Biohazard

Chapter 12

The air feels heavy and is full of grief and sorrow. For the first time, Mrs. Henderson was visiting our house, but without her son. It's been almost two months since the incident, and we got Mrs. Henderson to live with us until she feels stable enough to live on her own. I don't know what happened to Mr. Henderson, but Mrs. Henderson isn't telling us anything about him.

I've decided it was time to get over it and figure out what really happened back at the alley, so I went. It's deserted, no police, no caution tape, no Cassian... I take out my phone and look back at the photos I took.

The biohazard symbol had been popping up a lot, on signs, the sides of buildings. I even noticed one on a rusty car a little distance away from where I was hiding on that day. My hands start shaking as I walked closer to where I last saw Cassian, but I'm my hardest not to lose composure.

I take a deep breath and take pictures of the bluish-gray car and the blood-red biohazard symbol on the side of it. I'm in the middle of taking pictures when I hear footsteps in the melting snow a few feet away. Rushing to take cover behind the car, I listen closely to what was being said.

I can't see anything, but I recognize Lucifer's resonant and throaty voice and the feeble voices of some of his minions. I close my eyes and take deep breaths to calm my racing heart.

"Addresses are on this, take it downtown." I hear the rustling of paper and then footsteps again... they almost seem to be getting louder. They're getting the car. I search for a way out and sneak behind a wall beside the car. I can see a teenage girl walking towards the car holding a medium-sized box wrapped in brown paper. The same one I saw Cassian holding.

They replaced him, didn't they? That's who the girl is. Cassian was some sort of messenger between Lucifer and whoever was getting these brown packages. Is this some sort of business? The girl had black thick-rimmed glass, a tight ponytail that made my own scalp itch, and a bright red beaded bracelet. I quickly took a picture of her. Have I seen her at school?

I watch the girl drive the car out the other side of the alley and onto the road, no doubt heading to the other side of the city. Just as I was about to turn around, I noticed the license plate on the back of the car. I take a picture and slump against the wall.

What was Cassian thinking? Why did he do it? He would never agree to some sketchy gang business. Or that's what I thought. What did he not have? He had friends, he was popular, he was smart, and he could tell me anything. Where did I go wrong? The only thing that I could think of that could've possibly made him upset was about his mom.

I think back to the first time I had asked to come over and work on a project. He had immediately refused and after some convincing, he finally told me what was going on. I looked back at the pictures that I took and realized that I had to talk to Mrs. Henderson about Cassian and his situation. But, I couldn't leave if Lucifer and his minions were standing right in my way.

"Carson, what else do we have to do?" I hear Lucifer's voice echoing through the alley again.

"We finished just about everything, sir," a smaller voice replied, "We dealt with the Cassian kid's mess, got a new kid, and no one found out."

"Good, keep a close eye on this one and make sure that one doesn't drag someone in." More footsteps, a door shuts forcefully and I hear an engine running and tires against the asphalt before I'm left alone with my thoughts.