Chapter Three
John
I watch Six as she falls asleep on my chest directly above my heart. I can just remember her like this, protected by my arms, sleeping soundly. I pull her closer to me, her warmth spreading all over the side of my body. Being this close to her after two weeks makes me feel complete. There's still Sarah, a voice in my head says. Sarah. The thought of her makes my chest throb with pain. She gave me out, I tell myself. Sarah's hooks on me are gone, but not completely. She left the holes in my heart, which can only be filled by Six. Nine extinguishes the campfire and lies on his sleeping bag. In a matter of minutes his breathing slows down. Crayton's still up, watching Ella sleep. Six stirs and escapes my embrace. I catch myself staring at her shoulder again, where the strap of her tank top is slightly lose. Crayton yawns loudly. "Crayton, you go to sleep, I'll take watch," I say, slipping out of our sleeping bag without waking Six. Before I leave the sleeping bag, I plant a light kiss on her forehead. She smiles.
Crayton stretches his arms like a kid and thanks me for taking watch. He zips his sleeping bag close and drifts off. I lean against a tree near Six. Looking at her makes me feel more confused. I have strong feelings for Six, yet I also have some part of me feeling something for Sarah until now. The longer I think about both of them, the more confused I get. With Six, I have a future on both Earth and on Lorien, if we can revive it. With Sarah, I don't know. I'll always have to be on the run with my fellow Loric. I sigh and grab my phone, dialing Sarah's number. I secretly asked Crayton to secure it for me and none of the others know except for Nine. If Six found out, things could get ugly. I haven't sent Sarah a text since she gave me out. Six reminds me that it could be Sam's mom, though I'm sure it was Sarah. Who else would text her so late that night?
In the messages, I type, I'm sorry Sarah, for putting you through this. I regret everything deeply. I'm sorry you had to be an outcast. Now you don't have to be, because I'll never be going back. Ever. Live a long and happy life, Sarah. After being satisfied with my message, I hit send. The weight in my chest feels definitely lighter. Six stirs in the sleeping bag. It'll take her a few minutes to realize I'm gone. I go to contacts and search for "Sarah Hart". My mind does a flashback about the time Sarah entered her very number on my phone. I blink hard and shake my head, reminding myself that Sarah no longer matters to me. I press "Delete" beside her number. I did it. Sarah's out of my life, probably forever.
"John?" Six murmurs in the dark. Her head is slightly raised, looking at me. She rubs her eyes then props herself up on the elbow. "What are you doing up?" she asks.
"I'm on watch," I say. She slips out of our sleeping bag. Her pure white cotton tank top seems to glow in the light of the dying coals. Her hair is tousled with loose strands of hair flat on her face. "Looks like you need company," she says. Six makes her way to me silently. She sits beside me, leaning her head against the tree bark. She hugs her knees, and even though it's dark, I can feel her shivering. I scoot nearer to her and wrap my arms around her. Six leans her head on my shoulder. I breathe in the smell of her hair, which was like our surroundings. Fresh night air. "You know, you're up so late at night for a reason," she whispers.
"I can't stop thinking about you,"I say. My heart beats twice as fast as usual, and I pray Six won't notice. Six snorts and looks up, her electric blue eyes cackling with excitement. Six's powerful aura is making the air around us warmer despite the weather. Our noses touch as I close our distance. Her soft lips fit perfectly with mine, as if it they were made for me alone, like my diamond-like dagger. Six runs her hand through my hair as I pull her closer to me. Her hands are flat on my chest. I can hear her pulse which is as fast as mine. She pulls away, slightly breathless. Six playfully kisses me on the cheek then disappears. "Damn it" I whisper. A silent chuckle fills my ears. With telekinesis, I grab everything around me, like I used to do when Six was invisible. I felt her up in the tree, sitting on a branch. She reappears, swinging her legs like a five-year-old. "What's the matter?" she asks softly, "Can't you climb a tree?"
I find myself climbing up the tree in the dark. It's not so easy though, considering there's not enough light. I make my hand glow, but it only makes it harder. Six laughs while watching me climb up with only one hand. Finally, I reach the branch Six is sitting on. We're fifteen feet up in the air. I walk slowly to her, my left palm aimed at me feet. The branch is thick and sturdy, enough to hold the two of us. "Are you afraid of heights?" Six mused. I sit down beside her and nudge her playfully. "No, I faced higher places than this," I say, not mentioning my time in the cave with Sam for fear she might break down to tears. "So, why are you up, besides taking first watch for Crayton?"
I considered telling her that I dumped Sarah when someone below says, "You heard him; He can't stop thinking about you."
"You're supposed to be asleep too, Nine," I say. Six huffs out a sigh and says, "And for a minute there, I thought we had some privacy."
"Well, you know that I have more developed senses than you do, right? So it's not my fault I eavesdropped," says Nine. I shine my palm at him some five feet away from our tree. He blocks his eyes with his hand. "What do you want?" Six says.
"I just thought that the two Loric Lovebirds might want to sleep rather than wake me up," Nine says. Six scowls at him then leaps gracefully off the branch. "Come on, John," she says, and I hear her stomp toward our sleeping bag. I jump off the branch and follow her while Nine sits at the base of another tree. She was already in when I reached her. I slip inside and zip the sleeping bag shut. Six scoots beside me again her head on my shoulder. She places her hand on my chest. "You're nervous," she comments. With my free hand, I hold her hand, never wanting to let go, not again. "No I'm not," I say. She smiles and says, "I can tell when I'm being lied to John."
"So that makes me a bad liar?" I muse.
"Why are you nervous? I mean, your heart's thundering," she says.
Should I tell her about my breakup text with Sarah? No, it'll make her feel guilty. But I can't just keep secrets from her. I was about to tell her when a deafening roar from inside the forest awakes the others. Crayton's on his feet immediately while he helps Marina and Ella stand up. The thing in the forest roars again, louder and nearer this time. Six and I sit bolt upright then break camp with the rest. Nine and Bernie Kosar are not around. Where are they?
In a few minutes' time, the sleeping bags strewn across the forest floor are gone. The backpacks hanging from the tree disappeared. Marina and Ella hold our things then follows Crayton to where he hid our cars. "BK! Come here, buddy!" I yell, and Bernie Kosar rushes past a clump of bushes, strictly followed by Nine. "They're here, they have a base camp downstream," he says. He cocks his head to the side and listens. The roar from the beast inside the forest is growing louder and more guttural. Six, Nine and I form a triangle, our backs against each other. I can hear Bernie Kosar growing. I squint at the trees, not risking to shine my palms. "Shit," Nine whispers. From all around us, five sets of glowing yellow eyes appear from the gloom. Silhouettes of huge beasts close in on us slowly, their footfalls shaking the ground under my feet. The piken directly in front of me snarls harshly to the beast next to it. Master says that we leave the girl alone, says the one in front of me. Leave the girl? Six. Why would they want to spare her?
We'll have to take her back to camp, growls the piken facing Nine. His hands were clenched in fists. I remember how he can kill two pikens at the same time with only his bare hands. I sneak a sideways glance at Nine, who was just as confused as I am. A streak of lightning enters the thick canopy above us. Six is brewing a storm over head. I glance at her, and her eyes were glowing—again, like they were electricity cackling with energy. Six emits a bluish aura, like her eyes. Her fists were clenched tightly. With a flash of white light the trees surrounding us erupted in flames, and the pikens closing in on us came to full view. All of them were a bit bigger than Bernie Kosar, who transformed into something that looks like a skinny mammoth with long teeth. Their skin is coal black protected by coppery scales. They look like overgrown and deathly monkeys without tails. Their teeth are as long and sharp as my dagger, which was locked in my Chest under the passenger seat of the SUV. I curse. Two of the pikens growled then charged. Bernie Kosar lunges into the first piken, their gnawing teeth sending jitters through my body.
Nine has his hands full with a piken stronger and slightly faster than the rest. Two of them are clawing at Six, trying not to hurt her, which struck me as weird. The piken in front of me tenses, like a cat in a middle of a fight in an alley. Before it pounces, I shine my Lumen brightly, directed into the monster's eyes. It staggers backward, blocking the intense light with its paws. With telekinesis, I pick up a charred piece of a tree, which was burned by Six's lightning. I forcefully thrust it in the monster's chest. It wails in agony for a minute then dissolves into ash. Bernie Kosar's teeth sank into a piken's neck, and instantly explodes to dirt. Bernie Kosar fends off a piken that swatted Six with its claw. "Six!" I yell as she hits a tree thirty yards away. She clings to the tree for dear life. Below her the flames are growing steadily higher. Nine kills a piken then help Bernie Kosar. Six tries to keep the flames at bay, then a piken snatches her out of the tree. "No!" I yell, and with my own strength, I tackle the piken. I can't let it take her. The monster staggers into the flames, its roars waking half the country. Six falls from the beast's fist—straight into the flames. I held her up in the dust-coated air. The last two pikens fall and reduce to ashes. The one who tried to spare Six stares at me then explodes, taking the flames with it. "Six?" I say, setting her down on the grass. There's a bloody gash on her right side, her white cotton tank top now damp with blood. "Get Marina! Hurry!" I order. Nine speeds off. Bernie Kosar licks Six's hand gingerly. The grass surrounding her right side was dappled red. Marina rushes from behind me. I hold Six's bloody hand, not daring to let go. Marina kneels beside me then places her hands on Six's wound. Six's breathing slows down. New flesh covers up the open wound. After Marina's satisfied, she pulls her hands away. Under the rip in her bloody shirt, Six looked perfectly fine. "Thanks," she says to Marina. She smiles then snatches a handful of moss, wiping the blood from her palms. Nine has a cut on his lower lip. Marina insists on healing it, placing her fingers gingerly on Nine's lips. He looks uncomfortable for a moment, then breathes a sigh of relief when the cut on his lip was gone.
After a few minutes of being treated, we were all fit to run through the forest. Marina leads us to a dirt road leading to a family vacation house several miles away. Crayton and Ella are already in their pickup truck with our luggage at the back, covered with a water-proofed blanket. Six rummages for her backpack, then removes a pair of new clothes. She turns invisible then changes. My heart flips. Six is half naked in front of me, though not technically visible. She throws her tank top at me, then her bloody pair of shorts. She turns visible five minutes later, wearing a gray tee and another pair of shorts. She takes her clothes from me, and I swear she was blushing. In fact, my own cheeks feel hot. Six hops into the driver's seat then starts the engine. Nine and Marina are smiling at me like I made a joke. I stare daggers at them then walk a little too eagerly to our SUV.