"Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings are more thrilling than understanding could ever be."

― Toni Morrison

/ / l o u i s / /

My eyes slowly open and I look at my surroundings. Hair covers the bottom half of my face and I notice the trees and bushes around me. The air's warm and I can feel my hair sticking to my forehead. I feel sweaty and I realize I'm laying down. I attempt to sit up but there's something on my chest that's holding me down. The weight suddenly lifts and I see Evelyn's face. She wipes it quickly, "Oh, God!" Has she been crying? "I thought you were dead!"

"No," I whisper. "Sleeping pills, ah, remember? I...I don't remember passing out here, though."

"You were so pale! It looked like you weren't breathing and I thought you had left me alone to rot!" She falls back down on my chest and cries all over again. I would never leave her alone. "You passed out and I had to hide us. The police were here with their dogs! Dogs, Louis! There were so many of them!"

My hand's placed on her back and I rub it, "We're okay, aren't we?" She nods but doesn't stop sobbing. "How long have I been out?"

"A day."

"A day?" I rub my temples. "The sleeping pills couldn't have kept me out that long."

"Yeah," she frowns. "We haven't gotten much sleep, if you think about it. The pills just helped you get the sleep you needed."

"We've been here the entire time?" I ask and she nods. "Have you eaten at all?" She doesn't reply and I automatically know the answer. "We need to get some food in you."

She shakes her head, "We don't have any money."

I sit up and she urges me to lay back down. I don't. I'm upset that she hasn't done anything to take care of herself. Neither one of us can risk starving to death. We cannot risk losing each other. I won't let Evelyn starve. I had dragged her into this and I am sure as hell not going to let her torture herself because of me.

"We usually don't have to pay until we're done eating, right?" I ask her.

"Yeah," she wipes her eyes. "I think so."

"Then it's settled," I grin. "We're going to have the best meal of our lives...for free."

I rise to my feet and place a hand on my forehead as dizziness washes over me. Evelyn is standing up and she wraps her arms around me. She is still in nothing but her bra and pants. We need to find her a thicker shirt to change into before someone sees us. She buries her face in my neck and we both exhale.

"We can't keep doing this," she whispers. "We need to settle down, you know? I can't keep running."

"Wasn't it your idea to escape the mental hospital?" I ask and she removes her head from my neck. I don't want her to move. I want her to stay here with me. I want her to hold me.

"Yes," she murmurs. "But you acted like you weren't up for a plan. What changed?"

"I closed my eyes again."

"Why?"

"You," I smile. "You're the reason why I closed my eyes again."

Her eyes are slightly wide and I can't help but look at her lips. When we kissed, they were soft and I was afraid that I was going to pull them off. I've kissed one girl before...before Harry made an appearance in my life. I've forgotten about how it felt to kiss someone and now I never want that feeling to leave. It's such an incredible feeling and I can't believe I experienced it again with Evelyn.

"M-Me?" she stutters. "I'm the reason some sense was finally knocked into you?" I smile at her and pull my shirt over my head. "What are you doing?"

I hand it to her, "Put it on."

"But now you have nothing to cover up yourself."

"I'll be fine."

"What about the scars on your back?"

"What about them?" I raise my eyebrows.

"P-People will see them," she stutters, holding my shirt to her chest. By the look on her face, I know she wants to put on the shirt. I don't care if people see my scars. They can think all they want about them, but I won't give a rat's ass. I only care about the safety of Evelyn and I. I run my fingers through my hair and close my eyes for a split second. "You're running out of ideas, aren't you?"

"No," my eyes shoot open. "No."

"What are we going to do?" she questions me. "We can't just break into someone's house and stay there."

It wouldn't hurt to try.

"You're so smart!" I exclaim, grabbing both sides of her face and kissing her on the forehead. 

Her eyes are wide and I automatically regret doing so. I let go of her face and she takes a few steps back. I don't have the right to kiss her whenever I please. The kiss earlier was simply a distraction, nothing more.

"We can't," she whispers, shaking her head. Her hands move to where my hands just were and she keeps shaking her head. "We can't do this, Louis. You can't keep kissing me. Even if it's on the forehead, it can't happen. I can't keep letting you kiss me." Her hands fall to her sides and she looks at me. "We barely know one another. Why kiss me when you barely know me?" I open my mouth but she goes on. "What would Joe think about this?"

"Why does it matter what he would think?" I blurt out. "He's dead, Evelyn. It's time that you finally accept that."

"I can't!" she snaps. "I can't just forget about someone who's been in my life for so long!" I cover her mouth with my hand and she tries to get away from me. Wrapping both of my arms around her, I hold her tight as she covers her face with her hands and lays her head on my bare shoulder. She lets out a sigh, "We could always just jump off of a cliff and end this."

I pull away from her, "You're joking."

"I can't joke around at a time like this," she murmurs and rubs her eyes. For the first time, I notice the black circles and bags underneath them. "I'm just tired, Louis. Don't you want to end it all? We could finally relax and sleep for a while."

"You mean sleep forever," I hiss. "Evelyn, we're not going to commit suicide. Have you gone mad?"

She sniffs, "I'm so tired."

"Did you sleep any?" I ask. "While...you know...while I was out?" She shakes her head and I run a hand down my face. "You need to sleep, Evelyn. Your health is more important than mine." I force her to put on the shirt and it's big on her. "We need to find a place for you to rest." She grabs my hand and we walk through the woods. The leaves beneath our feet crumble and the wind blows.

"What happens when the police find us?"

"You mean if they find us?" I reply with a question and she shakes her head.

"I meant what I said."

"They won't find us. I won't let them and at this point, I don't think Harry will, either." We keep quiet and Evelyn lays her head down on my shoulder. My heart skips a beat but I say nothing. I don't want her to move.

When we make it to the end of the woods, we're standing behind a house. We exchange looks and Evelyn quickly looks back at the house, "Do you think anyone is home?"

"Yeah," I whisper. "If not, they may be home soon. Let's not risk it."

"What about an empty house?" she asks. "We can hide out in there until someone wants to buy it." I only look at her. "Imagine it, Louis. We can finally relax for a few days. What do you say?"

"We need an empty house to begin with, Evelyn."

"Then we look for one."

"You're serious?"

"I am," she replies and gets her head off of my shoulder. "We can rest our feet and it's just the perfect idea! Think about it. Imagine it."

I bite my bottom lip and look down at the green grass. She's right. It's the perfect idea but not for our situation. Police will look in empty houses. It'll be the first place they'll look. I look back at Evelyn and her tired eyes are wide as if she's fighting the urge to fall asleep right here and right now.

"Fine," I give in. "Let's find us a house."

She hooks her arm with mine and we walk around the house we had previously approached. There's a car in the driveway and I'm glad whoever owns the house is indoors. I don't want anyone to see us and question what we're doing. All of the houses we pass have cars in the driveway. Is every house in this neighborhood owned? Evelyn pulls me along and she checks each and every house.

Evelyn suddenly comes to a stop and I bump into her. She stumbles forward but quickly catches her balance, "This is it." I look over her shoulder at the house before us and scratch the top of my head. There's a huge 'FOR SALE' sign in the front yard and there aren't any cars in the driveway. I open my mouth to reply to her statement but she pulls me along the driveway and we approach the front door. She runs her fingers along the wood and smiles. "Just think. Once we're inside, we can sleep for hours and hours."

"You can take a short nap," I say. "And then we have to get some food in you."

"Okay," she says and twists the doorknob. "It's locked." Why would it not be? She lets go of the doorknob and turns to look at me. "Maybe we can sneak in through the back?"

"How is that going to work?" I question her.

"Break a window," she whispers and before I know it, she is running toward the back of the house. 

I run after her and she has a rock in her hand. She throws it at the window on the back door and it shatters. Covering my ears, I glance around to make sure we are the only ones who just witnessed that. Evelyn puts her hand through the broken window and unlocks the back door. I expect an alarm to go off, but nothing happens. 

She looks back at me, "Are you coming?" 

I follow her inside of the house and she shuts the door behind us.

"Whoa," I murmur.

"Whoa indeed," she agrees with me as we walk deeper into the house. I cannot look away. Everything around me isn't what I had expected it to be. I expected it to look used or old. Instead, the floors are polished and the walls look cleaner than I thought they would be. I run my fingers along them and I walk into what I assume is the living room. Evelyn stops once her bare feet hit the carpet and she lets out a sigh. "It's so soft."

I don't look away from her pale feet, "Is it?'

"Take your socks off," she demands. I throw her a look of confusion and she points down to the white socks that cover my feet. "Take off your socks and feel the carpet for yourself." I reach down and take off my socks, letting my feet feel the soft carpet below. I automatically lay down on the floor and Evelyn lays down beside me.

"You should go to sleep," I whisper.

"I can't," she whispers back. "For the first time in days, I'm happy."

"And why is that?"

"We have a roof over our heads for a little while," she explains. "We don't have to run away for a long time. All we have to do is just relax." I want to tell her that we still have to worry about food but I don't want to ruin her joy.

Instead, I roll over and look at her, "Go to sleep. Everything will still be here when you wake up."

She rolls over to where her back's facing me and she uses her hands as a pillow. I take this opportunity and get up from the floor. While she's sleeping, I'm going to explore the house and make sure it's actually safe for us to be here. I step over Evelyn's motionless body and when I look back at her, her eyes are closed and her breathing is slow. I know her entire body is exhausted. I keep moving.

The kitchen comes into view and my fingers run along the counters. I see the dust gather up on my fingers and I begin to wonder how long it has been since someone has actually been in here. There's a refrigerator and I open it to see nothing but empty shelves. Even though I knew the refrigerator was going to be empty, I was hoping there would be food in there. I close the door and move on down the hall to the staircase. I take slow steps to the second floor and when I get to the top, I walk into the first room.

A bathroom comes into view and I go to the sink. I turn the faucet on, and to my surprise, water comes out. I thought the water was supposed to be off? I let the water rinse the dust off of my fingers and I turn the water off, wiping my wet hand on my pants. The toilet's full of water and I test the bathtub. Just like the sink, the water comes out of the faucet. This is good. If we are going to be here for a while, we will be able to shower or take baths. Turning the water off, I move on to the next room.

This room looks like it's supposed to be a bedroom. It's small, meaning it is not the master bedroom. There's nothing in the room but an empty closet and I leave the room as quickly as I had entered. I look down the hall and there are two doors left. Both of them must be bedrooms. If not, one must be a bedroom and the other must be a closet. I'm about to check the first door when I hear laughter. My heart skips a beat and I slowly turn around to see Harry standing on the ceiling. His eyes are inches from mine and he's no longer in his human form.

He laughs, "Do you really think hiding here will save you?"

"Yes," I quickly reply.

"Do you now?" he smirks.

"Well," I scratch my right cheek. "Evelyn thinks this is for the best—"

"Evelyn!" he shrieks. "This woman is causing you to make foul decisions, Louis."

"Isn't that what you want?" I hiss and he smiles, showing off his white fangs. "Isn't that what you want for both Evelyn and I? To make stupid decisions and have to somehow deal with the consequences?"

His eyes become small, "Is that what you think of me?"

"That's what I know!" I yell and lower my voice. Evelyn's sleeping downstairs and I don't want to wake her. I have to keep that in mind. "Your entertainment is our torture. Your torture soon enough become our accomplishments." He lets himself drop from the ceiling and he's in sitting position on the floor. His head's tilted to the side as if he's interested in hearing more. I simply bite my bottom lip and turn to go back downstairs.

"Sure, you can run," he chuckles. "But you most certainly can't hide."

I look back at him, "I've hidden plenty of times, Harry, because of you."

"Ah, but you can never hide forever," he grins. "You'll get caught and when you do, I'll be sitting on the sidelines with a bag of fresh popcorn. Oh, what a shame it is. If it wasn't for the girl, you'd probably be lost somewhere." He shakes his head. "Such a shame." 

I turn my head back around and jog down the stairs. I walk into the living room and begin to pace the floor. Evelyn hasn't moved from her spot and I'm beginning to wonder if she is even asleep. For all I know, she could be dead. She doesn't look like she's breathing. Maybe I can wake her up just to make sure she's okay?

"Evelyn," I whisper.

No movement.

"Evelyn," I speak up.

She rolls over, "Hmm?"

"I'm just checking up on you."

"Hmm," she keeps her eyes closed.

"Are you all right?" She doesn't open her eyes but pats the spot on the floor beside her. "Y-You want me to lay down on the floor beside you?" She nods and I don't hesitate to lay down beside her. To my surprise, she wraps her arm around my waist and lays her head on my bare chest.

I look up at the ceiling as she goes back to sleep. I don't know how long we'll be like this. Since Evelyn hasn't gotten much sleep lately, I know it'll be more than an hour. I don't mind, though. I was out for an entire day and she didn't leave me. She stayed with me the entire time and that's what I'm going to do with her. I place my hand on top of her head and wait for her to tell me to move my hand. She doesn't and I slowly run my fingers through her hair. Still, she doesn't say anything and she doesn't move. I'm surprised she hasn't moved or told me to stop. Perhaps she's already asleep again? I don't care. I like this. I like this a lot. I would like to stay like this forever.

If only we weren't fugitives.