Braken came back wild and frantic. He shoved his way right past me, making sure his hands never touched anyone. He was crying, too, rubbing his face to wipe away the tears.

"Braken, what's wrong? Did you find him?" I asked.

He just shook his head and pushed away from me. He ran up to the ladder and pulled himself into the old apartment. He was hiding from me.

I followed him up and found him sitting at the table with his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed. "Braken, what's wrong?" I repeated.

He jumped up and staggered back, his eyes wide and terrified. He shook his head quickly and kept his hands behind his back. I noticed that his skirt was dirty and torn.

"What happened to your -"

Before I could finish my sentence, Braken glanced down at his skirt, narrowed his eyes, and yanked it off, his movements jerky and filled with anger. He wadded the skirt up into a ball and threw it at the wall as hard as could.

Something was horribly wrong. I'd never seen him like this. He was hysterical. I stepped closer and reached my hand out, but he flinched and backed up into the corner between the wall and the counter.

"Please, I only want to help you," I said softly.

He shook his head again and pressed himself further into the corner. I gently touched his arm, and he screamed loud enough to wake the dead.

"NO!"

I staggered back and fell over, and his eyes widened in terror as he slapped his hands over his mouth. He'd just spoken. He'd just screamed the word no, and the sad thing was that I never wanted to hear that sound ever again. His voice strained and screeched like a demon from the underworld, shaking and then cracking under the pressure of a thousand worlds. It was the most inhuman thing I had ever heard come out of a human's mouth.

"Braken, what's going on?" I whispered, my own voice shaking.

He violently shook his head again, still keeping his hands pressed tightly over his mouth. His wide eyes were still leaking tears.

"You can talk," I said, climbing hesitantly to my feet and he shook his head once more.

He was absolutely terrified. His entire body shook, and his face was completely white, drained of all color. Maybe he was as scared of his voice as I was.

"Please tell me what's going on." I slowly started toward him, and he sunk to the floor, keeping his back up against the wall and covering his head with his arms. I knelt down beside him and he jerked away from me. I could just barely see one of his eyes from inside the shadow of his arms, and he was staring at me as if I was another person.

Please don't hurt me, those eyes begged. Please don't hurt me.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I said, but he let out a cry of pain as I brushed my fingers over his arm. I'd barely touched him. There was no way that could've hurt.

And then it clicked. He wasn't afraid of me - he was remembering something. He flinched at imaginary voices and touches, and wailed out incomprehensible words.

"Braken, it's me. It's Joel," I murmured. "Everything's okay. I'm here. I won't let anyone hurt you." I rubbed his shoulder and he slammed back against the wall, staring at me with terrified blue eyes.

It took him a minute, but finally, he started to calm down, and let me rub his shoulders to help relax him. After what seemed like an eternity, he sighed softly and stood up, still shaking. Thank you, he signed. Sorry.

"Don't apologize. It's okay," I said. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Once again, he shook his head.

"So you really can talk."

He hesitated this time, and then shook his head again. NOT ANYMOR, he wrote on my wrist.

"Not anymore?" I said in surprise. "But you could?"

He nodded and pushed around me, indicating that he didn't want to tell me about it.

I wanted to him to tell me about it. I wanted to know what he'd been hiding. He'd been lying to us, all this time. I didn't even think Leo knew.

Why couldn't he talk anymore? What had happened out there that had caused him to lash out like that?

I watched him leave and then sighed, staring down at the burns on my arm. They were looking better every day - they'd almost completely healed. And yet Braken's hands hadn't. Neither had his back. Maybe that was the downfall of being a Gifted. He couldn't heal himself.

I didn't know what to do anymore. I wanted to go back in time and change all of this. Slowly, I walked outside, closing my eyes and tipping my face up to the sky. The wind was chilly, bringing with it the smell of rain. I hoped it would rain instead of snow. I was tired of snow.

Someone was watching TV in the room next to this one. I could hear it through the open door. It was the news - and the story I heard nearly stopped my heart.

They'd found a pile of dust in the bathroom at the convenience store only a few blocks from here. That's what Braken was hiding from me. He'd killed another person.

I immediately scanned the camp below, but I couldn't see him. We needed to talk. I wanted to make sure everything was really okay, and that he wouldn't do it again. I wanted to know why.

I found him finally hiding behind the camp, past Brendan's corner. He looked up when I came into sight, and I could tell by the look on his face that he knew exactly what I was here to talk about.

"Braken -" I started, but he shook his head wildly and pushed around me. "Why are you running from me?" I asked, turning to follow him. He just picked up his pace and didn't look back. "Braken, please," I begged. "Talk to me, please."

When he heard the word talk, he shrunk into his shoulders and broke into a run.

After only a moment, I gave up. If he didn't want to talk to me, who was I to force him? I slowed to a stop and rested against a wall and rubbed the bridge of my nose in frustration. Why? Why couldn't I get anything out of anyone? First it was Leo, and now it was Braken.

Someone grabbed my arm to get my attention. I noticed his bright blue hair first and then recognized him as Sky. "What?" I grumbled.

"Two things," he said, his voice holding an ominously angry note. "One: you need to go find Leo. You haven't been out there at all since he vanished. You owe Braken that much. And two: the games are up and running again. They got another power source. Your plan failed."

My heart nearly stopped right then and there. "Wh-what?"

"You heard me." Sky's voice was as hard as ice. "They found another power source. Your plan nearly got us killed and didn't accomplish anything." He turned on his heel and marched away.

I blinked in surprise and then felt that anger rise into my chest. "You could've just left me there," I called after him, clenching my fists. He paused for a split second and then kept walking. "You could've left me there to die. Why didn't you?"

"I thought you were different," he said over his shoulder. "I thought you'd actually do it."

I didn't know what to say to that. I'd thought I was different, too. I guess we were both wrong.

I turned back to the entrance. I knew should go and find Leo, or at least look for him. I had to try. And I was frustrated and needed some fresh air. So I got a little help to go through the illusionists' wall, and then found myself alone on the freezing streets. I had a gut feeling he was already dead, or that something horrible had happened to him. Maybe he'd frozen to death. Maybe he'd been shot. Maybe - I shuddered to think about it - he had already been caught.

I didn't know where to start, so I walked up and down the streets, glancing into alleyways and avoiding the convenience store, where Braken had killed someone.

I found him faster than I thought I would. He called out to me, his voice low and pained. I turned quickly, but I couldn't see him. "Leo, are you there?" I whispered.

"In here. To your left." He sighed softly when I turned. "Your other left."

I could barely see him in the dark of the alley - if I could even call it an alley. It was a space barely big enough to squeeze into, and the walls brushed against my shoulders when I entered. "Leo, what are you doing in here?" I asked softly.

He looked up at me from where he was sitting on the ground, showing only his terrified, boyish eyes - the youngest he'd ever looked. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

I held out my hand to help him stand up, and he leaned away from me, pressing himself into the corner. I noticed that his jeans were torn and bloodied down under his knee, and through the rips I could see a white bandage blotted with blood.

That wasn't right. If he'd been hurt, he wouldn't have been able to wrap himself up. He didn't have any bandage. I squinted a little harder at him in the darkness and noticed deep purple bruises across his cheekbones and over his eyes. They reminded me of something. Something at the games. It was so familiar, but I couldn't place it. Then, the realization slammed into me like a freight train.

It was a trap.

I tried to spin around and run, but firm hands grabbed my shoulders and forced me to the ground. There wasn't enough space for me to fight back, so I took a breath to scream, praying someone would help me. I looked up at Leo, but he was sitting exactly where he'd been a second ago, watching me with something almost like regret.

The man who'd shoved me down slammed his hand on my neck, keeping me in place, and slapped a cloth over my nose and mouth. I held my breath, but eventually, my lungs screamed for air and I sucked in a huge gulp of air. My mind fogged up like a warm window on a cold day, and after only a minute, I was unconscious.