nightrunners

xiv.

Cassiopeia flopped back on her bed, her eyes burning holes into the ceiling.

"So, he wants you to meet him tonight to sell drugs?"

JJ's voice echoed in her ear.

"Yes."

"No fucking way," He let out an exasperated sigh, "I'm not letting you do that, you can't go."

She sucked in her lower lip, "I don't have much of a choice."

"You do Cassiopeia, you always do."

"J, I dumped his stash all the sand."

"Who the fuck cares?" JJ yelled suddenly, "He's a fucking druggie, you're playing with-."

JJ's voice faded into the background as John B's picked up into the earpiece.

"We'll be there tonight."

"No way," she breathed out sharply, "he'll know."

"Then we'll be in the area," John B said firmly, "we'll have a unique code word so if something happens, you say it."

She could hear JJ's voice protesting in the background, "No way am I leaving her alone John B."

She chuckled, a sour taste settling on her tongue, "You were perfectly fine with leaving me alone the other night."

JJ groaned, "Can we not bring our personal issues into this Cassiopeia, this is literally the worst timing."

"You guys made me do this," she said lowly.

"So, you don't want to?" John B's voice filled the mic.

Cassiopeia let out frustrated sigh, "It's an invasion of privacy."

"This is Rafe we are talking about here, are you out of your mind?" JJ's voice yelled in the background.

"Cassi," John B's husky voice spoke softly, "don't you at least want to know who's behind the mask?"

"What do you even mean?" She twirled a piece of hair around her index finger.

"We find out what he's really doing, maybe he's just doing old, crazy Rafe stuff, but maybe he's not. We'll never know if we don't try, and you are our best way in."

Cassiopeia's breathing quickened as John B's words repeated in her head.

"Once we find what he's doing, we won't bother him again."

"You promise?" She asked suddenly.

"Of course," John B spoke firm and reassuringly over the earpiece.

"Okay," She agreed, "okay."

There was a part of Cassiopeia that was itching to know the darkest crevices of Rafe, to find out what really made his brain tick.

She peeled her eyes from the ceiling and they instantly fell on the familiar book staring back at her. She felt the pit in her stomach swallow her whole.

--

Night quickly fell and Cassiopeia gathered her things in a rush. She packed multiple items including a knife, just in case she needed something to defend herself even if that something was Rafe. She tiptoed down into the hallway and her eyes landed on her grandmother's door, which was shut tightly.

She took a look at the photo of her and her brother before heading down the stairs. As she made her way to the landing, the grandfather clock's bell rang in her ears. She jumped a little, startled by the sound and looked at the clock, it was 11:00.