Young Writers Society

Answering that question was hard without addressing the truth, and he would have to keep figuring out a way to dance around it until he addressed it. Now was the point where he could start lying again and make something up, or he could bite the bullet and take a risk.

Eve was actually listening and asking thoughtful questions. She had plenty of reasons to be suspicious of him before, and she didn't have to trust him. She didn't have to care about what he was saying, but it seemed like she did.

He hoped he wasn't about to make a mistake.

He took in a deep breath.

"Right now," he started, pacing his words carefully. "I'm a wanted man. A criminal to the Moonlight Kingdom. Their influence is far-reaching, into every sphere of human society. There really isn't anywhere I can where I won't eventually be discovered. Chased. Trapped. Caught."

With a normal person, he wouldn't have to explain so much. But he had a gut feeling Eve was completely unaware of the implications of his situation.

"Right now, I can help people I run into in my travels, but going out of my way to associate with people with me only puts them in danger. There's a hefty price on my head and a lot of desperate, greedy people out there."

There was more he wanted to say, but he had to start with this first. If this didn't land well, he wasn't going to share anymore.

He watched Eve for her reaction.

Evaline listened as Yoen seemed to crack and tell her about his problems. She briefly wondered if it was possible that this could have been another lie, but she couldn't fathom why he would lie about something like this. It also all made so much more sense too: the initial lies, the wounds, the aloofness -- they all seemed to match up to what he was telling her.

He finished talking, but Evaline couldn't find the right words to respond right away.

"I don't understand how you trusted me from the beginning," she finally said. "At least, enough to let me travel with you. I know what it's like to be paranoid and not know who to trust, so you don't trust anyone but yourself."

She paused, looking away from him and back at the fire.

"I know that because I'm wanted too."

The words didn't feel right coming out of her mouth.

"But I have a place where I'm safe, and there are people that I do trust." Lightning struck again, illuminating their faces before the thunder rumbled. She looked back at him, eyes soft. "Is that really not possible for you?"

She was wanted too.

Normally, that wasn't something to find comfort in, having in common, but it felt like a relief.

As the lightning flashed off the walls of the cave, James found himself questioning things Eve had told him before.

She'd said she'd been exiled, but she wasn't. She was wanted. But by whom? And for what? Where were the people she trusted, and how did she get separated from them? He didn't think she was from the north anymore. That wouldn't make sense. It didn't make sense in the first place.

"I didn't trust you from the beginning," he said quickly. "But you needed help. So I took that risk."

And he still wasn't sure if he trusted her completely. There were levels to trust.

He went quiet again for a moment, considering her question.

Was it really not possible?

"For that to be possible... I'd have to find people who are willing to trust me in the first place."

Carter had really gone out of his way to paint him in the worst light possible. An untrustworthy traitor, conspiring against the throne and against peace. All sorts of things that weren't true, at least, not entirely.

He looked down at the ground, away from the fire, and away from the storm.

He didn't want to sound as disappointed as he was, and disappointed didn't even feel like the right word.

"Which has proven to be a lot more difficult than I thought it'd be."

Yoen couldn't find anyone he could trust to be safe.

In some ways, Evaline could see how they were similar; they were wanted fugitives, afraid of the unknown, heart closed off to others. But on the other hand, she could see how they were different; he seemed to only be living in the present, while Evaline was always living in the future, thinking ahead.

She was lucky she had support for her situation. She had a place where she could lead in the background, and she had a close network of people who trusted her word and would protect her if anything were to go wrong.

But was it really luck?

Evaline thought back to when she first arrived at the forest yesterday when she was lost, confused, and alone. When she tried to follow a path, it seemed that some kind of unknown force was stopping her, repeating the land until she turned to walk the other way. And just when she thought she would follow a different path for survival, a pack of wolves seemed to herd her in the ditch where she met Yoen.

She thought back to the note—the only clue she was given that confirmed she appeared here for reasons she couldn't explain. Realization began to seep in.

Evaline brought her knees to her chest, laying her head down against her knees as she faced the mouth of the cave.

"Do you believe in fate?" she asked.

James watched from the corner of his eyes in the silence that followed, wondering already if he'd said too much. If they were both fugitives, they were both constantly at risk of being found, but he didn't know if anyone was actively on Eve's tail the way Butch was on his.

Elliot snorted behind him, causing James to glance back. Elliot was just shaking his head. He was probably tired.

When he looked back to Eve, she was curled up in a ball.

Fate.

"... I think so."

Fate was something you actively shaped, but sometimes, there were things out of your control, and no matter what you did, they would happen.

That's what he would call fate.

"Yes."

Evaline lightly nodded, watching the rain that refused to stop. "I do too," she said back.

It was a bit of an understatement, but it sufficed.

Silence briefly fell between them. The fire cackled and water dripped into a puddle at the corner of the cave as Elliot loudly breathed in and out. With this and the torrential white noise of the rain and occasional thunder, it was rather relaxing to listen to.

She was beginning to realize that perhaps it was fate that brought her to Yoen. It was because of him that she was fed, clean, and safe—for the most part, anyways. Still, it was just a hunch; there wasn't a way to test this unless they separated again.

She thought back to the note. Open your heart, or part ways and stay lost, alone.

Perhaps she had been thinking about this the wrong way. Maybe it wasn't a heart-shaped place that she was supposed to go to, but instead it was about the journey there.

Yoen seemed to open his heart to tell his story to her, which was not an easy task. And now, she realized what she could do to help him.

Was this fate's demands? Was this something she could truly help him with? Could she change his fate, or was his inevitable?

"I think I'm supposed to help you," she said quietly at first, barely coming out as a whisper. She shifted her head and tried again. "I mean, I think I can help you. I can help you find safety. Maybe even find others who you can trust."

She turned to him, realizing she must sound insane right now. But if this was what she was supposed to do here, she had to follow that path.

After all, she did it once. She could do it again.

James felt like he was missing something.

She thought she could help him, but help him how? Did she know people who she wanted to introduce him to? Did she know a place he could go? From what he'd understood, she was lost, and alone. Unless all of that was a ruse, he wasn't sure what she was getting at. Right now she was wearing his clothes, eating his food, and following his directions. She was out here with him because she had nowhere else to go and needed him as a guide.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the thought, he just didn't know what Eve meant.

He looked at her again, trying to search her eyes.

There was still a lot she wasn't saying.

"How?"

Evaline wished she had thought this through, but unfortunately, listening to Yoen's confession while she connected that it was fate that brought her here was not on the list of things she thought would happen today.

He probably thought she was made zero sense, and she didn't blame him, or was not surprised at the least when he asked her how. Here she was, a person he had just met yesterday, with no real background or knowledge about the world, and she thought she could help him, the person with the supplies and map, who was perpetually on the run?

It wouldn't make sense to her either, but she wasn't sure if the real explanation would make sense to him, either.

"Remember what you said? 'I'd have to find people who are willing to trust me in the first place'? Well, Yoen," she said, starting to sit upright. "I'm starting to trust you. But you'll have to start trusting me."

James stared at her for a moment while a wry grin formed on his face and he raised his eyebrows.

"Bold of you to assume I haven't already," he said. "Even though you've been avoiding and lying for most of my questions this whole time."

He paused, and his grin faltered

"I know I'm not any better, really," he admitted. "But I'm willing to try."

It was better to come clean with it now than later.

"For starters, my name's not really Yoen," he said. "It's James. James Hawke."

Evaline felt pretty smug turning his own words against him, and she was expecting a, 'I suppose you're right,' not a, 'I already have, and oh, by the way, I know you've been lying about everything.'

She felt her cheeks burn from embarrassment, but she perched her head on her knees with her arms hugged around so he wouldn't be able to see, narrowing her eyes at him.

She wasn't that bad of a liar, right? ... Right?

She shoved that thought down when Yoen confessed his real name. "James," she repeated. It seemed to naturally roll off her tongue.

"It seems we both haven't been totally honest from the beginning, then," she said, sitting up a little straighter. "My name is Evaline, but you can keep calling me Eve if you want. I don't mind."

He figured she hadn't been entirely honest about her name. Eve sounded like a nickname.

"Do you like Evaline better?"

Evaline took a few seconds to think this through. Honestly, she didn't know why she even told James that he could call her Eve. Was this her subconscious telling her she preferred to go with that old nickname as a way to rebrand herself in a new world? She hadn't been called Eve in ages. Not since she was a teenager.

"I—" she began, but no words came out.

Her head hurt.

"Evaline is fine," she grumbled out, looking down and fidgeting with some rocks on the ground.

"Alright. Evaline it is, then," James said with a nod.

"Still no last name?"

Evaline shook her head. "No last name," she repeated. She almost admitted out loud that she didn't even know what a last name was, and although she did feel more comfortable around James and was starting to trust him, she wasn't sure if she was ready to admit that she was from another world. That could erode any trust they had now, and she really didn't want to make this any harder than it should've been.

"So..." James took in a deep breath. Evaline wanted him to trust her, but she wasn't really being that open. He guessed he'd just have to ask directly.

"Where are you really from, then? Because I'm pretty sure, at this point, that you just pointed at a random spot on the map. You didn't even say the name of it, and you've been avoiding giving any revealing details about, well, pretty much anything."