The Big Brother's Mission (#3)

Chapter 13

"I'm off!" I told Casey as I opened the bedroom door to tell her that I was leaving.

When Casey didn't react, I sighed and tried again.

"Case, I'm leaving?" I didn't want her to come back to reality only to find me gone and start searching for me out on the streets.

This time, I got a better response as Casey hummed, her nose buried in her book.

"Have fun!" She said off mindedly, eyes glued to the pages of her book.

"Okay."

I had used the boys as my alibi, telling her that I was going to be out until late tonight to do some catching up with them.

Lucky for me, she was too immersed in the latest book she was reading to pay me any attention. The sun had set long ago but Casey hadn't moved an inch from her spot on the bed to turn on the light in the room. The only light that was helping her read was from her phone's flashlight that faced the ceiling. The light bounced off the room's ceiling and provided little light but I guess it was sufficient enough to help Casey read.

It was a bad habit that she had kept since she got into reading. She'd start reading when the sun was still in the sky and wouldn't even notice that it was setting until she couldn't read the words on the page anymore. Then, she'd find it too much of a hassle to get up from her spot just to turn on the light in the room so she'll turn to whatever source of light that was within arm's reach; which would be her phone's flashlight.

I sighed at her laziness and reached out to the wall adjacent to the door for the switch. With one click, the room brightened up and caused Casey to squint, her face scrunching up slightly at the sudden assault to her vision.

I've given up at nagging her not to read in the dark long ago. When she's deep in fiction-land, it was like her ears were blocked. It would usually take several verbal attempts of trying to get her attention or physical contact to actually bring her back to reality. Sometimes she can get difficult when that happens too, especially if she was starting to get to the good parts of the book. That was why I tried to steer clear whenever she has a book in her hand unless it was important. She turns into a little monster when someone disrupts her reading time for no reason.

She waved at me goodbye without raising her head and continued to read. As my gaze lingered on my unaware sister, I prayed that I'll be able to make it home safely tonight. I hoped what I feared was going to happen wouldn't happen. I didn't want Casey to look back at this moment and regret it for the rest of her life if I didn't make it home in one piece tonight. I didn't want this single moment to become a memory that would constantly haunt her.

With that, I walked out of our room and the door closed with a click.

I walked down the stairs and hoped that I'll make it home alive tonight.

Perhaps I was overthinking and overreacting towards the mission that was being given to me tonight. But as I rode to the address that Jax had given me, I failed to suppress my fear and trepidation.

All I could think about was the worst case scenarios that my brain could conjure up.

I finally arrived at another empty warehouse, in the outskirts of town, not too different from the first warehouse Jax had sent me to. The warehouse looked abandoned too, just like the first one did but this warehouse was bigger. The gate to the warehouse was hanging by its hinges and it looked like no one had visited the area in ages but tire tracks were imprinted on the ground near it.

I followed the tracks around the tall fence guarding the perimeter and came to a gaping hole on the side of the warehouse. I traced the tracks and found jeeps parked behind the warehouse. Light spilled into the dark night through the small holes and gaps in the warehouse halls and I could hear faint voices from inside the warehouse.