The air tasted fresh and sweet on her tongue. Katarina du Couteau stepped into the cracked and dried asphalt street for the first time in eight years, no shackles nor chains holding her back. It had been too long since she could walk so freely.
The over-sized grey sweater and sweatpants the prison had offered her hung loosely on her slim frame, but she was too elated to care.
For eight years, she had been incarcerated in the New York Federal Prison. That was the only life she had known outside of her childhood and now she was free to experience all the things that she had missed out on. If only she could find out where to go. Old friends didn't know where she wound up, her father had made his last visit months ago, and no one lived anywhere relatively close to New York.
"You have anywhere to go?" the much too familiar prison guard grunted as he pushed her across the barbed wire gates of the prion. Katarina stared at the silver with a wistful look. She would go far from here as soon as she could. This was the last time she would ever see those gates. "Du Couteau, have you called for your ride?"
"No, I don't have anyone to call," Katarina snapped back.
"Well," the guard said, smirking, "since you're no longer a prisoner, maybe I can finally get myself some feisty redhead action." He reached to brush the back of his hand against Katarina's cheek, but she caught his hand quickly.
"Yes, Draven," she said sarcastically, "you do that. And when I'm back in prison for maiming you, you can just explain to Darius why you're all beat up."
He laughed. "Nonsense. I believe it's my duty to inform you that you have no weapons on you at this point in time." Draven winked at her.
A man cleared his throat from behind the two of them. Katarina and Draven turned around to see the head prison guard, Darius, glaring at Draven.
The prison guard talking with the now ex-con grumbled something under his breath and opened the manilla folder in his hands. He scanned the pages inside and fished out a page and handed it to Katarina. She only stared at the paper with wide eyes and a confused look on her face.
"That's your emergency contact for when you're released. Your father gave it to us when he lasted visited," Draven explained, agitation on his face.
"But... that's my sister. She's supposed to be in Europe or South America or wherever she'd supposed to be for her next photoshoot. We haven't spoken for years."
"Obviously, there's a been a change of plans. Call her."
Katarina sighed. There was no other option and she didn't want to be standing outside in the cold with this perverted and cocky prison guard. Out of all of them to choose from, of course the system would give her the worst guard to spend her last day with. She fished out the flip phone the prison had given her, dialing in the number listed on the paper.
After a few rings, a rather low and seductive voice answered. "Hello, Lady Cassiopeia here."
Katarina was a bit taken aback by her sister's greeting but she shook it off quickly. "Um... Hi, Cassie, it's me, Kat..."
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "Well, it's been a long time, sister."
"Yes, it has. So, uh, listen, I just got out of prison and I need you to pick me up."
The girl laughed from the other end of the line. "Yes, I know. I've been expecting the call for months now... Daddy told me what to do."
"Dad? Where is he?"
There was a sigh. "I'll tell you when I get there. I'll be there in twenty minutes." She hung up.
Katarina stared at her phone. Her sister had sounded different than she remembered.
"You good?" Draven the prison guard asked, amused.
"Yeah. My sister's coming."
"Ah, that's too bad, I could've shown you a great time with Draaaaaaven."
Katarina only rolled her eyes, tapping her foot lightly on the ground as she waited for her sister to arrive.
Thirty minutes, a rainstorm, and several threatening comments later, a white BMW pulled up to the curb in front of the prison. The window rolls down to reveal a young blond woman, face covered by a pair of dark sunglasses.
Katarina's face lit up when she saw her sister, familiar even after all those years. Without another glance back at what was her home for the past eight years, the redhead almost pranced to the car. When she was inside, Katarina leaned over and hugged her sister tightly.
"It's actually been so long, Cassie," Katarina murmured into her locks. "I've missed you."
Cassiopeia enveloped her sister back, clutching at her shoulders. "And I've missed you as well. It's nice to finally have my sister back."
Katarina smiled as she pulled away. "It is good to be back. How have you been? Still doing your old gig?"
"I've been alright," Cassiopeia responded, "a lot has changed since you left. And no, I'm not a model anymore. Got tired of everyone poking and prodding me. I'm back in school; you know, I've been thinking I'd be a good lawyer. Something that I can have control over."
"Interesting choice," Katarina replied. "But what changed?"
"You'll see soon enough, don't worry. What do you plan on doing now?"
"I don't know, Cass. I've been in jail for eight years, pretty much no education, and twenty-six years old. But you know, I was promised Dad's company when I turned twenty-five, so I guess I still have that to look forward to."
Cassiopeia frowned for a brief moment but quickly replaced it with her happy expression. Katarina didn't catch it though, to Cassiopeia's relief. She didn't want to be the one to bring down Katarina's hopes. She only nodded in response. The two continued their chatter, what sisters do. It was a miracle to Katarina that Cassiopeia still remembered all the minute details about her: the way she used to dress, the way she talked, the kind of music she liked.
"So you're living in New York City now?" Katarina questioned as Cassiopeia started to direct the car through the packed streets of the city.
"Mmhmm, it's nicer than being all alone in that mansion." The blond turned into a parking garage on the side of the street and parked in the first available spot.
"What's wrong with the du Couteau Manor?" Katarina asked jokingly. "You know, I'll probably get lost in those halls if I went back there."
Cassiopeia chuckled. "You'll get to see it in due time. For now, why don't we get you settled in at my place?"
Katarina agreed without another word and followed Cassiopeia inside the building. The lobby of the apartment was quite barren – only a cream colored sofa and a lonely lamp pushed off to the corner. It was in much better condition than what Katarina was used to from the prison, but she couldn't help wrinkling her nose at the furniture.
Why would Cassiopeia live in a place like this? she thought as they rode up the clunky elevator.
They rode it to the top floor though and when they stepped off, a pair of double doors was in front of them. Cassiopeia unlocked them and opened up the door for Katarina to step in and grasp the apartment. It was the opposite of barren. The floors were shiny hardwood and the sofas and chairs were white leather. There was an open kitchen with a bar built into the counter. There was a hallway to the left, where the bedrooms were.
"Welcome home, Kat."
"Thank you for doing this, Cassie, really."
Cassiopeia smiled slightly. "What's family for?"
It wasn't until the evening that Katarina saw the newspaper clippings on the shelf in the living room.
One of the headings read, 'President of du Couteau Enterprises Vanishes'. An article was titled 'New President of du Couteau Enterprises?'.
There were several images of the man Katarina knew and admired – her father, Marcus du Couteau. He was one of the most powerful businessmen on Wall Street, an expert in stockholding and trading. It was incredibly astounding for Katarina to find anything like these articles. She looked through the pile of clippings, stopping when it became too much to bear.
She called Cassiopeia over, interrupting her cooking.
"What is this?" Katarina demanded, holding up the first clipping she saw. "What are they saying about Dad?"
Cassiopeia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You weren't supposed to see those."
Katarina glared at her sister. "What are you not telling me?" Cassiopeia didn't say anything. "I get out of prison and less than 12 hours later, I find this. I'm your sister for fuck's sake, Cass! You haven't visited me once in three years, haven't picked up when I called at all. And now, you're keeping all these things from me!"
"Fine," she finally said. "You want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened, everything you've missed out on."
Katarina clenched her fists out of anger and preparation for what she was about to hear.
"After you were sentenced, Daddy's staff at the Manor began to doubt the purity and honor of his work. They slowly stopped coming in and left him and me alone. Daddy's old advisor, Jericho – you remember him right? – quit and found himself as the CEO of the Noxus Firms. I tried to everything I could to be his advisor and even tried to convince him to hire me as his advisor and offered to go back to school for business, but he wouldn't let me.
"No, he hired a new man to be his advisor and personal assistant. I've never met him in person, never needed to, but word on the street is that he used to be the youngest hitman for the Mob. I have no idea why in the world Daddy would pick someone like that, but he told me that the new guy was clever and would be the one that could fix our situation.
"But then Daddy didn't come home from his business trip to California in January. I reported him missing, but police never found any trace of him." Cassiopeia's voice cracked then. "I couldn't live alone in that gigantic house, my jobs came and went, and I had no family left to help me then. So I packed up my things and and moved here. It's been a good time, living here. The company, though, it went to Talon, that man Daddy hired." Cassiopeia looked at Katarina with glittering eyes, tears welling up. "This is all we have now, Kat. Until we find Daddy or if something happens to Talon."
Katarina's head spun. She really had missed a lot when she was locked up in her own little world. Everything she had hoped for and survived for through prison was no longer there. It had all vanished. Cassiopeia was doing all she could to get by, physically and mentally. And she should do that too. Find a place that would hire her despite her record and work to find any leads on the whereabouts of their father. But she wanted to do more. Her family had fallen apart when she was gone. She needed to protect her little sister and get back what was rightfully theirs. No one could steal from them.
"We're going to get through this, Cassie. I'm back, and I'm not going to leave until I know that we have everything back."
Katarina pulled her crying sister into her arms.
I will make this family whole again. Katarina promised silently to her sister. I'll find Daddy, I'll get back to company, and we'll make the Manor blooming with life again... Someday, it will happen.
and that's my new story thing for League... it's been bouncing around in my head for a while so I thought I might as well get it onto paper.
if you liked it please leave a favorite, follow, or a review–they really encourage me to keep writing these for you guys! Thanks!