Hello hello!
Disclaimer: Cassie Holmes is not my character, but she is fantastic! There is some dialogue that is similar/direct from the movie as well.
I still couldn't shake the feeling I had when I woke up from my vision. I don't know if it was because of who the vision was of or if its just the context, but I felt on edge. It had been a week and I was still looking over my shoulder. And that only made Dimitri feel on edge.
I was trying to push the feeling away as I made breakfast, trying to find some comfort in the mundane activity. I became so focused on stirring the white sauce as it thickened that when Dimitri's hands rested on my body – one on my waist and one over my mouth that I jumped. I twisted my head up and he gave me a firm look, pulling that hand away from my mouth to bring a finger to his lips. There was a firm knock on the door and my eyes flicked to his before to the cabinet drawer, moving silently to it and taking out my gun, pulling the slide back slowly and got in place. Dimitri went to the door as silent as the grave, so quiet that I could hear his footfalls. He slowly looked through the peephole before stilling.
"What do you want?"
"I can help," A woman's voice called out, sounding bored and annoyed. Dimitri looked at me and gave me a firm nod to be ready as he unlocked the door, opening it just enough to see out. I leaned a little to the side to see who was on the other side. There was a woman, or maybe a girl on the other side. I stiffened when she pushed her way in, her dirty blonde hair swaying as she moved. It looked like someone had taken highlighters to strands of her hair. I aimed at her and she rolled her eyes at me.
"No; I'm not with Division. Are you even looking at me?" she asked, screwing her face up as she moved towards the stove and turned the burner off. "You've going to burn a perfectly good gravy."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Cassie," she said with a smirk as stuck her hand out to me, "And I'm here to help."
I looked at Dimitri and found that he had a mildly annoyed expression on his face.
"Cassie helped me after I got out."
"What are you? Twelve?"
"I'm eighteen!" she snapped and I scoffed.
"You're sixteen, Cassie. Don't lie," Dimitri said locking the door after her. "Cassie is a watcher. And a good one. I don't doubt your abilities are a watcher, Roza, but Cassie is stronger."
I clicked the safety on the gun and lowered it, setting it down on the counter, looking at my gravy to make sure it was okay. It was one of the few breakfast dishes I could cook well, and Dimitri had been a sucker for biscuits and gravy when we met. I blew a breath out between my lips and pulled the biscuits and sausage out of the oven and set it on the counter too.
"I suppose since you're clearly not from here, you'll want some?" I asked Cassie, gesturing to the food.
"Yes, please," she said crossing the room to sit at our little table. I looked at Dimitri out of the corner of my eyes and he came to stand with me, kissing the side of my head.
"How exactly did you find us? We've been careful."
"I'm just that good. Also, if I drink a little whiskey, the visions come through like water," Cassie said twirling a strand of hair around her fingers, looking around the room in interest. I noted that Dimitri and I's clothes from last night were strewed over the floor near our bed, but we hadn't been expecting guests. Dimitri brushed the back of his fingers over my wrist and took the plates from my hands.
I grabbed his plate and followed him to the table, sitting next to him at the table. I wanted to get rid of the odd silence between us, considering I didn't know who this Cassie girl was, but my stomach won over and I chose to eat instead.
There wasn't much chatter as we ate, just the intermittent sound of cutlery scraping or coffee being slurped. I noticed from the corner of my eye how quickly Cassie ate, and it occurred to me that this may have been the first real meal she had eaten in a while. She was rail-thin.
I wanted to voice the question I had but thought it better to wait until we were all done eating. I offered Cassie a second serving, but she wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and shook her head. I looked at Dimitri before looking at her again.
"How can you help?"
Cassie tossed her hair back over her shoulder. "I can help you find the case."
"What case?"
Cassie set her fork down on her plate and looked at Dimitri. "Did you not tell her?"
"Tell her what?"
Cassie scoffed and shook her head. "Wow. That stitch really fucked you up," she groaned, "You put the drug in a case and hid it."
I nodded in understanding. "We know about the drug. Dimitri said he had his mind wiped."
"Yeah, I had to pay the hefty fee for it," she grumbled running her hand through her hair. "And we got to find it," Cassie said gravely, pulling a notebook from the bag beside her. She flipped through it before dropping it on the table between us. I leaned over and frowned at the drawing. I couldn't make sense of who the people were, but the image was clear. Whoever these people were, were dead.
"I've never seen my mom's death before. You stole the drug, and now I keep seeing her die over, and over, and over. Division is pissed!"
My heart sank as her words settled in my head. "Wait. Does Division have your mom too?"
Cassie nodded. "They keep our Mommies locked up together. I guess they soothe each other in some messed up way."
I gnawed on my lips and nodded in understanding but didn't like her tone.
"Do you think Division is pissed off enough for Carver to come here?"
Dimitri gave me a sympathetic look and rested his hand on mine, squeezing it in comfort. I hadn't talked much about my vision, but Dimitri knew it still bothered me a lot. Especially at night.
"He's already here."
A chill so cold went down my spine that it felt like someone had injected ice into my veins. My breath caught in my chest, and I felt like it was sitting there, like someone had rolled a truck onto my chest and felt it there.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean he got here earlier this week."
I nodded and forced a breath in, swallowing the lump in my throat. He was here. And that meant that the vision wasn't going to be as subjective as I thought it would be. The likelihood was higher now.
With Cassie with us, it was easier to come up with a plan. Added with Christian's return we were able to plan. We had Cassie focusing on what the case looked like. We were hoping that with the added combination of my push removal and Adrian's stitching, Dimitri would be able to recognize the case if he saw it. The only thing Cassie had seen was that it was a black suitcase.
"I can't see it clearly," Cassie said throwing her pen down in frustration, "Every time I get close to seeing it, it gets fuzzy."
I frowned and went to my bag when I noticed her pressing her thumb against the center of her forehead. It was a telltale sign of a vision migraine coming on. They were common if you tried to force a vision, or if we had too many come in at once. It was rare to find something that worked, but being a push meant that I could get the pills that did work anywhere with a little help.
I pulled the bottle out and set it down on the table. "Take one. Right now. You can stop it before it comes on completely. But you'll need to rest for a bit. You're going to hurt yourself," I instructed firmly, fixing her with my gaze until she took the bottle and unscrewed it. Cassie reminded me of a younger me to be honest, she was snarking and had a wicked glare, but she had a big heart that she kept hidden under her façade. I think she had the same coping mechanism as me, don't let anyone know that you care so you don't get hurt. It was easy to forget that she was still a kid, but in this world, we had to grow up fast.
"How are you handling all of this?" Christian asked coming to stand next to me by the window. I shrugged and tucked my hair back from my face. I was genuinely happy to see Christian again, and I was happy to see how happy Lissa was to have her husband back.
"I'm fine," I said quietly, giving him a small smile. Christian nodded and clapped his hand on my shoulder and looked around the room. We were expecting one more person still. Christian was more composed about Dimitri's return, but I could see that he was surprised and happy.
Cassie was a little put off by Christian because of his previous involvement with Division, but he was essential regardless, he kept Lissa calk and we could use him to shift things if needed.
"So what happens when we do find this case? I mean, Division knows you took it. What's going to protect us?" I asked, "Cassie?"
"If they have who I think they have looking for us, we need to figure that out fast. Tasha is like a bull."
"Tasha? Ozera?" Christian asked.
"Yeah. Your psycho sister."
"What's so bad about her?" Lissa asked.
"She sees intentions. What we decide to do," Cassie sighed with exasperation, folding her arms on the table and resting her head.
"So, I decide to go the store, she'll see me going to the store," I supplied in understanding. We were really fucked here. I groaned and ran my hand through my hair.
"What if what we decided to do doesn't make sense?" Adrian asked.
"You mean like we keep changing our minds?"
"No, like if we didn't know what we were doing? Would that throw her off?" Adrian explained, looking from Christian to Cassie to Dimitri and then to me.
"It might," Christian said but I could see his expression change completely. I sighed and looked at Lissa, giving her a tight smile as I got up and headed for the bathroom. I turned the taps on cold and cupped my hands under the faucet, collecting the water and leaning over the sink, splashing it over my face. The cold was a shock and it woke me up a bit, and it helped get rid of some of the haze I was feeling.
The haze came back almost as immediately, no longer seeing my hands and the running water, but something different entirely. I licked my lips when I snapped out of the vision and turned the water off, pulling the hand towel off the ring and pressing it over my face. I looked at myself in the mirror with tired eyes and headed out of the bathroom.
I came to stand in the room and watched Dimitri for a moment, trying to figure out the vision. It was so strange and out of place. Why was I holding his shoe?
Lissa spotted me and gave me a questioning look. "What's wrong?"
I looked from her to Dimitri with a frown. "Are those the only shoes you have with you?"
Dimitri stopped what he was doing and nodded. "Yeah. Why?"
"I need your shoe."
All five heads turned to look at me.
"I get that you're kinky and shit Rose-" Adrian chuckled but put my hand up to silence him.
"I need your shoe."
Dimitri nodded with a confused looked and leaned down to untie his boots and pulled them off. I picked up the left one and ran my fingers along the edging inside, finding a small tear in the lining. I pulled it back and pulled out a small key. I dropped the boot and held the key up.
"Give it here," Lissa said holding her hand out for the key. I dropped it in her palm and sat back on the edge of the window frame. Lissa walked back to the couch and sat down, focusing on the key. I rubbed my face and watched the people in the room, all of us watching Lissa.
"Do you know what that's for?" I asked Dimitri but he shook his head.
I sighed and watched Lissa closely, her eyes fluttering closed as she searched. Dimitri stood up and came to stand beside me, resting his hand on the small of my back. I leaned my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, my head throbbing due to the stress I'd been feeling.
"Whatever this key unlocks is being shadowed," Lissa said drawing my attention, "Like I've never seen before."
There was something in her voice that made me tense up and I looked up at Dimitri.
"It's this way," Lissa said walking towards the small balcony and coming to a stop, looking out at the horizon. Cassie got up from her spot and came to stand next to Lissa, her notebook clutched in her hands.
"If it's shadowed, I won't be able to draw it," Cassie said before pulling the cap of her marker off with her teeth and starting to draw the skyline. It only took a few moments before she stopped and looked up.
"There's a building missing."
I came forward and looked at the drawing and then up to the skyline, looking at the cluster of buildings. The heart of downtown was littered with high rises, some finished and some being worked on. How Cassi could pick out that a building was missing was marvellous.
"I thought shadows weren't supposed to be effective against watchers like Rose or Cassie?" Adrian asked leaning over my shoulder, his cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth
"They're not," a new voice called out, making us all turn. Eddie stood in the doorway, his duffle bag hanging on his shoulder. "We're not supposed to be able to shade entire buildings either."
Eddie set his duffle bag on the couch and came towards us, taking the notepad from Cassie's hands and examining it too.
"There. The one in the front, with the blue netting around the front," Eddie said. The moment he pointed it out it was as if a cover had been pulled off the building and I could see it clearly. I looked at Cassie and she nodded, flipping her book shut. As she did I noticed the pages turn and one drawing stood out to me, having a shiver go down my back.
It was me, lying in a pool of blood.
I was to the point where I wanted to beat my head against a wall. I was trying to force some kind of vision, while Cassie went back to figuring out what the case looked like, along with what the container the drug was in. Cassie managed to figure out what the case looked like, but that was it.
When we had our revelation of what building was missing made me panic, Eddie said that for a short window of time, our minds were safe because he was close, but it wouldn't last long.
"We know that Division is watching us," Dimitri stated again, running through the information we knew again.
"And anything we think we're going to do, they know about it. Which is why we all keep dying in Cassie's book," I added, covering my face with my hands, stretching my feet out in front of me while I leaned into Dimitri's legs. There weren't enough seats in the living room, so I took the floor.
"Pardon me?" Christian asked with knitted brows.
Cassie lifted her head from where it rested on the arm of the couch, her legs flung over the back of the couch. "You die outside of an elevator," she said with no emotion, her voice dragging. Christian frowned and looked at Lissa, giving her a tight smile.
"How are we going to make the future unpredictable?" Lissa asked hopelessly, twisting her hair around her finger.
"By not know what we're going to do, until right before we do it," Dimitri said, looking up frm his hands.
"Like a plan without planning," Adrian whispered in realization, a grin crossing his face.
"Exactly," Dimitri said getting up and heading towards Lissa's desk, rummaging around in the draws before coming back with a few pieces of paper and a pen.
"Okay. I'll write letters to each of you, giving you all instructions. You won't open them until I tell you to. I'll write the last one to myself, and have myself wiped of any memory of writing them," Dimitri said sitting down at the table, setting the supplies down. I looked at Adrian with wide eyes and then at Dimitri.
"Dimitri, that's a lot for your mind to take," I pleaded, hoping that he would see reason.
"Too much stitching can kill you. Having your mind wiped once is dangerous, but twice? Belikov, you're going to get yourself killed."
Dimitri looked at him but shook his head and started writing. I sighed and looked at Cassie, chewing on my lip.
"We need to figure out what this all looks like," I said walking towards the cabinet behind Lissa's desk and fishing out a bottle I knew was stashed back there. I shook the bottle slightly as I eyes the yellow liquid in the bottom of the bottle and walked back towards Cassie, twisting the cap off and taking a chug of it. I hissed at the burn in my throat and extended the bottle to Cassie.
"We've got work to do."
