The Fawx Bite

XI.

I slipped a quarter into the slot of the vending machine, staring at the bag of Doritos that I was currently craving. My eyes slipped towards my reflection as the machine began to work, pushing the bag of chips down the chute. Only a day ago I had blindly jumped out of a window and landed amongst glass shards and grass. I had thrown my hand out to catch my fall only to sprain my wrist. Ow. For a hot second I thought I had broken it. The fall had also given me a nasty little bump on the head. I wasn't aware of what was going on until I opened my eyes to find Jin had thrown me over his shoulder and we were racing through the trees that quickly separated into streets.

I poked at the scratch that was on my cheek. It was annoying and just so there. I sighed, bending over to grab the bag of chips. I winced slightly at the soreness of my body. I reached into my back pocket to grab my phone when I paused, realizing that I didn't have it anymore. After we had started running, I called Viola and left a voicemail (again) to let her know that I would call her as soon as I was able. I had then tossed my phone (without any prompt from Echo or Jin) because it doesn't take a genius to figure out that people find people through phones.

Settling onto the steps with my chips, I stared out into the bustling city of LA wondering just what the hell I was going to do next. A soda can plopped down on the left side of me, a body on the right. I looked over to see Jin, he smiled lazily. "Figured you could use that with those."

"Thanks," I smiled.

"I'm sorry," Jin said quietly, looking down at his own soda.

"For what?" I frowned, staring at him.

"Getting you into this whole situation," Jin rubbed his jaw. "The PAU was a safe place, once upon a time. And I thought it still was."

"You had no idea," I looked back out towards the city. "And as you said I was a special case."

"We should've gone straight Di. He would've known if you were a true rider or not. But I didn't want to go to him because I didn't want him to look at me like I was an idiot for not being able to tell myself. And then we get into a bigger mess than we would have if I would have just kept my ego in check." A muscle jumped in Jin's jaw.

I licked my lips. "You didn't happen to figure out what happened to my sister, did you?"

"No," Jin's voice with heavy with guilt.

I swallowed thickly, closing my eyes. "They probably have her by now. Don't they?"

"More than likely," Jin replied quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What do we do?" I whispered.

"We go to your home and try to figure out where to go from there," Jin said quietly.

"I think I might need something a little bit stronger than a soda." I commented.

"Don't we all," Jin said wryly.

"You went with the director that one day," I commented.

"I did," Jin nodded. "I noticed his behavior was off when we came here. And thus when he got called to investigate another 'case' I tagged along. In his investigation, it didn't seem right. The way he handled it, the way he conducted it. And so, I began to do my own digging. I should've realized that when they postponed your results and retested you that they had somehow involved you. And because I didn't realize what was going on, I didn't even think of your sister until it was too late."