The day I stumbled upon a frightened and distraught Judith was the day I decided to be Cynthia, a cadet in the navy. Cynthia was hardened and mentally strong, yet sensitive and empathetic to others' hardships and suffering.

Judith stood with her back against the thick, rough trunk of a tree with her face in her hands. The heavy sobs came from her in rapid cycles of sniffs, coughs and gasps.

I briefly peered around the gloomy, cloud cloaked region for Owen and Ethan, but they were nowhere in the vicinity. They had been gone for nearly an hour, out in the freezing cold gathering green leaves to stuff inside the cracks of the walls for insulation.

I approached Judith cautiously, afraid of startling her while abruptly invading her space. She heard the crunch of my footsteps in the snow and lifted her head before a word came out of my mouth. "What's wrong, Judith?"

She hugged her body soothingly and sniffed. "I hate your cousin." The thick coat she wore didn't seem to do much to keep the cold at bay because she trembled and fidgeted. She glided the back of her hand along her wet, red nose and sighed.

"Please don't call him my cousin anymore." Even the thought of him being of similar blood and DNA made me ground and clench my teeth in irritation. "Did he hurt you?"

"No. But he embarrasses me all the time and makes a point to do it in front of Ethan." She nudged a chunk of snow with the tip of her boot. "And the things he says ... I don't like it. He always insinuating that I want to—you know— do things to Ethan. Like, sexual things. I don't like it at all."

"I hate it too." I frowned and watched her demolish the chunk of snow with a stomp. "I wish there was something we could do about it."

"Yeah." She sniffed. "I wish we could do like a reality show and vote for him to leave or something."

"That's a good idea." I forced a grin. "But that will never happen."

When I had tried standing up to Mr. Bryson, I didn't gain anything but a hot, stinging slap in the face. I hated feeling like I would be harmed at any moment, forced to please someone else to lessen the possibility of physical pain. But when Ethan decided to join me in confronting Mr. Bryson, things finally got accomplished. I was no longer walking on pins and needles out of fear of getting hurt, but I knew we could no longer stay around either. We decided to run far away and never look back, to forget the past and all that it harbored.

But four years later, we end up in a similar position.

"I've been thinking." Judith sniffed and dried the trail of tears on her cheeks. "I think I should go back home."

"What?!" I stood, frozen, my mind going a mile a minute. "You can't leave." If she tried, if she even spoke of it, Owen would see that she wouldn't.

"Being here is not how I thought it would be." She refused to lift her head. "I think I made a huge mistake."

"But—but—" There was nothing I could say that would convince her to stay. No matter how hard I searched my mind, I just couldn't come up with the right words. In a panic, I let it out. "He'll kill you if you try to leave."

Her head sprang up and round frightened eyes met mine. "Are you threatening me?"

"Never!" I put my hand out to comfort her, but she backed away. "Listen. I'm trying to save your life. I don't want you to get hurt, but you can't leave. He won't let you. We need to come up with another plan."

Judith took another step back. "I don't like this, Allison."

"I know. Me neither. Trust me. But I need your help."

"I'm sorry, but I'm going home." She turned and rushed toward the thick trees outlining the far end of our icy stage.

"Judith," I called. "Wait. I need your help. Ethan needs your help. The more people to stand up to Owen—"

"I knew I shouldn't have come." Judith continued on, ignoring my pleas.

"What about your stuff?"

"I don't care about my stuff." She kept her arms snug around her body.

"You don't even know how to get back." I followed closely on her heels, crunching the snow beneath my feet.

"I know enough." She walked faster. "I'll find my way. I should've left long time ago." She continued toward the trees. The sight of them, tall, dark and looming, struck fear in my heart. I haven't been beyond the towering saplings in years. And although their height and thickness obscured the danger past them, providing a sense of protection and security, they seemed to stand guard against me leaving.

I paused near one of the brooding trees, watching as Judith marched past and into the thick forest. "Please, come back. I have to stop. I can't go past the trees."

Judith stopped. She pivoted on her heels, a look of confusion on her face. "Of course you can, Allison. If you're truly afraid of what he'll do, you'll do whatever you have to do to get the hell out of here."

"Please, I need your help," I begged, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes. "I can't leave Ethan."

"Ethan can leave too. You're not prisoners."

She was wrong. "He's staying to protect me. To protect us."

"What do you mean?" She narrowed her eyes.

"We can't go home. We have no home. No parents. No family. All we have is each other and this shack."

"No family at all? No one to take you in or help you out?"

"I have an uncle and cousin in Arizona, but the way my dad talked about him and his daughter, I don't think he would be any help."

"Why wouldn't anyone help you guys? I mean, if you think Owen is so dangerous, why not go to the police?"

I shook my head, trying to free my mind of horrid images. "We've done some bad things, Judith. Things we'll have a hard time explaining."

Judith eyes widened and she huffed, bellowing out a thick puff of steam. "Murder?"

I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out. "I—"

"Stay away from me!" She ordered, backing away.

"Judith, please."

She looked past my shoulder and the frightened look on her face increased tenfold. "No." She stumbled back. "No, no, no!" She screamed, turn, and ran through the trees.

I rotated to see Owen sprinting from the shack toward me. The anger in his eyes paralyzed me and my jaw dropped. For a split second, I debated following Judith but quickly decided to stand my ground and fight instead.

Arms pumping at his sides like an Olympic runner, he was several feet from me in no time. I stood before him, arms outstretched like a football player preparing for a strike, and strike he did. He rushed and firmly shoved in the center of my chest. I flew backwards through the air before sharply landing on my bottom in the snow. He continued to run by me and into the thick trees as I struggled to catch my breath from the swift blow.

Fighting to get an adequate breath, I collapsed back and stared up as the rustling branches and their leaves. My chest burned as I panted for air, allowing blackness to diminish my vision into a pinpoint view.

The rapid crunch of footsteps in the snow around me brought my focus back, and I looked up into chestnut colored eyes and a curtain of silky hair.

"Allison?" Ethan's warm palm caressed my cheek. "Hey, can you hear me?" His face hovered over mine and slowly lowered. For a minute, I thought he would pressed his lips to mine but they moved toward my ear instead. "I'm gonna kill him." His confident, eager tone awakened a fire within me. A fire I knew roared within him.

I looked back into his eyes and nodded. "Do it."

How do you hope they will get out of this? Also, what do you think of the new book cover? Thanks for everything, as always. :)