Keagan somehow managed to find sleep. Even though his thoughts threatened him with insomnia, he found sweet relief in the world of sleep.

But that wouldn’t last forever.

Keagan could feel himself slowly regaining consciousness. He could hear the sounds of the morning traffic along with the smell of coffee dancing about in the room.

Wait a minute-

Kalos opened his eyes to find a semi naked Karisa prepared some coffee and an unconscious Catalina laying by his side.

Keagan let out a low groan as he got up. His right hand was rather sore and his throat felt as dry as hell.

Karisa walked up to the bed and offered Keagan some black coffee. He stared at her for a moment. Her gaze was low and she wore a shirt that barely covered anything. Her eyes were swollen, possibly from crying a bunch and her face was beet red.

Keagan extended his right hand towards her, causing her to flinch slightly.

“Your hand.” Keagan said, his voice low, yet non threatening.

Karisa placed her small hand into his and he pulled her towards him, taking the coffee from her in the process.

Keagan took a few sips of his coffee before placing the cup down by a nearby table. He then pulled Karisa even closer to him and pressed his head against her belly.He let himself sink into his thoughts as he planned on what he’d do after meeting up with Karisa’s father and what he’d need to do to rid himself of these two.

Keagan was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of a muffled growl.

“Looks like it’s time for you to eat.” Keagan said as he sluggishly got up. His body was drained after all the exertion from before and his right hand hurt like hell, but the pain he was feeling was probably nothing compared to what he dished out on Catalina and Karisa.

Keagan checked the kitchen area and found that he was out of cereal. He let out a sigh before turning to Karisa, who was barely able to stand and Catalina who was still asleep.

Neither of them was going anywhere anytime soon but he felt like he should as least try to get rid of them.

So Keagan hopped into the shower, washed away all of the sweat he’d accumulated the day before, changed into some fresh clothes and walked towards the door.

“Wake her up.” Keagan told Karisa, who had been standing in the same spot for a while.

Karisa then gently shook Catalina awake.

Catalina awoke in an instant, her eyes popped open and she stared at Keagan with almost frightened eyes.

Keagan didn’t care.

“So… I’m going to buy some breakfast. I kinda want something healthy so I’m going to get some cereal or something. You on the other hand, have two choices: you can leave now and never EVER come back or you can stay and be obedient, honest women. The choice is yours. I say it like it’s simple but your old man wants me to meet him for some reason and I doubt it’s anything good.” Keagan said with a sigh.

“So? What’s your decision?” Keagan asked, his eyes narrow and cold. The fact that he had dark brown eyes didn’t help either, as they looked black in the shadows, making him look even angrier, even though in reality, he was just a tired of everything.

Catalina looked at Karisa, who simply looked down, causing the already teary Catalina to start crying.

“I see. So Karisa is the one who usually dictates what you do…” Keagan said, more to himself than anyone.

Karisa looked at Keagan and saw his dark form hovering by the door. Keagan saw that she was tearing up as well, this made him frown slightly.

Karisa then took a deep breath before clasping her hands.

“Can I stay?” She said as tears ran down her face.

Keagan merely tilted his head.

“Why? So that you can torture me more?” He asked coldly.

Karisa then slowly walked towards him as her mouth parted.

“What do you want?” Keagan asked as Karisa walked up to him. He gently brushed aside the hair that covered her face and raised her chin so that he could see her eyes.

“I want you to keep loving us.” Karisa said as before her legs gave in too all the standing she’d been doing. Keagan caught her, but in the act touched some of her bruises.

“But I don’t love you. Either of you.” Keagan whispered.

“You do.” Karisa said.

Keagan knew he hated these two more than he’d hated anyone in his entire life and yet there Karisa was, declaring the contrary.

“I- uh- Catalina, come here.” Keagan ordered and the petrified Catalina slowly got off the bed. She slowly approached Keagan, who still had Karisa in his arms.

Keagan offered his arm and Catalina hesitantly took it. Keagan pulled her closer to him.

“How about you? What do you want and don’t ask Karisa. I want to know what you want, maybe that’ll help me understand what’s going on in your sick little head.” Keagan asked.

Catalina looked into Keagan’s eyes, his dark almost unfeeling eyes.

“I want you to love us as well.” She said. This only deepened Keagan’s frown.

“Why me though? And don’t give some bullshit about me being special or something. I want to know why?” Keagan asked.

The girls then looked at each other before looking back at Keagan.

“Because we love you.” They said simultaneously, causing Keagan to pull the two even closer to him. He pressed his lips against Karisa’s and they kissed so deeply, his mind temporarily went numb.

Keagan managed to rip himself away from her and looked at Catalina. She wanted a kiss as well, but Keagan gave her a light kiss on her lips and he could feel her exhale in disappointment.

Keagan smiled, then gave her what she really wanted. He kissed, not as aggressively as he had Karisa, but he put the same amount of effort into it.

Catalina must have enjoyed it because she wrapped her arms around Keagan, while Karisa gently ran her fingers through Keagan’s hair.

Keagan then realised that he had taken two steps back in all this so he yanked himself away from them and fixed his clothes and hair.

“Anyway... I’m going to get some breakfast. You guys should bath, you smell like crap.” Keagan said as he stormed out of his apartment.

Upon seeing the morning sun he realised that he truly had failed in detaching himself from those two.

Keagan sighed deeply, before heading for the supermarket, there he bought a few things before returning to his apartment. He wanted to postpone entering his own place at all costs so he called Mercy.

[Keagan, are you alright? Dan told me you were at the hospital. What happened?]

Mercy asked.

Keagan wondered when she got close enough to Dan to call him by his shortened name, but he shrugged the thought away.

“I’m ok, I won’t be able to come to work today, but I’ll be fine. According to the doctor, someone was trying to drug me.” Keagan said as he sat on the last set of stairs before his apartment.

[Oh my goodness! That’s awful. Do you know anyone who would have done that?]

Mercy asked.

“Nope. Your guess is as good as mine. I had my suspicions, but they were dead ends.” Keagan lied.

[Is that so… well, whatever the case may be, you can’t let word of this get out. Otherwise we’ll sink.]

Mercy cautioned.

“I hear you.” Keagan said as he got up.

[So how are you feeling?]

Mercy asked.

“Physically, I’m great. Mentally, it’ll take some time, but I’ll recover. The doctor said that not much is known about the drug they found inside me, but the good doctor also gave me some pills just in case.” Keagan said as he opened his apartment door.

Inside, he saw that Catalina and Karisa had cleaned up the mess that was caused by the previous days activities and were now patiently waiting for him on the bed.

They had changed into their pyjamas and had taken showers, like Keagan instructed. Keagan ended his call with Mecry and prepared some cereal for everyone and sat on his couch as he flipped through serval news stations.

The news spoke about many things but Keagan was looking for something in particular.

[Crime rates in Acan have reached a record high with many police officials saying that it is now a hotspot for criminals of all sorts. This is partly due to the low living costs of Acan and various other factors.]

Keagan didn’t care about the rising crime rates, what he was curious about was where Karisa and Catalina got their bottles of Rapture.

“How long have you been using Rapture?” Keagan asked.

“Not long. A month or so.” Karisa said.

“Well, you’re going to stop. I’m going to see a doctor today and you’re coming with me. He’ll give you the same pills he gave me.” Keagan said, but then he realised that they would suffer from withdrawal symptoms and he had a “dinner" to attend on Saturday.

“Dammit. Does your dad know?” Keagan asked.

“No.”

Keagan sighed.

“Catalina, your car is in Cynosure right?”

“No, it’s here.” Catalina said.

“Huh? How does that work? I’m pretty sure we left it at the vectrain station.” Keagan said as he got up.

“The Vectrain company also shuttles our cars when we travel.” Catalina explained as she cleaned up the kitchen area.

“Then let’s go.”

Keagan and company headed to Cynosures main hospital and since Keagan had a reserved spot on Dr. Xander’s schedule.

They made their way up to his office and awaited his arrival.

Not ten minutes passed before he arrived.

“Ah, Mr. Keita. Good afternoon. Part of me was expecting you to skip out on our appointment.” Dr. Xander said as he shook Keagan’s hand.

“Hehe, I wasn’t going to miss this appointment, even if I had to crawl here.” Keagan said.

“And who have you brought along?” Dr. Xander asked.

“This is-" Keagan stopped himself and looked at Karisa. Her father was one of the most powerful men in Unity, if word got out that his daughter was a drug user, lord knows what would happen.

Karisa placed her hand on Keagan’s shoulder and nodded.

“This is Karisa Astali and Catalina Acosta. They went through something similar to what I went through.” Keagan said and Dr. Xander's eyes shot open.

“Oh- Ms. Astali, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Dr. Xander said as he extended his hand.

Karisa shook his hand and they entered his office soon after.

Dr. Xander sat behind his table and gestured that the others take the seats opposite to his.

“So, you said that these two have also come into contact with Rapture?” Dr. Xander asked.

“Yes. Although they’ve been... exposed for about a month now.” Keagan said.

“I see. Uh- actually, I have something for the three of you. It’s a form I got from the research centre here in Cynosure.” Dr. Xander said as he handed Keagan and company two page forms.

“Fill in whatever you feel comfortable filling in. It’ll help us in our search for Raptures true effects on the human body.” Dr. Xander said as they each filled in their forms.

“Ok. Now, we’re going to have to do some blood tests, some scans and that’ll be it for today.” Dr. Xander said.

Keagan and company spent the next hour or so getting checked up and tested.

When they finished all their tests and answered the last questions, they were ready to go after Dr. Xander gave Karisa and Catalina their pills.

Dr. Xander escorted them out of his office.

“Thank you Dr. Xander.” Keagan said as they arrived at the hospitals lobby.

“No, I should be the one thanking you. Rapture is still a very new drug and I’d like to know as much about it before more people suffer through what you had to go through." Dr. Xander said. This made Keagan clench his jaw a bit since the ones who drugged him in the first place were standing right besides him.

“I feel the same. Anyway, have a great day.” Keagan said as he nursed the tiny bubble of anger in his head. He didn’t know why, but he felt super frustrated, then it dawned on him. He needed to take his pills.

Keagan and the girls made their way back to Acan. On their way, Keagan had managed to sweat so much that his clothes were damp. He cursed himself for leaving the damned pills behind and he didn’t want to take any of Karisa’s or Catalina’s pills because they had a limited amount and Keagan really didn’t want to go back to the hospital so he bit his teeth and eventually made it home.

Keagan rushed into the bathroom, grabbed his bottle and took two pills like Dr. Xander prescribed.

Keagan sat on the bathroom floor as the Oh so familiar feeling of coldness returned. He remembered clinging to Catalina and Karisa every time he felt this way, but now he knew that they were giving him more doses of Rapture.

Keagan laughed at himself for getting caught up in all this.

“Can’t get any worse, right?” Keagan asked himself.

Purposefully asking the universe what else it had in store for him.

Keagan eventually left the bathroom and plopped onto his bed. Catalina and Karisa joined him. They were fully clothed, so Keagan couldn’t see their discoloured skin and their bruises.

Keagan looked at both of them as they clung to him.

“You’re not going to drug me again are you?” He asked.

“No.” Karisa said.

“No.” Catalina said.

“I see… then I’m sorry for hitting you like I did.” Keagan said, but the reaction he got was… puzzling.

Karisa frowned as best as she could. The smooth skin on her forehead assumed the shape of what some could call a frown.

“Please, don’t apologize. We were the ones who tricked you. We lied to you and yet you still love us in spite of our wretchedness.” She said rather clearly.

“Like I said, I don’t-"

“Karisa is right. You should never apologize to us.” Catalina said with a cute frown.

“So now you’re telling me what to do? You’re only my superior at work. Try not to forget that.” Keagan said with a chuckle, causing the both of them to blush.

“I’m going to sleep. Take your pills now.” Keagan instructed before slowly closing his eyes.

He would need a lot of rest as he was about to meet the man known as Andre Astali.