All four of us made it back. All four of us had avoided capture, and every one of us was safe.
At least for now.
We sat in Zander's sleeping room, back in a misshapen circle like we had been before, except now we were all exhausted beyond belief. I leaned back against the fluffy part of Zander's sleeping bag, staring at the ceiling.
Slowly, Pepper, Zander, and Kain began falling asleep. I watched each of them, saw their eyes close, heads falling down to pillows and snuggling up into sleeping bags. I wished I could fall asleep and forgot that anything had happened. I wished I could force myself into dreams where reality didn't exist and it didn't matter what happened here because it wasn't true there. But I couldn't. Not yet at least.
I waited until the digital clock read one o' clock, then stood up. I grabbed the pile of money that I'd quickly stuffed into one of my sneakers while none of the others had been looking so none of them would get suspicious. Then I grabbed the pair of keys I'd gotten from my last encounter with the same boy that I'd hid inside one of the pillows near Zander's sleeping bag, and stood up, prepared to do the one thing I hadn't actually believe I'd end up doing.
I was going to meet with the boy.
I walked out of the classroom for the second time that night and then made my way over to the same door that Kain and I had taken to get outside before. I opened the door, not letting the fear take hold of me this time, and made my way outside into the careful watch of billions of stars.
But this time, my focus wasn't on the stars. It was on the blonde haired boy whose hair looked pale in the moonlight and the dark brown eyes that stared back at me as I walked towards him, holding the money easily visible to show that I'd agreed to our deal.
When he saw the money in my hand, his entire posture relaxed and I could see the deepening sadness in his eyes, like the fact that he'd forced me to get the money for him reminded him of something else.
"Thank you," he said when I handed the money to him. The way he spoke was more tender and genuine than it had been last time, and now I could really tell how beautiful his voice was. It dripped like pure silver moonlight into the air, musical and perfect. It made me want to listen to him talk more, just to hear every inflection and word coming from his mouth.
I didn't respond to him, just stared. "What's your name?" I asked suddenly, not sure why I asked it, but knowing that for some reason I really wanted to know.
He looked at me with his deep brown eyes and responded softly and beautifully, "Aysel."
"Nova," I replied softly. Silence fell between us, as moonlight continued to shine down on the landscape.
Then I turned away from Aysel, and walked back into the school using the keys to let myself in.