Prologue

They're running again.

It no longer comes as surprise to her when Lukas shakes her awake in the middle of the night, speaking lowly, his voice husky and splintered with fear. Through bleary eyes she'll see his face, made pearlescent in the moonlight slanting in through the half-shuttered window; she'll see the worry lines on his forehead and the tightness of his jaw, the grim set of his mouth. And she'll obediently drag herself from beneath her cocoon of warm blankets, throw on her jacket and gather things, and follow Lukas out the back of the hotel they'd been so lucky to come across.

Then they'll disappear from town, nothing more than wisps of rumors on the lips of people they crossed with their abrupt departure.

She's used to this haphazard lifestyle. It's been a reality for her for too many years now. To feel any different, to whine about their unfair circumstances or the injustice they've faced together... it's not worth her time, if she's being frank. A complaint would be a waste of breath she can't afford to spare, and it would only worsen the load she carries. 

Still... there's a part of her that prods at her heart at the worst possible moments, poking holes in the walls she's built to ward off her immature thoughts. It weakens her resolve, cuts into her courage, begs her to reconsider the life she's chosen for herself. 

It whispers to her, late at night, when Lukas has fallen into his intermittent sleep and she's left virtually alone, huddled under her blankets, or curled up under Lukas' arm when they can't even manage that. She'll lie awake, eyes squeezed shut but brain refusing to let her go, and she'll think of how hard life has been for them. She'll wander down the dark corridors of her mind, places she wouldn't dare to tread if someone were there to stop her, consider options that, in the light of day, would have been chased away like early-morning shadows.

Now, luckily, isn't one of those times - she's much too focused on keeping a tight hold on Lukas' hand, following his every footstep with as much precision as she could manage. It's too dark for her to even pretend to care about the passing scenery, and anything beyond Lukas' tall figure in front of her is awash in the black of the moonless night. 

Where they're running to is a mystery to both of them. All Ophelia knows is that, on the very edge of town, there's a train station that starts its daily runs at the crack of dawn, and that they'll be one soon, picking a destination at random in the hopes that perhaps this time it'll be far enough away from their troubles that they won't have to make another grand escape in the middle of the night.

It's a fruitless hope, she knows that well. But it's something for her to cling to, and though it's nothing tangible, it helps to ground her every night when there's no one left to drag her back from the deepest recesses of her scattered mind.

"Lukas..." Her voice rushes past her lips in a gasp, breathy and inconsistent, but Lukas looks over his shoulder, gray eyes searching for hers. She swallows down her initial question - What are we even doing? - and tightens her grip on his hand. "I didn't like this place, anyway."

It's a half-truth; Ophelia never stays in one place long enough to feel fondness for it. But it's what Lukas needs to hear right now, so that he doesn't fall prey to the guilt that's always hovering at his shoulder, waiting for a chink in his armor to wriggle inside of his heart and plant a field of doubt he won't be able to escape. 

He almost smiles, his lips curving slightly at the corners, and that's enough for Ophelia to feel that she's done something right.

"Next town'll be better," he promises.

She doubts that, but this facade is one she knows how to play quite well, and offers an obligatory smile of her own.

"I'll hold you to that," she says, and it feels like every other time she's given this particular answer - hopelessly insincere. But she supposes she doesn't need sincerity so long as Lukas believes what she's saying, so long as he thinks she'll holding herself together and that she's going to be alright with him in the end.

For Ophelia, the last thing she wants if for Lukas to lose heart, because if he loses himself to his fear, then she's more than certain that she'll be right behind him.

They need one another to survive.

It's as simple as that.