Cassie: Part I
Cassandra found and lost her brother in the summer of 2000. In one of her mother’s drug induced frenzies of chatter, she revealed to Cassie that she had a half brother. That night Cassie’s mother and her new boyfriend overdosed on heroine. Cassie didn’t waste a second trying to find her brother. When she finally did, he refused to acknowledge her. His indifference to their maternal bloodline was more than evident. Frustrated by her brother’s denial, she set off on her own. Fueled by her resentment from his rejection and her desire to do to men what he had done to her, she confiscated what she required for her own operation during one of his “outings”. She stole five hundred dollars from the jar under his bed and a few of the syringes from a box in his dresser. She handled them with extra care. The clear liquid inside was a mystery to her but all she knew was whatever was in them was lethal. Cassie didn’t know if her brother even noticed what she had done, nor did she care. She was twelve, and if she didn’t exist, then neither would he, or any other man she deemed unworthy.
Her travels gave her seven years of age and experience in her new craft. In 2007 she settled in the
French Quarter in New Orleans. She found a job bussing tables and washing dishes in one of the many restaurants
that dotted the French Quarter and a cheap studio a short ferry ride away on the other side of the Mississippi. It
was here that she had begun her operation and for the past year, had no complaints. There was a steady flow of
strangers because of Mardi Gras and all the other year round parties going on in the French Quarter. Moving
throughout the area unnoticed was like breathing to her. She gave new definition and imagery to the term “black
widow”.
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