Luis decided to get straight to the point.
Luis:I was locked in a church basement so my mom’s religious cult could ship me off to an adult conversion camp
Cassie:WHAT???
Cassie:hold on, let me finish this real quick, then can I call you? what are you on?
Luis:I think only voice memos, I don’t know if Julien’s tablet can take calls.
While Cassie wrapped up whatever she was doing in the lab, Luis recorded a long voice message summarizing what had happened.
“Your mom’s in areligious terrorist group?”Her reply was pitchy with surprise. “Holy fuck, Luis.Holy fuck.Shit, I don’t even know what to say.” There was a pause, then, “I’m going to shift my schedule around and come get you, okay?”
“Don’t,”Luis was quick to start recording a reply. “I’m supposed to stay put in case the investigator has more questions. And anyway, the house is warded so no one can get me here, and I don’t want you to become a target if they’re still around.”
Cassie’s reply came with a sigh. “Okay, okay yeah, I don’t need to get kidnapped by psychos that are trying to get to you. Okay. So, maybe after we get some information on arrests.”
“Thank you,” Luis replied. “I miss you and I want to see you, but maybe–maybe not right now. I just need everything to… chill.”
“Yeah, I get that. Fuck,” Cassie blew out an audible breath. “This is batshit stuff. I knew your mom had issues, but I never would have imagined… I mean I’m looking up All Pure right now, a lot of rumors about the stuff that goes on there.Oh, two attempted lawsuits that fell through.”
Luis opened a browser to type it in and then stopped. Couldn’t. It was too raw.
Another voice message came through.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” Cassie said, “And I’m glad you had somewhere to go. Can you send me their address? Maybe their phone numbers, just so I know where you are?”
Luis typed her their address with a promise to get their phone numbers. “I’m ordering a new phone right now,” Luis said in a voice memo, “I’ll text you when I get it all set up.”
Then, he flipped over to the browser and did just that. With Julien’s card he paid for next day shipping and tucked the final total into the back of his head for later.
He would be paying them back.
After that, in between voice memos with Cassie, Luis went about handling the other things that needed tending to. He signed into his work email and drafted a message to his manager to explain in the vaguest way possible that, due to criminal circumstances, he didn’t have access to his computer or apartment, and needed time off. He needed to use all his saved vacation time, and could provide a police case number if there were any issues.
He got a reply as he was setting his out of office from his manager, wishing him well and approving his time off.
Second thing done.
It was nice to have tasks. It kept him focused, kept him from ruminating on how he’d ended up here.
His stomach rumbled as he signed out of his work email. Food, he needed to eat. Yesterday he’d only eaten the cookie and some of the cheese Karim had pushed on him.
Downstairs, in the refrigerator, Luis found a covered casserole dish with his literal name on it in Karim’s messier handwriting.
As if that didn’t make his heart feel like it was being compressed in his chest. Luis blinked away the burn in his eyes and took it out to serve himself a heaping portion.
##
That evening was a sedate affair. Luis plowed through the chicken biryani that Karim made him, and started yawning even before it was midnight. He’d only been awake half the day, but he was exhausted. He’d spent hours cancelling and reorderingcredit cards, talking to Cassie about anything that wasn’t his current situation, and trying not to spiral every time the cuts on his hands ached.
At Julien and Karim’s gentle prodding, Luis changed into another borrowed set of Karim’s clothing, cleaned and changed the bandages on his hand, and went to bed early. The sheets had been changed at some point, fresh and clean again, and Luis tried not to feel bad. Tried not to feel undeserving of all this care.
The next afternoon, before Julien and Karim woke up, an officer came by the house. The knock at the door startled Luis where he’d been watching a movie on Julien’s tablet. It took entirely too long to inch close enough to the door to look out the peephole, terrified it would be someone from the church.
But the woman on the other side flashed a badge, identifying herself as an officer, working in cooperation with the VPD. Luis cracked the door nervously, and she offered him a sealed bag that contained his wallet and keys. Both had been recovered from the church and cleared from evidence.
He thanked her, signed for them, and all but slammed the door to relock it.
