IV. May and June

He walked slowly from the building, each step heavier than the next. He glanced over his shoulder here and there to see if anyone was coming for him. There was no one there. The first night was long. He had to get used to this life again. There wouldn't be any food prepared for him every morning or a work schedule to adhere to. He couldn't run to Kathy or Alex about his nightmares. The only comfort he had was a radio. Sky listened to Kathy's voice announce the weather in the morning. He wasn't sure he'd ever return to that place again. Sky's mind shifted from those comfortable days quickly. He focused on finding people based on the information Alan gave him, and he didn't need anyone to tell about his dreams. He stopped remembering them. With Alan's information, finding the locations of some of the scientists who went missing was relatively easy for him. He knew enough about the cult and how his father operated to find some of the others. Sky had a list of missing scientists Moone & Wolfe couldn't account for. Within a month of being on the outside, he had killed three of them and taken any documents they had in their hideouts. The killings didn't give him any satisfaction. With each death, he lost connection with his body and when he was himself again, he had a stack of papers worth of reasons to be angrier than before. Sky crossed their names off, recorded their data, and kept wandering. One day, he came across one of their old hospitals. The letters on the sign had all fallen off, but the name stayed behind where the letters once were. The place was clearly abandoned. He wondered how much, if anything, he would be able to get out of this place. Sky checked one of the doors. It fell off when he pulled on it. Sky peeked inside. Dust and trash littered the floor. "I wouldn't bother going in there. There's no food there." Someone said. Sky turned around. A man appearing to be in his mid to late twenties was standing behind him. He had black hair and brown eyes, and kept his face uncovered. This was odd. The few people Sky passed, much like himself, covered as much of their bodies as possible. The man was dressed the way people did inside the Sanctuary. Sky couldn't place why, but something about the man's face looked familiar to him. "Who are you?" Sky asked. He put his hand over the pocket he kept his gun in. "You can call me Rei." The man said. He pointed to the building. "I went to this hospital once, a really long time ago. Thought I'd come see it again one more time." "Not a place I'd want to reminisce about." Sky said. He kept his guard up. "It's complicated for me. I spent most of my life in here." Rei walked over to the building and put his hand on the wall. He looked up. "I wanted to see it one more time, now that everything here is destroyed. What are you doing here?" 'A former patient? Would he know anything? No, they wouldn't let a regular patient know about anything important.' Sky thought to himself. "I'm looking for something." Rei turned to him. "What sort of thing? I know this place in and out. Maybe I can give you an idea of where to look." "I doubt a patient would know about where they kept records." Sky said. "Sure, an ordinary patient wouldn't." Rei laughed and grinned widely. "But I was a really nosy kid. I doubt they moved anything like that. You need to check that building. This one was for patient care. All the research and records were kept in the other building." "How do I know you're telling the truth?" Sky asked. "You don't, but I don't see why you think I'd lie about it." Rei walked past him toward the other building. "Unless you think I want those bottles of water in your bag and your food." Sky pulled his gun out of his pocket and pointed it at Rei. "Relax. I have plenty of food at home. I told you, I'm only here to see this place one last time." Rei laughed. "Where do you live?" Sky asked. "Pretty far from here. The rest of my family is there." Rei kept walking toward the other building. "Are you staying at the Sanctuary or one of the other shelters?" Sky lowered his weapon, but didn't put it away. He followed Rei. "What's that?" Rei asked. "It's a place where a lot of people out here live together and share supplies." Sky said. 'He doesn't know about that? Then where is he staying that has a steady supply of food?' "Huh. So places like that exist." "Where are you staying then?" Sky asked. "Somewhere very, very far away. That's why I came alone. I don't want my family coming here. They didn't want me coming here either, for that matter." Rei said. He pulled at the door of the building. It swung open. "Why'd you come? Was seeing this place really all that important to you?" Sky asked. "Yeah...yeah, it is." Rei walked inside the building. He stopped and looked back at Sky. "Are you coming in?" "Why are you going in there?" Sky asked. He raised his gun slightly. "I wanted to see a specific room in here. There was someone I used to meet up with in this building. I wanted to see that room again." Rei said. "Meet up?" "Haha, well, I couldn't exactly get any privacy in that building. It was one of my date spots." Rei explained. "That's what you came to see?" Sky rolled his eyes. Rei shrugged his shoulders. "It might not sound like it means much, but when you're older, you'll understand it. Spaces hold special meanings to people. The older you get and longer you stay, the more certain places have this hold over you." "Whatever." Sky went into the hall with him. He put his gun away. "Which room are the records in?" "Should be kept in several rooms. The one I'm going to probably still has some, but not most of it. I bet those idiots still left the key in there. Are you good at picking locks? Everything's going to be locked up." Rei said. "Not really. I'm guessing you are, since it sounds like you went through their shit all the time." Sky said. "Yeah. There's few locks that can keep me out." Rei said, smirking. He led Sky deeper into the building. Rei opened one of the doors. "This is the room I came for." Sky let Rei enter the room first. He followed him inside, never letting Rei out of his sight. Inside the room, papers and overturned office furniture were scattered about. The middle of the room contained a strange contraption that went from the floor to the ceiling. The top and bottom were made of metal, and the middle section was cylindrical and made of glass. Pieces of glass from the middle were laying on the floor, broken from different parts. A few very large chunks of glass were left in place for Sky to get a good idea of what the whole contraption must have looked like when it was all together. "What is this thing?" Sky asked. "Oh, that. They called it the tank. They did some nasty experiments in these." Rei said. Sky's heart stopped. If this was what Sarah and other children were subjected to, the tanks were much smaller than he imagined. He tried to visualize a person inside one. The thought made him feel claustrophobic. His stomach turned. 'Sarah was put in this? Idris stayed in one of these for years?!' Rei opened up a drawer in a desk. He laughed and held up a key. "Well, well, well. Same as always. Let's see how many of these cabinets I can open with this." "They...really just left the key out like that?" Sky was dumbfounded. "Yep. Always did." Rei walked over to one of the locked cabinets. He unlocked it and opened the top drawer. Rei tossed the folders full of papers onto the old desk. "Here you go, kid. Don't know what exactly you're looking for, but that's gotta be shady shit. Anything they ever did in this room was never told to the public." Sky opened the folder. He scanned the the first few pages. It was about the details of a test subject Sky didn't recall being in his files. He wanted to sit and sort through everything, but he didn't trust Rei. "You sure sound like you know a lot about this stuff. Why were you here again?" "My parents put me in here when I was a little kid for 'behavioral problems', or something. They never came back for me. I was in here till about when I turned eighteen. Damn, that was a long time ago." Rei said. He went to one of the other cabinets and unlocked it. "This one's opened too." "I still don't understand why you'd want to come back here. Don't you hate this place?" Sky asked. "Yeah, but you know, I did have some good memories here too. Mostly, I came here for closure." Rei said. He unlocked another cabinet for Sky. "Anyway, if it's like how it was, most rooms have the keys in the top drawer like this one. I'm gonna have a look around a few rooms in the main hospital before headin' out. I promised my daughter I wouldn't be out here too long." Sky pulled his gun on Rei again. "I think I'll go with you until you leave." "Whoah, kid. What's with you? I'm not gonna steal your shit. Calm down." Rei held up his hands. "Who are you really? This is too easy. You work for them, don't you?" Sky accused him. Rei laughed loudly. "The Moon? Fuck them. They made most of my life hell." "Aurora?" Sky asked. "Fuck them too." Rei said. "The Moon kept me in here and hunted me down, but those bastards are the ones who cut me open." "Wait...I thought you were an ordinary patient. Why would Aurora want you?" Sky asked. "I never said I was ordinary. There was something special about me they both couldn't wait to run experiments on. But you don't need to know about that." Rei said with a grin. He vanished before Sky's eyes. Sky looked around, gun aimed in whatever direction he faced. He didn't see anyone or hear anything. Sky felt around. His hands touched nothing. Panicked, Sky grabbed folders from different cabinets and stuffed them into his bag before darting out of the building. Sky decided against going into the other building for fear that Rei might have been sent to trap him. He ran across what used to be a highway and into the woods on the other side. Exhausted, Sky rested under a tree. He wasn't sure where he was. Sky checked the map Alex packed for him to get an idea. As he traveled, Sky marked his location on it. There wasn't much beyond this point for a long time until getting a ways into Alabama. There were Moone & Wolfe hospitals in the state, but not as many as in some of the other neighboring states. Traveling on that way, Sky thought, might not be worth the effort. He flipped through the papers he managed to run off with. Most of it was the sort of thing he already read about the company doing. Sky kept an eye out for any movement nearby as he read. He didn't know how Rei vanished like that, but he doubted Rei was all that far away. Sky took pictures of the papers and transferred them to the laptop. He made brief notes about his findings and the names of the doctors involved in the research done there. "You're quite the little researcher. Which one do you work for?" Sky turned around quickly. He reached for his gun. Rei peered out at him from behind the tree Sky was leaning against. "Calm down, kid. I was just asking a question." "Where did you come from?!" Sky pointed his gun at him. "The other building. I told you I was going there." He came out from behind the tree. "How did you disappear like that?" Sky asked in a demanding voice. Rei shrugged. "Who knows. Anyway, who are you? You with Aurora? I'd think the Moon would have all these papers already." "I don't work for anyone." Sky said. "Who do you work for?" "Nobody. I'm not here to get you, whoever the hell you are. I only came here to see the hospital." Rei said. "Then why are you here now?" Sky asked. "I was passing through and saw you again. Thought I'd tell you that there's really not much worth looking through in the main building, if it's records you want. There's a lot of blankets and stuff." Rei leaned against the tree. "Looks like the drugs were raided a long time ago. Not that they'd be any good at this point, but you know. Kinda funny people took that, but left a lot of the sheets and forks behind." "I don't need anything like that." Sky said. Reflexively, he nearly thanked Rei. He stopped himself. Sky didn't know this man. There was no way to know if anything he was saying was the truth. "So, who are you anyway? You're so young. Did you get separated from your family?" Rei asked him. Sky packed up his things. "My parents know what I'm doing. I don't need to tell you about it." "They're nearby then, huh? That's good. No offense, kid, but I was feeling bad about walking off and leaving you here alone." Rei moved away from the tree. "Well, I'll be going now. You should hurry and get back to your family. Even if they're close by, you never know what's out there." "I'll be fine." Sky said. "Alright. Good luck with whatever you're doing. It's about time for me to head home already." Rei waved and walked around the tree. Sky waited to see where he went from there. And kept waiting. Cautiously, Sky walked around the tree. There was no one hiding behind it. He didn't hear Rei's footsteps. He simply vanished again. Sky ran far from the tree and the two buildings. He kept running until sunset. Sky found a place to hide out at overnight. He set up his things to keep recording. Whoever Rei was, Sky thought, he must have had something special about him. The ability to vanish like that must have been something caused by an experiment one of the two companies did. Given that Rei mentioned Aurora cutting him up, Sky wagered it was more likely Aurora's work. He searched through his files to find anything on experiments Aurora conducted or anyone who went by Rei. Sky was left empty-handed. There was little about Aurora conducting experiments in his files, or Aurora in general. That was something Sky needed to correct. As for Rei, he found no records of anyone who went by that name. "Did he lie to me?" Sky asked to himself aloud. He rolled his eyes. "Of course he did. Why would he tell me his real name?" Sky hunkered down for the night. He cleared a space for himself to sleep, using his backpack as a pillow and his coat as a blanket. Before falling asleep, he remembered one last thing he needed to do. Sky opened his bag open and got out another bag from inside it. The bag was filled with pill bottles. He didn't realize Alex did this until after he left. Alex had filled his bag with his prescription medication, enough for a year. Seeing the filled bottles hurt. Sky opened one and took out two of the pills. "My parents know what I'm doing, huh?" He rested back on the bag. Alex's face stayed in his mind. Sky turned on the radio to listen to Kathy play. He dreamt of something, but didn't remember it in the morning. Sky didn't see Rei again after that day. He moved on to the next location he suspected to find someone at. His information led him to a small, white cabin in the woods. The outside of the property was closed in with what used to be a white fence. Most of the fence had broken, and the paint was very faded. Dirt and kudzu covered the bottom half of what remained of the fence. A car sat in the driveway, the doors ripped off and the glass all shattered. The front door of the house was completely gone. Sky wasn't hopeful about finding anyone inside, but he thought of his father's well stocked basement. The main portion of the house may not be where the person was hiding out. Sky quickly realized he arrived too late. It had long been abandoned and ransacked. In one of the bedrooms, Sky discovered a skeleton. It appeared to have been a female adult. The skull was severely damaged. Above the skeleton, he saw dark brown stains on the walls. The carpet was heavily stained in general, but he could see a large, darker stain underneath the body. Sky suspected whoever the person was, they were likely shot in the head. The person he was looking for was a woman in her thirties. Sky searched around the room for any hints of who might have been staying there. He found a wallet discarded on the ground, half underneath the bed. Other items were near the wallet. A purse was turned over, the flap of it hanging open. Several pens and pencils were scattered about, intermixed with candies and menstrual products. A small notepad was mostly covered by the purse. Sky opened the wallet. Cards for grocery stores were there and a driver's license, but no money or credit card. He checked the license. She was the woman he was looking for. Sky looked around the room again. He noticed an open, empty jewelry box. The woman who died in this room, he thought, was not killed out of revenge. This had been an act of random violence to take her valuables. No one bothered with money anymore. He presumed she was likely killed in the early weeks of everything happening, when people may have still clung to the hope that things would eventually go back to how they were before. He sighed. "You helped make all this happen. Why didn't you protect yourself better?" Sky walked back over to the skeleton. Her clothes were faded, but he could see now that her shirt used to be white and her skirt was once black. Her black flats, and the bones of her feet, rested sideways beneath the rest of the body. Sky couldn't help but notice how torn her skirt was. The blouse was open across her chest, all but two of the buttons missing. The more he examined the remains, the sicker he felt. More than a robbery had occurred the day this woman died. From where her body rested, she had to have been standing in the middle of the room when she was shot. Sky wondered if she had been sexually assaulted before or after she was shot. Both options disgusted him, but the latter horrified him more. Whoever did this could very well still be alive, and hurting other people now. He'd never know who it was. Sky recalled her details again. She was a doctor, and worked for Moone & Wolfe Corp for around three years before disappearing from their records. The woman never held any high ranking position. She may have hated the company and went into hiding the first chance she got once she realized what it was really like. The others he had already killed who left the company didn't do so because they hated the company or the cult's ideals. Each personally failed in some way the company forbid and were set to be killed for it. Rather than accept the punishment they would have happily given out to someone else, they fled. Sky had no way of knowing which category this woman belonged in. He sighed. Sky took the blanket off the bed and put it on the floor. Piece by piece, he moved all the bones onto the blanket and carried them outside. Sky put the blanket down in the backyard. He searched through a shed in the yard and carried out several bags of potting soil. There was no time to dig a hole for her, but he could at least cover the bones. Sky poured the bags out over her body. He placed several stones over the mound of earth and a few flowers. Alex told him most people didn't get a chance to have burials anymore. Sky didn't expect he'd give one for someone who should've been his enemy, but he knew Alex would have done it if he found her like that. Guilt hit him as he left the house. Sky had killed three of the doctors who fled. He left their bodies where he killed them. Should he have buried them too? Sky told himself he was right not to, not because they were his enemies, but because their bodies were covered in fresh blood. He couldn't test if they were contaminated or not. Touching blood unnecessarily was too great a risk. He didn't find any useful papers inside the house. It looked like the woman hadn't taken any documents with her once she left the company. Sky moved on to the next person on his list. On his way to the next stop, he ran into a supply truck for one of the locations the Sanctuary traded goods with. They offered him food and water. Sky gave them the information he had collected about the four doctors and what he gathered at the hospital. He did this every time he encountered a supply truck or van. Whatever he found out, he wanted as many people as possible to know about it. It wasn't long before he got a nickname, "Mr. Informer". Sky hated it, but he was glad no one was using his real name when talking about him. He didn't want anyone from the company catching on about where he was or what he was doing. Many nights, as he listened to Kathy on the radio, Sky thought about returning back to the Sanctuary. He kept wandering. One day, as he wandered along a river, Sky saw an old tree house in a field. Sky was curious how stable it was. If it was in decent enough condition, he could use it as a safe place to stay overnight. Sky climbed up the old wooden ladder on the trunk to the top. He pushed open a trap door and peeked inside the wooden house. A cot made of blankets was in one corner of the room. A bowl and spoon sat beside the cot. Some stuffed bags were up against the wall. Fabrics covered the wall as decoration. The tree house was very clearly full and lived in. The house was not empty of people either. A blond girl with short hair sat on the floor at the far end of the one room tree house, dressed in a dirtied white dress and sandals. She threw a rock at his head. Sky ducked. "Hey!" "Don't you come any closer. I mean it!" The girl warned him. She picked up another large rock and aimed at him. "Fine. I'm going." Sky started to close the door back. The girl got up. "Wait...you're really leaving?" "Yeah, you told me to." Sky said, the door almost completely closed. The girl opened the door more. "Are you with anybody else?" "No." Sky said. "Okay, you can come in." The girl said. "I thought you were with other people." Sky came in through the trap door. He sat on the floor and put his heavy bag down. "This your place?" "Yep. It's just me here." The girl said. "My family's dead." "Oh. I see." Sky saw the girl was covered in bruises and cuts. He wondered why she didn't cover up more. There was an old store within walking distance that still had plenty of clothes inside it. "I'm June Nightlinger." The girl introduced herself. She handed Sky a candy bar. "Who are you?" "Sky Summerfield." Sky said without thinking. He froze, unsure how she would react to his last name. "Summerfield? Did you just make that name up?" June asked, giving him a weird look. "Yours sounds just as fake." Sky said. 'She doesn't know the name Summerfield? She must've lived a really isolated life. Well, that's better for me that she doesn't know it.' June opened a candy bar for herself. "Isn't Sky a girl's name? Are you a girl?" Sky sighed. "It's a unisex name. I'm a guy." "A guy, huh?" June got closer to him. She tugged at the scarf he had covering half his face. "Let me see what you look like." Sky brushed her hand off. "No. You don't need to see my face." "Why not? Are you ugly or something? It's not a big deal. I just wanna see who I'm talking to." June said. She tapped on the side of his goggles. "Come on. You can put them right back on. What's the big deal? I don't have anything. Look at my eyes." Sky looked into her eyes. They were golden-green, without any hint of red. He sighed again. Sky took off his goggles and pulled his scarf down. "Happy?" June looked him over. "Wow. You're actually really cute." Sky's face flushed. "Whatever. Are you satisfied now?" "I mean, now that I've seen your face, I don't really want you to hide it again." June laughed. She sat down beside him. "Not much worth looking at around here." "Not a lot of people come through here?" Sky asked. "No, there's plenty that do. They're usually ugly or creepy." June chomped on her candy bar. "My boyfriend wasn't that great looking, but he at least wasn't a creep. And he was funny." "Boyfriend?" Sky looked around the house. It didn't look like anyone else was staying there. "Is he nearby?" "No, he's dead." June said. She stared off ahead. "He fell in the big hole when we were on a date. He was showing off around the edge of it and lost his balance." "Big hole? Do you mean that big sinkhole?" Sky asked. "That's pretty far from here." "Yeah, I used to live more on that side. After he died, I packed up my stuff and came back over to this side of the border. My family used to all live over here a really long time ago, but they're all dead now too." June said. "Sorry about your family and your boyfriend. So, you live by yourself then?" Sky asked. "Yeah. It's been like that most of my life. People die easily." June said. "My boyfriend and I only dated for two months before he died. We'd only known each other for a week before we started dating. Nothing lasts. What are you doing out here anyway? How come you're not inside? Did your family get stuck out here?" "I'm out here doing work. I can't really talk about it to most people. My parents are back home working on a vaccine." Sky said. "Oh, for which virus?" June asked. "The Red Madness. Last I talked to them, they were getting really close." Sky said. "Wow, that'd be great if they finish it. Then they could make one side safe to live in again." June said. "Well, sort of. There's still those people who put everyone in those buildings and won't let them back out." "Yeah. I'm...collecting information on them. I can't say much about it." Sky kept his words vague. "Are you like some kind of spy or something?" June looked him over again. "How old are you? "Fourteen." "Really? I'm thirteen." June said. "Your parents let you do stuff like this at your age? Does that mean you work for those people who have the buildings with supplies?" "Yeah. My parents...uh, let me have a lot of independence." Sky said. "Hey, if you know about those places, why don't you go to one? They'll let you in." "I don't like being locked up with rules. Ugh, and no privacy. That's not the life for me. My house is just fine, and if I get bored with it, I can move somewhere else." June stretched her arms. "Hey Sky, do you have a girlfriend?" "Um, not at the moment." Sky was taken aback by her question. "I'm not really looking for anyone right now. I have a lot of work to do." "Uh huh. How long are you going to be in this area?" She asked. Sky thought about it. "Not sure. That depends on what I find here. I'm looking for a specific location." "Really? Maybe I could help you out while you're here. We could work together, and get to know each other better." June leaned against him. Sky felt flustered by her contact. He didn't understand what she was trying to communicate to him, but his body was reacting in ways he didn't want it to. "I don't know if that's a good idea. Certain people are looking for me. It'd be better if you didn't get mixed up in that." "I'm not scared. I could die any day. Why run from it? Come on. You don't know this area, and I do. Let me help you out." June put her arm around his. "And you can help me out. I haven't had any company since my boyfriend died. There's no one here to talk to." Sky turned to say something. He locked eyes with her. His body felt hot. He quickly looked away. "I'll manage on my own. It's better you don't get close to me." June let out a deep breath. "Jeez, I get it. You don't want my help. You could at least stay here while you're doing your secret spy mission or whatever." Sky wanted to tell her no, but the tree house would be a good place to stay overnight. He thought it over more. "Well...I guess if I'm just staying here to sleep and eat, it might be okay..." "Yes!" June yelled. "It's been so boring being out here by myself. Most of the people that come through here are always weird adults." Sky felt no threat from June. He could overpower her if necessary, and she did seem to genuinely be alone. He didn't see any weapons in the tree house, but she could have one hidden somewhere, he thought. Sky opened his bag and took out his map. The location he needed to get to wasn't too far from there. It was in walking distance. He was a little perplexed by the location choice. There was a research lab in the area. The general public was never aware of it. It was one of their underground labs. The researcher he was looking for likely should have known of its existence though. 'Why would she choose to hide somewhere so close by? That should have made her easy to find.' Sky wondered. "What's that?" June asked. "A map my dad gave me." Sky said. He got up from the floor and walked over to the window in the tree house. Sky pulled back the makeshift curtain June had in front of it and looked out. He compared the land to the map to get a sense of where he should go. Sky picked up his bag. "I'll be back later." "How much later?" June asked. "I'll probably be back before sunset." Sky said. He opened up the trap door and went down it. "Okay. Bye!" June waved at him. Sky wasn't sure what to make of the girl. He got the feeling he could trust her to be truthful, but she was certainly reckless. She might be dangerous to stay around for too long. Following along the river, Sky quickly found the location he was searching for. A single story house at the back of a dead end road. Sky crossed the river and through the backyard of the property. The outside was not well kept, but Sky could tell someone used to have a vegetable garden in the yard. The windows were broken on the backside of the house. Sky couldn't get the back door open. He went around the front, which had been broken into before. Inside the house, everything had been gone through. Sky suspected, like the last house, he wouldn't find anyone alive in this one. On the walls, Sky saw pictures of the previous residents. He saw a young woman and a young man in many of them. The young woman was the person he was looking for. He didn't recognize the young man, nor the name written on some of the photos of him. Sky searched the house, room by room. Anything that would have been valuable in the past was gone. Knives were missing from the kitchen, and the fridge and pantry were cleaned out of anything that could've been eaten. The house didn't have a basement, but he did see it had access to the attic. He checked there last. Sky pulled the cord to bring the steps down. He entered quietly, though he knew if anyone was up there, they had to have heard or seen him pull the steps down. Sky kept his gun ready and his flashlight on. A small window let in enough light for Sky to see what was up there without needing his flashlight. There was no one alive there now. He found a pair of skeletons underneath the window. One skeleton appeared to belong to an adult female, dressed in a pair of overalls and a floral button down shirt. The other had no clothes. The bones were elongated. Sky recognized this right away as an obvious sign the other body belonged to a human who had been infected. The skeleton was the same as the first infected person he encountered when he crossed over the border nearly two years ago. He assumed the body was likely the woman he was looking for. He looked around at what else was nearby. There was a futon mattress on the floor, bottles of water, and other containers. There were some books and notebooks beside the pillows on the futon. One of the books was a bible, another one on herbs and natural remedies, and one was a copy of A Little Princess. Sky didn't know the book. He read the summary on the back of the book. Sky raised an eyebrow. 'A children's book from the beginning of the 20th century? Does this tie into their nonsense somehow?' He put the book in his bag to read through later. The notebooks were journals. He took them as well. Sky left the house and fished by the river for a while. He took the fish he got and returned to where the tree house was. Sky started a small fire and cooked the fish. June leaned out the window. "You're back." Sky looked up at her, then focused on his fish. He heard her come down the tree behind him. June sat down beside him. "Whatcha got?" "Fish." Sky said. "Is it ready yet?" She asked. Sky gave her a look. June grinned. "I'm letting you stay at my place. You can't even get me dinner?" Sky rolled his eyes. "There's enough for both of us." "So, what did you find?" "Not sure yet, other than a couple of bodies." Sky opened his bag. He showed the book he picked up earlier to June. "Do you know anything about this book? Looks like it's more of a girl book." June shrugged her shoulders. "I can't read." "Oh. Sorry." Sky put the book away. "About what?" Sky looked at her. She didn't seem offended. "Uh, nothing. The fish is done now. We should eat up there." Sky put out the fire. He and June ate the fish inside the tree house. June stayed near him. "You said you found some bodies? Who were they?" "One of them was a scientist. I'm not sure about the other one." Sky said. He finished off one of the fish he got. The flavor wasn't something he liked, but he was really hungry. He was sure his inner complaints about taste would vanish again once he was out here longer. "What'll you do now? Is that all you're here for?" "I might look into the lab that's nearby. I have to go through the diaries the woman left behind and record anything valuable too. Might be here a few more days." Sky said. June's shoulders dropped. "Only a few?" "I'm a very busy person." Sky said. She sighed. "Oh well. Maybe another boy will show up after that." "You could leave. I know of some locations you could go with a lot of people." Sky suggested. "I don't want to go to any of those places. This is my home now." June said. "Whatever. I'm not going to force you." Sky ate until he was done with his portion of the food. He made himself a spot in the room and got to work. Sky turned on his laptop and opened up one of the notebooks. June went over to the window. She closed the shutters and locked it. After that, she took a long, metal bar and slid it through two slots just outside the trap door to keep it closed. June lit a couple of large candles. Sky checked the time. The sun was setting. June took her sandals off and got in her makeshift bed. Sky read through the diary, keeping an ear out for any unusual noise. The diaries were all from the same year, 2016. Most of the entries were about mundane things, like gardening and church gossip. The man whose name he saw written on some of the photos, Cole Smith, was the woman's boyfriend who had moved in with her at the start of the year. One entry stood out as different from the rest of the early ones. 'April 16th, 2016 I keep having that same nightmare again. I didn't want to write about it. I want to forget it. In the dreams, I'm in this strange place. Everything's white. Cole's inside a room wearing hospital clothes. These doctors give him something and then put him on a table. They strap him down before carting him away. Then I'm in the room where they took him. He's opened up on the table. They take out his organs and put them in these metal trays. I can see his heart beating. It's so slow. That's all I can focus on. His heart and lungs moving so slowly. And then I'm alone with him in a white room. I put a band around his neck. There was a tablet, but I don't remember what it was for. I lead him outside somewhere in the woods, then I put the band on my own head. At the end of the dream, I'm back in that operating room with him. I keep saying my name over and over again. I am Carrie Lee. I am Carrie Lee. I am Carrie Lee. This is the fifth night in a row I've had this awful dream. This morning was the first time I told Cole about it. I know it was only a dream, but when I woke up, I looked for scars on Cole's chest. He has several, very deep ones too, but he says he got them in an accident when he was a teenager. The dream bothered me so much I didn't want to believe him at first, but I know Cole used to be really into motocross. I don't know why I'm thinking so much about this dream. I've never worked in any kind of hospital. I've definitely never seen anything like that happen to Cole. He says I'm stressed about work, but I don't think that's it. I don't know. I must be thinking of something from a movie. Sky understood exactly what happened. 'So, she wiped both their memories of everything. But why did she take him?' Carrie didn't bring up anything like that again. Nothing interesting happened until he got to the entries about June and July. Sky read through them, the details taking him back to the same time period in his mind. 'June 6th, 2016 Something's happened. The power won't come back on. The last we had power, there was an emergency warning on the TV and our phones about a biological weapon. We're staying indoors. I haven't been able to call anyone. Nothing works. We're staying in the attic for now. June 7th, 2016 We've been watching everything from the window up here. The police and national guard came through and forced a bunch of people into vans. Anyone who didn't get in was shot. They broke into houses and dragged some people out. They came to our house, but they didn't find us. I don't know where they took everyone. I prayed and prayed they wouldn't find us. They looked in the attic at some point, but Cole and I were hidden behind boxes. They didn't bother doing more than look from the stairs. Cole doesn't think we should go with them. We still have no power. June 10th, 2016 I saw a man attack a woman outside in the street. He jumped on her and bit her. Someone came into our house at some point. We heard them rummaging around beneath us. They didn't come up here. Cole keeps going on about how he wishes he'd bought a gun. Still no power. June 14th, 2016 Cole's been going downstairs and bringing food from the garden and kitchen up here. He's keeping the butcher knife on him, but I don't think that'll be enough. I've kept up my bible studies in spite of everything. Cole says it's a waste of time. I know he's just angry at the situation, and not me, but he's been getting angrier every day. Sometimes, he scares me. June 18th, 2016 Cole killed something today. I don't know what to call it. It's body was like something out of a horror movie. He killed it with a knife. Cole said when he cut it, blood kept gushing out of it. He killed it in the living room. I went down to see it. That was the first time I'd been down since we started living up there. Those vans came through again. They took people who were out in the streets, but they didn't bother looking in any of the houses this time. I told Cole we should go with them, but he didn't want to go. If I see them again, I'm going whether he wants to come or not. We're sleeping in separate beds now. Cole hardly speaks to me. No power. June 25th, 2016 I'm so hungry. I want to leave, but Cole says it's not safe to go out anymore because of those things. They're out every night, screaming for hours. They scratch at the walls and slam into things. I see them run around outside. They're the same as the thing Cole killed before. There's so many of them now. The car's out front. I bet if we ran for it, we could get in it and find somewhere safe. Cole's content staying in here and emptying out the garden. That food won't last forever. If we stay here for too long, we're going to starve to death. He refuses to leave. We spent hours arguing about it. I want to be anywhere but wherever he is. June 28th, 2016 Cole won't speak to me at all anymore. I hate him. I hate this place. I hate everything. July 1st, 2016 I haven't bathed in nearly a month. Cole still won't talk to me. He goes and gets food, then tosses it on the floor. I've been praying those vans come through again. As soon as I see them, I'm running for it. I'm not dying out here with this asshole. July 5th, 2016 Cole was attacked earlier today. He managed to kill one of those things that came after him, but it bit his arm really bad. We used what we could out of the first aid kit. He needs to see a doctor, but Cole won't leave this place. Not after that. My only hope is the police come through again and I'm able to get them to take him out of here. We had a long talk earlier. Cole's being a lot nicer now. We've decided to sleep in the same bed again for tonight. Cole's already asleep now. He lost so much blood. I hope it wasn't too much for him to recover from. Why did all this happen? Our lives were so perfect before. Cole had just gotten a new job. We finally moved in together. We were going to get married in August and start a family together. I'd planned everything out. My parents would be flying in here at the end of this month. I don't know if they're alive. I don't know if I'll ever see any of my family again. Tonight, I'll say a prayer for Cole, and our future. The Lord works in mysterious ways. He'll guide us through this, as he always has. We'll make it through this. My faith is strong. July 6th, 2016 Cole and I had such a wonderful time last night when he woke up again. It's like we've fallen in love all over again. We cuddled for a long time this morning. Cole is full of so much energy today. He brought back a lot of food, but I'm not sure where he got it from. I think he stole it from the neighbors. He won't admit to it. We'd normally argue over something like this, but he's being so sweet today. I don't want to ruin the mood. We discussed leaving here again. Cole said he would leave with me tomorrow or the day after that. He wants to rest more and give his injury more time to heal before making a long trip. I can't believe it. After all this time, he's finally agreed to leave. We've packed most of our things up for now that we plan on carrying with us. Cole even stockpiled some food for us to carry on our trip. I don't know where we'll go, but there must be somewhere safe. I've asked Cole to join me for prayer tonight. We never missed church on Sunday, but Cole didn't care about going as much as I did. If I didn't go, I don't know if he would. Sometimes, that terrifies me. Would his soul be lost without me? I'm so glad we're not fighting anymore. I don't know what changed. Maybe my prayers have finally been answered. That must be it. Jesus has heard me, and delivered. From here on out, everything will get better. July 7th, 2016 Cole wants to stay one more day. He says he's still feeling weak. I checked his arm. The wound is pretty bad looking, but it didn't look infected. Cole didn't go down and get more food today. He's been staying in bed for now, but it's only noon. I asked Cole if we could leave if he felt better later in the day, and he agreed. Right now, he's curled up beside me. He made me a paper rose this morning. I'm getting hungry now. I'll write more later.' There were no entries after the last one in July. Sky rubbed his eyes. He marked her name off now that he had confirmation the body in the attic was hers. There was nothing worth recording. Sky picked up the other item he took, the children's book. He read over the title again. 'A Little Princess. What's this nonsense about?' Sky read through the book quickly. It reminded him of why he rarely bothered reading fiction. He didn't care for the protagonist. She was too sweet and unrealistic, and he was certain something else about the narrative wasn't as sweet as the author was attempting to convince him it was. The book contained pictures of the characters in the story. He was left uneasy about how similar to Delilah Dot's appearance this edition's drawings of Sara Crewe were. If Carrie Lee couldn't remember her past, he wondered if she was drawn to the pictures in the book subconsciously. He didn't get what it was about Delilah Dot or the mythic Delilah Blackwell that enamored the lower ranked members of the cult so deeply. Whatever it was that caused their devotion, little broke it. Above everything, the one thing that the cult members rotated around was Delilah. Sky tossed the book aside. Whatever the connection, he would never know it. He tried to sleep. This would be the first time since leaving he would be sleeping in the general vicinity of another person. June seemed innocent enough. He kept his distance anyway, and slept with his gun close. In the morning, he awoke to June sifting through his bag. Sky grabbed his gun underneath his coat. "What are you doing?" "Do you have any more food in your bag?" She asked. Sky relaxed. "Oh. There's some energy bars in the left side pocket." June unzipped the pocket and grabbed one of the bars. She ripped into it and took a bite. "This one's red. What flavor is that?" "I think it's strawberry." Sky said. He got himself a bar to eat. "You know, you should ask before you go through people's stuff." "What, you got something to hide? I'm letting you stay in my house. Don't hold out on me with food." June said. 'All this girl thinks about is eating. Well, better that than taking my life.' Sky sat up. "I have some jam and bread in the main pocket. The bread should still be good." "You have bread? Why didn't you say so?!" June opened the bag and took out the bag of bread. She searched for the jam. Sky reached into the bag and got it out. He took out a small bag that contained utensils. "Let me see the bread. I'll put the jam on it for you." June handed him the bag. "Where'd you get bread? One of the supply people?" "Yeah. I had some juice, but I drank it that day. Do you like coffee? I can make some instant coffee." Sky said. "Ugh, I can't stand coffee. But I'll drink it, if you make it." June said. "I don't like it either, but it keeps me up and it'll keep longer than juice." Sky got out more things from his bag. "I'll have to set up the coffee outside. I need to start a fire. Unless you want it cold." "Ew, no." Sky laughed at her reaction. He cut the bread for them and spread the jam on it. Sky handed June her portion. "Here." June ate it without hesitation. "Mm...I haven't had bread in forever." Sky watched her. She ate so quickly. He wondered how often she missed meals. She was on the thin side. If she stayed alone as she was, he couldn't see her surviving to her eighteenth birthday. 'I should convince her to go with the next supply crew that passes by.' He paused at that thought and laughed at himself. 'Oh great. Now I sound like Alex.' Sky made them coffee outside. He took the radio out with him and listened to Kathy play. "Where did you get that?" June asked. "Back home. My...my dad made sure I brought it with me so I could hear announcements." Sky said. His cheeks had a hint of red in them. Kathy ended the song and gave the weather report. Then another voice came through. Sky's eyes widened. "I have a special announcement today. The vaccine for RM has entered the human trial phase. If you would like to participate in this trial, please inform one of the lab staff. Participants and their families will be greatly compensated for their help. For more information, please come to the lab. I want to thank you all for your cooperation and patience. We're getting very close now. If all goes well, we may have the vaccine ready for everyone within the next two years." Alex said. "Two years is so far away." June complained. "It might be less than that. It's not like they can help how long it takes." Sky said. "They have to make sure it really works, or it'll be pointless to give out." "Yeah, I guess so." June rested her head against her hand. "Did you know that guy? Didn't you say your parents were working on a vaccine?" "That was my dad." Sky said, face redder than before. "Wow. Is your dad in charge of that stuff?" "Yeah, for now. They're really short staffed in the lab. It's hard to find people with the background for doing that kind of work." Sky explained. "I used to work in the lab too, not that I really was all that much help." "How come you're out here?" June asked. "It's a lot to explain." Sky dodged answering her. "Speaking of which, I need to get to work. I'm going to look into that underground lab today." "Ooh...can I come?" June asked. Sky shook his head. "It's too dangerous." "How is it too dangerous for me, but not for you? You're only a year older than me." June narrowed her eyes. "I know what I'm getting into. You don't know what to expect. It's about knowledge, not age." Sky said. He got up. "If you're gonna stay here today, you better get whatever food you wanted out of my bag now. I won't be back till sunset and I need to take my things with me." "Kay." June looked dejected. June and Sky went their separate ways after June took some water and food from his bag. Sky left in the direction of the lab. He watched June head in the opposite direction, toward a very open part of the river. He didn't concern himself with what she was doing. His objective today was to find that lab. The entrance wasn't hard to find. The only part of the building that was above ground was a small shed. He went inside and found the stairwell leading down into it. Sky turned on his flashlight. This lab was no longer in use. He wondered why they abandoned it. From what he gathered, this lab was much larger than most of their other known labs. His feet made a loud, clanking noise with every step down the metal stairway. At the bottom, Sky met with more metal. He shined a light at the wall near the bottom of the steps. A map was there. It appeared that the floor he was on contained few rooms, and none in the center. Sky shined his light over to see what was ahead. He saw railing, then nothing. Sky stepped forward toward the railing and shined his light down. He counted at least three floors beneath the one he was on. The fourth floor down had an open, concrete floor. Sky returned to the map. There were other maps farther along the wall. Sky glanced over each of them, assuming they were in descending order. Once he got to the fifth map, he ran back to the railing. "There's more?! Where?" Sky wondered aloud. He shined his light back at the wall. He counted ten maps in total. Sky looked over the fourth map again. There were two sets of stairs marked. The fifth through tenth floors had far more rooms than the first four floors. There was no way he could search the entire building in a day. He doubted he could get it done in a month. Once he was done with the massive undertaking, he could end up empty-handed anyway. Sky sighed and opened the first door he encountered. Inside, he saw a desk and several cabinets. Sky remembered what Rei told him. He opened the top drawer. A key rested there. Sky rolled his eyes. He unlocked all of the cabinets. He pulled out file after file. Most of the documents were financial records. He tossed those aside. Sky heard loud clanking noises outside of the room. He quietly hurried over to the door and locked it. He hoped it was only June, and that she had followed him down there despite him telling her not to. Sky listened closely. The footsteps were too heavy to belong to a teenage girl. Whoever or whatever was on the other side of the door, Sky wagered, was bigger than he was. He heard sniffing on the other side of the door. Then, something rammed into the door. Sky fell back as the door lock broke off and the door swung open. Sky's flashlight shone directly in the creature's red eyes, its pupils dilating rapidly. He shot it directly between those red eyes three times. As soon as the body hit the floor, Sky ran out of the room and up the stairs. He kept running until he reached the river, checking over his shoulder occasionally. Sky jumped in the water with his clothes on. He was covered in blood. Each article of clothing was taken off and rinsed through thoroughly. "What are you doing here?" June said, coming down the hill to where he was. Sky looked up at her. "I thought you liked privacy. Why are you here? I'm taking a bath." "I wouldn't bathe there if I were you." June said. "You need to get out of the water." "Why?" Sky asked. "I've seen those ones with the extra arm out here before. I always get my water from the clearer area, and I never bathe in the river." June said. She looked over to something behind Sky. "Get out of the water, and don't look back." Sky felt the water move differently behind him. A loud scream came from behind him, so loud it felt like it was right in his ears. Sky got out of the water slowly and picked up his clothes. He walked up the bank to June. Sky didn't turn around until they were both a good twenty feet from the river. He looked back. Covered by kudzu, Spanish moss, and rotten wood, a red-eyed creature stared at them both from the center of the river, right where he was previously bathing. A long tail curved over the the back and head of the creature, dangling just in front of its face. The end of the tail had an elongated hand with sharp, dagger-like claws. Sky suspected what the creature likely was, but seeing it confirmed it. This was what they called the "water dog". If he had turned around at any point and looked at it, he would be dead. The creature didn't follow them out of the water. It only watched them as they walked away. "I take it you've seen that before." Sky said. "Yeah, it almost got me once." June said. "I've seen it get a lot of people." "That was my first time seeing one of those. I didn't hear it getting near me until it was right behind me." Sky said. "That's how they are." June said. She looked at Sky and laughed. "Uh, you know, we're far away enough now. It won't come after us. You can put your clothes back on." Sky looked down at himself. "I'll get dressed when we get back. I wasn't done." "I have a bucket of water up there right now. I was going to bathe later too. That's how I do it. I go to the clear part of the river and get some water, then leave. It's harder for it to sneak up on you there." June said. "Good to know." Sky said. He followed her to the tree house and continued to wash himself off there. Sky inspected all of his clothes and his body thoroughly. "You sure take a long time to bathe. What're you lookin' at?" June asked, watching him out of boredom. "Checking for new injuries." Satisfied with his check, Sky dressed himself. He didn't mind his clothes being damp. It was hot out anyway, he thought. "But nothing bit you, right?" June asked him. Sky put his goggles back on. "I know, but I prefer being aware of all of my weak points. If I get blood on me, even the smallest cut on my body could risk me getting infected." "Really? I thought you had to be bitten." June said. "If you get blood on you, you can still get it if it gets into your body." Sky said. 'Is that why she doesn't cover up more? She doesn't know the ways she can be infected?' "Huh. Well, I've never gotten any blood on me anyway. Do you really need to wear all that to be safe?" June asked. Sky wrapped his scarf around his face. "I've had to kill people before doing my job. I've gotten plenty of blood on me." "Whoah, you actually killed people? Who did you kill?" June's eyes widened. "People who used to work for Moone & Wolfe." Sky said. He sat down by the window. "Who?" Sky stared at her strangely. "The people who run those buildings that people can't leave." "Wow. No wonder you're so cautious. I don't really need all that." "It would be safer for you to wear more clothes. You should cover your face and any cuts at least." Sky said. "No way. I've done just fine this long without doing that." She said. "That's more luck than anything." Sky said. June took her clothes off. She picked up a rag and dumped it in the bucket of water. "I'm willing to bank on luck. I'm a really lucky girl." Sky's body felt hot. He tried not to stare, but he wanted to. 'Why am I reacting like this?' "You used a lot of water." June rung out the rag and wiped herself down. "Sorry. I like to be thorough when I wash." Sky said. He averted his eyes and put his hands in his lap. He shifted uncomfortably. 'Do I like girls after all? Alex did say that I could like guys and girls. Why is this happening now?' "Something wrong?" June asked. Sky moved his scarf up slightly higher. "No. Did you want to eat soon?" June dried off and put on her dress. She didn't wash the dress. "I am getting hungry again. How did your mission go? Did you find the lab?" "I did, but I didn't get anything. I was interrupted." Sky opened his bag to get some food out. He opened up a can of beans and another of fish. "Met a demon down there before I could get past the first room." "Is that why you were bathing? You got its blood on you?" "Yeah, when I killed it." Sky said. He thought about what he would do tomorrow. That demon got in there easily. Anything else could be lurking down there with him, and he wouldn't be able to see it without being able to get the power on in there. If he had a team of people with him, it might be more manageable to do, but he was out here alone. Sky glanced at June. 'I can't use her. She won't cover herself up, and I'd have to train her a lot before I could bring her with me. She's too risky to take.' "Are you going back there tomorrow?" June asked. "Probably." Sky said. June moved over to sit beside him. "Hey, I know you want to do your secret mission alone, but why don't you take me with you? I'm sure I could do something to help." Sky thought it over more. This girl was really reckless, but having another pair of eyes would speed up the process. There was no one else around he could bring with him. He sighed. "If I let you come with me, you have to agree to some things first and do everything I say. What I'm doing is really dangerous, and I can't have anyone making it more dangerous for me. Got it?" "So, what do I have to do?" She asked. "Tomorrow, we're going to that store in town to get you more clothes. I have a spare pair of goggles. You can wear those too. I don't have an extra gun, but you can borrow one of my knives. Since you can't read or write, I'll show you how to work my camera instead." Sky explained. "We won't go in the lab until the day after tomorrow. I want to make sure we're clear on a lot of things first." "Does this mean I have to dress like you?" June asked. "Yes. You need to be covered from head to toe." Sky said. "But it's summer." She complained. "If you can't deal with the heat, you won't be of any use to me." Sky said. June sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll wear whatever." "Then, we'll get you ready tomorrow, and go down there the day after that." Sky said. He lay back on the floor and stared up at the wooden ceiling. "If we're lucky, nothing will be down there with us." The following day, Sky and June went to the nearest store they could find. It was on the other side of a section of the border that was close to the tree house. Sky was careful in crossing, but June hopped over it quickly. A small part of her dress ripped from the sharp metal parts of the border. Sky was getting second thoughts about inviting her to join him. He dressed June up quickly with what was available and replaced a few of his own things. There wasn't much else worth taking in the store. As with every store he went in, if it had sold any weapons or ammo, there wasn't any there now. Even all of the kitchen knives were gone. By this point, all the food and medicine in it was expired. Sky stashed away a couple of pairs of shoelaces, underwear, and an extra scarf. They returned to the other side of the border. Sky showed June how to use his digital camera and how to charge it. June held up the camera. "You can really run this stuff with the sun, huh?" Sky watched her point the camera at the clouds. "Yeah. You can run a lot of things with solar power." She snapped a photo. "Huh. Then how come so few people have power? The sun's right there." "You have to have the technology to harness it first. If you don't know how to do that, you can't use it." Sky said. June took another photo. "And we can see all these on your computer?" "Yeah. I'll show you them later." Sky said. He sat down under the oak tree to take refuge from the summer heat. "Stay still." June pointed the camera at him. Sky didn't move, nor did he smile. She laughed. "Heh. Take one of me." "Take one of yourself. Turn it around." Sky said. He used his hands to demonstrate the motions. "Oh." June did as he suggested. She took several photos of herself from different angles. She laughed as the wind caught in her hair and blew over her face. Sky couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He watched her move with the wind and the swaying flowers. He couldn't think about anything at all. Late in the evening, they hid themselves away in the tree house. Sky uploaded the pictures to his laptop to show June what she'd taken. Some of the photos were blurry. June sat beside Sky and stared at them, grinning from ear to ear at all of them. When he got to the photo she took of him, he unconsciously paused to look at himself. He looked tired. "You look cute. Too bad your face is mostly covered. I should've taken one without all this stuff on you." June said. "There's no need for that." Sky clicked over to the next photo. This started the series of photos June took of herself. Her grinned faded. She stopped him from moving forward after a few pictures and leaned closer to the screen. "So that's what I look like." "Haven't you ever seen your reflection before?" Sky asked. "I don't usually stay around anything that's reflective for too long. Water and glass are dangerous." June said. She moved a little bit closer and narrowed her eyes. "Am I pretty?" Sky went quiet for a moment. He looked away. "Um, I would think most people would say so." He felt June's eyes on him. She asked. "Do you think I am?" He looked at her, then away. "Yeah." June smiled brightly. "Then I must be, if even you say so." "What does that mean?" "You're so grumpy and cold sometimes." June sorted out how to move on to the next picture and kept looking at her own photos. Sky leaned back some. "Yeah, I guess I am." It wasn't long after that the two teenagers settled down for the night. June fell asleep quickly. Sky stayed up longer, looking through the photos. Sky took out the camera. He removed his goggles, scarf, and coat, then aimed the camera at himself. He transferred it to computer and opened it. He stared at his own face, searching for the pieces of his father in it. Sky wanted to get a better comparison. He opened up the folder with the films, but couldn't get himself to click on them. Instead, he reached in his bag and opened up the locket Kathy gave him. He held the photo of his mother and Kathy up to the screen. Rather than finding his father, Sky saw most of his mother's features across his face. He often dreaded that he would come to look like his father as he grew older. Nearly everything was from her. The main thing he had taken from his father was his hair color, but even there, the texture of his hair matched his mother's. His voice didn't sound like his father's either, from what he could remember. Sky decided he could take June's compliments if it was his mother he inherited those looks from. He knew he was being irrational thinking like that, but he didn't care. He found comfort in finding her there in himself. The next morning, he got June up early to take her down to the lab. June was her usual perky self until they reached the lab entrance. She hesitated at the stairway. "It's down there? There's no light." Sky shook his head. "Only what we're bringing ourselves." "How long are we gonna be down there for?" June asked. "I don't know. At least a few hours." Sky said. He sighed. "If you're too scared to come, just go back already." June looked behind her. "I don't want to go back by myself alone. I don't usually come over here." "I'm not going back. I'll lose time. You've been on your own a long time. You can get back to the tree house. It's not far from here." Sky went down the steps. "Wait!" June followed behind him. "There's nothing down there, right?" "There could be. We won't know until we're down there." Sky said. June was nearly on top of him. "What happens if there is?" "We kill it." Sky said. When they reached the first floor, Sky shone his light around. He saw the bones of the infected person he killed last time. Sky and June stepped over them. Sky went to the second door from the stairwell and opened it. It was a janitor's closet. He closed the door back and moved on to the next room. This one appeared to have been a stock room, but the shelves were mostly empty. Sky read over what some of the remaining bottles were. There was nothing worth keeping. The fourth room was a lab. It was similar to the lab he worked in with Alex and Eric. "What is this?" June asked. "It's a lab. They must have done some experiments here or analyzed some kind of data." Sky looked at one of the computers. "I doubt I can get anything off of this...surely, they wouldn't be that stupid." Sky opened up the drawer directly beside the computer he was at. He found three flash drives and a box of floppy disks. Sky picked up one of the floppy disks and looked at the computer again. The computer could read them, but Sky's laptop certainly couldn't. He rolled his eyes and put everything in his bag. Alan might be able to get a computer that could. After sweeping through the room, he collected up ten flash drives, roughly thirty floppy disks, three keys he couldn't sort out what they went to, and a whole lot of mold and dust. The three fridges at the back of the room were all full. Two contained rows and rows of Petri dishes, color coded test tubes, and various sized vials. The third fridge was filled with now rotten food and expired drinks. The fronts of the fridges had labels about temperature and other things. Sky took a picture of a schedule taped to one of the fridges. It contained first initials and last names. If he was lucky, he might be able to sort out who those people were. With everything left in place, Sky wondered if this building had been cleared and abandoned in a hurry. 'What happened here? They didn't take anything or come back for anything either. Why?' He didn't get any answers that day. Sky and June sorted through three more rooms before going back. Only the lab had anything worth taking. When they left, the sun was still high in the sky. The heat was unbearable. June stripped off her scarf, goggles, and coat as soon as they left the building. She took off the boots and her pants next. Sky refused to remove anything, nor take a break or seek shelter from the sun. Sweat drenched his body. He struggled to see through his goggles, but refused to remove them for a moment to clean them. He lagged behind June. June turned around. "Sky? Are you okay?" "I'm fine." He said as he nearly tripped forward. His back ached. He'd taken more supplies with him than last time to be extra safe. His thoughts were hazy, but he kept going. When they reached the tree house, Sky let the bag slip from his shoulders. He couldn't carry it any farther. The world was spinning around him. He felt like he couldn't breathe. "Sky...what's wrong? Do you need some water?" June asked. Sky pulled his scarf down. "Yeah..." June opened the bag and got out the canteen of water. She handed to to Sky. Sky attempted to grab it, but he lost his grip on it. He and the canteen both fell to the ground. As much as he tried, he couldn't get back up. June pulled the scarf and goggles off of him. She unzipped his coat and got that off him too. Sky's shirt was completely soaked through. June helped him fully undress. She propped him up against her body and brought the canteen to his mouth. Sky drank from it, but the water made him nauseous. June then helped him get under the shade of the tree. Through heavy breaths, Sky said. "No, I need my clothes." "Pretend you're getting a bath. Cause you're about to." June went up the tree house and came down with the bucket. She ran off in the direction of the river. "I'll be back." Sky crawled over to his coat and got out his gun. He wanted to put his clothes back on, but he couldn't bring himself to do it either. He was too hot. Sky grabbed a notebook from his bag to fan himself with it and a meter to read the temperature and humidity in the air. He hid under the tree and waited for June to return. It was 40.5°C. Humidity was at 50%. Sky laughed to himself. If he wasn't attacked by the people at the company or by an infected animal, the Georgia heat could kill him too. He looked up at the clear sky above. Kathy's face popped in his head. "If I'm Delilah, then..." Sky hummed to himself, then sang a wordless song. Each note that came brought a wave of nostalgia over him as the melody formed. He felt like this song was one he knew from somewhere, from a long time ago, and he was certain, without knowing why, that it had nothing to do with Delilah Blackwell. Above him, the sky darkened quickly. Thunder rumbled around him. He saw June running up the hill with the bucket in hand. Rain came down right behind her. She stayed ahead of it till she got to the tree. She put the bucket down and caught her breath. "So much for that." Sky laughed, then looked back. "My bag! Get my bag!" June rushed back and grabbed the heavy backpack. She carried it up into the tree house, then came back down. Sky walked out into the field of tall grass and let the rain wash him off. The water cooled his body down. He felt June's eyes on his back. The wind was warm, but far from the unbearable heat of the sun. He turned around and picked up his soaking wet clothes. For a moment, he and June locked eyes. He thought of the woman in his dreams, who he held hands with in the field. She had dark hair and skin darker than his. June was paler than him, and blonde. But in that moment, with the wind around them, he wanted to believe she might be that woman anyway. He knew this was the wrong place and the wrong time. That didn't matter. He felt something when he looked at her. Lightning struck down not far from them. Sky didn't flinch, but June did. She begged Sky to come inside and out of the rain. Sky went up into the tree house. June strung up a line to hang their wet clothes from. They wrapped themselves in blankets. Sky was freezing cold now. He put the drives aside to check through later and attended to himself. Sky shaved his face and cut his hair as best he could with the small hand mirror he carried on him. June watched him curiously. "You're pretty good at cutting hair. I just tie it back and cut." She said. "I can make it more even for you, if you want." Sky offered. "Hey, um, thank you...for earlier." "Oh. You're welcome." June's face lit up. Sky looked out at the dark clouds through the window. "This will be easier to do once the weather gets cooler. Whenever that is." June tied her blanket around her to make a dress. She set up cot up for the evening, a little closer to Sky's than usual. "Who knows when that'll be, or for how long. Could be blazing heat, then frost, then even hotter again." "But it's always getting hotter." Sky said. In the evening, June turned in early. Sky looked through the USBs he found in the building and made copies of the data for himself. He couldn't get a good idea of what exactly they were doing, but they were testing for something. Genome data was kept on hand for several species, humans included. He expected he'd find some recent information about viruses, but nothing. Whatever they were doing in that lab didn't appear to relate to the viral research. Sky hoped he'd get a better picture the deeper he went into the building. Sky turned in early himself. He was exhausted from the day. He slept deeply. When he woke, he briefly recalled something about a river from his dream, but it faded quickly. They didn't go back down the next day. Their clothes took three days to fully dry. Sky spent his time recording the weather conditions and rereading through files. June went out in nothing to search for food. She came back with berries, leaves, and mushrooms. Each day she went out, Sky warned her to wait until her clothes dried or wear them wet to protect herself. She ignored him. Over the next several weeks, they cleared through the first and second floor. Sky didn't find much else on either. The second floor had three labs on it, but there was nothing to save from them. Everything on the second floor was destroyed. It appeared to be by fire, but Sky wasn't certain of that. During that time, June moved her cot closer to his, a little more each night. Sky noticed, but he said nothing of it. Before heading out one morning, Sky saw a supply truck and a large van trailing behind it. It parked nearby. Sky recognized the logo on the side of the van. June hid herself back in the tree house as Sky went over to it. A man opened the back of the truck. He looked at Sky. "Here for food?" Sky nodded. "Do you have any first aid kits too?" "Yeah, we got some. Hold on. I'll get you one of our boxes ready." The man said. "Are you alone out here?" "I have another person with me." Sky said. "Alright, food for two then." The man hopped into the truck. "I also have something for you. You're with the Sanctuary, right? I have information to give Alan." Sky said. The man turned around. He looked Sky over. "Are you the Informer?" "Yes." He said. Sky opened up his bags and pulled out the flash drives and floppy disks he took from the underground lab. "This is what I've collected recently." The man took everything and put it in the van. "Floppy disks? Damn, I hadn't seen one of those since I was a kid. Hey May, come help me get these boxes ready." "Coming!" A girl said from inside the truck. Sky recognized her voice. The May the man called over was the same May he had met before. Sky stared at her. "May?" "Sky, is that you?" She asked. "What are you doing out here?" He asked back. "I finished my educational requirements. Now I'm doing job training to run supplies. I finally got my mom to sign my permission form for it, but I can't do anything alone till I'm eighteen. I did get approval to drive though." May said. "I heard from my mom you went back out here." "Yeah. I've been passing everything along that I find." "Wait, are you Mr. Informer? That was you all along?" May laughed. "Yeah, that's me. I don't like that nickname, but whatever. So long as they don't use Summerfield." Sky shrugged. He asked her another question. "Hey, um, do you know how Alex and Eric are doing?" "Oh, well, I haven't talked with either of them myself, but my mom did talk about them some. She says they miss you. Lately, they've been trying to get August to stay, but I think he ended up leaving again too." She said. "Who's August? I think I heard Alex mention that name before." Sky said. He tried to remember what Alex told him, but he couldn't. "His dad was involved with Moone & Wolfe, but he's been out here collecting records and passing the information back to Alan. Basically, the same thing you're doing." May said. "I think he's...um, fourteen, right now?" "August...what was his last name?" Sky asked. "I think it's Glenwood. I don't know much more about his family than that. You'd have to ask someone else about that." May crossed her arms. "Hey, did you need any medicine? We've got some medicine in the truck." "I should be good for now. Alex packed me a lot." He said. "I haven't seen any trucks passing by this spot before. Did you change routes?" Sky asked. May got into the back of the truck. "We added this route recently. We got some more vehicles, and a better way to run them." Sky sat on the edge of the truck. He watched May and the man pack up a box for him. Three more people came out, one from the truck and two from the van. One of them collected information on the area, and the other two set up a camp site to eat. "How many people are in your group?" Sky asked. May put a first aid kit in his box. "Nine. We take day and night shifts. Four of our team are asleep right now. Normally, it's about eight for two vehicles, but I can't be left alone with a person during a shift until I've gotten approval." "Huh. Good to know." Sky swung his legs back and forth. May finished up his box for him. She handed it over. "I put a bottle of your meds in anyway, just in case." "Thanks. How do you know what I'm on, anyway? Did Alex tell you to do that?" Sky asked. "Yeah. He told my mom to tell me to." May smiled at him. She looked over at something. "Oh, wait. I have something else to give you. Your dad wanted me to give you a flash drive if I ran into you." Sky froze. He immediately thought May was speaking about his biological father. He breathed a sigh of relief. May was obviously referring to either Alex or Eric. He smiled a little at that. "Is it some new data?" "I dunno." May pulled back a curtain with a small bed behind it and shelf above it. She pulled a backpack down and took out a small USB. May gave it to Sky. "Here you go." "Thanks again. When will someone be back here?" Sky asked. He placed the drive in his coat pocket. "Probably in two weeks." She said. "I'll see you then." Sky got down from the truck. "Are you working with someone? The box was for two." May asked him. "Sort of. There's a girl, a little younger than me, that I'm staying with. She doesn't have any family left. I'm having her help me for now, but I'm trying to convince her to go to the Sanctuary. She's too reckless to be out here by herself." Sky explained. "Why won't she come?" May asked. "I think she's scared that it'll be the same as being in one of those facilities. She doesn't trust either side." Sky said. He looked out at the tree house. "If I can convince her, could you take her back or should I bring her back myself?" "We have room for an extra person. We could take her if you need to stay here." May got back out of the truck. "How long are you planning on being out here?" "As long as it takes." Sky sighed. "I've got a lot to search through in this area. It'll take months under the best conditions. Hey, do you know if anyone else is in this area?" "Right now, it doesn't look like it. Actually, coming through here was your dad's idea. He said we'd likely find the Informer here, based on previous data exchanges and locations related to the Moon. Now it makes sense why he cared so much about that." May said. "How did he figure out that was me?" Sky asked. "Who else would be doing all that?" "Good point." Sky grinned. Alex had added a supply route just to make sure he had access to food. He was keeping track of him after leaving. He was certain it was Alex that figured it out and pushed for that. Eric was more the type to offer gentle comfort. Alex's way of showing compassion and love typically revolved around direct action. This was his doing, Sky was certain. Sky talked with May a little longer before heading back to the tree house. He was surprised to see June wasn't inside. She came up after he did. "Where did you go?" Sky asked. "Places. What'd you get?" She sat across from him. "Food and bandages, stuff like that." Sky opened the box. June sifted through it. She picked up the pill bottle and shook it. "What is this stuff? You have a bunch of these." "It's my medicine. Don't mess with it." Sky took it from her and put it away in his bag. "Medicine for what? You don't look sick." She said. "It's not a sickness you can see, nor one you can catch from me. Don't worry about it. All you need to know is I need to take these every day, so don't mess with them." Sky said. "Touchy. Jeez. What's your problem? Upset that that girl left?" June opened up a protein bar. "What?" June avoided making eye contact with him. "You spent a lot of time talking to that girl. Is she your type?" Sky tilted his head. Then, he realized June must have been talking about May. "Huh? Oh, no. I know her. Her mom works with my parents. I was asking her how things were back home." "The feeling's not mutual. She definitely likes you. I could tell." June bit into the bar. 'Was she watching me from close by?' Sky asked. "How can you tell that?" "How can you not?" "I don't think she likes me. She was probably relieved to see I was alive." Sky brushed off the idea. "She probably has another boyfriend right now anyway." "That doesn't mean she can't be into you." June countered. "I don't think she thinks of me like that." Sky got out a bar for himself. "Why are you so fixated on her anyway? You didn't even talk to her." "You're really dense sometimes." June rolled her eyes at him. "I don't get it." "Well, I'm not spelling it out for you." June pulled her knees in close and watched Sky. "So, what is your type then? What was your last girlfriend like?" "I've never had a girlfriend." Sky admitted. June's mouth hung open. "Really? But why?" "I don't know. There wasn't a girl I liked before." Sky said. He looked away. "So you've never had a crush on anyone?" She asked. "I have, but not on any girls." June's shoulders dropped. She whined. "Wait, are you gay? Damn it! And here I thought I was making progress..." "I'm not gay." Sky blurted out without thinking. "I just wasn't really into any of the girls I met before." "I'm confused." "I am attracted to girls. I just haven't met one I wanted to date. The last two people I liked were guys. I didn't date them. They were adults, and married. That was dumb." Sky said. He thought to himself. 'Married to each other. Even dumber.' "So, how do you know you're attracted to girls if you've never liked any girl?" June asked. Sky's face turned red. He kept his gaze toward the window. "Um, well, uh...that's not important." "Do you only like the women who are on magazine covers and stuff?" June asked. "No, that's not...this isn't something I want to talk about." Sky got up and walked over to the window. "What's the big deal? I was just curious what kind of girl you liked." June snapped back at him. "Don't wanna talk about it." He leaned his elbows on the bottom of the window. "Okay, fine. I'll drop the subject." June threw her hands up. She went quiet for a moment. "But you're not gay, right?" "I'm not. Why do you care about that?" Sky asked in a frustrated tone. June sighed deeply. "And we're back to square one." "I don't get it." "I know." June said under her breath. "Whatever. I'm sorting through the supplies today. We'll go to the lab tomorrow." Sky said. "Then, I'm going out." June said. "Where to?" "Wherever I want." June left the tree house. Sky could tell she was upset about something, but he didn't understand what. With June out for a while, he decided to check what was on the USB that May gave him. There were two folders on it. One was labeled "Research Progress". The other was named "Personal". Sky opened up the research folder first. The information inside was about vaccine research. The human trials were going very well, but there was no timeline yet on when it would be available for everyone. A few photos of the opossum and mice from the lab were in the folder. Sky assumed Eric put those in there. He opened the other folder. This one contained several photos and one video file. The photos were mostly of Alex and Eric. Some were of Kathy, others of Noelle and her baby. Alex was helping the baby learn to walk in one. Other photos included one of Eric with several baby opossums climbing and hanging all over him, Kathy playing at her piano, a photo of a box of chocolate bars and cartons of eggs, and several photos of construction of the other building. It was strange to see them all. Since he left, he felt completely disconnected from everyone there. Hearing Kathy on the radio was always a mixture of comfort and loneliness. The photos carried the same feelings for him. Sky clicked on the video file. It was several minutes long. Alex and Eric were sitting together in their room. "It's been a while, Sky. I hope you're doing well. We've been okay here. I'm sure you're busy with a lot of stuff right now. I've heard all the rumors about you." Alex said. "Mr. Informer, huh?" Eric laughed. "Did you come up with that?" Sky said to the screen. "Absolutely not." "I know I can't stop you from staying out there, but we still want you to come home. Whenever you're ready, we'll be here." Alex said. "They're getting closer to finishing off the other building. I've already asked for Alan to reserve us a family set-up with two bedrooms." Sky felt a heavy pain in his chest. He paused the video. Sky took a moment to regain his composure. He didn't expect hearing that would stir up so much inside him. Sky took a deep breath and hit play. "You'll have your own room, but we can all stay together." Alex said. "I have the forms on hand for whenever you're ready to make everything official." "You know, even if you want to keep staying out there, you can visit us for a while. You should take a break some time." Eric said. "And we can still keep the room. Even though we haven't signed anything yet, since we're in the process of it, we have permission to have status as one family." Alex glanced aside for a second. "I don't want you out there, but if I can get you to come home sometimes, I'd be happy with that. We'll keep your room ready for you, okay?" "Kathy misses you too." Eric added. "You should come play a song with her again." "I know it's going to be hard for us to keep in contact with you while you're out there, but you know, you don't have to only send us data. We want to know how you're doing. If you need anything, I'll find a way to get it to you." Alex said. "Have you been able to keep taking your medication?" Eric smiled. "If you say you need help, he'll be there in person to deliver it. I can guarantee you that." "That's a promise." Alex smirked. "If anyone comes after you, they won't be living very long." "We love you. Stay safe." Eric said. He waved at the camera. "Be careful out there. And Sky, if it gets too much, it's okay. This isn't your burden. Come back home." Alex paused. Sky noticed his eyes were watering. Alex waved at the camera. "I hope we see you soon. Bye." Sky put his hand to the screen. "Bye..." He wiped away tears he didn't realize he had been shedding. His face was red. Sky told himself he shouldn't be crying over that, but the tears kept flowing. "Why are you crying?" June asked, popping in from the trap door. "I'm not." Sky wiped his face off again. He willed himself to stop crying. "Yeah, you were. It's obvious." June crawled up into the tree house. "What happened?" "My parents sent me a video." He closed out the file. "How did they do that?" June asked. "It's on here. May...that girl I was talking to earlier, she passed it on to me. My parents gave it to her to give to me in case we ran into each other. I told you, her mom works with them." Sky explained to her. "Can I see it?" June came over to him and tried to look at his laptop's screen. "Um...it's personal." Sky moved the laptop away from her. "Oh." She sighed. Sky didn't want to upset her again. He put the laptop back down. "I can...I can show you photos. They sent me some of those too, if you wanted to see them." June leaned over. Sky opened up a photo where Eric and Alex were both in it. June stared at the picture. "Wait...both of them? But they're both men. Are you adopted?" "Yeah." "What happened to your real family?" Sky winced at her wording. "My biological family...they all died a really long time ago." "Do you miss them?" June asked. "I miss my mom and my sister." Sky said. "What about your dad?" Sky regretted showing June the photo. "I have two dads now. I don't need him." "You really don't care that he's dead?" June questioned him. Now, it was Sky who was getting irritated. "He was a really awful person." "But he was your dad." June said. "That doesn't make him any less awful. I can't forgive him for how he treated us, or other people. What he did to my mom...I absolutely can never forgive him for that." Sky unconsciously raised his voice a little. "What did he do?" June persisted in her questioning. "I don't want to talk about it. I don't like thinking about back then." Sky closed the laptop. June was getting angry too. "Okay, but if he's dead, don't you think maybe you should forgive him anyway?" "What would him being dead have to do with anything?" Sky retorted. "My mom always said you should forgive everyone, no matter what they did to you. It makes you a better person, because then you're not filled with anger all the time." June crossed her arms. "Anger isn't bad. There are plenty of reasons to be angry. If I forgave him and threw away that anger, that would never undo what he did, and it wouldn't fix any of the problems I'm still dealing with because of him. I'd rather forget he existed than forgive him." Sky replied. He wanted to run off right then and there. "But don't you think that's sad? He was your dad. No one can replace your real dad." June's words had him seeing red. "I've long replaced my biological father. I've shown you that just now." Sky got up. He put his computer away and grabbed his bag. "I don't know why you're pushing this. I don't want to talk about him. Let's drop this subject." "Okay, okay. I just wanted to help you. I don't get why you're so mad." June said. "Clearly." Sky stepped onto the wooden ladder. "Where are you going?" June asked. "On a walk." Sky said. He wasn't sure where he was going, or if he wanted to come back. He knew he didn't want to be there right then. "On a walk." Sky said. He wasn't sure where he was going, or if he wanted to come back. He knew he didn't want to be there right then. Sky ended up going to the underground lab by himself. He went to the next room he was planning on exploring. Sky couldn't focus on anything. He was too angry at June to care about what he was doing. "What does she know about it? Forgive him? For what? How the hell is that going to make me stop having to take that stupid medication? How's that going to bring my mom back, huh? Stupid girl. You're so stupid you're gonna get sick one day and die because you don't fucking listen to anyone." Guilt washed over him. He hated himself for saying such a thing. That was the last thing he wanted to happen, no matter how angry he was at her right now. Sky packed up everything he brought with him and walked back to the tree house. June was outside taking pictures of the clouds. Sky approached her. "Hey." "You came back." June said. She continued taking photos. "I thought you left." "I thought about it." Sky said. He sat down beside her. "I'm sorry about earlier. I know what you were trying to do." "What were you so upset about then?" June asked. She put the camera down. "I don't agree with you, and I don't really want to talk about why...or about my past at all. I think we should avoid the subject entirely." Sky said. June pushed him for more. "Why can't we talk about it? Why won't you explain it to me?" "Because I don't have to. I don't have to share everything about myself because someone wants to know. And you don't have to either." Sky pushed back. "I'm sure there's a lot of things you don't want to talk to me about. I don't want to talk about that with you. But I shouldn't have left like that either. I'm sorry. Could we agree to just...move on?" "Okay." June said. "I don't really get it, but I won't talk about it anymore." "Sorry. I just can't." Sky added. He looked at the camera. "What'd you take pictures of?" "The sky and the flowers in the field." She said. "Did you want to look at them?" "Yeah." "What about going to the lab today?" She asked. "We can do that tomorrow." Sky took the camera from her. "Let's see how they turned out." Sky and June spent the rest of the day in and around the tree house. After looking through the photos, they went out to take more. June went to sleep before Sky. Their beds were now side by side. He stayed up later. Sky turned the camera around at himself and took a series of photos. He uploaded them and moved over the best ones to an empty flash drive. He opened up a text editor and typed up a lengthy message. Sky flinched at every movement June made in her sleep. He didn't want her to see a word of what he was writing. For the next couple of weeks, Sky added more to the text file. He took more photos of himself and the area around the tree house. The best ones were put on the drive with the text file. He passed the USB on to May the next time the supply team came through to give to Eric and Alex. Sky and June managed to clear most of the third floor in that time. June was less afraid the more they went down there, but she refused to keep her body covered whenever they left at the end of the day. Sky gave up on trying to convince her to. He found mostly paper documents on the third floor, and more fridges full of unidentifiable things. Sky was able to get some names on this floor, but the ones he could match up with anyone in his files were confirmed to be dead or still working for the company. There was no overlap between the names he found on the schedule on the first floor and the people who were mentioned in documents on the third floor. Sky handed what information he got over to the supply team whenever he saw them. Months passed and the weather grew colder. May and Sky exchanged flash drives every time they crossed paths. Each drive contained videos and photos for Sky. Alex and Eric moved into the family unit in the new building. The room that would be Sky's was in several photos. It looked a little smaller than his old room, but he didn't mind the size. The main room of the unit, the kitchen and living room space, was what interested him most. Sky noticed the star projector sitting on a small table near the sofa. Alex made sure to include a picture of himself inside the bathroom, pointing to the private shower. As the weather got colder and the days shorter, Sky and June spent less time investigating the underground lab. They started skipping days. According to the records Sky kept about the weather, this year was different than previous years. While he noticed an overall trend upward for temperature, this year was unusually cold. June started to wear the extra layers of clothing after leaving the lab, and on days when they didn't go out at all. Sky presumed they might get snow this year, but there was no way of knowing. Georgia weather was always strange. The heat may return tomorrow for all he knew. In late November, Sky decided they wouldn't go underground again until the weather started to warm back up. He hoped the warmth would return in a week or two. During the months they spent together, June stayed close at night. Sometimes, she rolled over onto his part of the bed. Sky moved farther away from her when he felt her close. His body burned hotly whenever they accidentally touched, but he couldn't allow himself to let her linger there against him for long. His body was filled with want for something and tension he didn't want to acknowledge. His mind rested in terror at the thoughts his body and heart danced inside him. He lay trapped in himself, wanting things he was too anxious to ask for and terrified of what pain he could inflict. Everything he learned through Alex didn't mean anything now. His mind circled back to the same terrors he kept himself awake with when he felt his heart skip a beat at seeing Alex during that brief time he held those sorts of feelings for him. June was unaware of how he felt. She noticed how he avoided physical contact with her, but said nothing. He saw in her eyes that she found it strange. As he agonized over his body, he started to remember his dreams more. They would fade in the morning, but how long they stayed in his mind grew longer and the dreams stranger. One morning, around sunrise, he had a rather intense dream. He was Delilah Blackwell in the dream, sitting by a river bank in the middle of a field. Unlike most dreams, he could feel everything. The sensations in his dream felt more real than reality itself. It was winter in the dream. The grass in the field was mostly dead. What remained was covered in frost and ice. The river was frozen over. He could see his breath. His finger tips were red from the frigid air. Delilah's wool stockings were stained with dirt from sitting in the grass. She was staring down at her reflection in the ice. On the river, rather than that girl's face, Sky saw a boy reflected. It wasn't his own face either. This boy appeared to be Delilah's age. He had long, dark hair and skin darker than Delilah's. His clothing was of a style that belonged to a time period even further back than Delilah's. Delilah knelt closer to her reflection. She spoke to herself. 'Who are you? What're you looking for?' The boy on the other side didn't answer. He changed to that of an older man, clearly the same person as before. Sky felt that his face was familiar, but he couldn't place why. He was certain he had seen the man's face before somewhere, whether it was in a painting or another dream. Then, he vanished and another reflection appeared in the ice. Delilah's father, Leon, stared down at her. Sky watched him in the ice get down on his knees behind Delilah. Though he saw Leon through the river, he felt the heat of the man's breath on Delilah's neck. The white from their breaths merged into a single, small patch of fog as Leon whispered in her ear. 'Rosie, I've been looking all over for you. Why are you hiding from me?' Leon leaned in close. Sky felt Leon's face against Delilah's hair. Delilah said nothing. Her body became like the dying grass beside her. Leon lightly pulled at the strings of her apron, undoing the big bow behind her. The apron fell forward toward the ice. Sky felt Delilah's emotions rising in him and her thoughts merging with his. Her strongest thought was how strange she felt to be outside and not have her apron secured against her waist. Leon put his hand on Delilah's wool stockings, pushing her knee length dress to midway up her thigh. The cold air snuck in through the stitches in the white along her legs and across the fabric covering her chest. Delilah moved forward to get away from his touch, but her fingers slipped on the ice. Small patches of ice covered grass cut her palms and fingers when she fell forward. She caught herself on the frozen river, her palms smearing red across the translucent white. Sky saw a glimpse of her face in the ice, but they both looked away to Leon's and then to the blood pooling out onto the ice. Her cuts burned hotly from contact with the freezing surface, but she couldn't pull herself up. From touching the ice, her apron soaked up the blood pouring out. Along the embroidered dogwood flowers, it followed the threads until every bit of her mother's work was stained in red. Sky woke up panting and shaking. He was sweating profusely. It took him a couple of minutes to realize he was no longer dreaming. June lay awake beside him, only just having woken up herself. "What's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?" "I...I don't know..." Sky looked at his palms. They were clean. "There was blood..." "Did someone die in your dream?" She asked. "No, it wasn't about death. But I didn't finish it. I woke up before...something...it felt like something bad was going to happen." Sky put his hands to his face. "I don't know what." June touched him, attempting to give him a hug. Sky flinched and moved away. She pulled back. "Sorry." "No, it's not your fault. It's me." Sky sat up. He opened his bag and sifted through it. "I need to take my medicine." "Does it make most of your bad dreams go away?" She asked, sitting up with him. "It makes a lot of bad things go away." Sky said. He opened the bottle and took his medicine. "But it can't make it all go away all of the time." "Your medications...it's not for something physical, is it?" June asked him. "No, it's not." Sky closed the bottle. June went quiet for a while, then asked. "Can I take some?" "You? What for?" Sky asked. "I don't want to talk about it." June said. "It's okay. It probably won't work for me anyway." Sky looked at June, then at the bottle. "I don't know if it's okay for you to have it...Maybe...if I give you a smaller amount." He took out a pill from the bottle and broke it in half. June took one half. She held it up close to her face. "Are you sure you want to let me have it? Don't you need it?" "I have a lot, and I can get more. May always gives me an extra bottle every month." Sky said. He watched June take the medicine. "I'll give you the other half tonight. Um, do you have a lot of bad dreams too?" "Yeah, most nights. And memories that follow me around in the day. Bad stuff." June rubbed her eyes. She opened up the canteen of water and took a sip. "So, what do you think was going to happen in your dream?" "I have an idea, but I'm not sure. I don't really want to think about it. I'd rather forget." Sky said. June passed him the canteen. "You're up early today. Are you going back to sleep?" "No. I'm gonna make some coffee. Do you want any?" Sky opened up the trap door. June stretched. "Sure. I'll come with you." Sky took down everything he needed and set up a small fire below the tree house. The sun was rising behind them. Sky watched the glowing, golden-amber color burning over the horizon. The air wasn't quite as cold as in his dreams, but it still stung his fingers. He forgot about that once the mug of coffee was hot between his palms. He and June didn't talk much that morning. He wanted to ask her several questions, but he let the words go unspoken. For the next few weeks, they spent more time searching through stores on the other side of the border. Every morning and night, Sky split some of his medicine with June. She wouldn't tell him more about what was bothering her, and he didn't ask. They traded out their clothes for thicker ones. Sky switched some of his clothes for other reasons. He hadn't grown any taller, but he'd filled out more the other way. He went up a shirt size, and his waist was bigger than before, though still too small to fit in the lowest adult size he found at Walmart. He was able to loosen up the belt he wore at least. When June was busy in the shoes section, Sky got out his measuring tape and checked his height. He was 5'9", same as when he left. Alex would still be an inch taller than him. His biological father was 6'1". He was only fourteen now. There was plenty of time for him to reach that height. Sky sighed. He didn't want to share a single thing with that man. June came over to him with a pair of knee high boots in her hands. "Whatcha doin'? Are you measuring yourself?" "Yeah." Sky put the measuring tape back in his bag. "Wait, do me. How tall am I?" June begged. Sky took the tape back out. He checked. "You're 5'4"." "Really? My mom was 5'6". Do you think I'll get that tall?" June asked. "Probably." Sky said. "When will I stop growing?" June asked. "Do you know?" "Um, I think it depends on the person. I read that girls usually finish growing earlier than boys, but it varies. You may have already hit how tall you're going to get. It's too early to know." Sky explained. "Really? I hope I'm not done yet. I want to be as tall as Mom." June said. She held up the boots. "What do you think of these? Do you think they'll look good on me?" "Um, I guess. I dunno. Did you try them on?" June took off her shoes and put the boots on. She showed them off. "What do you think?" "They look sturdy enough." Sky said. "But do they look cute on me?" June narrowed her eyes. "Um, yeah." Sky pushed his scarf up higher to hide his face. June caught his reaction. She grinned. "We should go back before it gets too cold." Sky walked around her. Winter came, and brought snow on the longest night. It was so cold that their blankets and clothes were not enough to keep them warm. "It's so cold out." June shivered under her blankets. Sky opened up a thermal blanket. "It's snowing." "What's that?" June asked. "This will keep us warmer. We should share it and stay close tonight to keep up our body temperatures." Sky said. "This will keep us warm?" "Yeah, or at least less cold. If we sleep close together, that should help too." Sky said. His heart rang in his ears. He wasn't ready to be that close to her, but the weather wasn't leaving him a choice in the matter. They rearranged everything to share for the night. June immediately got under. Sky joined her, but tried to keep a little distance between them. June moved over closer, then curled up against him. Sky's face went deep red. "What are you doing?" "I thought you said we'd be safer if we were closer together." June put her arms around him. Sky's body sweated all over. He awkwardly put one arm around her. His heart was beating so loud he almost couldn't hear anything else. "Oh, right." "Wow, you must be really cold. You'd never normally do anything like this." June said to him. She smiled and closed her eyes. Sky couldn't move. He was too excited and terrified. June felt warm against him, warmer than the blankets did. He tried to think rationally through the situation. This was necessary to make sure they didn't freeze overnight as the temperature dropped lower. If the weather kept up like this, they would need to do this more often to stay safe. That was perfectly reasonable, and this didn't need to mean anything. He told himself that, but his mind kept returning to how her body felt against his and her scent lingering on him. She smelled like plants and fresh earth. The scent was familiar. His sister often had a smell like that, from when she snuck off across the horizon. June's scent was a little different than what he remembered his sister smelling like. There was more earth mixed in, and the plants weren't the same. His sister carried more wild flowers on her skin, while June smelled more of pine needles. He liked the scent, but he didn't know why and no matter what he told himself, his heart wouldn't calm. The way it was beating now was worse than anything he experienced being around Eric or Alex. "Are you warming up any?" June asked him, eyes closed. "Yeah, a little..." Sky said. "I think we'll be okay, if it stays this temperature. It never got this cold before..." "Bad winter." June nuzzled her face into his neck. "Night." "N-night..." Sky's thoughts went somewhere indecent. He tried to focus on the weather and survival strategies, but even in sleep, his mind went back to the same place. In the morning, it was as cold as before. Sky didn't want to get out from under the blankets, but he needed to change his underwear. He was grateful June was still asleep. After changing, Sky took his medicine, grabbed some crackers from the supply box, and crawled back in bed. June overslept that day. After eating, he forced himself to check the conditions outside. The ground was covered in white. Sky brought some of his equipment down to get accurate information on the weather. He recorded everything in a notebook. Sky cleared out a spot to start a fire and make some coffee and hot soup. He brought another thermal blanket down with him while he cooked, then brought everything back up into the tree house. June woke from the smell of coffee. She rolled over in the bed, face mostly covered by blankets. "Is that coffee?" "Yeah." Sky poured her a mug and prepared her a bowl of soup. He sat them down by her side of the bed. June sat up, with the thermal blanket covering her head and shoulders. She drank some of the coffee first, then ate the soup. Sky prepared his own, and ate near her. "How bad is it outside?" June asked. "About half a foot deep." Sky said. "It's no blizzard, but it's not normal for here." "You went out and made this in the cold?" She asked. Sky nodded. "Figured we'd need as much warmth in our bodies as we could get." "Thank you." June kissed him on the cheek. Sky blushed. "Um, it was nothing. We should probably stay in as much as possible today. It looks like it's going to snow again soon." "Really? Ugh. I hate this. It's too cold." June complained. "I had to sleep with these socks on. These are the thickest I have. I hate socks." Sky laughed. "I actually like thick socks myself. It's a good barrier." "You would say that." Sky got out the camera after he ate again. He opened the window of the tree house and took pictures to send home. June hurried him up. The room was getting colder with the window open. Sky closed it and covered it with one of the thinner blankets they had. He returned to the bed and transferred the photos. Sky spent his time typing up a new message for his parents and looking through photos they sent him before. June, bored, absentmindedly looked at the photos too. She pointed to one of Noelle. "Who's this lady?" "Oh, that's my aunt." Sky said. "Is the baby hers?" Sky nodded. "Is she alone?" June asked. "Yeah...she was married, but that person died a few months before the baby was born." Sky said. "Oh, that's sad." June scooted closer to him. "Is the baby a girl or a boy?" "A girl." "Do you have any other cousins?" June asked. "No, not right now." June went back a few pictures. "What about this lady? Who is she? She looks old." "Oh, Kathy. You've heard her before." Sky said. He turned on the radio. Kathy's voice came through, announcing a message about supply routes. "That's her. She's the one who plays the songs and does all the announcements on the radio." "Oh...do you know her?" June asked. "She knew my mom before I was born." Sky said. "When I was living with everyone, I sometimes played on the radio with her. But I'm not as good at performing as she is." "You're a musician? Do you play an instrument or do you sing?" June's eyes lit up. Sky's face burned. "Um, well, I can play the piano a little, but I'm better at singing." June put her hands on his. "Sing me a song. Please!" "Um, okay..." Sky listened to what Kathy was singing. She wasn't quite midway through the song. He knew the lyrics. Sky sang along with her. Outside, the wind picked up. Sky didn't hear rain, but he was certain it was storming again. Did his voice bring snow too, he wondered. June sat quietly listening to him. As he sang to her, he felt nostalgic for something at the edge of his memory. He felt so strongly like he had done this before for some other girl who's name escaped him. But that couldn't be, Sky told himself. May and June were the first girls his own age he regularly interacted with. The girl and him seemed older in his mind. He couldn't conjure a face to go with the hazy smoke of images and sounds invading his thoughts. When he stopped, June complimented him. He thanked her and checked the conditions outside. Snow fell in big chunks all around them. He laughed to himself. 'How do I make it stop?' "What's so funny?" June came over to the window and stood beside him. "We're stuck inside again." Sky said. "Why's that funny?" "I dunno." Sky absentmindedly took her hand and walked back to the blankets. "Let's get back in bed. It's too cold to do anything today." Sky huddled under the layers with her, holding her closer than he would normally allow himself. June was holding him even more tightly than he was holding her. He felt desperation in her, and loneliness. Sky wondered if for her, anyone would be enough so long as she wasn't alone in this space. She complimented his appearance frequently, but he couldn't fully believe she was sincere about it. He wasn't upset about it either. There were so few people out and people died every day from something or another. Who was he to judge if she would latch on to anyone with little thought to it? It'd increase her chances of survival at the very least. But he knew that wasn't her reason. Being alone in an empty world breaks the mind. Since he stayed at the Sanctuary, it became obvious to him how close he came to losing himself. If he didn't occasionally see people wandering here and there, would he have lost his mind entirely? On the other side of the border, where he spent most of his time wandering before, he never encountered any places like the Sanctuary. The few living establishments were run by Moone & Wolfe. Outside of that were the temporary shelters of travelers wandering aimlessly, rust creeping over the metal frames of the abandoned past, and kudzu strangling broken buildings' frames. June's last boyfriend wasn't with her for long. Who was June around before that? How much time was there in between that person and that boy? And what about before that? June mentioned she was an orphan, but not exactly how long ago her parents died. She wouldn't talk to anyone with the supply team, but Sky knew she really wanted to. He could feel her jealousy every time he came back from talking to May and the others. Sky had more people in his life. He could walk away from here and not be alone. June didn't have anyone to go to, and she was too stubborn to accept the help of any community in spite of her desperate want to be near people. She was holding onto him now, but not letting him in any closer, the same as him. As much as she wanted his warmth, she saw life like seasons. She expected Sky to disappear from her some day, and Sky knew she was right. When his mission here was over, he'd leave. If she refused to come with him or go to the Sanctuary, he'd part ways with her. Sky had a mission to complete and other people counting on him. He didn't want to leave her behind either. They didn't have anything in common, aside from their loneliness, but that was enough to make him want to stay close. He wanted her to be someone he could see when this was all over, back at home with everyone else he loved. As he admitted that to himself, he already could see they were doomed to part. Again and again, everyone lost people. If he would have to let go one day, shouldn't he take advantage of now, he thought to himself. Or was there no point in trying at all? If he let her in more, he'd hurt more later. But Sky couldn't help feeling lonelier the longer it snowed. Kathy's voice on the radio, so close to him, only showed him their great distance. He couldn't feel the warmth of anyone through photos or videos. Letters filled with feelings could never replace a word spoken in person. Right now, there was only one person with him. He used to wondered why his sister would go off with that older man who worked with their father. He was a sick man and treated her terribly. He was far too old for her. His sister shouldn't have accepted any of that. But they were alone out there. Crystal wasn't allowed to go to school with other people her age, and Sky wasn't allowed anything like that either. They couldn't interact with any families in the area. Their father made sure to choose a house far from people. They were all alone, and Sky always followed his father's orders. Crystal was old enough to understand something was wrong and rebel. He understood her loneliness well now, as his was just as great back then though he couldn't name it yet. For every cruel action against her committed by Ben, when Crystal crossed through that field, she disappeared to somewhere beyond their father's reach. Sky stayed behind at the edge of their property, trapped at the house. Ben used his sister's loneliness and desire for freedom against her, and trapped her in his own twisted world. He didn't understand before why she didn't see through it, but now he understood she likely did. That didn't matter to her. She was willing to lie to herself to catch a glimpse of something beyond the horizon. She lied to herself in hopes of finding freedom and love. Any means to escape was one she would take. June had that kind of recklessness. While she wouldn't go to where groups of people were, she was willing to stay by at least one person at a time. The fear of being alone and trapped in isolation was stronger than her sense of self-preservation. Attaching herself to anyone she met was a gamble. While it could keep her alive longer, it could end her life just as well. She would be easy to manipulate by a cruel person. He didn't want to see that happen to her, but he didn't know how to protect her from it. The only way Sky knew how to protect himself from people like Ben and his father was to shut the world itself out, and that left him back at being consumed by loneliness and emptiness. They were the same in that they trusted no one, but June left at least her physical self open for others to come close. Sky doubted he could go beyond how they were now. He couldn't kiss her, and certainly nothing more. That was too much trust to give away, even with his inner self completely guarded. Between his, his mother's, and his sister's experiences, Sky wasn't certain he could ever let anyone in completely. Alex and Kathy had gotten the closest to seeing inside him, but even to them there were small barriers and there was no reason to think of physical things with them. They would only ever hug him or hold his hand, so there was nothing to worry over there. The way Alex and Eric described their relationship to him, he couldn't have something like that. To ever allow anyone to be so close, in both mind and body, was too frightening a prospect. If he let someone in like that, he could be hurt far more than he ever had been before, or worse--he might turn out to be the very monster he feared and hurt someone else that deeply. Sky couldn't see himself trying to intentionally hurt anyone, but Sky didn't trust anyone, least of all himself. He thought over if there was a way to enjoy whatever moments they had together without allowing her to ever get too close. He was holding her now. That wasn't too much. They could work together, and take pictures together. Right now, they were listening to Kathy play. Meals were shared. The blankets were wrapped around both of them. Maybe this could be enough, he told himself. June held him more tightly than he could hold her back. She would push him more eventually, he knew. He wasn't sure what he would do then. In spite of the weather, his body burned. Sky couldn't sort out his feelings. He distracted himself by getting up and making more food. Later, he took June out for a while to take pictures in the snow. They couldn't stay out for long. It was too cold and the weather wasn't letting up. Inside, their attention turned to the pictures they'd taken and drying off their clothes. They kept a pile of clothes in one corner of the tree house to rotate through as needed. June returned to the bed for the rest of the day, hidden in the blankets. Sky wrote another message out for his parents before turning in for the night himself. The night was colder than the day. Sky warmed his hands underneath the blankets. June moved closer to him in her sleep. Sky pulled her closer. As they lay close in the cold air, Sky thought about Eric and Alex. They spent every night like this, huddled together close in each other's arms. What a relief it must be, he thought, for them to wake up next to each other every morning. Sky knew he couldn't let June in any closer than this. He'd regret it later, he told himself. Still, he couldn't deny how warm he felt imagining what it might be like to always have someone close like that. June slept there beside him night after night now. There was a barrier between them that physical proximity could never overcome. His mind returned to his earlier dilemma, fighting with himself over the risk of letting that barrier down. He held her closer against himself, taking in her warmth. He soon drifted into sleep, his thoughts lost between want and fear. In his dream, Sky was somewhere he didn't recognize. The walls were stone and the floor was covered with herbs and flowers. He had a different body than his real body, though he was still male. The person who he was in the dream was wearing a long dress and a cape. His hair was long too, dark brown and wavy. The long hair was kept back in a messy high ponytail. His lips were painted. Necklaces and bracelets covered in gems jingled as he ran up a flight of steps. He was holding someone's hand. That person looked back at the young woman behind him. She was dressed in a similar manner to him. They laughed together. 'Where are you taking me?' The young woman asked through a grin. Her cheeks were red, but Sky couldn't tell if she was blushing or wearing something. 'You'll see. We're almost there.' That person said. He was definitely blushing. He could feel the heat on his face. The young man stopped in front of a door not far from the steps. He opened it and led the young woman inside. She pulled away from him, face redder than before. 'What is this about?' He stopped and looked back at her. 'What do you mean?' She put her hand to her face and looked away, laughing nervously. 'You've taken me to your bedroom.' The young man looked away too. 'Ah, I didn't bring you here because of that...It's my balcony I've come to take you to.' 'The balcony?' She asked. He smiled, his heartbeat ringing in his ears. The young man opened the door to his balcony and waved for the young woman to come over. 'Come. Tonight, we'll have the best view from here.' The young woman followed him out onto the balcony. 'What did you want to show me?' He pointed up toward the sky. Above them, a blood red full moon shone down. 'Look. Isn't it beautiful?' She looked up. Her eyes sparkled. 'It's so bright...' The young man grinned. 'See? That was worth sneaking off from the party, wasn't it?' She laughed under her breath. 'You must have been planning this from the start. You and your sister had already swapped places before the party started. But I doubt my father will think I've gone off to chat with your sister.' 'You never know. You know how my sister is.' He laughed. 'The same as you, from what I've heard. If I bore you tonight, will you run after some boy?' The young woman teased him. The young man took her hand and kissed it. 'How could I ever be bored when I'm near you?' 'Are you going to spend the rest of the night in that dress?' She asked. He looked down. The young man took off his cape and dress. Underneath, he was wearing pants. He put the cape back on, then wiped off his lips. 'Do you prefer this appearance?' 'Well, now you're more indecent, aren't you? Inviting an unmarried lady to your bedroom late at night and in nothing but your pants. Goodness, what intentions do you have, you bad little wolf?' She teased him more. He bowed to her. 'I assure you, I am no wolf. I am a virtuous lion.' 'Virtuous, are you? Did you really only bring me here to show me the moon?' She asked. The young man noticed something in the moon's light. She did as well, and hid herself by crossing her arms in front of her chest. The young man let his long hair down. His voice soft, he said. 'What I wanted I've already gotten.' 'And what was that?' She asked. The young man moved closer to her. He looked deep into her eyes and placed his hand to her cheek. He whispered. 'Here. I wanted you to myself, so I alone could capture this gaze and watch the lights dance in these eyes here in the dark. For this, if only for a moment, I would endure centuries of agony, and centuries more if I could be so lucky again.' In her eyes, he saw the field and a rainstorm brewing above. The lonely oak stood in the center of the field, and beneath it all, the stars. 'You don't want more than that?' She asked, her eyes locked with his. 'Any more than that, and I will surely go mad.' He said. 'As we are now, when we part, I am empty. I know one day your father will arrange for someone else to take your hand and I've accepted that, as I have accepted that this emptiness will always remain when you are far from me. If I were to ask you for more than this, I will lose myself.' 'You say such sweet things to me. I've heard you say sweet things to many. What is real?' She asked, touching his face back. He leaned closer to her. 'If I were only chasing you out of lust tonight, I would have kissed you by now. I cannot bear to do so. I am afraid to see...' 'Afraid to see what?' He pressed his forehead against hers. 'Something greater than this.' 'But what if I want more?' She asked. 'I will give you whatever you want.' He said. 'When I look into your eyes, I see the earth and in that, I see myself. You are the sun and the rain, the night and the day, the moon above. Without you, nothing lives within me.' She laughed and pulled away. 'And what of you before we met?' The young man reached for her hand. 'I did not know then how empty I was.' Glancing back and forth, the young woman moved closer again. She leaned in and kissed him. 'It's rather cold out tonight. Perhaps, we should go in for a while.' He unclasped his cape and offered it to her. 'Here. I'm fine.' She rejected it. 'I'm getting tired too. I'd like to lie down for a bit.' 'Oh. Should I walk you to your room?' He asked. She looked over at the bed. 'I don't think I can walk that far yet. Perhaps I could rest here, with you. I'm so cold.' The two exchanged looks before moving to the bed. The dream skipped forward in time, to later in the night. The young woman rested against the young man's chest, neither dressed. They were buried underneath several thick blankets and surrounded by more pillows than two people would ever need. The young woman reached over to the table beside the bed and held up a crown. She dangled it from her fingers. 'Do you know who your father will have you marry?' 'He says I may decide for myself. What of your father?' He asked. 'He hasn't chosen anyone yet. Father's been searching. He wants to find the best man to increase our standing, but he hasn't found a man he thinks is right yet.' The young woman placed the crown on his head. 'I'm sure he wants a prince.' The young man put his arms around her waist. 'Will any prince do?' 'So long as the prince is not an enemy. And even then, I think he might be willing to consider it.' 'Then if I offer myself...there shouldn't be a problem.' He said. He caressed her face. 'If you would want me. Is there another man you want?' She lay against him. 'You're such a strange man. How can you ask such a thing when I only ever look at you?' He kissed her on the head. 'Then, I have your permission to ask him?' 'Of course. The sooner the better. I'm sure tonight he was asking around with all the foreign nobility that came who might be available.' She pulled the blankets up higher. 'Though I suppose this means I'll have to deal with the old hound more.' The young man laughed loudly. 'Are you speaking of my dear sister?' She laughed with him. 'The guard dog of the Blackwell family. Will she accept me?' He ran his fingers through her hair. 'She will. She knows how I feel about you. Most think of my sister as always supporting my older brother in everything, but it's me that she protects the most. You won't need to worry over her disliking you. She's good at knowing when someone has ill intentions. She won't give you any trouble.' 'You say that, but she is an intense woman. I don't think there is a man alive who would dare cross her. What if she does not think I am good enough for her brother?' The young woman asked. 'Nevermind that.' He said. 'My sister knows my heart without even being in the same room as me.' 'I don't want to get up. My room is so far away.' She said. 'Then don't. Let's dress ourselves. We can pretend we are innocent.' He said with a grin. 'I doubt anyone would believe that.' 'But is it not the truth?' He rubbed his thumb across her lip. 'For in all my life, I have never felt more pure than I do right now.' 'You've already gotten me in bed. You don't need to keep saying such things.' She laughed, cheeks red. 'Oh, but I must.' He kissed her. 'I'm rather tired myself. Let's forget the clothes. This will only make things easier to have it our way if we are caught.' 'Then let us sleep. You can ask for my hand in the morning.' She closed her eyes and drifted into a dream. The young man stared at the window beside the balcony door. A little moonlight came through, the same bright red as before. Inside him, he felt a heavy weight, an ominous sense of dread building up. He spoke to the shadows in the room that took the form of everything that belonged to him. 'If I am ever alone again...could you rescue me then? You can't use those fangs of yours for everything. Or will I lose you one day? You know I'm not any good at protecting myself...or anyone.' Nothing answered back. He kissed the young woman again. 'I wish I were as strong as you, Sister. I am afraid. If I am allowed to hold her near, will I be able to protect her?' The room grew darker. Sky heard someone singing. He recognized the words. It was a song Kathy covered sometimes. He sang it with her before. Sky wanted to see Kathy. "Can't do anything. Just watch them swing with the wind out to sea..." Kathy sang. Sky opened his eyes. June was right beside him, turning up the volume on the radio. He saw his breath before him and June's arms covered with goosebumps. "The moon..." Sky muttered. "What?" June asked. Sky sat up. He rubbed his face. The dream stayed strong in his mind, stronger than the ones he had of Delilah. "It's nothing." He made breakfast and wrote the dream down in a new notebook. The words there weren't for anyone to see, except for Kathy when he returned. Her voice on the radio soothed him initially, but he became lonely the longer he listened. Sky wondered about his dream. He felt so sad and lonely in it, whoever that person he was. It didn't make sense. From the conversation the two people in his dream had, it sounded like they were happy together. Why was the man so sad and afraid? In his sleep, he felt the fear and sadness so deeply. It was greater than what he felt at his lowest points when awake. He didn't know what it was, but he felt so strongly that something awful was coming. 'Maybe those were my feelings.' Sky thought. He looked over at June. She was as carefree as always. He couldn't distinguish between himself and the man in the dream. The feelings were too intertwined. Sky went over to June. He hugged her from behind. "Sky?" She looked back at him. "Sorry, it's really cold. Should I move away?" He asked. "No, you're fine." She smiled. June put her hands over his. Sky rested his head against her shoulder. He listened to Kathy's voice. The longer she played, the farther away she seemed. In late December, the weather warmed enough to not snow or ice. Sky didn't want to go back down underground again yet. He worried the weather might change again on them. Since they were able to go out more, he went with June across the border to search around town for anything worth taking. June ditched any clothes she could and still keep warm. Sky told her to cover herself more, but she wouldn't listen. Eventually, he stopped bothering to say anything. As they searched, he got in the habit of holding her hand. He started doing it when they were in dark locations to not lose track of her. The more he did it, the more natural it felt. On New Year's Day, June asked him to come with her somewhere. She led him out to the top of a large hill. They sat together there. The land itself was already very elevated. At the top of the hill, Sky could see Atlanta. He knew they were quite far from there. He wondered what he could see from the top of the mountain a ways behind them. June leaned against him, holding his hand. Sky held her hand back, tightening his grip. June stared out at the distant lights in the green. "Is that them? Those people who round everyone up?" "No, they're not there, not in the part we can see. That's Atlanta. My parents are there." Sky said. Saying that stung. He could see the city, but he was too far away to reach them. "Oh." June rubbed her face against his arm. "Hey, you've been holding my hand a lot lately." "Sorry. I'll stop." Sky released his grip. "No, you don't need to stop." June went quiet, then asked. "Hey, do you like me?" Sky froze. His heart sped up. He looked away from her. "Yeah." "Like like me like me?" Sky's face turned red. "Yeah." "Do you want to be my boyfriend?" June asked. Sky expected she would ask him this eventually. He panicked. He wasn't prepared to answer that yet. "Sky?" His thoughts scattered. He blurted out an answer. "Y-yes." "Did you hear what I asked you?" June looked at him with an annoyed look. "I did." Sky's eyes darted back and forth between June and the ground. "I said yes." June's expression changed quickly. She grinned. "Really?!" "Y-yeah." Sky held his hands together between his legs to hide they were shaking. He didn't know why he said yes. "Now what?" June laughed. She leaned in close to his face. "You could kiss me." Feeling pressure to act, Sky kissed her on the cheek. "I meant..." "I know." Sky leaned away from her. "Not yet...I want it to be somewhere else." "Oh, a special first kiss. I didn't think you'd like stuff like that." She teased him. "Yeah, I guess..." Sky was sweating all over. 'What did I just do?' "So, what were you planning for our first kiss?" June asked. "I haven't thought ahead that far yet...but something...I want the mood to be right." Sky made up an answer. He didn't have any plan whatsoever. The kiss on the cheek was more contact than he was comfortable with. He couldn't tell that to June. She wouldn't understand, he thought. "Hehe. Okay." June accepted his answer. 'Well, I've bought myself some time at least.' Sky's anxiety skyrocketed. 'Why did I say yes?!' He thought about taking it back. June was happier than he'd ever seen her, and his mind was filled with all sorts of things he didn't want to admit. He didn't want to take it back. 'Maybe I can manage a kiss. That's not that big a deal.' Sky told himself. He tried to picture it in his head. His body tensed. 'But not today.' As the weather continued to warm, Sky spent more days simply talking with June about trivial things. He got used to kissing her on the cheek, but couldn't do more than that. They cuddled together at night even though they no longer needed to stay close for warmth. June took him to other places he hadn't explored for lengthy conversations. The big hill was her favorite spot. One day, she took him out there. They watched dark clouds coming in over Atlanta. June returned to wearing only a knee length dress and a pair of sandals. "I can't believe you've really never had a girlfriend before. Heh. Does that make me special?" "I guess." Sky said. He wasn't sure how to answer that. "You guess? Jeez." "Sorry. I'm not really good at this." Sky held her hand. "Hey, how many boyfriends have you had?" "Um, let me think." June counted on her fingers. "Seven...no, eight." "Eight? Wow. Um, were those mostly short relationships?" Sky asked. "Yeah. The longest one lasted three months. The shortest was two days." June said. "Two days? What happened?" Sky asked. He added. "Um...if you don't want to tell me, that's okay." "It doesn't bother me." June played with the dead grass underneath them. "They all died. The first one got shot. I ran away into the woods. Those people stole everything on him. The second one, he got ripped open by one of the big birds. The third one was the one that lasted two days. He fell crossing one of the borders, on top of it, and impaled himself. Then there was the fourth one. He ate some bad mushrooms and died. Number five, we were exploring an old building. He fell through the floor, and then another floor, and then another, and then another. Six watched his mom get eaten up by hungry people. He always had nightmares about it. One day, he lost it and blew his brains out. Seven broke his leg and it got infected. He tried to have someone cut it off, but he bled out and died anyway. And you know about number eight. He fell in the big hole." Sky put his hand to June's face. "I'm sorry." "It's in the past. People die every day. I'll die someday too. It doesn't matter." June said to him. The usual spark in her eyes was missing. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers. "It does matter. I don't want you to die." June leaned in more to kiss him. Sky moved back. "Sorry, not yet." He said. "You're strange." She said. "You act like you have all the time in the world. Aren't you afraid you'll die?" "I know I'll die one day." Sky looked out at the storms. "But I'm not going to live expecting death every day. If I can't imagine a future, there's no point in me gathering information for everyone. I have to look ahead, and tell myself I have the time." June was smiling, but her eyes were cold. "Must be nice." "You know, you can live like that too. You don't have to stay out here. There are safer places." Sky said. "No, this is best." June lay back against the grass. "My mom always told me to live freely. She never let any of those people cage her, and I won't let anyone capture me either." "You won't be captured. You can go as you please there." Sky told him. June rolled over. "They have too many rules. I'll live free and die free, even if that means I die younger." "What is you're so afraid of being there?" Sky asked. "You wouldn't understand." She said. June sat up. "Do you think we should go back? It looks like it's going to rain here too." Sky let it go. They walked back to the tree house. During the latter half of January, Sky felt they could go back to the underground lab. He reminded June that when they were in the lab, she absolutely needed to follow his instructions and wear the clothes he suggested. She went with him, but disobeyed him. "Nothing ever happened before. You're overreacting." She told him every time. He gave up on that entirely and focused on getting her to at least follow his other instructions. Now that they were dating, June seemed uninterested in helping much while they were down there. In the mornings, she complained about him waking her early to go. She was easily bored and complained most of the time. Fed up, one morning he simply told her he was going alone and that he'd be back later. She didn't seem to care. When he came back that evening, she only wanted to cuddle. He could feel she wanted more, but he pretended he didn't know that. That night, June kept the window open for a while. They watched the stars together in each other's arms. The moon shone brightly into the tree house. "It's pretty. Do you know how many stars there are?" She asked. "Too many to count." Sky said. "Millions at least." June pointed at the moon. "Hey, did you know people went to the moon once? My mom told me about that." "Yeah. That's so far away." Sky said. It didn't seem that way by looking at it. The moon looked as though it could fit inside his palm, but it was far greater in size than that and much too far away touch. The space between himself and the moon was terrifyingly far despite it being the closet celestial body to the earth. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, all of them could easily fit in between the Earth and the moon all at once and there would still be space left over. Farther away, the planets twinkled like stars. Sometimes, he noticed Venus, Mars, or Jupiter up in the sky shining brightly. When they went out to the hill, the little city in the forest was like the moon. From wherever he watched to whatever he reached for, the distance was always too great. "I bet it's really cold up there. And lonely." "Imagine getting stuck up there." June rested her arm on Sky's chest. "That'd be horrible. You'd die all alone, surrounded by nothing, looking off at the earth." Sky said. He had seen some pictures of the moon's surface before. As beautiful as it looked from Earth, the moon looked terrifying up close. "The stars are pretty but I don't think I'd ever want to be out in space. It's probably scarier than being down here." June said. "And you can't breathe up there." Sky added. "Really?" June's mouth hung open. "Then how did people go up there?" "They had to wear special suits." Sky explained. "What if something messed up the suit? What would happen then?" June's eyes widened. "They'd die. Really horribly too." Sky said. "And what was left of them would probably just float away out into nothing." Sky's description disturbed June. "I'd definitely rather be down here." "Yeah, me too." Sky said. Their conversation ended after that. Sky enjoyed the stars, but he sensed June had something else on her mind. "Hey, Sky, could we talk about something?" She asked. "Yeah. What is it?" "We've been dating a while now and you still haven't kissed me. Is there a reason?" She sat up and looked down at him. Sky froze up. He looked away. "I want it to be a certain way." "I get that, but it's been...a really long time. Is there something bothering you?" June asked. "Do you not really like me?" "It's not that." Sky searched quickly for an excuse. "I've been trying to get the right mood, but you keep interrupting me." "Oh, you want to be the one initiating it. Why didn't you say so?" June sat up straight. "Well, why don't we work on getting the mood right?" She was clearly expecting him to make a move then and there. Sky was more than a little uncomfortable. Alex's voice was in his head telling him he didn't need to do anything he didn't feel right about. He thought about Alex's words the entire time he kissed her. When he pulled away, a heavy disappointment hit him. June was happy though. That night, Sky struggled to fall asleep. He didn't want June close to him after that. Sky questioned himself. Why did he let her pressure him into that? A strange, heavy feeling rested on his chest. 'It's just a kiss. It's not a big deal.' Sky rolled over in bed. 'But I didn't want to. Why didn't I say no? I must have wanted to then. I'm just disappointed it wasn't that great. That's all it is.' Sky stared at the wall. That answer was good enough for him for now. He hummed a melody to himself. A light drizzle came down outside. Sky listened to the rain, letting it take him off to sleep. A dark room came into view, lit by candlelight. It was the same bedroom as before, and he was that man again. He fixed his hair in front of a large mirror. Beside him, a young woman who appeared to be the same age as the young man was wrapping her chest with cloth. She looked nearly identical to the young man. He noted a birthmark on her shoulder, on the opposite side of one on his own shoulder. The young woman wore pants and heavy boots. She put on a shirt with a lion embroidered on it after she finished tightening the cloth. A belt went around the long shirt with a sword hanging from it. The young woman brushed her hair. 'Braid my hair back for me.' The young man finished putting on a necklace, then took the brush from her. He brushed her hair back and braided it tightly. 'How bad do you think it'll be?' 'It'll be easy. It's just a small fight at the border. I doubt we'll lose a single man.' The woman adjusted her belt. 'I'm only worried about a single woman.' He said. He tied a ribbon around the end of her braid. 'Is every man in this family doomed to turn into a worrywart? Come on now. I fight better than you.' She put on a cape. The young man picked up a shield decorated with a lion similar to the one on the young woman's shirt. 'Make sure Brother tightens my armor properly. Last time you two went out to fight, you rushed off without letting him check it.' She took the shield from him. 'It wasn't an issue.' 'Sister, promise me.' She rolled her eyes at him. 'And you promise to keep your hands off my lady while I'm away.' 'I would never chase after any man or woman my sister took an interest in. Besides, I don't go for servants.' He teased her. 'Oh, yes. How could I forget you prefer the riskiest you can go for? Will it be some crown prince next time? A betrothed princess?' She teased him back. The young woman smirked. 'Or are you still running after that pretty princess who keeps coming to Father's feasts and parties? What was her name?' The young man tied his hair up. 'What princess? I hardly remember any particular one.' 'Roísín. That was it. Princess Roísín.' The young woman said, grinning wider. Flustered, the young man applied make-up in the mirror to distract himself from his sister. 'Don't think I remember who that is.' 'Look at you. You must really fancy her. You never get worked up over anyone.' She laughed. 'Well, she is quite pretty.' 'Enough about her. Make sure you have him tighten my armor before you go out to fight.' The young man painted his lips red. 'Is there any man you want me to dance with tonight?' 'Dance with Roibín. He'll get a laugh out of it.' She added a bag to her belt. 'He's not going with you two?' She shook her head. 'Brother said we didn't need that many people. He told him to stay behind.' 'Oh, then I must. I'm sure he's upset over it. Sometimes, our dearest brother is entirely thoughtless.' The young man laughed under his breath. She laughed with him. 'Well, you know him. He can only focus on one thing at a time. Tonight, it's fighting. He'll be regretting something or another tomorrow.' The young man watched her through the mirror. 'Are you sure you want to go out tonight? You've been going in my place so often these days. You may wield a sword better than me, but I'm not incapable. And I'm a damn better archer than you.' 'Oh, spare me. There's a party tonight. I hate parties. I'd much rather be fighting.' She said. 'Besides, in the off chance something does go horribly wrong, better to have the spare at home and hidden than the both of you in danger. Keep an eye on my lady. Don't let any man touch her.' 'As you wish.' He bowed to her as a joke. She unsheathed her brother's sword and looked over the blade. 'You did a good job polishing it.' 'I did the armor earlier too.' He said. She turned the blade around in her hand, then looked over at her brother. She put the sword away. 'Yes, it's definite.' 'What is?' He asked. She grinned again. 'You're going to marry that princess.' The young man blushed. 'Why are you on about that again? Go on your way! Rowan's waiting for you.' She laughed. 'What a mess you are. You can tell her she has my blessing when you propose.' 'I'm not planning on proposing to anyone any time soon.' He faced the mirror. 'You've done a good job with the rouge on your cheeks.' She said. 'I haven't put any on yet.' He looked at his face closely. His cheeks were a deep red. 'Oh, I know it won't be soon. Not this year, for certain, with the way you're falling over yourself around her.' She laughed and opened the door. 'I'll see you in the morning.' 'Robin, wait.' He stopped her at the door and closed it. 'About Roísín...do you think her father would really accept that if I did?' 'Look at you. You can't think of anything else. What a strange way to see you.' His sister laughed again. 'What does it matter what her father thinks? Steal her away and run to the forest if you must. Don't be so timid. I won't accept that from my twin.' 'But if I did that, then I can't cover for you anymore.' He said. 'I'll manage somehow.' Robin opened up the door slightly. 'But what if...' He started to say. 'Then I'll come running to you.' Robin opened the door more and walked through. 'I have to go now. I'm definitely late.' 'Be careful.' He said. She waved and ran down the hall. The young man watched her disappear into darkness. Then, he ran off to take his sister's place at the party. Sky woke up before dawn. June was still deep in sleep. Sky stretched, then got up to open the window. A sliver of red peeked out from the darkness on the horizon. "Robin? Robin Blackwell. Who was that? That name sounds familiar." He leaned against the bottom of the window. "Twins, huh? And another brother. I know I've seen you on the family tree. Where were you?" He yawned. Sky went down and started up a fire to make some coffee. He brought his laptop outside and searched through a digital copy he made of the Blackwell family tree. There were so many people to search through. "Robin...Robin...where are you?" Sky gave up on searching by name. He scanned through the large file searching for twins. That's where he found her. Robin Blackwell, daughter of Wren and Rosabella Blackwell, born 1454. Her older brother was named Rowan, clearly after his uncle. At the twin brother's name, Sky's eyes widened. "Leon." Sky stared at the screen. The man he was in his dreams was Leon Blackwell, the one who came generations before Delilah's father, Leon. He was the son of the younger of the two brothers who's sword Sky once held. "Why am I dreaming about you?" He looked more closely at Leon's portion of the tree. He did indeed marry Roísín eventually. She died a year after they were married, the day their twin sons were born. Sky's heart hurt. "That's right. I knew that. That was in your diary." Leon had seven children in total between two marriages, each wife having a set of male twins and his second wife having three daughters. The Leon Blackwell that formed the pact between the twenty families would be born six generations later, descending from his son, Anan. Delilah and Leon were separated by seven generations. Sky was born thirteen generations after Delilah Blackwell, though through Heather Blackwell's line rather than directly through Delilah herself. Roughly twenty generations separated Sky and this Leon. That was so far back in time that Sky couldn't conceptualize it. Leon Blackwell was born more than half a millennia ago. "If I'm Delilah, what do you have to do with anything?" Sky asked aloud. He searched through the photos and scans he had of artwork from the artifact room. He wanted to see Leon's face again. He clicked through until he found him. The first image he found was of a family portrait. Leon and his siblings were all small children in it. All three appeared to be wearing what looked like dresses, but one was more feminine looking than the other. Sky read that one was Leon, though it originally said Robin. Someone had scratched through Robin and Leon's names and then reversed them. Leon's outfit was covered in bows. He wore a pearl necklace and a flower crown. His sister, Robin, was dressed identical to their older brother, Rowan. 'So they were switching places even then.' Sky thought. He kept searching for more. He wanted to see Leon's face as an adult. Then, he found one. It was a portrait of him alone. He was wearing a crown on his head and holding up the sword Sky saw in the artifact room. Sky stared at the painting. "Why am I dreaming of you? Is there some connection between you and her? Delilah's father was named after you. Is that related?" The painting gave him no clues. He sighed. 'It's only a dream. Even if that nonsense with Delilah might have some truth to it somewhere, that doesn't mean this isn't just another dream.' Sky gave up on looking deeper into that. He drank his coffee and heated up a prepackaged meal from the supply box to split with June. When the food was done, he woke her. "Hey, it's breakfast time." He said. June yawned. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, then pulled him down into a kiss. "Morning." Sky's body froze. "M-morning..." "What's wrong?" She asked. Sky got back up. "Nothing. Let's eat before it gets cold." June sat up and ate with him. She leaned against him with a big smile on her face. Sky forced himself to smile back. 'Why can't I say what I want?' Sky asked himself. He told himself to not worry over it and get used to it. Maybe Alex was wrong. Maybe he just didn't like this sort of thing after all, Sky thought. He decided he'd force himself to get used to being touched like that. It made June happy. Sky took his medicine after breakfast and tried to forget the unpleasant memories bubbling up in his mind and the icky feeling creeping through his body. 'Do I need a higher dosage?' For the next few months, Sky let June do as she pleased for the most part. He made little progress in the lab. The deeper he went in, the less documents he found. From what he could guess, the lower floors were where more secretive research was done. The company made a point to clear out anything from there. He had three floors left, but his pace going through the rooms was slower. While he didn't find much of anything left behind, he did have encounters with runners, demons, and ghouls occasionally. He didn't want to be trapped down there with several of them. Sky kept his time down in the lower floors to a minimum, only three to four hours per day at the most, with the rest being time used to cautiously get down there and get out. Being so far underground made him claustrophobic. When he came back from his daily searches, he and June went places to talk and kiss. The amount of kissing between them increased, along with some light touching Sky was uncomfortable with. He said nothing about it. After all, a part of him did like being touched. But when they kissed, his body felt like it was cut in three ways--his body, his heart, and his mind. His body felt good while his mind tormented him with strange images. In between, his heart rested in confusion. He tried not to think about it at all, though he rejected June every time she asked for more than what they currently did together. The thought of doing anything sexual agonized him. The most overt thing he could do was touch her above the waist over her clothes. His body felt hot and excited, but inside disgust and fear consumed him. At least with that, he was better able to put a boundary down. Ironically, because he was so terrified of it, he could speak up and say no more easily than with other things. Sky wondered why he'd gotten like this. A few years ago, he wouldn't have let anyone push him into anything. His gun would've been out before he'd allow any kind of physical contact. In April, June pressured him about the matter more. She confronted him at the hillside. "Hey Sky, do you still like me?" She asked. "Yeah." June looked at him. "Then how come you don't want to do anything but kiss?" Sky stared at the ground. "I don't want to yet." "Why?" "I dunno. I don't feel ready to." Sky said. "It's really not a big deal, you know." June said. She lay back on the grass. "Besides, if you keep waiting, you might end up never doing it at all." "That's fine with me." Sky pulled his legs in. "If it can't be how I want it, then there's no point in doing it at all." "But don't you think you'll regret that? What if you die tomorrow?" June asked. Sky looked at her. Her pressuring suddenly made sense. "Is that what you're worried about? I'd regret it more if I did it when I didn't want to than if I never did at all." "What are you waiting for? I don't understand." June pouted. "Am I not good enough for you?" "It's not about anything like that. I don't..." Sky did his best to push away the images in his mind. "I don't want to talk about why, but it's not related to you." "Is there some other girl you want to be with instead? Is it that girl that comes by?" Sky sighed. "This isn't about May either. It's not about any girl. It's...related to why I have to take that medicine. There's a lot of...things I can't talk about from when I was a kid. I don't want to deal with that right now." June sat up. "Why can't you tell me about it? I've told you a lot of stuff about me." "You never told me what happened to your parents." Sky said. June froze. She got up. "You know, maybe I don't wanna do that with you anyway. You'd probably be bad at it." Sky didn't look at her. He listened to her walk away. With a heavy sigh, he leaned forward and watched the clouds swirling over Atlanta. When June was out of earshot, he asked himself. "Why am I doing this?" He doubted the feelings inside him right now were love. Sky was certain they weren't. It was loneliness and hunger for touch that bound the both of them. What June wanted and what he wanted only crossed at narrow intersections. She wasn't planning a future with him in it, or one for herself. The pain etched into his body didn't matter to her. She wanted to get what she could out of him, consequences for both of them be damned. June was recklessly marching toward death, while Sky clung to life as best he could. It would be in his best interest to end the relationship and part ways with the girl. He couldn't bring himself to do that. He was too lonely, and he couldn't go home yet. He hadn't accomplished enough to feel like it mattered. As much as she made him uncomfortable, he was fearing being on his own again. For a moment, he considered giving into her wants to keep the peace between them. That idea was quickly tossed aside. He felt sick at himself for thinking such a thing. "I shouldn't have said yes to you." Sky said aloud. He thought about ending the relationship and staying near her, but he doubted she would allow him to stay in the tree house anymore. She may shut him out entirely. He remembered his original goal with her. Sky wanted to get her to go to the Sanctuary once he left the area. If he could accomplish at least that, this mess he got himself into would have some meaning to it. He doubted that would go anywhere either, but he wanted to try anyway. Sky stared out at the brewing storm in the distance. He hummed quietly to himself and focused on the clouds. In his mind, he pictured how he wanted the weather to be, where the lightning should strike, how loud the thunder should echo. Drop by drop, the rain mirrored his thoughts. At the edge of his side, to the left, he saw a part of the storm that didn't obey him. There, the clouds were darker and the rain came down a bloody red shade. "Heather?" He asked. Wanting his mind off June and to test himself, he focused on the dark spot in the storm. "Which one of us is stronger, impostor?" The dark clouds turned a lighter gray. The red faded to a pink, then turned clear. Another patch of dark clouds appeared near the area the other one had been in. Sky changed its color before the rain started. Then, another appeared. He manipulated that one too. This continued on until the dark clouds stopped appearing. Sky laughed. "So, you are weaker than me. Interesting." He stood up and sung a song, picturing an expanding storm in his mind. His singing was interrupted by a screeching noise behind him. Sky turned around. A demon lunged at him. He jumped out of the way and shot at it several times. After five shots, he managed to hit it in the head. It fell to the ground, blood oozing out and down the hill. Sky let the rain wash the blood off him as he rushed back to the tree house to check on June. Sky climbed up into the tree house faster than he thought was possible. June was under the blankets, shivering. "Di-did it bite you?!" Sky closed the trap door. He shook his head. "I killed it. Are you okay?" "I never saw it. I heard the scream and gunshots." June stayed down near the floor. "There's been more of them lately." "Yeah. That's so strange. When I was back home, there was an increase in attacks then too. Something's changed, but I don't know what." Sky said. He stripped his clothes off and changed into a different set. "I don't think the blood got in me." "Are you sure?" June asked. Sky checked out the window to see if there were any others around. He didn't see anything. Sky rung out his clothes, then hung them up. "I'm surprised you came back...guess your stuff is here." June sulked under the blanket. "I came back to see if you were okay. I thought...it might've already got you." He said. "Oh." June looked away. "Um, do you want me to leave?" Sky asked. "No." The two teenagers both went quiet. Sky closed the window and sat down. "Hey June...um, I'm sorry about earlier. I know you want to know stuff about my past, but I can't really...talk about it. It's not about you. There's something wrong with me." Sky said. "Did something bad happen to you?" She asked. "It was...something that happened to my sister." He looked away from her. "Your sister, she's dead, isn't she?" June asked. "Yes. She died a long time ago, from the Rust. All of my family died that day. What happened to her...happened before then. I saw..." Sky saw flashes of that day in his mind. Distorted images floated in. The smell of the grass and the flowers, the heat of the sun on his skin, the threads of her clothes unraveling from careless rips. He couldn't see her face then. His mind refused to show him that, but he could see her hands against the dirt. Sky shook those thoughts from his mind. "But even if that...didn't happen, I would still tell you no." June gave him a confused, disgusted look. "What? I don't understand." "I know you don't think it's a big deal, but for me, it is. I'm not ready to do anything more than what we've already been doing, and I don't know when I'll be ready either. For me to say no to you, it really doesn't need to be any deeper than that." Sky said. "It doesn't mean I hate you or anything." "Ready? I just don't understand. What if you die before then?" June asked. "That doesn't bother me." Sky said. He stayed firm in his words. "I understand if you don't like this, and if you really want that from me right now, I can't give you that. Nothing you say to me right now is going to change my mind. So, if it's that important to you, we should probably end this." "What's the point of waiting for anything when the world is already over?" June asked him. Sky leaned against the wall. "I'm still fighting. So long as I am, I'm going to make plans for tomorrow and live expecting I'll see it. I'm sorry I can't give you what you want. So, if you want to end it, it's okay. There's no point in continuing something that's not gonna work." June shifted uncomfortably under the blankets. "It's fine. I don't care that much. It's not like it's that great anyway." Sky's face flushed. "June, I'm not...I can't promise you anything, but it's not like I'm saying it'll never happen. I might want to one day. But I'm not ready right now. Could we still kiss?" She smiled a little. "Yeah." For the second time, Sky initiated the kiss, and for the first time, he wanted it. It felt different than the other times they kissed. The usual discomfort wasn't there. His body only felt hot and curious. Letting his hands wander didn't feel like a painful exercise. He let himself touch a little more than he had before. Though his mind was filled with far more intimate thoughts about June and his body was in agreement with those wants, he knew he wasn't ready for that yet either. Sky was content with this for now. As they kissed and touched, he wondered if June was pushing herself beyond what she was comfortable with too, and if she'd always lived like that. She seemed fixated on living as fast as possible, as if marking off an invisible checklist in her mind to complete before the death she was racing toward. Whether this relationship between them was doomed or not, he wanted to get her to see there was another way to live. Late that night, before bed, Sky thought back over the day. He'd gone further than before, and he didn't feel disgusted with himself today. He wondered why that experience felt different than the other times. 'I wanted it.' He thought to himself. This time, he didn't let her push him into anything. Sky laid down his boundaries clearly for her and she accepted his terms. That was why, he thought, he finally felt comfortable. He let his mind wander over those thoughts he had earlier when he touched her. Thinking about that made him anxious, but he noticed he felt a lot less anxious than before and there were no more of those thoughts about his father's teachings and what happened to his sister. 'Maybe I can do that...one day.' Sky looked at June, who was sleeping against him. He touched her face and smiled. 'Maybe with you.' He closed his eyes and thought about his sister. Sky created a different version of reality in his mind for her. In his mental fantasy, Crystal left with him across the horizon and they never returned. She met a nice young man around her age and they took care of him together. He wrote Ben out of her life entirely, as if he had never existed at all. Then, he rewrote the beginning and erased his father too. He pictured instead they were raised by Kathy and his mother, never needing to escape at all. Their world was never destroyed. June was a girl he met at school. They went on dates together. The sleepier he got, the harder it was for him to focus on the images he created in his head. Then, they faded and only he remained. He sat in the field behind his old home as his sister. He couldn't tell if he was her in the dream, or watching her from above. Sky looked down and saw the bruises and blood on the inner part of her thighs. He was almost certain then it was his own body he was looking at, but he knew he looked like Crystal. It was as if they were one and the same. Between his legs, he saw a river flowing underneath him. It glowed a bright blue. The sun traded places with the stars and the moon above him. Wind brushed away the tall grass. Sky stood up and saw the dress he wore change to a longer one. He was wearing pants underneath them and cape with a lion shaped clasp. Sky walked forward above the blue river of stars. Someone reached out for his hand. He looked over. It was Roísín. When Sky looked back at himself, he was wearing only mens clothing. She held his hand tightly as their feet sunk into the water. Then, he was Delilah holding another young girl's hand. Her face was familiar, but Sky didn't recall seeing her in any of the paintings. Then, their feet sunk deeper. He was himself now. The person who held his hand was the one he always met in the field with the rain and the lonely oak. Sky still couldn't see her face. He called out her name, but it escaped him as soon as it left his lips. The river led him to the sea. At the shore, a cloaked figure waited for him. The young woman whose hand he was holding a moment ago vanished. The hooded figure turned around. She let the cloak fall to the ground. Wearing Leon's armor, Robin Blackwell stood before him. She held a sword in the air with a dog decorating the hilt and sheath. Under one arm, she carried his helmet. Robin sheathed her sword. 'Sister...' Sky said to her. 'Why am I here?' Robin walked over to him. 'You've forgotten again.' 'Why are you here?' He asked her. 'Because you are.' She said. 'I said I'd always protect you. I meant that, forever.' Sky ran to her and hugged her. 'Please, Robin, show me why I'm here.' Robin patted him on the head. 'Come with me.' She led him to the water. Sky held her hand as they walked out into the sea. The waves washed over them and brought them both somewhere else. Sky saw a slightly younger Robin rush through a door. She ran to her brother. Sky looked around the room. He heard several cries. Leon was holding two small babies, one in each arm, resting his face against Roísín's. Tears streamed down his face. He cried louder than the infants. Robin took hold of her brother and held him close against her chest. He cried uncontrollably, uttering not a single word. Roísín's eyes were half closed. Her pale body remained motionless on the bed. Sky saw in Robin's eyes she wanted to cry, but she held her tears back to appear strong. She kissed her brother on the forehead and looked down at the children he held. A servant came into the room. She yelled at the servant to leave them alone. Sky walked toward Leon and the children. He knelt down and touched each baby boy. Their cries stirred up a deep pain in him. Then, he walked over to the bed. Sky sat down and looked over the woman. He touched her face. Her body was a little warm, but strange. He wanted her to speak to him. She lay there still as a doe. Sky started to cry himself. He couldn't stop it. The tears rushed out of him. Then, he found himself against Robin, holding those two boys. Leon's words to her then came through him. 'I killed her.' 'No. No, don't you dare say such a thing.' Robin told him. 'She's dead because of me.' He cried out. 'I shouldn't...' 'You shouldn't have what? Done what any husband would do? If not you, some other man would have gotten her pregnant one day.' Robin said. 'Would you call our father a murderer if our mother died having you?' Leon shook in her arms. His crying turned to whimpers. He looked into Robin's eyes. 'Don't you dare...don't you dare get pregnant.' 'That's not for you to decide.' Robin said. She put a hand on each of the babies' heads. 'Don't you insult her when she gave you these. She worked hard to make sure they were born.' 'Take them from me. Let me die with her.' Leon said. Robin accidentally let a tear slip out. She quickly wiped it away. 'You're their father. You must live to take care of them. Did she tell you to die with her?' 'But I can't...I can't live without her.' 'You're breathing now, aren't you?' Robin wiped his face off. 'Listen to me. We're all going to die one day, but we can't stop living because we lose someone. No matter how much we love them. They wouldn't want that. She wouldn't want you to die like that. Roísín went through a lot to give these two life. She entrusted them to you. You have to live for her, and for them. These children are the embers of the flame that was her life. Turn them into blazing fires with your light.' Leon looked down at the babies in his arms. The small, fragile beings cried loudly. He rocked them and spoke softly to them. 'Shh...I'll find you food soon. I'm sorry...it is only me now.' He hummed a song to them, a few tears falling from his face. The children gradually quieted. Leon looked over at his wife's face. His temporary calm broke away from him. Robin got up and covered the body with her cloak. 'You should leave this room now.' She said. 'I can't leave her.' Leon said. 'Leon, she isn't here anymore.' Robin put her hand on his shoulder. 'Come. Let's show them your sons.' The brother and sister walked together through the door. Outside, it rained. Robin walked him through to another raining day, when they were much older. Robin sat on the throne, dressed as her brother and wearing their father's crown. Leon wore his sister's clothes and played with his children and his sister's adopted daughter. His oldest children, his twins by Roísín, were now seventeen and Leon himself was forty. Leon said to the first born of the first set of twins. 'Abel, could you take everyone to the dining hall for a while? Your aunt and I have things we need to discuss before our guests arrive.' Abel nodded. 'Come on, everyone. Let's go.' Seven children followed behind Abel out of the room. Robin laughed. 'Damn if you aren't good at making children. Is there more on the way?' Leon laughed with her. 'I don't know if Ella can have any more. I think five is enough to ask of any woman, don't you?' 'You already had two boys. You didn't really need to have any more children. And yet, here we are.' She teased him. He shrugged. 'Well, you know. I remarried. It just sort of happened.' 'Five children do not just happen, dear brother.' She said. 'Oh, I'm sure you'd have some yourself if you weren't with a woman too.' He said. Leon looked over at her. 'Honestly, it's for the best though. I can't imagine you carrying a baby. What a ridiculous thought. How would you wear my armor?' 'Is that all you're worried about? Not being able to get out of your responsibilities?' She took off the crown and held it in her hands. 'I'm glad.' 'You're glad?' 'I'd rather that than you fear it.' She said. 'Oh, I fear it greatly.' He said. Leon sat down beside the throne. 'But it is the way of life. I can't stop death from coming.' Robin placed the crown on her brother's head. 'No one can. And that is why I'll be the king tonight. I've heard that the king visiting us today may be seeking to take your life. Please, spend today standing pretty beside my lady.' Leon looked over at her. Sky felt the deep sadness within him again. He slouched against the throne and removed the crown. 'Maybe I should have run with her to the forest.' 'Hmm?' 'Nothing. Don't worry over me.' He said. Leon felt over the crown. 'If I'd done that, I wouldn't have been able to free Rowan. There's no escaping some sort of pain unfolding.' 'You're thinking about her again, aren't you? Their birthday was yesterday.' Robin patted him on the head. 'You still miss her.' Leon put the crown back on. 'Back then, you told me to live for her and them, and I've done my best to try and move on. But I died that day. I am dead now. No matter what I've done, I have never succeeded in dulling the pain of that day. Forgive me.' 'You'll see her again.' Robin reassured him. 'Everyone tells me that. But that's not what I want.' Leon pulled his knees in close. Robin stared at her brother. She sighed, knowing his every thought. 'If that's what you want, then refuse him and take her with you.' 'What do you mean?' He asked. 'Take her and come back again. Live another life, one where you can do all those things you wanted to do with her.' Robin got up from the throne. Leon stood up. 'But how would I do that? I can't defy Death himself.' She turned around and shook her head. 'Very well. Then, I'll accompany you in your rebellion too. He can't stop all three of us.' 'But what if we can't?' 'Don't worry on that right now.' Robin walked over to the doors. 'Come. We should see Mother and Father before our guests arrive. Father's still recovering from that illness.' Leon rushed over to her. 'Sister, wait. I said...' She sighed and took the crown from his head. Robin placed it back on her own. 'You already know what I'm going to tell you. Now, let's go.' Sky separated from Leon. The two figures walked ahead of him, while he stayed behind with a younger, armor clad Robin. He looked over at her. 'Does this mean...we were successful? But why would you do that? Why did you come?' Robin put her brother's helmet on. She walked ahead of him to another place. 'You know I won't answer such pointless questions.' Sky caught up with her. 'Then, I won't ask that. But what about Delilah? Was I really her? Why am I here again?' They walked through a field together to a house Sky recognized. It was the house Delilah lived in. He saw the three sisters sitting on the front porch. Debbie brushed Heather's hair. Another girl sat down beside Delilah, making a flower crown with her. She looked similar to Debbie, but younger. The old hound dog rested its head in Delilah's lap. Delilah's father, Leon, came out of the front door. He grabbed the girl beside Delilah by the arm and pulled her over to him. 'Girl, come with me now.' Leon said. Hound stood up and growled at Leon. Leon kicked the dog. 'Enough of you, you damn dog. I'm your master. And I'm your master too, girl. I won't have you disrespect my wife in my own house.' 'Master Blackwell, I don't know what you are referring to.' The girl winced in pain. He tightened his grip on her wrist. 'Don't play innocent with me. Rose said you drenched her clothes in sheep blood.' 'But Master, I did not. I don't know why she said that.' The girl's shoulders shook. 'Please, there must be some mistake. I've been here with Miss Lilah all day.' Delilah stood up. 'Father, it's true. Selene has been with me this entire time. She couldn't have done anything like that today.' Leon looked over at Debbie. 'Then was it you, Debbie?' 'No, sir. I've been helping Miss Heather today.' Debbie lowered her head when she spoke to Leon. Heather supported her. 'She has indeed been with me all day, Father. We were out near the woods earlier picking berries for tarts. We only got back half an hour ago or so. Debbie's been with me since early morning.' Leon turned to his middle daughter. 'Rosie, did you see anything?' She shook her head. 'No, Father. I was at the church earlier today to help get things ready for Easter. I went with Edith Gardener and Lorena Morris.' Leon looked at the girls, then balled his fist. 'I see. Children, please go play somewhere else. Your mother and I need to have a talk.' He went back inside the house, slamming the door. His voice could be heard from outside. 'Rose! Rose, get the hell over here now!' Sky could hear him shouting. Delilah took hold of Selene's hand and ran out into the yard. Hound followed behind them. The girls rushed out to the field. Behind them, Heather, Debbie, and Rose left too in another direction. As far as Delilah ran, Sky could hear Leon shouting at his wife, Primrose. Delilah and Selene stopped at the river. They sat by the water's edge. Delilah examined Selene's arm. 'Poor thing. He's hurt you again.' Selene blushed, her eyes only on Delilah. 'It's alright. It doesn't hurt that badly.' Delilah hugged the servant girl. 'No, it is wrong. He hurts too many, and so does Mother. She's lied about you again.' 'I'm sure your mother has her reasons. She seems unwell lately.' Delilah grabbed the girl's hand. She pointed to the horizon. 'Let's forget about them. Let's keep walking that way. Last night, I had that dream again about the boy and the field. Tonight, we might find an oak tree.' Selene walked with Delilah. Hound followed right behind them. Delilah's hand rested perfectly in Selene's. They wandered far from the town. Selene held Delilah's hand more tightly. 'Lilah, we're really far now. What if we get lost?' Delilah slipped from her grasp and raced ahead. She laughed. 'Lilah, wait!' Selene chased after her. Delilah ran into the forest and toward the abandoned mine. She stopped in the entrance. Selene caught her breath. Hound trotted behind her, barely able to keep up with either of them. Selene looked around. 'We shouldn't be here. This area's dangerous.' 'We're not going in. I wanted to be away from everyone for a while.' Delilah sat down on a rock near the entrance. Selene sat down beside her. She petted Hound. 'What about the oak tree?' Delilah swung her legs back and forth. 'I've been thinking...That place might not be here. It might be farther away. We may have to wait till we're older to find it. Or...we could run away!' 'But what way should we go? How would we get there? We can't survive by ourselves.' Selene said. 'We'd manage somehow.' Delilah looked over at Selene. She smiled and kissed her. 'We'll be together forever.' Selene and Delilah exchanged looks and kissed once more. Hound watched them, then rested his head down on the ground. The dog faded away back into Robin. Then, Delilah and Selene vanished. Hound rose up from Robin's shadow and rushed to the woods. A crowd of people came out of the woods. Delilah and her sisters waited by where Hound had rushed over to. Leon and a young man were the last to come out of the woods. Leon held Selene in his arms. Her arms hung lifelessly. Her body was covered in something dusty and black. Red dripped from the back of her head and down Leon's right arm. Sky noticed one of Selene's shoes was missing. Debbie ran to Leon. She burst into tears. Leon looked at her with pity. 'In the old mine...I found her there.' Debbie touched Selene's face. 'We'll have her buried soon.' Leon said. Delilah looked on. Tears streamed down her face. She fell to her knees. The town pastor rushed over to Leon. 'What was she doing in the old mine?' 'I don't know. Debbie, do you know anything?' Leon turned to Debbie. She shook her head. 'I didn't see her leave this morning.' Leon looked over at his daughters. 'Girls, do you know anything?' Heather and Rose shook their heads. Delilah couldn't hear him. She was too lost in her sadness. 'Lilah, did you hear me?' Leon asked her. Heather tapped her on the shoulder. 'Lilah, Father asked you a question. Do you know why Selene would be at the old mine?' Delilah shook her head. Hound walked over to Delilah. The dog rested his head in her lap, whimpering softly. Debbie cried over her younger sister's body. 'No, you can't go. You can't leave me alone...You're all that's left...' 'I'm sorry, Debbie. We'll keep looking into this. Someone must know what happened. Come with me to the church.' Leon told the girl. Debbie wiped her face off. She followed Leon. The others, except for Delilah and the young man, went with Leon to the church. The young man walked over to Delilah. He said. 'Aren't you going with them, Lilah?' Delilah couldn't speak. Sky felt her pain in his throat and chest. She shook her heard and cowered on the ground, unable to move from that spot. The young man knelt down. He petted Hound on the head and said to her. 'Do you know anything about what happened? Tell me.' She shook her head again. The young man watched the others moving away from them. 'I don't think she fell.' Delilah looked up, eyes wide. She forced her words out. 'Allen? What does that mean?' Allen kept his eyes on the others. 'Someone killed her, I'm certain of it. They made it look like she fell, whoever it was. Take no offense. Normally, I'd suspect your father when things go wrong. But we both nearly died ourselves getting to her.' 'Who do you think did it?' Delilah asked him. Allen stood back up. 'I can't say yet, but I have an idea. Lilah, please be honest with me. Did your father ever lay a hand on her?' Delilah looked back to see if her father was close enough to hear her. She said quietly. 'Of course. He's hit us all at some point or another.' Allen's eyes were full of pity. 'That isn't what I mean. Did he...' Rose ran over to them. 'Lilah, come. Father says we all have to go church right now. It's not safe to be out alone right now.' 'I don't want to.' Delilah turned away from her sister. As Sky watched her, he felt his legs growing weaker. He sensed in that moment Delilah was incapable of standing up. 'Must you be such a pain? Let's go!' Rose ordered her around. Allen got between them. 'Rosie, go on ahead. I'll bring her to the church when she's ready.' Rose stomped her foot. 'Father won't like that. He hates you. You're no gentleman. Is Heather not enough for you to try to seduce?' Allen leaned closer to Rose. 'What, did you want me too? Is Daddy not enough for you?' Rose attempted to slap him. Allen grabbed her hand. 'I'll hit you back.' She yanked herself free. 'Brute!' 'Go on your way. I'll bring her later.' Allen glared at her. Rose grabbed Delilahs hair and yanked it before running off. 'Hurry up and get going. I'm not getting punished over you.' Delilah hugged Hound. She cried silently. 'I'm sorry about Selene. Lilah, please, do you know anything that might have happened...' Allen sat down with her. She shook her head. Allen hugged her. 'You're gonna leave soon too, aren't you?' Delilah whispered. Allen didn't respond to that. She held tighter to Hound. 'I am afraid...' The scene shifted to the inside of the Blackwell home. Hound paced back and forth around Leon, whimpering. Rose stayed by the table fixing her messy appearance. She straightened out her dress and apron, then fixed her socks. Leon sighed heavily. 'Where is Lilah at?' Leon asked. 'Where the hell is that girl? We need her for the ritual. They won't believe it unless we have the rain.' 'I think Lilah went on a walk earlier...but she should be back by now.' Rose brushed her hair. Leon looked out the window. 'Ugh...Rosie, where's your mother? Rose! Primrose, get in here!' 'I don't know where Mother is.' Rose said. She ran up the stairs. 'I'll look upstairs for both of them.' The back door opened. A woman around Leon's age stood in the doorway, her face and clothes sprinkled with red. Her shoes were covered in mud. In her left hand, she held a clean knife. Leon stared at her. 'Rose, What the hell did you do? Nevermind. Where's Lilah?' 'I don't know or care where Lilah is. Rosie won't be coming home anymore.' Primrose's eyes dulled. She smiled widely. Leon narrowed his eyes. 'What on earth are you talking about?' She raised the knife. 'I won't let you betray me with any other girl again.' Rose came back down the stairs. She looked over at her mother and gasped. 'Mother...what are you doing?' 'Lilah, will you come join your father too?' Her mother said sweetly to her. 'Lilah?' Rose looked down at her apron. She was wearing Delilah's. 'Mother, it's me. Rosie.' Primrose's eyes widened. 'What? Why...why are you wearing your sister's clothes?' 'Lilah took them this morning by accident.' She explained, then she asked. 'Where is Lilah?' 'Forget her. I'll take you both here.' Primrose lunged at her husband, knife held high. He caught her by the wrist and easily overpowered her. Leon took the knife from her hand as he pulled her against himself. He placed the blade to her neck. 'What did you do with Lilah?' 'You traitor!' She squirmed in his grasp. 'Traitor? What are you on about? Did you hurt Lilah? Where is she?' He put more pressure on the knife against her skin. 'Don't play innocent! Rosie, Heather, those servant girls, how many girls have you touched? I'll kill the both of you.' She screamed as loud as she could. 'You!' He yelled back. 'You're the reason we lost Selene and Debbie, aren't you? Did you kill Heather too?!' 'Haha, God did that on his own, but I'll get rid of that horrid child she made when I'm done with you too.' Primrose tried unsuccessfully to get the knife back from him. He pressed down harder, then cut across with all of his strength. Rose put her hands to her face and cowered in the corner. Blood washed over the kitchen table and the wooden floors. With her dying gasps, Primrose tried to say something, but couldn't manage a single word. She went limp in her husband's arms, blood still gushing from her neck. Leon let her body drop to the floor in a pool of her own blood. 'You'll have to stay in those clothes for now.' Leon said to Rose. He looked out the window at the clouds. 'The sky will burst soon. May it be on our side. Hound, come here.' Hound went in circles, tail tucked between his legs. He whimpered and sniffed at the body on the floor. Leon stepped over the body and walked over to Rose. Kneeling down, he took a handkerchief from one of the apron pockets. Leon put the cloth to Hound's nose. 'Find Lilah.' Hound rushed out the open back door and through the yard. Sky watched the old dog hobble along, barely able to run anymore. The land moved under Sky's feet as he stayed a yard behind Hound no matter how far the dog traveled. The old dog eventually came to the river near the field. His nose led him to blood soaked grass at the river's edge. Hound followed along the river until he saw something in the water. The dog leapt into the current and disappeared under the water for a moment. Then, he resurfaced with an arm in his mouth. He pulled himself toward the bank, bringing Delilah's body with him. The dog licked his deceased master's face. His tail wagged in between his legs. His whimpers matched the crying of the spirit sitting beside Delilah's body. Sky recognized it was Debbie. The old dog howled over the young girl's body. Whimpering the whole way, the old dog rushed back to the house to find Leon. He wasn't there anymore. No one was in the house. Where Primrose once lay sat a large sack instead. Hound sniffed the bag. Sky knew what had to be inside the bag. He looked more closely at the bag as Hound examined it. Here and there, he saw hints of what body part was squished up against the cloth. Near the bottom, he could make out her nose and mouth. A few inches from where he could see her face, the bag was oozing with red. The pool of blood underneath the bag grew larger. Hound ran back out of the house with bloodied paws, following Leon's scent to the field. All the inhabitants of the town had gathered there. Hound ran between their legs to the center where he found more blood and bodies. Nineteen children were scattered in the field, all covered in red. Hound sniffed each child and every wound. One by one, he drew closer to Leon. At the last child, Hound, snout covered in blood, looked up at Leon and Rose. The old dog jumped over the last child and attacked Leon. Leon fought with the old dog. 'Set it on fire.' Rose took a torch from one of the people standing by. She set the field on fire, first creating a wall of flames between her father and Hound. She made a circle around the bodies and the dog. Overhead, the sky darkened, a mix of dark grey and green. Lightning danced across the sky. The townspeople left the field and watched on as it burned. Hound barked at Leon through the thick smoke surrounding him. Leon stared on back at him. 'Back to Hell with you, vile beast. You will not interrupt us here.' Leon spoke to the dog. Swirling overhead, a funnel appeared. It descended down to the center of the field, gathering up the flames and corpses. Sky looked up at it all--the emerald and black sky, the hot white bolts and balls of hail, the wind entangled in the flames. Hound disappeared before him in the smoke, but his howls lasted on through the storm. As one voice, the tornado and the dog echoed through the burning land. Loud and vengeful, that sound drowned out all others. Then, it all faded away and Sky was left alone with Robin. Still dressed in her brother's armor, Robin's body was fully covered in metal. Her face was hidden under his helmet, with shadow disguising the rest. She spoke, stepping over scattered blue roses. 'And so ended the ritual between the twenty, with twenty-two deaths and twenty families in the field.' Sky changed form himself. He stood before her as her twin, dressed in her clothes. He said to Robin. 'The old guard dog until the end. That does suit you. You've come ahead of me this time. By decades. Why?' 'I wanted revenge on that man. I knew someone so wicked would resist Death and return here to cause more chaos and pain again. I wanted to find him and reveal his wickedness to the world.' She rested at the top of a hill, laying amongst the blue roses. 'You, I knew you'd be coming too, at some point. You were always second, but this is the longest we've separated. The first time, I left first. Then you went first the second time. Once again, I will go first. But little brother, I don't think I can come back again. You'll have to complete your goal this time or keep going without me.' 'Why can't you return again?' Sky, in Leon's appearance, rested down beside her. 'I am too tired. Chasing after that man has drained me to my core. And there's still you to worry over. During this current life, I knew I was also searching for you, but I couldn't recall who you were when I woke. I only had a lingering feeling I was waiting on someone. Even now, when I wake, though I know it is you I was waiting for, I don't remember all of why. I remember Lilah and that second life, but not you, dear brother. Those memories slip away at dawn. But you know me, don't you? You know my name.' She said. Sky, still in Leon's body, rose up. He reached over and removed her helmet. Rather than Robin, he saw Kathy resting there. She was decades younger, as youthful as she was in the picture he carried of her and his mother. 'I know.' Robin's sword changed to a microphone. She held it up. 'My ever useless sword. No words defeated him.' 'What desire made him want to be here again so badly? He had so much power in his first life.' He asked her. 'He wanted to take everything. He wouldn't be satisfied until he swallowed up the world. I don't think his return was his first return either. No, the man who made the pact had already been here before. When I shifted from the form I had then to this one, I sensed I was dealing with someone like myself.' Kathy said. She let the microphone fall to her side. It sunk down underneath the earth. 'You denied Death for that love of yours as she did for you. I ran past him to chase after you. That man, that man fled Death for another reason. He wanted to be like a god. But there are others running. One, I crossed paths with when I was leaving that last body. She was a ghost, stuck at the river then.' 'Who is it?' 'That servant girl, Debbie, she begged him to let her return again, in hopes her next life would be one where she could live freely. I tried to help her on that path, but that man took away her freedom again.' Kathy's hair greyed before him as she spoke. 'Are there any others?' He asked her. Kathy sat up. 'There is one more, but I cannot make any sense of that one.' 'One more?' 'Yes, that is running. Aside from that one, there are two others aside from that who came from across the river. I don't know why they're here. Perhaps, Father sent them to bring us home.' 'Who did he send?' Kathy's hair was now completely gray. The armor she wore rusted over and cracked open. With weary eyes, she said. 'You better get to running fast.' 'Are you leaving soon?' He asked. She shook her head. 'I've got some decades left, but you have far more than me. My bones are starting to ache and my hair has lost its color. I may live another twenty or thirty years, but this body can't take what it used to. I feel so much older than this body is. That's what he's done to me. He is like a vampire. No matter what weapon I used on him, he always drained at my soul. Even though he is gone now, the marks he left behind still drag me closer to the grave each day.' 'What became of him? Will he be back?' When he spoke, he noticed they had switched clothes. Kathy wore the dress and Sky wore the armor. It was a little less rusty on him. 'I've searched for him in this realm of sleep and death, but I don't find his soul anywhere.' Kathy laughed, and shifted form again. She was Robin once more. 'That gives me some peace. I don't think he exists anymore.' Sky changed too, back to his current self in his normal clothes. 'What do you mean?' 'When a soul becomes so wicked it is irredeemable, the spirit turns into a monstrous demon. Death doesn't come to take them anywhere or rescue them as he might a ghost. No, he cuts them down with his great scythe and ends their existence entirely.' Robin reached into the earth. Her arm went deep underneath the soil. 'He's not here or anywhere. He's gone for eternity. I wanted to get my vengeance, but it seems in the end, his destruction was caused by his own actions.' Sky watched her. 'How do I know this is real? How do I know this isn't another dream?' 'When you wake, sing and ask the sky yourself.' She pulled her arm back out of the earth, drawing a sword from underground. Rather than her own sword, she pulled out another Sky recognized. The rusty sword became new again in her hands. A raven decorated the hilt. She turned the sword toward herself and handed it to Sky. 'Who are you, my dearest brother? Who are you running to?' Sky took the sword from her. He held it above his head. 'You told me I cannot claim the greatness of those from the past, so why is it you've given me this sword?' Robin leaned toward him. The blue river of starlight now ran beneath them. Behind her, mist rolled in. It covered them both and shifted to a thick fog. Sky was barely able to see her in front of him. She whispered. 'Didn't you tell me not so long ago you would carry our family on the path the ones who held this sword wished for? What will it be, my brother? Will you paint the fields red or...' He opened his eyes. It was early morning now. June was still asleep beside him. He got up and opened the window. The first red lights of the sun shone on the horizon. The feelings from his dream lingered inside him. He hummed, and then sang a song he didn't know the name of to the sky above. Grey disguised the rising crimson. Warm wind filled the small room. Then, the rain came, clear and soft against the land. June woke at his singing. She said. "It's raining again." Sky looked back at her. "Yes. It's nice." "I don't really like rain." June said. "Why's that?" He asked. June looked away. "It makes me think of bad things." Sky didn't ask her any more questions on the matter. He gave her some of his medicine and got breakfast ready. Sky sat underneath the window while he ate. "I don't really wanna go out today. I think I'll stay here." "You should. There's nothing down in that place anyway." June ate her food. "Probably not." Sky looked up at the dark clouds. "But I want to make sure. I'll go tomorrow." "It's getting really hot again." June complained. She fanned herself. "Hey, you've been here a while. Are you still fourteen?" Sky answered. "Yeah, but I won't be after summer." "Your birthday's in summer too? Mine's June 6th." She said. "Then you'll be fourteen in two months then. Do you do anything on your birthday?" "Not really." June said. "What about you?" "I don't really do anything either. My last birthday, my parents and I split a small cake." Sky said. He didn't get to enjoy that moment. The room was full of all the words they didn't say. He could still clearly remember how red Alex's face looked and the tiredness in his movements. Thinking back on that, he wondered if he had made a mistake. Sky had learned a little more since leaving, but like the last time he wandered alone, he didn't do much of anything. He was no closer to stopping the company or his aunt. He didn't know who the next chosen girl was, or where to find her. He didn't even know who he was anymore. "What's cake?" She asked. "It's like...sweet, fluffy bread." Sky said. "Huh. They never put that in those supply boxes." "Yeah." Sky said. He showed her the size of the cake with his hands. "It's a luxury for most. The one we had was about this size." June squinted her eyes. "That looks kinda small for three people." "It was." Sky said. "How come you got some?" She asked. "I don't know. My dad got it somehow." Sky almost said, 'Probably because I was leaving that day'. He stopped himself. As much as he'd come to be comfortable around June in some ways, he didn't want to open up about that day. Sky sat down by the radio. He turned it on. Kathy's voice came through loud and clear. He wrote down his dream and thought about the words Robin told him. 'Was any of that real?' Sky thought about writing a letter to Kathy about all the strange dreams he had, but he decided against it. If Kathy really was Robin, and any of that was real, he'd be burdening an already drained person with more. He had another reason. Having accomplished so little, he was too ashamed to face Kathy about that. That other goal she told him, Sky wasn't any closer to finding her either. Like the girl chosen by the company, he didn't have a name or location to go off of for her either. Whenever he saw her in his dreams, he never saw her face clearly nor could he remember anything they said to each other. All he knew was the color of her hair and skin, and the shape of her body. As with the words, the sound of her voice always left him at dawn. Sky opened up his bag. He reached in for something he hadn't looked at in a long time. Sky opened the small pouch and took out the tarot deck Kathy gave him. He flipped through the cards. Seeing Kathy's handwriting while hearing her voice made him nostalgic for the days he spent playing the piano with her. Sky added his own handwriting to the cards. He wrote down information about Delilah and Leon, Roísín and Selene, and himself. For his notes, he chose to write everything on the Hermit. June didn't pay him any mind while he wrote. She had gotten out the camera and took photos of items around them. Sky absentmindedly glanced over at her from time to time. When he was done with the cards, he put them away and wrote some things down in a notebook. Sky put everything away after that and opened up the small door in the center of the tree house. "Are you going to that place again?" June asked. Sky climbed down. "Later. The supply team should be by today. I'm going to meet them and bring the stuff back here before I go." "Kay." She took a picture of the window. Sky went down and ran across the field toward the place they usually met up at. Sky noticed in the trees a burst of purple hanging all around him. So bright and bold, he was mesmerized by their color. He stopped to admire the flowers. He recognized them as wisteria. The shade was similar to the kudzu flowers that would be blooming in the near future. His thoughts turned to Alex and Eric. Though they exchanged letters, photos, and videos, it'd been months since he saw either of them in person. For a moment, he imagined on the other side of those long, dangling flowers that he would find them there waiting for him. Sky wandered over to get a closer look at the petals, lost in his thoughts and dreams. Sky let his hands slip over the delicate petals as he took in their scent. He pushed them back, hoping childishly to find something beautiful on the other side. Alex wasn't waiting for him there, nor was anyone. On the other side, he saw more descending petals and beneath those hanging vines, a purple that was almost blue and almost white. Situated in front of the wooden remains of an old fence long fallen, a Blue Bayou rose bush bloomed with the wisteria. Sky was more captivated by the few blooms before him than the ones surrounding him. He leaned forward and sniffed the flowers. Sky took his knife from his pocket and cut three of the flowers to take with him. He put two of them gently in his front pocket. Sky held the third one in his hand. He stared into the flower, letting his mind wander further. The woman he was looking for, she wasn't June. She wasn't any girl he knew right now. She may not exist at all. Was any of this real? Sky heard a vehicle nearby. He turned around and peaked through the wisteria. It was the supply team. Sky ran over to greet them. As he ran, the wind rushed with him. He stopped for a moment and looked back. Ghostly petals fell from the delicate blossoms, leaving the sparsely flowered bush even emptier. They were lost in the drooping purple waves. He looked at the flower in his hand and ran forward. May met with him first. She already had a box ready for him. Her eyes turned to the rose in his hand. "What's that?" "A blue rose. I found them behind the wisteria." Sky offered the one in his hand to her. "Do you want one?" May took the flower. "I've never seen a rose this color before." "I haven't in person. This must've been someone's garden once." Sky said. He put the box down and leaned against the truck. "How have you been?" "I've been okay, I guess. I ran into August last week." May said. "Did he find out anything interesting?" Sky asked. She shook her head. "No, he wasn't having any luck with that kind of stuff. He asked me out on a date again." Sky's heart skipped a beat. "A date? Are you going out with him?" "No. He likes me, but I don't know...I don't think I like him like that." May said. "He's nice and the date was okay, but..." "But...?" May blushed. "I dunno. I guess there's someone else I'm more interested in right now." "Oh? Is it someone at the Sanctuary?" Sky asked. May averted her eyes. "Ah, yeah. Something like that. What about you? Is there anyone you like right now?" Sky nearly blurted out the word "no", but he wasn't sure why. He thought about June. "I dunno. I'm not really sure." "What about that girl you're staying with? I thought you two might be dating." May said. "No, we're not." Sky said without a second thought. His heart raced. He wasn't sure why he said that, but after he said it, he suddenly realized in all the times he talked to May since he'd left, not once had he ever admitted he was dating June. Face red, he quickly changed the subject. "I don't know how much longer I'll be staying here. I haven't found much, but there's still some places left to explore. I don't think she'll come to the Sanctuary when I leave though. No matter what I do, she's adamant about staying out here alone. I don't get it." May leaned against the truck. "We've run into a lot of people like that. Most of them will take whatever we give them, but they don't want to cooperate with anyone or follow any rules. My mom says those kind of people are really selfish. When my mom and I were alone, a lot of bad stuff happened to us. Once we were at the Sanctuary, we didn't have to worry about that anymore. There was a point I thought being with the Moon might even be better, because they have so much order. I know now the kind of disturbing stuff they do to people. But if I was stuck with the choice of the Moon or being alone out here...I might pick the Moon. I know I'd die out here alone." Sky looked out at the vast emptiness around them. "Never thought about it like that. I wonder if that's part of why the Moon still has hold over some of the people we free. Even the Sanctuary may seem less safe than what they knew before. But those people are definitely not safe. I don't know what happened to you and your mom, but when I lived with my biological family...wait...did they tell you who my father is?" May looked over at him, then at the ground. "August told me. No one else would give me a straight answer about that. Your biological father is Tom Summerfield, and your aunt is the woman in charge of the Moon right now, Dr. Edith Summerfield." Sky was surprised to hear others were keeping his past a secret for him. He presumed it was to keep him safe. "Then, you know when I say this, how much it means. If I had to choose between the monsters out here and ever seeing that man again, I'd rather die alone in a field. I've never meet a monster worse than him. Worse than them, that company, those people." "That's it, though, isn't it? Everyone's been through some different kind of terror. What looks safe and unsafe all depends on what nightmare you've already been through." May looked up at the clouds above them. "That girl sees our safety as a threat for some reason. If we forced her to come with us, she'd probably cause trouble. I know it's sad, but if she won't accept that kind of help, you can't save her." "I'm still going to try while I'm here, but...I dunno. I feel sorry for her. She has helped me some, frustrating as she's been a lot of the time." Sky sighed. "Are you sure you don't like her?" May teased him. Sky shook his head. "No. I think I'm just lonely. Maybe that's why I'm feeling so attached. Having someone to talk to out here means a lot, even if you have nothing in common. I don't want to leave someone alone who helped keep me sane out here, you know?" Sky's face flushed as he realized what he said. If June heard him say those things, she would throw him out immediately. He was shocked himself he said those things to May. Was this his true feelings tumbling out or was he lying in front of May to hide something about himself? He didn't know which it was. Sky felt bad for saying the things he said about the girl he was dating, but when he thought about it, calling her his "girlfriend" made him uneasy. It felt wrong. A part of him was disgusted at the thought, though another part of him was actively thinking about how he wanted to give one of the flowers he picked to June when he got back and kiss her. Was that love or loneliness? Was he simply acting off the hormones surging in his body? He couldn't answer that. His body tensed. "I get what you mean. Some of the people back at the Sanctuary...I don't think I'd really be friends with them if we didn't live together. Now that I'm not there as much, I kind of stopped talking to most of them without really meaning to. When you go home, the longer you're back, you might think about her less and less." May said. She twirled the rose in her hand. "I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm being rude or not. Your dad told me once you might be gay. Is all this talk about dating girls bothering you?" "No." Sky said. "I'm not gay anyway. I'm bisexual." "Really? Why didn't he just say that?" She asked. "I didn't know that when I left. I sorted that out while I was out here, and I haven't really gotten around to telling him that yet." Sky looked over at her. "Why did he tell you that?" "Oh, I asked him since I never saw you around any girls much. I don't think he thought telling me would cause you any problems. I won't tell anyone else, if you don't want me to." She said. "Ah, I don't really care if anyone knows that." Sky's eyes met with hers. He stumbled on his words. His mind filled with thoughts he was embarrassed of. He wondered why it wasn't until now that he noticed how pretty May was. Sky picked up the supply box. "Um, hey, if you're still single when I come back, do you want to go on a date sometime?" "Yeah, sure." May's face went deep red. "I'll see you in two weeks, right?" May nodded. Sky smiled at her and waved goodbye. She did the same back. Sky headed toward the tree house after that to drop off the supplies. As he ran in that direction, his guilt grew. He asked a girl out on a date while he was dating another girl. He knew it was wrong. But, he thought, everything with June always seemed wrong in some way. He wondered if he should break up with June soon instead of waiting for when he left. He didn't know what to do. Sky put that off for another day. He tried to be extra nice to June that day. He gave her one of the other blue roses he picked. June happily put the flower in a little cup of water by the window. She wanted to have Sky put his flower in the cup too, but he told her he wanted to preserve that one. That way, they could enjoy the one in the present and have a record of it when the other flower faded. That was what he told her, but he wanted to show the flower to others. Sky put off investigating for day. Instead of exploring the lab, he explored her body more. No matter how much he tried to enjoy it, he found his mind wandering back to earlier with May and from there to that woman he only saw in his dreams. That night as June slept beside him, he tried to make sense of his feelings. He couldn't decide if he really liked June or liked not being alone, if he wanted to touch her body because he liked her or if he wanted to touch her because he wanted to touch somebody. The truth evaded him. Sky turned away from her and went to sleep. Once more, in his sleep he found he was not in his own body, nor Delilah's, but that of Leon Blackwell. He was wearing Leon's twin sister's clothes again, dancing with a man a little older than him. The man wore green clothes with red trim. Holly leaves and berries decorated his clothes. The man smiled at Leon. 'I hope your brother and sister are alright.' The man said. 'Knowing them, they've already won the battle.' Leon said. He leaned in closer against the man. 'I'm surprised you didn't demand to go.' 'Ro wanted me to protect you here. As he says, at least one of you has to always be away from danger. Tonight, it's your turn.' Leon looked out a nearby window at the moon hanging high in the night sky. 'He never stays home. Father should have given him a different name. Next time, please, force him to stay. I can fight as well as everyone else. I don't like it, but I don't like them always deciding I'm the one that needs to be safe at home.' The man surprised Leon with a kiss. He pulled away and grinned. 'Next time, let's make it that we're the two that go and they can both stay.' Leon's face felt hot. 'Is there really a point in putting on a display like that? Everyone knows about you and Ro.' 'Foreign guests don't, and many of their kingdoms are much less charitable about that sort of thing than what our kingdoms allow.' 'You're a strange one, Roibín. Kissing your lover's brother while I'm dressed as my sister in hopes of tricking strangers into thinking you desire women. Did you get my brother's permission for that performance?' Leon wrapped his arms around the man's neck. Roibín put his hands around Leon's waist. 'Of course. He even gave me permission to kiss Binnie too in situations that might perplex the right visitors, so long as she wasn't dressed as you.' Leon laughed. 'Kiss Robin? Would you really kiss a girl even if it was to just trick idiots?' 'Oh no, of course not. I can only kiss you because I know you're a man. But they don't know that.' Roibín kissed him again. 'Public displays only, of course. I'm afraid you'll have to let go of any dreams of sleeping with me.' 'Tragic.' Leon rolled his eyes. Roibín pulled Leon away into another room. Three older men were in the room. Sky recognized one of them as Wren Blackwell, Leon's father. The other two he wasn't sure who they were. One appeared to be a servant, judging by the man's clothes. The third man appeared to be wealthy. Both the servant and the wealthy man each only had one arm. The wealthier looking one wore clothes similar to Roibín's, in color choices and design. The servant wore simpler clothes, but his also shared the same colors. Sky wondered if the wealthier man was related to this Roibín person and the servant was one of their family's rather than working for the Blackwells. Wren was dressed in red and black. Sky separated from Leon's body to wander over to Wren. Wren couldn't see him there. Sky listened in on what Leon and Roibín were talking about while staying close to Wren. 'Finn, do we have any wine left?' Roibín asked the servant. The servant shook his head. 'Your father drank the rest. You know what happens when he and King Wren are left alone with red wine.' The other older man finished off the drink before him. 'Finch, you make it sound like we're drunkards. Both of us can handle that kind of drink quite gracefully. Isn't that right, Wren?' Wren walked over to the table the others were all sitting at. Sky followed along and sat down in an empty seat. Wren flicked the empty wine bottle. 'We may have gotten a bit carried away, but I've still got my senses about me. Now, Rosa, she had a few too many. She's already gone off to bed. How was the party?' Leon yawned. 'Dull, as always. So many of our guests lately are so...so...pious. They're boring.' Roibín put his arm around Leon. 'We kissed.' 'You kissed? Are you sure you two aren't the real drunks?' The older man in green asked. 'It was only a little performance for our guests. Can't have them thinking I'm some nasty, sinful sodomite.' Roibín grinned. 'So you kissed a man in a dress publicly to prove your lack of sin.' Finch said. He leaned against the older man in green. 'What do you think, Hollis? Should I put on a dress and you bend me over the dining table? Will that make things more right?' Roibín shuddered. 'Finn, don't put that image in my head.' 'My apologies, my little bird.' Finch said. He reached in his bag and took out a small hand mirror. Finch moved the mirror to catch Sky's reflection. 'So, you are finally seeing us then.' Sky's eyes widened. 'Are you talking to me?' The room froze around them. Finch looked at Sky directly. 'I may only have one good eye, but I can see you clearly, Sky.' 'What do you have to do with me? You shouldn't be alive anymore.' Sky said. Finch put the mirror away before putting his hand on Hollis's. 'Your father sent us to keep you on track. You've left your poor sister in quite a delicate state with your wandering. You're coming back at the end of this life, whether you accomplish your wishes or not. I won't allow you to wander any farther than this.' Sky stared at Finch's face. Momentarily, he could see someone else there, someone he definitely knew in the present. The image disappeared as quickly as it appeared. 'Who are you?' 'Certainly you already know the answer to that, Sky.' Finch said. The room and the people in it vanished, leaving only Finch and Sky. Finch turned his palm upward. A blue flower bloomed in his hand. The bloom fell from him into a bed of kudzu, concealed by the purple flowers of the green vines. Finch stood up, walking through the kudzu. He put his hand to Sky's face and whispered. 'You should talk to your sister more.' As Finch moved away, his face changed to his current one. The sight shocked Sky so deeply he woke up and immediately forgot who he saw. V. The Jaguar and the Coyote