Sophie P.O.V 

It had been a week. 

A week in the wild. 

Fitz P.O.V 

It had been a week. 

A week in the forest. 

Keefe P.O.V 

It had been a week. 

A week stuck in a cell. 

Dex P.O.V 

It had been a week. 

A week wandering aimlessly through the trees.  

Linh P.O.V 

It had been a week. 

A week filled with darkness and hopelessness. 

Marella P.O.V 

It had been a week. 

A week filled with loneliness and the unchangeable cold inside. 

Tam P.O.V 

It had been a week. 

A week filled with nightmares and hunger. 

Biana P.O.V 

I didn't know how long it had been since I was dragged back into my cell.

 It was confusing, all the days merging together into two categories: Moments of Pain, and Moments of Helplessness. How long had it been since I had seen anybody else except for Gethen's scarred face, dragging me, hands bound, a rope tied around my throat like an animal, eyes blindfolded toward the white room of horrors and pain? 

How long had it been since Tam had died? 

I wondered how long it would take for people to gather into the Wanderling Forest and mourn my death? 

I then wondered if I would ever have a funeral? Would I ever be mourned?

Or would I just be stuck here, dead and alive the same, the days and months and years merging, as everyone would soon forget about me, or just not care? 

In the back of my mind, I had processed that Keefe was probably alive and here with me too. But the thought of trying to go and save him and get both of us out of here was barely even flickering in my mind anymore. 

Escape felt stamped out of possibility, just like Tam had been, and just like hope had too. 

Where was Sophie? And Fitz? And Dex, and Marella, and Linh? Where were they? Were they trying to save me? Had they given up already? Did they think I was dead? 

And Ruy. Ruy. I couldn't believe that stupid, terrible, lying scoundrel. I couldn't believe myself, that I had actually trusted him, that somewhere deep down, I actually had considered him... a friend. 

"Time to get up Ms. Vacker. It's time for your daily...meeting with Gethen." 

A Neverseen cloaked guard opened the cage door, and before one foot stepped out, I was blindfolded, cuffed, and surrounded on all sides. I felt the coarse rope going around my throat, just like it did every day, rubbing my skin raw. 

"Come on! Walk you, dirty peasant! I don't see why Gethen keeps you alive!" came a voice, and I felt a familiar sharp tug at my throat. I lurched forward and fell onto the ground and I felt the stone under my knees scrape my skin as I was dragged. I forced myself into a standing position, my weak knees shaking. I would not be on my knees in front of Gethen.

Every time the Neverseen dragged me to him, I always arrived standing, despite their best efforts I would never bow to him. 

I felt the guards' hands on me as they pushed me towards the room. I suddenly felt the blindfold get torn off and looked around the white room, devoid of any other color. My eyes didn't even need to be adjusted any more, they knew this place all too well. 

"Well?" Gethen asked, facing me. 

I stared up at him. 

"No." 

Gethen sighed, almost in a bored way, and waved his hand. "Resume the usual punishment." 

I straightened up as the typical Neverseen member walked up towards me, a sharp, course whip, covered in flaky blood in their hand. I noticed that the blood was fresher than it should be from a day ago. Looked like I wasn't the only one being whipped. This time, I was shocked to see Ruy's face walking towards me. 

It was usually somebody masked, somebody I didn't know, but seeing Ruy with the whip heading towards me somehow made everything even worse. 

I saw his shaking hands and I couldn't look at his face. I just turned around and waited for the inevitable. There was no point to struggle anymore. I took some breaths in an attempt to calm myself. 

'It'll all be over soon.' I thought. 

Tam P.O.V 

There they were, the same screams, the same crack of the whip, that come in my nightmares. It's was the scream of a girl, and they sounded familiar. It sounded like Biana's voice. 

It came every day at this specific hour, and I wondered what poor soul was being tortured in Gethen's room before my mind wandered back towards Biana. 

I wondered how she died. How much did it hurt? What did he do to her? Was it quick? Knowing Gethen, it probably wasn't. 

Whenever I had told Keefe about the screams, he shook his head. "It's impossible," he would say, every time I asked him. "She's dead." 

And soon, I stopped asking. I knew it was probably impossible. She was dead. 

But then a little part of me wondered around the possibility, 'What if she's not?' 

The screams had ended, and we were both glad for it. They were horrifyingly high pitched and desperate, and the room was now replaced with a rigid silence. 

Keefe was staring at the wall like he always did whenever this happened. His hands were shaking but I could tell that he was trying to remain calm. His hands were shakily tracing dirt patterns on the wall like he always did to distract himself from the screams. 

"What did you draw this time?" I asked him, heading over towards where he was sitting. Keefe's drawings were something we both distracted ourselves with, to try and blissfully ignore the fact that we were both slowly dying in here.

Keefe's plan hadn't worked, just like I knew it wouldn't.  It was quite stupid, and I was stupid for going along with it. Keefe had thought that if we gave Gethen false information about our friends, we would both get food and lead him off our track. 

It hadn't worked, and we had gotten whipped because of it. Gethen saw through us right away. The scars were still fresh from yesterday, and the blood had just dried on our clothes. 

"I drew Wanderlings," Keefe replied, knocking me out of my thoughts. 

"Wanderlings?" I asked. 

"Yeah," Keefe replied. "Just designing how mine will look. Gotta make sure that the Hair is somehow respected and shown." He patted his rats' nest of hair in an effort to make a joke. It didn't work and the joke fell flat.  

"Keefe. We're gonna make it out. We aren't getting Wanderlings for a long time, don't worry." I said, in an effort to be positive. 

Keefe raised an eyebrow at me. "You're really bad at being positive. You aren't stupid, you must know that this is a hopeless situation." 

The silence stretched on even further after he said that. 

Linh P.O.V 

The sun shone down stupidly bright. The woods seemed stupidly happy. The whole world seemed like it didn't even care that my brother, and Biana, and Keefe were stuck somewhere dying or already dead in some Neverseen prison. 

I was fighting the urge to not scream when we stopped again. I had never had this feeling, this feeling of pure anger before, and now I understood what being angry and feeling the need to punch things felt like. 

"Why'd we stop?" Marella asked, voicing my concerns in a much more calm way then I would have. (That was a first, it was usually the opposite.) 

"I think I heard something," Sophie said. "It could be dangerous." 

My eye twitched. HEARD something? You stopped because you heard something? We have ears for a reason you know?! 

I bit down on my lip very hard to stop from yelling in annoyance. We had been in this forest for over a week. My brother and Biana and Keefe had been in a torture prison for a week, and here we were stopping at every little noise.  

Marella's eye started to twitch as well. I knew that she had to be feeling the same as me. 

"I don't think-" 

"Shhh", Fitz said. "Sophie's feeling if there are any minds around us."

Sophie's eyes were closed, her face concentrated.  Then her eyes widened with shock. "Get down," she hissed at us, and we quickly ducked behind the bushes. 

I watched, eyes narrowed as three tall men with black cloaks and a white eye on the shoulder stepped into the clearing. Neverseen members. I felt the urge to charge out and attack them, but then felt Sophie's hand on my shoulder. She gave me a warning look. No. 

I closed my eyes and listened carefully to what they were saying. 

"They should be around here. Gethen saw it in their minds, the way they went to the base. The rest of the Moonlark's Posse should be around here somewhere." 

Their minds? Tam! Keefe! Biana! But wait, Biana didn't know about the footprints. So it was Tam and Keefe! They were alive! 

My resolve hardened. I would be getting to that base if it was the last thing I did. 

Marella P.O.V 

Linh looked really scary. Her knuckles were turning white from gripping the leaves of the bush she was holding. The leaves crumbled underneath her fingertips and fell to the ground in a mess of dirt and pieces. 

I saw her looking at the Pathfinder that the three elves had tucked underneath their belts. I could see it in her eyes, she was going to get to that base. I didn't know how, but she was. 

"Linh," I whispered under my breath. I could feel Dex's eyes on me, eavesdropping, half on accident, and a half on purpose. "Don't do this. There has to be another way we can get there. I'm sure that Sophie has a plan." 

"What about the team?" Dex asked, after a long silence. "Don't we stick together?" 

I shot him a look. "The five of us are a team."

"But technically, the three of us, are like a team, within a team, like-" 

"Dex!" Linh whisper shouted under her breath. "Be. Quiet." 

I turned towards Linh and I could feel my blood churning under my skin. "Linh, just because Tam's gone doesn't mean you have to lash out all your anger on us! SO cut it out! You are being rude to Dex when he hasn't even done anything!" 

Linh whipped her head towards me, and her silver-tipped hair slapped Dex in the face. "You don't understand!" Her voice became a little choked up, and her eyes threatened to tear up. "He's all I have." 

"My Mom is all I have too!" I said, getting annoyed by the second. "And she's insane!" 

I didn't notice I was breathing hard until Dex put a hand on mine and calmed me down. 

Linh's eyes diverted back towards the Neverseen members, who had started to disappear behind the trees. I could almost see the gears in her mind turning. I saw her glance back at me and Dex, and then further back to Fitz and Sophie. 

Then, she did the unthinkable and stepped out the bush and behind a tree. I saw the tips of her hair disappear into the darkness beyond the trees. 

I looked up at Dex, (who had been growing ridiculously tall, so that I only reached slightly below his chin) and he looked down at me. I think he knew what I was going to do. 

He reached out and grabbed my wrist. "I'm coming with you." 

I shook him off. "You should stay with Sophie and Fitz. I'm weak, and I can't protect you. They can." I gestured my head towards them. 

Dex shook his head firmly. "Let's follow Linh before she gets away." 

It was clearly the end of the discussion. I glanced back once more at Fitz and Sophie. It would be fine. They were both telepaths. Sophie would contact us as soon as she realized we were gone. Linh needed us. 

The reasons piled up and we stood and together rushed into the trees after Linh. 

It was dark and tight in the trees, and I could barely hear where Linh was going if not for the light swish of her hair and the occasional pitter-patter and crunches of her boots on stray sticks. 

We finally came across a clearing. I peaked through the leaves and saw the Neverseen members getting ready to light leap. 

One. Then two. 

Where was Linh? 

Then, just as the third one pulled out his Pathfinder and prepared to light leap, I saw her, lurking on the other side, behind his back. As he pulled it out, she started to run. I knew what she was doing. I started to run too. Dex ran behind me, his hand on my wrist so we wouldn't be separated. 

The Neverseen saw me and Dex charging towards him, and turned to face us, his eyes in shock. He wasn't ready for Linh, who tackled him from behind and grabbed onto his Pathfinder just as he was about to light leap. 

My eyes widened with panic, and I ran faster than ever, Dex behind me. And just then, when they were just beginning to break down and fade away, I snatched the fabric of the Neverseen members cloak. I felt Dex grabbing onto whatever he could find with his other hand, and suddenly, I felt the both of us getting pulled into the leap. 

Linh P.O.V 

We arrived.

We were here. 

The Neverseen member was easy work. As soon as we had light leaped there, he sprang up and tried to attack us, a gust of wind launching toward Dex and Marella, but I quickly surrounded him in water, keeping him in there just enough to knock him unconscious, and then dropping him down to the ground. 

"Trix."  I said, without comment. 

"Yeah," Marella said, staring down at her dad's body on the grass. She kicked him from the side, muttering words that sounded like 'stupid' and 'scoundrel' and 'evil abomination.' 

I turned my attention toward the base. My brother was in there. 

Tam. 

Biana was there too. 

And Keefe. 

I noticed the gaping hole in the side of the building. It was almost like Gethen wanted us to come in. Was waiting for it in fact. 

Well then, there was no point in waiting. 

"Come on," I said, pointing to the structure. 

"Let's get our friends back." 

SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING FOR MORE THAN A MONTH! THIS IS AN ALL TIME LOW, EVEN FOR ME! It must be something to do with school. To appease the writing gods, and also you guys, I made this one extra-long just for you! I hope you guys enjoy it! This one was really hard to write with all the alternating points of view. Hope it was okay!  

Thanks for reading!!!
Luna