❝ the family's misfortune ❞

Richie was the one to pull away first, walking past his brother back to the small table strewn with fast food. He picked up a burger, walking over and cautiously holding it out in front of Cataleya.

"I don't know if you're hungry, but here, you should eat." His voice was quiet, almost like he was doing everything to seem as non-threatening as possible to her.

Cataleya raised her head from her hands. Her eyes found the burger before looking up at his face. She stared at him for a few seconds, hesitantly taking the burger from him.

He tried to offer Cataleya a small smile, but she quickly looked away from him.

Richie's face fell.

Seth returned from the bedroom after having covered Monica's body with a white sheet and shut the door behind him. He sighed, seating himself across from his brother to pick up his previously discarded burger.

Cataleya set hers on the coffee table, knowing there was no way she could eat. The image of Monica still burned brightly behind her eyes. She knew she'd regret it later but she couldn't bring herself to even unwrap the food.

Seth noticed how quiet she'd gotten, eyeing her from his seat. Her mouth was downturned in a frown as she chewed her bottom lip, twirling a silver ring around her finger.

"Sweetheart," he called out, waiting for her to look up at him.

Cataleya ignored him, and instead leaned back onto the couch to stare at the water-stained ceiling.

He continued despite not having her full attention. "You alright?"

"What do you think?" Cataleya deadpanned, her eyes still studying the coffee-colored stain that traveled along the ceiling's cracking paint.

Seth opened his mouth to reply, but a short knock at the door interrupted.

"Housekeepin'."

He jumped up, almost running to the door and cracking it open barely enough for his head to stick out.

"Time to clean your room, son."

"Uh, we–," he struggled to find an excuse, "we don't need it."

The woman leaned over, attempting to look into the room. "You better not be making a mess in there."

"You see, the thing is, ma'am, my, um–," Seth stuttered as he turned his head back into the room, eyes first landing on Cataleya before returning to the woman at the door, "my girlfriend is still asleep. You know, we kind of had a... you know, late night last night."

The woman looked at him skeptically.

"You can come back tomorrow, though, if you like."

The woman stood in front of the door for a few more seconds before grumbling and continuing to the next room.

"Okay, thank you!" Seth called after her before swiftly shutting the door, running a hand down his face.

"I wish you would let me tell you what happened," Richie spoke.

"Shut up," Seth cut him off as he paced, "no talking. We need to think, okay?"

Cataleya traded her view of the ceiling for the agitated Gecko in front of her.

Seth continued to rant as he moved the curtains to the side and looked out. "Half the ticket-takers on the Rio Grande are gonna have copies of our mug shots." He gestured wildly with his hands. "Not to mention a description of sweetheart, here, as a missing person. We need a way across, and we need it now."

Cataleya remembered seeing her face plastered everywhere, the ' Have You Seen Me? ' flyers and billboards mocking her like carnival mirrors. That's not me anymore, she remembered thinking.

After running away from home, her mom and brother did everything to find her. It was almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing herself in a store window or plastered on a billboard. She relived her last goodbyes to them sometimes. Even after six years she still felt terrible for leaving.

"-Just listen to me." Richie tried to speak, but his brother kept interrupting him to drawl on about paradise.

Cataleya rolled her eyes, bracing herself for another argument between the brothers.

"Seth, something happened to me."

"Yes, Richard, something is happening to you. Now I have tried to understand it. I have. But I can't," Seth lectured. "And somehow I don't think that you're going to be able to explain that," Seth pointed at the bedroom door, gesturing at what laid behind it, "to me."

Cataleya lifted her legs onto the coffee table as Richie stood and made his way over to his brother.

"I could see inside her."

Seth looked at his brother, eyebrows furrowed. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"I could see. I knew she was gonna hurt me. I knew it. It was in her eyes." Richie continued to try and explain to his brother why he'd killed the woman.

Cataleya listened, his words almost making sense. Her instincts had always been particularly strong, and there were times where she felt she could almost see into someone based on them.

The liquor store being one of them.

"-It's how we're gonna get across, too."

"What, Richard, what is it." Seth sighed, exasperated.

"There's an old Indian saying."

Seth moved from looking out the window to face his brother.

"Eyes find eyes. You see, our eyes are the source of our energy. You can always feel somebody's eyes on you," Seth's eyes flicked to meet Cataleya's as his brother continued, "but what you're actually feeling is their energy directed right at you."

Cataleya thought about this, remembering the intensity of Richie's stare on her even when she wasn't meeting it with her own.

"Now, what happens if you close your eyes?"

"What?"

"You cut off your energy. If you can just shut down, not only will people not see you, but they'll see through you," Richie finished.

"Close our eyes?" Disbelief washed over Seth, his eyebrows raised as he acknowledged what his brother was saying. "That's your plan– close our eyes?"

Richie nodded, a proud smirk on his face.

"Sweetheart, you hearing this?" Seth shook his head. "Okay. I gotta get outta here." He walked over to Cataleya, pulling her up. "You, uh, brush up on your Spanish or something."

He pulled the door open, but Cataleya didn't move.

"What are you doing? Come on."

"I'm gonna stay." She didn't know why yet, but she felt like she needed to.

"Not after what he just did, you're not. I'm not leaving you with him." His grip on her arm tightened.

Cataleya tried pulled from him. "Seth, I'll be fine. I can take care of myself. And you're hurting me."

"Cat." His jaw tensed as he stared at the stubborn girl in his hold. She'd already been hurt one too many times. He didn't want anything else to happen to her. He wouldn't allow it.

Finally, he let go.

"Alright. But Richie," his brother turned to face him, "anything happens, you're dead."

And with that Seth slammed the door behind him. Richie and Cataleya shared a look, both going back to their previous seats.

It was silent for a while. Cataleya was even more nervous around him now, almost afraid to bring up what happened. She thought it might set him off again. But he seemed fine now, calm even. She didn't understand how he could be, after seeing what he'd done.

Richie was too afraid to break the silence in fear of her rejecting him. He could remember the look on her face as she stepped into that room, the disgust and horror and disbelief. She was genuinely afraid of him, then, and he assumed she'd never want to speak to him again.

But Cataleya ended up breaking the silence between them.

"What did you mean when you said you could... see in her?" Cataleya asked, placing her elbows on her knees as she leaned forward. Her voice was careful, feeling as if this topic could possibly set him off.

Richie was taken aback. He expected her to ask a much different question regarding the bank teller, considering her earlier reaction.

"It was almost this, overwhelming feeling. This certainty that she was going to hurt me if I didn't do something." He tried explaining to her.

Cataleya listened intently as he spoke.

"And sometimes I see things. Like, visions, I guess. " He talked with his eyebrows furrowed, trying his best to not sound as strange as he thought he did.

"That's what you did to me at the store."

Richie met her gaze. "Not exactly," he said, the corner of his mouth pulling upwards.

Richie recalled the first moment he'd seen Cataleya. She'd been running her fingers through her dark hair, mindlessly looking at the drinks through the glass doors. He admired her at first, noticing the fading bruise on the edge of her jaw, trailed his eyes down her legs. Time had slowed, then, for him. An enveloping feeling of what originally felt like attraction made him speak up. But when her eyes met his for the first time, they all but set him on fire. Richie finally knew what heaven looked like.

"What do you mean?"

He hadn't even noticed her get up and move to the chair across from him as he relived the moment.

"I didn't see into you. It was more along the lines of overhearing you," He spoke, picking at the last few fries left over.

"Like a radio station picking up a different frequency."

His head snapped up, his eyes finding hers.

The same feeling from the store ignited within him anytime he looked into her eyes, and he'd tried so many times to feel it again since then.

"Yeah, exactly." Richie had felt there was some connection between them, he just wasn't sure how deep it ran. He chose his next words carefully, not wanting to scare her from the conversation.

"Do you hear her too?"

Cataleya stared back at him, the look on her face and her silence being enough of an answer.

"Cata," he tested, "how long?"

She opened her mouth but no words came out. She closed it and brought her bottom lip between her teeth.

Was she really going to tell him? She hadn't let anyone in in months, years even. But with one longing look, Richie could somehow chip away at the wall she'd constructed around herself.

"I first heard her a few years ago, when..." When her boyfriend brought her to him. She clammed up. "Yeah, a few years ago," she nodded.

She still couldn't bring herself to share much of her past with anyone. It was difficult for her to relive her days in Las Visiones and the pain it had caused her. Cataleya would never let anyone see how broken she actually was from it. She couldn't let herself. Vulnerability was a weakness, and she hated feeling weak.

"But it stopped for a while, until I saw you."

He just stared at her, then, not saying anything. She searched his eyes for something, anything, that would let her know what he was thinking. There was a sort of admiration in them. She didn't feel small or under inspection this time. Oddly enough, she felt revered.

What he had said earlier made sense now, eyes find eyes. His always seemed to find hers and trap them in his intense gaze. The energy she felt from it was borderline overwhelming. He didn't need to speak, really. All he needed to do was look at her, and she could feel almost everything he felt. No matter how hard he tried to hide his emotions, his eyes betrayed him to her.

Cataleya squinted in pain, feeling the dull ache of a headache coming on. She groaned, bringing her hands up to rub at her temples.

Richie tilted his head. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just a headache. Probably from when you..." She looked at him, watching his eyes sadden as she referred to his pistol-whipping her back at the liquor store.

"Right... Sorry about that."

Cataleya let out a breathy laugh. "No hard feelings. It was actually kind of my fault? I should've watched my back."

Richie smiled, looking at her with fascination. "I might've given you a concussion and you're blaming yourself for not watching your back." He shook his head, "You're so strange."

"Look who's talking, psycho," she retorted, a small smile present on her lips.

"Hey, you shouldn't call people stuff. It's rude." Richie brandished a fry in her direction before putting it in his mouth.

"Richard, you've literally killed people."

"...Touché," He slowly nodded.

Cataleya laughed, wincing as she felt the pain in her head intensify.

"I went and got some ice while you two were gone, come on."

Richie had gotten up and offered his hand to her, but she flinched as he did so. Hurt quickly washed over his features.

She realized what she did and frowned. "I- Sorry, I didn't mean to, it's just-" She stuttered.

"No, it's fine, I get it." He could understand her not trusting him, because even he didn't completely trust himself.

She nodded, standing up on her own and following him to the bedroom door. Cataleya's stomach knotted at the thought of seeing what was in there again.

Cataleya followed Richie into the room. He slowed slightly to walk beside her, almost blocking her view of the bed. He did this wordlessly and without acknowledging it, but she knew what he was doing and mentally thanked him.

He ushered her into the bathroom, his hand hovering slightly behind the small of her back, before shutting the door behind them.

"Sit." Richie pointed to the closed toilet, and Cataleya sat as she watched him pull a small bag full of ice from a plastic bin and tie a knot around the top. He did it quite easily despite one of his hands being wrapped tightly in gauze.

"How's your hand?"

"It hurts, but I'll live," he spoke, handing Cataleya the small bag of ice to place on the back of her head.

"I'm assuming you got that at the liquor store," she inquired, wincing as she placed the ice on the particularly sore spot.

"Yeah," he stared down at the gauze while he picked at it, "damn ranger shot me." He leaned back against the sink.

Cataleya mindlessly nodded in reply. She let the quiet swallow her, neither of them having anything else to say. She liked how the silence wasn't uncomfortable, and how neither felt obligated to break it.

Cataleya turned her head to watch Richie. She told herself it was to keep an eye on him, but really she wanted to study him. His array of freckles shown bold under the fluorescent bathroom lighting, reminding her of constellations. She wanted to trail her finger across them, making out lines that mirrored those of the night sky.

He pulled his glasses off of his face, looking down to wipe them with the edge of his jacket. She took note of how different he looked without them. He felt her stare, and turned his head to meet her gaze with his own.

He smirked down at her while he placed the glasses back on his face, the flickering bulbs glowing from behind his head. She felt ridiculous thinking so, but when that small smile graced his face, he looked almost... angelic.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked.

"Nothing."

"You know I can read your mind, right."

"What?" Cataleya's eyes widened, suddenly cursing herself for her previous thoughts of him.

His smile grew slowly, the small smirk turning into a wide grin before he burst into laughter.

"I'm joking, it doesn't work like that. But you should've seen your face." He watched as annoyance overtook her before raising an eyebrow. "Kinda makes me wish I could read your mind."

She felt her face heat up slightly, internally cringing. She didn't blush. Ever.

Richie had felt her stare on him earlier. He just assumed she was still wary of him, until he noticed the crimson that swept across her tan cheeks.

He turned away, smiling to himself.

They fell into another silence. Cataleya pulled the bag of ice from the back of her head, placing it on the counter. She pulled the elastic tie from her hair and let it fall about her shoulders. She sighed in satisfaction, the hair no longer pulling at the sore spot on her scalp.

Cataleya's hair reminded Richie of melted chocolate, with the way it perfectly dripped down her back in waves.

"You really do have beautiful hair," he sighed.

She smiled shyly, "So you've said." She brushed a strand behind her ear, contemplating on if she wanted to ask him something that had been eating at her. Finally, she convinced herself.

"You said you... killed Monica because she was gonna hurt you. What about me? How do you know I won't hurt you?" She asked, nervously waiting for his reply.

"You won't." He stated plainly.

"But how do you know?"

He shrugged, his eyes softening as he looked at her. "You act tough, but honestly, Cata, you're just hurt. I can see it in your eyes. And people who are hurt like you rarely want to hurt others."

Cataleya took a sharp breath in.

He was right. He read her like an open book, and it terrified her.

° ° °

"Richie, man, have I got a plan for-" Seth stopped a few steps in after noticing the empty room. Cataleya and Richie were nowhere to be found.

He panicked at first, dropping the glass bottle that still resided in his hand from the bar and clambering through the open bedroom door.

Seth's head snapped towards the closed bathroom at the sound of running water. He marched over, throwing the door open with so much force it hit against the wall behind it with a loud crack.

Cataleya and Richie looked towards Seth from the sink they surrounded. Seth's eyes were wild before they calmed and registered nothing was wrong.

Cataleya sat atop the counter beside the sink, Richie's injured hand in hers to rewrap it with clean gauze. The water beneath them ran pink from Richie's still bleeding hand.

He eyed them. "I've got a plan. I need your help. Both of you."

Cataleya finished wrapping Richie's hand, carefully taping it down to try and stop the bleeding. He smiled in thanks.

The two walked out into the small living area to find Seth by the door, a hand already on the handle. As soon as he saw them, he opened it and motioned for them to follow.

"Alright, so I saw this family roll in a few minutes ago in an RV. That's how we're getting to Mexico."

Seth filled them in on his plan, telling his brother to check the ledger for the rooms.

"And, sweetheart, guess what role you'll be playing today?" He smiled down at her.

She shrugged. "Your estranged Mexican sister you just happened to run into?"

"What? No," he chuckled, "you're playing my girl."

Cataleya let out a small laugh, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, okay."

She and Seth walked through the automatic doors, making their way up to the concierge. He rang the small bell and waited until an older man walked out.

"Hey there, old timer. Say, listen, um, where's a good place to get something to eat around here?" Seth wrapped his arm around Cataleya's waist and pulled her closer. "Me and my girl are celebrating."

She gasped as he pulled her into him. She had assumed his earlier comment was only a joke. She should've realized by now that the Geckos don't joke when it comes to plans.

The old man squinted. "What do I look like, the damn Chamber of Commerce?"

Seth's lips parted slightly, surprised by the man's brash reply. "Look, we're just trying to find somewhere to eat."

Cataleya looked to the side of her and nodded at Richie, signaling for him to check the book for a room number.

She had only agreed to help them because she needed to get to Mexico more than anything. It was safer there for her, away from him and from the lackeys he presumedly sent after her. The family could easily find other means of transportation.

"I don't care where you eat as long as you don't eat in that room!" The old man shouted at Seth. "If I smell food coming out of that room, I'm gonna throw your ass out on that street, and don't you think I won't do it!"

Cataleya watched as Richie walked out behind them in catlike silence.

She turned back towards the bitter old man. "You know what, geriatrics, just forget it. It's okay."

She and Seth turned around, the old man still yelling after them.

"Hey, I don't need to forget it! I've already forgot it! And don't you forget what I just told your little boyfriend-"

"Alright, assisted living, you have a nice day!" Cataleya called back to him as they got outside, and Seth finally let go of his hold around her waist.

"Geriatrics..." he laughed to himself as he followed his brother.

The three climbed the stairs to the second floor.

"It's room 207," Richie informed as they scanned the door numbers.

They stopped in front of the correct door, Richie raising his fist to knock as Seth pulled himself and Cataleya to the side.

An older man answered the door, and Richie put on his most cordial smile before speaking.

"Hi. You know, we're actually in the room just below you. Do you think you could keep the noise level down a little bit?"

Confusion crept its way onto the older man's face. "What's that now?"

Seth showed himself in the doorway, and to Cataleya's surprise, punched the man right in the face.

Richie held up his gun and pointed it at a young boy who stood by the window.

Seth looked down at the old man he'd knocked onto the bed. "Man said shut your mouth."

Cataleya stood in the open doorway, lips parted in shock with Seth's hand clamped around her wrist. And only one thought seemed to make itself known, repeating itself in her mind as she looked between the man's bloodied nose and the nervous boy at the end of Richie's gun:

What. the. fuck.

°°°

author's note;

It's like 1:30 in the morning, technically Friday, so here's another update.

Cataleya's first big interaction with Richie! What'd y'all think? 👀 Their relationship comes more into play later on. I have lots planned :)

Also this is already at 750 reads??? You guys are AMAZING! I really hope this isn't moving too slow. If it is I can always do updates twice a week instead of once, especially with chapters that have a lot of the same stuff going on.

I've always been bad at these because I never know what to say 🤔 so I guess this will be all for now! Thanks for checking it out and don't forget to vote/comment! Love ya.

;tabitha