I knew the second I awoke that something had gone wrong. Flinging my arm over to the other side of the bed, I was not surprised to find it cold and empty. I sighed and kicked off the covers while still laying down and rolled over onto my stomach. I knew that I shouldn't have come home so early last night; Link was sure to be upset with me. Finally stomping out the feelings of laziness, I pushed myself into a sitting position and slid off the bed.
"Oh, you're awake. Good morning." Link surprised me when he walked into the room. He kissed me and then proceeded to take off his shirt and pants and flopped down into the bed. "Surely you're not leaving, Emma?" He smiled coyly.
"You're not upset with me?" I treaded cautiously. It could be that he didn't remember our quarrel and my dramatic exit from the night before.
"Nah. I was being an idiot and you had every right to be upset with me. Now get over here, I hate falling asleep without you." He held out his hand for me. My eyes opened wider than I thought possible.
"Wow. That definitely wasn't the response I was expecting. I had a really bad feeling when I woke up, like something really wrong is going to happen either today or very soon." I placed my hand in his and he yanked me into his arms. I laughed as he nuzzled into my neck, making rasberries and causing me to giggle insanely. I squirmed out of his tight grasp so that I could look at him face to face. I loved studying his features; every bit of him fascinated me. I ran my finger lightly over the bridge of his nose and tapped his lips, making a popping sound with my own. He drew his head back in mock astonishment and then started yelling wildly. He jumped up onto his feet and then fell back down dangerously close to me. He only had to roll over slightly for his entire body to encompass mine, and he took the opportunity.
"Link! Link, you big jerk, I can't breathe! Get off!" I could barely speak through my laughter.
"What? Did someone say something? Hm, must of been the wind." Link cocked his head to the side and shrugged. "Might as well just go to sleep then." He added in a loud snore for more effect.
There was a loud crash and then glass was everywhere. Link flipped over so that he was sheltering me and using himself as a shield.
"Are you crazy?" I shouted. I grabbed him around his torso and locked my arms to him and rolled us off the bed and onto the floor. "What's happening?" I shouted again. Link shook his head and covered his ears and it was only then that I realized how loud everything was. It sounded like a frieght train had decided to take a shortcut through our bedroom.
"Get under the bed!" Link shouted at me after a moment of contemplation. We both fell to our stomachs and army crawled under the bedframe. I silently patted myself on the back for choosing a bed so far off the ground. Wind was ripping through the room and tearing pictures and memorabilia off the walls and sending them crashing to the floor. I could faintly hear a siren going off in the distance and then the bed started to shake.
"Thats the tornando warning. Do you think we're safe right here?" Link yelled. I stared into his fear glazed eyes and for the first time in my life, I didn't know what to do. I just stared back at him helplessly, at a complete loss for words. Link noticed that I wasn't going to be much help and shimmied out from under the bed, he reached his hands under for mine and pulled me out and onto my feet. He covered my head with his hands and we both ran out of the room. I was delusional enough to slam the bedroom door shut, thinking it would contain the disaster to that room.
"Where are we going?" I asked, fighting to be heard over the twister.
"The basement. It's the safest place for us. Wait! Where the fuck is Tigerlily?" Link spun wildly looking for our dog.
"I think she's out back! I'll go get her, you go to the basement!" I shouted.
"No! We'll go together. We are not separating." He commanded forcefully. I grabbed onto his hand and we ran out into the back yard. I found her first, she had dug a hole and hid herself under the shed but immediately crawled out when she heard us calling for her. Link grabbed her by the collar and we dashed back for the safety of the house. I stalled for a moment at the back door and looked around me. Trees were fallen over, cracked in the middle. I looked across the yard to the neighbors house, sighing gently and thanking the lucky stars that their house seemed to be okay. But as I was turning to go back in, I heard a strange sound, even over all the noise. I looked up to see a red SUV flying over my head and crash into the neighbors roof. My mouth gaped open and I screamed as I was yanked backwards by my shirt.
"Now." Was all he had to say to break me out of my shocked trance. We cluctched hands again and ran for the basement.
"Do you really think we'll be safe down here?" I asked after he had shut and locked the door. It was considerably quieter down here but tornados were unpredictable, and there was still plenty of room for anything to happen.
"Yeah. We're mostly underground, so even if the roof gets ripped off we'll be okay." He put his back to the wall and slid down. Tigerlily crawled over on her belly, whimpering and whining and shoved her face in his stomach. I crouched and fell over next to them and we both held each other and our dog as the storm raged on outside. I prayed that the people next door weren't home, or were at least safe.