My talent isn't natural. It was taken, given to my mother and I inherited it. The thought that I took someone's talent makes me sick to my stomach. Someone trained all their youth only to give it up unknowingly. Somone like Eydis. My fingernails dig into my hands as I walk down the road. I am just as much a monster as these Motherwealth people.

I am a fraud. A sham. A liar. Skating isn't mine to perfect. It was never mine.

The thing that was my personality, the thing that made me happy. It will never again bring me joy.

I have to get out of here. I am not one of them. I don't belong here. This is not my home.

"Telvi!" Kol shouts after me.

I don't stop walking down the sidewalk.

If I didn't have skating, what was I? Did I have any worth? Without skating I am just a shell. A nothing. But I guess I was always that.

"Telvi, wait!"

"You should wait for him," Ezra says, reminding me that he is following.

I glare at him. I asked him if he wanted to come find my bother. I never thought he would come this far. If fact, I don't want him to be here anymore. His usefulness is complete. He was just like all of these people. People that I don't want to be associated with.

"Walter, can't you leave me alone?" I snap at him.

He flinches back, stopping in his tracks.

"You did what you promised you would do. Why are you still here? I don't want you around, Ezra."

As far as I am concerned, he is just as part of this messed up system as I am. I can't have him to constantly remind me of that. I want to forget about him and myself. Maybe then it will be less painful.

He frowns as Kol catches up to us with a huff.

He opens his mouth then shuts it, waiting for me to say something, anything. But I am not. I am not going to say anything. I don't want him nearby. "Fine. If you don't want me around, you could have just said." He lifts his hands. "Good luck getting back home, Telvi." There is spite in his tone.

I frown as I watch him walk down a road with his hands in his pockets. He walks slowly, avoiding the potholes in his path. He probably wants me to call him back, but I make no attempt to do so. I don't need him. I don't want him. He doesn't belong in the Commonwealth and I don't belong here.

"What did you do, Telvi?" Kol accuses of like I am a child.

I shrug, looking him straight in the eye. "I didn't need him."

"Maybe that is the case, but Telvi, that was just rude. You know better."

"I don't need a lecture," I hiss. I have enough on my mind. I don't need Kol to add anymore to it. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be in this state. If it wasn't for him, I would have not even come to the Motherwealth. This is his fault.

He takes a step back. "Alright. Have it your way. But where are you going?"

"Home. This place is not for me. I cannot be one of them. We don't belong here, Kol."

He frowns. He bites his lip in silence. It is enough to cause me to whimper. He wants to stay. It is written all over his face. He doesn't want to go back with me. A tear falls down my cheek.

"But maybe we do. Maybe we could make this place better."

There is nothing we can do. This place is too flawed for repair. It is such a foolish thing to even think. Not to mention there is a war here. It isn't safe.

"I think I'm going to stay. This is our birth right and I want to know more about it," Kol said.

His words knock the breath out of me. Is he saine? What happened to the time when he begged me not to come here. He knows as well as me how terrible this place is. Now he is choosing to stay willingly. "What about our home? In Hell?"

"I think it can wait for us a little longer." He grabs my hands and gives them a squeeze.

I want to shake him loose but hold myself. He has lost his mind. It's gone. "But there is a war going on," I stress as smoke rises above the buildings behind us. "It is not safe here."

"I honestly don't think Hell is any better. Food shortages, electricity cuts, people vanishing. You don't know what you left."

Anything is better than this place. It least the people are kind there. No, this place is not home.

"I can't go back without you," I whisper. Kol makes Hell home for me. Without him, what is Hell?

"Then stay, our grandmother offered us to stay with her."

"She is a stranger. A slag Motherwealth snob."

"But she doesn't have to be. You can show her a different way."

That is too optimistic and honestly not a reality. There is no use convincing them otherwise when they already think they are right. Tears fall down my cheeks. I cannot stay here in the place where I know what my parents did. Everything will be a reminder of the damage they caused. The thoughts will crush me eventually. I cannot have that. Leaving is self-preservation. "I can't stay," I whisper.

He places his hand on my shoulder then brings me into a tight hug. "Then go."

My fingers curl around his shirt, gripping onto any bit of him I can. "Please come with me," I beg as I choke back a sob.

Kol is my home, my family. Going back without him goes against every grain in my body. It feels so wrong.

"I will return, but not yet. I need to learn more about this place. For so long I hated this because everyone hated it. Our parents hated it. But why? I need to find out for myself." He lets go from the embrace and wipes a tear from my cheek.

My lower lip quivers as I stare at my brother. Pleading with him silently. One of the people who taught me how to hate the Motherwealth now wants to stay... "Please."

"You can't convince me otherwise. I'll be back to Hell. I promise. But for now, I need to stay. Let me do this, Telvi. You had your experience here, now it's my turn."

I don't want him to have a turn. A turn means he might like it here. Like it more than our actual home. He might never return... no, I can't think that way.

There is no use convincing him. He has made up his mind. He is stubborn like that.

He brings me into an embrace one more time. It is short but meaningful. It is full of unspoken words and love. He lets go and gives a nod. "Alright. I'll see you soon."

No, he wouldn't. Soon is a word used if you go to the shops in town. Not across the nation.

"See you soon."

It feels wrong to echo but I feel like I don't have a choice.

Without saying another word, he turns on his heals then walks back towards the house that he came from.

I stand on the sidewalk, waiting for him to turn back or change his mind. Hoping he will. He doesn't. He doesn't even look back at me. The last I see is his backside entering the house. Leaving me.

He is gone, once again. He chose the Motherwealth over me. He wants to be here. It feels like a betrayal. And the Motherwealth is to blame. He doesn't need to stay. I could have told him all he needs to know about the Motherwealth. I had lived here for a few months after all. I could share that people were ignorant, clueless, vain, beautiful, charming, and complex. That should have been enough.

A siren rings out, as gun fire fills the air. This time it sounds closer than it has been. Screams echo from a few roads away. More gun fire rips through the air.

My heart races so quickly that I think it is in my throat.

I don't waste any time as I duck and hide in a nearby alley under a trash bin.

This place is not safe. Kol sees that. How can he chose to stay in this place? He is risking his life for just a little more information. It feels reckless. Stupid even.

I bring my knees to my chest as tears well in my eyes. No one is beside me, providing comfort. I wish Ezra was here. I wish I hadn't chased him off.

The gunfire continues until the sun sets.

I do not see a single soul as time passes. Kol never returned and Ezra was never seen. I was alone and now without Kol coming with me, Hell doesn't seem so great of a place to return. Hell is home because of Kol. But if Kol is not with me, was it really home? It doesn't feel like it. But I don't know where else to go now. I have nowhere.

As the sun dips below the horizon, the gunfire stops. Probably because it is hard to see the enemy when there is no light coming from the windows or streetlights. The road is so dark that I can see the stars. I've never been able to see the stars in Regal before.

Carefully, I get up from my hiding spot and peer out into the main road. It is empty. Quiet. It feels eerie. I don't remember a time that Regal has been his silent.

Unsure how to get out of Regal, I wonder back to the place where I was first dropped off at. It doesn't take long to get to the tents and hovercrafts. They are still working, busily, under lights. War doesn't sleep and I guess they don't either.

"I recognize you. You're Ezra's friend," a voice ring out.

I turn to face the man who broke up the fight in Hell. He look tired with bags under his eyes. His shirt has red on it. I wonder if it is blood. A small bandage is taped to his head. His outfit is ripped and dirty.

With the distant bombs going off, it is eating into my sanity. My heart jumps every time I hear something. It is exhausting. I'm sure he feels the same. If not more.

"What brings you back here?"

"Are you going back to Commonwealths to pick up drafters still?" I ask. I know that this is a long shot, but without Ezra, I don't know what else to do.

He nods. "We are running daily at this point."

"Can I come with you?"

He scratches his neck in silence for a second. I bite my lip, wondering if I asked too much of him. "I don't see why not," he says finally. "We don't have any need for small girls to fight our wars anyhow."

I give a sad smile and a sigh of relief.

"Back to Hell?"

I shake my head. I have another idea and it's not Hell.

"Alright then." He points towards the tent. "See the list of hovercrafts, put your name on the list for the intended town you want to go to."