INTRO

"You're wasting my time." He informed me. I could easily detect the fury in his normally calm voice.

"No, Carter! I swear to you, I would not dare to do such a thing." I assured him, forcing my voice to stay steady.

I imagine it was a miserable scene. A tall, broad boy standing with his arms crossed, dark eyes surveying what was in front of him through the rough black hair hanging in his face. A girl knelt at his knees on the hard woods floor in front of him, her long skirt gathering around her dirty pale legs. With her hands clasped before her chest, long brown hair hanging over her shoulders and bright blue eyes that were filling with tears as she gazed up at the boy.

Anyone watching us must have viewed me as a pathetic wench. I would have agreed with them if they'd said so, but now that I look back, I was not pathetic. I was desperate to save the one thing I had left.

"Then move on with it, and fast. I suspect you'll be good at that." His deliberately harsh words stung more than any blow ever could. I wiped my eyes, choked back my sorrows and told him the whole truth.

"I never wanted to leave you, Carter, please believe me. I had no choice."

"There is always a choice." He interrupted, reminding me of what I had once believed.

"No. There is never really a choice, my dear." He winced when I called him that, "They had it all set up, they would have killed you if I didn't go with them."

"You could have run."

"Their reach was too far. They had men everywhere."

"Get on with it." He was getting impatient, so I stopped stalling and began the real story.

BIRDIE'S POV

I awoke with a greasy hand over my mouth and a pressing knife at my throat.

"Now, my little Birdie," The low voice whispered in my ear, "You're going to get up, and come out this window with me."

I shook my head in protest and struggled against the hand.

"Stop her moving!" The voice ordered, I winced away from the vile breath that washed over my face. I felt hands pin down my arms and legs, I was trapped.

"I've got men all around your little 'safehouse', and three of my best right outside your precious leader's room. If you don't come, we'll begin a slaughter of everyone in this house, the head honcho first."

"No!" My cry was muffled through the big hand forced across my face.

"Oh, yes." I could practically hear the smile in his voice.

He had me, and he knew it. Whoever my captor was, they had one thing wrong. I wasn't worried about the leader of the house, who I was supposedly linked too. He was nothing but a safety net to me, a cover. The person I was really thinking of was Caspar, or Carter. They called him Caspar because, despite his unusual height and broad muscular chest and shoulders, he could pass undetected like a ghost through any place he wished. The room he slept in was the closest one to the back door, and it would be one of the first rooms that people were killed in.

The fear in my mind kept me from even considering the fact that this person might be lying, it never occurred to me that the one I loved may be perfectly safe in his bed, just the way he should be. So as I stole into the night with a cloth over my eyes, a dagger at my back and the same disgusting hand dragging me through the darkness, I whispered my goodbyes to him, and said for the first and what I thought may be final time, "I love you."

CASPAR'S POV

"Where is she?" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Nobody answered. They were too afraid, not a single person in this house had ever seen me lose my temper before, and now I was on the verge of committing a mass homicide.

"We don't know." Manny said quietly. He was supposed to be our brave leader, and now he was shrinking in the face of my anger.

"Find her!" I grabbed the closest object and hurled it at the wall with all of my strength, the ancient lamp shattered and pieces of glass flew in all directions. Again, I was met with silence.

A younger boy began sweeping up the broken glass, taking care not to step on any.

These idiots weren't going to be any help. I turned and stormed out of the front door, leaving it wide open behind me as I ran down the street.

Where could she have gone? She'd never left before, not without somebody to keep her safe. Birdie had known the streets could be dangerous, she'd seen what could happen if you weren't careful. It didn't make sense that she would just up and leave in the middle of the night like this, but she did, and now she was gone.

BIRDIE'S POV

It was morning and I was sitting in another safe house in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure that if I could get out I'd be able to find my way home, but they hadn't even let me leave the room yet. This place was in even worse shape than where I'd been a few hours ago. The floors and walls were full of holes from who knows what, the carpets are nearly shredded and the lock on the door is busted. They've got a guy standing right outside of my door to keep me in. I haven't tried to get out yet, I've just been investigating my surroundings. There is no way for these people to know what I'm doing in here, so I have peered into every drawer, examined every corner and checked for hollow spots under every floorboard. This room is nearly escape-proof. But nothing is perfect, and there must be a way out.