I followed the road as closely as I dared. The darkness made the wooded areas pitch black and dangerous. It was going to be a long night, I knew, and anxiously kept an eye on my phone.

Henry didn't try to follow me or anything, but I could feel his eyes on me until I turned onto the main road and his view was obstructed by trees.

From there it was just walking. I knew the way to the camp’s general vicinity and once I got closer I'd recognize how to find it exactly. I'd been driven in and out of the place so many times, and walked out when I was older and more trustworthy. I'd walked back in almost as many times, feeling the prison gates closing around me even if I had broken in and out of more secure places.

Voluntarily going back felt strange. Maybe even stranger was the effort I was exerting just to get there. My weight had risen, but I was now getting the sense that I lost muscle mass when I wasn't fighting tooth and nail for everything. I didn't know how that would affect me later on but it wasn't going to do any good to worry about it. I simply had to get there, and when that was done, I'd worry about what was next. Just one thing at a time.

The sky was still pitch black as I reached the edge of a suburb and still when I finished crossing it to find that patch of woods before the city.

This was where I turned off the main road and followed a poorly defined dirt path. It was easy to miss and immensely unappealing to drive on as large rocks and branches littered the ground throughout. I stepped over one that had quite a few grooves and scrapes on it from the unfortunate vehicle underbellies that had been forced over it.

My pulse was starting to quicken as the familiar smells and sounds of these woods started to sink in. My hair stood up as every instinct I had told me to run in the opposite direction as fast and as far as I could.

But I wouldn't be doing that. My life was not interchangeable for another, I decided, which meant Mia’s life wasn't interchangeable for mine. Together, we had a chance to both survive. Separate, those chances were far slimmer.

I stopped as the fence came into view and I shouldered my bag, setting it along the road. The only things I took was the knife and my phone, putting the latter under my bra strap where it would be discrete, but still recording my location. If I was about to die, I was going to expose this place. It was the least I could do to atone for all of the people I had personally harmed.

I turned back to the fence and approached, spying some eyes glistening in the dark, watching as I came closer.

I waited at the gate, silently counting my breaths, not knowing which would be my last. There was no guarantee I'd even get to see Mia before I died.

That was a sad thought. Maybe worse was knowing she would see me.

I shook my head and steeled myself as there were footsteps in the dark. Those same dark eyes came closer and a figure split away from the shadows to approach the opposite side of the gate.

Hermes, I recognized, with a new bend in his nose that hadn't been there the last time I saw him.

He was wary of me, and eyed the knife in my hand but made no move to stop me or try to take it. Instead, he yanked the padlock open and let the gate swing inward, allowing me entry.

It had been a while since I walked through this gate. Hermes continued his uneasy stare as I passed by him, then closed the gate behind me. I heard the lock turn and the tinkle of the key on it's chain before Hermes’ footsteps followed behind me.

It took everything in me to not stop and turn around, to ensure he wasn't directly behind me, poised to strike as soon as my guard was down. I held back. I knew it was stupid. I was stupid. Or maybe just a fool for thinking I could've ever done any good in this world, but I was still going to try.

The camp’s yard wasn't particularly large. It was fenced in on all sides and protected with razor wire I was familiar with being a nasty obstacle to overcome. There was even a large lancing scar on my inner thigh from my tangle with it, not that the director knew that was how I'd gotten hurt but it had been a brutal lesson for the young Athena.

Other than the fence, the yard was mostly unkempt grass with some cleared patches where we had made fires to cook wild food at times, if varmint got inside the perimeter. There were a few other patches which had been where we lounged when the weather was nice and we were allowed outside. Those two things hadn’t overlapped very often but it did happen and it made the best days here possible.

I shuddered and focused on the path ahead of me. The dirt trail was packed down in a gently curving line from the gate to the door. An old pickup was also backed into a set of well defined tread marks and parked over a bald patch in the grass.

I followed the path, feeling the familiar dips and potholes under my sneakers and finally reached the bolted door.

Hermes came to a stop behind me and we waited in silence.

A long moment after the loud scrape of a bolt came from within and the door opened.

I met eyes with the next contractor, an older boy who would probably be getting sold off to the mob soon. He was a black shadow against the dim light that came from behind him, his face a hard scowl as he waited for me to take the few steps inside.

Then he shut the door and turned the key once again to lock it once more.

I was now properly back in the camp and as ready as I could be to face who I was.

AN: Yes,I'm finally back and I know this is a shorter chapter, but I misjudged my pacing and didn't want to make people read 2-3k words of Taylor walking to the camp. There is only so much introspection she can do before it becomes super repetitive. 

Alas: thank you for reading, and I should be getting back to routine updates and the like.