Chapter 1

They had to escape. Anywhere. Everywhere. They just had to get away.

The miles stretched behind them endlessly. They left no trails and no explanations. They vanished.

He didn't speak when he came to her. He said words, but they conveyed no meaning. He mumbled incoherent phrases and half-thoughts, urging her along. She looked at him incredulously, taking in the panic behind his emerald eyes. She saw the longing and the need etched into his features, the sense of danger radiating from his skin. But she was not afraid. She nodded and took his hand, leading him away from the messes they had made.

The sun hid behind the clouds. The day was hot and humid. The landscape around them was constantly changing, morphing into a new city, a new state, a new reality. These were all things that she would have mentioned on any other day, under any other circumstances. She didn't look at him and he didn't try to gain her attention.

She rolled down her window and extended her arm. When she was younger, she had always cupped her hand, a futile attempt to capture the wind, to hold on to the moment longer than she should. She wondered when things like that had stopped being worth her time, when she had grown so serious about life, too serious to try to slow down time, if only for that minute. Now, she would give anything to hold on, to stop the constant, chaotic dance that was going on around her, just long enough to let her begin to understand.

“Evan,” she said slowly, wrapping her mouth around the word and her mind about everything it meant to her, “we’re going to have to stop at some point.” She eyed him carefully and waited, hoping for any kind of response. She got nothing, his body language only suggested indifference. “And when we do, we’ll have to talk.”

His features were cold. He gave a terse nod of affirmation.

“But not now.” His voice was thin and did poorly to reflect the rigid facade he was trying to maintain.

“Not now,” she agreed, “but soon.”

This incited no response save the tightening of his fingers on the steering wheel and the sudden feeling that the greatest distance was not behind them, but between.