MPOV
A knife, slashing through the thick cold winter air as if moving through honey. Breath shuddering its way through my scraped-raw throat. There was no time to process, no time to think. The honey molded into my meager curves, freezing me into an impenetrable case. My lids came down against the image of the blade racing towards me, refusing to accept my fate. Life would slip out of me in red rivulets; stained would be the overgrown roots beneath my bare, calloused feet.
A snowflake, so crystalline and pure, landed with a melted kiss on the tip of my reddened nose.
Time snapped into position in one split second, a cold rush of adrenaline screaming through my veins. My eyes popped open with an audible click, the honey case dissipating with a gust of crystalized wind. Creak by joint-popping creak, I unfroze, twisting just as the lethal blade came down on my stark-pale, supple skin. It tore through the thin cotton of my pajama tee, slicing a deep gash that ribboned around from the top of my breastbone to my shoulder blade. Blood instantly bloomed, seeping through the threads of my dad's old concert tee. Two drops of blood slithered down the clean curve of my side and dyed the steadily rising blanket of snow with a sharp staccato scar.
Get moving, Max.
Somehow my brain made a connection with my limbs, and I was suddenly running, all of my muscles moving in a miraculous burst of harmony. Out here in the Dakota forest, it would be easy to get lost from civilization—or in my case, from your hunter. One branch smacked away from my face with a hastily tossed hand and I was encroached in the chuckling shadows of the looming, browning trees. I was producing a hella lot of noise, but not one bit of me seemed to care.
My legs pumped the red, sticky liquid through my veins as I pounded through the underbrush. Pluming clouds of smoke escaped from my parted, gasping lips that were undoubtedly two shades of blue. Caking mud, outstretching claws of branches, angry clouds rolling over the protection of the moon. The sickly suffocating smell of expensive cologne hit me like a punch in the face. Stumbling, I gagged against it, but it was no use; it crawled inside my throat and constricted, strangling me with invisible hands.
Splotches of black shutter-clicked in front of my vision, a sound like defibrillation paddles charging up again after a shock ringing in my ears. Each fluffy, innocent flake sinking down glowed with the comforting illumination of a freshly-lit-fire. Ragged breaths, just under the ringing; I couldn't tell if it was mine or not. The glittering white ground drifted closer just as my brain registered the sopping wet splotching smattering my side.
Darkness consumed everything as the clicking snicker of my hunter drifted sweetly into my ear.
A punch, bruising hard, was delivered directly into the crude stitches knitted into the puckered skin on my forearm. Even through the thick cotton of my spongy sweatshirt, I felt the impact, and I felt it hard. My head jerked up, got tangled in a mass of hair glued together with a drawn hood, and I coughed raspily. Heartbeats thundered against my ribcage painfully, ribs heaving with the over-exertion of labored breathing. Sputtering, I flung back my hood, irises being seared down through the core. A thin sheet of sweat shone all over my skin; even my hair felt damp as I swiped back enough to clearly see a brow-furrowed Fang.
Question marks flashed at me, but I ignored him for the most part. Something else was occupying my attention—a burning sensation just above my breastbone that slowly, with each second that passed, began fading into a faint pins-and-needles sensation. Fingering it gingerly over my sweater, I knew what would be at the source of the stinging. For a long time now, I had completely forgotten about it, but things had changed.
A lot of things had changed in the past couple years.
Sighing warily, I worked a quaking hand against the tense lines that wrinkled my forehead. Glanced up to Fang's opaque eyes. He tapped one long finger at the pressed crescents beneath his eye—I knew that on my face, I'd have enough bags there to rival a ninety-year-old motorcyclist.
Are you tired? The unspoken question hung thinly in the air.
I shrugged off-handedly and stood from the hardness of what this torturous school subjected me to sit in. Books were gathered into my shaking hands, then I was tottering unsteadily out the door, Fang right at my heels.
Truth be told, I was exhausted. Waking up two hours after you fell asleep and lying there, sore down to the cartilage in your bones, not able to drift off again until morning, will do that to you I guess. All throughout my morning classes, I struggled against my lead-weighted eyes, but by fifth period it was no use. I drifted off the second I slumped into the chair and had no regrets.
Except for the memory it dredged up.
The cafeteria was a roar of deafening noise against the silence Fang and I had accumulated. Ella was easy to spot, waving vehemently at us from her position on Iggy's arm. The pale strawberry-blond was whispering words that did well to turn my sister's cheeks into bright red apples. Those two had gotten so close to each other in the past couple days—it made me skittish enough to want to turn right around out the doors. Maybe continue my nap.
Just above my breastbone was that burning sensation again. I shook my ratty hair down to obscure my face in the futile attempt to hide the shadow that passed over my features then.
You're okay now, Max. Just calm down.
All the way to the table, I kept a laser-sharp focus on nothing but the near-inaudible squeak of my sneakers against the linoleum.
"Hey, Max!" Sugary, cheery, sweet—Ella's voice clashed like wind chimes in a tornado against the dark cloud roiling in my head.
As for a response, I deemed it wasn't necessary, and instead plopped heavily down in my seat, goading a shudder out of the table. Ella scooched herself a smidge away from Iggy to lean in for a valid view of my face. I refused to lift my head to meet her gaze, though—every part of me felt heavy, as if someone had unzipped my skin and poured a bag of lead inside of me.
It was an exhausting, lonely feeling.
Abruptly, I was hyperaware of Fang subtly shifting and moving beside me in a way that scooped my attention, but left everyone else unbothered. Through a run in the curtain of my hair, I snuck a quick glance at him and noticed that he had a firm grasp on the smooth pane of his cell phone. My eyes rolled and I settled my chin back on my forearms resting on the table. A vibration skittered through the cool denim of my jeans, but I ignored it. Kept staring blankly ahead at the fake-wood tabletop in front of me.
Minutes passed by without interruption, but I should have known Fang wouldn't let me get by on that. His own cell phone suddenly appeared in my line of vision, forcing me to look at the message he had just sent me. If I had wanted to be childish, I could have simply rolled my head to the side and escape being the social butterfly I knew, deep down, that I was. But this was the Real World, and in it you have to suck it up and gallop straight into the fire. Taking my daily dose of tolerance, I made a small clucking noise and read whatever it was that he was so adamant about.
Do you want to fly away, Little Bird?
My lids closed down in a heavy blink, nice and slow, trying to comprehend the small little letters illuminating in my face. Across from me, I was aware of Ella suddenly tuning in to the tiny exchange occurring between Fang and I, but I didn't care as I lift my head just enough to gauge his expression. It was stoic, as per usual, but an unspoken understanding seemed to crash over us just then in the way that had begun to seem inexplicably familiar.
"What-?" Ella began, but it was of no use. In the one expression I shed for Fang, he seemed to have read my thoughts like an open book. With a tiny jolt that flushed my paling skin, he had my hand and was yanking me free from my seat. I stumbled a tiny bit, stunned, then quickly caught my bearings, sneakers screeching loudly to keep up.
"Wait!"
Ella's voice caught my attention, though she was already so far away. Cricking my neck around, I shot her a tentative smile, not quite sure what was going on myself, but wanting to put her mind at ease.
I'll be okay, my eyes said. She bobbed her head once, and then a crack rang through the air as Fang plowed out the doors.
The halls were near empty as we raced past the cold gray lockers and cream-oak doors, still clasping the other's hand with vice-like force. I wanted to ask what we were doing, but bit my tongue immediately. Despite the moments that had passed between Fang and I lately, I had still only lived in this town for a week. Everyone was still under scrutiny in my eyes, no matter what kind of connection I thought I had with them.
Remember when you believed you had a connection with—
A scythe swung down and sliced through the end of the thought before I could think his name. Now was not the time to think of him. Now was the to let go; the time to be free and escape the harsh nightmares of my life. I was going to surrender to Fang just for today, and I hoped to God he was making me fly far, far away from all the wretchedness that had clamped down around me today.
Fresh, open air was the first thing I sensed before the sunlight seared my fragile eyes. We didn't pause for even a second, the rising drifts of snow seeping through the flimsy material of my sneakers as we trekked. The temperature had dropped well into the forties the past few days, tugging a cloud of warm breath out in front of me. As my eyes adjusted, I could spot Fang's own breath puffing out like a steam engine. The thought made my lips quirk.
About five minutes later, we were so far off school grounds we had actually reached Fang's backyard. It was only then that he slowed down to merely a brisk walk. I coughed a bit in exertion, brows coming together in question—right as I crashed into Fang's back. The heady scent of musky woods and vanilla almonds coated over me as I inhaled. It was an addicting scent that made me reluctant to pace the few steps I took back.
Fang turned around slowly, jerking his thumb towards the mouth of the woods. Excitement performed a tap dance deep within the rebellious flames burning in his eyes. Though it made something in me ache to douse those wild emotions swirling inside him, I had to hesitate. With him skulking somewhere nearby, the mocking, menacing shadows created by the boney hands of branches seemed about the least comforting thing in the world. I tugged meekly on the hem of his sleeve, shaking my head vigorously from side to side and beginning to turn away.
Fang hooked my arm and twirled me around, holding me heart-stuttering close to his chest. I swallowed around the lump in my throat as his feather-light fingers tipped my chin back until I was forced to lock eyes with him. His touch grazed down the length of my arms, sparks flying through the air, and carefully enfolded my hands in his. Never breaking my gaze, he brought our coupled grasp up to his heart, where he gently rested my palm. Its beat was steady and strong, a tether tying me to this weightless tilt-a-whirl of a life. His eyes beamed pure, wholesome truth.
Trust me.
Fang's pleading words sprouted silky wings and fluttered inside me, filling the hollow holes I didn't even know were there. Golden sunshine kissed my skin, warming me despite the nipping frost lingering in the air. The longer I gazed into his eyes, the more certain I became that I could not deny his request. How many people had broken his trust in his life? There was no way I could do the same.
Even though I told myself that was the reason why I tentatively bowed my head, the truth burned as bright as a raging wildfire though my veins. After everything that has happened to me, I needed to know that I could trust someone, too.
Leaves, fallen and brittle from the start of a cruel winter, crunched beneath our careful steps. The beginning of the forest was untamed, all scraps of humanity flaking away the further we hiked. A wave of foreboding crashed over me, but it was instantly subdued with the tight grip of Fang's calloused hand cupping at my elbow to make sure I never faltered. I itched to ask him where he was planning on taking me, but was too content with the silence we captured between us to say anything. He walked with such finicky precision, though, that I knew he had some destination in mind.
After two hops over roots groping for my clumsy feet and a swat at a low branch, Fang pulled me out into his secret spot. The ground was mostly untouched, tall grasses flirting with my knees, but it gradually webbed out to the smooth plain of bone-dry ground that would have been lush green if it wasn't winter. At the end of the field, it jutted out and fell off to open space, plummeting into deep, hushing darkness. We sauntered over to the edge and Fang gestured for me to look down. Obliging, I noted the colossal length between me and the rock-splinter ground. I swallowed the lurch of my pulse jumping into my throat, reveling in the exciting tingle skipping across my skin.
Lips twitching, I risked a glance at Fang, who was watching my reaction with a spark in his eye. When he saw my cheeks flush under his eyes, he grinned knowingly, and gave my hand a quick squeeze. Rolling my eyes, I slipped free from his grasp and got down on the frozen ground, legs dangling off the edge of the cliff. Though I kept my eyes forward to the line of the trees across from us, I knew Fang had settled down beside me with the way my entire right side heated up as if the sun was hovering next to me. My muscles coiled, resisting the urge to shift closer to him. He would have gotten a real kick out of it if I so much as brushed up against him.
A vibration flooded through my pocket and I instinctively fished my phone out. Opened the new message.
Feeling better?
My eyes trickled over towards Fang again as I tapped in a response.
Extremely. Thank you for doing this. You didn't have to.
Yes, I did. You were in pain.
I caught my plump bottom lip between my teeth. Was it that obvious?
No, but I know pain well enough to recognize it in someone's eyes.
My heart closed in on itself, aching painfully. A long moment passed without me replying. There were no sounds out here, other than the whispers of the lingering, browning leaves rustling together. Another buzz.
Life is a frightful dream, no?
As much as it may seem that way now, I can't bring myself to think that—I have to believe there is something out there other than all of this. Something good has to come out of my suffering.
What is the cause of you suffering? You can tell me, little bird. I mean only to help you.
I hesitated a second too long. Why do you keep calling me little bird?
With the way he sighed, I knew he realized that I was trying to change the subject, but thankfully he just let it go.
Maybe I'll tell you one day.
Don't you think I deserve to know where this new nickname came from?
No.
Clucking my tongue, I threw an elbow into his stomach. A playful growl erupted out from the base of his throat, and before I knew it, he had pounced on me, tackling me to the ground in a string a tickles. Uncontrollable laughter bubbled out from my chest, hands desperately trying to pry Fang off me. A grin was spread across his lips as he continued the assault; his hair was mussed, eyes shining bright.
Admittedly, I squealed a little bit when I finally captured his hands in mine, only making him laugh paused then, breathing heavy with big, stupid smiles lighting up our faces. Subconsciously, I was vividly aware that my hair was undoubtedly a tangled rat's nest and I fidgeted to squirm out from beneath Fang to fix it, but he refused to let up. Instead, he tentatively reached out and brushed my bangs away from my face, smoothing them out with a slight wrinkle between his brows. He ducked down, a honey warm flush flooding like a sweet serum through my veins, and rested his forehead against mine. His eyes were fierce, as if he was trying to tell me something, but here, enclosed in our own enclosure of bittersweet silence, neither of us spoke. Just studied each other, afraid that if we did much else, we might slip and fall head-first into the dark paradise we were trying so hard to escape from.
Rolling over onto his back, Fang gently inched me over to rest in the crook of his arm, my head resting against the drum-beat of his heart. The cold air twisting and swirling around us, we stayed there until the sun went down. I sunk into him, letting my guards down completely.
And my God, my heart was soaring.
Hope you enjoyed(:
R&R!
*Shiver*