Page 17 of Precious Hazard

***

The streetlights are out, and not a single window is lit. Only a sliver of the moon, mostly hidden by clouds, provides enough light to guide my steps. The air is crisp, hinting at imminent snow. It’s freezing.

“Asya!” I yell as I run down the deserted, pitch-dark alley.

The ground is hard and cold. My limbs are numb, even though I’ve been running for hours. Searching.

“Asya!”

My toe catches on something on the concrete, making me stumble and lose my stride, but I recover and continue running. Shouting my sister’s name.

Weeks. It’s been weeks since she vanished without a trace. The days and nights have bled together, becoming an endless, horrifying oblivion I can’t escape. I’ve questioned, bribed, or beaten every rat in this damn city who could possibly shed light on her whereabouts. All without success. No one has seen her. No one has a clue. She simply disappeared into thin air.

“Asya!” I shout at the top of my lungs.

There is no answer. Just the wind blowing empty soda cans and scraps of paper along the desolate road I blindly run down.

It’s my fault. I should have protected my sisters better. Should have had tighter, twenty-four-seven security around them. Then, the girls never would’ve been able to sneak out.They’re my responsibility. Mine to watch over. Mine to keep safe.

I failed.

So I run. Searching in the dark. Searching until I find something.

Until I get her back.

I can’t stop. I have to find—

I spring up in bed, covered in sweat. Heart jackhammering against my ribcage. It’s still dark outside, without even a faint ray of moonlight to break the murk. Reaching for the nightstand, I grab my phone to check the time. Four a.m.

“Great.”

Tossing the phone on the covers beside me, I drop back onto the pillow. Five more hours until I need to be at the office. Might as well use the time to check my emails or go over the new contract that dropped into my inbox yesterday. There’s no way I’ll be able to go back to sleep now. Not after that dream.

Nightmares have plagued me since the day Asya went missing. Intensified tenfold when Sienna swallowed half a bottle of sleeping pills because of her grief and nearly died. They continued for months, long after Asya was found safe and sound. Before tonight, I haven’t had one in over a year. Something must have triggered it.

I just don’t know what.

Chapter 4

My bedroom door flies open.

“You got another one!” Sienna screeches from the threshold, happily bouncing on the spot. Several red petals dislodge from the bouquet in her hands, falling onto the hardwood floor.

I take in the enormous arrangement of red roses in her arms and roll my eyes. The thing is so huge that the only part of Sienna I can see is the big neon-green bow at the top of her head.

“Yay.” I try to smile but it probably comes out as a grimace, so I quickly lower my head and focus on my book.

“You know, I had no idea my brother is such a romantic,” my sister-in-law chirps as she hauls the flowers across the room. “Wow. A hundred red roses! Arturo must really be taken with you. I don’t recall him ever buying flowers for anyone else. And—” She comes to a sudden stop. “Where are the orchids?”

“Orchids?” I mumble distractedly. The hero is just about to save his girl from the kidnappers. It’s the best part of the book.

“The ones from yesterday. The white and pink ones, in the pretty gold vase you promised to give me later.”

Oh shit. Quickly shutting the book, I scrounge my mind for a plausible explanation. “Um… I took them to work.”

“To Naos?” Sienna scrunches her nose at me, then sets today’s bouquet on top of the vanity. The same spot where theorchids used to sit. “But why? They looked so good here, in your room.”

“Well I… I just wanted to look at them while I was working?”

---