Ephemeral

Destination Japan

The tunnels emptied out to a small deserted large tunnel. I ran my hand against the concrete and pulled it away slowly to reveal a layer of dirt and dust that was now on my skin. Looking at the grime, I couldn't help but feel more human. At the mansion I was never allowed to look less than pristine. I wasn't even allowed to go outside and so something as trivial as getting dirt on me seemed like a delicacy.

It seemed like every day that I was in the mansion I was losing myself – I was becoming more Vienna.

I was less like myself, and I was starting to not even think about escaping had Xavier never brought up the opportunity. Aidan was right, after my last escape attempt I didn't even question about escaping. It was scary how he had conditioned me to obey him, and I was sure that I wouldn't be in this situation had he never left on his business trip.

"Vienna?"

"Ari..." I muttered back, looking over at Ryan. He seemed taken aback by what I had said. I let out a small frown. "Vienna is the name that...that he called me," I took in a deep breath. Bracing myself to say the name that I had disowned for the past two weeks. "My real name is Arianna Hopkins."

Hunter let out a small gasp. "You were on the news-!" I looked at the ground. "You were..." Hunter's voice began to get quieter. "Found in a lake."

Ryan raised an eyebrow while stepping towards me. I flicked my eyes over to him. "That's what you meant about being legally dead..." He muttered out in thought. I looked down at the ground. I took the opportunity to wipe away the grime on my hand by rubbing my hands together nervously. "But, we'll think of something..." He trailed. "You said that your sister and a few others managed to escape already?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I breathed out, knowing that it was only a couple of months ago. It seemed like forever since I had seen my sister. It was even longer since I had seen my father, or my hometown. I raised my head up to look at Ryan. "I was never told if they'd made it back home."

"Well, hopefully the government knows about the fuck shit that's been going on here." Jack spoke, letting out a shrug. He crossed his arms tightly, and I could practically see the fear in his eyes. I knew that everyone in the group was scared. "What should we do now?"

"The goal hasn't changed," Ryan announced. "We locate the embassy, but we should probably stick to the forests and backroads if possible." We all took this chance to look around the area. The tunnel was located in a large ditch, and there were dense trees surrounding us. It seemed like we were in some kind of forest, but I wasn't familiar with Japan at all. "We need to figure out where we are and go to..." He trailed, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Tokyo? Is that where the embassy is?"

I was silent as I rested my hand on my opposite arm. "Sticking to the shadows and not causing any problems..." I looked at each individual in the sunlight to find that most of their injuries were just scrapes. The bruising on everyone would go away with time – there wasn't a significant injury to be concerned about. "I'll follow you, Ryan." I looked over at the black haired teen.

"Uh, okay..." Ryan looked down with a blush creeping across his face. He turned around before anyone else could see it. "Let's head out. Sean, make sure to stay close and not wander around," he took a step forward and looked behind at the rest of us. "That's goes for everyone. Stay close." I nodded, and followed his steps.

...

...

I managed to duck underneath a large tree branch just as Jack glanced over at me. "Yeah?" I let out a small huff. The mountains were no joke, and the fact that I wasn't wearing tennis shoes was definitely a downside, too. Xavier had practically sprung the game idea on me last minute – and I wasn't going to say no.