The bicycle wheel spun with the furry of escape. Over hills and passed cars that were parked or passing on the other side of the road. Through cut-passes, trails and short-cuts that would bring them closer to home.

It was only after the a good dozen minutes that both boys, through exhaustion, managed to slow down to an eventual stop.

That's when Shawn looked over his shoulder and saw that Ralph was crying.

"It's....scary." Ralph cried, tears flowing down from his face. "To..to..to..to..to have to be all alone with the..the..the..the..the..the..the..the..C..C..Ci...Circus....just us."

Shawn turned his bike around and rode up to Ralph before putting his arm around his shoulder. "It's okay Ralph, we still have each other. We can count on each other, okay?" He squeezed him into a hug, trying with all his might not to break into tears of his own. It took him a few moments to remember, oh yeah, this was what he'd asked for. He rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out one of the crystal vials and tried to catch the tears.

"Bu..." Ralph muttered.

The tears flowed down Ralph's cheeks and into the vial. Ralph gave Shawn a confused look. At first, it was a wounded look, like he thought Shawn was being insensitive. Then, it was an understanding look. Then it became a resigned look. Somewhere throughout the ordeal, it seemed to settle in between those feelings.

It was a small vial, which was good, because by the time Ralph stopped crying--which was a while--the vial was full.

Shawn stoppered up the bottle and put it back in his pocket, but he kept hugging Ralph until he was sure the younger boy had stopped crying. "I'm sorry Ralph. I wish there'd been another way..."

"Is..." Ralph stuttered, wiping his eyes. "Is it always...always...always...going to be that way?" Ralph asked, somewhat afraid. But more than that. It was a feeling of violation. The sound of somewhat whose shame and pain was being used. Used for a purpose, for sure, but used nonetheless.

"Do..does it...will it?...does it have to happen again if I cry?"

"I don't know..." Shawn didn't know what the future held - for all he knew all of Griffix's tricks required the tears of children. He felt awful, awful that there was a part of him pragmatic enough to look at a crying child and see an opportunity, but more than that, he felt awful that he knew he'd be listening to that part of himself again. "We just have to keep surviving. That's what counts. That's all we can do."

"It's...*sniff*...what counts." Ralph nodded, face taking on a wide-mouthed grimace that looked like he might cry again. But he didn't.

Instead he got up and stood up straight, looking over Shawn's shoulder.

"Well, well, well." Erik said, sitting idly on his bicycle. He was wearing an AC/DC shirt, with the sleeves cut off at the shoulder. His hair was spiked rigidly with hair-spray.

He held up one hand as if to object to an action that Shawn or Ralph might take.

"Don't run." He warned. "I don't want to have to beat you for running. I get really mad when punks like you run."

It took a second to realise what was happened, but when he did, Shawn couldn't help but turn around to see what Ralph was looking at. He felt a pit open up in his stomach when he saw who it was. "I won't run." Even as he said that, he casually stood between Ralph and Eric and carefully considered his escape routes.

"Good." Eric said, a small smirk forming on one side of his mouth, eyebrows moving down and narrowing together in sinister approval.

"You're a punk you know that? And a nerd. There's nothing worse than a nerd. I hate nerds. You're a NERD!" Eric chastised, spitting the last word out like venom at Shawn.

Ralph just sat there, head shaking, terrified.