The jacket had seemed like a curse, the thought of my father's death had never even crossed my mind when I'd opened the package. I didn't know what it meant, or what the letter was supposed to resemble, so what was I supposed to tell my little sister. Was I supposed to tell her the truth? Or was I simply supposed to lie? Sure the package was marked 'top secret' but what was the harm in telling my little sister the truth about what I did know about it. Which really wasn't much... But, how was I supposed to explain it if i didn't even know how to?

"No, no, no, dad's fine." I reassured Katrina with a rush. Although, how did I know what I was telling my little sister was true... What if it wasn't? I didn't want to think that way about our dad that way. Dad was fine, he was the highest ranked official in our Oddity nation. I mean seriously who would let anything happen to their leader?

"I- If he's okay does this mean dad found us, and he's coming back? Is dad coming back to live with us?" Katrina questioned with the slightest visible trace of hope following the tone of her voice.

I had no idea how to respond to my little sister without completely breaking her heart into two pieces. Biting my lip uncomfortable I found my gaze looking for Matt's, but suddenly I remembered that he had went back into the livingroom. "I, uh, I don't think so." I said in the smallest voice.

Katrina looked like she'd been hit across the face with a brick. "But, if he knows where we are, why wouldn't he want to see us? Why would he just let us stay here by ourselves?" Her voice was shaking ever so slightly. Her emerald eyes glowing with confusion as she look back and forth from me to the jacket behind us.

"I don't know Katrina..." I told her very quietly, trying not to show a hint of skepticism in my voice. The truth was that I'd been just as bewildered as she looked.

Although I did know a lot more about everything around us then she did. I wasn't going to tell her about Clarissa just yet, we both already had enough to deal with, and adding that onto her would be hell. Also I had no idea how to explain the note that came with the letter, but what if I did and something jogged her memory and she knew what it was trying to say. It was worth a try... Wasn't it?

"Something came with it, something that I don't really understand." I continued after a breath. "Maybe it'll jog your memory instead?"

It was rarely that I ever asked Katrina to help me out, well anyone really, with anything. So when I ask Katrina this her green eyes light up with excitement and slightly she smiled, nodding her head. "I'd like to try." Her voice was light and sweet as she bounced on the balls of her bare feet.

"Good." I smiled with a small amount of relief showing in my voice. If Katrina could actually understand, what was being told in the letter, it may have changed things, and for the better. "Come here." I told Katrina as I patted on the seat beside me. Immediately she crept forward and sat down as I shuffled to find the letter that I'd placed on the clean bar. The odds that Katrina remembered something more than me were slight, she was six years younger then me, and six years old when the first attack had happened. It was worth a try though. Handing her the paper she opened it and read it silently.

"Destiny..." Katrina murmured as she read the letter.

"Yeah?" I said crossing my arms, silently watching her continue to skim over the neatly written sentences over the paper.

"Don't you remember?" She whispered watching me with disappointment showing in her bright eyes. "This was what we did like almost every summer with mom, dad, and Maliki." she looked at me for confirmation, hoping that some type of light would pop up in my head. Nothing would come though, it was like that memory had been blocked.

"I'm sorry, I really don't remember much Katrina." I stumbled at my words, scratching the top of my head uncomfortably. It wasn't a lie either, after the explosion had taken place five years ago I only had a few select memories I could recall from before. Sometimes I'd see something familiar and a certain old memory would come flooding back, but for some reason this one wouldn't.

"Destiny, the oak tree this letter is talking about, it's in the woods behind our old house... There's a lake that we used a canoe to cross... That's what it's talking about." She looked at me taking a breath letting her memory bring a smile across her face. "You, me, and Maliki would sneak outside in the middle of the night. We used that canoe so that we could find the glass jars without mom and dad knowing. The woods stopped by the lake, and we would go to the meadow and catch fireflies."

"Wait, so if dad didn't know about this, are you saying Maliki wrote this letter?" I concluded finally letting the memory slowly sink back into my mind with little bits of information.

I remembered the way all of us were so close before the power had gotten to my older brother's head. Before he'd understood what he was to become in his future. I don't know what really happened after that, but he became more controlling and manipulative on basically everyone, including Katrina, myself, and random people that went to our school. Thinking back, I was kind of glad that the attack had happened before he could replace our father. Who knew what could have happened if Maliki had our dads position with his naive personality.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to say." Katrina responded with a shaky breath. "Do you think Maliki is with dad? Maybe that's why the jacket got sent too... I think they're trying to tell us to go there."

Katrina May have been eleven years old, but she was very bright for her age. I knew that there was a big chance Katrina was correct. They were leading us there, weather it was or father or Maliki, someone wanted us to go there for some reason or another. Part of me wandered if it had been a trap... And another part of me just deep down knew that my family could be a whole again, if only we actually did follow the letter.

There was one problem though... I knew that I wasn't going to leave Matt, he'd been through almost everything with me. Why would I just want to let all of that go, when Matt made me feel more whole than all of my family combined. If we were going to leave somewhere, I wasn't going to leave without him. The problem with that was, I didn't know how to ask him to go with me.

"Katrina, we need to think this through, I'm all for an adventure and all, but what if this isn't what we think it is." I explained as she handed the letter back to me. Trying to hide the shakiness in my hands, I placed it back on the counter and drew a harsh breath that made my lungs burn. "You never know nowadays, this could be a trick for all we know."

"I... I don't think so Destiny. I mean how could anyone possibly know so much about our own personal life, and get ahold of our dad's jacket. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever, you know?" She responded, more as if a statement than a question. "I know we need to be careful, but what if this is our only chance to find them."

I sighed when I turned to find Katrina's eyes full of hope and yet, fear all at once. "I know, I really do, I just, we can't do this by ourselves. We need supplies, and a map. It won't be easy, but we'll try, I guess. We'll leave in a couple days because we need to gather everything we'll need for the trip there. If we find nothing when we get there, we he'd back." Pausing to take a breath, my eyes fell onto my little sister's, and I gave a weak smile. "Katrina, just don't get you're hopes up too much." I breathed my last sentence, knowing that we both already had our hopes too high to turn back at this point.

The day had already mostly already been a waste of time, I'd been knocked out most of that morning from the night before. Katrina nodded with the slightest bit of excitement following her eyes as she walked out of the kitchen. I didn't move, just sat there staring in the distance, waiting for everything to sink into mind. What had I gotten us into? The last time we'd been out in the woods away from the safety The Base offered, everything had been constant danger within every direction. Either a helicopter or a gunshot or a pendomite soldier. What if nothing had changed outside The Base... Or what if it had gotten worse within the amount of years we lived safely in The Base.

"Hey Des, you hungry?" Matt said as he strolled barefooted, lazily into the cramped tight kitchen.

"No, not really." I responded weakly, staring at the ground.

"I overheard you and Katrina talking... I didn't really hear much, just enough to know you're leaving?" Matt questioned skeptically. He reached the sink and filled a small pot he'd pulled from the drawer beside up with water. It seemed as if he were trying to distract himself more than anything though as he placed the pot on the wall and began to light a fire underneath. Within all of these short seconds his gaze never met mine.

"Matt," I began hesitantly, with a shaking voice. " I'm scared... I want to see my family again. God knows that I don't want to go venturing off trying to find something I don't know whether is a scam or not," I took a breath watching his eyes. "B-but, what if this is my only chance to have a normal life again?"

"I see where you're coming from Des," Matt started softly from the other side of the room. "I just... What if it is a scam? What then? Do you have a plan?" He paused waiting for me to respond, and when I didn't he continued. "You can't plan for something like this... There's no way to know what'll happen when you get there. There's no way to know what's going to happen even before you get there. Destiny... It's hell out there. You wouldn't know because we've been behind these so called 'safe walls' since the war started." He paused for barely half a second. "I've been out there... It's not a place I want you or Katrina going. It's just not safe."

"Well, What- What if we weren't to go alone?" I hesitated.

Matt's eyebrows scrunched together. "What are you insinuating?"

"Matt, I know I'll never be able to make it out there by myself. I don't know why, I just know. I can't do this by myself. This is probably the most embarrassing thing I'll ever ask of you."

Before I could continue with my statement, Matt was across the table staring at me with his unreadable eyes. "You want me to go with you." His statement was true, but I didn't want him thinking that I was always completely helpless, and lately it felt like all he ever did was save me from my own stupidity.

"No-, yeah-, well, I mean I wouldn't mind if you did, but-" I stammered trying to think of the right words to say so that I didn't sound like a complete idiot.

Matt was already grinning down on me though. He always seemed to like it when I made a fool of myself. This only made things worse as I felt that familiar hot rush flood throughout my cheeks. "I mean if you need me to I will."

"I never said that I need you to go with me." I replied with a small amount of aggravation following my voice when I placed more emphasis on the word 'need'.

"Fine I guess I don't need to go then." Matt said cocky as ever turning on his heel and trying to ignore the glare that I'd sent in his direction.

"Wait! No." I felt confused, and the burning sensation that followed my face only got worse when Matt turned in my direction with raised eyebrows.

"I thought you said you didn't need me to go with you?" He responded humorously with the most fake sounding, innocent voice that I'd ever heard. I hated it, he was horrible for making me do that. I knew almost instantly what he was going to do as he batted his sarcastic eyes at me. It was the most embarrassing thing ever, he was going to make me beg until my face was the darkest shade of red that you could think of.

"I did, but, I-" My face felt as if it were on fire so I hid it behind my hands as I leaned on the counter before me. "You know you're horrible right?" I whispered through gritted teeth.

"It's what I do best." Matt answered with a cheerful voice when he leaned over the counter and put his face so close to me that I could feel his hot breath on my neck as I continued to hide my face. Alarmingly Matt's close proximity only made the burning sensation spread farther down my body. I could've sworn I'd completely caught on fire at that point. "So do you want me to go or not?"

"You just don't stop do you?" I laughed a little as I continued to hide under my folded arms.

"Nope, I don't, just tell me you want me to go with you." Matt said and it seemed as if the whisper came directly by my ear. I flinched and scooted away from him still managing to cover my burning face. "Come on Des, I know you want me to go, why don't you just ask?"

"Because Matt," I explained humorously. "if I do, you won't ever let me live it up, and you'll pretend like you didn't hear what I said, then you'll continue to do it over and over again until I'm basically screaming at you or begging you to go with us." The aggravation followed my voice when I forced myself to look up at him with my bright red face.

"I don't know what would ever make you think so lowly of me." Matt sarcastically responded throwing his arms up in surrender. "Awhhh! Is Destiny blushing?" Matt mocked, which made my eyes go wide and I hide my face feeling the tips of my ears catching fire along with the rest of my body.

"No!" I quickly answered in a rush trying to hide my face from the evil, that is otherly known as Matthew Doorhan. "I'm not."

"Awhh yes you are! Awhh Destiny is blushing!" Matt yelled so loudly that the birds outside probably stopped flying.

"Oh my gosh Matt! Would you give it a rest?!" I yelled finally finding the courage to meet his unnerving sapphire eyes.

"If you ask me to go with you I will." Matt looked at his nails as if he were not interested in our conversation whatsoever, although we both knew that he was.

"Fine!" I growled. "Will you go with us?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't hear you Destiny... What did you say?" Matt smirked.

"See! I told you!" I was aggravated so I rolled my eyes, and pulled myself up to my wobbly feet. Crossing my arms I marched out of the kitchen, grabbed my hunting boots, slid them on, and stuffed my knife inside of the boots within easy range.

Looking to the latch I decided that the long sleeved shirt I was wearing already would be enough to cover myself from the chill outside. Matt didn't follow me and Katrina was watching me with a curious gaze as I opened the latch. "I'll be back soon, listen to Matt okay." I instructed, after she nodded I took my chance to jump out of the latch and swing it shut after me.