Outcast Villiage

She shook her head. "Alex might as well be, we've been close for long enough."

"I assume you have to stay very close while being hunted like this," Ephraim laughed sarcastically. "Every time we had to look for you, every time, a little part of me died inside knowing I might hurt you."

"Would you like to see her?" Evelyn asked.

"There's no time." Ephraim sounded broken. "I need to get you to Ranger, Ranger needs to take you to safety, and then they will start tracking me down. It's too dangerous otherwise..." he shuddered, as if trying not to cry or shout in anger.

She got him to look at her. "Then keep the locket." She told him, before she kissed his cheek. "Take me to Ranger."

Ephraim squeezed her hand with a broken expression, other hand squeezing around the locket.

She moved to take the locket from his hands, before she fastened it around his neck, the clothes he was wearing hid it from view.

"I hate this. But Ranger will tell you how to end it," Ephraim whispered, free hand now clenching, out of anger because of the situation.

"Then let's go."

Ephraim quietly led her through the forest, making pained faces at the shards of ice and burnt remains of trees. "Chiquita and Number Two came through here?"

"Yeah, Patience tried to freeze Moira and I and then Chiquita tried to torch us." Evelyn told him. "Ice only lasts so long." She pulled up her right sleeve revealing fresh burns.

"Carla doesn't know Patience's full potential. She can freeze blood in the heart, freeze moisture in your lungs...She let you off lightly, simply because Carla does not know what she can do." Ephraim moved to hover his fingers over her burn with a soft, upset expression twisting his face.

"That's why I said tried, it's Chiquita who got close." She put her sleeve back down.

"She's pushed harder than us since Carla's trying to force her into a contract. The only thing keeping her with us, is the device in her head, and the fact if she left, she'd die about a day after without the suppressants they supply. She'd burn right up."

"That's right....Death made that stop and now Carla's got control, Death's probably helpless." Evelyn told him. "If we get her out, remind me to get Xander close to her."

"Xander used to help, didn't he? I remember something about bribing Death with a candy shop in order for it to happen less to Chiquita, so Xander wouldn't exhaust himself." Ephraim laughed weakly but bitterly at the memory.

She gave a small smile at the memory. "Yep...Xander loved her and only her, he still does, I haven;t seen him until Ranger turned up..."

"We'll figure it out. Don't worry. As awful a person as Ranger is, when he has serious, powerful information, he normally isn't lying. He knows about the contract now, and he can fix it."

She nodded as they got to the apartment.

"Let me go first," Ephraim murmured. "In case there is more than Ranger upstairs."

She nodded.

Ephraim made his way into the apartment, posture defensive and then softly called down, "It's clear, Evelyn. We just have to check the rooms. Be careful of your footing, there's not much left of this place."

Evelyn nodded and she searched the rooms with him, watching where she stepped.

"I've got him," Ephraim called when he had found Ranger, and then his voice dropped into a soft murmur. He'd obviously found Clockwork as well, whose body had forced her into a stasis when she got too close to death. Ranger had stayed by her body regardless, as if keeping watch over her.

Evelyn soon found them.