“Ready to go?” Jake asked, glancing over toward Alice as the two lay reclined, resting in the comforting embrace of the mushroom. The sky above still lay barren and dark, not a star to be seen twinkling above. The two had sat awake for a while, circling the drains of conversation as they awaited the first signs of daylight that would signal their departure.

  “Ready as ever, I guess,” Alice said as she pulled herself free from the mushroom's comforting embrace. A small indent left behind her carved into the mushroom's surface where she’d been resting. Crawling over to sit beside Jake she glanced up at the sky above. Still dim and grey, she guessed they still had some time to kill before morning.

  “Hey Alice…” Jake said next to her, voice quiet and uncertain.

  “Yeah?”

  “Sorry again… about getting your hopes up about the book I mean. I’m sure we can find something else but still…”

  “Would you quit bringing that up,” Alice said, shoving Jake's shoulder with a slight chuckle, “It’s like you said we’ll find something else right? Besides, I’m not magic I’m cursed remember? Of course that book wouldn’t work, it was silly to think we could find everything we need the first place we checked!”

  “Ok, ok whatever you say then. We’ll find something all about curses next time then.” Jake said with a slight nod, though he found himself unable to meet Alice’s gaze. Guilt hung heavily on his heart as he remembered her reaction to the book’s failure, her utter despair in the face of her impending demise. He’d save her… he’d have to.

  “What does your curse feel like exactly?”

  “It’s… hard to put into words really. Hard to describe to someone who’s never felt it before. I’m sorry but I don’t know if you could ever really get it Jake, not fully. I just knew, looking through those pictures and hearing those descriptions, that what the book was talking about was different. Similar probably, but fundamentally different. They talked about magic like a fluid, flowing like blood in the body. When I can feel it, my curse… pulses. It’s almost rhythmic.”

  “Rhythmic…” Jake said quietly, falling deep into thought before reaching behind him for the pair's rather run-down bag. The journey so far had been rather rough on the patchwork backpack. By now it had developed several holes and tears of various sizes. Still, it was managing to do its job well enough and after digging through the pack's contents for a bit Jake remerged with a triumphant smile and a small clay tube clutched in his hands.

  “Could this help?” He asked, tossing the small flute over towards Alice. She caught the flute with surprise, turning the rough, scratched flute over in her hands before looking up at Jake clearly confused.

  “How would this help?”

  “Well, you said it was rhythmic right? Maybe playing that could help you somehow?” Jake said, voice faltering now as he began to feel more and more foolish in response to her question. Silence rang out between the two for a while, before Alice let out a simple,

  “Hmm,” and with a light shrug brought the flute up to her lips, beginning to play a random melody. It was choppy and rough as she had little clue as to how to properly play the crude instrument in her hands, yet still, it felt comforting to her. The random assortment of notes she played seemed to soothe her soul. They completed a piece of her she didn’t even know was missing.

  Yet as she stopped playing, pulling the flute free from her mouth she realized just how empty she felt. It was as if she had just been made aware of a gaping wound in her very being, a wound she’d been able to ignore thus far because she didn’t know it existed. Now she knew of its existence, scratched some unseen itch, her entire being seemed to vibrate with longing. Longing the flute she held couldn’t provide.

  “Sorry…” She said, tossing the instrument back to Jake her head hung low lost in thought.

  “It’s alright,” Jake said, catching the flute and pocketing it, “Just thought maybe it could help.”

  “No, it helped. I definitely felt… something. But my curse didn’t react, at least it didn’t react very strongly.”

  “Hmm, maybe a different instrument then? We’ll have to see if we can find something else.” Truthfully, Jake was shocked to hear the flute had any effect at all, he’d been grasping at random straws. But if the curse was really rhythmic in nature, really had responded to the flute, this was excellent news. It gave the two a clue.

  “Yeah, you hold onto it,” Alice said, glancing over toward Jake with a small smirk before leaning back again, allowing herself to sink once more into the mushroom's embrace. It was taking the sun far longer to rise than either was expecting, though she could see a few pinpricks of purple as the early morning light lit up the dawn. “You hold onto it. You can entertain me with it.”

  “What? Why would I do that?”

  “I don’t know, you know more about music than me. Go ahead, play us a tune Greenday.”

  “First of all, don’t call me that…” Jake began, annoyance clear in his tone as he watched Alice roll over atop the mushroom to smirk at him.

  “What’s the matter? Don’t you like your nickname? Fine, I’ll abbreviate it to Greenie, is that better? Now play us a tune Greenie!”

  “I’m not going to…”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Well, what else do you have to do?” she asked in a drawn-out exaggerated tone. Jake sat for a minute stewing in his obvious annoyance, all the while Alice sat smirking struggling not to laugh. Finally, after a while, Jake sighed with reluctance.

  “If I play the stupid flute, will you stop calling me that?”

  “I make no promises Greenie, but it won’t hurt your chances!”

  “Then your wishes are my command, oh Blessed One,” Jake said, glancing over at her expecting to see her grimace with annoyance at the mention of the name christened to her by the elves. Instead, she just seemed to be staring at him an expectant look in her eyes, smirk unbroken. Sighing deeply, Jake finally prepared to capitulate and just give her what she wanted yet as he raised the flute to his lips, ready to play some random awful melody, he stopped as he caught sight of more and more flashes of light breaking through the horizon. The morning sun had come. Pocketing the flute, he offered Alice his hand.

  “Looks like that’ll have to wait,” Jake said, smirking as Alice took hold of his hand. The two stood atop the mushroom a moment or two longer, slightly unbalanced as their weight sank into fungal flesh, till at last with the rise of the sun they fell into their next destination. Their landing was anything but graceful, off balance from the texture of the mushroom they failed to properly land and collapsed hard on paved stone, ending up on top of each other in a heap.

  Untangling themselves and standing up, the duo found themselves standing in the middle of a bustling marketplace. All around them people wearing crude fabrics and leather cloaks pushed past eager to force themselves to the front of wooden popup stalls, roadside carts, and permanent brick-and-mortar storefronts. Jake blinked a few times in surprise. It had been a while since the last time he’d stood face-to-face with anyone other than Alice, so he wasn’t quite sure how to react. Alice for her part desperately retreated deep into her tattered cloak, doing everything in her power to hide her cracked and crumbling flesh.

  The two attracted little attention from passersby. There were already plenty of people milling about dressed in tattered cloaks and carrying strange bags that the two new arrivals did little to attract attention. Even their sudden appearance failed to garner much attention, as those who had noticed it failed to keep tabs on them long enough to stop them from blending into the packed crowd of shoppers. Some sense returning to him, Jake looked around a bit with wonder in his eyes as he took in the various stalls and shops scattered around him.

  “This is perfect! We needed to resupply…” He said as he reached out to grab hold of Alice so the two wouldn’t be separated in the crowd, only to find her flinching and retreating away from him.

  “Alice?” Alice peeked at him from under the cloak, fear evident on her face.

  “Sorry…” She said, voice quiet and uncertain “I didn’t mean to flinch like that, force of habit. I just… wasn’t expecting so many Unbroken all at once, it took me by surprise is all. Can you give me a minute?”

  “Sure, no problem…” Jake replied, looking around slightly concerned as he realized the longer they stood unmoving in the middle of the path the more a roadblock they became and the more annoyed the passersby around them were becoming. “Let’s step over here for a moment, ok?”

  Alice gave no arguments, seemingly lost in thought, allowing herself to be led to the side. They came to rest and a small alley on the side of the bustling road, hidden from view. Once out of sight, Alice pulled her cloak from her face as she struggled to breathe, chest tightening more and more. She felt dizzy like she was going to puke. She’d never felt like this before. She thought she could control her fear, she'd had to confront and master it every time she ventured out of the district to the market.

  But now... it all seemed so much more real. Thrust into the sea of Unbroken, the memories of Betsy clouded her mind. The feelings of the guard’s batons breaking her skin seared her flesh. Now she’d tasted freedom, true absolute freedom, she couldn’t go back. Couldn’t face the guards again, couldn’t confront Betsy again. She refused to do it. She wouldn’t do it, no matter what. She needed a way out, an escape. But where. How? How? Ho...

  “ice… ALICE!” Alice blinked suddenly looking up from the floor, her mind drawn back to reality as Jake repeatedly shouted her name. Unsure what to say she simply stood and stared, struggling to breathe as tears filled her eyes. Still though, even as she focused on Jake her mind raced a mile a minute trying to form escape routes and strategies she could use to sneak away from the bustling group of Unbroken that crowded around her.

  “Alice, listen to me, they aren’t Unbroken. They’re just people, people like me…” Jake said as he held up his arm, uncracked and uncrumpled. “They aren’t the Unbroken, we left the Unbroken behind remember. They can never reach us, never reach you again. You're safe, I promise you. You're safe...”

  He held her by the shoulders, struggling to think of what could reassure her. He’d heard her muttering ever since they’d gotten into the alleyway, watched her struggle to calm herself down. He didn’t know what more he could do to calm her yet watching her like this, struggling through a panic attack, he knew he had to try.

  “YOU… YOU DON’T KNOW THAT!” Alice screamed back in response after a long while, struggling to find the words. “YOU DON’T KNOW THAT! I’M CURSED, BROKEN! SOON AS THEY SEE ME THEY’LL…”

  “Alice…” Jake said softly, shaking her slightly by the shoulders “If you look out there, I guarantee you you’ll find dozens upon dozens of people covered in scars. I’ll admit they don’t come close to yours, yours are much cooler…” Jake flashed her a smile, “But no one here has ever heard of the Broken or Unbroken. I promise you.”

  “But…”

  “Worse comes to worse, we still have the revolver, right? But I promise you, we won’t need it, you’ll be alright.”

  Alice stood still now, unmoving and unspeaking, simply trembling as she struggled to regain her breath, phantom pain surging across her back. She could still feel the voice’s guards beating her down, see the batons of the unbroken sparkle and drip with her blood. She tried to heed Jake’s words, tried to calm herself down, yet her body seemed unresponsive to the idea as it only grew more and more agitated with each passing second.

  “Please I just…” She finally said, trembling, struggling to stand. Nothing more needed to be said as Jake released her shoulders, and helped her to the ground where she curled up head pressed tight to her knees. She could hear Jake stand above her, hear his nervous breathing. Feel his presence as he kept watch above her, her own personal protector.

  Slowly, curled up into herself she managed to calm down. How long she stayed like this she couldn’t say, but as time stretched on she found herself repeating just one thought over and over. The reassurance given by Jake, ‘There Just People’. With a sigh, she pulled her head free from her knees to find Jake unmoved, watching her with a look of concern across his face.

  “I’m… I’m ok now…” She said after a while, yet still sat unmoving. Even if her head had calmed down, and accepted the logical difference between those who surrounded her and the Unbroken, her body still seemed unwilling to move, unwilling to act. Suddenly, a hand appeared before her, and glancing up she saw Jake watching her, eyes uncertain as he extended his hand out to help her up. With a slight laugh, she grasped hold of his hand and allowed herself to be pulled back up to her feet again.

  “Thanks Greenie… Thanks Jake…”