What Audrey called a “base” and what Eli simply thought to be another cave, is in actuality a rather run down, two-story building of brick and concrete. The place looks several decades old, and gives off a decrepit even from a supposedly safe distance. It is perhaps because of the uncertain nature of the structure that the place seems completely uninhabited, with not even the thin wire fence surrounding the small property being damaged aside from corrosion due to rust and rain. This squat building stands surrounded on all sides by imposing mountains of metal, yet the fact that it remains so perfectly preserved seems almost miraculous.

Audrey approaches the building, reaching out with a trembling hand to run her fingers around the lock of the fence. Her face is a mask of shadow, a plaster of indifference that Eli is incapable of seeing through clearly. With her blank eyes she looks at the rusted lock, the corroded edges brushing against her fingers, her skin whitening further as the metal presses against it. It’s a long moment. A still moment entirely separate from the outside world. Eli, the outsider he is, does nothing to interfere, understanding with certainty that this place holds a special meaning to his female companion. If he interrupts her, he’s certain without a shadow of doubt that their relationship will fall apart. It’s not an assumption concluded via logic, but rather one he realizes when witnessing the solemn nature of the girl. This isn’t something I can interrupt. And so, even though the surrounding streets become sparser and sparser, and the lights within the distant buildings blink away, Eli stays silent, until the moment eventually concludes without fanfare.

Without saying another word, Audrey removes the strange container from around her shoulder, letting it rest against the concrete with a solid thud. Without looking back at the peeping Eli, she uses her dexterous fingers to unzip the length of the object, and presses her thumb against the fake keyhole with experienced movements. With a click the case is opened, and within, Eli sees what looks to be a strangely shaped block of wood. The wood is smoothly polished and glistens in the light of the holographic advertisements, which project onto their surroundings with a gaudy allure. The silver strings attached to the wood glimmer like jewels, a quiet coldness emanating from the silent steel. With a straying gaze, Audrey brushes her hands against the length of the object, before reaching into a small compartment and withdrawing two keys. The metal is a muted gray, long missing its former gleam. Without saying another word, Audrey immediately zips the wooden tool back up, refusing to make eye contact with Eli as she stands from her squatting position and faces the gate.

With trembling hands Audrey reaches out with one of the keys and inserts it into the lock. Then, with a decisive click, the padlock flicks open, falling to the ground with a clatter. In a burst of internal restlessness, she pushes open the gate and steps inside. A terrible screaming fills the street, sending a rush down Eli’s spine. Audrey ignores the wail of the aged metal and presses onwards, leaving the gate hanging open as she walks to the door. As Eli follows her, he can’t help but wonder why this place needs to be sectioned off. From what he can tell, it seems to be a rather normal house, if a bit larger than most. It seems like the kind where multiple families would live together, packed together like rats in a nest. Since there’s seemingly nothing wrong with it, why does there be a fence here? Also, the fence seems newer, relatively, compared to the actual building. It was most likely built a significant amount of time after the house was built and lived in. Questions upon questions…

Stepping upwards, Audrey climbs atop the porch, which is little more than a slab of concrete and some railing. Suddenly, just as she reaches out to insert the next key, she freezes. Her hands are shaking, more fiercely than before. Eli sees this, and a lump forms in his throat. Though he is incapable of completely sympathizing with her, since he doesn’t know her story, he’s also felt that very same restlessness, the kind that eats away at you, a kind of creeping guilt that takes the form of fear. Eli racks his brain for something to say.

“... It’s okay if you want me to do it. I don’t mind.”

The trembling stops.

“... No… This is something I have to do… I haven’t been here in seven years, the memories are just catching up, is all…”

With that, she pushes the key into the lock, turning harder than necessary. The door, a rotting wooden thing with rusted hinges and blackened glass, pops open with a groan. Audrey stares wide eyed at the interior of the building, her eyes welling with tears as the memories flood back with a vengeance. Her voice shivers as she speaks, her breathless words carrying into the dilapidated house.

“I grew up here. There were originally three families here, but everyone else had moved away by the time I could form actual memories. There was a lot of gang activity back then, made it unsafe. Dad wanted to leave too, but he just couldn’t bear it…”

“...Why? What kept him?”

“...”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it. I understand.”

“...No, I might as well talk about it... My parents moved here right after getting married. Things were different back then, and the neighborhood was nice enough to raise a child in, apparently. I don’t really know, since the city changed quickly over the years, but I do know that my parents loved this place, my mom especially. That’s why… After Mom died, Dad just couldn’t stand the thought of abandoning this place. He saw leaving as a betrayal… And so, he ended up raising me here, alone. He tried to get me into school, but every school in the area ended up shutting down, and none of the prestigious academies wanted a poor little girl among their ranks. Dad ended up schooling me himself. He’d leave me here all day, work for the day until he could barely walk, then come home and teach me everything I needed to know to survive in the big bad world…”

Despite her best efforts, tears begin to stream down Audrey’s cheeks. Her voice cracks, and her words come out halted. Her eyes are wide as she stares into the darkness, gazing at the memories that have refused to fade despite the years of separation. Slowly she approaches the interior of the house, gazing into its depths with a familiar light in her eyes. Eli trails behind her, careful to step over any of the miscellaneous items that are scattered across the ground, be they pieces of the ceiling or tiles from the floor. He walks with an uneven pace, his eyes bouncing between the floor and Audrey, who continues to speak, clutching the strange case in her arms.

“Dad liked to play music. He’d always remember to play me a song before I went to sleep. Even when he was beyond tired, or his hands bled, he felt it was his duty as a father to wish his daughter good night. Not once did he ever forget to play me a song… And he only failed to do so once…”

“Why? What happened?”

“Someone was angry with him. I don’t know who, but my Dad made an enemy with someone with a lot of power in this city. I’m still unsure as to what it was my dad did, but I know that he’d never purposely make enemies, not when he needed to get back home every night to take care of me. Despite that, someone got very angry with him, and reported him to the authorities, saying he had plans to assassinate some bigwig or some other nonsense. It’s all bullshit, and the court knew that, but still they chose to lock him up anyway. Since I was still a child at the time, they threw me into an orphanage.”

Eli feels his heart quicken as he’s suddenly injected with a dose of anger. He’s unsure as to where exactly he got such energy from, but Audrey’s story has him fuming. He almost growls out his complaints, the annoyance and incredulousness obvious in his voice.

“What do you mean they locked him up anyways?! Who are they to punish an innocent man?!”

Audrey raises an eyebrow at Eli’s outburst, silently touched that he’s getting so upset for her sake. In the next instant, however, she lets out a sigh, and with a wave of her hand, dismisses the matter.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. Whoever made the accusations has long since vanished, and Dad will most likely rot away in prison until the day he dies. There’s nothing that can change that. It’s just the way things work.”

“What?! There has to be some way! It's impossible for there to be no way to free him!”

“Ha ha… I used to act like that. Back in the orphanage, I would go on tirades, claiming I’d become the world's best lawyer and free my dad… I ended up getting beat up a lot… Eventually I couldn’t stand it anymore, and ran away. I kept a copy of the keys and my old man’s guitar, and left with the clothes on my back. Sometimes, I think about how different my life would be if I had stayed. If I had shut up about freeing my dad… Whatever the case, the past is in the past, and now I must live like this.”

There’s a look of resignation plastered across Audrey’s face. A hollow, mature look ill suited to such a young girl. With a sign, she loosens the straps around her shoulders, dropping the bags she’s been carrying on her back. With another sigh, she tilts her head back, giving Eli a mirthless smile.

“You should go back -- to your home, I mean… There’s nothing worse than losing your place in this world.”

Eli, having been doused with the cold waters of reality, can only shake his head, his eyes gray slates of soberness. It’s a common, almost comfortable state of being for him. Living without hope, it’s almost second nature. Still, he can’t say he doesn’t know the consequences of his actions. Even if he’s just making his life more difficult by not going back, even if he’s throwing away all his years of hard work, what’s the point of going back when there’s no possibility of a happy future?

“... No, there’s nothing to go back to. I left, and it’s going to stay that way.”

“... Haaah, well if that's the case, then we'll need to earn enough money for the both of us. Our supplies won’t last forever. At least we can be grateful that we have shelter and warm clothes. There’s water dripping from that faucet, so I’m guessing someone got lazy and forgot to turn it off. We don't have electricity though.”

“Food huh? Any ideas?”

"I suppose so... I haven’t done it in a while though, so I’m probably a little rusty.”

Audrey chuckles silently to herself as she shakes her head. Her eyes stare at her childhood home, the place she's managed to avoid for so long. A humorless grin settles onto her lips. I won't tell you, Eli, since you've been so nice to me... But there's no escaping your past. She glances at her newfound friend, who's looking around with a curious expression. You can't run forever.