Chapter One

Alice walked casually down the street as if she had all the time in the world at her disposal. Her stroll was easy and relaxed, which was the exact opposite of how you would expect it to be, considering she just escaped the police. However, this secretly was the twenty-first time she had escaped from cops and the whole procedure was becoming very predictable.

Asleep on her back was sweet little Lillian. The albino had taken the news well considering they often had to uproot themselves and move to another town. She hadn't asked any questions as Alice had expected her to, but silently packed her things (not that there were many to pack) and set off.
"Why did we have to leave?" Lilly's soft voice addressed the question, her sound muffled by the soft blue jacket on Alice's back. Alice was so surprised at the noise that she almost dropped her sister and had to shift her hold on the girl riding piggyback. The teen could have sworn that the ten-year-old was sleeping.
"Same reason we always do, sweetie," Alice mumbled wearily. She hadn't started the blaze, but this exact scenario had happened before as well and no matter what Alice said, she was completely ignored. Why not at least confess to the crime if it all ended the same? Alice was tired of wasting her breath trying to explain.
"You mean the card men?" Her half-asleep passenger enquired. "Was it the ace of spades or the seven of diamonds?"
"The Ace." She answered. The ace and the seven had been the primary culprits in forcing the LaChances to move. The pair wore matching jackets with their card imprinted on the back. Their most common pursuers were the two previously mentioned, but they had seen at least five others trying to make life more difficult for the girls.

"Oh. Why won't they just leave us alone?"

Alice could only chuckle darkly to herself. She wanted to snap, to use sarcasm. To turn on the fragile child and scream, 'I don't know! I don't have all the answers! I don't! I don't! If I knew, would we be wandering like vagabonds, just waiting for the next attack to send us off again?' The words beat against Alice's mouth, eager to get out, to wound Lilly and make her stop assuming Alice was an oracle or that she knew everything. But the desire to shout dissolved when Lillian placed her small arms around Alice's neck.

Lilly didn't mean it- Alice knew that. The poor girl just wanted to settle down and make some real friends and to stop having to jump from place to place all the time. Deep down, Alice wanted that too. But she had to be strong for her baby sister. They were both a pair, all alone in the world. Lilly needed nobody but Alice and Alice only relied on Lillian.

"How far are we goin' this time?" Lilly mumbled, drifting back into sleep and losing consciousness quickly. Despite the fact that the little girl was probably sound asleep, Alice felt she deserved an answer anyway, so respond Alice did.

"I don't know, Lilly. As far as we need to. We'll probably just bus-hop until we get out of state lines. I have enough money saved from when we worked in that diner down the street to at least support us until I can find another job." That was more than was really necessary for Alice to tell somebody who was sleeping and couldn't even hear her, but the words poured out like a bubbling river. It was almost as if Alice herself needed reassurance that everything would be alright. "It won't take long, maybe a few days at most. We're super close to the border- going into New Jersey should be easy from this point. Just a hop, skip and jump, Lilly. We're so close to it. So close." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts in the silence, broken only by her sister's soft breathing and the annoying whine of the cicadas in the summer night. She stayed silent for a few minutes, tasting the moist, crisp air on her tongue and hearing all the sounds of summer played around her like a symphony.

After about ten minutes of walking, she came to a bus stop sign placed next to an old red bench with chipped paint. She set her bag with all her personal items next to her on the bench, and swung the still-sleeping Lilly around so that the albino girl was resting on Alice's lap instead. After only a few minutes of waiting, a blue metal bus pulled up to her. Alice took a slightly uncomfortable look at the windows of the bus on which were carved a hangman game, a girl's number, and several profane words, but as they had nowhere else to go, she gently woke Lilly and they got on the bus.

The first person to greet them was the bus driver, a plump, motherly woman in her late forty's. She looked at the two in concern- both carried duffel bags and looked rumpled and exhausted. She didn't ask any questions, but refused to take Alice's money, insisting that the ride was free. Alice summoned her energy to flash the woman a thankful, sunny smile and began to lead her little sister to the first seat behind the driver. The doors creaked shut with a foreboding shudder and the bus began to trek forward. Alice took the chance to look around the bus, only to discover the bus was totally empty except for three people in the back seat- a girl and two boys. The girl was a tiny thing- very short and slim, with light brown skin. She also had black hair pulled into two curly pigtails. Her brown eyes were gleaming and bright, although that may have been due to the Dunkin Donuts cup in her hand. She was wearing a black hooded t-shirt with a short black skirt, black Mary Janes, and white tights. Her legs were crossed and she was chatting animatedly with the guy on her right.

The guy the girl was talking to was very different from her, in both looks and personality. He was incredibly pale and lanky, reaching about Alice's height. He wasn't fat but he wasn't paper-thin either- he was about average weight. His hair was a dirty blonde, and insanely unkempt. It stuck up all over the place and effectively covered his eyes, an odd combination with the dark green baseball cap on his head. He was wearing plain deep blue jeans and a forest green jacket over a white collared shirt. As opposed to the little dark girl bouncing in excitement, he was slouched in the chair apathetically, only nodding vaguely to the girl's endless stream of comments and keeping a firm grip on his cup of coffee. He impatiently brushed his bangs out of his eyes to show they were a pale blue, almost icy in color.
The third boy in the trio was on the blond boy's right and on the window seat. His hair was a light brown and long, pulled into a low, short ponytail. He had two gold hoops in each ear and was taller than Alice was by probably two inches or more. His shirt was black and sleeveless, with long khaki pants and a black wristband on each wrist. He was resting his chin on his hand and staring out the window, but turned when he felt Alice's curious gaze. His eyes were a deep golden color, much to Alice's surprise, but as she was accustomed to weirder things, she only smiled sweetly at him. He looked her up and down, apparently satisfied by Alice's long blonde hair, deep sapphire eyes, and thin figure. He shot her a smirk, but dense little Alice was clueless as to why he was staring. Lily, however, wasn't. She had noticed the older teen staring at her big sister and instantly was filled with rage- Lily had always been unusually perceptive. She popped her head over the seat and glared angrily at the brown-haired boy. Noticing her, his face slid from cocky to shocked, then back to confident. He turned to his companions, got their attention, and then whispered something to them. Then, all three turned to look at Lily, and something about their expressions made Alice's adrenaline pulse in her veins and her hold on the albino in her lap tighten.
"I don't trust them, Alice," Lily said softly, without changing her expression. They had mastered this type of unnoticeable talking while trying to hide from the card-people that had tried repeatedly to kill the orphaned pair.
"Neither do I. I think we'll change buses next stop. Do you have all your stuff?" Alice murmured back, keeping the sweet smile on her face and gazing out the window. The people in the back also seemed tenser- the thin girl didn't talk or giggle anymore, and the blonde looked completely awake and was watching the two runaways out of the corner of his eye. Lily looked up at the ceiling, watching the blinking lights at the front of the bus, then sighed in boredom and looked back down at her shoes. Only her older sister understood that the innocent movement was a nod meant only for Alice to decipher.

Alice began drumming her fingers anxiously on her leg as she saw the next stop come into view. She regretted leaving the bus and her free ride on it, but her protectiveness for Lillian overpowered her frugality. The blue-eyed girl leapt into action the second the vehicle ground to a creaky stop. She grabbed both bags and slung one over each shoulder and strolled briskly to the opening door, Lily bouncing on her heels. The trio in the back clearly weren't expecting such a quick move and hurried to gather all their things together. The bus driver tried to say something sympathetic to the pair, but they were both already out the folding door before the woman had the chance.
***

Alice leapt off the bus stairs in one bound without even bothering to look back. She could tell Lily was following from the gentle pad of her sister's soft-soled shoes slightly behind her and to the left. She already was sure the suspicious people on the back of the bus were planning to follow them and looking back would only make timid Alice panic beyond belief. Also, looking back may have made her slow down and then they would surely be caught. So Alice sped up to a brisk walk- fast, but not enough so that they would give the impression she was aware of the pursuers. Her blonde hair was fluttering behind her and looked almost ethereal in the silvery moonlight as the thin figure began walking along the roadside followed by a small, albino girl who appeared to glow in the moonbeams and, farther away, a trio of people cautiously behind them.
"They're catching up, Alice. We won't be able to outrun them."
Alice bit her lip. "How close?"
"Only ten yards and closing in."
Alice signaled with her hand that they were going to turn around and they did simultaneously. Alice and Lily smiled cheerily at the shocked trio.

"Hello," Lily said, pure sweetness dripping off each word. "Care to explain why you've been following us?"