Chapter 2
        
         The twins woke the next morning to find it warm, sunny, and almost 9:00.
         “Come on, let’s go, let’s go!” Darisey yelled. “The sooner we get out of this damned 
forest the better!” The curse she uttered was true for that forest, as well as all the others in Hoen. 
The trees were dead or sick, the moss was unhealthy, only the water was clean. And that was 
only because it was near the ocean. 
        “We’re almost to the shore! The boat’s leaving in twenty minutes, we are too close, we 
can’t mess up now!” Mittens replied. Darisey looked back into the forest. She hated Hoen, the 
cars, the noise, the cities, she longed for Kanto, her true home. As she stared, the girl realized 
she was leaving the nasty, uncomfortable part of her behind. Darisey turned back to her sister to 
see a tear trickling down her cheek. 
        “You can’t be telling me you’re sad to leave this pile of junk, can you?” Darisey thought 
Mittens hated Hoen. She sniffed loudly. “Don’t you see? We’re going to have to cross the river. 
The port is on the opposite side. We’ll get wet if we swim, there’s no bridge, and what can we 
do?” Darisey thought for a moment. 
        “We have to get wet anyways.” 
        “Wha?!” 
        Darisey nodded firmly. “We don’t have tickets, so we’ll have to sneak on board. And if 
we’re wet already, it’ll just add to my perfect plan,” She looked on past the river and could see a 
few people boarding the small ship heading out to sea. “We’ll jump in near the dock and swim to 
the boat. The railing is low in the back,” she pointed, “so it wouldn’t be impossible-“ 
        “To suspect we’d fallen overboard! Of course! We’ll grab onto those ropes hanging down 
in the back-“
         “And when the boat’s a bit farther out to sea, we start shouting and let go! Someone will 
pull us up!” Mittens grinned. “They’ll never suspect it!”
“Exactly, Myst, exactly…” Darisey muttered as she took off her flip flops and shoved them into her 
bag. She knew that life was going to be different in Kanto. She’d find her last living relatives (if 
they were still living) and have a home. She would learn about the mysterious powers that 
haunted her and her sister. She wouldn’t have to go from graveyard shift to graveyard shift and 
make the minimum hourly wage, just to stay alive. As she stood at the riverbank looking out at the 
boat to freedom, she thought about her life. Her capris and tank top were old and faded. She 
looked healthy, but on the inside she was dying. Darisey wanted out. 	“Dari?” Mittens asked 
her sister. She knew that Dari was thinking hard. The pair of them did a lot of thinking. Darisey 
jumped into the river in reply. Mittens grinned and followed. She loved her twin’s randomness. It 
was something that made her stick out of the crowd. That and her obnoxious way of doing things. 
Darisey hated taking orders from anyone, except, of course, Mittens herself. Mittens respected 
her sister in that way. 
        “Ok,” Darisey shouted, trying not to swallow water. “Follow me!” She ran up onto the 
other bank, put her flip flops back on and ran down to the shore, ducking behind the small shrubs 
in her way. Mittens followed silently. They couldn’t be seen. Darisey and Mittens snuck up under 
the dock and waded into the water lapping up against the boat’s hull. Darisey mouthed for her 
sister to follow her. A few ropes hung down low enough for them to grab onto. They pulled 
themselves up into a sitting position on what rope was hanging down. Suddenly the boat began to 
move, making a rumbling sound. 
        “So we’re off,” Darisey said, not bothering to keep her voice down.
        “How long should we wait? I don’t want to be down here too much longer…” Mittens 
winced. The ropes were cutting into them.
        “A bit longer,” Darisey said through gritted teeth.
        “Ok…”
        “Now!”
        The two sisters splashed as loudly as they could while lowering themselves into the water 
entirely. As planned, a man leaned over the side and saw them screaming.
        “Someone! Help! Two girls are overboard!” He appeared leaning over the side again a 
moment later, this time accompanied by a few more people and a sailor, ho began to pull the 
ropes up.
        “Hold on, you two!”
        Their plan worked. The twins found themselves on board a ship to freedom. While the 
sailor ushered them into a bunk room, covered in towels, Mittens couldn’t help winking at her 
sister. Once he had left, the two girls erupted into a fit of giggles.
        “We’re going to Kanto!” Darisey whispered, and the two laughed some more.
        
        
        
        That’s part two! I’m sorry to say that the co-author has left this story up to me, so I don’t 
know how funny it will get. I’m witty, but not that witty… More coming soon!