the final mission

28

Gio approached Kai.

"You seem a little low." Kai turned around at the familiar voice and was faced with Gio. Kai did not want to make small talk, but he also did not want to be rude to the host.

"Yeah, no Roddy today. I called her but she didn't answer." Gio smirked at his answer, raising an eyebrow. Gio's eyes clouded with mischief as he prepared to challenge the boy.

"Hm, that's strange. I just saw her this morning; she slept over. I'm guessing she hasn't told you where she goes on Sundays?" Kai's eyes shrunk as his body filled with suspicion. He did not trust the man, but he had nothing to lose from asking a few harmless questions.

"And where would that be?" Gio shrugged, an innocent smile taking over the mass of his face.

"Maybe you should ask her, yeah?" Kai tried stepping away, but Gio grabbed him and brought Kai's ear to his mouth. "If I were you, I'd be careful around her. It's the pretty ones that hurt you the most." Gio slipped a small piece of paper into Kai's jacket coat. Kai's face shot up, but Gio was already walking away.

Kai wanted to trust Roddy so bad, but it was getting hard when all of the signs were pointing to no.

Kai sighed.

★★★

Roddy was exhausted.

She was already seven hours away from the house, but she knew she had more business to deal with. Roddy drove to a town an hour and a half away from the mental asylum. She typed two separate passcodes and smiled at the posted guards.

The house was larger than a hotel and cost her a fortune, but it was worth it. Roddy entered the foyer as kids came running up to her and attacked her legs.

"Rod! Rod!" Kids were jumping around and giggling as she pretended to be a monster hunting them down. The parents watched from upper floors with smiles on their faces. Even the maids stopped to greet Roddy with enthusiastic respect.

Roddy was joyful seeing these kids but was sad knowing it would be her last time. She made every last tackle, hug, and tickle a memory for them all.

Roddy went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. She did not notice her raven hair nor her dusty blues staring at her. She saw a monster; one she wanted to kill.

Roddy hated herself.

★★★

The gang sang.

Six out of the seven people were screaming the lyrics to the corny pop songs, including the usually quiet Cale and Winslet.

Kai was brooding in the back.

"Kai? Is something up?" Ziva asked this from the driver's seat as she turned the volume down. He was bringing down the group's playful mood with his furrowed eyebrows and intense thinking, staring into the open fields beyond them.

"How well do you know Roddy?" If any of the girls were surprised at the question, they did not show it.

"We know her fairly well, why?" Kai raised an eyebrow at Ziva.

"Really, what's her last name?" Silence ensued and he threw her an artificial grin. "How old is she? Where is she from? Why did she have black hair dye in her room? Why the fuck was she at my parent's party that night?"

The girls were at a lost for words.

Kai threw them one last mirthless grin as his gaze returned to the window.

His hands gripped the photo in his pocket.

★★★

Roddy wrote.

She had several letters in front of her, adding the finishing touches. Her calligraphy spanned the front as the various names of her loved ones were on the front. She saved these letters for last due to the trouble she would have writing them.

Someone knocked on her hotel room door.

"Room service!" Roddy raised an eyebrow, knowing she did not order room service. She was quick to grab all of the envelopes and stuff them in her coat pocket.

"One minute!" Roddy barricaded the door with the bed and drawers. She lit her lighter and gently placed it on the ground.

By the time the door opened, she was gone.

The perpetrators could not enter the room due to the immense flames and the smoke that entered their lungs. Lucky for Roddy, the smoke covered the slightly open window, which she had used to jump eight floors to the ground.

Once on the ground, she rolled and sprinted to the forest, where she limped to the next town. Whoever had entered the hotel would have known which car was hers and would have hotwired it.

Cars regularly passed her, but she was not willing to hitchhike knowing there was a bounty over her head. She was relieved when she crossed the town's borders. The relief disappeared when she noticed the many black SUVs that spanned the borders.

Roddy was completely cornered.

Hiding behind a tree, she peeked when an SUV sped to the middle of it all.

Gio walked out, a smirk on his face.

It was the middle of the night, yet the city was still alive. Gio must have taken a private plane in order to arrive so quickly. Roddy knew he would look for her until he found her. However, she would not go down without a fight.

Roddy snuck around the forest and did not stop until she found a sturdy tree to boost her up. She walked another few kilometers before stepping into the footprints she had previously left. She ended up at the sturdy tree again and climbed until the ground was not visible anymore. She chucked her shoe as far as it would go with her muscled arm and balanced herself.

"Over here! There was noise!" Troops of men stormed the forest and Roddy held in her breathing. Gio was quick to approach and led the men.

Roddy resorted to calling someone she would never have to.

She grabbed the locket from around her neck and just about threw it open. She held down the singular button on it.

Roddy waited.