In the end they got dropped off on the outskirts of Tavistock; they had decided to be cautious now out of fear for further exposing themselves after the drama in Plymouth. As they started to make their way into the town, it was Blaze who was doing the complaining for once.

"I can't believe you made me fork out £60 for that drive," Blaze groaned as he kept mourning the loss of his money.

Alexis was unperturbed, and was instead focusing on keeping her nerves calm, as she would be seeing her sister again soon. Who knew what her sister thought had happened to her after her prolonged disappearance? "Look, you know just as well as I do that it was necessary. You also know that I'll pay you back the other half later on," Alexis responded.

Blaze continued to grumble in annoyance as Alexis stopped at a crossroads, looking around to try and get her bearings. "You do know where we're going, don't you?" Blaze asked.

"Pfft," Alexis scoffed, as she decided that they would head down the left road with Blaze following along behind. "Of course I do."

After a couple more turns, Alexis sighed, and Blaze had already began pulling his phone. "Ok, so maybe I don't know the way anymore. It's been a long time." Without another word said, Blaze handed Alexis his new phone and she put in her sister's address. It immediately began making them go back in the other direction. They both sighed.

"Why did I trust a woman to take us to the final destination?" Blaze muttered quietly as he headed in the direction that the map on his phone was telling them to go – a 15 minute walk.

Alexis glared at his back before she jogged to catch up with him. "Well, excuse me, but you're the first man I've ever met who's so willing to get directions from someone – or even something."

"Yeah, well, maybe you could have admitted you were wrong and didn't know what you were doing or where you were going. But no – you're a woman."

Alexis looked at him in disbelief. "Why you-" she started.

As they once again began bickering, they made their way through the streets of the town, attracting even more unwanted attention.

"Look, as much as I enjoy listening to your voice while you argue with me, I thought the reason we stopped on the outside of town was to avoid attention. We seem to be doing exactly what we didn't want to do," Blaze said quietly, noticing how much people were looking.

"As long as they're just townspeople and not policemen or scientists, who cares?" Alexis responded, still irked.

"And you know they're not, how...?"

Blaze had silenced Alexis, for she knew he made a good point, but she still wasn't happy about it. They continued on their way in silence, and it wasn't long before the surroundings became familiar for Alexis.

"I know where we are now!" she exclaimed, surprising Blaze in the process.

"You do?" he asked; Alexis nodded. "Are you sure?" Alexis gave him a look as he was clearly trying to rile her up again. Blaze smirked. "Sorry. It's good you know where you are; the map even says we're close. But I'm going to have to ask you to wait here."

Alexis stared at him. "You have got to be kidding me. Right? I am not having you go to my sister by yourself."

"We don't have much choice, Alexis. You can't go, in case your sister's house is being watched. We can't call her in case her phone is bugged. I'm the only link you have to your sister right now."

Alexis opened her mouth to respond, but only one word slipped out. "But..." She thought about it for a moment, and realised he was right.

"Alexis," Blaze started, turning to place his hands on her arms and looking intently into her eyes. "Trust me."

For a few seconds, Alexis just looked into his eyes, flicking from one to the other before she sighed, closing her eyes and breaking eye contact with him. "Alright," she relented, for he had definitely shown that she could trust him. Regardless, she knew her sister - and she knew her sister could protect herself.

"Tell me something that only you and your sister know," Blaze demanded as he pulled back from her and she opened her eyes.

Alexis thought for a moment; she wanted to come up with something that even their parents probably didn't know. "Tell her that you know about how she took a dump behind the shed once when we were younger but blamed it on the dog. When she asks why she would do that tell her because she wanted to know what it was like to do it like a dog."

Blaze's reaction was at first a mixture of shocked and surprised before it morphed into a more amused look. "Do it like a dog?" At first Alexis didn't understand what he was trying to say, but then...

"Not like that!" she shouted a bit too loudly, slapping him on the arm as her face turned red, once again attracting too much attention.

Although her slap stung, Blaze just smirked and winked at her as he turned to walk away. "Whatever you say. Wait here for me."

Even as Blaze's figure left her behind and rounded a corner, her face remained red. She let out a huff of air to try and calm herself down as she went over a nearby bench and sat down, her mind on her sister and the perverted acquaintance on his way over to her. Maybe letting him go alone hadn't been the best idea.

Blaze chuckled to himself as he removed the mask from his face, now only a road away from the street on which Alexis' sister lived. He couldn't help but wonder what a sister of hers was like as he rubbed his face, so unaccustomed to now having some sort of facial freedom. Wearing a mask was bound to attract some sort of attention from anyone watching the house.

He eventually walked onto the final stretch of road that went in front of the house, and he placed his mask inside his pocket, observing the numbers by the doors that he walked past. The street started at 36 and he needed 27, so he didn't have too far to walk before he had to cross the road. He stopped in front of a house that wasn't much different to the houses around it, but held a person that was probably much more important in all of this than any of the others would ever be. For a moment, Blaze felt nervous.

He shook off the nerves almost immediately, before he opened the gate and made his way down the narrow garden path to the front door of number 27. He knocked immediately and without hesitation, not allowing himself time to back down. He didn't have to wait long before the door opened to reveal someone who looked surprisingly like Alexis.

The surprised look on his face was clearly evident, and Alexis' doppelganger didn't miss it. She chuckled. "I look an awful lot like my sister, huh?"

"I, uh... Yeah, you can say that. Sorry, it just surprised me."

"Sorry if I burst your bubble," she said in response, leaning against the doorframe as she appraised Blaze with sadness in her eyes. "She mean a lot to you?"

"I... Sorry?" he asked, not quite sure what she was saying.

She knitted her eyebrows together. "Huh?"

For a moment they just stood there looking at each other, confused at what the other was saying.

"Sorry, but may I come in?" Blaze finally asked.

"And I'm just going to let a strange man into my house? I don't think so. Even if you did know my sister."

"If you think I just 'knew' your sister, do you think I would know about how you decided to take a dump behind the shed in the garden once because you wanted to see what it's like for a dog to do it?" he responded, taking out his trump card.

The woman in front of him crossed her arms as she took him in, clearly trying to act composed but her flushing cheeks showed otherwise. "Huh. But did she also tell you that she did the same thing?" The surprise on his face was evident and she chuckled as she unfolded her arms. She let out a breath of laughter. "What were you two to each other exactly?"

"Never mind about that. Can I come in now?" he muttered.

She shrugged her shoulders as she stepped back, allowing him access to the house. "Don't worry about the shoes, you can leave them on," she said, as she closed the door behind him and noticed him bending down to undo his laces.

As she led the way into the kitchen, he stopped her. "Um, do you think we could go out the back?" he asked; he knew that the possibility of her having her home bugged as well was a huge possibility so he wasn't going to risk anything.

She looked over her shoulder at him, curiousity evident on her face, but as a policeman he could tell that there was underlying suspicion. "Sure. You don't want a drink?" When he shook his head, she changed direction and they walked out the back together.

"So..." he started, when he realised he didn't know her name. He shot her a look and she seemed to understand.

"Abigail," she said as she rolled her eyes. "Did she not even tell you my name?"

He grimaced at her as he stuck out his hand for her to shake, which she did. "Blaze."

"Blaze?" Abigail's eyebrows rose. "Is that your real name?"

He didn't answer her question as he started talking. "Do you think Alexis is dead?" She was clearly surprised by his bluntness, as she pulled back a bit.

"Well, I mean, not dead. She's been gone for a year so we have her listed as missing."

Blaze nodded in understanding, appreciating her honesty; he couldn't say he was surprised by what she said. "Well, Abigail, Alexis is alive. And she's here in Tavistock right now."

For a few moments Abigail just stared at him, before she scoffed in disbelief. "And I'm supposed to believe that?" she asked, scepticism heavy in her voice. "That she just happened to come back to where I live after a year of absolutely nothing from her?"

"It's true!" he urged. "She couldn't contact you because she was being held hostage. These people are the reason we can't talk inside, just in case they've kept tabs on you since her escape."

"If you just came here to make fun of my sister's memory, then you've got another thing coming," she snarled at him, and he became honestly worried for a moment at her fierceness. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Have you got a TV?" Blaze suddenly asked her.

Abigail looked surprised by the question, but no less aggressive. "And how exactly is this relevant right now?"

"It'll help me to explain," he responded calmly.

Abigail gave him a once over before she nodded and led Blaze into her small lounge, handing him the remote after picking it up from the coffee table. He turned it on and began flicking through the channels until he found what he was looking for – a news programme.

"Do you see this?" Blaze asked quietly, neither of their eyes leaving the screen. Blaze had wondered how long it would be before the country was to start going downhill and now he had his answer; there was a large number of people lining the corridor behind the reporter, all covered in blood, with some still coughing up their own.

"Yes, I see that. It's about this new illness that's been going around," Abigail responded indifferently, crossing her arms as she moved her eyes to look at him. "They've told us we don't have to worry though, and I fail to see how this is relevant to anything."

With his voice remaining low, Blaze replied. "That," he started, turning to look at her with an intenseness in his eyes that Abigail had never seen before. "Is why your sister has been gone, Abigail. This is what she's been working on."

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So... We've finally met her! 10 chapters in and I've introduced a new character XD This story contains so many firsts for me. In this case, it's not introducing all of that characters at the very start of the story. So, is it a believable meeting? I'd love some feedback! And remember to vote if you liked it :D Thank you for reading~