Chapter Two

Fear swept across every nerve. Despite her efforts to stop panicking, the worse possible scenarios kept flooding Rilei's mind, causing her lose rational thought.

Her eyes darted to the fence's hole. It was small, something she'd had squeeze through in order to hide.

But she doubted that would stop her stalker. They would find her, and she would be trapped. Who knows what they would do with her once they got her?

Rilei bit her lip, getting ready to run. In her crouch, her muscles were tense. She stared at the opening.

On the other side, the floor was littered with trash, spills, and dust. Miraculously, tiny spikes of grass poked through the concrete.

The alley branched off from the city street. It was the one empty part in a sea of crowded slums. Nothing stood upon the cracked bricks, and Rilei heard only silence. For a moment, anyway.

She nearly jumped at the sudden sound of pounding feet.

Right in front of the hole, black boots skittered to a halt.

Rilei's heart skipped a beat.

Stay calm. She thought. Stay calm.

The panting stranger was only visible up to mid- thigh. It shifted about, looking for her tracks.

As her pulse raced, shuffling steps and intelligible words sounded in Rilei's ears. Were they speaking another language?

The two of them stayed in their places. The stranger paced about while she all but held her breath. A few minutes passed. Finally, her pursuer turned and walked away, leaving her alone.

Rilei waited. She stared at the spot, anticipating her pursuer's return. When they didn't come back, she sighed in relief. Safe, but how long?

Rilei got up, shoved herself through the hole, and took a right out of the alleyway. Her tender legs stretched as she crept quietly through the back lane. Filthy strangers eyed her body as she passed, making her shiver.

Okay, so maybe traveling through these parts wasn't the best idea. But Rilei needed to get move on. She'd been in Reincarn for a week. That was long enough.

Rilei didn't know what people even wanted from her. Surely, people hadn't figured out what she looked like?

Then again, motives (while good to know) were something she didn't need as long as she wasn't caught. They didn't matter if she was, either.

She shuddered. These days, she always felt like she was being watched. As if someone was standing right behind her, observing her every move. But every time she looked back, there was no one.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid. She had to stop doing this to herself. It would cloud her head if she wasn't careful.

"If something's holding you back, let it go. You have to move forward in life."

That was advice given to her a long time ago. If only she knew how to follow it.

She forced herself to face forward, stepping over the occasional rubble blocking the path.

She wasn't following the directions the locals gave her. She made a few detours when trying to lose her pursuer. But she could see an exit out of town just fine. It wasn't a problem.

Reincarn was a big city. But for a huge place, there wasn't much she could do.

There were job openings. But the more respectable places required proof of education, something she didn't have. There was the nearby factory, but Rilei had no interest in spending the rest of her life (however long that may be) doing the same thing. She would rather starve to death than work to insanity.

Besides, if she stayed in one place, she'd be that much easier to find. That was something she would never allow. So, for the time being, she was once again a street rat. But no matter what happened, she would not return to the life of a criminal. Worst came to worst, she could panhandle for necessities.

But not with the bounty hunters in the city. That, she did not understood.

From what she heard, Prince Kazen's case was solved. The real culprits were some of the king's men, involved in a conspiracy of some sort. She didn't care for politics, but Rilei knew that this should mean she was in the clear. Her crimes of thievery weren't serious enough for interplanetary attention.

She stood corrected when she saw that wanted poster, three weeks ago.

Rilei remembered seeing the paper, surrounded by all kinds of people, through a cafe window.

At first, she thought it was still the same scrap that accused her for murder. But, then she realized that something was off. Sure, it still had the crude portrait. But there were different words and, somehow, an even bigger reward was offered.

"Wanted," she recalled reading, "for Association with Fugitives, Possible Involvement in Terror Attacks, and More."

At that moment then, Rilei cursed every omnipotent thing she could think of.

Was her life just some sort of sick joke? Did the gods hate her all of the sudden?

Why did that portal have to land her here of all places? This run down shanty town of a planet? Well, fine. She could deal with it. It wasn't new, or anything.

When she first arrived on Desperin, Rilei understood she was still on the radar. Thus, she didn't stick around in Monokum, the first place dimensional authorities would search. But it had been a month. By now, the buzz should have died down. Not snowballing into this shit.

She kicked a rock aside.

'Terror Attacks?' Really? What were the Winx thinking? Rilei wasn't a saint, but she wasn't a terrorist either. Why point the finger at her? Had she really pissed them off that severely?

And 'Association with Fugitives?' If they were talking about the Trix, then they really got things wrong. Rilei hadn't seen them since Hyoneh. Wherever they were, she just hoped they were dealing with this sort of crap as well. They better be. At least they were real terrorists.

If she never saw them again, it'd be too soon. She already had enough to deal with.

Like where to go from here, for example. She was running out of cities to visit, even if they all looked the same.

Rilei stepped out of the shambles. The clearing was full of dead grass, trees, and random junk. She looked up. The clouds were still grey as ever. She crinkled her nose. The smells from the industries nearby, if anything, have gotten worse.

In a huff, she took out her map and compass from her bag.

Rilei wasn't out of the woods yet. Even if she'd returned to her city of birth.


A/ N's: PTV: Oh look, is that an update you see? Right at its scheduled time? That's right: this story has the same update schedule as OotD did unless otherwise noted. Hopefully, we can stick to a schedule. EDIT: We're keeping this update schedule. But expect Chapters Four and Five to come faster to make up for our delay.

SME: Yeah, she's wrong. This is not at the scheduled time. I'm sorry, everyone, for the wait. I got distracted and kept on putting it off. That was not fair and appropiate for PTV and you readers. I promise, I'll try harder to get it on time.

PTV: To be fair, it's been a rough few weeks.

For one, me and my coauthor are gonna be collaborating at a distance soon. She's moving to another state. God, I'm gonna miss her, but hopefully this story keeps our friendship together.

SME: Me too. About a good portion of my family's things, including our computer, have already been packed up. So, I'm uploading this from my phone.

PTV: Speaking of SME, I guess you want to hear from her herself. Thanks for reading, please review, and I'll see you on the far side!

SME: At first, I wasn't really confident with this chapter. But after some edits, I think it came out okay. So yeah.