Treasure in a person, there's a price on their heart.

Burn it?

Skeppy walked past the market and looked at the stores at the end of the aisles. They sold fruit and bread. There was a real variety, something he wouldn't expect from the small town. He turned and decided to take a small detour. He walked through the market path and looked at all of the valuable and invaluable stuff they sold.

Then again, everything here might be considered valuable to them. The hand crafted lockets and necklaces made with rocks from the mountains hours away. Rings and utensils forged from whatever piece of metal they could find, from the river banks to the ores found in the ground. The chains that are carefully pinched together to make them connect, and the ropes that are twisted and braided together.

Everything that was sold was valuable and took a lot of time and effort to make. Skeppy still didn't know where Jane worked. After a few minutes of quickly looking at everything they sold, he turned back around and went in the preferred direction.

On his way, he encountered Paul. The vehicle stopped in front of him and he heard the driver's side door open. The kid on the passenger's side head was turned away from Skeppy, but he was sure that he had seen them before. Paul walked around the car and to the blue boy. Skeppy backed away when he was starting to get close but Paul put a hand on his shoulder. He smiled and leaned down to look at the boy in the eyes.

"Heya Skeppy! How are ya?" Paul asked.

"I've been good." Skeppy replied as he pushed Paul's hand off. Paul's smile fell slightly at the action. He straightened his back and crossed his arms.

"Well that's good. Where are you heading? I can give you a ride." Paul suggested as he pointed back to his truck.

"No thanks. I'm just going to the farm and I can walk." Skeppy said.

"The farm? Oh that's where we're going too." Paul said.

"Cool." Skeppy replied as he swung his leg across his body to start walking off.

"Come on Skeppy, it'll do ya no harm to hitch a ride with us." Paul argued.

"Stranger danger." Skeppy took his first few steps when that dreaded hand grabbed his forearm.

"Skeppy, I bet you don't like me as much as I don't like you. But you haven't seen your mom go crazy over you. She was running through the streets trying to explain what you looked like and asking every single person about your whereabouts. And even if none of us knew, she would bring her annoying ass around to our doors the next day." Paul said.

"And why do I care about that?" Skeppy asked.

"Because I don't want to hear that again. So your best option is to just get in." Paul said.

"So, what you're saying is that you don't want Jane to complain-"

"Don't call your mother 'Jane.'" Skeppy rolled his eyes.

"You don't want my mom to complain, so you're kidnapping me?" Skeppy asked.

"I'm not kidnapping you. I'm driving you to the farm so that you don't run away." Paul said.

"I'm not going to run away. Let go of me." Skeppy said as he tugged his arm a little. Paul didn't let go.

"You know, this isn't a matter of whether you're going to or not. We all need you here." Paul said, continuing his pity act. Skeppy tsked.

"You don't need me. Everyone here already gets enough money for themselves. No one needs," he paused for a second. There was one person who needed him. But he didn't want Paul to catch on to his weakness again.

"Me. Absolutely nobody in this village." Paul laughed and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"You know that isn't true. You would have already run off if that was the case." Skeppy shivered from the breath and Paul pulled away.

"So, let's be on our way now." Paul said. Skeppy nodded and walked with Paul to his truck. He opened the passenger door.

"Scoot over, Mega." Mega scooted to the middle seat, Skeppy didn't even know that these trucks had middle seats. He hopped in beside him and Paul closed the door.

"Hey, your name is Mega, right?" Skeppy asked. Mega nodded, still turned away from him.

"Are you the one that was in the truck when our parents were arguing?" Mega shrugged his shoulders. Skeppy dropped the questioning since he knew that Mega probably wasn't going to give him proper answers. Paul jumped in the car, closed the door and started up the engine.