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*Neils PoV*
"Never stop running Abram! Promise me. Don't look back. You are nobody, because if you become somebody, it means your certain death. Run, or your father will find you." Mary gasped to her son as the life slowly left her eyes.
They both knew that the woman with the dyed hair would not survive the night and yet Abram prayed for the first time in a long time, to a God who probably didn't even exist, that she would.
A car burned faster than human bones. A fact that Abram didn't know before that evening, but how could he, his father preferred a butcher's knife. Mary's rucksack had to suffice as a coffin, the beach as a graveyard. Anything else would have been too conspicuous. Besides, Chris was just one face among many, a ghost that existed in the middle of society.
Millport came into view, the new home of a certain Neil Josten, a boy who would disappear again in a few months if all went well. Neil's father would probably take a new job in another country and he would leave the States with his parents. Abram, on the other hand, would need a new name, dye his hair and start a new life once again. He would never stop running, just like he promised his mother.
*Andrews PoV*
Everything was oh so numb. Feelings only existed in theory, were for people who weren't him. For too long he had felt too much, but now there was nothing there. Nothing except the smile these pills forced him to.
Those tablets he had to take because he had cared too much. Which neither Aaron nor Nicky understood, and probably never could. They weren't like him and he would do anything to keep it that way.
The Foxes thought that Andrew hated Exy, which he thought was rather simple-minded of them and showed how little they knew about him. Because hate was an emotion and Andrew generally felt little, so this sport wasn't worth his hate.
Training with Renee was refreshing, a change of pace, plus she taught Andrew more than he could ever have learned on his own. This girl with the dyed hair was what he could have been. In another life, perhaps.
However, he didn't think about it for more than a moment. At the end of the day, it wouldn't do any good except cause more pain. And he had already experienced more than enough of that.
*Neils PoV*
A few games. No more and no less. That was all Neil had wanted. To play Exy one last time before he had to leave it behind again.
But a few games turned into a whole season. Time was running out for him, and soon the school year ended, just like his life as Neil Josten. He still hadn't thought about a new name.
He had been so tired since Seattle and the beach in Californian. Tired of running and yet there was no other option. This was the life he was living and if he ever stopped, Abram might as well dig his own grave. Nathaniel's demons would haunt him forever until one day they caught up with him.
*Andrews PoV*
The smoke from his cigarette scratched his lungs in a familiar way. Andrew sat on the edge of the roof of the Fox Tower, even though he was afraid of the height. But at least it was a feeling he had always known. Fear had been with him since he was a child.
How long would it go on like this?
An actually unnecessary question. He didn't want anything. He had learned too early that the world was a cruel place. Happiness was an illusion for fools who hadn't seen behind the curtain of the world.
Andrew wasn't alive, he had always just survived.
*Outsider PoV*
Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard were two lonely souls. Soon they would meet. But the time of suffering was not over for either of them. Tragedy had soaked their entire existence. But they found each other. And for the first time in their lives, they both saw a future that did not end in their deaths.