Rika, the Cuban Flame

24. A Tea Pouch of Drugs

Lucas

It's dark now, and out on these country back roads, that darkness hits differently.

"Unlock your phone! Now!" Ava screams with her seatbelt off. She's halfway in the backseat, shoving my phone into my face. We're still traveling down the road, very close to our birthplace. The dinky little hometown that I doubt is on any map and something search engines have probably never heard of: Ashburn. The only light comes from my phone, the GPS navigation screen on the dashboard, and the headlights of the car.

Paul and Ava haven't dismissed the video doorbell alerts and they've been focusing on them this entire time. The little pictures on the notifications make them hard to see, but it's Rika and a few other people. She's at my apartment. Doing what, I have no clue. "No," I say coldly. I'm just hoping that Scott and Allison were able to tell her what happened.

Paul looks at me through the rearview mirror. "Don't you want to talk to Rika?"

"Sure, but that's not enough to unlock my phone and give you idiots access to it," I retort.

Ava grunts and spins back around in the front seat. We're getting closer and closer, and the only way I know that is by the land. It's suddenly all flat; the headlights blocked by countless fields of crops. Farmland after farmland after cornfield. There's nothing out here, but that's the small town of Ashburn. Farming is the way of life. It's employment, it's money, it's family businesses, it's the reason people rise at the crack of dawn and go to sleep when the sun sets, no matter the time of year. I grew up in this lifestyle all throughout my schooling. I hate it and once I graduated, I accepted a college that was far away from this place, and that was Preston University. That was literally the only thing that guided my decision. I got a map, plotted the locations of every institution that offered me acceptance, and the furthest from Ashburn won. I wish I was kidding.

Ashburn hasn't changed all that much in years. There's still one traffic light in the whole town and it isn't even needed since traffic here doesn't exist. This is the small town where everyone knows each other and that's not all it's cracked up to be. Near some streetlights are the signs of various stores.

There's the Ashburn General Store.

The Ashburn Toy Store.

The Ashburn Pump & Gas.

Ashburn, Ashburn, Ashburn.

Ugh, now I remember why I hate the name of the town so much. It's in front of every store sign and part of almost every building.

I've stayed pretty quiet the whole drive. I haven't unlocked my phone, and I refuse to do so. I won't allow Paul and Ava to have any further power over me. If they get Rika's number, access to my social media, or anything else on my phone, I'm not sure what they would do with it, but I can attest it'd be nothing good.

"Welcome home, Lucas," Ava says from the passenger seat. Suddenly, the darkness illuminates. All the lights remind me of a football or soccer stadium; the lights are overwhelming and with this many on, it might as well be daytime out. Why a property needs all these lights is beyond me, but the electricity sure can't be cheap.

I look between the seats through the windshield and see a gate in front of us. Paul lowers his window and types a code into the keypad, and the gate opens. "I don't remember any of this..." I say.

Paul looks in the rearview mirror at me. "Extra security."

"For what..." I almost say under my breath.

Ava shrugs. "We just don't like outsiders."

"Outsiders? The nearest neighbor is three miles back," I say with the nod of my head. That was just a rough estimate.