By three AM, the plan was all figured out. Eugene left her house to go to his apartment, knowing that if the brothers were truly watching him, they'd know if he 'skipped town'.

The next day, Rapunzel talked to Levi and offered to let him drive her car to pick up books that day. It was a pickup out-of town, but a very small amount of books, which would all fit in the back seat. She'd said that Eugene had gone down to the same town for something and if Levi could pick him up at the town's local mall, it would be great - and thank you, she always added. Eugene told Mr. Barnes that he needed to take the day off because he was sick. In reality, he was. His stomach threatened to heave his measly breakfast back up, and he was worried sick. If this plan didn't go through...
He packed some of his belongings in a grocery bag. Jogged down the flights of stairs and went outside. Glanced around as if he was nervous. He was. And then he tried to disappear. Quickly. For this to all work, he had to be out of town and meet up with Levi at that town's mall at exactly two-o-clock. And of course, it had to be a rainy day to boot. The wet stuff pattered on Eugene's head, trickled down between his jacket, shirt, and the bare skin beneath, and made puddles that soaked his jean hems.

Rapunzel stared out of the bookstore window, worrying not about herself but of Eugene. This plan had to go flawlessly. And...if something happened and he didn't show up in time for Levi to pick him up...she would not have even said goodbye. She blinked away the thought and watched the raindrops race down the window.
"What's the matter, dear?" Ms. Neelson called. It was a dead day; only a few customers had come in so far.
"Oh, nothing," Rapunzel turned and smiled towards the older lady. Nobody had ever seen her upset before. It probably wasn't a good sign that she'd let her masks slip; not right now.
"I'm sure your guy will be on the mend by tomorrow," she reassured her.

"My guy?" Rapunzel asked, furrowing her brows.
"Well, you're obviously really worried about him calling off sick," she pointed out. "Nobody gets that concerned unless they really love someone." Ms. Nelson gave her an all-knowing, indulgent smile.
Rapunzel sucked in a deep breath. She could play this three different ways. Fake concern for him, say she was worrying about something else, or - or, she could fess up.
"Yeah," she agreed quietly, returning to watching the raindrops on the windowpane.

One of the few customers that came the entire day was a woman who would have been tall, if it weren't for the way she walked; stooped over slightly with her face downcast. She wore a heavy, black scarf over and around her head, hiding her graying hair. Her skin held a mildly yellow tint and was loose. Her clothes and jacket hung loosely over her form. She reeked of a smoke Rapunzel had smelled before, but couldn't quite place. She had gone through a few aisles of books, purchased one - a murder mystery - and left. Rapunzel stared after her for a long time before a realization nearly sent her reeling. The smoke smell. The smoke smell!
Her adoptive mother.

Eugene met Levi just on time. He'd forced down a burger and the greasy thing was threatening to come back up. He was still worried sick over this stupid plan.
"Bro," Levi said as soon as he crawled into the car. "You don't look good."
"Don't feel good," Eugene swallowed an acidic burp and grimaced. "I don't think Rapunzel will appreciate a vomited-in car, right?"
Levi chuckled. "That's not what you want to do. 'Hey sweetie, I love you. Also, I threw up in your car.'"
Eugene shook his head. "That's fantastic."
"Have you told her yet?" he asked. "Speaking of which."
Eugene shook his head and shut his eyes. "No."
"You need to before someone else snatches her up."
"You jealous?" Eugene asked. He peeled one eye open to evaluate Levi's profile.
"No," Levi shook his head. "But someone will be someday."
"Yeah," Eugene said quietly. He tugged the hood of his jacket up over his head in an attempt to somewhat hide his face.

Eugene laid low in the car when Levi stopped to unload the boxes. The burger had come back for revenge on the ride back, and Eugene had just prayed for the poor soul in the car behind him, with the windows down, when he had leaned out the window to wretch as they went sixty miles-per-hour down the highway.
Despite Eugene's rolling stomach, he also needed to lay low in case they came to check the car out. They didn't, thankfully, and Levi offered to drive Eugene back to his apartment.
"I need to go back to Rapunzel's so I can drop her car off - she said she didn't want to leave it in the parking lot for some reason - so I'll be happy to drop you off at your apartment," he said.
Eugene shook his head. "Rapunzel told me she had some medicine at her place that might help with my nausea, so just drop me off with the car. I can walk back, it might do me some good," he said, unconvincingly.
Levi gave him a calculating stare, but agreed after some more convincing.

At Rapunzel's house, Eugene pulled the car back into her small backyard, so it couldn't be seen from the road. He fished the key Rapunzel had given him the night before - or that morning, whatever you wanted to say - and entered through the back. Locking the door and then making sure everything was untouched - meaning, nobody had broken into her place -, he headed up to the room Rapunzel had described as her hidden escape. He hadn't known that the girl had a library in her house: a small little room that swung out away from the building in a circular, tower-like shape, with no windows pointing towards the road but instead towards the backyard. And she had it full of books. He loved her a little bit more. All the same, he pulled the curtains on this small, hidden room, which only held entrance through her bedroom, and sat on the floor with an old book that smelled beautiful.

Rapunzel walked to the diner. It was diner night. She had to keep up an appearance.
"Aw, honey, where's your guy?"
Your guy. Everyone was calling him that. Rapunzel took another deep breath. Acting. She was good at acting. Her lip trembled. "He left me," she whimpered.
The waitress sympathized with her, letting her know that she didn't need anyone like that.
"I don't even know if maybe he'll come back. Maybe he needed some time or space to himself or something. He didn't give any real reason." Rapunzel saw two gigantic men sitting at the far end of the diner and raised her voice slightly, making it shrill and unhappy. "He just left!" If those were the brothers that had beaten Eugene up, they'd just gotten tipped off.

She ate her meal slowly and noticed that a woman had joined the two tall men. The hair on the back of Rapunzel's neck stood up on end. When she left the diner, she tried to pace herself instead of running. She was supposed to be clueless.

At her beautiful Victorian house, she quickly locked her doors and grabbed her phone, keeping it on hand. She jogged up her steps two at a time and raced into her little library. Eugene jumped to his feet, but when he saw it was her, he relaxed. She took a deep breath herself and swallowed.
"My adoptive mother's in on it," Rapunzel told him. "We're going to be outnumbered. I should have seen it coming, she's-of course she would've hired someone to find me. She's coming for me. You said they're good at hunting people down, right?"
He nodded, trying to take the news in stride for her sake. They'd be outmanned, but not outsmarted. Hopefully. "We'll pull it off," he promised. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a pocket knife. "I'm staying here 'til this thing gets solved, especially since your adoptive mother will probably be coming after you. But I don't want you unarmed. Take it and if you need to, use it. Can you promise me you will?"
Rapunzel stared at the thing in his hand, which he was stretching out towards her. The scar on her arm seemed to come alive again, burning with the searing pain she'd felt when the knife had slipped through the skin of her arm. She swallowed and shook her head, backing away. "N-no. I'm sorry. I-I..I can't," she covered her scar with her hand and rubbed it subconsciously.
Eugene caught the gesture and pocketed the knife, shaking his head. "It's okay. That's fine. Do you have a...I don't know, a bat or-" he paused as he heard a thump.
Rapunzel swung around towards the door, but then dropped to the floor and crawled on all fours, peering out of the bottom of the curtain.
"Back entrance. They're coming," Rapunzel hissed.