R e t r o s p e c t • PSYPHY

Chapter 8: P e r p e t u a

Kelly puts her other son in a booster seat, "Okay."

"And that's the Starbucks right by Caasi's doctors office."

"Oh shit," Kelly replies. 

"It doesn't stop there. Arianna, happens to be one of the passengers on the Amtrak Attack. That weird ass train station robbery where I met Caasi." 

"Holy shit," Kelly's eyebrows raise, then she pauses. 

"Now, the even weirder part is... ever since Arianna went missing, this tumblr girl has been going on twitter rants like, religiously." Titilayo's eyes read the phone rapidly. "There's like days and days of content that's like, eerily indicative of a point of contention."

Kelly sits down, "So what'd you think happened?"

Titilayo pauses, "I think the... twitter chick has something to do with Caasi and Jared's distancing. Her name's Krystal."

Kelly's arms fold, "Dios mio, this isn't good." She reaches for her purse, then fetches her car keys. 

"Titi I need you to listen carefully, there's not much time."

She hands her the keys, "Go to Caasi's Mom's house. Use the gold key, to through the basement. That'll lead you to the laundry room. In the back left side, is a workout area. Behind the treadmill there, is the backside of the staircase. Under that, will be a black safe. Input the combination three, five, seven. Then call that number. Hurry."

Titi takes the keys. "I'm on it, but I'm scared." She stands up, "What about you?"

Kelly glances at the table, steam still rises from the food. She looks to her children. "I'll stay here."

> Somewhere in Virginia

"Who died?"

Hayden looks down. 

"Hello?!" 

"I don't know!" He looks away from me. "That's the trade off, that's why I had to talk to you."

"What'd you mean? How the hell am I involved?"

"I told you I don't know, Caasi. All I know is what I said." 

"That's a lie. Every time I see you, it's two truths and a lie."

"Really? You're gonna call me a liar?"

"If the shoe fits," I say. "There's been nothing but bad news surrounding our meetings." I look away. 

"Wow, that... that hurt." Hayden starts to turn. 

"Wait,"

He stops, Dixie looks up at me. 

"Who knows?" I begrudgingly ask. 

Hayden inhales, then sighs, and faces me again. "They aren't as connected as your people. So they never really tell me the truth. They identify as the Chains."

What? This is, new information. 

"Huh?"

"I know," He looks up at the sky. "Not too many stars out, we should talk about the rest inside."

Hell no. "Wait,"

Hayden looks back at me. "Yeah?"

"I can't do that yet. And I haven't come all this way for you to just tell me that. What's the real reason you went through all this trouble?"

He smirks. I notice it, and my eyes keen in. This is what I've been waiting for, the twist to his knot. I know that he knows that I know something. Whichever one knows more, wins. But this fight isn't between us, not yet.