Beyond the Breaking Point - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“What! were you thinking!” Linda yelled with ferocity. Finn was sitting on a bar stool at the counter in Linda’s kitchen. Finn had bandages on his leg, head, and arm. All of them were painful and Finn didn't want to move as the argument continued. I wasn't really “thinking” about it at the time, was the truthful answer, but Finn wasn't about to reward Linda with the privilege of being right. In fact, Finn didn't want to be the same room as Linda, not after what he had discovered.

“That’s a trick question and you know it!” Finn nearly spat to the other side of the room where Linda was standing with her back against the shiny white refrigerator   

“Finn…” Linda had finally softened her tone, “Why do you think I don't want you doing things like that…” Linda, as if making the question a higher priority, added afterwards, “Why?”  

“Because you're my mom and I’m am under your sovereign control,” Finn’s words, amongst being completely childish and untrue, were dripping with sarcasm. He could see Linda’s expression turn from one of anger to hurt almost instantly. “I’m… Sorry.” Finn looked away from Linda’s eyes, he felt like a child being scolded for taking a cookie from the jar without asking.  

“Finn, why did you follow those men? What did you have to gain?” Finn hadn't told her about the file yet but now he decided to give the final reveal.

“Because I stole this from them,” Finn, wincing with the painful movement, stiffly threw the file on the counter. Linda immediately picked it up, reading the first few words of the opening page and turning as white as the paper she was reading. Finn wanted answers, and he wanted a lot of them.  

“What is this.” Finn looked back at Linda, fire returning to his green-blue eyes.

“...Finn… I’ve been away from the CIA for a long time, and nobody else told you because...” This proved what Finn had dreaded, Linda did know something. Finn hated this excuse for the secrecy even before he heard it. He interrupted Linda in mid-sentence.

“Because it was safer for me? Because nothing bad would ever happen if I knew my brother was a spy!” Finn nearly shouted the last part, only managing to stop himself by remembering Cassie was still sleeping. Linda had put the file down, she had her head in her hands now, putting her elbows on the counter and shaking her head.  

“I asked you to start explaining, but since you didn't, I’ll tell you exactly what I learned. I know that my Father has been involved with the CIA over one-hundred fourteen times! I’ll tell you that my brother started working for the CIA when he was eleven, being used as a human shield for a high-up in the FBI when a maniac broke into headquarters,”

“Finn,” Finn had raised his voice and Linda could tell that this wasn't going anywhere good.

“I was heartbroken even before I learned that my father had funded multiple tests on human beings!”  

“Finn!” Linda was desperately trying to stop Finn from continuing on.

“My brother was sent on a mission code-named ‘suicide’ and went missing in a jungle for almost three days! Not one search party was sent out after him!”

“Finn…!” Linda had gotten up and was walking around the counter.  

“I learned that the CIA has considered using Cassie for intel missions by her 14th birthday!” Finn was in tears now. He couldn’t handle it, going over the information again had overwhelmed him. Linda came over and was trying to be comforting, bending over and giving him a hug from behind, resting her cheek over Finn’s now hunched body as she did so.  

Finn was almost bent double on the bar stool, pain shooting through his body whenever he shook from a sob. He just couldn't take it, the thought of Cassie going anywhere like that was unbearable. Finn didn't like Linda very much, she reminded him too much of himself, but here he saw a much softer side of the demanding, bossy woman that spoke almost every word like a command.  

Finn felt like he was going to break but he stopped crying; determined not to let Linda see him in this vulnerable state. But when he stopped feeling sorry for himself, he became protective of his sister.

“They won’t take Cassie! I won’t let them!” A fiery steel came into Finn’s voice as he said that. Linda could feel the muscles in Finn’s back and chest tighten. If she didn't know better, Linda might have actually believed him.  

“Finn, maybe it’s time for you to go to bed,” The old Linda was back. Along with her first command. Finn, amazingly, agreed with her. He needed to find a way to save Cassie from her terrible fate and going to bed gave him a chance to think about those things.  

Twenty minutes later, Finn went to sleep, his sister’s name still on his lips.  

***

“I’m glad I’m back. I missed you.” Zach was smiling as he said those words. Cassie had always described Zach’s eyes as the best shade of gold, and now they danced and glittered as he smiled affectionately at his sister, who, at that moment, felt like the happiest person in the world. Cassie didn't want to say anything right now, and Zach understood why. Zach had always understood.  

Zach was sitting at the tiny little tea-table that Cassie always set up for him when he came home. Warm sunlight illuminated the room as Cassie, feeling now was the right time to show Zach what she had created, pulled a magnificent painting out of a backpack that hung on the back of the chair that she sat on. It was of a little girl and her older brother, holding hands, dancing on top of a majestic rainbow. Cassie had feared that maybe Zach wouldn't like the picture, but now, with him sitting right in front of her, she realized that Zach would never, ever, think that anything she had made was bad or poorly crafted. A tear ran down Zach’s cheek as he admired the beautifully crafted object. Zach seemed to glow as everything around Cassie melted. The next thing she knew, her and Zach were dancing on the top of a rainbow, sparkling with majesty and beauty.  

Zach’s hands enclosed her own and Cassie closed her eyes, bathing in the sunlight and Zach’s limitless love for her. Cassie and Zach were floating above the rainbow now, Cassie would have been afraid to fall if Zach wasn't there. But he was, and nothing wrong could ever happen to her. Not with Zach around.  

When Cassie opened her eyes, Zach was being torn away from her. Cassie’s father had appeared from out of nowhere, dragging Zach away, dragging him back to a “business trip.” Cassie started falling, not being held up anymore. She screamed as darkness seemed to swallow her. Cassie entered a dark atmosphere, one with rain clouds and mud puddles with no sunlight or bright colors. Cassie screamed with renewed ferocity as the ground came closer and closer. Cassie was about to hit the ground again when she woke up.

***

Cassie sat bolt upright in her bed. The various blankets she had piled around her falling away as she did so. Cassie was breathing heavily and she wasn't sure if she had screamed in the night or not. Cassie hoped she hadn't woken Linda if she had.  

“...Zach?” Cassie’s lips barely moved when she uttered those words. “I miss you.”

Cassie knew that if she tried to go back to bed, her previous experience would only repeat itself. If Zach was still alive she would have gone and silently woke him up. Cassie felt like crying when she revisited the fact that Zach was dead. But astoundingly, she didn't. She decided to go get Finn, instead. Cassie looked at her nightstand and then to a digital clock in the shape of a pink hippopotamus. It read 2:00. Finn might be upset that she had woken him in the middle of night. Or would he? As Cassie shivered in her purple and blue pajamas she wished she had her teddy bear; Mr. McStuffins always made her feel warm. Cassie wondered why Finn had not been able to retrieve it.  

Deciding to take her chances, Cassie slid out from under her blankets and stood in the middle of her dark and now eerie bedroom. The darkness seemed to dwell in the corners and Cassie wondered if anything was hiding in her bed’s shadow. Cassie started moving towards the door, glancing around to see if anything was following her. Sensing something was creeping behind her, Cassie reached out and grasped the cold metal door handle. She opened the door and walked out into the hallway. The walkway in the various different rooms had gray tile for the flooring and the light in the bathroom had been left on, by Cassie’s request so that the hallway wasn't nearly as dark as her bedroom. Cassie crossed the hallway and stood before her brother’s door. She cautiously put her ear to the door to listen if Finn was awake or not. She heard talking, mumbling. Finn had always had a problem with sleep talking. Sometimes what he said was complete non-sense, sometimes Cassie understood some of it.

This time, Finn’s sleep-ramblings were complete non-sense. Cassie, summoning all of her strength reached out and opened the door.

***

The door to Finn’s room slowly creaked open, Finn sat bolt upright in his bed and picked up the pocket knife that lay on his bed-side dresser. If the men that he had encountered earlier had come back with a vengeance he wanted to be ready. Finn opened the knife and was about to throw it at the open door when he heard a tiny voice call out.  

“Finn?” Finn breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes,” A dark figure now recognizable as his sister crept farther into his room. Finn winced as he pulled himself up and propped himself up on his pillow. “Did you have a bad dream?” Cassie came and timidly sat on the edge of his bed. The answer was obvious.

Finn got out of his bed, letting out a low moan as he stretched his left leg out. He took Cassie’s hand and led her back to her back into the dark hallway and back to her own bedroom.  

“I’m sorry I didn't get your teddy bear…” Cassie had no reply. Finn hadn't expected her to have one anyways.

Finn opened his sister’s brand new bedroom and found that even he thought it looked a little eerie with all of the dolls she had set up staring blankly at unknown objects in the dark. Cassie climbed into her own bed dutifully and Finn stooped over the bed to tuck her in at the edges. Finn wasn't wearing a shirt, it being almost two AM, and he was beginning to get very cold indeed as he moved around the bed to a nightstand on the opposite side. Finn picked up a small box adorned with pink flowers and a rainbow undoubtedly painted by Cassie on her free hours on the front. Finn spun the box around to access a small knob in the back. He spun the metal hand a few times before a soft tune began to play.

“Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleep my little baby.

When you wake you shall have

All the pretty little horses.

Black and bays, dapples, grays,

All the pretty little horses.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleep my little baby.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleep my little baby.

When you wake you shall have

All the pretty little horses.” Finn hated singing, especially something as childish as this, but it seemed to help Cassie go to sleep. Cassie seemed half asleep by the time he had finished, but now she spoke.

“Thank you,” How could two words mean so much? Finn smiled back and then leaned down and tenderly kissed Cassie on the forehead. Maybe things weren't all so bad.  

Finn went to bed thinking of one thing. He thought of how, as long as Cassie stayed in his life, nothing could ever be better.

***

When Finn woke up, he could think of one thing, and one thing only. How incredibly parched his throat was. Finn stumbled out of bed resembling a bear coming out of hibernation. The scratches and bruises he had experienced the other day seemed to have healed slightly, noticed by the fact that Finn didn't feel half of what he had yesterday. Finn walked out of the hallway and into the living space of the house.  

Linda was sitting on a bar stool doing something on the Samsung tablet she apparently owned. She looked up as Finn came in. Finn voiced his desperate need to quench his thirst.

“...Thirsty, water… please,” Finn’s voice was barely more than a croak. Linda, seeing his urgency, got up and went to the shiny metal fridge and took out a glass of water. It was chilled, and as Finn drained the glass, he felt the cold water run down his throat and into his stomach. Finn set the glass down on the counter and leaned in to take a closer look at the glass, which seemed to have a few stray particles of something still clinging to the place where his lips touched. Finn wondered if there was something on his lip, and he turned to Linda, who stood only a foot or two away, looking expectantly back at him. Finn only wondered why for a few seconds. In those few seconds, Finn had wondered why the glass made him feel a little lightheaded. Finn felt his legs turn to jelly and was about to make contact with the cold tile when Linda, who seemed to be waiting for this to happen, caught him and set him down on the ground gently. Finn felt betrayed. He had a feeling this would happen, from the moment he met this woman he knew the was something about her. Finn’s eyes were beginning to close when he thought he could hear words. They were muddled, though, Finn thought they sounded like,

“I’m sorry, Finn, this was the only way…”

Author's Note

Too short?