Neon Lights

13

The taste of coffee was bland. It didn't settle on his tongue like it usually did, but perhaps it was also to do with his mood at the moment. A cold breeze washed over him, and while the freezing temperature tried to bite his skin, Callisto didn't even have a tiny bit of energy left to shiver.

Every bit of movement he did, including adjusting his grip on the coffee holder, made his muscles ache. It was a stark reminder of the failure that resulted from yesterday's chase with the man with neon green eyes. Even looking back it now, the frustration that he hadn't been able to catch up with him burned as bright as it had been hours ago.

Luna was right. Perhaps building stamina and exercising was a good idea.

Tilting his coffee cup to sip on his drink, all the while waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green, he took in a deep breath despite the sting in his nose from the cold air. Every nook and cranny he turned over in Luna's house once he went back to her place after the incident came up with nothing. Nothing presented to himself as important — and nothing looked like they had been touched.

The assumption that the man hadn't taken anything couldn't be concluded though.

With how agile he was, perhaps he was as sneaky when he searched Luna's house.

Callisto briefly closed his eyes before opening them back up again. The bitter smell of his drink did little to alleviate the incoming headache thumping at the back of his head. It didn't help that his usual bedtime routine was out of the window, having stayed up all night triple checking to make sure he hadn't accidentally missed a crucial clue.

Of course, that yielded absolutely zero evidence of tampering.

As much as he could ascertain, anyway.

A shoulder bumped against his followed by someone's back in front of him growing closer to his face had him internally groaning. The bodies close to his was enough of an uncomfortable space to be in and as Callisto glanced at the pedestrian lights, his hope that it would suddenly turned green became smaller with each passing second he spent staring at it. While he had to be at work in half an hour, he had half a mind to just skip today — HR could be damned.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, Alia's face flashed right before his eyes.

Any idea of him abandoning work now disappeared in an instant, leaving behind a stronger taste of bitterness at the tip of his tongue. Draven had been with her — smiling. Just what about that woman did he find it funny enough to smile like that? If anything, Callisto had thought she was a demon's reincarnation with how she often glared at him or made snide remarks whenever he talked to her.

There had been once upon a time when he almost filed a complaint about Alia for workplace bullying, but there was ultimately no evidence she did. Every paperwork he put through was either accepted or denied with proper reasonings, and everyone in the labs thought she was a saint.

Maybe Draven thought of her the same.

The headache that threatened to make itself known came barging through the door like a tidal wave, causing him to hiss under his breath. Just then, a person next to him pushed him a little too much to the left moving forward when the pedestrian light finally turned green. Callisto lost his grip of the cup in a flash from the sudden movement, tipping it onto himself as the dark liquid drenched his clothes.

Thankfully, he wore a coat today so it didn't tarnish his clothes underneath — but that didn't mean this was any good.

"Nothing's going my way," he mumbled under his breath, taking a step out of the crowd that was crossing the road. Looking at his coat to assess the damage, the urgency to get to work became dimmer. "Alia's going to rip me a new one whether I go in early or late..."