The Society

Chapter 30: The Decision Part II

The Decision - Cassie Cassadaga

I walked through Central Park, making long laps around its edges. By the middle of my second lap darkness had fallen across New York. The streetlights had been turned on but I was still stumbling forward, not knowing what to do about the situation. If I don’t agree to this, the Lieberman trial will fail. The real murders of my Mum, the whistle-blower and all of those other victims will go unpunished. They will grow in strength and might threaten me and the other members of The Society. They know that we have been hunting them for years now. If we back off them, they won’t back off. They will keep coming at us and with their track record for violence and cruelty I don’t know if I can face that.

My mind flashed back when Andy was playing chess with his little brother, to my first day in headquarters seeing all those families and all those children playing in the lounge area. This is not just about me anymore. Whichever decision I make it will impact everyone. If I don’t choose to agree to these dirty tactics the rest of The Society, especially all of those young kids could be subjected to Lieberman’s cruelty.

I was standing in the spot of the park where Ian not too long ago had told me that Lieberman was rising in power. That we were still more powerful than him but only just barely. So if we back of, he will rise in power. But why should we stoop to the same level as he has done? To protect ourselves, to seek revenge for those he has killed and the families that have been impacted by that loss?

I sat down on a bench, trying to imagine the purposed scape goat. I didn’t know that much about him, but I knew that he had a family. If we do this we will be just as bad as them. We will impact someone else’s family, we will put them through the pain of loosing a family member. The pain of loosing a parent.

I stared out into the darkness, it was still hard to know what side of this decision I would come down on. Would I go with Stern’s plan or would I reject his advice once more?

The wind swept around me coldly as I was still sitting on the park bench, hours later. The cold gust of air had finally pushed me back to reality and snapped me out of the circle of thoughts my mind had been dancing around in for the last several hours. My fingers were freezing cold and I could feel that my body had nearly started to shut down from the cold. I got myself up, convinced my mind to leave the dilemma in front of me alone for just a little while so I could get myself home. There is no need for you to freeze to death just because you can’t make a decision on this now Cassie. Just get home and worry about this then.

I walked out of the nearest exit of the park, the quick walk had started to wake my body up, but I was still frozen to the core. I entered onto the street, my eyes searching for a yellow taxi that would take me home. I looked up and down the traffic junction and noticed Joe on the other side, the traffic rushing by and slight distorting his silhouette. He waved at me, as he was really happy to see me. Don’t look so happy Joe. If you knew what I was considering to do you wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore…

I continued to search for a taxi, too tired and too cold to wave back at Joe. He waved again and signalled with his hands that he would cross the street further down so that he could walk up to me. Oh, god he’s coming over here. I can’t deal with him right now. He will be able to smell it on me, he won’t agree. I am too cold and too tired to be able to conceal anything from him right now. I just need to get away from all of this. All of this, The Society, the Lieberman trial all of it. I just need to sleep.

I noticed at taxi coming towards me and I waved for it, as it pulled up next to me I looked down the pavement and saw Joe approaching me with great big speedy strides. Do I need to say something to him or I could just get in the taxi and go? As soon as the thought had flashed through my mind, I realised that my body had acted for me. My hand was shutting the door to the taxi when Joe’s face appeared on the other side of the window.