Chapter 1

"Get your things, pack only what you'll need." Raven left a suitcase on Molly's bed before beginning to pile all his clothes into another suitcase, emptying out his shelves.

Molly's hand trembled as she began to slowly pack her things, "Where are we going?"

Raven shook his head, causing his dark auburn hair to fall cross his face. "I'm not sure yet, just pack, We'll figure out the rest on the road."

Molly looked around quickly, trying to put in her suitcase only the utmost important items, she knew all her belongings wouldn't fit in the small suitcase. She packed some of her clothes, laying down her diary on top of the rest before zipping the suitcase closed.

Raven nodded over to her, holding out his hand for her to take. She had thought Raven had looked so calm, but now with his hand in hers, she could feel his hand shaking beneath her palm as he shut the door, fumbling to lock the room.

Managing to do the task, they made their way towards the car, only walking after Raven explained to her it would look suspicious otherwise. The doors closed safely, Molly sighing in relief they had managed this far without anyone on their trail.

She rested her head on the window, gazing straight ahead to the darkness and the road. She felt insecure and nervous, she wasn't even sure where they were heading. She was laying her trust in Raven, could she even do so? She reached out to her neck instinctively to finger the ring her father had given her that was looped through a gold necklace…except, it wasn't there.

Molly jolted up immediately, trying to search through her belongings, desperate to catch sight of the sparkle of the gold. Raven noticed her panic, asking her what was wrong.

"My father's ring…I can't find it!"

Raven pulled over, helping her look. A short while after, with no luck of the gold band anywhere, he looked up at her somberly, "We can't go back, you know that."

Molly returned his gaze right back, her blue eyes building up with tears, "Raven, you know how much that ring means to me. It's the only thing left of my father's…I don't have anything else to remember him by! We have to go back."

Molly let herself be embraced by Raven, burying her face into the hollow of his shoulder, inhaling the familiar scent of his cologne and after-shave. She knew she was soaking his leather jacket with her tears, any other day she would have backed away and tried to hold the tears in, but this was almost too much to bear. She was losing the only item she had ever known of her father's love and devotion.

Raven untangled himself from Molly, starting the car again. Through her tear-streaked face, she managed to decipher that Raven was making a sharp U-turn. "Where are we going?" Molly asked quietly, trying to get rid of her tears, though the more she attempted to try to get rid of the tears, more tears formed in their place.

"Be quiet and you'll see." He kept his eyes focused on the road, so Molly couldn't read his thoughts.

She saw the hotel that they were seeing straight ahead, she held a hand against the window, longingly looking at the hotel room where she knew she had left the ring behind. Molly received an even more of a surprise than the events of that night when Raven came to a stop right in front of their hotel room.

Her eyes were almost glued to the hotel room, never losing sight of it, she kept thinking maybe it was a mirage, and if she blinked, the image would disappear. She blinked, and the sight was still there. She was able to tear her eyes away from the vision enough to turn to Raven. "You were driving here all along? Thank you."

Raven dismissed the thanks with a nod, "Be quick, we can't stay long."

It didn't take any more than hearing his words that Molly went into the hotel room, quickly catching a sight of her father's ring on the nightstand. She kissed the golden band, clutching it to her chest, feeling her own heat radiating from the ring before securing it around her neck. Closing the door to the hotel room, she made her way back to the car.

Chapter 2

"Do you have your bank card with you?" Raven asked, killing the car's engine in front of a bank machine.

Molly nodded, confusion etched into her face. Why would he ask?

Raven noticed her confusion, explaining to her, "We can't get out of here without some money."

Molly and Raven got out of the car, Molly walking up to the machine and punching in a couple of numbers, turning to Raven questioningly.

"Take out 500." He said, pulling out a lighter from his pocket, lighting a cigarette already located between his two fingers.

"Won't we need more?" They wouldn't be able to get far with only five hundred dollars in their possession; maybe at the most it'll take them 50 miles.

Raven looked around before replying, "It'll be too suspicious, we'll use the five hundred to get us as far as we can go until the money runs out. I'll figure out what happens when we do."

Molly concurred, knowing Raven knew about this probably a lot more than she did, even if she knew more, it wouldn't be her place to say so. She quickly finished the task, pocketing the 5 hundred dollar bills into her purse. She only noticed his smoking when they had already returned to the car.

"Raven…" He knew she wasn't too fond on cigarettes or drinking, even when he was, or used to be, until he met Molly.

Raven threw out the lit cigarette out the window, his way of apologizing for the habit. "We better get going, it's better if we are out of here by sunrise."

Chapter 3

Her eyesight focused, her mind still full of sleep as she slowly took in her surroundings, Raven was still driving, though his eyes weren't as alert as when they first started. She immediately felt guilt for falling asleep, while she was lost in her slumber, he had been driving for hours without a pause.

"Raven, I can drive if you're tired…" Molly offered even though she knew fully that she was horrible at driving, Raven knew of her abilities of driving a car also----he was the one that had helped her learn to drive.

Raven shook his head lightly, his tired dark brown eyes turning to her. "I was planning on stopping at a hotel in a couple of miles once we get out of this highway, highways aren't known for their abundance in hotels."

"All right.." She felt awkward, she was the one that had gotten both of them into this mess and so far, Raven was the only one paying the price.

He must have felt her reluctance, because he took one hand off the steering wheel and placed it on her leg, "It's okay Molly, don't worry about it."

She nodded, closing her eyes and leaning back onto the passenger's seat, her last thought before falling back asleep was "I'll do anything I can do to help.."

Chapter 4

Raven shook her gently, not wanting to wake Molly up but he knew he wouldn't be able to carry her into the hotel room without raising a few eyebrows.

Molly mumbled something incoherently, her slightly disheveled blonde hair parting, her striking blue eyes radiating towards him with question. He could clearly understand even now why he was attracted to Molly since they were first introduced, and why he put up with the hell to be with her, and even more so now to keep them from being broken apart…

She was tilting her head to the side after several seconds of silence, curiously asking, "Is there something on my face?"

He let his long hair cover his face, feeling relief that both the night and his hair hid his embarrassment. "No, nothing. I was remembering something."

"Remembering what?" She light-heartedly prodded.

He gestured to the hotel's neon sign that stood out like a sore thumb in the pitch darkness with no stars. He hastily changed the subject, "Might as well get into the hotel."

He knew she still wanted to know what he had been thinking about from the occasional glances she kept shooting his way when she thought he wasn't looking. He kept a light grip on her arm as they both walked in, a slightly overweight man who obviously didn't make it a priority to take a shower once in a while shot a bored glance their way as they stepped inside.

"Any rooms available?" Raven asked, careful to hide his face away.

The man laughed hoarsely, it almost sounded like sandpaper being rubbed against a wall. "Around this time of year? Almost all the rooms are available."

Raven nodded, his face neutral, not joining in on the laughter. "We'd like to get a room with two beds."

The man gave Molly an interested look, "What are your names?"

Molly turned to Raven inquiringly. He answered somewhat hesitatingly, "Bill and..Melody..Walters."

The man shot him a strange look. "Okay Mr. Walters, your room is 210, down the hall to the left" He handed Raven a key.

Raven without a reply walked down the hall, closed the door behind him and turned to Molly. "This isn't good."

"What isn't? Because you gave him fake names?"

"No. This." He picked up the remote control and turned the small bedside television on to the news channel.

"A man is in critical condition after receiving gunshot wound to the chest. From nearby witnesses it has been made clear that a woman and a man may be possibly responsible for this attack. The witnesses have been able to identify the two as the woman being a blonde female, possibly in her early to mid twenties, blue eyes and roughly 5"5' tall. The male has been described as shoulder length dark brown hair and wearing a leather jacket and blue jeans at the time of the incident. The police have not been able to identify the possible suspects as of yet, though an update will be made each hour."

Raven turned off the tv, he knew there were no explanations necessary for what they had just watched.

Molly slid down to the bed in shock, her eyes filling with tears. "They think I did it on purpose don't they? I didn't…I didn't want to kill him I---"

Raven took her by the shoulders, making her meet his eyes. "Listen to me Molly, we're both in on this, it isn't just you, I've become an accomplice by helping you get out of there, there's no way we can go back there without being convicted of murder."

She sniffed, trying to be strong for the sake of Raven. "No, I'll turn myself in, if they ask anything about you I'll just say that you weren't involved…"

"NO." He even surprised himself by how forceful that sounded, he lowered his voice. "I'm not going to let you leave, don't you understand? If we go to jail, you think they'd let us see each other? We can't turn ourselves in, this is the only way for us to stay together." He got up, pacing in front of the bed. "The police work pretty fast, it's a good thing we got out of that town before sunrise, they would have caught us otherwise. I saw the hotel manager's television set while he asked us our names, that's why I panicked. He'll recognize us soon enough…"

Raven stopped pacing, parting the closed curtains and looking outside momentarily before heading towards the door. "I'll be back, you stay here, if anyone knocks, don't answer."

"Where are you—" She didn't get to finish her question before he closed the door.

Chapter 5

Raven walked back into the hotel room a few hours later, a plastic bag in his hand. Molly sat up, turning the television off as soon as he stepped inside.

"Where were you? I thought you might have gotten hurt.."

He flipped the bag upside down, the contents falling onto the bed. "Here."

She picked up one of the bottles, squinting to read the label. "..hair dye?"

"Bleach." He corrected her. "If we're going to pull this off, we can't have people recognizing us, this should help evade them for a while." Raven tossed to her another one of the hair dye bottles that looked exactly like the one she was already holding. "Want to be a brunette?"

Molly looked at the hair dye uneasily, "Are you sure this is going to work?"

He stopped rummaging through the contents and looked at her, "I don't know. I'll make it work."

He helped her pour the hair dye onto her hair over the sink, watching as her blonde hair slowly turned a dark auburn shade. After he had towel dried her hair, he took her over to the mirror to let Molly look at herself.

Molly's eyes widened at the sight. It was…different. She had always been a blonde, Cousin Holly never did believe in items that changed one's appearance. She liked her blonde hair better; but then again, she didn't really have a choice on that.

While Molly was distracted, Raven had dyed his hair a blonde shade. She could hear the water running as the excess bleach washed away down the drain. She wondered what hair color Raven had used, when he stepped out of the bathroom, she was surprised to find he had dyed his hair blonde.

"R-raven.."

He seemed somber, "Don't say a word, it's not supposed to look good, it's just supposed to change what I look like."

"..I was going to say it looked nice." She wasn't lying, it was going to take a while to get used to a blonde-haired Raven, but the hair complimented him nicely.

She noticed now he had a pair of scissors in his right hand. "Why do you have scissors with you?"

"You'll have to cut my hair, it will be uneven otherwise."

"Raven…" Molly knew he hadn't grown out his hair just to chop it all off, she loved his hair, it was what had first caught her eye.

"Do it."

She slowly reached out to take the scissors, "..You don't have to.."

"Yes I do, hair will always grow back, my life won't. Life is more important." She could see he was fighting an inner turmoil within himself, for so long he had found faith in knowing his hair would cover his emotions, it had become a part of him along the way.

The scissors touched one of his bleached blonde curls, she started to lower the scissors, deciding to tell him she wouldn't be able to do it..except the look Raven shot her made her consider otherwise.

She closed her eyes tightly as she closed the scissors on the first curl, opening her eyes as she watched her hands mechanically cutting the hair away onto the ground. Her tears fell onto the back of his head, she knew he felt the liquid droplets because he lifted his head for a moment before turning back.

She managed to cut his hair about a few inches, it was the most she was strong enough to see go.

He picked up the pieces of hair she had cut off from the floor, throwing them in the garbage. He walked to his bed, covering himself with the blanket. Molly could hardly see a strand of blonde hair as he pulled the blanket over himself.

Molly had got into her own bed as well, though after few seconds of silence, she quietly got up from her bed, shuffling over to Raven's bed, lifting the covers only enough for her to get in. She hugged Raven's frame as much as she could. Raven turned to face her, only then did she see his tears. She brushed his tears away, murmuring reassuringly to him, embracing him again as they both fell asleep.

Chapter 6

"Molly, get up. Get up." Raven shook her roughly, while shoving his clothes and the bleach into a bag.

Molly awoke, her vision still blurry from the lack of sleep. "What's going on Raven?" Her vision began to clear as she heard sounds coming from what seemed right outside their window. "The police.." It didn't take a more wake up call than that to get her right out of bed, grabbing what pieces of clothes she had taken out of her small sports bag.

"We can't go out of the front door, but there's a window by the bathroom, we can go out that way, then get a ride."

Molly nodded, feeling numbing fear take over her body, she was surprised she was able to get her legs to move as she climbed out of the small bathroom window. Raven had gone out of the window first, helping her. He instinctively grabbed her hand, pulling her along as he looked left and right before crossing the street. He held a thumb out towards the road, surprisingly a truck passing by just at that moment.

They got into the truck, watching in relief as the siren sounds and the police cars piling around the hotel started fading away. The trucker gave a curious glance at them asking, "What are you two doing hitching in the middle of the city? Not a safe place to hitchhike you know, it's a good thing I came along."

Molly sent the man a grateful smile, "We had a sudden change of plans, and we couldn't hitch a ride, that's why we were in there. Thank you for stopping, I thought we'd be waiting out there for forever."

Raven nodded in agreement, though inside he was thinking, there was something strange about the man, he wasn't sure what, it was probably nothing, but there was just…he should forget about it. They had a ride, that's all that counted. Raven put an arm around Molly, whispering to her to get some sleep, it was going to be a long day.

And she did.

Chapter 7

Molly felt the warm sun shining down on the side of her face as she awoke, lifting her head. She glanced down at Raven who was in a deep slumber himself, she shifted his arm off of her shoulder, knowing his arm probably went numb hours earlier.

"You up?" The trucker asked, giving a side way glance at her.

She smiled warmly, "Yes."

"What are you two kids doing hitchhiking in the middle of the city? And with a pretty little thing like you, you two could have gotten hurt."

"Thank you for your concern, …my boyfriend and I weren't sure how much money it would take to get to his aunt who's fallen sick in Nebraska, we had to resort to hitchhiking when we ran out of money to take a train," Molly explained, she was surprised how easily the lie rolled off her tongue.

The trucker nodded, "Well I'm not heading to Nebraska but there's a nearby city that I can drop you two off at where you can find a short route from."

The trucker glanced sideways to see if Molly was listening, only to find Molly fast asleep, her head resting on Raven's shoulder.

Chapter 8

Raven awoke to darkness, his eyes adjusting to the dark, he watched observingly as the truck passed by the small high way lights aligned alongside the highway. He gently shook Molly awake, knowing if she slept any further, she wouldn't be able to get to sleep the next day.

"Mm.." Molly snuggled up against Raven, relishing the warmth he gave off.

"Molls," Raven whispered.

"Mm..Raven?" One blue eye showed beneath her blonde curls, curiously asking why he had woken her up.

"You've slept all day, it's better to be awake now than to not be able to fall asleep." He explained.

Molly nodded, resting her head on Raven's shoulder.

The trucker stopped the truck a few minutes later, facing Raven, asking, "Hey, mind going and buying some food from the convenience store? I have to keep the truck running, it won't start back up otherwise."

Raven studied the trucker suspiciously before nodding. Molly instinctively grabbed onto Raven's arm, asking if she could come with him.

"I'll be back, nothing will happen." Raven reassured her before stepping out of the truck, crossing the street to the convenience store to buy the goods.

"Move up to the front," The trucker suggested, tapping his hands on the wheel to a song playing on the radio.

"Um…okay…." She glanced at the convenience store that Raven had gone to as she moved to the passenger's seat, uneasily sitting down, not settling herself because something told her to stay alert.

The next few seconds came as a blur to her, but the next thing she knew she had swung the truck door open, stumbling out onto the cement floor beneath her. Raven, stopping right out of the convenience store in confusion at seeing Molly outside, but he was able to piece the puzzle together----the man still inside, Molly on the cement floor with tears streaming down her face.

An immense anger built, he hurried over to Molly, dropping to his knees asking if she was all right, even though she numbly nodded yes, he didn't believe her. Whispering to her to stay where she was he got up, fully intent on beating the life out of the man when he saw the truck was driving off. He ran after the truck for a couple of steps before halting, knowing he could never catch up with it. Instead, he picked up a fairly large rock, weighing it in his hand before releasing it in the direction of the truck. Raven could hear something breaking, then the right taillight of the truck going dark.

He walked back to Molly, embracing her, saying to himself more than to her, "I should have stayed, I should have known not to trust him…did he, did he---"

Molly shook her head no, "I managed to get out of the truck before..he could attempt anything. Oh Raven.." She sobbed. "I was terrified, I'm so glad you came just in time."

"I didn't come quickly enough, if I had taken less time in the store, I could..I could have prevented all of this.."

Molly cupped his chin, making him look at her, even with tears streaming down her face she could make out the guilt on his face. "Listen to me Raven, he would have found a way to catch me alone, you couldn't have stopped this, just..just..please Raven, hold me..just for a second."

Raven took her into his arms, rocking her gently as she let her pent up feelings be released.

TBC…

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OOC Note: So what do you all think? Yes this is what I've been working on for the past two weeks while I was living with no internet, LOL. I have the second part already half finished, hopefully I'll have it up by no later than next Saturday. Criticism is welcome, I would always like well thought out criticism so I can retrace my steps and see what I did wrong :)