"Let's go," Trace says, grabbing his things as soon as we arrive back at our camp.

He starts walking before we even react to what he said. The sound of his feet pounding on the ground start to move away from Cyrus and I. He doesn't stop to look back and see if we are following him.

I quickly grab my bag from the dirt. I sling it onto the comfortable place on my shoulder. Thankfully, it feels almost weightless as I try to lengthen my stride to catch up with Trace.

He is already to far ahead. The way that I can catch up to him is if I start to run, and I will not resort to that. Instead, I stay back with Cyrus. His eyes are dead set ahead of him, almost glaring at Trace. He seems frustrated.

"Where are we going?"

Cyrus whips his head towards me quickly, nearly startling me. His glare subsides to a more worried look. He speaks to me almost in a whisper as his head shakes back and forth slowly.

"I'm assuming Trace is taking us back to Lakeside, his hometown. He will want to see if they have any updates on Xander. As you can see, Trace has kind of an obsession with finding his brother. But I think it's good for him, otherwise he wouldn't have anything to do with his life."

We continue to trek through the woods, lugging behind Trace's set pace. He never looks back to see that we are following him, he must have heard us talking. Either that or he is confident that we are like sheep with him, so confident as to not need to make sure.

I think about what Cyrus said, that Trace's obsession with finding Xander is good for him. I can't really imagine why. From what I have seen so far, it seems to be more destructive than good. It gives Trace a false hope that this time, just maybe, he will find Xander. Then it breaks him down when he doesn't find Xander. I can't understand why Trace continues to keep with this task if it never is fruitful.

Maybe it is like my previous longing to escape from my old life in the Inside. I never thought that it would happen, but I always kept it in the back of my head. Making up little plans for how I could escape gave me something to do when there use all hope was lost for me. It gave me something to look forward to when Soren and I had arguments. It made me happy in a life of nearly continual misery.

I figure that it is something similar to that for Trace. It occupies his time and the thought of possibly seeing his brother again, knowing that this effort can bring him to Xander, makes him happy for the time being. Once Trace discovers that Xander isn't where Trace is looking, Trace momentarily loses hope and becomes depressed, but then he thinks of another place that his brother can be hiding at and the hope that Xander will be there overwhelms the depression.

As we continue on through the woods, my vision starts to become better as dawn begins to break. Sunlight begins to filter through the trees, lighting patches of the ground. I actually begin to pay attention to my surroundings.

We are in an area where the forest seems to be thinning around us. I can almost see through the trees into the clear to the right of us. I'm assuming that we are past the Inside by now. Up ahead to my left, I see a small stream flowing away from us. I can faintly hear the sound of the water rushing against the rocks and dirt.

Seeing the water reminds me that we all still have our disguises. If we are to go to towns in the Outside, I am assuming that Trace and Cyrus won't want to appear to be Enhanced around fellow Outcasts. I wonder what they would do to one who is Enhanced. Will I find out? Will Trace determine it best that I somehow disguise myself? Will they kidnap me if they know I am Enhanced? Will they return me back to the Inside? I decide that I trust Trace's judgement. He has helped me so far, I don't think that he will put me in too much harm now.

Finally I see Trace slowing his pace down ahead of us. Within a few large steps I am able to arrive right next to Trace. He looks as if he is going to say something, but it start before he can.

"We still have our disguises on. There is a stream right near us that we should wash our faces in. I'm assuming you two don't want anybody to wrongly think that you are Enhanced."

Trace looks down at me with a sparkle in his eyes. "I was about to say the same thing," he says through a smile.

Trace leads us to the stream. I take off my shoes and walk right into the stream. I bend down so that I can easily get water up to my face. I just stop for a minute and stare at my face in the water. Cyrus was brilliant with my disguise. I wouldn't have even been able to recognize myself, there was no chance that Soren did.

I dip my hands in the cold water. The temperature sends shivers down my spine, but it feels nice. I gather up a little pool of water in my cupped hands. As I bring my hands up to my face, most of the water seeps out through the cracks where my fingers are. There is still enough water to douse my face, though. I repeat the action a couple times, watching as wet makeup stains my hands. When I get everything off of my face, I just leave my hands in the running stream for a few seconds, making sure they clean.

I turn to Trace and Cyrus who are also standing in the stream. Cyrus's face is now clean. Droplets of water are slowly dripping down his forehead and neck. Trace, on the other hand, still has the makeup on. He is staring at his muddled reflection down in the stream. When he realizes that I am staring at him, he speaks.

"It's eerie, isn't it? To know that if I had been born in the Inside, I would have looked like this rather than my regular self. My life would have been drastically different had I been born around ten miles north."

Trace kneels down in the water and dunks his head. He keeps it in there for a few seconds. Then he throws his head back, gasping for air. His eyes widen as he stares at me.

I laugh, not understanding why he would be surprised at me. "This isn't the first time you've seen me."

Trace begins to slowly open up his mouth to talk. I don't hear his voice. I hear a different voice. "But it's the first time I've seen you," a deep voice chuckles behind me. I whip around to see a tall Outcast with a sinister smile on his face. He licks his lips when he sees my face. "Now why would you want to be with these men? You are Enhanced. They are criminals. I will rid you of them and then you can be free with me."

I start to back away from the man but before I get too far away from him he reaches for me. His cold hand wraps around my arm tightly. I wince at the force he is exerting on me. He pays no attention though, he is grinning at Trace and Cyrus.

"We've been looking for you for a long time now, Trace. You can't stay away from us."

"The Court made a deal with me. If I found my brother they would let me go. I haven't found him yet, but I am still under the protection of the Court." Trace says, slowly walking up to the man that was holding on to me.

"The Court knows that you will never find Xander. They won't be surprised if they never see you again. They don't have to know that it was because I killed you."

The man loosens his grip on me and pushes me to the ground. I skid to a stop against the dirt. I can feel my back getting scraped against the rocks on the ground.

He pulls out a knife. It is long and thin. It seems well polished with the exception of what appears to be a stain on the tip. It is blood from previous victims. All of a sudden, the man lunges at Trace. He grabs ahold of Trace and holds the knife right next to Trace. It is hopeless. He will at least seriously injure Trace.

I look over at Cyrus who is just standing there staring at Trace. Why isn't he doing anything? Cyrus's eyes slowly move so they meet mine. Once our eyes are locked he mouths, "Knock him down."

I quickly get up, meanwhile the man is whispering something to Trace. I don't know what he is saying, but Trace looks hurt. The man isn't suspecting that anybody will try to stop him.

I charge at the man and manage to catch him off guard. He doesn't fall over but he loses his balance. Trace notices this and grabs ahold of the knife while elbowing the man.

I know what Trace is going to do. There is no other choice but for some reason I don't want him to do it. I turn around as I hear a whimper and a piercing sound. Something thumps as it falls to the ground and there is dragging going on. I turn around just in time to see Cyrus drag the man into the stream. He is face down so I cannot see the wound where the knife went in. Instead I can see the stain of blood in a curved line leading to where the body now is.

Trace is washing the knife in the steam a little farther down than body. Once he is done, he sheaths it in a small bag and hands it to Cyrus.

"I trust you with it more than I do myself," Trace says, trying to keep his gaze off of the bag.

Trace walks in front of me. His wet hands run through his messy brown hair. He lets out a sigh and says, "We are almost at Lakeside. Let's go quickly."

We continue on as if the attack hadn't even happened. That was what Trace had been talking about when he said that people were after him. I wasn't truly safe with Trace. Even though he could try to protect me, he didn't know who would attack or what would happen.

We lug on in the forest, all exhausted from the long walk and the attack. We seem to be making no progress. The woods look the same no matter how far we actually are going.

Finally, Trace stops. "We are almost at Lakeside. Nyx, I know you probably won't like it, but we should just dirty your face a little bit. You shouldn't need to try to disguise yourself too much, though."

I agree with Trace. Even though I don't want to do it, it is necessary. I kneel down on the ground and gather up some dirt. I begin to smear it on my face. It is rough against my skin and almost itchy. I have to leave it there, though. Once I have rubbed the dirt onto my face, Trace says, "Perfect."

We continue on through the woods. Finally it is becoming so thin that I can see the town ahead of us. We keep on walking until we are right outside of the town.

Cyrus's gaze lowers, noticing a paper on the ground. He picks it up and quickly reads it. His eyes darken and he beckons for Trace to come look.

"What is it?" Trace asks, clearly looking confused as to what Cyrus wants him to read.

The moment that Trace looks at the paper his eyes darken as well. He roughly crumples up the paper and throws it onto the ground.

"No!" Trace screams at the top of his lungs, punching his hand through the air.

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Sorry it's been a while again. I was going to update Friday or Saturday but I was busy and out of town. I am now on Spring Break so I should be able to update a few times this week. I may even update again later today. Once again thank you for reading and enjoying this story! You are the reason why I am still sticking with this story!