Hey! Been a while hasn't it? Never fear, a new update is here! So now Rowan's groups has been instructed to find a less destructive way to get their message across, and Rhine steps forward. What will happen next? Read on to find out! Disclaimer: I do not own the Chemical Garden triology. I am not one of those awesome YA dystopia writing Laurens. (If you can't guess who the other is, get off of the planet.)

Time went on. The weather started to change, a cold chill setting itself over the city. It was fall, Rhine's favorite time of year, and it wasn't uncommon to find my sister sitting outside with Maddie and Chris enjoying the wind. Of course, I always dropped off a blanket with her when I went outside. Gabriel and Maddie had started to get better with more time here, gaining weight and color to their faces, but Rhine looked like she had just arrived yesterday. Of course, if you asked her, she would reply she was fine and wouldn't let you think any different.

Fall also meant there were less speeches and demonstrations given outside, cutting our work in half. Joseph and Sara were searching for a way to get the message out, a way that did not involve blowing stuff up. It was the radio broadcast one night that gave us the crucial idea.

Sara, Joseph, Rhine, Gabriel, and I were sitting in the living room, playing cards with an old deck someone had brought over. Rhine and I had taught everyone all the old games our dad used to play with us. We played poker while Maddie and Chris played quietly on the couch. Gabriel had made some wooden knights for Chris to play with, and Sara had given Maddie a doll her sister once played with. The radio was on silently in the background, but it wasn't until they mentioned the naturalist movement that we paid attention.

"Those terrorists are threatening the lives of the living and those of the unborn," said a female voice. "They're threatening the life my husband, sister wives, and I have strived so hard to built. Please leave our families be." The radio announcer went on to extol the virtues of sister wives and the possibility of a cure. It was Gabriel who finally turned the damn thing of. Steam was practically pouring at his ears. Rhine put a comforting hand on his, but it didn't seem to help.

"What a load of shit!" he shouted. "That woman was either forced or paid to say that. You know it isn't like that."

Rhine nodded, her eyes sad. "I know." That's all she said, but that's all she had to say.

Sara was the one who had the idea. She stopped me one night after the meeting ended, saying that she needed to talk to me. She and Joseph wanted Rhine to write down her experiences as a sister wife and being Gathered, and they would print it and have it distributed. I was against it. I didn't want to bring up all the stuff for my sister, and I wasn't sure I could stomach reading it. Sara insisted that we at least ask Rhine. We argued back and forth for what seemed like hours until Joseph interjected.

"Guys, stop," he instructed. Sara and I shut up immediately. "Just ask Rhine. She's tougher than she looks, and she already writes like ten thousand pages of stuff per night anyway."

Joseph was right. Rhine did write all the time, pages and pages. She usually woke up from her nightmares, nightmares she would never talk about. Instead, she stayed up and wrote pages and pages of stories, poems, everything. Wherever my sister went, you could probably find a page of her writing she'd left behind. I had never read any of them. I'd been afraid to. Apparently, Joseph had.

So we asked Rhine if she would write her story for us. My sister looked at us for a long time until finally she responded, "Okay." There was one condition she had however. We had to publish what she wrote exactly how she wrote it. If anything was changed or twisted, she swore she'd never pick up a pen again. There were some guidelines Joseph established: no real names and no specific mention of our headquarters. Rhine agreed, and so she started to right out her story for us.

The first installment of her story was more successful than we could've hoped. Everyone in the city was talking about it. The radio hosts debated it, and there were mixed feelings about it. Some people believed that it was the real account of a sister wife while others wrote it off as naturalist propaganda. Sara and Joseph were overjoyed. This got our movement more attention than any of our explosives ever had. Still, despite the account's success, I had yet to read it.

Finally, after picking up and putting down the account, I read it. I wish I hadn't. I saw everything through my sister's eyes. I was there as Rhine went off to donate blood, unaware of the trap she had walked into. If she had told me about this, I would've never let her go. I was there as Rhine was forced into a van. I heard the girl scream and gunshots go off. I was there as she woke up in another place and was picked as a wife. I was there as she, along with two other girls, one older and one younger, was married.

After I read this, I left my room and went to find Rhine. She was in the kitchen, sitting on the counter while Gabriel cooked. I caught her eye and gestured to the back door. She nodded, hopping off the counter and kissing Gabriel on the cheek before following me outside. We stood by the shore in silence.

Rhine spoke first. "Did you read it?"

"Yes," I said. "I'm sorry."

Rhine shrugged. "It wasn't your fault." But it was. I was the older twin. I was the one that was supposed to look out for her, to make sure she was safe. I had done it since we were kids.

"You're safe now," I stated. "You know that, right?" I needed to ask because I wasn't so sure she did.

Rhine nodded, though she didn't look convinced.

"Nothing is going to happen," I say more forcefully. I put my arm around her. She leaned her head against my shoulder, and we just watched the sun go down. It was a peaceful calm moments. I had no clue what was coming our way.