Songs to listen to while reading:
I Hate You, I Love You by Gnash [feat. Olivia O'Brien]
Feel the Light by Jennifer Lopez

"Only thirteen?" I whispered the words to myself, hardly daring to believe it, not wanting to believe it. "B-but ..."

    "There's no 'buts', Hayley," Wesley hastily interrupted me. "What's been done, is done. Auntie Steph's gone, and so are five other innocent people. We came after you because we know ... we have to save the others who are left."

    "You - you guys didn't believe me when I said there was a way out, though," I crinkled my brow in confusion. "What changed your minds?"

    "You did, Hayley," Daniel answered. "W-when you plunged down that hill, leaving absolutely everything behind, I had to stop and reconsider my actions. Why would you risk everything ... for nothing? You were right. We can get out of here. And we are going to."

    I stared at him and shook my head wonderingly. "I - I heard someone screaming when I left," I stuttered. "I - I thought the sheriff had killed you, Danny."

    "No," Daniel shook his head slowly. "He tried to kill me, but got one of his own men instead. He was furious and tried to track me down. He was intent on revenge. He wanted to execute me in front of the entire town. But when Wesley and Teyla heard about it, they decided we had to do what it took to survive. We fled to Mr Wang's and told him the entire story. From there, we all escaped during the night."

    "And Evangeline?" I questioned, my eyebrows raised. "Where does SHE come in?"

    "You needn't talk over me like I'm not here, Hayley, you're not better than me. I was the one who told Daniel he should escape," she trilled, slipping her arm through Daniel's and leaning in close to him. "He offered for me to come with him and since I had nothing left back in Precipitous, I did just that."

    I glowered at her. "Brilliant."

    "Yes, it is, isn't it?" she smiled sweetly; way too sweetly.

    I cringed and turned away, not being able to bear it. All this time, I had thought Daniel was seriously injured, even killed. I thought he had meant what he said, that he loved me. But obviously, it was just a cue to try and win me back. After all, he had Evangeline all over him now, so what more could he ask for?

    I stormed ahead of the others, trying to catch up with Mr Wang. "Hey!" I gasped out between pants. "How ... how did you know where I was going?"

    Mr Wang stiffened and continued walking, not saying a word.

    "Uh hello?" I waved my hands around. "I'm not invisible, am I? I asked you a question: how did you know where I was going?"

    Mr Wang glanced sideways at me, before rolling his eyes and turning away. "You're never going to shut-up about this, are you?"

    "Nope," I retorted. "I think I should know, though, don't you? I mean, isn't it weird that you were always trying to brush off the clues I brought to you as nothing? You were constantly worried though, I could see it in your eyes. You tried to sidetrack me many, many times, but you knew - you knew, what those clues really meant and where they would lead me, didn't you?"

    "Wow. You some detective, aren't you?" Mr Wang shot out sarcastically.

    "It's the only solution that makes sense," I huffed. "So ... are you going to tell me or am I going to have to figure it out for myself and keep on annoying you with my conspiracy theories?"

    Mr Wang glared at me. "You are a very hard person to say no to."

    "I know!" I responded with a shrug. "The only person who WOULDN'T agree with that AT ALL, is Auntie ..." my voice trailed off.

    Mr Wang's gaze softened. "I - I'm sorry. I know she was like a second mother to you."

    "Yeah," I muttered sadly, keeping my eyes fixated firmly on the ground. "She was. She was the only one who'd take me in after my parents died. She was the only one who treated me like her own daughter which included doing chores, being yelled at half the day, plus binge reading, pop-tart eating, all nighters, and horror-story telling ... I'm gonna miss that, a lot."

    Mr Wang opened his mouth to speak, presumably to say something smart, but he decided against it. Instead, he said, "Well ... yeah, I can see how you'd miss that."

    I nodded.

    "You know, I was already intent on leaving Precipitous ... even before you did," Mr Wang told me, trying to get my mind off of the subject at hand.

    I jerked my head up and stared at him. "Really?"

    "Yeah," Mr Wang confirmed.

    "Why?"

    Mr Wang hesitated before glancing sideways at me and letting out a deep sigh. "Well ... I - I, you ... I mean ..."

    I gaped at him. "The mighty Mr Wang ... at a loss for words? I don't believe it."

    Mr Wang groaned and rolled his eyes. "Shut the hell up, I'm trying to talk."

    "Go ahead."

    "Look, I know this is going to sound completely ludicrous, but ... but I might as well start from the beginning. Me and your mother ... we were childhood sweethearts."

    I stumbled back with a shocked gasp. "You were WHAT?"

    "Hayley, be quiet!" Mr Wang warned. "I'm only telling this to YOU for a reason," he jerked his thumb towards the others who were trailing behind us.

    I nodded and heaved a deep breath. "Yep. I know. Okay. I'm good now. Please, go on, you can't keep me hanging like that."

    Mr Wang shook his head, a sad demeanour encompassing him. "We - your mother and I - grew up together. We were very close, in fact, we were so close, everyone thought we would definitely end up dating each other, which we did ... for a while. But then your father came along and swept her off her feet. It broke my heart when I received the invitation to their wedding, but I got over it ... eventually. When you were born, I wanted to be close to you, but I was afraid - afraid that I couldn't control my emotions, so I stayed away. I shut out the world and stayed hidden up in my cottage. Barely anyone came to visit or talk to me ... until you showed up. I knew who you were, the minute I saw you. You bear a striking resemblance to your mother ... I almost thought it was her, at first."

    I smiled. "I'm glad you think I'm like her."

    "You are! She was a brave, good woman, Hayley. You followed in her footsteps. She would be proud of you. I - I'm sorry I didn't tell you this earlier, I just didn't want you to get hurt."

    "It - it's okay. I guess I wouldn't want to put anyone else in such a precarious situation either. But how did you know about ...?"

    "Oh, yes, yes ... I'm getting to that," Mr Wang hastily interrupted. "Look, I was the only person your mother felt she could trust with this secret. She didn't even tell your father about it. She was scared he would forbid her from carrying on with her work. She didn't want to stop it, it was too important to her. She and I worked on the project for months, however, your mother started to become alarmed at the numerous amount of invaders that were starting to swarm the countryside. She thought they were suspicious of our actions, so she decided to leave a trail of mysterious clues in her wake, in case anything happened to her."

    "And I found them," I murmured to myself.

    "Yes. You did. But there's one problem."

    "What's that?"

    "Your mother never finished what she started. The Eagle's Crest note that you found in that book you stole from the sheriff, the sheriff who was trying to destroy all the clues before they were discovered? That was the last clue she wrote. She was killed before she even left Precipitous."

    "She - she was planning to go? And leave me and Dad?" I choked out, horrified and surprised.

    "Yes. She thought her life was worth sacrificing so everyone else could get their shots at a second chance."

    "I - I don't understand," I shook my head, feeling numb all over. "Why didn't YOU die?"

    "Your mother became very secretive towards the end. When I approached her about it, she said she didn't want me to have any part in the plan anymore. She didn't want me to die. She wanted to protect me. I tried, really hard, to track down her latest movements, but she was too good. She completely covered her tracks. That's why I didn't know where to find the clues, otherwise I would've, long ago."

    I heaved a deep breath. "Do you think she was leaving them ... for me?"

    Mr Wang nodded. "I think she was. She always knew you were special, Hayley. And you are ... otherwise none of us would be here right now, trekking up this mountain."

    "You do know I nearly got us all killed?"

    "Yeah. Well, nobody's perfect."

    A look of surprise flashed across my face and a small chuckle escaped from my lips. "You're kidding."

    "Nope."

    "Wow. You're something else, Mr Wang, you're something else ... Hang on. If you left Precipitous before Auntie Steph died, how do you know that she - she ..." my voice rose a notch, a flicker of hope winding it's way around the words.

    Mr Wang shook his head, not wanting to crush the hope that was inside of me but knowing he had no other choice. "I don't think you know this, Hayley, but once you leave Precipitous, it's still possible to know who the Author has killed, even if you are no longer a part of the story."

    "What? Seriously? How?"

    "They're called name boards," Mr Wang shifted his bag across his shoulder and wrestled with something inside it.

    "What the heck is a name board?"

    "Here," Mr Wang finally succeeded in drawing out a large square length of wood from his bag. He handed it to me. A list of names were scrawled across it.

    "How does this work?"

    "Every time someone dies, their name appears on this name board," he explained. "It's probably how everyone else out here has kept track of us for so many years."

    I turned the 'name board' over so it was facing upwards. Sure enough, Auntie Steph's name, along with dozens of others, were in plain sight. My heart sank.

    Trying to push down the sadness I felt, I started to ramble, my mind buzzing. "How did you get this? And what others? You mean, there are more people out here besides Eunice and Reg?"

    Mr Wang frowned at me. "Firstly, I don't know who Eunice and Reg are. Secondly, of course there's more people out here, we haven't been the first ones to escape. And thirdly, I was given this by an old squatter. We stayed at his camp for our first night out in the forest and he kindly directed us here."

    "Ooohh," I nodded. "I'm beginning to understand ... sort've ..." With each question that Mr Wang answered, another and another popped up in my brain. I had never had any idea that my life was so complicated.

    I continued to pepper a weary Mr Wang with questions as we continued on up the mountainside. All that day and the next, we travelled, stomping through deep snow drifts, shivering in our covers at night, and being constantly thirsty and hungry.

    During this time, I kept on catching glimpses of Evangeline and Daniel all cozied up together and talking like they were old friends. It didn't make any sense. Daniel had told me multiple times that he couldn't stand Evangeline and I could see why: she wasn't his type, at all. A thought lingered in the back of my mind. I tried to push it away, but it kept returning. What if Daniel had cheated on me ... with her?

    I refused to even dwell on the subject. Daniel wouldn't do that. Not to me. He might be annoying and not understanding at times, but he wasn't nasty. He wouldn't pull such a low-down trick on me, would he? But as the hours ticked on and on, I began to feel less and less convinced.

    As night began to fall on the eve of the second day, I, once again, spotted a flash of grey on a distant knoll. The lone wolf! He had been trailing me this entire time!

    I bit my lip and remained silent. I didn't want to unnecessarily alarm anyone over nothing. He hadn't harmed me ... not yet. Who was to say that he would harm any of us at all? If these weren't his intentions, however, WHY was he still following us?

    The thought scarcely had time to run through my mind when Mr Wang suddenly flung his arm out in front of me, stopping me mid-stride. He lifted a finger to his lips and motioned for the others to keep quiet. Their soft chattering ceased. No one spoke. No one moved a muscle. No one dared to even breathe.

    A deathly silence filled the air, only to be broken by the sound of a small rock being dislodged. We all whirled around to face the snow drift banked up high on our left. Our eyes followed the rock as it cascaded down the drift to land with a small THUMP right in the middle of our path.

    Mr Wang snapped his head upwards, straining to see. "Something's up there," he hissed, waving for all of us to go on ahead. "C'mon, hurry it up."

    Before any of us had any time to react, however, a shower of snow fell down on us from the large drift that towered overheard.

    "Run!" Mr Wang yelled.

    Adrenaline pumping through our veins, we all spun around and raced after Mr Wang as he took off. Suddenly, he skidded to a stop, causing me to nearly bash right into him from behind.

    "Mr Wang! What the hell are you doing?" Daniel shouted as he neared us.

    I stood up on my tiptoes and peeked over Mr Wang's shoulder. My breath caught in my throat.

    A woman, girded with a scarlet mantle and a sharp gold-hilted sword, stood in front of us. Her feet were planted firmly across the path and her hands were sitting on her hips. Metal bracelets ran up one arm and a leather armband graced the other. Her waist-long hair was plaited into tiny braids that were pulled back from her face. A black leather strap was wound around her head. Her eyes shimmered blue and black.

    I knew; she was an invader.

    I gasped and stepped back, straight into Daniel.

    He grabbed my shoulders and held me close to himself, eyeing the woman with the greatest suspicion.

    "W-who are you?" Mr Wang demanded, obviously shocked at her sudden appearance.

    The woman raised her eyebrows as she replied sardonically, "Me? I'm the queen of the cove. Who are you?"

Gif: Hayley walks through the snow ahead of the others.

A/N: 800+ reads? Okay ik this is not a lot to many of you's but I'm sooooso excited about this!!! It's soo close to 1k, I'm screaming with delight!!! Tysm for that!!!! I love each and every one of my readers! Thank you for ur continual support, I really appreciate it. So do any of u's like how the mystery is developing? What do u think of Mr Wang's and Mrs Schultz's history? Why does the wolf keep following them? Who is the queen of the cove and why is she stopping Hayley and the others from reaching their destination? Pls leave ur opinions in the comments!! I love to hear from u guys!!! I'd really appreciate it if u could vote as well. Pls don't be a silent reader!!!! I love u all tho, so it's perfectly fine if u don't. Lol. Btw I've only a few more chapters left of this book!! I'm so excited that it's nearly done. It's come a long way and I couldn't have done it without you's. Tysm!! Enjoy the rest of ur day lovelies!! ❤️❤️

Word Count: 2,741