Delirium

.twenty eight

Ashley wasn't Mason's only sister.

It was a thing that Mason didn't like to particularly talk about or even think about for that matter but it was the reason for his distaste for Elliot. It was what drove him to become a police detective in the first place. The need to help people steamed off it though but Mason never forgot why he got started in law.

She was sixteen, a little spitfire who wouldn't allow anyone to tell her what to do. Mason loved her though. Adored her. And she adored him all the same. It seemed that he was the only one who could get through to her even at her most stubborn and it was also Mason who she had called when she had managed to get herself into bad situations.

Said situations seemed to be caused by the group his sister had decided to associate with. A small tight-knit group known for their family's criminal history and kids who had already gained a criminal record. Yet, despite their true families, they were family to each other. They would kill for each other. They loved like blood and maybe that's what drew Mason's sister in. Sure she had a normal family that loved her but the commitment that the group had far surpassed normal love.

It was practically a gang. A cult.

And Mason hated it but it was one of the few things that his sister refused to listen to him about. Slowly but surely she began to become more like them. She committed robberies with them, stole cars with them, ran the streets at night with them, and when they were doped up on drugs, she doped herself up as well. And the leader figure that his sister looked up to like a second brother?

"Castellani? As in the son of the fucking mafia boss, Elliot Castellani??"

His sister had rolled her eyes at Mason's incredulous tone, assuring that Elliot was nothing like his family.

Until she fucked up.

And she had to find out that the apple didn't fall too far.

"Mason. I think I went too far. I did something bad." Dakota had texted him.

"Dakota, where are you?"

Dakota, Mason's sister, had fallen in love. It was something she had briefly mentioned to Mason but always kept it so secretive. Mason had assumed that she didn't want the group knowing which would've meant the boy was a rival of their families. It was an act of betrayal and would be seen as such once the group found out.

And eventually, they did.

And Dakota went missing a couple of days later.

~

Mason couldn't sleep.

With the thoughts of Cyan still fresh on his mind and the guilt that overwhelmed him, Mason couldn't even close his eyes without seeing the male crying and begging him to stay. It pained him, more than it should have, and Mason found himself staring mindlessly at some show on the TV as the clocked ticked past midnight.

Why did he leave him? Why the hell had he left him? Something had broken inside of Cyan and as much as Mason would've liked to say that he hadn't grown attached to Cyan, he had. He cared about him, only to have that care intensify when he had broken down. Eighteen or not, Cyan was just a kid. A kid who had too much shit held in and never found a healthy way of releasing it, until it was too late. Cyan didn't need Elliot or drugs and he sure doesn't need jail time.

He needed therapy.

Because it didn't matter if drugs or Elliot or Carter helped take the pain away. It was all temporary fixes to mask over the things that Cyan refused to acknowledge. Mason would know. He had spent years of his life trying to find ways to get over his sister's disappearance before he had turned to his focus on getting Elliot, and while he had never sunk to Cyan's level, he had been pretty damn close.