Alex didn't like cleaning up these kinds of messes.

He didn't like wiping security cameras. He didn't like scrubbing floors on his hands and knees. He didn't like the reek of blood and bleach seeping into his clothes and his hair. He didn't like lugging bodies or burning them.

Cleaning up the mess wasn't half as fun as making it.

But by the time Alex left the cafe, there was no trace of him, Klaus, or the siren.

This was what Alex was good at - making people disappear. Before the authorities cracked down on travel, Alex used to smuggle the Enhanced out the country. But now that was virtually impossible. There was no way for the Enhanced to get out. They were trapped in the country with nowhere to run.

Things used to be so much easier. It used to be a matter of keeping it a secret. If you could keep your mouth shut, nobody would know you were Enhanced. And even if someone found out somehow, the worst it came to was people throwing hateful words or the occasional punch.

But now Big Brother could swab their cheeks and know what they were in a second. Now they were shot or dragged off into prisons and labs. Now if some hateful fool knew what they were, they could put a bullet in their head and get away with it because they were a threat.

Alex stopped by a convenience store and tossed whatever he could into a basket until it was full. He paused on his way to the register and looked down into the basket with a frown, remembering the things Eli had regurgitated from the siren's file.

It was only after he exchanged the pouches of instant noodles that he had originally grabbed with a different brand that he went to pay.

Nothing in the basket was particularly healthy, but it wasn't like any of them ate much anyway. It was on the days that Klaus cooked that they'd all sit down at the table and eat. Those were good days. They came less often now.

Maybe tomorrow will be a good day.

✗

When Alex opened the front door, he was met with the sight of dark eyes peeking at him from behind the couch in the living room, wide and cautious. The feelings were loud. Loud enough to make his head throb. It was like Klaus all over again. A tsunami of anxiety threatened to drown him until he managed to block it out. By then his heart was already beating unsteadily.

The girl was still watching. She seemed calm considering what he'd picked up off of her. It had to be bad for it to hit him like that without physical contact. He offered a smile before following the alarming sound of a high pitched whistle to the kitchen.

Eli stood in front of the stove, watching the steam rise up from their rusted tea kettle. Her hair was damp and so were her clothes - a towel laid between her hair and her clothes, soaking up the water.

"Took a shower?"

Eli didn't spare him a glance. "Siren got caught in the rain. I didn't want to force her back inside."

Alex had questions, the biggest one being how she could get caught in the rain when she'd been sleeping upstairs when he called to check in earlier, but he didn't voice them.

Eli didn't add anything on.

Alex didn't expect her to. She rarely spoke these days about anything that wasn't about work. He plopped the bag of groceries down on the counter and pulled out some of the noodles, shaking a pack in her face. "Hungry?"

"No." Eli jutted a thumb toward the living room. "She seemed like she was though."

And so Alex made two servings. Eli's tea was ready to drink before he finished, but she hung around taking slow sips from her mug. When he went out into the living room with one bowl in each hand, she came after him, settling down on the couch that the siren had abandoned to sit closer to the fireplace.

The Siren was huddled up with a throw wrapped around her shoulders, hair just as damp as Eli's but her clothes dry. They weren't what she was brought to the house in - a big black hoodie Alex recognized as Klaus' and flannel pajama pants that Eli wore often.

"Hungry?" Alex asked, joining her on the floor.

Her eyes were fixed on the bowls, but she was hesitant.

Alex pressed one of them into her hands. "Don't worry," he said, "it's halal."

She looked up at him, her lips tugging down at the corners.

"Religion's in your file."

"File?" she echoed, in a voice very different from the one he had heard in the cafe. It was hoarser now, the words forced out like it was difficult to speak.

"Have you heard of the Elites?"

She nodded.

"The three of us are members. Eli's high up the food chain. When you escaped from the people holding you, our moles found out and the information was passed on. You were a priority for a while. Everyone thinks you're dead now."

"Your boss or whoever's in charge-"

"They don't know you're with us. Nobody will, okay? You're safe here. Heal up and then we can figure out what to do with you."

"I can leave?"

Alex could feel Eli's gaze searing into the back of his head. "If you want to. You're not a prisoner. But for now, just stay here, alright? I'll go get your things in the morning so you can heal comfortably."

"My things?"

"Yeah. From wherever you live."

There was color to her cheeks suddenly, eyes flickering elsewhere.

Alex felt his stomach twist. He was a fool. Somebody hiding from Big Brother was going to stay off the grid and that was hard. That job she held at the cafe couldn't have been paying very well if she hadn't given any information like a social security number or showed an ID. She had to have been underpaid. People did it all the time now. They would employ the Enhanced as a secret and pay them awfully low wages in cash for hours that went on too long.

Her cheeks were hollow and her ribs stuck out a scary amount - he couldn't not notice it when the vet was stitching her up. She was underpaid and she was hungry, he knew that. But for some reason he'd assumed she'd actually have a good place to stay.

Eli was the one to break the silence. "Have you got anything stashed anywhere?"

"There's a locker," she said, still avoiding both their eyes. "At the gym by the cafe. I kept stuff in there."

"Where'd you sleep?"

Alex didn't know how to tell her to shut up without embarrassing the Siren further.

"Locker room," she said, ears glowing. "It sounds gross but they lock it at night. If I needed to pee or something there was a bathroom. And a shower for the mornings."

Eli tipped her head. There was a glint in her eye. It was the same one she used to get before, the kind she got before she said something that would end in a brawl or a lifetime ban from a club he liked. Now it was the look she got before she tortured someone. The sight of it made Alex uneasy, the sight of it directed at a Siren that Eli already thought of as a weapon made him even more so.

"Smart," Eli said.

"The key to the locker was in my apron," she added, finally looking at Alex. "I don't know where it is."

Alex did. "I burned it, but I kept the key. It's in the car. Just tell me the locker number later."

She nodded, ducking her head down and filling her mouth with a forkful of noodles. Soup dripped over her bottom lip and down her chin, but she was too focused on getting another mouthful of noodles to bother wiping it away.

He would make more after she finished the first bowl, he decided. There was more than enough sitting in the kitchen.

A u t h o r ' s N o t e

Alex is Enhanced, an empath specifically. More about what he does and how he does it will come up later. Same with the others.

Summer semester ends in three days for me, but fall semester starts on the 26th. I will be taking five courses and doing an internship while working full-time to help pay for school. Naturally, that means I'll be tight on time. Starting August 23rd, I'll be updating once every two weeks. I hope you guys don't mind the change in my updating schedule.