Catharsis (Book 2): Catalyst by D. Andrew Campbell Read Free Book Online

I was going to drive a car (I needed the freedom to move quickly and easily in case of danger, and being encased in a car seemed the antithesis of that.), and a motorcycle was just too loud and smelly to be a viable option.  I couldn't keep something at the warehouse that would reek of gasoline and sound like thunder when it started.  I'd lose my sanity before the end of a month.
                And that's when Ren showed me a website for the newer electric motorcycles.  “It’s silent and doesn’t use gasoline so no nauseating smell of fuel to haunt the place,” he told me.  Plus he could get me a helmet that would protect my senses from being overwhelmed while I was on the streets.  It's not like I had much else to spend the ill-gotten cash on, so I told him to go for it.
                After a few weeks of practice riding at the warehouse, I was set up with a whole new way of traveling.  Plus, it's fun.  Really fun.
                Of course I can't use it every time I'm out, as it still doesn't really work for transporting large sacks of ill-gotten cash back to the warehouse (Ren has slowly been convincing me to invest in an electric car as our next purchase.  As much as I don't like the idea of being trapped in a large, metal box, I do find the idea of not caring bags of cash across a city at night highly appealing.).  But for quick trips around town to scout out a new house or find a place to feed without burning up my energy reserves, it's been a life-saver.
                Noticing that I still have over ten minutes before I'll be near the right neighborhood, I activate the phone that Ren wired into my helmet.  "Hello phone," I say as the phone responds to my voice.  "Call her."  (Being severely limited in who I interact with anymore has allowed me to only have two people pre-programmed into my phone.  One's a guy, and the other is a girl.  For simplicity's sake, I programmed the phone to just respond to "him" or "her" depending on which I'm calling.)
                I only have to wait for the phone to ring twice before it's answered.  "Hey, Cat!" shrieks a high-pitched girl's voice through the helmet's speaker (Thank goodness Ren was able to build in some sound-dampening when he wired the helmet for me or I would end up crashing my bike every time I made this call.).  "It's been a few days," she continues and her voice drops more into the pouty range after starting off excited.  "I was beginning to think you were going to ignore me."
                Giving into one of the few genuine smiles that are so rare for me anymore, I embrace the sound of the voice that I had feared for so long I would never hear again.  Every word she speaks brings back a little piece of my previous, happier life.  A life I can no longer seem to hold on to unless we're speaking.
                "Hey Leyna," I say through my grin.  "I'm sorry, kiddo.  It's been a busy few days around here.  How's life?"
                She giggles before answering and the previous taint of poutiness quickly dissipates from her voice.  "I'm great Cat.  But more importantly, how's city life treating my big sister?"
     
     

CHAPTER TEN
                The wicked whip of life’s ironies has never failed to make an impression on me.  A year ago before I left home, my sister and I were both teenagers and we had started bickering on a regular basis.  We have completely different personalities, and we weren't hanging out together very much anymore.  Most of our interactions involved me being angry at her for one thing or another.  We lived in the same house, and yet we attempted to speak to each other as little as possible (She's taller, prettier and more outgoing than I'll ever be.  She has the natural personality of a social butterfly, and that combined well with her upbeat attitude to make her a person everyone always wanted to be around.  She's peppy,