Idina messaged the friend back. The girl in the picture, with wiery blonde hair and grey eyes, was called Arwen. She went to school with Erika. She snuck Erika snacks and they had sleepovers all the time, though had become less frequent when she had moved in with her foster family.

Arwen was having supper, but they arranged to video call once that was over. Her parents were concerned too.

This was good. Idina's heart was no longer racing, she was no longer freakishly alert. Yet she still paced the length of the flat. She was suddenly aware of how bear it was, just a place to sleep. There were some pictures of Aaron and Walker in her bedroom, but other than a few knick-knacks she had laying around, there was nothing.

She missed home. She missed Walker. He was ten and did not really understand why she would not come back. He said he did, that he knew the girl who saved him now needed help, but he did not understand. She missed him fiercely. But he was safe, she reassured herself, with his father and step-father. The four of them would be a nice family someday.

Her phone rang. It had not left her hand since she'd seen the first message Arwen had sent her.

She answered, with video. Just to prove she was who she said she was. If it had been anything else, she would not have wanted anyone to see her.

"Hi," the girl said sheepishly. She was laying on her stomach on her bed.

"Hey," Idina said. What was she supposed to say?

"I, um," the girl began. "How did you meet Erika? Like she never mentioned it. Sorry!" she hid her face in the covers, "I didn't mean to pry."

Idina smiled a sweet smile. Arwen knew who she was. "I'm just like you," she said. "We met a while ago under chance circumstances," Idina admitted. "I was hoping to help her out, but then I found out she ran away."

Arwen nodded along with her.

"Yeah, she stopped coming to school just over a month ago. I thought maybe she'd been transferred to a new district or something, and I knew her laptop broke so I had no way of contacting her. I had no idea until the police showed up, asking people questions. I told them what I thought, but it didn't do any good. You can do something, right?"

"I hope so," Idina said. She meant it with every fibre of her being.

"'Cause like I know she's smart and all," Arwen said, "but I don't think she's as smart as she thinks she is sometimes, and I'm worried this is one of those sometimes."

"Where do you think she went?' Idina did not want to be forwards, but she needed to know. Needed to know something, anything. Not knowing was the worst thing possible, because it meant she couldn't try anything and that she was useless.

"I'm, uh," she stuttered.

"It's fine," Idina said, "take your time."

Arwen took a deep breath. "I think she might have gone update. I'm not sure if she's camping out or trying to get into Canada, probably not the latter. But probably something stupid." She trailed off, muttering.

"Why?"

"Just stuff she said in class. She would always joke and say the next home would be the forest or going on about maple syrup. I didn't think she would actually run away. It was always a joke."

"Until now," they both said at the same time.

Arwen suddenly seemed less tense. "ANd she had a back account, but I told them about it. They said they already knew and she'd taken all the money out and shut it down."

"So no one can track her through it."

Arwen nodded. "She's smart. But I don't think she really thought this one through. Like it's September, what will she do when it snows? How does she plan on getting across the border?" Arwen was growing more frustrated. "I really hate her sometimes. Wait no! Not like that just she's frustrating and I hate that I'm worried and that she's making me worried."

"it's okay," Idina reassured her. Arwen had tears forming in her eyes. "You told all this to the authorities?"

"Yeah," she said again. "But they did not find anything. With the alert out if she tries to cross the border with her passport, someone will find her. But  for all I know, she's tried to get a new one or something and will get herself in a lot of trouble."

"Okay," Idina said, trying to process it all. "Thank you so much. I promise I will do whatever I can."

"No, thank you so much. I couldn't get anyone to listen they said that-"

"These things happen all the time and they would do their best?"

"Exactly."

"I'll see what I can do, and I'll let you know how it goes."

"Thank you," the girl whispered again.

The call ended.

Idina took a deep breath. Upstate. That was somewhere. But there was no proof. She could be ruining to Colorado. But it was more of a direction than anyone had been willing to give her.

What was she going to do? She collapsed on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Erika, where are you?

~~~~~

Erika was laying low. She knew that celebrity would be trouble. SHe'd been on a bus when the radio started talking about, blasting her description for everyone to hear. Luckily, busses did not have television screens. But the description, a girl, sixteen but looks younger, five two, brown hair brown eyes, caucasian., was her. It was also the description of many other people on the bus. 

But she could not help but feel as if more people were staring at her. They weren't, but it felt like they were. 

She wasn't sure how far they were broadcasting the news, but she knew she had to outrun it. Go somewhere, change her identity. It would be harder now. It would have been easy to go cross country, slip back into the system, get new documents. Now she couldn't. Now someone would find her. 

It was just a question of when, and who.