Two Days Later, End of September
ANASTASIA'S POV:
Threat.
A statement of intention to inflict pain, injury, damage, or other hostile action on someone in punishment for something done or not done.
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I had been in the state of Wisconsin for two months now, much longer than I had ever wanted to be. Though, I had to agree with the fact that some good had come out of coming back to the place I once considered home.
I had finally started the long process of repairing my relationship with my twin brother, Nathan. My brothers had finally found out the truth behind my parents death (and me not being involved) and Dane lying about trying to rape me.
I found it comical in a way, it almost seemed as if I was in a story where bad shit was destined to happen to me. Though, that thought seems utterly ridiculous inside of my head.
However, things were finally beginning to look up in my life.
My life was coming together.
But all good things must come to an end.
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It was Saturday, and I had already finished my morning routine of working out with my best friends, getting showered and dressed, waking my babies up, getting both babies showered and dressed, having breakfast, and finally starting the company section of my work load.
I was working on going through the three-hundred-plus emails that had been building up throughout the week. I wanted to get that number down to at least one-hundred and fifty by tonight, so I could do the other half tomorrow.
Life was always playing on replay. It was doing the same things over and over again.
Monday through Thursday wake up, work out, get showered, get babies showered and dressed, get myself dressed, have breakfast, drop babies off, go to school, pick up babies, work, have dinner, work some more, put babies to bed, work even more, and then finally go to bed. Then repeat the next day.
Every other Friday was spent either at school or at the new location site for our next office building.
Then the weekends came. Saturday and Sunday's were spent trying to complete homework, extra company work, gang work, and having family moments.
It was on a constant replay, like a record. I didn't mind, but I wished for nothing more than a breakthrough in my teams struggles to find out what happened to our parents.
Their deaths would forever play an active part in our lives, but until we found their killers everyone was in danger and we all knew it. Life was stuck on repeat, doing the same old things, until we find a way to take down whoever ordered their people to kill our parents.
But just like that, life changed.
The record screeched and time seemed to stop for minutes on end.
What Wyatt found changed everything...
Flashback - Thirty-Six Minutes Ago
"Ana! You need to come in here!" I heard Wyatt shout.
I sighed, slowly pushing myself out of the comfortable rolling chair that was in my personal office. I had been working for five hours straight, and I was incredibly exhausted already, plus my body did not want to move from its current position.
I was by no means a lazy teenager, but if for only a moment, my inner teenage self was coming out, despising the fact that I had to leave my comfortable position in my comfortable chair.
"NOW!"
"I'm coming... I'm coming... stupid Wyatt, making me get up." I grumbled underneath my breath as I made my way out of the office and towards Wyatt's personal hacking office we had set him up with.
As a gift to Wyatt when we left and moved into this smaller sized mansion, we all pitched in to create this computer room for him. It has everything his inner nerd has desired in one specific room, and he absolutely loves it. He spends almost all of his free time in that room.
At the end of the day, Wyatt practically lives in that room, trying to hack and figure anything out that could potentially help us find our parents killers.
"What's up, Wy?" I asked, poking my head into his hacking headquarters.
"You know how I've been trying to hack into this one specific server for weeks?" he asked me tiredly.
The dark circles below his eyes were proof of his struggles trying to find any decent piece of information we could use to find our parents killers.
Though, weeks ago Wyatt found this one server he couldn't hack into. It had many firewalls and levels of protection through them. We all figured that it must have had important information stored on it if it was going to be insanely hard to get into. So Wyatt's made it his mission these past few weeks to get into this one server.
"Yeah, did you finally get in?" I asked.
"Sorta." he sighed angrily, "I finally got through, maybe ten minutes ago, and then before I could start looking through different files it shut me out, gave my computer a virus, and there was a message I was able to take a picture of before my computer died from the virus. After though, I wrote it down on paper for you."
He looked at me sadly, "Here, read it. I tried to make some sense of it, and I think I did, but still it's for you to read."
"Okay." I took the paper from him and scanned it carefully.
'Hello Ana-Banana,
It's nice to know you survived the attacks I've thrown at you thus far, Anastasia Smith. You've continuously been a thorn in my side, and this is your final warning. Stop searching for the truth you think you want, or else you and all your loved ones will get burnt. That's the threat, one of the many that I will follow through on.
Call off your lackeys, or next time it'll be more than your adoptive parents, more than a computer that has a bunch of files on it. It'll be the end of those people you refuse to call family, the people you call best friends, the person you call your twin, and most importantly those kids you call yours. Everyone will be gone, and it'll be on you.
Heed the warning, Anastasia Marie Smith.
-CS'
I read through the note at least four times over. It was simple really, we either stop searching for the truth of who was actually behind our parents deaths or else we have a possible war on our hands.
This person admitted to killing Momma Alex, Dad Miles, Uncle Jake, and Uncle Javier. This set of files could have potentially told us who the person ordering the hit was. But we failed at getting the information and now we're stuck with just one more question-
Who the hell is CS?
I sighed heavily, "Call a meeting with our inner, inner circle. We'll need to discuss our next steps."
"You got it Ana."
I turned to walk away when Wyatt spoke up again,
"Ana?"
"Yes, Wyatt?"
"Can we buy me a new computer too? This person killed my computer." Wyatt practically whined.
I let out a laugh, only Wyatt would be that concerned about a computer.
"Sure, as long as you call that meeting into order."
"You got it, Ana."
I didn't need to look back to know that the boy who once thought of me as a threat (two years ago when I was homeless) was now looking at me with an infectious smile across his face.
Flashback Over - Present Time
"We're headed in the right direction." I spoke after recapping everything Wyatt and I had learned from the past hour, "But from here on out, if we chose to continue looking, things will only get harder. If we chose to continue searching, we're adding targets on everybodies backs. And that is why I'm asking right now, do we take that risk or do we walk away?"
These people are my best friends, my family, they are my confidants.
When I smile, they smile. When I cry, they cry. When they get angry, I get angry. When they fall down, I pick them up. When I fall down, they pick me up. We are more than just coworkers or best friends. Together, we are all we have, and if they want to stop, we'll stop, because this decision isn't one that just effects me.
No matter how much it would kill me deep down to let the real person behind the killings go free, if my family wants that, I can find it in my heart to do that and eventually be okay with that decision.
These people were with me at my lowest and my highest, I owe it to them and myself to consider their wishes in matters that hold such high importance.
This isn't a game, it's a potential war.
And what we're waging isn't something replaceable.
We're playing with our lives, potentially gambling our lives away.
"Take the risk." Jamie shrugged.
"Take the risk." Kayla agreed.
"Take the risk." Luke nodded his head.
"Take the risk." Wyatt smiled, "As long as I get a new computer."
"Really Wyatt?" Max laughed at Wyatt's words before giving his answer, "Take the risk, Ana."
We all looked to Layla who sighed, staring at the table in front of us. Soon enough her eyes locked with mine and then she spoke the words, "I'm with you, all one-hundred percent of me. Take the risk."
"Alright, we're taking the risk." I told everybody, "This means from this point on things around here are going to have to change, we'll have to lay low on the search for our parents killers for awhile, while we get ready for a possible war. One last chance to back out."
No one spoke, no one moved.
"Okay, we're taking this threat down and we're finding our parents killers."
And then Courtney cried out, awake from her nap.
"Right after we feed the babies dinner."
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Author's Note -
Here's the eighteenth chapter of "Run-Away Little Sister: Hurting".
Wyatt was able to get a message from "CS" before his computer went down. Ana's acting a bit like a teenager being lazy (though not overly lazy). And everyone's getting ready to go towards a potential war, just to find their parents killers. The dedication of my characters is one of my favorite things about them.
And please, let me know what you all think about this chapter. And make sure you all comment, vote (by clicking the star), and share this story with those who might like it.
Thank you for reading!
-michaelaloveswriting
Original Version Published: January 1st. 2020
Edited Version Published: June 28th. 2022