WICK

 The pace of traffic began to increase the further down they drove; buildings bigger than the eye could see lumbered over the streets, casting shadows upon the commuters as they leisurely prowled forward.

The city had too many roads for one so small, yet there they sat on one of many crowded roads, with Cattelaya easing on and off the accelerator; their vehicle in a tango with the ones roaming around her.

They were close to their destination; just a few more blocks and Cattelaya knew she'd see the roads widen slightly as an influx of traffic surged through the magnificent tunnel. 

Ahead Cattelaya saw it; the Holland Tunnel, i.e. their escape route.

The amount of traffic that circulated this tunnel was so grand that it would've been impossible for the agents to track her sole vehicle; unless they decided to pull out all stops and get the police involved for a mass traffic stop.

However, she knew the chances of that were slim, the hunters were a lot of things; cold, callous, ruthless, and bloodthirsty to name a few, but they weren't sloppy. 

No, in the chance that the police ever did get involved with the agency, they would strictly be on a 'Need-to-know' basis; with us not being in that deck of information. 

It had happened before, once a long time ago. An agent-turned-deputy took any cases that were deemed "miraculous", be it a woman surviving a fifty foot drop unscathed or a baby being kidnapped and just suddenly turning back up the next day. 

Anything that seemed too good for it to be natural or too beautiful for it to be human; he was on it, his entire career had been a ploy to ensure he'd gotten the right target whilst playing the "hero cop" role.

His hands had shaken the mayor's, had held metals of valor and yet they were also the end of so many. 

A disgusted feeling had begun to climb up the inside of her ribs, settling into her chest comfortably as she maneuvered her vehicle around one that had stopped and was now parked slightly on the edge of the road, seemingly without reason. 

Its verdant windows were lowered completely, allowing Alessia to peek through and see an older lady, whose face was red and twisted into a demented sneer as she appeared to be exploding on what or whoever was in the backseat. 

The sight was a good enough distraction from the ache that had spread through her sister and now nestled itself into the pit of her stomach.

Alessia couldn't even begin to fathom what evils hid behind her sister's gray eyes; what torments she'd faced since the last time they'd seen each other, but she knew that her sister was not one to dwell on negative emotions.

Ever since they were children, she had only known Cattelaya to solve her qualms with her fist, and occasionally feet.

The waves of passion that flowed through the older girl almost sent her sister into a short-lived state of shock; they'd always been in tune with one another; their emotions so closely linked that one would confuse their feelings with the sibling to their right, but being able to feel these emotions felt… off, like she was intruding on a private affair. 

Yet at the same time, moments of vulnerability were so scarce when it came to the older teen that she felt the overwhelming need to help her through whatever it was that had tainted her mood; they'd just reunited, and for that reason she felt the pressing need to turn the aura back around, if only to allow them another minute to revel in the fact that the other was not even a foot away. 

Her eyes began wandering the interior; catching sight of the bags that had not been in the back of the vehicle when they had departed from the school's parking lot. 

Scanning the neatly placed items, her eyes widened as she beheld a CD; not just simply because CDs were nearly unheard of at this point, but also because of the artist itself.  

She could feel her sister's questionable gaze as she pulled her seatbelt over her head, allowing the lower parts to remain wrapped around her waist, and reached behind her, grabbing at the disc that had caught her attention.

Bringing her hand up and to the side of her sister's face, she gave a cheeky grin as she displayed her discovery.

In her peripheral Cattelaya took note of the crinkled black and white image of a couple; the only splash of color being the red that covered them, sending a jolt of recognition through the teen as her eyes glided over it easily.

It was an older My Chemical Romance album; the edges of the cover page had been rendered useless as it hung decrepitly on the small plastic hooks used to keep it in its place.  

She'd only listened to the tracks a billion times when Olivia had decided to surprise her with the disc for their first Christmas together; the single disc had been played so much that late at night when the teen laid down to go to sleep at night, she was sure she could hear her guardian singing the chorus of one of her favorite tracks.

She appraised the plastic case for a moment before allowing her attention to drift to her now giggling sister, her brow lifted expectantly as she waited to find out what exactly Alessia had been so chipper about.

The girl gave one last chuckle before she allowed herself to calm down enough to explain.

"I didn't know you were emo." She stated lightly before erupting in another fit of giggles.

The older girl faced her sister fully, staring incredulously at the younger girl who'd just made fun of the best gift she'd ever gotten. 

Alessia, seeing her sister's pointed look, attempted to back peddle; stumbling out affirmations of how "Ok being emo was'', before the sound of Cattelaya's laugh caused her words to falter before fully halting.

Her laugh was hefty, in fact it almost didn't sound like it came from her, yet Alessia watched as the older girl threw her head back, cheeks stretched wide as she howled with laughter.

After a good minute of listening to her sister's amusement, the younger girl had finally begun feeling embarrassed, she felt it as the heat began pooling into her cheeks and up her ears causing a heated glare to take up her features; she'd always hated feeling stupid and sitting here listening to Cattelaya cackle at her was just enough to push her into the grasp of such feelings.

As her sister's soured expression caught her gaze, the older teen sobered herself; attempting to rein in her laughter, she leaned over, her hands easily pried the case free of her grasp as an easy smile played at her lips.

"There's a lot we have to catch up on then, huh?" Was her reply as she flipped open the cover, and brought out the disc before popping it into the built-in stereo that, until today, had remained unused, as she'd taken to blaring music from her phone anytime she drove.

The first song began softly, the lead singer's voice coming out just barely above a whisper, before the song exploded into a cacophony of drums and guitar all following along with the man's voice as it swirled around the inside of the vehicle. 

The older girl watched her sister as the music played, judging the expressions that would pass by her face briefly before the music once more swallowed her. 

She could see that this type of music was not fully her sister's taste, but still she listened, and she let the words and rhythm surround her.

Finally, the song ended and the two looked at each other, the silence only lasted a beat before the next track took over, filling the vehicle once more; hesitantly, Alessia reached forward, turning the dial to the left so that the music could now be used as background noise. 

"What else do you like?" She asked, realizing they'd not even had the time to fully reconcile before being forced on the road together.

The older girl paused, her mouth slightly gaped from the surprise of the sudden change of topic, she'd never thought about what she, as Cattelaya, liked; it was always what would make Riley or Tiana or Destiny or Heaven fit in. 

For a moment she felt cold; it's as if I, myself, never existed. 

The thought banged its way around her skull for half a second before she turned back to her sister, grin as wide and carefree as always.

"Oh y'know the same old borin' stuff all girls like," she said, attempting to avoid the strain that seemed to want to show in her voice, "but what about you? You were never as clichè as me." She asked, her eyes staring straight ahead.

The younger girl went quiet, not liking the way her sister glazed over the question, before she responded.

"I like photography." She said, her voice going low as she looked away from the other girl. Her tone of voice caught Cattelaya's attention; bringing her eyes away from the 'Jesus is the Cure' bumper sticker she'd been resisting the urge to scrape.

Her gaze was so strong she feared that her sister might catch a burn from the heat of it. She didn't know exactly what had caused the shift but a small niggling in the back of her head screamed that it was her.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her eyes raking over her sister's frame as the younger girl settled onto her side, facing her window and seemingly blocking out her sister.

Her mind went blank, causing another bout of irritation to shred through her body; there was no way she'd be able to handle more than a few minutes of the tense silence before she was sure she'd throw herself out the window, agents be damned.

She soon gave in, allowing her lungs to expand before the words began flowing. "Photography? That's cool," she wanted to kick herself for how awkward she sounded. "Maybe you could get some good candids when we all meet back up." She tried, looking at her sister's back as her shoulders gave a slight shrug. 

The younger girl gave a slight hum of acknowledgement as her eyes danced around traffic, looking up at the lumbering buildings that shouldered the roads. 

Cattelaya looked forward again, a gentle frown playing at the edges of her lips. She hasn't changed a bit.

Finally she released a sigh, her lower lip had taken up a position between her teeth as she thought of her stubborn little sister, a rueful smile began to take over her expression as she thought back to someone she'd met in another life.

"Y'know," she began, her voice suddenly soft as she reminisced on the days before Riley or Tiana. "You remind me of someone, someone from a very long time ago."

Her tone had caught her sister's attention, of course, but still she remained on her side, her eyes remained on every surface they could find; but her attention was glued to her sister, curious to hear about anyone that could invoke any amount of emotion from the older girl.

Cattelaya knew that she was listening; she was a stubborn young girl, but she'd never willingly ignore someone. 

"He was someone that I considered close enough to have called a brother; so sweet and just always wanting to help, regardless of how it would affect him. He used to carry an old video camera that he found everywhere, and when we were alone he would make videos of us dancing around." The vehicle was quiet as the girl spoke of her past, an obvious warmth in her tone as she spoke about the boy. 

"What happened to him?" Alessia asked, finally turning to face the older girl.

The small smile disappeared as Cattelaya's expression turned almost hostile, her jaw clenched as her light eyes darkened. 

For a moment she looked just as she had when she was face to face with the agent from her school.

She didn't say anything for a bit, just festering in her fury before her answer came, her voice was gruff and cold, yet she continued nonetheless.

"He had the worst family," her hands tightened; one around the wheel, the other just lay clenched on her lap, "his bum ass quote unquote father was a drunk, an evil one at that." 

Her eyes stared straight ahead of her, going back to the bumper sticker that now doubled the anger she felt. "And the bitch that gave birth to him was no better; anything her husband did was justified because of some mythical deity, hell she was such a failure of a woman that she allowed one of her sons to be exactly like the evil bastard. But not Arnie," for a split second Cattelaya sounded broken, her eyes closed as images of the small boy drove through her brain, taking what small amounts of sanity she felt she had left. 

He was so good; why did they hurt him? 

The car was silent once more; however, this time it was Cattelaya who had needed the peace, so that she could hopefully gather herself once again.

She took a breath, then another, until she felt like she could speak once more; her voice trembled slightly as she continued her recollection of events.

"It was a bad winter in Maine; so obviously, it was fucking freezing outside. Like it was bad, animals were freezing, cars were getting stuck, the whole nine. Yet, when I went over to play with him, y'know what I found?" 

Alessia couldn't answer, the ice in her sister's voice seemed to have frozen her in her spot, she could do nothing but listen to the pain that seeped into her sister's voice every so often, but it seemed Cattelaya hadn't needed an answer as she continued.

"I found him lying in a pile of garbage with a ratty blanket to cover his blue body. Had I been there any later, I would've had to bury my friend. And knowing that, I picked him up; he barely weighed anything anyway, and I took him into that house." 

The statement shocked Alessia, her wide eyes continued to search for the rest of the story on the girl's face, as though a manuscript of the day would appear on her forehead to narrate the rest of the events.

When that proved to not be effective, she snapped, "what do you mean you took him in there?" She asked incredulously, her voice sounded angry as she sat forward, almost leaning in to hear what her sister was going to say in response.

"I mean, I opened their front door, took him to his room and turned on his heater and afterwards I went into his family room; they didn't even question what I was doing, I'd been there too many times for then to care, but they should've because that, that was my limit." Her voice froze the air around the two, making the tense atmosphere that had surrounded them even more palpable. 

"I'd seen those people starve him, beat him, embarrass him and this was the last straw. So one by one I went to them, and I gave them the same pain they'd given him." The sentence hung in the air with a menacing tinge. 

Alessia had enough sense to know that she wouldn't want to hear the intense details of her sister's wrath, however that didn't stop her from being curious; when they were younger Cattelaya had given plenty of the other girls black eyes and bloody noses anytime they'd try to be catty towards her or any of the siblings. But what could she do now?

"My mentor found me curled up with him a few hours later, and when she saw what I'd don, she decided it was time to leave. I tried to get her to let me bring him with us but with this life, he'd probably be in more danger with me than with those pieces of garbage."

She sounded remorseful, her voice wavered and pitched as though she were trying to hold back tears, "so we left him, his family had just deserted the house afterwards and last I checked Olivia wiped me from his memory so I guess there's no loose ends, at least."

 Alessia's hand met her sister's; still clutched tightly into a fist. 

She didn't know what to say, it felt as though she'd learned so much about her sister, yet this was just a fraction of the life the girl had lived.

"What did he look like?" She asked, her mind begged for a description of him; just enough to piece together a rough draft of who he could have been.

Cattelaya let out a humorless chuckle, her anger still palpable yet dulling slightly as she recalled the memory.

"He was a skinny lil thing," she began, a small grin taking back her expression and lightening her mood. "Skinny, but man he could eat like no one's business." She let out a snort as her mind thought back to the various dinners he'd been invited to by Olivia. "He had shaggy, light-ish brown hair and these beautiful green eyes that stayed hidden behind his gigantic ass glasses, he never stopped smiling." 

In her mind, Alessia pictured the boy, thin as a rail yet bursting with love and joy.

Then she imagined Cat; her small frame surrounded by big hair, dancing around with him as a big camera sat in his palms. 

"You like to dance?" She asked lightly, hoping the question wouldn't lead them into another unbearable void of quietness.

The older girl looked over, her eyes going back to the soft, humorous ones before nodding slightly.

"Moving around a lot doesn't give you a lot to hold on to; as you know, there's hardly ever anything constant when you don't have a set home. For me, dance was my constant; there will always be music to sweep me away from whatever problems I have." Alessia wanted to tell her how much she understood her sister's words, though at the same time felt like it didn't need to be said. 

Instead she nodded, her mind taking her to another point in the tale.

"Do you still have the videos?" She asked, her voice piquing with curiosity.

"Nope, when Liv came and took me from the house she didn't let me grab anything on my way out; said that it wouldn't be the best idea to disrupt anything else and I don't think she knew about them anyways. But, it's been years so I doubt they're still floating around." The conversation died down a bit after her statement, both girls content with the quiet that had settled between them.

 Soon the girls found themselves at the entrance to the tunnel, the long stretch would be anxiety-inducing for the older girl but she knew it was the safest route at this point and afterwards it would be all open road.

 Their vehicle began its descent into the cylindrical concrete, Alessia watched in awe as the stone city seemed to be swallowing them and every other passenger on the lane. 

Cattelaya's hands took up their usual death grip as she gritted her teeth to keep calm. "Get ready Les." That was all she said before she let the waves of electricity take over her; the current flowed out of the vehicle and through the tunnel.

The lights to the tunnel began to flicker, causing bouts of confusion to ring through the speeding traffic; Cattelaya heard Alessia's quiet gasp as the interior of the car expanded, the medium-sized bunker shifting to a more spacious three seater.

Cattelaya suddenly jerked the wheel, the sounds of their horns echoed through the cavernous space as she cut off a row of cars that had begun advancing and then doing it again before settling into the farthest lane.

Alessia rolled her window down quickly, ignoring the heavy fumes of exhaust and fuel and instead fixating on the large black pickup Cattelaya was now driving; her eyes danced around the inside and what little she could see of the exterior, the effortless transformation struck her mute as she continued to gape at the new vehicle.

Finally she whipped her head around to face her sister and was shocked to see that the girl didn't even look remotely tired; in fact, her eyes glowed brightly, dancing as lightning would in the sky. 

The air was thick with the residual current that lingered in the cab; Alessia was sure she'd even seen a web of static flash through her sister's wild mane, yet still she found herself unable to speak.

The drive began to feel like it was eons as the silence wore on, the sound of the radio jumping through old hits was the only source of noise to try and breach the cloud quiet that had surrounded them.

Finally, the girls saw an opening up ahead, the light on the other side getting bigger and bigger as they grew closer to their destination.

It was then that Cattelaya spoke, her voice held a slightly taunting note yet still no signs of exhaustion could be found as her words flowed easily.

"Welcome to Jersey, sis!"