❝ 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚊 𝚜𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛, 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚊 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 ❞
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ONE MONTH LATER
"Cass, how do you know when the exact right time is to walk off the trail?" I ask, around and behind me. I'm surprised nobody hikes this trail anymore.
Years ago when Cass and I found this, it was always so busy. People always used to walk up and down the trail for hours. Now it's a legit ghost town . . . or I guess ghost trail.
"Because I tied a red ribbon to one of the branches on a tree years ago. We just need to find the tree first. Look! It's right there!" I follow her finger toward where she is pointing at.
My eyes caught the red ribbon she was talking about which is tied to a branch up high on a tree. How the hell was she able to climb that high up without me noticing? "Here is where we walk off?"
"Yes and if I remember correctly," Cass bends down and moves her hand from the tree, hovering it around. "I tied a transparent fishing string from tree to tree until it reached the red bridge." She stands up and continues to walk straight while moving her foot to the side every now and then to make sure we're still going the right way.
It's only about a five minute walk to the red bridge we were just talking about. "I'm surprised it hasn't been torn down yet." I say, walking towards the bridge. A few months before Cass and I met Serenity, we were hiking the trail like we did every week since we found it.
Then one day my sister had the brilliant idea to walk off the trail. I was hesitant at first because I didn't want to get lost in the woods. But I'm so happy I pushed those thoughts away and followed behind her. Because there, we found this small red bridge that is built over a river.
It also seemed to be that nobody has ever come across it because the paint hasn't been chipped. This bridge alone was what made my sister and I come to hike the trail almost everyday. The bridge became our secret spot.
Where we would both come and think because the river underneath was the only sound you could hear apart from the birds chirping. It was also the spot where we would come if either of us ever needed to be alone from the outside world.
Cassandra sits down in the middle of the bridge and brushes her fingers against wood in front of her. I bend down next to her and see she's touching the five words we carved into the wood years ago.
"We will get through this."
"I remember we carved this the day you found me having a nightmare."
"I got worried because you told me you stopped having them but you clearly didn't." I responded.
"Yeah, I lied. And sometime after we had lunch, we came here and decided to carve this onto the bridge." She adds before scooting back until she touches the railing behind her. I sit down next to her and place my bag on my lap. "You brought it?"
"I had Serenity and Samuel put everything they found about our parents in here. I didn't want to look at anything without you so what better place to see what's inside than the red bridge?"
"Well it is the perfect place." I chuckle, putting my head on his shoulder.
"Are you ready?"
"Not really . . . but let's go ahead." Ryan nods and pulls out two files, two journals and two recording devices before setting his bag next to him. I pick up one of the files and read the label on it.
The Shadows
"I've heard those words before I just don't remember where."
"Me too. Open it."
I do. The first thing we see is a piece of paper. I unclip it and hold it in between Ryan and I so we can read it at the same time.
The Shadows.
Who are they, you might ask?
Well for one they are some notorious assassins . . . and they are also your parents. Ryder and Diana Arden.
In the journals, which belonged to your parents, you will find that they changed their last names when they found out they were going to be parents to you two. One journal belonged to your mother and the other belonged to your father. But I don't want you to read them just yet. In this file, you will find pictures of your parents.
From them being full time assassins to pictures of your mother when she was pregnant with you both and pictures of you four before they were taken away from you.
As I said before, Ryder and Diana Arden are notorious for being the assassin duo The Shadows. They were feared by so many people in the underworld. Nobody knew who this great assassin duo were or what they looked like because it was said that the last thing someone saw before they were killed were shadows. Hence why they named themselves The Shadows.
You may notice two recordings that have been packed in the bag as well. I sat down with Estrella and Luciano separately after I found out everything I could about your parents.
Turns out that they briefly knew your parents. They weren't close friends but weren't so much enemies. Estrella and Luciano were one of the few people who knew what The Shadows' identity looks like.
Your parents formed an alliance with them when they figured out they were all after one person. Roman Miles. They worked together to take Roman down but unfortunately they were unsuccessful. Roman had one of his men land in Chicago and follow your parents home after they left the Castillo Residence.
When he saw your parents walk through the front door, he got back to Roman and told him everything. He put two and two together and figured out they were The Shadows.
You two told me that the last time y'all saw your parents was the day they left to go buy groceries. Samuel and I dug through every grocery store footage we could until we found the place and time your parents were at.
When they were paying, the store got attacked by Roman's men. From there they began looking for your parents. In the footage we noticed them talking to each other and we could tell they were being targeted. Once Roman's men found them, they began fighting them together. Since they didn't have any weapons on them, they had to resort to hand in hand combat.
Unfortunately it only helped for so long because the Albanians injected something in their necks, knocking them out and taking them away.
This next part will be hard to read so if you want to take a break you can but I for one have to keep typing this out.
Once they landed in Albania, they were taken to Roman's cells and were locked up. They were then tortured, trying to get out any information on what Estrella and Luciano have gathered on them.
Your parents only lived by one rule . . . which was loyalty. They kept quiet about everything.
Now I don't know how long the torturing process lasted but in the end, they were killed. In the second file you will read that Roman decided to come up with a new plan and act like everything was fine with the Castillo Mafia. Which is where the somewhat alliance between them and the Albanian Mafia came to be.
It's no wonder how you both came into contact with the criminal life. It's in your blood. I know this next piece of information is sort of useless but your parents left a bank account in both your names with money. The bank account information is in this file.
But that's about it.
I promised you both years ago that I would find out what really happened to your parents even if it takes me a long time . . . I held onto that promise.
I'm sobbing as I finish reading the last five words at the end of the paper. From the corner of my eye, I see him wipe his hand downward on his face followed by a long sniff. I hadn't even noticed he was crying. "Are you okay?" I ask him. I then realize how much of a stupid question it is.
"Y-yeah, it's just. I never expected for our parents to be such notorious assassins. I remember why that name sounded so familiar. I did some research on them because I was so intrigued by the duo team."
"Do you think they would be proud of us? Our parents seeing us live the same lives as they did?"
"I think they're the reason why we met Serenity. They must've sent her to us that day we got attacked."
"Do you want to read the journals or listen to the recordings next?"
"Recordings."
We grab a recording each, I look around it and see it's labeled 'Luciano – 10 minutes'. I look at the one Ryan is holding and see it's labeled the same but with Estrella's name instead. Both recordings must be ten minutes long.
Ryan and I decided to play the recording that has Luciano in it. We only heard Serenity and Luciano's voices. She asked questions, Luciano answered them to what he remembers. It was the same with Estrella's recording as well. These two recordings helped Ryan and I learn more about who our parents were as assassins.
While we listened to the recordings, we looked at the pictures in the first file. Then we looked at the papers in the second file. Turns out those papers were the same blank pieces of paper none of us couldn't figure out what was on them.
We found out that it was basically information about Ryan and I's parents. Come to find out, the guy, Roman, was obsessed with them and was trying to turn our parents against Esrella and Luciano and to work for him instead.
Clearly it didn't work because our parents were loyal to them until their last breath.
Ryan places the recordings and the two files back in his bag. We're now left with our parent's journals. He has our mother's, I have our father's.
"Do you remember what I told you right after we carved those five words in front of us?" Ryan asks as I place my head on his shoulder.
"You said we would get through this."
"Look at us, Cassandra. We got through it. Our questions have been answered."
· • —– · • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • · —– • ·
Today is my last day of spring break. I go back to school tomorrow 😭 So to cheer me up, I decided to have a double update today!
— cristal g.