"You belong to me, my snow white queen."

"I'm losing my mind and you just stand there and stare as my world divides!"

We were quiet as we walked past other stands. It was the prison-ized version of a strip mall in Uptown. Anything an inmate could desire. Sex, drugs, food, music--banned music... I let my eyes linger a minute longer and dragged my feet so I could see some of the titles.

"Come on," Rafe grunted with irritation as he jerked me forward. "You're the one that wanted to talk in private. It's only a little farther."

'A little farther' was about twenty feet and then we went behind a beaded curtain that covered an ominous black door, with fingernail scratches and skull drawings. "Are you taking me to the third level?"

I saw the glint of his eyes as he turned his neck and stared at me over his shoulder. "We're on the fifth level."

"I thought there was only three levels in this prison."

He didn't turn around as he placed his hand on the red door knob. "Officially there are only three levels."

"Oh."

He pushed the door open and I looked straight up, and up, and up. Who knew a prison could have a tiny mud covered mountain. "We have to go all the way up there?"

"Yes. It's worse than it looks, but it's worth it. Come on."

"Is this a good time to tell you I'm afraid of heights?"

He turned and gave me a tight lipped sneer. "You won't notice the height, not enough light to see behind you. We're running, try to keep up with me. Let's go."

Fuck.

My chest was on fire, my calves burned, and sweat coated my forehead by the time we reached the top. "I know what Alice felt like now," I said, still panting for breath.

"Alice? Who's she?"

"You've never heard of Alice in Wonderland? It's a wonderful book."

"I don't read," he mumbled. "Not in here."

I frowned. "Reading is a great escape. I mean, it could give you some peace of mind, especially in here."

He lifted his chin. I could just make out his lanky silhouette as he turned halfway towards me. "No one reads in here. If you don't pay attention, you'll be eaten alive. Now come," he said, offering his hand.

There was enough room that we both could stand tall, but five feet in front of me was a small tunnel with a semi-medium opening to the outside. The only way to get out was to crawl and wiggle. I inhaled sharply, the crisp scent of grass and the view of sunlight peeking through was enough to pull me to my hands and knees. I started to crawl towards the tunnel but a strong hand clamped on my shoulder.

"I'll go first."

I pulled away from him but turned fully around and sat on my calves. "I feel like I've been inside these walls forever," I whispered and scratched my nails against my damp arms. "I'm practically itching to get out."

"I know, but don't get used to it. This is not for you."

Arguing was pointless. I'd count my blessings and know that the smell of freshly cut grass would get me through this. I had family who loved me and were waiting for me to get out, to complete my mission. A mission that was about to get that much harder.

"I guess you could say I'm being funded to get a girl out of here, but also smuggle out weapons this base seems to have, and to find out where people are disappearing to," I said, not waiting for him to start.

He took a seat in the little cubby hole of dry mud and ran his hands through the grass that was about two inches in front of him. "I know what happens to the people."

"You do? Why haven't you gotten any information out to-to hawk or whatever the hell he calls himself?"

Rafe smirked at the ground and then turned his half-cocked smile to me. "It's Bird, but you knew that. You were testing me."

I kept silent and watched as  he rested his head against the wall behind him. "I thought they'd given up. When you said his codename it hadn't registered yet."

I figured as much, but decided a little chit-chat for him might get him to spill more information. "They haven't given up. Suppose that's why I'm here, even if I had no choice. So where are all these missing people?"

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down. His slow rising smirk slipped away. His jaw clenched and he licked his lips. Tapping his index finger on the ground, he waited a beat and turned his head towards me. I crawled closer to him when he didn't say anything and the glint of sorrow in his eyes was almost too much for me.

"So, Rafe, where are they?"

He lifted his hand and tapped the tip of my nose, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.  "We ate them."

"Wh--um, what? I'm not familiar with all this--" I snorted and rolled my eyes, scrubbing at the tickle on my nose. "Come on. I'm being serious."

The corner of his mouth lifted and the finger he'd tapped my nose with slipped to my cheek trailing to the column of my neck until he cupped the back of my head with his warm hand clenching. I could feel the tremble in his hand; I could see it in his arm as he pulled me closer. As the tips of our nose met, the tight clench in his jaw loosened and his lips parted.

"So am I."

"You-you ate them?" I asked.

We were crouched in the opening of the hole, just shy of stepping a foot onto the grass. From the steep run, up-to this small outside paradise, we were both sweating. The accelerated, shallow breathing and the close proximity between us meant that there was a lot of heat emanating in the tiny area. Yet, I was cold... cold from his words and cold from the eerie, lustful gaze swimming in his eyes.

Cold. Cold had fingers with nails, clawing my back, strangling my throat, and holding me in place. My gaze searched his again before I spoke. "You're not going to—"

Rafe sighed and his shoulders slumped, a look of guilt filling his eyes and creasing his forehead. "I told you. I went cold turkey when I found out. Nothing and no one will eat you—your number sees to that. You don't have to be scared, especially not of me."

I bit my tongue to keep a sarcastic response from slipping out. Fun and games weren't the reason I was here. "Have you seen a girl with a butterfly birthmark on her cheek?"

"Is that why you're here? I thought Bird sent you."

"He did, but so did someone else. I need to find this girl named Marion," I said, fishing for the picture I'd managed to slip in the inside of my pseudo-school jacket uniform.

He reached for the picture and flipped it in his hand, staring for well over a minute. "You don't want this girl."

"Yes, actually, I do."

"Maybe I should put it this way... she doesn't need rescuing."

I frowned and took the picture back, shuffling it back into my pocket. "So you know where she is?"

"When I saw her last she was in level three."

My heart sank. "Isn't that where—"

Rafe nodded. "She's not hurt if that's what you're worried about. She is the one that did this to my arms though," he said. "She's quite talented with a scalpel."

I glanced down at the blood stained bandages I'd focused on earlier when I first saw him. "I was put under the impression that she was a rights activist. She wouldn't do this."

He raised his right, scarred eyebrow. "A rights activist?" He snorted and scratched his chin. "Well, this place can change you. And quick too. She works with the nurses on level three in exchange for fresh meat. She's partial to human liver, from what I've heard."

"What?

It was rhetorical, and Rafe seemed to understand that because he didn't answer. What was I going to tell Hayden?

"So," I started, licking my lips and settling my rear on my calves, "all those missing people—Marion cut them up and you ate them?"

Swallowing, he bowed his head and his fists tightened against his thighs. "Not all of them, but essentially... yes."

"Is that why you gave up contacting the outside, because you felt guilty?"

His jaw tightened. "When I came in here there wasn't some 'program' to protect me. It was hopeless from the beginning; they just failed to mention that." He paused and then gave a nonchalant shrug. "It didn't matter so long as they got what they wanted. Once I figured that out, I stopped. I knew they'd send someone else eventually--once upon a time I had hoped it would be to come for me. Hope is rare beast this place."

I nodded. "So you're partially to blame for me being here then? You failed."

"Your actions put you here and nothing else. Don't blame your problems on me."

I curled my lip in a lame attempt at a snarl, but I knew he was right. "Fine, you don't have to be mean."

Rafe's brows snapped together and he tilted his head, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Where the hell did they find you?"

My lips pursed and I scooted closer to him, trying to inhale the fresh-cut-grass-and-sun smell. "Well, that other guy I was talking about? Stalker supreme! Saw me working one night and I guess he stalked me well, because the next thing I know he's paying my brother's hospital debt and stealing my older sister from me."

"Sounds like he bought her fair and square—"

"No, you can't own a person, no matter what they say. You can't buy a person!"

Rafe bit his bottom lip before speaking. "In this world you can."

"Well not my world! In my world—"

"Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't?"

A wide smile spread across my face and reached over to punch him in the arm. "You have read Alice in Wonderland!" Good. Common ground, similarities...

He scowled and shook his head. "No, I saw the movie. You know," he said, and paused to rub the back of his neck. "I think I'd like your world."

"Me too," I whispered.