She leans back in her chair, rubbing at her eyes. She glances at her computer's clock, checking the time.

"Shit..." she mutters under her breath.

It's already 6:30 in the morning, and soon, she'll have to take one of her neighbors to school. She drags herself to her feet, trudging to the bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror, she sighs. Light brown eyes stare back, deadened and puffy from being awake for the last three nights. Her lips look chapped from dehydration, and she absently grabs the cup sitting on the sink. Letting the cool liquid slide down her throat, she realizes just how thirsty she really was. By the time her thirst is quenched, she's downed three more glasses of water in quick succession.

She checks her phone for the time, and quickly runs a brush through messy brown. Darting to her kitchen, she snatches up her keys and goes to her garage. There, a silver minivan was waiting for her. It was a newer model, made last year. Thankfully, this vehicle only cost a quarter of the price, since it had been damaged by an earthquake. All it really needed was a little love and care... and some oil.

Hopping into the car, she clicks the garage door opener. Turning the key, the engine roars to life. She drives the car to the house right beside hers, honking after she shifts the gear into park.

A small boy came running out with a huge grin on his face. He opened the back passenger door, settling into his seat. As he shut the door and started to buckle in, he grinned at her.

"Hi Ari! How are you today?"

Ari smiles, and looks back at him in the rear view mirror.

"I'm doing okay, hon. Did you eat this morning?" She asks, starting off for the school.

"Yeah, my mama made me some eggs and bacon." Raf pauses before speaking again. "Ari... are you feeling okay? You look tired. Did you sleep alright?"

"Yeah, just another late night." She smiles at Raf in the mirror, refocusing on the road.

He's the most thoughtful kid she knows, and the brightest, too. Raf can build computers and programs by himself, all at the young age of twelve.

"If you're sure..." Raf agrees hesitantly. "Hey, do you want to race cars after I get out of school? Mama said it was okay."

"Sure, bud," Ari agrees, sparing a momentary glance back at him. "I don't have work today, so I can pick you up after school. Are we going to the usual place?"

"Mhm."

A comfortable silence falls over the two of them, Raf typing away at his computer, and Ari driving while humming an aimless tune.

Soon, her car pulls up next to a red brick building -- Memorial High School. While it was called a high school, it also held classes for the seventh and eighth grade students. After all, there's only really enough kids for two schools in this small desert town.

Ari turns around in her seat, grinning and raising her eyebrow a bit at Raf.

"Hey, are you planning on staying with me all day?"

Raf looked up from his computer, shock clear when he looked out the window.

"Oh! I didn't realize we were already here!"

She watches as he quickly tucks his laptop into his bag and unlatches his seatbelt. Raf grins at her and waves as he opens the door, not bothering to say goodbye as he rushes to get into the school. After making sure Raf gets inside safely, she begins her drive home.

She can't help but smile at the young boy's antics. She remembers when she used to have such an urgency to learn. The drive to consume knowledge at a ravenous pace, with the desire to make the world a better place.

The grin slips from her face as she tries to recall when her passion for knowledge and helping others faded. Maybe it was when she was a teenager, when her mother burned her books in front of her. "Devil's Books", she had called them. Books about plants and dinosaurs and language. Books that she had spent all summer saving up for at a job she hated. Books that had promised her a knowledge that she so craved.

Or, perhaps, it was when she faced her worst enemy -- Yang. Her riddles and the trail of bodies she left behind, playing a game that no one else could solve. A game that everyone else lost-- until Ari and her cousin Shawn. When she took her aunt in some sick twisted game, and held her life in her sick hands. The look of pure madness on her face as she talked to Shawn, a way that could have tricked anyone else into thinking they were family. The look she gave Ari; one of pity that she thought a monster like Yang was incapable of. The look Yang gave her when she told Ari that the worst was yet to come for her as she was cuffed and shoved into the car. All of this agony, all of this fear-- all because they were smart. All because Yang knew they could play the game and win. All that wisdom, and they still almost weren't smart enough to stop her.

She breathed out, snapping out of her trance. She was home. She's in Nevada, not California.

She's safe now.

Her eyes close, and she takes a few more breaths before pulling the car door open. Her steps feel heavy when she walks into her home and shuts the door behind her.

She walks to her desk, collapsing into the chair and glancing at the screen absently. Her email was left open, a single unread message having appeared in her absence.

One new email, from the Phoenix, Arizona Police Department. She squeezes her eyes closed, trying to block out the memory.

This is what got her into this mess, meddling in the affairs of death, and kidnapping, and crime.

This is what made her have to move to another state, leaving barely enough of a trace for her family to know that she was safe.

This is what made her so alone.

The Esquivel family flashes into her mind. A family she had moved in beside over two years ago; a family that she's gotten fairly close to, despite her efforts to remain isolated. A family who she's become an honorary member of. A family she's laughed with and cried with. A family that reminds her that it will be okay. A family that has allowed her to heal.

She opens her eyes slowly, letting her gaze fall on the laptop again. The same unopened email blinks in urgency, just as it had before.

Ari straightens in her chair, leans forward, and opens it.

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Uhhh so what do y'all think? Should I try and keep up with this story or nah? I'll also add more characters to the tag list as it goes on, because I don't wanna lead people on with the promise of certain characters and then not deliver lol. 

This story is also on Quotev, also by me.