Oh my goodness! This took so long. I defiantly thought that this story would be easier to write than it was. So this is my contest entry for EvilOk's contest pairing Astrid and Caine. First contest and I really hope that people like it :)I know that there isn't any romance in this chapter but there will be very soon. I am going to write my ass off in the next week and get this story finished, or close to it.

P.S.- I get my braces off on Monday! Two years with these buggers. End of an era :)

Astrid had been running for what seemed like ever. She wasn't literally running all the time, putting one foot in front of the other at a brisk pace, but she felt like she was. Her mind never stopped spinning and her heart never stopped pumping painfully and her stomach never stopped churning with powerful emotion. It's impossible to just stand still when you've done something that makes your insides slither and ooze through you. When she closed her eyes, Astrid could picture her large intestines tying them self into a noose.

Nothing was still in the woods either. There were squirrels and birds and flying snakes. Everything was constantly moving in the forest that had recently become her home as well. It was hard to listen for anything when everything was making noise. Astrid always had to stay alert because (as she had learned very quickly) everything in the FAYZ is trying to kill you. The worms have teeth, for gods sake. In a world like that, nothing is safe.

She was sitting with her back against a big pine tree, a small fire warming her hands just enough to feel safe. Safer.

Astrid reached over to her torn backpack containing everything she had brought with her. All of her worldly possession. This sucks. There was no other way to put it. Astrid had never had an unbelievable amount of money but her family got along just fine. She was used to a certain style if living before the FAYZ. Get over it princess.

Astrid had grown a shell when she had killed her little brother. The small amount if gentleness that she had possessed before was completely gone.

She snapped oped the smallest pocket in her backpack and took out a small Ziploc back with dried vegetation in it and seventeen small rectangles of flimsy paper. She had used two already. Astrid was still quite unprofessional with her joint wrapping skills, but steadily they were progressing.

Astrid took out a sheet and made a line of green across it with her new favorite plant. She licked the paper and rolled it all up into a fun filled tube. After twisting the end, Astrid held the joint over the fire until a flame big enough licked the twist and set it alight.

It only was Astrid's third time smoking anything so when she inhaled her throat seized up and her lungs began to reject the wretched smoke. She was bent in half coughing for a few seconds than she took another puff. She had heard people talking about smoking so she knew that to get the full, glorious affect, she had to breath in a lungful, hold for as long as you could, then slowly release it.

Her favorite part of smoking wasn't the way that made her brain float, it was the way the smoke looked coming out of her mouth. It made her feel like a dragon who once in a while, had to release some of it's fire. It made her feel like she was on fire and she was burning from the inside out. She felt like along with the smoke, she was breathing out her sins and her badness. It was a beautiful release.

She held the joint between her lips and leaned her head against her tree. Her eyes drooped and she let the tension drain from her shoulders and neck. Her mind gently flew away and she could forget how awful everything in her life was. She was so relaxed and high and out of it that she didn't hear the twigs snap under the heavy feet of a boy, slowly approaching her.

The boy stalked, shadowed by the greenery, sniffing the air. It was sweet and sour and bitter and muggy. Every Coates kid knew that smell. Who it was coming from was the question.

The boy kept walking gingerly until her saw ahead of him a clearing with a small fire in it and a person sleeping, it looked like sleep anyways, against a tree. The person didn't look like a threat but he knew a small, scrawny, red-head who enjoyed cutting people up with wire. She hadn't looked like much of a threat either.

Caine flashed his hands out and Astrid rose off the ground and slammed into the tree. She was so surprised that she didn't scream or let the marijuana fall from her lips.

"Astrid? You have got to be kidding me," Caine said, shaking his head. "When did you become a pot head?"

Astrid didn't talk for twelve seconds. The weed had slowed her brain and stunted any response she could've made to Caine, who was still gawking at her. "Umm... Hey Caine," she said at last.

"Yeah. How high are you?"

Astrid for some reason found this statement hilarious. She began squawking and honking so hard that her head hung loose and her neck rolled back and forth. Caine's grip was firm but her could feel her body shaking with laughter underneath it.

"Since when did you show an interest in how I feel?' Astrid joked once she regained her breath. She kept laughing than said in a sing songy voice, "How high are you?"

"Jesus Astrid. Why are you out here?"

"There you go again Caine-y, caring about how I am. It's really quite chivalrous." The word chivalrous took her three tries to say.

Caine was getting annoyed now and decided to stop playing around. "I was only wondering why you aren't snuggled up to Sam or whoring around with some other poor loser."

He struck a nerve and a burst of energy pushed against his force field, "You don't know shit, Caine! If anyone's the whore it's your precious Diana. I wonder if she's made her way through the town yet? I bet they all take turns in her room. One fuck at a time until the entire FAYZ has been up close and personal with her-"

Caine had had enough. He had tried to not to block out the horrible things she was saying but he couldn't anymore. He had been with Diana in the most personal way possible and the thought that anyone else might get that chance made his blood turn into fire. He knew that she had moved on or whatever and he was trying to but at any mention of her, he started to feel her breath on his neck and her nails lightly running up and down his back and her mouth gently resting in the crevice of his neck. He felt an overwhelming loss and the best way he knew to get rid of it was to shut the person up who was talking about his Diana. So he decided, spur of the moment, to slam Astrid's face into the soil at the base of the tree. "Try saying that again with your mouth full of dirt. I dare you." He held her in the dirt, probably suffocating her mildly, for about thirty seconds, then loosened up. She lifted her face out of the the ground and spat a mouthful f mud to the right side of her face. Then she looked up at Caine and smiled, most of her teeth were coated in dirt and she looked like a crack addict who's teeth had rotted out in their sockets.

"Afraid of the truth Caine?"

He knelt down and looked her straight in the eyes. "I swear to god Astrid, if you don't shut the hell up, I'll kill you. You and I both know that that would be incredibly easy for me seeing as I really, really hate you," Caine showed a sickly smile. "Talk about her like that ever again and your body will be in the ground faster than you could seduce Sammy-boy then tell him that your body belongs to God. Yeah, everyone knows all about your little tease acts. Kinda famous for them actually." Caine could feel her struggling getting harder and harder as he taunted her. He knew exactly how to play this, how to kill her nerves, and to plant little seeds of self loathing in her brain.

Astrid composed herself slowly then decided that the only way you could fight Caine was by do unto him what he does to others. "Why are you even here Caine? Ohhh," she cooed, "Were you trying to find your little bitch, Diana so you could tie her to a bed and try to make her love you? Did it not work the first time? It;s okay, bud. At least you tried."

"Jesus," Caine laughed. "Do you enjoy signing your own death certificate, Genius? And, FYI, I wasn't looking for you or my ex-lover, I was looking for Drake. And yes, lover, Because we were in love with each other. Something I know you haven't experienced yourself."

With all of the yelling and anger, the two didn't hear the small footsteps of the twelve year old boy who was looking for his king. "Ummm, your Majesty?" Darrel said in a quivering voice. He had seen Drake's arm and how well he knew how to use it so, needless to say, he was desperate to get out of the forest and back to the dingy little home he shared with his older sister.

The blond girl who looked oddly familiar and King Caine snapped their heads in his direction. The Kings hands shot out and Darrel braced himself for an invisible Hulk-like fist to punch him into oblivion. The impact didn't come but the tension in his shoulders stayed put.

"Pfft!" The girl burst out laughing and rolling on the ground. "Your Majesty?!" she managed before her face was plowed into the dirt by Caine once more.

"What do you want Dale?" Caine said sounding annoyed and all of a sudden Darrel recognized the girl.

"Astrid Ellison? What's she doing here? Also um, my name's Darrel..."

"Oh, sorry David... Why aren't you looking for Drake?" Caine demanded, shrugging the name thing off like it didn't matter that only two of the letters were right.

"Um, we've all searched and we can't find anything. Nobody brought any food and we were wondering..." Darrel paused. He hated asking people for stuff.

"Yeah? Spit it out."

"If we could go home now? It's almost dinner and none of us have eaten since we woke up..."

Caine groaned. He had really wanted to catch Drake today. Get that creep gone. He would look stupid and weak going back to the beach empty handed. He hadn't done anything as King accept make Penny very happy. He needed something to show for, something that he had done himself to better the lives of every kid living in Perdido Beach.

Catching Drake was his big thing to show for. And he hadn't done it.

"Astrid," he said, stretching out the A at the beginning of her name. He stayed facing the boy who still looked petrified. "How would you like to take a trip?"

He heard a muffled voice in response and looked down at his feet to see the back of Astrid's head. "Silly me," Caine laughed as he released his hold on the girl.

"Do I have to call you 'Your Majesty'?"

Hello again! I'm going to do questions in this story so please answer them in the reviews :)

1. Do you ship Astrid and Caine?

2. Do you like Astrid?

3. What's favorite Gone book?

Have a lovely day!