Neon Lights

05

Callisto remembered the parts of Draven that he thought he had long forgotten. Those dark eyes usually sparkled in a more golden hue when he was amused, and he tended to look a few years younger when he was smiling. There would even be dimples showing if he looked closely especially when Draven was feeling particularly happy. What more, he liked to slouch when he sat down and his shoulders would often droop, making him look smaller even when he had broad shoulder from the swimming classes he used to take back then.

But none of that youth, none of that softness that Callisto knew he held translated through the picture he was staring at.

Cold.

He looked cold. Unmoving. Uncaring.

Merciless.

"Yeah, Draven," Rave said, leaning into his chair. "Draven Fairfax."

He was aware of his full name.

How could he not?

But he wished he didn't. He closed his eyes for a second, trying to settle the sudden increase of anxiety coursing through his veins.

It didn't work.

The familiarity did little to quell the uneasiness that was building in him. Placing the picture back on the table, he opened his eyes and glanced at his friend. There had to be a reason why Draven was here. Luna was missing and suddenly he was looking at something he shouldn't with a face of a man he didn't want to see anymore — if that didn't scream a connection, he didn't know what will.

But he didn't want to make that connection. It was too scary. The symbol was an important part of his sister's missing now — that was evident. Connecting it back to him however wasn't something Callisto thought he would see.

"Draven took my sister?" It was the first thing that popped into his head. The second the words left his mouth, the irrationality of the situation dawned on him. Why would he take Luna out of all people? Callisto had known this person and because he did, he couldn't understand why Draven would do such a thing. "I have nothing to do with him, and definitely not my sister. He doesn't even know I have a sister."

Rave shook his head. "That's not what I'm saying." He tapped one more time on the desk, the sound leaving behind an almost deafening silence behind. Callisto waited with bated breath, holding himself tight at what could be the true conclusion between Luna and Draven. "But he may be connected to her disappearance. This symbol... we've been tracking down the members of this faction for almost a year now."

"But why my sister? Why Luna?"

It was a hard concept for him to grasp. As far as he had known her, she wasn't the type to be involved in anything shady. The only one time she had dared to look up a particular underground group for her assignment in high school, she had been spooked thinking they would find her for looking into them even if everything she found had been public information.

If anything, she was a worse coward than he was.

Luna had her moments of bravery, but not when it came to this. She could be as vocal about disliking something but she was never the one to act out on fixing that wrong if it meant she had to cross into any legal grey areas.

Her anxiety wouldn't let her do it — just like how his wouldn't.

She was one of the few who understood how that feeling would paralyse him and force him to fixate on an illogical fear until it made him unable to move — breathe.

And now, she was probably going through that all alone without him.

"I don't know." Rave sighed. "I wouldn't know since I didn't take a look at your sister's belonging or her apartment where she disappeared." Callisto opened his mouth but was quickly cut off with a, "And I can't either. Not without informing the Captain about it."