**_Cordelia_**

_Three years earlier _

_“Floy, where are you going?” I stood in my brother’s bedroom doorway, watching him stuff a duffle bag._

_He turned to me, chocolatey eyes pained yet determined. “You’re leaving us, aren’t you? To run away with Annie?” Annith, or Annie, as we called her, was Floyd’s girlfriend. She and my brother really loved each other, and you didn’t even need eyes to see it. Floyd had just turned seventeen, and Annie wasn’t on his list. That meant that they could never be together, and it crushed them. _

_He walked over to me, got into his knees and put his hands on my shoulders. “Hey, I’m not leaving you. We’re only going to find a place that’s safe for us, then we’ll come back and get you guys.”_

_Tears welled in my eyes. “You promise? You’ll come back?” _

_He nodded, whipping my tears away. “I promise. Here.” He pulled his pendent over his head, fastening it onto my neck. “When I get back, you can give that to me. But until then, will you keep it safe for me?”_

_I nodded. “I keep it safe, I promise.” Then I hugged him tight, squeezing him as if I could keep him here with me forever. _

_He hugged me tightly back. “I love you, Cor. I’ll be back, I swear.”_

_“I love you too.” We hugged for a second longer, then he got up, grabbed his bag, and walked out his room and to the front door. _

_I watched him go. He hesitated for a second at the door knob, then opened it and walked into the night._

_——_

_Present day_

I woke with a start, my dream of that night still vivid in my mind. My fingers absently traced the strange symbol of Floyd’s pendant, which I always wore with me. I was still waiting for the day I could give it back to him.

It’d been three years, and Floyd and Annith, like the others who had tried to escape the lists ruling, hadn’t been heard from since they left.

Yesterdays conversation with Enya played in my head. _She wanted to run away with me._ But how could I? After what happened to Floy, I wasn’t risking it. But not leaving would mean I could never be with Enya.

I shoved the thoughts out of my head as I rolled out of bed and made my way downstairs.

My father was in the kitchen, making breakfast for the two of us. Sents wafted though my nose, coffee freshly brewed and waiting in a warm pot, eggs and sausage sizzling in a pan. I poured my self a cup of coffee and sat down.

“Morning, Corie.” Dad said as he turned around, greasy spatula in hand. I chuckled. He had on a bright pink apron with a big smiley face in the middle. It was his favorite apron.

“Morning.” He placed a plate of eggs and sausage before me, but stopped before walking away.

“You okay, hon? You look… distraught.” Concern filled his face, then realization. “This is about Enya, isn’t it? About her list?”

I nodded. The emotions I had tried to push down earlier resurfaced. He walked around the table and hugged me. “I’m so sorry, Corie. You two really liked each other.” Oh, we did. We loved each other, and my dad knew it. He tried to say things like, “I’m sure you’ll find someone else” to comfort me, but he didn’t even believe it himself.

“Dad, I…” I turned to look him in the eye. He waited patiently for me to continue, but I could bring myself to. After what happened to Floy and Annie, I couldn’t tell him the Enya wanted to do the same thing. I just couldn’t cause him that pain again.

“…should get to school.” I finished. Grabbing my school bag, and not bothering with much else, I turned for the door. “I’ll seen you when you’re home from work?”

He nodded, dropping the subject of my almost-confession, because he could tell I was holding something back. But he didn’t push. “I’ll see you then. Stay safe, I love you.”

“I love you too, Dad.” And with that I started the short walk to school, trying to ignore the similarities between the last words I had just spoken to my father and the last ones I spoke with my brother. Yet I couldn’t shake a feeling that my brother was whispering those words to me on the wind.