Run-Away Little Sister: Hurting

Chapter Twenty-Three: Issues

Three Weeks Later - December 12th. 2015

ANASTASIA'S POV:

Issue.

An important topic or problem for debate or discussion.

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I have an issue. Not just any issue, but an issue I didn't know if or how I could solve. I pride myself on being able to solve problems for my gang, for my friends, for my children, but for myself as well. And now, I don't know if I'll ever be able to resolve said issue.

For the first two weeks in my training sessions with my brothers they all continuously tried to improve their skills. Each day spent training them hadn't gone to waste because they were all learning something new and excelling at the classes they had only begun a few short weeks earlier.

However, everything began to go downhill around a week ago. Things have began to fall apart quicker than ever expected from anybody in our inner circle. We've been having more run-ins with all of our shipments from the police, which can never be a good thing.

With the continual rise of our gang that is coming back stronger than ever before, rival gangs have also been trying to infiltrate and subtly send us to our deaths, leading us to have quite the large amount of casualties from the other side. Our side, however well prepared we are, there have been deaths and serious injuries inflicted.

We've been battered from every side, seemingly. We have a mole, there's no other explanation. Wyatt's triple checked our servers and made sure that we're not the ones giving ourselves away. 

And so my issue is-

We have a mole.

And I don't know how to fix it. 

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The fact that we have a mole, somebody untrustworthy, feeding our information away to others all for a larger dollar amount makes me sick. I try to be fair and equal with everybody I come across, because that is who I am.

But I can't help the nightmares that come in turn with the fact of a mole being known. The last time we were placed in such a situation was when the bloodbath of all our relatives dying occurred. I don't want anyone else I care about to die. 

Death is apart of the circle of life, I know that, my friends know that, and we know that in our line of work it's impossible to never experience death. 

But at the end of the day- we're still a bunch of sixteen year old teenagers who want nothing more than to be wrapped up in the arms of our parents as they whisper sweet-nothings to us in order to help us feel better after a rough day. 

Last time, we caught the mole, the worthless traitor. Last time we won the battle, but it was at the expense of all our high ranking members. It was at the expense of our family, our innocence, our happiness, our joy. And that thought is what scares me the most. That thought alone keeps me up at night.

What if I'm not enough to save my family like the last time?

What if they die because I wasn't strong enough, quick enough?

It's not just myself that I have to worry about. I can't be selfish and run, not this time. This time the stakes are just too high.

This time, I have my best friends (or in other words my adoptive cousin/siblings), I have my adoptive siblings/children, and I have my family's legacies falling upon my shoulders.

It's continued to get harder, as we try and uncover the mystery behind who killed our parents, I've come to grow close to my brothers. I've created relationships with them, and now it's up to me to protect them with everything I have in me.