Sorry I wasn't able to update sooner. I've been working on the epilogue chapter of 'The Sweetest Revenge.' If you haven't read it, check it out once you're done reading this. As most of you have guessed in their reviews, this chapter is the part where Matt finds Mimi.
Chapter 5:
Don't think of it, Mimi. Nobody knows where you are. Nobody can find you. Still, the edge of her peace started to curl at the sound of the ferry's horn. Once a day it delivered supplies, mail, and possibly people.
Out here in her refuge of growing fog, she listened for Sister Berta's footsteps on the rocky path, but only the gentle lap of water against rocks reached her. Was there a problem this afternoon? She fiddled with the aperture ring on the camera Sister Berta loaned her.
Let it go, Mimi. Sister Berta wouldn't spill her secret.
Mimi imagined five-foot-two Sister Berta in a showdown with one of Michael's thugs. She laughed out loud and the fog swallowed her voice, replacing it with the quiet push and pull of water on rock.
After the chaos of the past year, this time of silence was a blessing. She lifted the camera and forced herself to relax into the calming rhythm of nature around her.
Back to basics, Mimi. The first essential a good photograph was awareness. What personal statement did she want to make today?
"Part of finding peace," Sister Berta said when Mimi first showed up on the convent doorstep begging for sanctuary, "is finding oneself."
And there in the cool afternoon air, with a pale white haze on the horizon, Mimi could almost believe she'd have a chance at connecting with her lost self…and surviving for another eight days.
Though the Sisters of the Sacred Heart were in the midst of their summer tourist season, Sister Berta found a room for her in the old convent. People came to Retreat Island at times of transition…divorce, death, milestone birthdays…that made one person want to look deep into his self or beg some higher source for answers to questions that really had none. But the quiet time did heal and it had a way of leasing one to some sort of peace.
There were no televisions here, no schedules, no hectic running from one appointment to the next. There was room for a dozen overnight visitors to find their own voices in the silence. They could join the sisters in their daily prayers. They could work in the gardens. They could walk in the woods. If someone needed to talk, a sister was there with a willing ear. Chapel bells woke the residents at six every morning, and small signs on the walls discreetly reminded guests that their silence was their gift to their companions.
Though Sister Berta insisted they had a full house, the island was big enough that Mimi hadn't run into any of the other guests. They, like her, were seeking solitude. And two days into her ten-day retreat, that sense of peace was starting to envelop her as thickly as the fog tucking around the island.
Fear retreated and she lost herself in the beauty of nature around her. She looked through the lense of her camera. The scent of flowers, sea air, and damp earth connected her to the here and now and grounded her to her surroundings. Crouched among the rocks and boulders that lined the western shore, she aimed the camera at the departing ferry that was moving into the fog like some sort of spaceship and snapped the shutter.
Mimi heard Sister Berta's footsteps crunched on the path. All was safe for another day.
Her sigh filled the night air. With a smile she straightened, threw her head back and spread her arms like Julie Andrews at the beginning of The Sound of Music, then twirled on her rocky perch to meet Sister Berta. Before she could start singing, the sight of a single white flower bending over a ledge of rocks caught her eye. She lifted the camera and took a picture of the lone flower.
Sister Berta's footsteps stopped on the trail.
"What took you so long?" Mimi asked, moving one foot to a neighboring boulder in order to accentuate the flower's petals. "I was starting to think something happened."
"Your Sister Berta is one tough lady. It took me half an hour to convince her I was one of the good guys."
At the sound of the male voice Mimi jerked around, lost her footing on the wet rock and landed hard on her back. Fear climbed up her body. How could Sister Berta have trusted anyone after what Mimi told her? Men…all men…were a threat to her. No matter how charming…especially of they were charming…they belonged to Michael, and the only thing Michael wanted from her was permanent silence. Scrambling to her feet, she managed to get up and over the rock, away from this threat.
"Mimi! Hey, wait, no!" The tall figure ran after herm swearing as he slipped on the wet rocks. "It's me, Matt."
"Matt?" Heart hammering, she froze, holding the camera against her heart like a pitiful shield. Matt once had a way of making her feel as if her mere presence in this world made it a better place. What teenage girl didn't want to see herself as a goddess in a handsome boy's eyes? Then she ruined it all with just a few words. "What are you doing here?"
"Can we climb down from here?"
"No." She needed distance. This was too unexpected, too shocking. Matt was here. But it's the wrong time and wrong place. She shivered and wished she'd worn a sweater over her sleeveless blouse. He moved away from the fog and she sucked in a breath.
Familiar features formed as he drew closer, and the sizzle she'd thought of as a teenage infatuation stirred her blood. His blonde hair still supported a salon 'do'. His high cheekbones still begged a camera's attention. His lips were still tempting. He still wore the mirrored shades he's taken up in high school. Cool then, scary now because she couldn't read his intention in his eyes.
Her hands tightened around the camera and she struggled with her desire to inch it up to her eye to capture this man from her past. That sexy smile. That careless pose. That air of endless time on hand. She admired that survival instinct in him, that fire to succeed that no one could douse no matter how much water they threw at him. That relentless ability to pursue suited his job, but it would also return her to a captivity that doomed her to die.
"Stay where you are."
"I'm here to help you, Mimi."
"I was safe until you showed up." She stepped up to the next boulder and away from the frustrating tug of outgrown teenage hormones that once made her do crazy things like swan dive into the lake to get his attention.
Balancing himself on the slippery soles of his leather shoes, he followed her. "I don't work for Sheer. I don't work for the police. I work for a private firm and I'm here to help you. You know me, Mimi. Trust me."
"I can't. Leave me alone." She continued putting distance between them. She couldn't trust anyone. She was learning that lesson blow by painful blow. Look where trusting Sister Berta had gotten her. Where would she go now? "How did you know where to find me?"
"A lucky guess."
"Sora." Tears blurring her path, Mimi reached out to steady herself on a neighboring boulder, then continued her upward climb on the hill. How could Sora have sold her out? Even to Matt?
"She didn't say a word." Matt puffed too close behind her. "Why won't she open the door for me?"
"You left her…"
"I had no choice."
"…and you asked me to go with you instead."
He slid a mumbled curse. "That was different."
"Not to her." Not when Sora knew her only protection from her mother's hard life was Matt. But he couldn't know, and it wasn't Mimi's place to tell him. "How did you find me?"
"It wasn't that hard. People tend to go back to what's familiar. You're parents are dead. Sora's too obvious and too close to home. Who else could you trust? Then I remembered your mother's college friend who used to take you to see all those musicals in Tokyo when you were a kid. I had a hell of a time tracking her down. Who would've thought a theatre major would end up in a convent?"
She hoped no one. Her mother died so long ago and Sister Berta hadn't been an active part of Mimi's life since then. Mimi assumed Sister Berta wouldn't show up on anyone's radar. Except Matt's because he knew her so well. What if Michael's hired goons followed him? "Please, Matt, if you really do care for me, go away."
"You know, between you and Sora, my ego is taking quite a beating."
"Then you shouldn't have come back to the people who can hurt you."
"You have to testify. I can keep you safe until then."
It started to rain. She reached the top of the hill and looked down at Matt, struggling for footing on the rocks below. She missed him. But after the way she hurt him, she had no right to expect him to put his life on the line for her. She wasn't the old Mimi, and he wasn't the old Matt. A lot of stuff had happened to both of them.
"Go away, Matt. Please leave me alone."
"I can't, Mimi, not this time."
She didn't wait to see if he made it safely over the last muddy stretch of cliff. She ran through the woods and then something moved to her right. A deer? She turned her head but saw nothing. Matt made her imagine Michael's minions all around her.
"Mimi!" The alarm in Matt's voice froze her. A moment later he tackled her to the ground. The hard tackle jammed the camera into her chest, stealing her breath. A second later something hit the tree at her side; chunks of bark fell onto her arm.
"Stay down," Matt said, then took off after whoever shot at them. He disappeared into the fog she counted as a blessing only moment ago.
Desperately trying to get her breathing properly, she clawed her hands at the earth on her side. This could not be happening. Not here. This was a safe place. Drops of rain splattered around her. She'd been wrong and she had to get away fast. Tonight, she had to disappear again.
"Can you stand?" Matt's hand reached down to help her up.
She nodded and sat up, clutching her chest where her camera hit, and finally getting air into her lungs. "I'm…fine. Did you…get him?"
"No, he got away."
She didn't realize until then that she counted on Matt to catch him and give her a chance for a safe getaway. The bitter hiccup of tears joined breaths. "I have to…get back…Sister Berta…must be worried."
Matt's hand didn't let go of her arm. "Mimi." He opened his left hand. There on his palm rested the proof that her safety was nothing more than illusion.
A/N: Hmmm, what could that be? And what happened to the guy who tried to kill Mimi? Where did he go? Howcome Matt never caught him?Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Oh, and by the way, I have updated the Epilogue chapter in 'The Sweetest Revenge.' Check it out!
Don't forget to review! Thanks!