The day before, Thorne and Kate showed up at work together.

Cress eyed them as they walked in. Thorne looked completely and utterly wrecked, but Kate looked as fresh as ever.

They were very chatty. Laughing about what ever had happened the night before. Cress was faced away from them, but she could still see them in her mirror as she did her make-up for the day. She wasn't a character today, but she was still performing as the introducer for the parade, and other events, so all she had to wear was the official Lunar Park T-shirt, and her own skirt that she was wearing now.

None of her friends were here today. Scarlet was off to France, Wolf was talking with Aimery, Kai had the day off. Really, the only other people here were Darla, Thorne, Kate, Emilie, and some other performers that Cress was sort of friendly with, but weren't really friends.

She knew it was going to be a long day today. At least tomorrow it was the weekend, but that was still kind of shadowed by the fact that she would have to go back to her mom's house.

She was feeling all sorts of worry and anxiety about what Ran was going to ask of her tomorrow. He would ask about Cinder, and of course, she knew everything about her already, but she couldn't exactly tell him that because they were supposed to be protecting her.

She put her face in her hands, not really caring if she was smudging her make-up or not. Honestly, what was the point of going to work when it would just stress her out more?

She sighed, looking up, glancing at Thorne and Kate in the mirror.

"It's so depressing, isn't it?" Darla's voice startled her.

She looked at her. She was at the vanity beside her.

"What?" This was the first time Darla had ever spoken to her.

"Thorne and that girl. What's her name again?" She spoke in a monotone voice, almost like a robot.

"Kate Fallow."

"Yeah. They're probably going to get together soon."

Cress laughed, but she wasn't amused. "How'd you figure that?"

"I can just tell these things. Look at their body language. Have you ever seen Thorne be so interested in something other than himself?"

She looked at them. Was she sinking through the ground? Oh wait, no. It was just her heart plummeting, because she was right. He was so engaged by whatever it was she was saying, nodding, laughing at the right moments. As far as she could tell, he wasn't drawing any attention to himself like he normally did, but he was being respectful and kind.

"Told you it was depressing." Darla said.

Cress had to agree with her.

He honestly wasn't really entirely sure what it was that Kate was saying.

Kate picked him up from his house in the morning, knowing full well that the amount of alcohol he had in the morning wouldn't have left his system yet, and she wouldn't let him take the risk he usually did when he drove himself to work with a hangover.

In the car, the talked like they were old friends, which, technically they were, but did it really count when they hadn't spoken to each other in about four years.?

They filled in the blanks of these four years.

"Well, at first I did a literature course, but I don't know what it was, but for a long time it completely ruined books for me. So, I dropped that and had a gap year. I went around the world with my friends, and like, as I was tasting all of these amazing food from all around the world, I thought that I could do something like that. Recreate all of these foods. So I tried that, becoming a chef, but that didn't work out all too well for me..."

He nodded. Was he interested in what she was saying? Kind of… really, he was just kind of more absorbed by how her brown eyes reflected the lights. Was that too mushy of him?

"And that's how I started working at Lunar Park. Hey, have you noticed that girl staring at us?"

He zoned back in just as she said that. He turned to where she was indicating with her eyes, and locked eyes with Cress.

A blush crept all the way up to her neck for whatever reason, and she turned around, back hunched over as if she didn't want to be seen.

He turned back to Kate. "Oh, that's Cress. Weird."

"She is a bit, isn't she?"

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "Er, well. She seems really intense sometimes. Like, I've tried to make conversation with her, but she never makes eye-contact with me and she just seems like what she wants to do is get away from me, really."

He shrugged. "She's just shy, is all."

"Yeah, I know. I can understand that, I mean, I'm shy, too. But she just seems like on a whole 'nother level. I don't know..."

He remembered reading before, when Cress told him she had autism, that autistic people had poor social skills. He had never really noticed it before. She had always been friendly towards him. He had to admit, that yeah, she was weird sometimes, but she always seemed keen to talk to him when he approached her.

He wondered why she wouldn't feel the same way about Kate.

He glanced back at Cress again, then back to Kate.

"Honestly, don't worry about it. She's nice once you get to know her."

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out.

"Oh, I got a text. Hang on a sec."

It was from Wolf.

Don't forget.

He sighed. Typical Wolf. Reminding him of things he had purposely forgotten.

He was supposed to do that drag-racing thing that Wolf had said a few days ago. In all honestly, he really didn't want to do it. He had so many better things to be doing with his time. Looking at naughty pictures on the internet, gambling with his friends…

But he had no choice, did he? That girl, Winter, had fluttered her pretty eyes at him and it was like everything she said, he had to do.

"What is it?" Kate asked,

"Nothing," He said nonchalantly. "I'm supposed to be visiting my parents tonight. They just wanted to remind me."

She nodded. "How are your parents?"

"They're alright. Still wish I stayed in the army though." That, and they still see him as a disappointment. But he wasn't going to bother Kate with that. He hated talking about his parents anyway.

At the end of the work day, Cress caught the train back to her mom's. She got there, just as Ran was leaving. He smiled at her.

"Hey," He said "I'm going out tonight, but have you found anything out about Cinder?"

Oh good. He wouldn't bombard her with questions straight away, so she could think of something to tell him when he came back that wouldn't put anybody in danger.

"Um, yeah." She said."Loads of things..."

"Really?" He asked. "Awesome. Brief me when I come home."

She nodded.

"See you later," He said.

That was one of the more pleasant conversations she had that that day.

She entered the house. It was quiet.

"Anyone home?" She called out. She couldn't remember if she saw anyone's cars in the driveway or not.

She walked through to the kitchen, where she saw Sybil chopping up some carrots. As usual, she glared at her as she entered, though she wasn't entirely sure what she had done wrong this time.

"I was taking a shower today. Do you know what happened?"

She swallowed. "...No."

"It flooded. When I went and saw what was clogging it, do you know what I found?"

Cress was silent, looking down.

"Your hair. All through the drain. It flooded as soon as I stepped in."

She knew she was gong to say that. "I clean out my hair every time I use the shower." She said. There had to be some kind of misunderstanding.

Sybil cocked an eyebrow cynically. "Then, why was there so much hair down the drain?"

"I'm- I'm not sure." She said.

"I think you're lying."

Cress looked at her. "Where's my mom?" She asked, noticing her lack of presence.

"She's out." She said. "What? Don't have your mother to defend you?"

She frowned. "I don't need her to defend me."

"Ha!" She laughed. "Could've fooled me."

Cress didn't say anything, because it was true. She could not defend herself. She always relied on other people to defend her. She was too passive, too quiet. She didn't know how to stand up for herself. She wasn't like other people she knew, like Scarlet, who knew exactly who she was and what she wasn't. She wasn't like Wolf, who was quiet like her, but he was stronger than she was, not just physically, but mentally.

And then there was Thorne, who was everything that Cress wasn't. He was sure of himself, so confident and carefree. She was sure he didn't have any problems at all, and he always seemed so happy.

Maybe that was why she was so attracted to him, not just for his good looks, like Darla. But because they were such opposites. Maybe was hoping some of his personality would rub off on her if they became friends, or even something more. So that she could defend herself. So that she wouldn't let people like Sybil trample all over her.

At the end of the workday, Thorne said bye to Kate, since she had to drop him off.

As soon as she left, he asked Anthony for his keys to his white Mitsubishi, and started driving to the address printed on the business card that Jerrico Solis had given him.

When he arrived at the drag strip, there were so many cars parked around. Some had lights illuminating the cars from beneath, others had customised wraps individualising their cars.

There were so many people here. Thorne assumed that not everyone was part of Aimery's gang, but rather just thrill seekers looking to make some money for winning a race.

He got out of his car, put his hands in his pockets and looked around. Someone stepped up to him. A girl with curly brown hair and shorts that showed off her ridiculously long legs. He put on his most award-winning smile.

"Hey, honey." She said. "You racin'?"

"Sure am. Where do I… apply?"

She laughed. It sounded like how honey tastes. "Is this your first time?" She said.

He paused at the euphemism, then answered. "Depends to which question you mean."

She laughed again. "So funny." She said. "I mean your first time drag racing."

"Mhmm." He said.

"Great." She said. "Well, there's no application. Just when the announcement comes on the speaker phone, drive your car to the start of the strip, and you're all set."

He nodded. "How long until…?"

"Not too long." She stopped as an arm slid around her waist. He didn't miss the slight narrowing of her eyes.

Thorne locked eyes onto Jerrico Solis.

"Carswell Thorne," He said. "So glad you could join us."

The girl smiled at Solis, but he noticed it was forced. Was her smile forced when he was flirting with her? Her laugh? He quickly shook the thoughts out of his head. Of course it wasn't. He's Carswell Thorne!

He cleared his throat. "Right." He said. "Um, I was just talking to..."

"Jina." The girl said.

"She's lovely, isn't she?" Solis said.

Thorne smiled, basically mirroring Jina's expression.. "That's true." He said.

Solis unwound his arm from around Jina. "Go on," he murmured into her ear. "Go attend to the other racers."

She smiled at him, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. She turned around and walked away.

Solis sighed as he turned towards him. "So good to have some girls around here. We've been hiring some for a couple of bucks, paying them to dress up in their skimpiest outfits. Give the racers something to race for, you know?"

Thorne nodded. "Oh yeah. Where'd you find 'em?"

"Why, wanna take one home?" Solis winked.

"Mmm," He said indifferently. While a few moments before, he would have agreed, after seeing how these girls were reacting around other men, how fake their smiles seemed and how strained their laughter was, he changed his mind.

"So, what's the prize for winning?" He asked

"Looking out for the big prize are ya?" Solis asked.

Yes, that is what I just said. Thorne thought, but refrained from saying it.

"It's a few thousand dollars, and maybe a little visit from the big guy."

"Big guy?" Thorne asked.

Solis leaning in close. "Aimery Park."

His expression told him that he was supposed to look impressed, so he rearranged his face into one of awe. "No way,"

Solis nodded. He was about to say something else, but was interrupted:

"The race is starting in 5 minute, racers, drive to the start of the strip with your pair." The voice was masculine.

He cleared his throat. "That's your cue. Oh, and your pair is the one in the orange Camaro. Ran Kesley. Good luck."

Kesley. Thorne was going to be racing Wolf's brother?

"What are you doing?" Sybil asked her.

Cress looked up. She had started to walk away, avoid the conflict. Trying to start any fights.

Sybil was glaring at her. "I didn't waste my time pulling your disgusting hair from the drain just for you to ignore me."

Cress swallowed. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" There. The first time she ever stood up for herself.

Sybil sniffed. "I'll tell you what you're going to do about it. You're going to cut it."

Cress recoiled. "No,"

"No?" Sybil said. "You want that disgusting thing on your head?"

She opened the cutlery drawer, and pulled out the pair of scissors.

"Get away from me." Cress said.

Sybil started coming closer, the scissors poised menacingly in her hand.

"I'm honestly tired of looking at that thing you call hair."

She took a step back, but wasn't watching where she was going. She backed into the wall, as Sybil reached out and yanked on a handful. She felt the pain, felt the hands pulling on her hair. She felt as if her own body didn't belong to her.

She reached out to pull her hair back, not seeing where she was grabbing, or how close the scissors were to her hand, and she felt the blades cut across her hand. She drew her hand close to her, gasping from the pain. The scissors had cut across the back of her hand, the pressure Sybil had forced scraping her hand. Blood started seeping out from the broken skin.

"Look, what you did! This hair is a danger to everyone around you!"

Cress wanted to say that it wasn't her fault. That Sybil was crazy. But she knew that there was no chance now that she could get away from Sybil.

"Please..." She said. "Leave me alone."

But she was powerless, and Sybil wasn't listening to her, and the pain was taking all her attention, there was blood running down her hand and Sybil didn't even care. She just grabbed the same piece of hair that she had failed to cut and she was closing the blades and then-

Snip! There it was. The first few bits of hair started falling to the floor. Sybil started again, manoeuvring the scissor in and upwards motion, cutting, cutting, cutting.

She kept trying to move away, but the scissors were so close to her head. She couldn't risk it. A wrong move, and Sybil could cut her, or worse.

She was gasping, tears streaming down her face. She didn't even notice when it was over.

"There, isn't that better?" Sybil asked. She had a smile on her face, as if what she had done was the best thing for Cress.

She couldn't say anything. Her mouth wouldn't move. She felt light-headed, a result of the haircut and the fact that she couldn't believe that all the threats that Sybil had said, she actually went through with.

Why had she done this? Because she had accidentally clogged the shower? No, there had to be another reason for it. There had to be.

But she couldn't think any more of it. She couldn't think about it logically.

Her hand was throbbing. Sybil hadn't given her anything to stop the bleeding, and she couldn't do anything about the blood that she dropped onto her clothes, or onto the floor, mangling with her cut hair, in a circle around her.

"Well?" She demanded. "Aren't you going to thank me?"

Thank her? For what?

She tried blinking away her tears, tried swallowing the lump in her throat. But she couldn't. The tears started falling fast and hard. She was heaving.

"Oh, come on. It's just hair!"

But it wasn't just hair to her. It was safety, security. It was something that she could always hold on to when she got upset. Something that always seemed, until now, a constant part of her life.

The races would go in turns. Each pair would try to out-race the other, and whoever one, would get a prize of six hundred dollars (which was motivation enough for Thorne to try and beat Kesley,) and would go to the next round where all the winners would race each other, for the grand prize, which had something to do with Aimery Park.

Thorne and Kesley were up next. They were going fifth, so Thorne had plenty of time to study the drag strip and see what he would have to do to cause the least amount of pain and dying.

Before, he had started up a conversation with Kesley. He was more friendly than his brother, at least. He had been drag-racing since he turned seventeen, watching them since he was twelve.

He asked him how many wins he had, but he would tell him. Thorne assumed that was because he had won so many that telling him would seem like bragging, or, he had won none at all and didn't want him to know about it.

He hoped it was the latter, because Thorne had approximately zero experience with drag-racing, and the most he knew about it was by watching the Fast and Furious movies. But something told him that those movies weren't really an accurate representation of what drag-racing was really like.

After that conversation, they got into their cars, waited until they heard the announcement, and then they were off.

Thorne grabbed the clutch, pressing down as fast as he could on the accelerator. Kesley had a bit more of a head start, but Thorne was catching up. Kesley had a Camaro, a manual. He would have to change gears to get to his top speed. Thorne supposed he could use that to his advantage, if he could find out a way to do that.

The speedometer was climbing, and he was head to tail with Ran.

"Faster. Faster." He muttered.

He almost missed the bend, watching the speedometer. Almost crashed. But he swerved, pressing on the breaks, dodging it. But he had wasted valuable time. Kesley was six seconds away from him. But that was okay. He could catch up. If he was more reckless. Took more risks.

That was ninety per cent of his personality, so he was sure he could manage that.

He didn't watch the speedometer any more. He just floored it. Made sure he took in his surroundings, so he wouldn't crash.

He barely even realised when he was neck and neck with the Camaro. He inched forward. The sound of the cars were permeating through the air. It was all he could hear.

Kesley was red in the face, eyebrows furrowed as he shifted gears.

The end of the race was coming closer. He didn't lighten up on the accelerator, pressing on to it harder.

And then.

He heard metal scraping and looked over to Kesley. He had swerved towards him, trying to knock him off course.

Thorne swallowed. Shit. Anthony was going to kill him.

But he wouldn't let Kesley get away with it. He swerved back towards Kesley, praying that the pressure would push him back. And then, he was ahead of Kesley.

He couldn't see the end of the strip anywhere in front of him. Where was it?

He didn't even realise that they had already crossed it. Thorne did a burn-out as he braked.

Had he won?

He looked behind him. Ran was there, his expression unreadable. He had braked as well.

He got out of his car, feeling light-headed and exhilarated. His legs felt like jelly.

Solis was walking towards him. He was indicating Ran over too.

"Tight race, boys." Solis said. "Tight race."

"Who-?" Ran started.

"It was a tie!"

"A tie?" Ran asked.

"Are we gonna have a re-match?" Thorne asked.

There was someone else coming towards the. Bald. Dark brown skin. Italian suit.

He smiled at them. "No re-match," He said. "There isn't going to be a race for the grand-prize either."

"No grand-prize?" Solis asked.

He shook his head. "No, I want Ran Kesley and Carswell Thorne to be both my associates."

Associates?

"Um," Thorne said. "Who exactly are you?"

The man looked towards him, still smiling. "I am Aimery Park."

Aimery had said that they needed to go back to Ran's house, and see Sybil Mira. They drove their cars back, after filling up with petrol, Thorne following Kesley.

What had he gotten himself into? Was this what Wolf expected to happen?

He parked on the garden strip in front of Kesley's house, and got out. Ran was was already ringing the doorbell.

The doorbell rang. It kept getting more frantic the longer she didn't answer it. Her phone vibrated, but she didn't check it.

She remembered vaguely Sybil telling her to clean up her hair because she was going to be stepping out for a moment.

She couldn't do it. She couldn't even process what had happened.

She had cut hair irritating the back of her neck. She couldn't bring herself to get up and have a shower, or even to brush it away.

She felt so weak. So powerless.

Her hand was throbbing. It had stopped bleeding by now, but she hadn't washed the blood away. It dried in streaks on her hand.

Once Sybil had left, she moved to the couch, where she curled up into a ball and cried.

Why does she hate me so much? Why did she do this to me? Why why why why.

She wanted to be back at her dad's house. He wouldn't let her go back Yes, he was distant and he never spoke about his feelings but she knew he loved her and at least he supported her.

Nobody here supported her. Not Sybil. Not her mother.

The doorbell kept ringing.

She sniffled. She wished it would shut up. She wished she had something to distract her from it.

She wished she had her hair.

She sat up, and shuffled towards the door. It couldn't have been a salesman, if they kept on ringing like that.

She hoped it wasn't Sybil.

She rested her hand on the door. She didn't know if she could open it. She unlocked the door and did so anyway.

"Finally-" A voice said. It was familiar. She was looking down. There were two pairs of feet. Two people. She couldn't bring herself to see who it was.

"Cress?" This was from another voice.

They were both familiar. She looked up, locking eyes with Carswell Thorne. Ran was there, too.

She looked at them. Why was Thorne here? Why was he here with Ran?

Thorne's hand reached out towards her, and she flinched away. She didn't feel bad about it. She'd had enough of people touching her without her permission.

His hand dropped to his side awkwardly.

"What happened?" He asked.

Cress couldn't bring herself to answer. She couldn't bring herself to talk.

He stood there in shock. This wasn't Cress.

Cress had long hair. It was so long that it reached her ankles. It was always pulled up into a plait, or a bun or some crazy hairstyle that he always wondered how she had done it.

She did not have hair that was cut up to her collarbone.

And yet, it was Cress. She had the same sky blue eyes. The same freckles dotted across her nose. She was the same height as ever. But without her hair, she seemed like a completely different person.

She had been crying, too. Her eyes were puffy and red. Her nose was too. She had a cut across her hand.

Something had happened. Something terrible.

He had asked what happened. But she didn't reply. He read that autistic people become non-verbal when they're distressed. That was probably what was happening now.

He remembered how she flinched when he reached out to her.

"Cress, are you alright?"

She swallowed.

"Can you write it down?" Kesley asked. "Like before?"

Before?

It took a moment for her to reply. At first he thought that maybe she didn't hear him, but then she nodded.

She turned away from the doorway, and started shuffling upstairs.

"Do you know her?" Kesley asked, once they were out of earshot.

He nodded. "We work together… why do you live with her?"

"Sybil Mira is her mom's girlfriend."

They stepped inside the house. Cress's house.

He looked around. Ran lead them to the living room. He caught a glimpse of something on the floor of the kitchen opposite. Golden and messy.

"What is that?" He pointed towards it.

Ran stepped towards, kneeling down. "I think it's her hair."

"Cress's?"

He nodded.

He heard footsteps. She was coming down the stairs, carrying a notebook and a pen.

Whenever he saw her at work, she usually had such a bright smile on her face. When she was performing. When she was talking to her friends. But she just seemed so sad now.

She paused, unsure where to sit. Ran was in the kitchen, he was in the living room. Ran decided for her, making his way to the living room.

She sat in the black leather arm chair, and opened up the notebook and began to write with trembling hands.

When she had finished, she passed it over to them, and they read it. Her writing was messy, and she had crossed out so many words. And the force that she pressed into the pen while she was writing left marks on the other side of the pages.

Sybil mira cut my hair.

I came home from work and I she grabbed the scirssos scissors and she wouldn't let me go. I couldnt do anything. I tried to reach out to stop her but I didnt see the scissors and she cut my hand and now I have no hair

Her words filled up less than half the page.

Ran finished reading it. "But it's just hair isn't it? It'll grow back."

Thorne remembered what she told him. It was her security blanket. She had taken solace in it, knowing that it'd be there to help to ground her.

He couldn't help but find Ran's comment slightly ignorant.

"It's not just her hair, Kesley. It'll take ages for it to grow back like that." Thorne said. "She did it without your permission?"

She nodded.

"Why?"

She reached back for the paper.

I don't know. She said it was because I had clogged the shower but I feel like there was a different reason for it. I dont know

He read it. He glanced at Kesley, then turned back to Cress. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head again. Swallowed. She reached for her hair. But realised there was none there.

He wanted to reach out and grasp her hand. He didn't know why. But she just looked like she needed some comforting. But she looked like she wouldn't appreciate the gesture.

"Do you want us to do anything?" Kesley asked.

She only shrugged.

"Where's Sybil?" He asked.

She shrugged again.

"You don't know where she went?" Kesley asked.

She shook her head. Looking down at her hands.

She reached for her paper, wrote something down, then handed it back, her hands weren't trembling any more.

Why are you here?

He couldn't think of an answer that wouldn't indicate to Ran that they were spying on him for Wolf, that they knew about Selene. But then Kesley answered for him.

"He's one of Aimery's associates." He said. "He said we had to to talk to Sybil, so that's why he came here."

He looked at Kesley. Did he trust Cress that he'd tell her about this? Well, she did say that was how she got all of that information, but he didn't realise it was to that extent.

"Oh."

He was surprised to hear her voice. He almost missed it. It was so quiet, he might had mistaken it for her breathing.

"Can you talk?" Kesley asked.

"A little." She said. "Calmed, now." She looked at Thorne.

He gave her a little smile. But he was still concerned for her. How could someone have been so cruel to force Cress to do something she absolutely didn't want?

He looked towards Ran. He just seemed anxious. He would have preferred to be finding Sybil right now. He knew it. He had been living with Cress for who knows how long and he seemed like he didn't even care that she was upset.

He looked back to the hair on the tiles in the kitchen. The hair that was static on her clothes. She looked like she wasn't well enough to clean herself up.

He heard a car door shut. Kesley turned towards the door, probably expecting Sybil, but it was a woman, who was undoubtedly Cress's mother, because they had they same hair colour, same face shape. The only thing different was the colour of her eyes.

She surveyed the scene, and when her eyes settled on Cress, with her short hair, her face broke out into an expression of concern and shock.

"What happened?"