Mine

Chapter 09

Are you Lee Cherry? Get up, it's time to go home

Earlier that day~

Maria leaned against her bike, sliding her gloves on as the serene breeze whispered to her the tales of long-lost ones. The peaceful moment was interrupted by the beep of her cell phone. She reached into her pocket, to find a message notification blinking over the screen.

The kidnapping case it read, and she let out a bored sigh. It was something so out of her line of work. She killed people not saved them, but again she foolishly accepted the request, well it paid well at least.

With another sigh, she opened the files, flipping through the data and assessing the details. The thrill of the chase was missing, but she knew she had to get through this before she could return to more exciting challenges.

Name: Lee Cherry

Lee Cherry?

She frowned, her curiosity piqued as she leaned closer to the screen, her brows furrowing with concentration. The image displayed before her—the smiling face of a girl who appeared younger than her. Something struck a chord within her, pulling her from her earlier apathy.

She looks familiar~

She resembles my- No, Maria, don't be a fool! It must be the meds fucking with my head again!

She shook her head, biting down on her lip hard enough to taste copper. Get it together.

But her eyes refused to leave the screen. The curve of the girl's cheek, the way her hair fell in loose curls over her shoulder—it was familiar, painfully so. Maria's fingers hovered over the trackpad, trembling as she zoomed in, searching for anything that might confirm or deny the wild thought clawing its way to the surface.

It can't be...

Yet her heart betrayed her. It hammered against her ribs, deafening in the otherwise quiet room.

"My Cherry? Could it be?" The name slipped out before she could stop it, whispered like a prayer or a curse.

She bit her lip, suppressing the tremor that threatened to show her weak. No. No, this is how it always starts. A flicker of hope, fragile and dangerous. It never lasted.

Don't do this to yourself again!

Stop, Maria, not again~

But the image burned into her mind, dragging her down the familiar spiral. What if—this time—she was right? What if all the dead ends had led her here, to this one blurry photo?

Her pulse quickened as she opened the search bar, feverishly typing in the girl's name, even though she knew how this would end. The rational part of her screamed to stop, to close the portal and walk away. But she was past the point of listening.

Maria leaned back against the bike, heart pounding as the results loaded. Page after page appeared, each one less helpful than the last. She scrolled faster, eyes darting over names and faces that didn't match.

Until they did.

This face was nowhere among the suspected ones.

And just like that, she was ten again, reaching out to clutch her sister's hand as the smoke filled their tiny bedroom. But, it was always far yet seemed so near! Run, Cherry! Go, go! Her voice echoed in her head, a ghost of a memory she could never outrun.

Maria's chest heaved, the weight of every failure pressing down on her. She wanted to believe. She needed to believe. But she had been wrong too many times before.