Three Days Later…
Andrew and I had been stalking the buck for fourteen miles; finally, I watched its head lift from the grass as the perfect shot appeared. My adrenalin started pumping, just as every other time I was lining up for a kill. I pulled the string back to the corner of my mouth, aimed right above the left eye, and let go. It flew in slow motion, I could see every time it twirled in the air.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw a blade fly out of the clump of trees to my right I watched as it zinged past me, and sunk with a spurt of blood into the flesh near the buck's heart. Its legs fell out from under it, and my arrow landed in the tree that was behind its head.
I jerked the tip of my new arrow in the direction the knife came from, "There is someone in those trees." I whispered to Nick. When he did not answer, I glanced over my shoulder at him. I stood transfixed in that position, as I realized that Nick was not behind me.
I then remembered that Andrew was the one that was with me on this trip. He would not have known that Nick always stood protecting the left side of my back; my blind spot.
I shoved angrily through the bushes, towards the group of trees Andrew had thrown the knife from; I was fuming, he had taken my kill.
I only saw the leather of his jacket for a moment before I smacked into his chest. I felt myself falling, and I tried to catch myself. But instead of grabbing onto something, my wrist got caught on a long sharp thorn. I yanked my hand to my chest and braced myself for the impact.
There was an explosion as my head hit the ground, I watched the sky change colors and I briefly wondered where the loud noise came from.
Then I became aware of the burning pain. It started at the back of my head, and worked its way all the way through me. It felt as if my whole body was on fire. I heard someone scream, and I tried to get away from the pain. Finally I was pulled into darkness, and I could not feel anything, and I could not see anything.
Once in a while I heard Nick's voice calling me; it sounded worried, but it comforted me, and made me love the darkness even more.
I floated in the painless dream of nothingness, until I suddenly felt someone jerking on my hand. I looked around but saw only darkness. "Rachel, you have to get up."
I whimpered, Nick was asking me to leave the darkness, MY darkness, the one that took away all my pain.
"Rachel… please." The pain in his voice made me want to be with him to comfort him.
I slowly felt myself pulled away from my darkness. It felt like surfacing from water, I gasped as I felt the fire at the back of my head again. But it was the only place that hurt, unlike earlier.
I forced my eyelids open; the amount of energy that it took to do that one simple thing told me that something was wrong. I felt movement on the bed beside me; I turned my head to find Nick.
"You are awake!" He said with large eyes.
I gasped as I realized that it was truly Nick that was sitting beside me. From somewhere inside of me came a burst of energy, and I threw my arms around his neck. My whole body was shaking from the sobs. His arms wrapped me in one of his hugs that I had missed terribly while he was gone.
Then a thought popped into my head, "Am I dead?"
Nick's brown eyes locked with mine, "You are not dead, though you came extremely close to it."
He explained that I hit my head on a rock and had been unconscious for two days, one of those days it was questionable whether or not I would live. I had lost a lot of blood, both from my head and from the gaping rip in my wrist.
He said that I had screamed a lot, something about a fire. He also said that I had said his name.
When I explained that I had heard his voice, he smiled. "Out of all the people that were talking to you, you heard my voice only. I feel special."
I had to stay in bed for a few days; Mrs. Jackson said I needed to build up strength.
Andrew visited me often, apologizing constantly. When I ask him about the buck he said, "I had to leave it in the woods. You were bleeding to death, the choice wasn't hard."
Andrew seemed depressed and distracted, I was not sure why. He had saved my life, and his best friend was home. I did not understand him at all.
Nick did not come visit me again until the last day I had to be in bed. I had begun to think he was avoiding me, but what he told me made those thoughts disappear.
"I want you to come with me for a picnic in the woods. I have some things to tell you." I agreed to go with him, and I was okay with it, there was nothing that he could tell me that would hurt me. Because he had already said the only words that could break my heart.
When the time came for me to get ready I had trouble choosing something to wear. I would have just thrown on my normal pants and shirt, but they were covered in blood still. So I had to choose from my collection of dresses, and Matthew had not been stingy when he bought me these.
I finally chose a long green tunic that came to the middle of my thighs, and put some black leggings on underneath.
I began to pull my hair back into a braid but the back of my head stung from the stitches, so I left it hanging down my back.
When I finally emerged from my room I saw that Nick was already there; dressed in his usual hunting clothes. But something seemed different about him. I couldn't place a finger on it.
He held out his arms, and I walked into them. I held onto him tight, my nose was at his shoulder, I took a deep breath in and smelt his muskiness. I decided that I loved the way he smelled.
"You ready?" He asked.
"Yeah, where are we going?"
"It is a surprise." He said with a smile.
He led me through the forest, my mind was still groggy. So I still did not know where we were going until we got there.
He pushed back some vines, and I realized that he had been leading me to our field. It was a bitter sweet field, because in the same day we had an amazing picnic together, and he told me he did not love me. I smiled at Nick, I had tried to find this field again when he was gone, but it did not show itself to me. We sat down near the edge of the tree line,
"You had something you wanted to tell me?" I asked.
"Actually, I have several things to explain to you." He said as he gently took my hand.
His eyes were soaking up my face; I couldn't keep my eyes off of him either.
