Rooming With Lorenzo

Chapter Seventeen: Catalina

|Seventeen |

To think Buffy thought she had escaped this madness and left it all behind at Radly. She was dead wrong. How can this possible? What a coincidence.

A very bad coincidence at that.

What Buffy couldn't come to terms with was the fact Hunter hadn't been caught out like the others. Her parents had been caught; she still doesn't know how that happened. Yet Mr Hunter Dennings had gotten away with it- is still getting away with it.

As it turns out, this thing is a lot bigger than it seemed. It wasn't just Buffy's parents toying with human DNA. There was a whole secret organization working on it. Hunter being the one and only boss.

Buffy's parents and their staff had worked for him. It was how they came about their fortune by manipulating the family name and taking advantage of their high technology.

The report Buffy had read in Hunter's office explained everything. There were things in that file Buffy hadn't even known till she read it.

The 'company' had actually been working on a drug to heighten the human senses for a long period of time. Buffy's parents included- they were the main brains behind this new so called drug. This drug was referred to as 'intensity'.

Intensity was made up of a secret formula, Buffy's parents had been injecting this in the form of a liquid into people they kept held up in a warehouse somewhere.

The effects had been bad, in some cases the people died from the side effects and the 'company' took the bodies and buried them in places they wouldn't be found.

Eventually the organization made intensity in the form of a pill and began selling them to local street dealer's- that would explain the rise in death rates over the last year. This was madness. Buffy didn't want to be involved in this, it was wrong.

If it had been legal and not immortally frowned upon than maybe it would of been a different story.

She couldn't do this- she wouldn't. If she went to the authorities whose to say they would believe her? Hunter was exceptionally good at hiding this. He had succeeded in corrupt dealing for over ten years of his life.

Catalina caught a glimpse of Buffy making a run for the exist, worried for her friend she chased after her. "Buffy" she whispered sharply. "Get away from me!" Buffy was furious.

"Please just hear me out, I have nothing to do with it!" Cat grabbed onto Buffy's arm. The two stood outside the club in the darkness of the ally way. "You could of told me- I get it's not something you bring up in an everyday conversation but that's beside the fact. You knew from the start when Hunter found out who I was he was planning to twist me into this" she cried.

"I know, I'm sorry please listen, I'm begging you" Cat let go of Buffy's arm. "Fine, you have five minutes" Catalina searched the area and pressed her palm on Buffy's back. "We need to leave. He can see us on the cctv" Buffy reached into her pocket and pulled out her car keys, swinging them about in her fingers.

Cat and Buffy practically ran to Buffy's car. The moment they sat down Buffy slammed on the clutch and shifted the car into gear before Cat could even put her seat belt on. "Are you running away?" Cat freaked. "No, I'm driving away. Like hell am I playing along with this" not even for all the money in the world.

"He'll kill you Buffy!" That was no surprise to her. She got that crystal clear when he held a gun to her head only moments ago. "Why do you get away with not partaking?" Cat had said she'd explain and Buffy was growing impatient.

"Because..." Cat started to sweet. She dug her nails into the palm of her hand. "Because what Cat? What makes you an exception?" Catalina screamed in frustration. "He's my brother okay!" Whoa. Buffy looked between Cat and the road- she could see the resemblance now.

Despite their differences in appearance, if you looked close enough you could see the relation. "He's my half brother. We have the same mother, different father's. Obviously he's much older. Hunter had such a bad childhood, he was different. A bully even. When I was three, Hunter decided he would go and live with his father" Buffy was no expecting this.

"Anyway, Hunter never wanted a sibling. When I was born he hated me, he was always doing something to make me cry or whatever. I never really saw much of him growing up but when our mother died two years ago Hunter took me in, surprisingly" Catalina sobbed quietly. It hurt her to talk about these things but she knew Buffy deserved an explanation.

"He told me everything then and there. Hunter said that I had to play by his rules or else... Me being me just wanted my older brother to love me. He was all I had left, despite our history. I just wanted him to love me" Catalina wasn't the only one crying. This had hit Buffy right in the feels.

She sympathized with Cat. We were all a little lost in this world, we all want love. We all want to feel appropriated and wanted. Buffy couldn't blame Catalina for that- not when Buffy herself had been in a similar situation. "What do I do Cat? Is there any way of getting out of this without Hunter having my head?" Hunter really did live up to his name.

"No, I'm afraid not. My brother is a twisted man. If he doesn't get what he wants; nobody else can have it."