I'll admit it, seeing the world from above was way more of an experience than just seeing it from the road. I was tempted to roll down the window, but I knew what would happen if I did.

We flew until we reached a cloudy spot, and I saw snow up close for the first time as we landed. The sky was darkening around us, but I still found the falling snow a fascinating sight.
"How much do you think is on the ground?" I asked.

"Only a few inches," Alabaster replied. "But by tomorrow, it should be at least a foot. That's twelve inches."

"I know. You act as if I shouldn't know these things."

"Well since you've spent most of your life either locked up in a lab or locked up in a scepter, it's hard to calculate how much about the world you really know."

"It's still not considerate to call someone stupid."

"I didn't, I called you 'a ten-year-old who's spent most of his life in a canister.'"

"That's still offensive."

"At this point, I don't care. If I'm rude, fine, but you're not gonna get me to apologize for speaking the truth."

A sparkler... I thought, ...she's more like me than I at first guessed. "So this safehouse of yours... why do you have it?"

"Just in case of something like this... in case someone recognized me and I had to leave town."

"What, are you some outlaw?"

"No...I'm a dead girl who wants to stay that way..."

I didn't ask any more questions, because then we entered Arin's Pass.
The rocky cliffs around us towered high, and I suddenly felt an urge to get out of there as soon as possible.
So this is what claustrophobia feels like...

We drove for a good ten minutes through the pass, everything getting darker and darker by the second, then, we finally pulled free, and I saw Timber Creek below.

It was far from the large cities I'd grown used to on this car ride. Its lights sticking out like stars against a dark landscape in the valley below, it looked like the kind of place where nobody cared about where you were from. Excellent.

Alabaster pulled up to a small building, and I slumped back in my seat as she looked down the window.

"Welcome to Tim...Albie!" The bird behind the desk grinned. "I was worried you wouldn't get in this year, girl!"

"Always fashionably late, Eric." Alabaster grinned. "You be careful getting home to the kids."

"Will do."

Alabaster pulled away and I relaxed, sitting up again.
Alabaster saw this and grinned. "Relax, nobody here would even care if they knew who you were."

"To the world I'm either a killer or a lunatic..."

"Or just a new face in town. Don't worry, we can hang out here as long as we'd like."

Or at least until Iblis thinks I froze to death... The cold air that had entered the car while we were stopped had been freezing, how was she not even feeling it!?

The drive down into the little town was without conversation, and I noticed lots of people still out on the streets, despite the weather.

Finally Alabaster pulled into a quieter part of town and then pulled the car into the garage of a small house. "Here we are..." she whispered as she got out.

I hesitated a moment, my hand on the handle, then slowly, I opened the door and exited the vehicle.

Here I was. In a strange place, in a strange house with somebody I hardly knew...

...and I felt more safe than I ever had before.