I supposed the last thing I should've done was to get in the same car as the man who was best buds to the guy holding a life-sentence of supposed slavery over my head, but, well, here I was. Staring out the same window where a bullet had flown past my eyes not too long ago. A part of me wanted to call Hadi, to let her know that I was alive. However, I wanted to see what the school would say, first, or if they would even call her. Miss Harbery said that the principal did not even know of what went down in the bathroom last Friday. If she tried putting in a word about me now, all I needed to do was to ask him to pull the cameras. Sure, I was a student - and not a very good one, at that. Eventually, though, the police would want evidence, and no matter how they try to explain it, there was no getting out of the fact that a couple of boys had followed me into said bathroom . . . and with the camera being right in the middle of the hall, whoever had recorded us would no doubt be caught on there, too.

Or so, that was what Frenice had explained. It was too much for my simple head, but anything to keep me out of the hands of the authorities was good enough for me.

Damn, imagine that. Getting drugged by the school's counselor and nurse. If only they hadn't mentioned giants. From the way Miss Harbery had said it, it sounded as if it was a play-on-words, as if she knew something I didn't and that made it all the better.

A soft groan parted from my lips as I turned to rest my face in my hands. My head was pounding worse than my shoulder. I could feel Frenice's curious gaze rest on me, though he opted not to say anything for a few moments longer. I wondered what he thought of me; I had slipped my hoodie on after he came to pick me up down the street from the school, and I refused to put the sling back on, but I hadn't bothered to try hiding my neck and my knuckles were swollen, bruised, and (courtesy of Nurse Donway's face) bleeding. The scabs on my left hand had broken under the pressure. It did not take a high school pep girl to point out that I looked like shit.

"Sleep is important," he said casually. "Vital for your health."

I laughed; a bleak, dead sound that was anything but humorous.

"Yes, well, it's hard to sleep when you suddenly have every damn influential figure shoving threats down your throat."

"You should have called me sooner. I could have helped."

I faced him, an eyebrow raised. I really couldn't help the heavy dose of sarcasm in my voice. I doubt anyone could, given the situation.

"Really? Because none of this shit started happening until after you showed up."

"Things are happening, that is true," he agreed. I stared at him for a bit, then sighed. I might as well ask him. If he was part of everything, then the least I could do for myself was try to get some answers. Figure out why everyone was suddenly interested in complicating my life with all this absurd talk about giants. I was still having a hard time figuring out what that meant; did they mean Port, and every other crime lord in all of Gallin? Locman? The wealthy residents living in the nice neighborhoods uptown?

"It makes no fucking sense," I spat, not really meaning to say so out loud. Oh well. At Frenice's bemused look, I continued. "If they wanted me that badly, they had opportunities to do it before. Assuming they're the same people that took my neighbor, they could have done it last night. They could have done it years ago! So why now? I haven't done anything to grab anyone's attention. I'll be eighteen in a few months, free of Locman's deal - is that what this is? The deal is about to be off, so you squeeze every last dollar from me before shutting me up completely?"

"Locman gains no pleasure from torture," Frenice said at least, this time keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the road. "He does what he needs to do. Nothing more."

Another laugh, but I felt the tears starting to swell up, all the same. You big sissy. I guessed that I was still freaked out about the fact that there were adults in the school that had it out for me - and I didn't know why. I mean, sure, my grades could be better, but if they targeted everyone who got sucky grades, there would be a whole lot of empty classrooms.

"Tell me, what pressures a person to blackmail a poor single woman and a kid for money?"

Frenice sighed.

"There are many things happening that I cannot explain to you. However, I can help you to make sense of it."

Something about his tone made me want to sink further into my skin; or disappear completely, for that matter.

"Can't you, like, say a few words to get everyone off my back?" I asked, but my words were those of hollow ones. Ah, there went a smile. I decided I preferred Frenice when his lips were not curled upwards.

"If only it were that simple."

"If only," I snorted.

"If you could not have guessed by now, you are involved in these things because of your mother," he said, ignoring my statement. I crossed my arms over my chest and glanced out the window, watching dead trees and yellow grass pass us by. I was getting really, really tired of this. I tried to think back on everything that had happened over the past two weeks, trying to see where pieces connected and what events were completely unrelated to this big, steeping pile of hot mess that I suddenly found myself in.

"You mean to say," I said softly, keeping my eyes focused on the window. "That a prostitute suddenly encouraged a bunch of teenage boys to capture children and rip their eyes from their heads? Children who had family members on Locman's list?" I hugged myself tighter, aching to curl up in a ball. "Because she's dead. I don't know how many times I have to say it, but she's dead. A good few months' worth of dead."

Before Frenice could bother himself with a reply, my phone interrupted us with a dull, beep-beep, beep-beep, buuuzzzz . . . . Fatigued, I took my time slipping it out of my pocket, glancing once at the caller ID before answering.

"Hello?"

"Tria?" If I didn't know any better, I would say that Mr. Businessman sounded relieved. He certainly tried to hide it with a brisk demand, though. "Where are you?"

I shrugged, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see.

"Can't tell you that."

He didn't miss a beat. Because, you know, it was completely normal for high school boys to understand life-and-death scenarios that involved fire-drills and psycho counselors. Survival Skills 101: How To Be A Mafia Boss. I must've missed that class. Jaxon sure didn't.

"Are you safe, at least?"

I glanced over at Frenice, a small frown curled at his lips.

"Well, I'm not rushing a set of instructions to you right now, so I would think so, yeah." I could practically imagine him rolling his eyes at that.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but I overheard Miss Harbery coming back into the school. Something about setting a dog out on Hale - you."

"Wait, so what's the school saying?"

"That's the thing. Said you set the alarm - that you were mentally unstable or some shit. Hallucinations. Severe stress. It's what I heard Nurse Donway explain to the principal, anyway."

Oh, joy. So now I'm a nutjob that's losing my cool. Not cool.

"And what do you take of it?"

"I wanted to hear your side. You punched the nurse in the face. That couldn't have gone well for your knuckles."

It didn't, and I frowned at the thought that that was the first thing that had come to his mind. Not, Oh, Tria totally flipped, or, Nurse must have really pissed her off. It was: She's hurt, so she wouldn't start a fight unless she had to. Seriously, the guy barely knew me. How would he know if I didn't flip a switch?

Still, his comment made my eyes linger on my hand.

"They knew about the giants," I said softly. I shook myself. Next to me, Frenice stiffened, and I turned to give him a strange look.

"What?"

"I'm in some shit," I said carefully, feeling extremely worried at the expression on Frenice's face. "And they were in on it."

"Who?"

No. You need to shut-up, Tria. Frenice hadn't said anything. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not, so I gave a shake of my head.

"I can't tell you," I said curtly. "Look, all you need to know is that I'm alive."

"Tria-"

"No. Find a new hobby."

Maybe it was a little harsh, but I did not owe him much more than that. I hung up before he could try to argue. Honestly, we've spoken more to each other in the past few days than we ever did over the past few years. We knew each other through mutual understanding and gossip. I was in no hurry letting him in on my life, not now or ever. Maybe I'm overthinking it, or maybe I'm still spooked, but I did not think it was a coincidence that Jaxon came more involved with me while I was in the middle of trying to figure out how much trouble I'm really in. He claimed he knew who Frenice al Hulder was, and while he appeared concerned about my state, nothing seemed to faze him. If I saw someone going through what I was and knew that they were in some sort of trouble with Locman, I would have turned the other way. Call it cowardice, but I would call it staying alive. I wouldn't risk my life for someone I barely knew, no matter how big of a crush I might have had on them.

No, the only person in my life that could bend me like that was Hadi, and thank all things holy that no one seemed to be batting an eye in her direction - so far, at least.

"Is this the same person you called at the restaurant?" Frenice asked casually, but there was something extremely off-putting with his expression. As if he'd swallowed something bitter that he had expected to be sweet and was trying not to show a grimace.

"I haven't told him anything, if that's what you're concerned about," I said eventually. "He's just some honcho-macho boy that doesn't like it when things don't go his way."

Frenice smiled. It was a forced smile.

"You mentioned giants."

I turned in my seat so that I could lean my back against the door.

"So you know what this is all about," I said slowly, my heart pounding in my throat. He was acting a bit squeemy, and anything that could unnerve a guy who was friends with Locman was enough to scare me shitless.

"I cannot answer that," he said blankly, and I just about lost it for the second time today. If it wasn't for the pounding in my head that was making my vision suffer, I would have lunged at him; turned the wheel, forced the handbrake up, something. But with every passing second we spent talking, and the more I worried and fretted about answers to dangerous questions, the more my headache grew until my stomach churned violently with the pain. I closed my eyes, trying to put the overwhelming sense of nausea aside.

"I received a note," I forced through pained breaths, haunching forward to rest my hands against my forehead.

Damn, the people in the movies made these kinds of things look easy. I wasn't much of a movie-goer, but from what I saw, it seemed like every single protagonist ever invented was able to handle getting their ass handed to them and be just fine after an hour or two - fine enough to talk, at least. I wanted a heavy dose of morphine and a few weeks' worth of sleep. All I wanted to do nowadays was sleep, come to think of it. I continued. "It said 'Make no deal with giants'. Then I watched a flash drive that was given to me. I didn't watch all of it, just enough for a guy to yell that a girl had a date with giants. And the counselor . . ." I laughed bitterly. "The counselor said that the giants didn't need to know about a confrontation I had in the bathrooms on Friday. Who the hell are these giants that everyone keeps mentioning?"

al Hulder was probably one of the last people I should be telling all of this. Landon had tried saving my skin by claiming my innocence of the video, after all. But stress does terrible things to a person. Things like making you feel that a simple shot to the head would be better than continuing on wondering when someone else was going to do it. Not that I would ever go that far, but it still sucked.

"They are the people your mother has heavily angered," Frenice said calmly, his unease gone from his face and tone. "People that men like Locman serve."

"Men like . . . oh, that's just lovely," I barked out a sarcastic laugh, though my palms remained firmly on my forehead. At this point, I had given up claiming that my mother was dead. These guys must not know how to read the newspaper. "And what do they expect me to do?"

"There are many sides to what is going on. The things that have happened to you over the past couple of weeks were not all done by the same group of people."

"That doesn't answer my question."

Frenice turned onto an old dirt road. Looking around, we were practically out in the middle of nowhere; judging from my sense of direction, we were on the stretch between Gallin and Tofton, a small town just south of here. A few shacks scattered the land here and there, and the road Frenice led us on intertwined between a few hills that limited my view. I managed to keep myself from freaking out externally, but the thoughts that were flooding my mind were strictly kept to two words: Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no . . . which quickly turned to: Not good, not good, not fucking good.

Why would a henchman want to take me out in the middle of nowhere?

My anxiety must have shown on my face, or maybe he was just noticing the way I held my head, because I looked up to see his piercing green eyes resting on me, his lips curled down in concern.

"What is wrong with your head?"

My shoulders slumped at his question, and I forced myself to sit up so he could get a better look at my face. I guessed he hadn't really taken a good look at me since I stumbled out to his car, particularly where my right eye was concerned.

"Must have hit it getting out of bed this morning," I said dryly, then shivered. My hoodie was still wet - or damp, as I should properly say. Frenice had the heat turned up, but it was barely doing me any favors. Frenice looked away without comment. I leaned back against my seat; I could feel the sweat picking up against my face.

"Oh, shit," I groaned as my stomach did a repulsive lurch. My hand shot out to the door as the other one reached for the seatbelt. Frenice barely managed to slam on his breaks before I was stumbling out of the car, and presto! There went my pitiful breakfast from this morning. 

My knees slid against dead grass and gravel, and I flinched away from the shock of the cold as vomit shot forth from my mouth. For a blissful second, my headache subsided, and when I was confident that my stomach wasn't going to be throwing me any more unpleasant surprises, I eased up and rested my back against the frame of the car. With my eyes closed, I focused primarily on taking steady breaths of the crisp morning air, though Frenice's footsteps coming around the car were hard to ignore.

When it sounded like he had stopped next to me, I narrowed open my eyes just enough to see him crouched down in front of me, his head tilted to the side. Had I been a bit more energized - had my body not taken on a sudden strange ache that discouraged moving - I would have stood and walked away from him. I didn't like how close he was, even worse was that I got the impression he was scrutinizing me.

"You said the nurse and counselor attacked you," he said. I gave him a weak shrug.

"Nurse Donway tried to drug me."

He gave me a bleak smile.

"I think she succeeded."

I started to shake my head, then decided that that was a bad idea when my vision began to swim.

"She never got the needle in."

"That's not the only way you can drug a person," Frenice explained, a thoughtful expression fitting his place as he gave me another look-over. "Some are exceptionally more vulnerable than others."

I closed my eyes.

"I grew up with people smoking narcotics, opiums, and all sorts of other nasties right above my head," I told him. "I can tell the difference between fresh air and something else."

"What they nailed you with is not something known to the public," Frenice insisted. "The human sense of smell is too dull to detect it, especially if they lived in heavy air pollution for some time."

"Mhm. Sure." I tried to sound cold and unconvinced, but I was so fatigued that my words came out muffled and sluggish. I was faintly aware of Frenice saying more, though it sounded as if he was talking to himself rather than me.

"A few minutes' worth of exposure does not have quite an effect on humans . . ." I felt his hand slide against my neck, cold and nerve-racking against my flushed skin.

I must have dozed out at one point, because the next time I opened my eyes, Frenice was carrying me like one would hold a baby. My skin felt like it was on fire, and I was briefly aware of the slight shivers spreading across my body. I tried to open my mouth to talk, but whatever I was going to say turned into a low, pained groan. I couldn't turn my head away from looking at Frenice.

"Almost there, girl," he assured. "Almost there."