Thank you so so SO much to Bamberlee for editing!
And thank you to everyone for the kind words. I took a break for just a minute to catch up on a few things, but I fully plan on finishing up the next few chapters.
Thanks for reading and reviewing! Have a great weekend :)
His fingers wrap around my elbow.
I'm yanked to my feet before my brain can process what's happening. Marcus kicks what's left of the phone out of the way, and pulls me upward, ignoring the fact that my shoes aren't tied because I'd been busy calling someone. I see him glance down, then his grip quickly turns painful when I struggle to wiggle away from him.
In theory, he's no different than someone I'd already fought against, but getting away is impossible.
He looms over me, much larger than he appeared at the dinner table, and his fingers dig into my arm until I yelp in pain.
"Eva, they're waiting."
"You're hurting me!" I jerk my arm away when his eyes dart forward, waiting to make sure Adam doesn't know what's going on. He's far enough away that it looks like Marcus is helping me keep my balance, but it's the exact opposite. I manage to take an entire step away before his hand catches my arm again, twisting until it burns, and he stares down at me with enough anger that I wince.
"I know what you're doing and I suggest you knock it off. You won't get far. I'll make sure of it if I have to."
I stare back at him, my expression unable to hide my defiance at him threatening me, but there's no time to do anything. He pulls me forward, his hand clenching my arm hard enough that I know it'll bruise, and he smiles at Adam.
Marcus is terrifying.
Even at his maddest, my own father never looked like he would hurt me. There were times when I'm sure I'd pissed him off on every level humanly possible, like the time Adam and I gleefully launched his tablet over the chasm just to see how long it would take to fall –while Rylan stood by and watched, but he'd never once physically hurt me or even gave off the impression that he would.
But Marcus isn't my father, and there's no reason for him not to hurt me.
"I said, they're waiting." With that, he scoops the box up with his free hand, and shoves it back at me. "You walk with me. Don't try anything stupid. There's no one out here to save you."
"Where are you taking us?" I try to keep my voice even. I refuse to let him know I'm afraid of him, and he pulls my arm again. Up ahead, Adam is waiting, and he catches my stare when I try to shake Marcus' hand free. "Why did you break his phone?"
"I've waited a long time for this and you aren't about to ruin it. Besides, do you really want Adam out here all alone?" Marcus answers lowly, and he forces a patient, kind smile on his face as he shifts his attention away from me. "Adam, sorry about that. Just a minor setback. I told Eva we'll fix her boots when we get there."
For a moment, his lie hangs between all of us. The look on Adam's face is telling: he knows something is wrong, but he just doesn't know what.
"Are you okay, Eva?" Adam takes a step toward me, but Marcus cuts in between us, and he squares off at Adam so he can't see me.
"She's fine. She tripped and I caught her. Keep heading straight that way. The families are further out."
"Isn't this kind of far for them to wait? Why didn't they come with you?" Adam asks Marcus a really great question, a fantastic one really, that would have come in handy five minutes ago. "No one would have cared if they wanted some food…"
He trails off, and our eyes meet.
"Adam…" I swallow when Marcus looks at me, and his fingers tighten so much that I want to shove him away. It's a clear warning to shut up, but I don't know why. I don't know what Marcus wants to do with us, but whatever his plan is, he doesn't want me ruining it.
"They're waiting. I've been meaning to ask Eva what her father is doing these days? Is he still…. with that girl?"
"My mom?" I look up at him, his features darkening as the sun sets, and he looks past Adam. I know he's only asking me to buy time, so I try to catch Adam's stare again, silently begging him to run. There was a slim chance Adam could get away from Marcus before I could. "Are you asking me if he's still with my mom?"
"She was a big influence on him. We might have had some common ground until she convinced your father to team up with Tobias to have me kicked out of Abnegation. Did they ever tell you that story?"
Marcus talks while we walk, taking careful slippery steps through the snow, down a slight decrease. I ignore him, and instead try everything I can to mark where we're going –I kick the snow out of my way with more force than necessary, I take a few steps to make a bigger print, and I even lean away from Marcus, trying to impress my struggle into the damp earth as he drags me on.
Adam somehow misses all of this. He keeps walking in the direction Marcus told him, purposefully forced ahead, but his shoulders rise up and he turns suddenly.
"Why'd they kick you out? Why would they do that? Did something happen?"
Adam doesn't look at me, and I know why.
He's positive something is wrong.
And it's not that Marcus was kicked out of his faction.
"Well, to be perfectly clear, it was payback for his upbringing. I can only assume he didn't appreciate the way he was raised, the way I tried to push him toward something greater. I raised him alone, sacrificed everything for him. He paid me back by having me stripped of my title and cast out of the only home I had."
"There must have been a reason," I retort before I can help myself, and this time, I force myself not to wince when he squeezes my arm.
"He and Eric believed I was too strong for the Abnegation faction. I had a few ideas they didn't like, and it became a struggle for us to come to an agreement on who should be overseeing it," Marcus pauses, and I have the distinct feeling he's lying. "Eva's father and yours didn't like having anyone questioning what they were doing. They weren't the best of friends, but really, the worst of enemies. United for a single moment after I learned your father was having a child before he was married. Shame that he let himself get caught up in such a disgraceful lifestyle."
Adam's expression changes. It's less concerned than it was before, and more curious.
"I thought…I thought they were married first. He always talked about…"
"Oh, I'm sure he absolutely loathed the idea of ever having a child before being married. There's no self-control in that, is there?" Marcus' stare turns slippery, and right over to me. It's uncomfortable, a little too knowing for my liking. "Now tell me about Eva. I would bet your father doesn't like this one, does he? Peter told me he wasn't a big fan of you ending up with Eric's daughter. She seems a little…wild."
My insides tighten unpleasantly. I feel like someone's thrown ice water over me, because Marcus knowing Peter isn't good news.
And his insult about me doesn't make anything better. I was hardly wild. I'd grown up with more people knowing where I was and what I was doing than anyone.
Which is unfortunately not the situation right now.
"How…how do you know Peter?" Adam comes to a complete stop, and the hesitation is all over him. His mouth tenses when he looks at me, and his eyes dart all around. "My father was worried that something would happen to Eva and me. He was…. he thought us being together would put us in danger."
I can see the panic on Adam's face. He's struggling to downplay it, but he trips over his words and his knuckles are turning white.
"How do you know all this?"
"Your father was right," Marcus nudges me forward, and Adam looks right at me. I shake my head slightly, my fingers slipping on the large box as I try not to fall, and I can feel my whole body starting to tense up.
Just like during the simulations.
The fear is hot and acidic, and it burns as it creeps up my arms.
"Adam we should go back. My grandpa is looking for us. I think this is far enough. Marcus you can take the boxes yourself."
I try one final time to remind Marcus there are people expecting us back. Our absence won't go unnoticed; my grandma had promised to make us more hot chocolate, Forrest was supposed to come by, and most importantly, my grandpa would be looking for us.
The minute he realized he didn't know where we were, he'd send everyone after us.
I just hope he's already realized it.
"Eva, I said to keep quiet. We've wasted enough time. This way."
And that's it.
My whole life flashes before my eyes as Marcus shoves me toward Adam, right onto a path leading into the woods and away from the Amity compound. There's a narrow pathway that's been hastily cleared and it runs alongside a river of rushing, black water. It reminds me of the river in Dauntless: just as dark and just as deadly.
"Adam, keep going. It's not much further from here."
I silently pray Adam won't keep going, but he does.
He glances back at me, then the river, then turns around again when Marcus gestures for him to go on.
We are silent as we walk.
No one speaks, and aside from the frantic beating of my heart, and the painful realization that Marcus is taking us somewhere no one can find us, it's like everyone is lost in their own thoughts as they try to predict the terrible fate awaiting us.
Everything is white.
I stand beside Adam, my fingers numb from the cold and my boot still untied, and I watch as Marcus stares back at us. I hadn't liked him the first time I met him, and I certainly don't like him now.
"The woods are lovely out here, aren't they?"
Marcus talks while he circles around us slowly, effectively ruining my plan to grab Adam's hand and yell for him to run.
We'd stopped a few minutes ago. It hadn't taken Adam much longer to realize there were no families out here. His dark eyes found mine as we walked beneath a canopy of frozen snow and shimmering ice, and they were full of regret and horror. I knew he was blaming himself, or maybe his father. Four had raised him to be kind, pushing him to do more than just exist in Dauntless as another soldier. His father meant well, but ultimately, it would be Adam's downfall.
He believed Marcus needed help, and he'd gone without question.
Why would he?
He had no reason to believe anything but what this man was sharing. He'd been helping my grandma and grandpa all week, so this probably felt completely normal.
But it wasn't.
The woods twisted the further we went into them, and for once, I didn't know where we were. My grandpa had willingly let me explore whatever parts of Amity I wanted, but not this far. I couldn't even be sure this was Amity anymore. It had grown so dark in this part that I had to squint to see, and I had the faint impression there was a cliff in the distance.
None of this made me feel better.
"Eva…I am so sorry," Adam's hand touches mine, and I shake my head. "Eva, please…"
He sounds desperate, just as desperate as I feel, but it's not his fault.
Not entirely.
I should have called my father, and I didn't. I'd forgotten, and I'd given Marcus the chance to find us.
"Where's Peter?"
I reach over and grab Adam's hand, refusing to back down when Marcus stares. He doesn't like that I'm here with Adam, and he certainly doesn't like the idea of us together. The look on his face reminds me of Four's, heavy with disapproval and annoyance at my presence.
"He's…indisposed as of right now. He and I originally agreed we'd just talk with Adam. See if we could open his eyes to the person his father is. Once he learned you were here, he wanted you, too. Wanted to mess with Eric as payback for making him factionless. But don't worry. He won't get to you now."
"And Jeremy? Did you know him?" I tighten my fingers, hoping Adam knows I'm sorry, too.
There was no way we could run. Marcus had made it clear that if one of us left, the other would pay.
"We've crossed paths before. Nice guy, sort of down on his luck. His sponsor was pushing him to have better goals, but all he wanted was you." Marcus stops to look at me, and he shakes his head. "Peter liked him. They were in agreement that two for one was a better deal than just taking Adam. I'm sure he won't be happy that I got to you first."
"Where do you think you're taking us?" Adam looks Marcus right in the eye, and he looks unimpressed. "You dragged us into the woods to what? Kill us? You think anyone is going to know you did it? Every time we turn around someone is trying to kill us. No one is going to think you were the one responsible for our deaths. They'll think it was a random factionless before they think it was you."
Oh fuck.
Marcus hadn't actually announced what he was going to do, but Adam's words clearly bother him. My gaze drops as Marcus steps forward, because I know what Adam is doing. While there is some logic in what he's saying, mocking Marcus to let us go, it comes off sounding pretty condescending.
And insulting the man who is using us as payback against his son isn't the best move.
"Oh, he'll know it was me. You mark my words," Marcus stops directly in front of him, and I let go of Adam's hand when Marcus turns to me. "Eva can tell him."
I blink, and my world becomes a blur of black stars falling into my vision, along with a quick burst of pain. I realize he's hit me right in the face, and I swear something cracks.
"Eva!"
I hear Adam yelling my name, and it's lost in the shuffle of him shoving Marcus back, and lunging for me. Marcus' head hits mine, and I reel away when the blood touches my lips and my knees hit the snow.
"Fuck!" The word comes out as more of a whimper, and I give myself a single second to pull it together. I don't think he broke my nose, but he hit it hard enough that it immediately begins to bleed. I try to wipe it off, but my gloves come away bloody, and I move away from him as Adam's hand finds my arm.
"Stay the fuck away from us!" Adam is in front of me in an attempt to keep Marcus away, but Marcus isn't bothered. If anything, he seems to like the challenge now that we know what he wants. Our death is the only thing that matters to him. All in the name of revenge, for some crimes we didn't commit. Marcus roars Adam's name, and I'm knocked back when his fist collides right with Adam's face.
"No no no no no."
Everything happens at once; Adam was still holding the box when Marcus hit me, and he barely had time to move before he punched him. I watch him recoil instantly, more caught off guard than anything, but it's pleasing to Marcus when he falls.
He exhales in heavy satisfaction, first turning to look at me, then Adam.
Panic isn't an adequate word at this point. I'd fought off Vinny, prancing at me with a dark delight as he plotted my death. I'd fought off Kiley, thinking she'd make me pay for Vinny getting kicked out. I'd fought off Jeremy, his body over mine as he tried to strangle the life out of me, and I'd fought off a dozen other fears, neatly checking them off Zander's list.
Those had brought up a healthy dose of panic, but not like this.
This fear is so real it feels like it's choking me, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
I blink at him, at the dark sky, the weave of leaves rustling above me, and the sound of Adam groaning as Marcus' hands wrap around his throat. Marcus is taller and heavier than Adam, and he has the unfair advantage of being upright, and not having his face bashed in.
"He'll know it was me." Marcus hisses, and the pain pulses across my face as Adam tries to force him away. He succeeds for a moment, then loses when Marcus manages to hit his head one more time.
I close my eyes at the sound of the trees rustling, and my head throbs so hard my eyes shut.
The woods are lovely.
They are dark and deep, and they are where I am about to die, at the hands of a man who only wanted revenge.
"Say it, Eva. Who are you going to tell them left you here?"
Marcus stands in front of me, his jacket dusted with snow, and his hair damp. He's ugly now; his face covered in broken blood vessels and wrinkles creasing around his eyes, and it matches the rotten soul that lives inside him.
"Say it!"
He kicks at me, unmoving as I stand before him, and a few feet away, Adam sways on his feet.
I couldn't be sure how much time had passed, but I could be sure he'd hit me again, backhanding my cheek like I was a child who had misbehaved. I'd never been hit by either of my parents, and oddly enough, Marcus seemed less willing to hurt me.
He had saved that for Adam.
Between the two of us, he looked worse for the wear. Marcus had made sure I knew to stay away from him, or he'd really hurt Adam. He'd already done a great job of blackening his eye and making sure Adam knew he'd kill him if he protested. In Dauntless, the shiner would be an honor. Proof that Adam had survived something that could only be solved by physical violence, a badge of courage and bravery and general accomplishment.
Out here, it was the result of a punch from a man who wanted him dead.
I had the feeling he wanted both of us dead, if only to bring revenge to those he felt deserved it.
It was more than unfair. My father had never told me about Blythe, and Adam's father had never told him about Marcus. It was a low blow to realize that people who were related to you might wish harm upon you, but even more of a blow to realize there was nothing you could do about it.
I knew I should try.
My father would have fought back. My mother would have, too.
But I didn't know what to do. I couldn't knock Marcus down, and at the moment, the pain in my head made it hard to see. I could blink away the blurriness and ignore the ache, but all I wanted to do was lie down.
Still, I had to find a way out. To my right, was a river that eventually turned so cold and so deep I'd die before I got across. To the left of me was Marcus, coaxing me to say his name when someone did find me.
If they did.
The only person who would know I was somewhere out here was Four, but he didn't like me. With my luck, he'd think it was a prank call, or an accident, or he'd send someone else to come check on us having nothing more than a general idea of where we were. By the time they found me, even if I could try and walk back to the Dome, I would more than likely be frozen.
But I wouldn't do that.
I couldn't leave Adam with him.
"What is my name?"
"Asshole."
I whisper the word at him, summoning the courage to give it one final shot, and his face turns red with fury.
"You little…"
I lunge for him, knocking him back into the soft pile of snow, and to my relief he falls heavily. It's pure dumb luck when his head hits something buried in the snow, a rock or a branch or a rotting tree stump, and his grey hair is immediately darkened with blood. I shove him back again, wincing only when the cracking sound echoes in the woods, but I know it's not enough. There's a feeling of disbelief when he opens his eyes at me, slowly and unfocused, but I know he'll get back up.
I immediately take off. I grab onto Adam, jerking him along and pulling him with me, but I don't get far. He stares woozily; his own head has been hit a few times and his lip is bleeding, but even worse is when he blinks like he doesn't recognize me.
"Eva?"
"Run! Adam, we have to run! Now!" I pull him forward, but he doesn't move, and he's heavier than I remember. I yank on his arm as hard as I can, and when I yell his name again, something changes. His eyes widen, and he takes off, pulling me along with him.
We get all of five feet before the shot rings out in the air.
"Okay, fuck where are we?"
Adam's stare is wild. His whole body is primed toward me, so close that his chest bumps my back and he nearly crashes over me. I'm reminded of how much larger he is, and I fail at trying to steady him as my boots hit the damp marsh and I sink a few inches.
This is not where we needed to go.
"We can't stay here! It's not safe. It drops off into the river," I talk quickly, dragging him away from the water. Our only option was to head deeper into the woods. It was the last place I wanted to go, but I was running out of time.
It had been a whole three minutes since someone had fired a gun into the air. There was a small chance it was Four, but that seemed unlikely. I couldn't figure out how long it had been since I'd called him, or if he'd even figured out what was going on. The odds were even worse when I realized Marcus had led us far enough into the woods that it would be impossible to find anyone, let alone figure out where we had been.
That left Marcus as the one with the gun. My stomach sunk with the knowledge that he'd kill us both without question.
"Um…I don't…I don't know. This isn't a part of Amity I've been in!"
I work to stop myself from crying, because everything in me is shaking. Not only am I totally turned around, the woods too dark and confusing and the sun setting with every passing second, but my hands are numb. My feet are numb, too, and Holly's leggings and shirt aren't all that warm anymore.
I try to remind myself of the lone positives rather than what was going on. At the very least, we were somehow still alive and Marcus had hit his head. I hoped Marcus would keel over and die on the spot, but if he didn't –if he somehow found his way back to us, we had the advantage of being ahead and faster than him. I focus on that tiny speck of hope, figuring if we can get even further away, it'll be less likely he'll find us.
But Amity is huge.
The woods bled together with the neighboring factions, but it was mostly nothing. Trees, a river, a sloping mountain and a stomach-turning drop off a cliff at some point. I scan the woods looking for something familiar, a treehouse my grandpa had built, the old playground we'd found while playing the War Games. A barn, a water tower, anything. Anything at all that would tell me where I was.
There is nothing of the sort.
Just a sprawling thicket of trees, coaxing us to come closer, and a river rushing past.
It suddenly hits me that there are train tracks somewhere, and if we find them, we could possibly follow them somewhere.
Anywhere.
Any place that got us away from Marcus.
"We have to go north, I think. I think he took us this way, so if we back track…"
I think out loud while we walk, and I glance over at Adam to make sure he's alright.
He isn't.
"Adam?"
He looks paler than ever, even more ghostly than after the simulations. His face is bruised, the dark color hidden only by a few pieces of hair falling down, and his lip is bleeding. Every so often he wipes at it, but his own gloves are stained with blood, and he looks defeated when the blood catches on his wrist.
"Eva, I'm…this is my fault. I never should have asked you to come with us." Adam speaks slowly, and his hand reaches for mine. "I should have told you to wait…"
"No! He would have killed you if you went with him alone!" I whirl around, unwilling to die out here. I had foolishly thought I would die in my grandmother's garden, and but I certainly wasn't going to die in some snowy abyss while Adam's grandfather hunted us down. "I should have called my dad. I was going to and I forgot because…because I was really happy with you and I didn't want him to show up and take us home. I didn't want to ruin this and I did."
I say all this in a rush, blurted out as the wind howls in competition with the water rushing. Adam stares at me for so long that I think he's going to say we should have gone home and he's happy to share the blame with me, but he smiles.
Crookedly, and bloodily.
"You didn't ruin anything, Eva. And if for some reason we do die, then just know that this was probably the best week of my life."
He closes the miniscule gap between us, tilting his head down while his hands find my back, and he's right. If we do die, if Marcus does catch up to us and kill us, if no one ever finds us in these woods, or we wind up frozen by the river, at least for a week, we had loved each other.
"We aren't going to die. Not out here." I promise, and I feel desperate to get out of here. It intensifies when he presses his lips to mine for just a second, and we both know we don't have long. His hands are cold, maybe colder than mine, and they press into my skin in an unconscious attempt to warm up.
"Unfortunately, she's wrong. You're both gonna die."
Adam breaks away from me slowly, his hands still on my back, and my heart sinks in disbelief.
Marcus is only a few feet away, staring with a look of utter contempt. I idly wonder if he thought he could have swayed Adam over to his side, whatever that might be. I didn't know all the details, or any really, but there had to be a reason he wanted Adam.
Dead or alive.
It was looking like he was going with dead.
"I told you both to listen and you didn't."
Marcus is looking at me like I'm to blame, and he walks slowly. He's not as fast as he was before, and every so often, he grimaces. He's breathing heavily, his cheeks red and his hair a bloodied mess, but he's on his feet and coming right at us.
He also has a gun and we do not.
"Let's make this easy. Stop fucking around and get over here." Marcus sneers, gesturing for Adam and me to come back toward him. I shake my head no, and so does Adam. "I don't have any patience for your games. If you two don't listen, I'll kill you right here. Your fathers will find your remains and know exactly where they went wrong as parents."
"Fuck you," Adam spits, stepping back instead of forward. "I trusted you. You told me…you told me you were sorry we'd never met before. You said…"
Adam stops as soon as I look at him, and it's clear they've talked. I wonder if he'd seen him before, maybe somewhere in Amity. Maybe they'd talked more than I thought in the few minutes before I found Adam. Maybe Marcus had told Adam all sorts of things, giving him the thin promise of hope that there was a relationship waiting for him with someone who understood him.
Now it's obvious it was all a lie.
Marcus shrugs and his dismissal is clear: he never intended to know Adam, nor had he wanted to.
He just needed him to get back at Four.
"Your father raised a fool. I think we both agree he deserves everything he has coming to him. Now stop screwing around and get over here before I shoot you both myself." Marcus threatens loudly, but he stops when there's a snap of something. It echoes in the dark forest, and it sounds like someone is heading this way. "I said get…over…here. Now."
Marcus hisses at us, but he stops when there is a definite sound of footsteps. It's only recognizable because of a branch snapping and someone swearing, and Marcus freezes.
Then he turns and fires the gun in the direction of the noise.
It echoes immediately, loud and ugly and sharp, but I pay no attention to that.
I grab Adam's hand, praying he somehow understands what we're about to do.
He does.
We head right for the river.
My boots sink into the wet bank, slowing me down further than I'd like, and I only stop because Adam grabs me. I'm roughly jerked back, and his eyes are wide as he shakes his head no.
"We can't. We won't survive. It's too cold and we don't know how deep it is. Or where it goes." He looks left and right, trying to see how wide it really is. The river was our best option out of here, but he had a point. The water had to be freezing, and if we couldn't make it across, we'd be pulled downstream to wherever it went.
"Okay, well now what?"
The panic rises up again, cheerfully reminding me that we have mere minutes. Maybe seconds. Marcus is still yelling at someone we can't see, and our time is slipping away faster than I can think.
Luckily, Adam sees something I don't.
"There. There's a tree up ahead. We have to hurry before he sees us."
I follow Adam blindly, unwilling to look back and see if Marcus is behind us. We sprint further up the bank until I see what Adam is talking about, and I'm surprised he could even see it. We stop in front of a huge, rotting tree that's collapsed across the water. It's fallen gracelessly, now suspended over the river by both banks and nothing more. There are dried, dead branches that extend out like clawed hands, and I almost can't bring myself to move.
But I don't have a choice.
"You go first. I'll be right behind you," Adam promises, and his hands find my waist. He helps me step up onto the tree, and when he lets go, I realize it's incredibly unstable. "Just…. don't look down. It's maybe ten steps across and you'll be fine. We've walked across worse things."
I nod, swallowing down the fear that hits me out of nowhere, and I pretend I'm on the ledge of the roof. I flash back to my father walking with me, his arms right there to keep me safe, never once worried I'd slip.
This is different.
The tree is old, weakened by both the lack of water and nutrients and the violent waters rushing past it. It groans and gives with the first few steps, and I stop when I feel Adam climb up onto it. The whole thing shakes, creaking as he steps near a worn, knotted limb.
"You're almost there, Eva." Adam lies, but I figure I'll find a safer place to call him out on it.
I take another step, slow and precise, and there is a snap as it bows under my weight.
"Adam, I don't think it's going to hold us." I whisper the words, because saying them out loud feels like it's adding weight to the makeshift bridge. "Adam…"
The crunch comes from behind me, winning out over the sound of the water, and I shut my eyes for a moment. The spot I'm standing on is thin, fragile bark over absolutely nothing.
"You're good. Just…pretend Zander is over there, waiting to score you. Gunner would be done already. Rachel wouldn't do it because her hair might get wet…" Adam is right behind me now, and we both freeze at the groan of something beneath our feet. "Kat would be staring at you from the other side, pleading for you to forgive her…"
I laugh at his words, but it turns hysterical when I make the mistake of glancing down.
From up on the edge of the roof, the world was dizzying. I liked the temporary wave of vertigo, the dangerous feeling of the ground being so far beneath me while I was on top of the world.
From the tree, the water is more than dizzying. It rushes viciously, crashing and thrashing against the tree, working to wear it away. It's a swirl of black and blacker water, foaming and frothing where it smashes into itself, and fizzling away to head downstream.
Freezing, icy water, just daring me to fall.
"Adam, don't move…"
The tree cracks apart.
I hear it right as I hear Marcus yelling, and I take off. I get three more steps in, my fingers grasping onto the aged branches to hold myself steady, but it's no use. Adam bumps into me before I can tell him to jump, and I watch the tree vanish right before me as we plunge into a freezing depth I'm unprepared for.
The chill is like nothing I've ever felt before.
It's immediately overwhelming; the icy water rushes all around me, pulling me down with its heaviness. I can't reach the bottom, and my chest tightens up as I frantically try to find the surface. It seems endlessly deep, and my eyes screw shut in an attempt to block out the cold. I finally reach the very top, my lungs begging for air and refusing the water I'd choked down, but it all loses out to the sensation of freezing shock. I push myself higher, glancing around furiously as I try to see Adam.
I don't.
I fumble blindly for him, trying my best to avoid the crumbling chunks of tree around me. The tree has split apart, and I'm forced back underwater as one of the larger pieces knocks me out of the way. It hurts as I struggle to claw my way back up. My breathing comes in choppy pants, I'm unable to steady myself, and my whole body hurts.
I realize we don't have long to get to the other side. Maybe nothing more than a minute before the cold becomes too much, maybe less.
"Adam!" I yell his name, gagging on a mouthful of water as I try to swim forward. My limbs are frozen, both in fear and cold, and right when I think I've lost him, I feel him bump into me.
"Eva, fuck it's so cold."
Adam has the advantage of being taller than me, and despite the fact that he didn't spend his summers in Amity by the lake, he moves easily. His stroke is longer than mine, and he turns to yank me along with him.
"I don't think he can see us." Adam's hands find my waist, and I nearly scream at how cold everything seems. His fingers dig in as he holds on tightly, and for a moment, we fumble to keep our heads above water. I realize he's trying to help me, but it's like we're going nowhere. This part of the river isn't particularly wide, but deep, and the water is moving swiftly. Combined with the low temperature and the shock to my system, getting out feels impossible.
Until I hear Marcus swearing.
"Okay, just…we have to keep going," I gasp, not even sure if I'm really saying anything. It feels like it takes hours to reach the opposite bank, but eventually, my boots hit the sudden rise in the ground and there are enough low hanging branches that I can grasp onto one. It immediately bows as I pull myself up, but I don't have enough energy to do it on my own. My feet drag over the bank, sticking on wet rocks and sopping mud, and I rejoice when I realize I'm out of the water.
That stops a second later.
We'd gotten away from Marcus. It would be impossible for Marcus to cross the river, and while he could shoot at us, it should prove difficult to hit one of us in the dark.
But while we are now safely across the dark waters, we aren't out of the clear yet. I am absolutely freezing. My fingers are so cold they are painful, and my teeth are chattering. Adam isn't any better. He flexes his fingers a few times and shakes them, but the snow and wind make it hard to breathe, let alone move.
"Where….where do we go now?"
I turn to see Adam looking at me, his cheeks red and his hands shaking, and I know our survival rests squarely on my shoulders.
He hadn't grown up here, but I had. I close my eyes for a second, trying to conjure up any memory of the Amity woods that I can, when I hear it.
The low groan of a train, wheezing its way up the hill.
It means it is going the opposite direction we had come from.
It also means we don't have long.
"We only have a few minutes," I reach for Adam's hand, and it hurts to slide my fingers through his. "Come on."
He follows me wordlessly, trusting me to get us out of here, and all I can think is if I am wrong, we might actually die out here.
Marcus or no Marcus.
"Are you okay?"
I kneel in front of Adam, working to pull the wet gloves off his hands and struggling as they stick to his skin. He looks at me before he nods, slow and heavy, and I force myself not to swear.
The train was warm.
It was warm and it felt safe, but I wasn't sure how long it would run for.
It had taken everything in me to reach the tracks. We'd trudged on together, my whole body screaming that I was so cold I couldn't take another step, but I had no choice. I held onto Adam, wiping away the tears that I didn't want him to see and struggling to breathe normally.
It all hurt.
My lungs felt like they were refusing to suck in the cold air. My side hurt. My feet felt both frozen and hot, and my legs were shaking so much that it was hard to walk. Combined with the overwhelming guilt that I hadn't called my father and the panic that either one of us might collapse, it felt like we were up against insurmountable odds.
We could hear Marcus yelling at someone as we walked. We could hear footsteps as they paced the riverbank, trying to figure out if they could get across. His voice disappeared when they chose not to go into the water, which was smart, but I knew they would try to figure out where they could cut us off.
I ignored everything except moving forward. My shirt was sticking to my skin in a way that meant it would hurt to take it off and my feet felt like I'd been running for miles. Adam was silent while we walked, wincing every so often when we slipped, and uttering one fuck when he tripped over a rock. The walk was brutal; it was fueled by our will to live and pure adrenaline, and nothing more.
Our only respite came when we saw the straight section of track and the dull lights coming from the front of the train.
We had a single minute to gear ourselves up, and if we missed, then we'd either fall to our death or die beneath a dazzling fall of snowflakes and the opportunity for Marcus to find us. I held onto Adam as tightly as I could, and I summoned every last ounce of energy to jump. Our chance was fleeting: it came up before we were ready, but it was there.
An open door with light pouring out of it.
We took off together, unwilling to let go of the other, and we landed sloppily. Zander would have marked us down for every aspect. We knocked into each other when we landed, my head hit the side of the door, and Adam nearly fell out, groaning as he sat up too close to the edge and shifted us away from the opening with what little energy he had left.
But we had made it.
It should have been impossible. Both of us were dripping wet. My hair was stuck everywhere, in my eyes, to my cheeks, and to my shoulders. My father's words that his family would die of hypothermia came back to me, and I feared he might be right.
Then I told myself I hadn't come this far to die wearing pants.
"I need your shirt," I scoot closer, attempting to unbutton the first button, but my fingers slip. I'm shaking so badly I can barely see straight, but I know we have to warm up sooner rather than later. Adam stares at me like I'm crazy, but the less wet clothing he has on, the better. "It's too much. We can…we'll stay on here until there's somewhere to jump but we have to try and warm up. I have to get this off you."
"Eva, are you okay?"
Adam sits up suddenly, and he reaches his hand out to touch my head. He presses one cold, trembling finger to my head, and he frowns when he touches sticky blood.
"You're bleeding."
"I'm fine," I ignore him, moving to fumble with the laces on his boots. Just like before, it proves impossible. My fingers were slowly warming up as much as they could. The train car was warmer than outside; it was a break from the freezing temperature, but it wasn't enough to stop me from shivering.
"Eva!"
Adam knocks me away, and he grasps my face in his hands. They are so cold that my eyes shut, and I shake my head no.
"We have to get warm or we'll die. Adam, I have to get your shirt off. It's too cold."
"I know…" Adam stops talking, and he yanks me forward. I lose my balance as the train turns, and I'm reminded of when Rylan strolled through the train car, completely unaffected by the movement. Adam pulls me against him, kicking his boots off without untying anything, and working to get mine off as well.
He's just as cold as I am.
He somehow gets my jacket off, which is really his jacket. We're left shivering in still damp clothes, but it's better than being outside and marginally better than before.
"We're not dying here. Not like this." Adam holds onto me tightly, and his words are a promise. They are confident even as we shiver together, and warm as he touches his cheek to the top of my head. "Not here."
My head falls against his chest, and all at once I realize I am too tired to do anything other than shut my eyes.
"We're safe for a little while. Maybe a half hour…" Adam keeps talking, his hands touching my hair, pushing it off my face and resting somewhere behind my ear. I finally let myself stop for a minute, sinking into the feeling of safety of both him and the train.
It's not permanent.
At some point, we have to figure out where we are and where the train is going, but for now, it's enough.
We both stay silent, and the train presses on, groaning again as it ascends onto a snow lined track.
"Hey, Eva…wake up."
I open my eyes to Adam gently shoving my shoulder, and it takes all my energy to lift my head away from his chest.
I must have fallen asleep. Or maybe I'd passed out from sheer exhaustion, or I was succumbing to hypothermia. Whatever the case may be, everything hurts as I force myself to move away from him to see what he's pointing at.
The rush of cold is immediate.
"I think we should jump soon." Adam looks just as miserable as I feel. He's trying to stop himself from shivering, but it's impossible. There's very little light in the train car, and it's colder than when we first got on. "There's light…we went around this turn and it looks like we're about to go through a faction."
"Where?" I carefully climb away from him, ignoring the bone deep ache that comes along with feeling like I might collapse. I stand right by him, hesitant to go near the open doorway. The train had been fast enough to keep the cold air out, but it felt like I'd get sucked right back into the darkness if I got too close to the opening. "Where are we?"
The answer to my own question is right before my eyes.
The train slows down as it descends toward the street level and the Erudite faction explodes into view. I can't even bring myself to say anything. All I can do is stare as the buildings rise up, and the train slows itself down. There's a nervous groan as it roars over a particularly snowy area of the track, and I swear I can feel it struggle to keep going.
"We can find your grandpa…and…."
I look up at Adam, his stare following mine, and he inches us closer to the door. The wind is painful when it hits my still wet clothes and damp skin, but the hope of being somewhere safe wins out. I lean back against Adam's chest, and we both watch as Erudite sprawls out before us, lush and pretty.
The trees are not twisted or broken here. They are artfully sculpted into neat rows, dotted with a dusting of elegant looking snow and twinkling lights.
"There. We'll jump there." I point to a spot where the tracks bank around the bend. This isn't the same train we'd been on the last time we'd come to Erudite, because it had come from somewhere else. I wasn't even sure how it was running. But it was, and that was all that mattered. The train turns again, taking us away from the exclusive shops of Erudite and closer to the homes and suddenly I know where we are.
The larger homes.
If we timed it right, we'd wind up right by my grandparent's house.
"Are you ready? Can you jump?" I glance up in hopes that Adam looks better, but he still looks pale and tired, and just as exhausted as I am. Maybe more. "We're almost there. Then we'll find my grandpa, get some dry clothes, and we can go home. You and me."
Adam grins down at me, and I pretend not to notice that it doesn't reach his eyes
It's the cold, because I feel it too. If we stay out here any longer, we wouldn't need to worry about going home.
"You and me." Adam repeats, and my heart speeds up right as the train slows down.
"Oh my God! What on Earth happened to you two!"
Camille is the one who finds us.
In my freezing confusion, I'd somehow forgotten she and my grandpa lived in such an exclusive neighborhood in Erudite that we had to be buzzed in. We'd stood at the large gates for a moment, locked and unmoving. In a moment of pure and utter delirium, I'd jokingly suggested we hop the fence. Adam had looked at me like he wasn't so sure I was real, so I found the guard at the gate and asked that he call my grandpa.
He wasn't home, but my grandma was.
"Um, we ran into some trouble in Amity…"
My grandmother grabs both of us, pulling us against her and she squeezes her eyes shut.
The security guard had glared at me like I was tricking him. I tried to tell him who I was, but he stared suspiciously as we walked along, and there was no doubt it was because we looked a wreck. Adam and I were freezing. Our shoes were untied. Our clothes were wet. My head was bleeding, a slow and lazy reminder that I'd hit it while we jumped on the train, and my ankle hurt. I felt like I might fall over and I would most certainly murder someone for a glass of water or a warm blanket.
"Eva…Adam…"
Camille clutches us against her, not caring that our clothes are wet and we're ruining her fancy pajamas. She holds onto us tightly, warm and soft, and unwilling to let go. She only pulls back to yell for someone to come help her, and before I know what's happening, the large entryway doors are shut, and we're escorted upstairs. I don't recognize the other woman in their house, but I dully put together she must work for them. She quickly leads us up the stairs, something that feels like an impossible task, and into a large guest bathroom. She covers us in towels, heavy and thick, and instructs us not to move.
The first thing I notice is it's warm. It's so warm it's almost hot, but my grandmother was always cold. She liked to joke that my grandfather was the only person who didn't care that she kept the heat on, and even now instructs the woman to turn the heat up higher. Adam and I stand there silently while she turns the knobs on the bathtub, and she pauses when the woman returns with her phone.
"Were you in the snow? Is there a storm going on? Daniel is at the hospital, but I'll call him to come home…" she talks while she works, dumping in all kinds of bubble bath and pretty powders. The water swirls around just like the river, and I find myself unable to look at it. "Eva, what happened to you two? Are you alright? Neither of you are saying anything…"
She pauses, looking right at me, and I wonder how on Earth I begin to explain what happened.
"Um, we were in the snow for a while. Then…we had to cross the river and we fell in. There was someone trying to kill us…and we had to get away, so we tried to cross it and the tree broke. It was…it was really cold. But we found train tracks and a train and jumped on it and it took us here." I'm the only one to answer her, and next to me, Adam looks at the floor. He stares at his boots, untied and damp, and he frowns.
He'd caught sight of himself in the mirror, and I knew he was horrified.
We looked awful. Far worse than I had thought, and far, far unlike the two who had stood in my other grandmother's garden and kissed while it lit up. We looked like two people who had nearly died, and still might.
For once, my father wouldn't be happy he'd been right.
"Adam, you come with me. Ally is going to look at Eva's head and I'm going to look at yours. Eva, the water in the tub isn't hot. It's lukewarm, because we need to warm you up slowly. It won't feel great at first, but I promise you'll feel better soon. I'm going to get your grandpa home," Camille stops in front of me, and she touches my cheeks, frowning at how cold I am. "Who was trying to kill you?"
I stare at her, taking in my grandmother's horrified expression and I remember how much she loves me. My mom liked to remind me that she always wanted to spend time with me, and she'd been just as hopeful as my grandfather that I'd pick Erudite. I scrunch my face up while she holds onto me, because after Marcus trying to kill us, this feels like too much.
"Um, Adam's grandfather. Before that it was Jeremy. Blythe and he decided to attack us and…"
"Blythe?" My grandmother's hands slip for a second, but she steels her expression and nods encouragingly. "Okay, so you were in Amity and…Adam's grandfather tried to kill you. Before that, someone named Jeremy attacked you. And he did it because Blythe told him to?"
I nod, wondering if Adam is still conscious. I hear Ally shuffling around behind us, carrying armfuls of towels, and lowly telling my grandmother she'd gotten ahold of my grandpa.
"Does your father know you're here?"
I shake my head no, and I finally work up the courage to look at Adam. He's watching my grandma and me, and every so often, his eyes skate around the bathroom. It's large, almost as large as my parents' living room, and everything is white. There are large mirrors above an extra-large vanity, a large shower flanking the opposite wall, and a glass light fixture that glistens even as Ally turns the lights down.
It's a lot to take in, considering minutes ago we'd been on a train speeding through the woods, not entirely conscious.
"Okay, well…first things first, we get you both warm. We get Daniel back here, and some dinner in you guys. Then we figure out how to tell your dad. Or what to tell him so he doesn't have a heart attack. He should know you're here and you're safe."
I frown at her, aware that someone should tell my father, but really, my grandpa.
I wonder if he knew we were gone, or if anyone had noticed we hadn't returned home for dinner.
The thought of him back in Amity makes my stomach hurt, enough that I have to look away, and focus on the perfectly polished marble flooring so I don't throw up.
What feels like an hour later, I sink beneath hot water and close my eyes.
I'm nearly suffocated by the overwhelming amount of bubbles, but I don't mind. They smell good, not like wet earth or the metallic scent of blood, but happy. Safe. Very much like something that came from Erudite.
I've been soaking in this tub for a while now. My grandmother returned from the other guest bathroom to check in on me, explaining quietly that Adam wasn't taking this as easily as I was. He was fully panicked as she instructed him to strip off the wet clothing, and he'd almost refused to get into the bathtub. It had taken a lot of coaxing and a little gentle reminding that unless he wanted frostbite, he needed to warm up.
He'd finally relented when my grandfather arrived, and he backed up my grandmother's explanation that he couldn't just hop into a burning hot shower and be fine. Warming up would take some time so it didn't shock his system, but it felt like a painfully slow process for people who'd been drenched in freezing water.
My grandma told me Adam had let my grandfather examine him after he was slightly warmer. She said he sat there as stiff as could be, and looked mortified when my grandpa insisted he take a few things to help with the pain.
My grandpa hadn't come in to see me, instead he'd gone to make a few phone calls, but Ally had stitched up the side of my head. I was so cold I could barely feel what she was doing, and after only a few minutes, she announced I was done. She then helped me wash my hair, slathered a heavy conditioner all over it, and told me to relax for a while before I washed it out. She'd drained the tub some to slowly add hot water, and by the time she was done, I felt better. Warmer, less achy, and definitely better than I had been.
I actually felt a lot of things.
Exhausted.
Terrified.
Scared that Marcus would show up here, having somehow made it all the way to Erudite and right up my grandparent's driveway.
Grateful I was alive, but still panicked. I needed to get ahold of my other grandpa and my father, and Adam's parents, too. I still didn't know if Four had figured out what was going on, but at some point, we had to call him or Tris. I could only imagine he'd taken some sort of action after my phone call, but I had no way of getting ahold of him now.
So I don't think about that. I focus on the fact that I can feel my feet again and how warm and lovely this is.
"What's all over your hair?"
I startle so easily that I nearly smack my head on the edge of the bathtub. I steady myself quickly, scowling as Adam watches me with an amused look on his face.
To my relief, he looks almost back to normal.
The clothes he has on mostly fit. The pajama pants are loose, but the shirt is white and pressed so perfectly that there's no doubt it is my grandfather's. His hair is clean and brushed off his face, and his feet are bare.
But he looks warm, too.
His face has color back in it, and even though there's a bruise on his face, his eyes are much more alive than they had been on the train.
"It's a deep conditioner. Ally told me to leave it in for a minute," I sit up carefully, clinging to the edge of the tub and trying not to drown. I'd made it this far, and it would be a shame to come to my death in my grandmother's claw foot bathtub.
"Never heard of it. Should I be using it?"
Adam stops by the side of the tub, and he crouches down to stare at me. He's smirking, like he thinks he's hilarious, so I examine his own hair while I pretend to contemplate his question.
"Yeah, yeah I'd say you need some conditioner."
He smiles brightly, looking so much more alive than when we clawed our way out of the river. He leans in so close I think he might kiss me, but his eyes are fixed on the gash on my head.
"My grandma said you didn't want her help," I blurt out, but he takes no insult to my words.
He shrugs, and I know he's embarrassed.
"I didn't. But your grandma is very nice. Sort of pushy and a little intimidating for someone her size, but very knowledgeable about hypothermia."
"She was a nurse for her whole life," I smile back, and he glances down at my hands on the edge of the tub. "Or, she is a nurse, but she doesn't work as much anymore."
"Well, she's a good one. Whatever she did worked." Adam pauses, and he looks up at the light again. He contemplates something, and his expression turns back to the tense one from earlier.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" I sit up straighter, and my body loudly reminds me to sink back in the water and enjoy the warmth.
"I don't want to admit this, but…. I wasn't so sure we'd make it out of there." Adam's expression reveals the same fears I had, and I wait for him to keep talking. "I thought I was going to lose you, again. Our last minutes together would be us dying, somewhere in the woods and no one would ever know what happened to us."
"I know," I lean closer to him, and the slosh of the water is far different than the river. "I was really afraid back there. I thought for sure that was it. But I refused to let him kill us, no matter what. The only thing that kept me going was that I didn't want this to be it. Not after everything…"
Adam nods, and he reaches out to touch right below the stitches. His eyes narrow, and his own lip is still split.
He's still as handsome as ever.
"Your father is going to freak the fuck out." Adam touches the stitches so gently I barely feel it, and I laugh, because he's not wrong.
My chances of visiting Amity in the near future were probably nonexistent. Actually, my chances of visiting anywhere would be zero, once my dad learned what happened.
"Yeah, wanna take bets on whose security codes won't open anything other than the door to his office?" I smile when Adam's nose touches mine, and his other hand slips into my hair. "I think it's gonna be me."
"Oh for sure it's gonna be you," Adam laughs, and he pulls me toward him. He kisses me carefully, until he's not. His lips crash against mine, not demanding anything else, but reassurance that he and I were alive, and very much okay. "I bet he makes you his secretary."
"No," I groan, shaking my head and breaking the kiss for just a minute. "I'll refuse. I see him enough as it is. I don't need to work for him."
Adam snickers, but we both know returning to Dauntless isn't going to be easy. There was a good chance my father would show up here, presumably losing his shit that we'd nearly died, and this time, fully insisting we go home with him. Then there was Dauntless itself, the whole faction continuing on, blissfully unaware of what had happened.
Our friends, our family, all safe and sound while we'd fought off death.
We'd left the most dangerous faction of all and found ourselves fighting for our lives in the most peaceful one.
It was no fault of our own, but it would certainly make leaving Dauntless a little more difficult next time.
"We'll call my grandpa tonight and our parents tomorrow," I whisper, not wanting to break the spell of this. I don't know if I could ever recapture how good this felt, knowing we were safe here, and if anything, we'd have one more night of just us. "Otherwise, they're gonna show up here and I am way too tired to go all the way to Dauntless. Or to explain what happened."
"Me too," Adam agrees, and he sighs when moves his hands away from me. "I told your grandma I'd come downstairs to get something to eat. She's very worried we're starving. She might be more worried about that than us dying."
"I am kind of hungry," I sink back into the water, and I watch Adam stand up. His eyes lock on mine, and for a second, neither of us are willing to look away. "I'll be out in just a minute."
Adam nods, and he leaves with an air of reluctance.
I want to yell after him to stay, that this separation feels painful, almost as painful as the cold water had been or the slap from Marcus.
Oddly enough, it feels worse than all that, especially when the door shuts behind him and I'm left here all alone.
He examines my head while I eat my toast.
My grandfather sits beside me, carefully moving my hair out of the way and inspecting Ally's work. His expression tells me he's pleased enough, but his frown tells me he's anything but.
We'd run into him on our walk downstairs. My grandmother left clothes for me, warm pajamas that were a bit more practical than those in Amity, but far softer. He'd lunged for me before I could say hello, pulling me tightly against him and grasping onto me so I couldn't move.
Adam had smiled from the side, and the smile stayed there when my grandpa reached for him, too.
He was a little more formal than my other grandpa, but he clung onto us like his life depended on it.
He'd then walked us downstairs and sat while we ate whatever my grandma had made.
"Are you alright? There's nothing broken or…you're not still cold?"
There is an odd pause in his words, but he's being very careful. I know what he wants is to take us to the hospital. If he thought he could get away with it, he'd probably drive us there himself. Check us in as his patients, and make sure we couldn't leave.
Grandpa Harrison kept us in Amity and Grandpa Daniel would keep us in Erudite.
I found myself amused by this thought, but it quickly went away when I realized his examination would continue all night if I let him.
"I'm…. I'll be okay," I reassure him as I stab at my eggs. "It was just a lot. I don't think anything is broken, and I'm really tired, but I'm not cold anymore."
"He hit her in the face," Adam offers, sitting oddly close to Camille. They must have bonded while she lectured him on the treatment for freezing to death, because she keeps feeling his forehead and he keeps letting her. She frowns at my grandfather at his words, and her eyes flick over to my face. "She was bleeding for a while."
"He hit me twice. I think it just bled and that was it. It's not broken," I look up pleadingly, and Adam returns to eating his toast and having Camille fuss over him.
"A grown man hit you in the face?" My grandpa isn't impressed, and he looks even less impressed when my grandma interrupts to tell him it was someone named Marcus. "I see. Well, in the morning, we'll file a report. I'll let Eric know you're here, and someone should call Harrison. He must be going out of his mind not knowing if you're alive or not."
"We should call him. We were supposed to be back for dinner," Adam looks at me, and there's more than a flash of guilt on his face. "Eva, he's got to be worried. We've been staying with him there for over a week."
"You got to stay there for a week?" My grandpa looks jealous and I smile at him reassuringly.
"It's a long story. We were attacked in Amity by a guy named Jeremy. He kept us there because we were going to help him investigate what happened."
"I see," my grandpa still doesn't look thrilled, and he frowns. "You two were attacked twice in Amity? Really?"
"Eva was attacked the first time. Then both of us were attacked the second time. That was different. We were out in the snow, and we got lost trying to figure out where we were…" Adam clarifies, and he pauses to take a sip of the drink Camille hands him. "We should call your grandpa. I feel really bad that he probably has everyone looking for us."
"I know," I take a swallow of my water, and I've never tasted anything so great in my life. "I don't have a phone. I didn't have any way to call him."
"We'll call him after you finish eating. I want to make sure you're both alright," my grandpa promises, and he relaxes a fraction of an inch when we nod. "Camille, did Ally get a room ready for them? I'd say you could go back to Dauntless tonight, but you both have injuries to the head. I'd like to keep you here until I'm sure you're alright. Protocol would be forty-eight hours, but we'll see. I have a feeling as soon as I call, your father is going to head right over here."
"We all know he will," I smile weakly, and I'm suddenly so tired I could fall asleep sitting here. The events of the day slowly add up, leaving me wishing I was back upstairs. "That's fine with me. I think we should stay for the night. I'm too tired to go home."
"Me too."
I glance over to see Camille fixing Adam's hair, and her fingers pause to touch the bruise by his eye. He looks just as worn out as I feel, and he smiles back slowly.
"We'll get you two upstairs as soon as you're done. They can stay in the guest room closest to us," Camille answers, and she reluctantly stands up. "I'll go turn the sheets down now. You want to call Eric? Or you want me to do it?"
My grandpa smiles knowingly, and he shakes his head.
"I'll do it. There's a chance he'll hightail it over here. You call Harrison. Let him know they're here and they're alright. Either way, they stay tonight. Head trauma rules out whatever Eric can come up with."
Adam catches my eye, and he smiles. It's a tired one, but it's hopeful.
We're alive, and with any luck, we'll be fast asleep before anyone tells my father anything.