Noah’s arms tightened around me, and he buried his head in my hair. What was he thinking? I’d not been around them long, but they’d always spoken to each other and about each other with respect. When Noah was telling me he wanted to get me out he still never spoke ill about his community. It had to hurt that they could speak about him with such hate in their tone.
Despite what he’d done, I wanted to comfort him. I hated that he could be in pain, and I wanted to fix it. I loved him completely, whether he was an ex-cult member or not. I loved who I thought he was, and I adored that he’d grown into that person again.
We didn’t move for a long time, clinging to each other, and my body started to seize up. I wanted to question him on when we were leaving, what he was thinking, and ask if he was okay but fear prevented me.
“Ready,” he said, after a few more agonising minutes. He still held onto me tight, and part of me wanted to stay hidden. There was less risk. We had to keep moving, though.
“Which way?” I asked.
He did another scan of the area and stood up, taking my hand. “Not the direction they went in, we’ll go further west.”
I had no idea how he knew which way was west, but I gripped his hand and ran beside him.
Noah
I WAS EXHAUSTED. Completely and utterly exhausted. Sweat ran down my forehead, and my lungs burned. Scarlett was tired, too, but we still kept moving. Before they’d caught up with us, I knew the direction we were going but now we could be heading back to the commune for all I knew.
I didn’t tell Scarlett because it’d only panic her more. I’d never seen a person to terrified before and I wanted to do everything I could to make it better for her.
“Noah,” she said through ragged, struggling breaths.
We’d slowed down a lot, going at a pace somewhere between a walk and a jog. The sun was beginning to set, slowly descending the forest into darkness. Soon we would lose all light, and the temperature would drop dramatically.
“I know,” I replied, pulling her to a stop. Her legs buckled, and she fell to the floor as soon as I stopped her, and I doubled over, leaning against a tree.
“What’re we going to do?” she asked.
It was all on me, but then it was my fault for promising to get her out. “Right now we should concentrate on finding shelter. I’ve seen a few dirt roads, and I know there are houses in the forest. Rather than trying to find town, I think we should find somewhere to stay the night and head back out at first light.”
Her dark blue, fear filled eyes widened. “Isn’t that dangerous? What if they come for us?”
That I wasn’t sure of. Eternal Light usually avoided outside interaction at all cost, we didn’t want to be known and knocking at someone’s door asking for two runaway teens wouldn’t help. But they had nothing to lose now so I wasn’t sure if they’d go for it or lay low and try to find us alone.
At this point, it was anyone’s guess.
“We have to be smart about this, as soon as that sun’s gone it’s going to get really cold, add complete darkness to that and it’s not looking good for us. We’ll find somewhere to stay the night. I think someone’s house is the best bet. I have a story.”
“You really think that’ll work?”
I stood up straight and scrubbed my face with my hands. “I don’t know, Scarlett. It’s all I have right now. I wish I could wave a magic wand and get us out of this, but I can’t.”
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “I know you’re doing all you can, and I understand what you’re risking.”
“Come on, let’s keep moving.” I helped her up, and we jogged for what seemed like hours before finally came across an old bike and gardening tools.
Scarlett looked at me, afraid. “Whose do you think those are?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but it probably means we have stumbled onto private property, and a house is nearby. This is good.” Finally.
“Is it good? We don’t know who is going to be there.”
“It will be fine, Scarlett. No one can be as dangerous to us as them right now. You know that we have no choice.”
She nodded. “I’m with you. Can we just walk now, no running? I feel like I’m going to collapse again.”
“Yes, let’s take two minutes first so you can get finally changed now we’re further away. We don’t want this to look any more suspicious than it already does.” I dropped the bag, and she bent down, taking the clothes out of it. I had a pair of jeans and t-shirt, but it was better than the dress. “Put the fleece on, too, you’re freezing.”
I could just about see her rosy cheeks with the last of the light. But that didn’t fool me, she was cold to touch, and we’d been slowly losing pace for the last couple of hours. I slipped mine on as well and turned around, giving her some privacy even though I’d seen her naked before.
It only took her a minute to get changed, probably because she was cold. “I’m done, Noah,” she said. I turned back to see her shoving the dress in the bag and gripping the front of the fleece against her in a bid to warm up quicker. “We should take this, so they don’t find it and know we’ve been here, right?”