. It was only a little over a month—" She tried to sidestep her mom but got a harsh hit to the back of her head. Rannia groaned and recoiled, glaring up at her mom.

"Over a month! Are you insane?" Her mom snatched the bag from her hands and fixed a condescending stare onto Rannia. "Get inside, we'll talk there."

Defeated, and knowing better than to argue, Rannia walked up to her home and stepped inside. No one rushed to greet her. Her dad and brothers were probably all busy.

The front door closed behind them with a significant amount of force. Rannia's bag was tossed onto a couch nearby. Rannia tried to be unconcerned, but the child inside of her made her heart beat wildly.

"You have a chance to explain yourself, young lady," her mom warned. The older woman prowled around the corner and picked back up the dish she'd been cleaning. Using soapy suds and a dishtowel, the female Romano still managed to look as intimidating as ever. She ran the pack as much as Rannia's dad did.

Rannia leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms, casting a disinterested look out the window. It was now so dark she could not see where she'd been just minutes before.

"You won't believe me when I tell you," Rannia sniped childishly, still unnerved from the light slap she'd gotten from her mom. It made her feel like a child.

"Make it fun then, at least," her mom retorted sarcastically. She picked up a potato scrub brush and worked away at a particularly difficult patch.

"Well, for starters, I'm dating Carter Amir."

Bumps spread along Rannia's skin as her mother paused, froze, dropped her plate, and gaped. It was a moment of processing before she mustered an unamused laugh.

"You're asking to be disowned, love."

"We met at a coffee shop, love at first sight," Rannia drawled, tone light enough for her mom to know she was joking. She stepped away from the doorframe and began walking through the kitchen, hands clasped together on her chest as she continued to speak, "and then I stayed at his parent's house for a week. A week!"

Her mom remained silent.

"Nia?"

Rannia paused, cocking her head in her mom's direction.

"June?"

Her mother's nostrils flared. "It's mom to you, Rannia."

"Mother June, then." Rannia hopped up onto the counter, legs swaying as she watched her mom pick up the dish and wash it again. "I knocked Jared into a river by accident, and then, oh, right, I made his uncle trip and die." Rannia lifted a finger and observed her chipped nail carefully. "But I assume you know of this already?"

"Yes," Mother June said brusquely, "something to do with a Garcia—devil's blessing they seem. And then a suicide after a difficult fall."

Rannia smiled coyly. "We'll call it that."

Mother June paused and thought for a moment. "Alright, fine, Nia. I'm glad you're home. Just never- and I mean never, ever disappear without a trace like that again."

"I promise," Rannia replied sincerely, sending a loving look her mom's way. June could not seem to return her look. Pain pulled at her features.

"I don't want to ever think that...that happened again."

A chill ran down Rannia's back. She had to look down at her knuckles to know that they were white from pressure.

"I should go," she murmured.

"Yes," Mother June managed faintly. Her hands were a little shaky as she spoke, but she kept herself together pretty well. "Go speak to your father, dear."

"Okay ma." Rannia hopped off the counter and headed towards her dad's office.