• Aislinn rounded one last corner and pulled Eric into an open door behind her. They were in a bar, the air thick with the smokers's exhaltation. Without pause and hiding her nerves behind a bland maske, Aislinn walked over to a table and sat down. Eric sat across from her after shoving the extra chairs away from the table. They were both glancing at the people around them, making sure they really had lost Daniel.

    Now that she had a chance to breath, (and it seemed they really had lost Daniel?), Aislinn took the opportunity to examine her companion. His dark, almost black, hair was greasy and in clumps from long captivity. He was definitly underweight but his muscles, (lean and corded) were still visible in his arms. The only thing about him that didn't look diminshed in the least were his eyes. They were slate gray with an intense stare which was being directed at her. They seemed hard and guarded, which was to be expected under the circumstances and she wasn't surprised to be recieving the same examination herself.

    "I suppose we both have explanations," Aislinn offered. She definitly didn't want to go first, flash backs to high school made her smile slightly at the similarities.

    Eric immediately droppped his gaze, obvious in his want to not be first. Finally he shrugged and looked up. "There's not much to tell. I was walking home after school and two guys started following me. It was obvious they were following me 'cause I live on a farm and we were on a country road. I was ducking into a corn field to lose them but I must've missed them in the stalks 'cause I don't remember much after that. What I do remember is foggy and mostly centered around a pain in my head.....," he finished his recount with a sigh. His eyes were brooding, no doubt going over everything he could've done differently.

    "Why did they want you?" Aislinn asked her voice automatically lowering so that only Eric could hear.

    "No, it's your urn. I don't even know your name, and you know that plus how I got here. You're two up on me," he said quickly but his voice lowered to match hers.

    Aislinn was taken aback by his abrupt stop but nodded. "I, uh, this girl that I didn't know kind of dragged me away for, uh a shopping trip and I went with her," Listening to herself actually say it she realized how stupid she had been, and from Eric's incredulous look he shared her sentiments.

    Trying to save faec, she said defiantly, "It's not as if she was giving me a choice in the matter. She just sorta dragged me away in a death grip. She gave me her name!!"

    She glared at Eric. Even though she had been incredibly stupid, he had no right to judge her. Eric held his hands up in a peace gesture. He smiled goodnaturedly and pointed at her face.

    "You look funny when you glare like that," he said before adding, "You still haven't given me your name."

    Aislinn bit back her rude reply and just answered curtly, "Aislinn." A waitress came over for orders but was sent away. Both of the teenagers were starving but they didn't have any money and there weren't enough people there for them to easily leave without paying.

    Eventually Eric broke the silence and asked, "So why did they want you? That guy back there called your name when we were escaping. Do you know him?"

    Both questions had quite a bit of weight to them and she wasn't sure which she didn't want to answer more. She sighed, if they were going to help each other, they would need to share sometimes but not all of it had to be truthful.

    "Yeah, I know him, longer than I'd care to. I didn't know him well. He was just a kid in the neighborhood," Aislinn shrugged hoping he would buy it. She hesitated before continuing. She hadn't ever told anyone but her brother; she hadn't even told her parents before they died.

    She sighed and continued, "They came after me because I'm special, and not like my mom called me special. I can do things...."

    Eric's eyes filled with understanding and nodded, comfirming something in his own mind. "You mean like this," he said as he made a beckoning gesture at the ground. A small pebble zoomed into his hand, almost to fast for Aislinn to see. She stared at his hand as he opened it to show her the pebble.

    "Do it again," Aislinn said without thinking then asked, "How did you do that?"

    Eric shrugged, "I have no idea. I've just always been able to do stuff like that, atleast when it comes to dirt and stuff. So what can you do?"

    Aislinn looked at her wrists wher ethe burns form the straps that she had incinerated and remembered the camera and the cubboards. She looked up at Eric and said truthfully, "I have no idea. I don't have any control over what happes or when it happens even."

    She looked down disappointed in herself for not practicing and getting the same kind of control Eric and Daniel had. She tried to remember the feeling of it when she had been on that table, trapped with poor prospects all around. She was headed for a full out pity party but Eric's hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality.

    "It's alright. It took me forever and serval mishaps before I figured out how to just do what I just did, not to mention everythign else I can do," he smiled encouraginly, his face revealing what he must've been, naive and happy, before all of this. "Hey let's go find something to eat. We won't be able to get anything here unless you have money 'cause I don't have any."

    The prospect of food brightened her outlook and she stood up eager to get going. They left the bar, and after looking around for anyone suspcious headed toward a magazine stall close by. They had no idea where they were and needed a map so they could figure out where to go. Since Aislinn had more experience in theft, she would be the one to get their map and food.

    When a bus stopped by the newsstand and let its passengers out, she made her move. She quickly and calmly grabbed a map, a newspaper, and a candy bar off the stand and efficiently disappeared back into the crowd. She doubted teh owner would realize what had happened until he took inventory that night.

    The first thing they did was look at the map, the need to know where tehy were overwhelming their hunger. The map showed that they were in Montana. They searched for the street they were on to figure out where they were and headed to the nearest commercial section. They easily found the giant Rainbow grocery store and walked right in.

    Aislinn headed straight for the cereal aisle, it had been forever since she had had honest to god cereal, while Eric dropped back and followed more slowly to give the appearance of them not being together. She meandered up and down the aisle until there wasn't anyone there. Then she grabbed a box of Fuirt loops, opened it carefully, and plunged her hand in and started eating. She only let herself have a couple of handfuls before she closed the box and put it back. She couldn't get greedy now and get caught for stealing. She looked back down the aisle to see Eric had already joinged her and he was carrying two little packs of chocolate fudge poptarts.

    They didn't open it then, instead they walked down other aisles grabbing other small things that they could easily carry. After a couple minutes of "shopping," they headed toward a far off corner away from any cameras. Aislinn so wanted to start eating but there were still too many people around them. She sighed and looked around for some place they could go and hide out. Her eyes rested on an exit door that was close by. She nudged Eric and they silently went to the door. As soon as htey opened the door the fire alarm went off which caused both of them to immediately take off running.

    They didn't stop til they were around two corners and could see the edges of town. Finally they passed a big park and they went in. Thankfully there wasn't anyone in it, probably because it was starting to get dark, so they settled in to eat their stolen food. Aislinn couldn't remember last tiem she had had actual food as compared to the candy bars she had stolen. She finished eating and with a full stomach and a warm body she was ready to sleep. She looked around at the different trees trying to gage which would make a good bed, when she felt Eric shiver beside her.

    "Wus, it's not that cold out," Aislinn scoffed. "What're you shivering for?"

    Eric gave her a dirty look, "Who are you foolin? It's gotta be like 40 degrees out. I can see my breath for crying outloud!!"

    "Really?" Aislinn looked around and realized they were indeed surrounded in a fog of their own breath. The strange thing was she didn't feel cold at all. It felt like a summer night to her. "Wow I hardly feel anything. I wonder why I'm not cold...."

    Eric shrugged and felt her forehead and put a hand on her arm. He frowned slightly, "You don't feel like you have a fever, though you are warm...Maybe that's oneof the things you can do?"

    Aislinn thought back to when they were at the lab and she had burned the straps holding her down. "Well, it's possible but I don't know. I wonder if I could summon enough heat to light something on fire," she mused, then shrugged, "I doubt I'll be able to do anything like that for awhile. I can't even tell it's happening right now."

    "It's alright. Maybe we should konk out and start over in the morning. We can figure out what to do next then," Eric suggested. "We should probably find a pile of leaves to sleep under on the ground. If you sleep in a tree, you'll probably fall out in the middle of the night."

    "Yeah like that's gonna happen. I'm not gonna fall out, and I'm not sleeping on the ground for the raccoons to nibble on my toes," she said as she started toward a tall oak. She was already two branches up before she yelled back, "Give the raccoons my regards." Aislinn went up farther and found a tangle of branches. There were enough leaves that she could barely make out the ground between them. She could hear Eric rustling on the ground as he found a pile of leaves to sleep under. She fell asleep in seconds, firmly wedged between two branches so that she wouldn't fall.

    ~~

    Aislinn woke slowly to something moving around on the ground, or two somethings it sounded like. She jerked awake as something crashed into her tree, sending shockwaves up the trunk and almost sending Aislinn crashing to hte ground. She managed to just save herself by grabbing the main trunk and steadied herself.

    She pushed a branch aside so that she could better yell at Eric, but she swallowed her yell and hid back behind the branches. On the ground Eric was up against the trunk of the tree, getting up from being thrown into it. There was another guy a few feet from the tree. She didn't recognize him and was slightly relieved that it wasn't her brother. But who was this jerk? She hesitated from leaping down to Eric's rescue. She wouldn't be any help if she got caught the same time Eric did.

    She watched Eric get up and brush himself off, noting he had a bleeding lip. He was deliberatly not looking up at her so that he would not giver her away, but she had a feeling that the stranger already knew she was here. The other guy looked to be alittle other than her, mayber nineteen or eighteen. He had bleach-blond hair that was almost white, and he had bright blue eyes that seemed to glow in the little light. He was scrawny and had hardly any muscle on him, like one of those nerdy kids that spend most of their time starring at a computer screen; and he looked as if he had never seen the sun before with his almost sickly pale skin.

    Eric charged at the intruder and swung a puch to his face. Eric never even came close to him; before Eric had gotten halfway through the punch his opponent had grabbed his fist easily and with a casual air punched Eric soundly in the gut. Eric stumbled away from him, hunched over and panting for breath, as he glared back at the other man. Eric started to charge the man again, but he held up his hand to stop Eric.

    "Isn't it obvious you can't beat me? Now I know that there's two of you, so where's the other one?" He asked calmly. He glanced around as if expecting Aislinn to just pop out of the bushes. "I'm in something of a hurry. So if you could just point me in the right direction, I can take the girl and leave you here," he smiled as if this was the best idea in the world. He looked at Eric expectantly for a sigh that Eric was going to betray her.

    Eric didn't so much as twitch in Aislinn's direction. She had to hold back a sigh of relief; she hadn't been completely sure if Eric would cover for her.

    "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm the only one here," he said blandly, and totally unconvincingly. "What's your problem? Attacking me in the middle of htei night isn't normal. I don't even know you so it can't be for any kind of revenge. What the heck do you want?"

    The intruder sighed like a disappointed parent and shook his head. "If you must know my name, it is Cam short for Camryn," Cam gave Eric a condescending smile. "Don't toy with me. I already know she's here somewhere. Normally I'd just find her shadow, but seeing as it's night everything is shadow and that won't work. If you don't tell me where the girl is, then I'll just have to persuade her into coming out. I'm sure she'll come running to save her prince charming from death."

    Cam pulled out a knife, all casualness and teasing gone, he was serious. Eric started to back away only to trip over something Aislinn couldn't see. She waited for Eric to get up, needed him to get up. If he could escape, hten Aislinn wouldn't need to reveal herself. But Erec didn't get up, instead he seemed to be struggling to even sit up. It almost looked like he was being held down by....shadows? But that wasn't possible, was it? Shadows were insubstantial, they couldn't hold people down.

    Cam approached Eric with the knife held at read. "Can't make this quick or she won't have the chance to come out, too bad for you," Cam sliced Eric's forearm deeply and ruthlessly. Eric screamed out in pain as blood started to gush from the gash. He tried to pull away but his struggles only made him bleed harder. Meanwhile Cam was looking around for Aislinn's whereabouts. "Well if she's still not going to come we'll move out to the other arm, or maybe a leg. I bet if I cut deeper she'll come out, though you could die from blood loss when I hit an artery or you could just be crippled from your muscles being sliced," an eager smile crossed his face, "I can't wait to see which happens first."