I stared at myself in the rearview mirror one last time before exiting my car. My cobalt blue eyes seemed lifeless, even more so than usual. My red hair was tied up in a disheveled bun, giving an impression of totally disregarding the idea of looking presentable. However the tiny freckles around my nose actually made me look like a teenager. That mere thing stimulates me to never hide them.

Taking a few deep breaths, I headed inside the precinct. Knowing every nook in here, I walked towards Caleb's cabin. My eyes fell on the ledge that read - 'Detective Till' and remained standing there, trying to stall.

"To hell with it." I bursted inside without knocking but with a gritting determination.

Caleb's head snapped up in rage but it soon vanished when he saw me. After his text yesterday, we both decided to meet here today. This also ultimately led me to skip my school.

I hadn't informed my parents yet but I know that my mom would piece it all together. Once she's aware of my whereabouts, she might even give me hell for it.

"Hey, Young Lewinski!" He exclaimed happily. He's not only the detective of my case but also Ashton's cousin. Despite his annoying behavior, Caleb is like an older brother to me. We get along really well because of our love for rap music. He might be 31 years old but he acts like a toddler.

"How many times do I have to tell you, don't call me that?" I glared at him but he wasn't fazed by my attitude.

"Maybe never for me to listen to you." He grinned. "Take a seat."

I sat down opposite him while he rummaged through his file cabinets. He hummed when he got what he was searching for and began flipping through the pages quicker than I could blink. I tried to get a glimpse but he had different plans because he shut it close. This went on for a few minutes as he continued searching for a correct one. "Why are you so jumpy?"

"Huh? What? No," he said, still not finding what he was looking for. "Where's your mom?"

"She doesn't know that I'm here." I shrugged, leaning back against the chair.

Caleb paused immediately and stared at me disapprovingly. "She doesn't know that you're skipping school?"

I sighed angrily. "Look it doesn't matter, okay? She'll know it anyway. I didn't want to tell her beforehand because I don't wanna get anybody's hopes high." It was true. Caleb had said the same thing about getting a lead last year but turns out, it wasn't even connected to our case. "I'll tell her everything once I am sure. I just... don't wanna worry anyone more than I already have." I couldn't meet his eyes and gently traced my knuckles.

"I'm sorry, kid," he whispered guiltily.

I snorted out a laugh and threw him a dirty look. "You should be, grumpy old man." He chuckled softly at my response. "Now, do me a favor and tell me everything. Oh, and don't you dare get excited. I am not here for the dramatics." Caleb has a thing for creating suspenses when he has some huge information to share.

He chortled in amusement and nodded his head. As he was about to say something, his intercom started ringing.

It took a lot of my willpower to not punch that thing. I grunted agitatedly and started drumming my fingers on my thigh when he received the call.

"Hello? Sure, Chief. I'll be there in a sec. Yeah." He hung up quickly and gave me an apologetic look. "I'll be back before you know it. Chief wants me to go through this another case."

I just waved my hands. "Go ahead." He sprinted out of his office, leaving me alone.

Retrieving my phone from my pocket, I decided to check the messages because it was vibrating incessantly. I opened the group - Coachella because there weren't many messages.

Destiny:
Serenity!!!! Did you just skip school without letting me in on it????? I AM MAD AT YOU!!!! You hear me? M-A-D!

Ashton:
I am pretty sure she must be preparing for the battle :'(

Destiny:
What do you mean?

Ashton:
Preparing for the battle to whip our - PG13 word for it - our BUTTS!

Who Dis:
HAHAHAHAHA!! Now, I'd love to see that.

Don't Know:
I bet my life, all you would wanna see is their naked backside. *shudders*

Who Dis:
Shut up! That's not true, Derek.

Ashton:
I am gonna whip your ass if that's true, Bran.

Who Dis:
THAT'S NOT TRUE, GUYS!! Leave this poor guy alone.

Destiny:
I can see you lurking, Ser -_-

Yours Truly:
I didn't come to school.

Destiny:
And we have the queen of stating the "obvious" facts.

Yours Truly:
Don't be mad :) At least, I'm not preparing for the battle that everyone's so excited about ;)

Destiny:
I wasn't!

2 Brain Cells:
Urgh, my head hurts with so much commotion. I can literally hear your annoying voices in my head.

Yours Truly:
Then I'd suggest you to stay outta your head too.

"I am back! I am back!" Caleb suddenly shouted and sat back down in his swivel chair. "And got your file too." He grinned.

I pocketed my phone quickly and nodded my head for him to continue.

Without any further delay, he went down to business. "You know the reason why we couldn't find this man for the past three years is because it's like he vanished from the face of the earth," he said grimly.

"What do you mean?" I asked him impatiently.

"What I mean is we couldn't find or detect anything about him on our intel through the evidence we'd collected back then. He was so perfect in covering his damn tracks that I am impressed by his advanced level magician tricks," he explained to me while leafing through the pages in the file.

"Don't you see? That's where he made a mistake. By being way too perfect." I smirked but Caleb stared at me in puzzlement. "You know you think you're so perfect by covering everything because we wouldn't notice but that's where you're wrong. The flaw about being perfect is being perfect because there's no such thing as perfection. In my perspective, as a victim, the crime was committed. But who committed? A ghost? No way. There is so much evidence but just because you're not on the intel doesn't change anything. It just shows that you're the dumbest person alive," I narrated my entire theory to him.

"Your point?" He asked me slowly.

"My point is that he made the biggest mistake by keeping me alive. The evidence, it's me. I am the evidence and he's gonna go down," I gritted.

"Now that I think about it, it actually makes sense. But we always reach a dead end without our intel on that particular criminal," he argued with a soft smile.

"You guys rely too much on your intel but whatever, continue," I said dismissively. Truth be said, with or without intel, I had reached a dead end as well when I'd tried to be a smartass. I was livid and I wanted to find him but it didn't turn out so well because my mom had turned into a raging lava.

"All right, all right." He raised his arms in surrender. "So, we wouldn't have gotten our hold on him if I wasn't working on this drug case. Everything's a mess but I've started realizing the patterns of yours and this case. The drug lord has vanished too just like that guy. Nothing on him. Nada. So, as we were discussing this in the meeting yesterday, we concluded that the guy must be huge, like really, really huge. He has connections with the upper echelon or even better..." He trailed off, biting his lip.

"Even better? What is it?" I leaned my forearms on the table and looked at him with almost a wild look.

"He might be in the upper echelon himself," he whispered but I heard him anyway.

"So, what? I am rich too." It was a feeble attempt to mask my fear. The same fear that I'd felt three years ago but never after that. Up until now.

"Serenity..." Caleb began calmly. "We're not sure yet but he might be a government official."

"So what are you trying to insinuate?" I scowled at him and quickly hid my hands that were incessantly shaking.

"That he's too powerful to catch. Very strong to easily slip out of our clutches. But we can't be so sure. Our calculations could be wrong too. We're investigating but I have a hunch that we could get a hold of him this time," he spoke somberly while I just absent-mindedly nodded my head.

'How does it matter anyway?!' I wanted to scream but I couldn't utter a single word. I was scared to hear my own broken voice. "Okay," I mumbled.

The door creaked open but I kept on staring into space. "Hey, Till. You wa - oh, hey, Calamity," Jessica, Till's detective partner greeted me.

I was feeling suffocated and the walls were closing in on me. Standing up abruptly, I left the cabin and ignored Caleb's and Jessica's calls.

Soon enough, I was out of the precinct and leaning against my car. My knees buckled beneath me and I crumpled the t-shirt around my chest. It took me some long minutes to gather myself back.

Once I was sure that I wouldn't have a breakdown, I slowly tried to stand up on my feet. I stared ahead at nothing in particular, imagining the speck of dust to be the man who brought hell upon himself.

"I am not gonna stop even if my knuckles bleed. Ain't gonna stop chasing you even if my feet trips. Gonna take you on a high road, beat you like a slow poke," I mumbled in a sing-song voice. Clenching my fists, I closed my eyes and breathed in the air, regaining my confidence.

~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~

Word count: 1680
Total count: 6051