Lily's whole body tensed in an instant, her eyes practically popping out of her skull.

"Wha- what do you mean she's out?" She asked, eyeing me with a mixture of panic and hope, waiting for me to tell her that I was just kidding around. But I wasn't. I wouldn't joke about these sorts of things, not ever.

"I heard your folks talking about it last night." I replied, taking yet another long drag, recounting the conversation I was not supposed to have heard. "Said it was on the news, she was given parole early. They're making sure the restraining order is still in place as we speak."

"And that's supposed to do something?" She asked, her voice grew louder and higher in pitch, "That's supposed to make me feel better or keep her away or whatever? Come on, Em, you of all people would know-"

"-Know what? That a piece of paper ain't gonna do shit to stop her if she chooses to come after us? Yeah, Lily, I know." My tone was sharper than I intended, and I half expected her to flinch or pull away from me, but she got closer instead, burying her face into my shoulder.

"I'm scared, Em..."

I didn't answer, just wrapped an arm around her pale body and held her close to me, squeezing her reassuringly.

The world around us continued in a haze of autumn sunshine, laughter and noise as we sat silently, two lost, irreparable souls, alone in our plight, the two of us against the world that could never understand- or at the very least a monster in a person's clothing.

"We'll be okay, Kid... I promise... Whatever happens, we have each other, just like always. I mean look at us... We are survivors, Lils, I protected you, and you saved me. She can't hurt us, not anymore."

She didn't answer for a long while, I watched her, wanting nothing more than to wipe that look off her face and make her smile, but that's wistful speaking. No human could be happy after the news I had given. When she did speak, her voice had a noticeable quiver in it.

"I can't go back in that basement, Em" she whispered, watching the park across the road, her eyes wide and had a far-away look to them, "I can't."

My heart sank. I opened my mouth ready to offer her some hollow reassurances, to lull her into a sense of safety that I myself didn't feel and could not promise, but a familiar silver minivan came rolling past us into the car park. I quickly snuffed my cigarette onto the side of the bin and tossed it before the drivers could see, standing up with my arm still wrapped around Lily.

Lily stood too, a look of pure relief flooding her features as she hurried to the vehicle, leaving me to scurry to catch up to her.

"Hey girls!" The gratingly cheerful voice of Claire Baker, Lily's mum, my adoptive mother- on paper only- sounded out as soon as we opened the back door, each of us sliding into our usual seats- Lily on the left and me in the middle seat. It was small and uncomfortable, but the ability to reach and protect Lily made it worth it for me. "How was it?"

I offered her a dismissive grumble, clicking my seatbelt into place and scooting even closer to Lily. I could see the resigned look in her blue eyes from where she looked at me in the rear-view mirror. She'd long given up on trying to bond with me, I'd made it quite clear from the start that I tolerate their presence for Lily's sake, but I'm only here because Lily and the government said so, not because I had any interest in playing house.

Beside her, Martin, Lily's dad, sat in the passenger seat, his greyish blue eyes meeting his wifes' for a moment. She simply shook her head wordlessly, her short, light brown bob shifting from side to side with the movement, and began to pull out of the parking space.

I held Lily close to me and looked out of her window, my eyes scanning the world as it passed. I spared a glance at the gated, brick structure of Ashcroft Secondary School, our school, as we passed it. Lily and I were in year 11, meaning we would be graduating next June, then it would be off to college. I hadn't given it a single thought, wherever Lily is going, I'll go, even if I have to scrape by with my less than stellar predicted results... If we get the chance to graduate, that is. With Vanessa supposedly roaming free, there was a solid 50/50 chance, though I wasn't certain I liked my odds.

"So," Martin began awkwardly, trying to fill the silence, "Carbonara for dinner tonight?"

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"Sure, Dad, sounds good." Lily responded flatly, her already quiet voice muffled further by the way she had her face pressed into my shoulder. I nodded too, not really bothered. I'm not a picky eater, I'll eat anything put Infront of me- literally.

One time, when I was about five or six, Vanessa had remembered she actually needs to feed the captive child in her basement and offered me some stale, mouldy fruitcake she had sitting out. In her drunken stupor, I doubt she thought I would actually eat it, she just wanted to be cruel, but I did. I ate the entire thing without even bothering to eat around the mould. I was sick for a good day or two after that, not that she gave a shit, I was just left to sit on my own and breath in the smell of my own puke until she gave me the supplies to clean it.

"Emily?" Claire's voice cut through my thoughts, bringing me back to the present.

"Yeah, what?" I asked, gently taking Lily's outstretched hand, trying not to dwell on my memories.

"Are you okay, sweetheart? You were staring into space."

I scoffed quietly, stroking Lily's hair, not entirely sure if it was for her comfort or my own. "I'm fine, just piss off, Claire."

The rest of the car ride home was relatively silent and the air felt thick with unspoken words. Lily wrapped her leg around mine and kept her head on my shoulder and her hand in mine, occasionally offering a small but curt and uninterested response when her parents tried to engage her in conversation. Lily wasn't like me; she knew life before Vanessa, she grew up with these people. She had felt love, felt safety, been able to grow up in an environment where dodging flying bottles and appeasing a demon just to survive wasn't even a thought in her head up until she was ten and a half.

She is capable of trust, capable of seeing adults as more than sources of pain and fear. She loves her parents- but she's angry at them. She didn't have to say it, I could feel it, and I knew why. She was having the exact same thoughts I was- why were they acting like nothing's wrong? Why aren't they telling us about Vanessa? If I hadn't heard them talking last night, Lily and I would be completely oblivious to the knowledge she was out- ignorant to the inherent danger of the situation we are now in. We should be the first people to know, not the last.

As soon as the car parked, Lily opened the door and shot straight out, practically dragging me with her, knuckles turning white from how hard she was gripping to my hand as she made a beeline for the house. Without a word, I grabbed my key out of my pocket and handed it to her so she didn't have to waste time fumbling around in her bag for her own.

She wasted no time in unlocking the navy-coloured door, closing it in her parents' face and pulling me into our shared bedroom. The house had three bedrooms, and before I had showed up, Lily had the bedroom to herself while Claire had been using the third room as an office. After Lily and I were rescued and they adopted me, she had offered to turn the office back into a bedroom so I could have my own space, but I had turned them down. I spent seven years alone, when Lily eventually got taken, those eight months we spent together, huddled up under that thin, dirty, moth-eaten blanket in each other's arms were the first time in my known life that I had felt a sense of stability, no matter how fleeting, and I was in no hurry to lose that. So, we shared the space.

The room was roughly about 3.5 X 2.9 meters squared, with three of the walls being a plain white while the wall the head rests of our beds pressed against was a light pink colour with some gold flakes dotted around randomly (Lily's choice). We each had our own beds, mine on the left, Lily's on the right, though we only ever slept in my bed, it was just routine for both of us at this point, besides, Lily's bed had so many teddies on it that I doubted she would even be able to fit on her own bed. There a lamp on each of the painted black bedside tables. On my side of the room, next to the door, were our wardrobes, both pink with black doors, and a mirror on one of the two doors on my wardrobe, and a fluffy white circular rug in the centre of the room.

Lily dropped my hand and perched on the edge of her bed, brushing out her long hair with her fingers like she did when we were kids, her breathing abnormally heavy.

I sighed and sat down beside her, offering her a small smile as I put my hand on her knee. "You wanna talk about it?" I asked, already knowing her answer.

"I don't understand." She started, her fingers fiddling with a crease in the sheets below us. "They're pretending nothing's wrong... How can they just act like everything's normal?"

"They're scared, Kid." I replied softly.

She rolled her eyes, turning her head away from me with a scoff of her own. "Right, because they were the ones who got abducted."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"Sorry, I just- I- ugh! I don't even know what I am right now!" She exclaimed, her head falling into her hands. "We have a right to know, Emily."

"I get it, Kid, I really do... But don't let it tear you apart. They'll tell us eventually- and even if they don't, what does it matter? We already know anyway so it's not like it makes a difference. Besides, it's my job to keep you safe, not theirs, they've already proven that they couldn't do that six years ago, if they could, we never would've met. Vanessa won't find us, and we won't let her get to us, okay? We aren't little kids anymore, we'll protect each other, yeah?"

A hesitant smile spread across her face, her eyes meeting mine. "Yeah." She agreed, and I couldn't help but reach out to ruffle her hair, making her squirm and laugh, swatting me away with a grin. "Stop! You're messing up my hair!"

I laughed along with her and pulled away, the sound of her parents coming into the house barely registering to me in the moment. I'll deal with them later, for now, I have my best friend happily by my side, and there is nothing in the universe more important than that. "We'll be fine, Kid," I said after a moment, "It's just me and you against the world, but we have each other, and that's all I'll ever need."