We walk, determined to get to my sister. We should get to her by nightfall. As we walk, we talk, but the talking ceases to continue when we run out of things to talk about. The silence is eerily creepy and reminds me of every time Anastasia ever cried. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, but she was crying. Everyone knew she was, too. Silence spilled all of her deepest fears and secrets.
I picture her in my head, on a cold concrete floor, chained to the wall. I can imagine her beaten and bruised, her peridot eyes filled to the brim with hot tears, and it makes me sick to my stomach.
Tears begin to roll down my cheeks again and Ash looks at me in concern. I shake my head and the breeze whips my charcoal hair out of my face, chilling my tears. "Cancel, cancel, cancel."
My stomach growls and I dry my tears. Ash hugs me close. "Mercy, I'll get us food." He tugs me into the woods and gets his rifle out.
I sit on a tree stump. "I'm gonna just stay here. I've got a lot on my mind. Bring us back some kind of meat."
He nods and disappears into the woods. I pull my knees to my chest, waiting on him. I hear a shot and see that he's dragging a deer back. That was fast.
He pulls it to where I'm at and begins to skin it and clean it or whatever people do to deer before they cook it. I stand and gather sticks and twigs to build a fire with.
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"I'm too full to move!" I lay back on the ground.
He pokes my stomach. "Oh goodness! You are!"
I groan. "No! Don't poke me. I'll puke."
He scoops me into his arms and nuzzles me. "Mercy, baby, I love you."
"I love you, too, Ash." I snuggle against him.
"You better." He laughs and puts me down.
"Ash, did they send someone to kill Keagan? Would Monroe do that to make me suffer?" I look into his eyes, searching frantically for an answer to my random question.
"I wouldn't put it past him, but don't dwell on it. It'll just make you more upset and you don't need that." He pulls me into his arms and kisses my head.
"Okay." I lay my head on his chest and sigh.
"We should get moving. We're almost there. Two more hours at the most." He pulls me to my bags and hands them to me.
We walk to the road and he takes my hand in his, sweetly caressing my fingers with his thumb. Finally, after about ten minutes of silence, he speaks. "What's your favorite color?"
I laugh, due to his unexpected question. "Purple. Why did you need to know that? And what's yours?"
He shrugs and kisses my fingers. "I just never knew. And it's black. Favorite food?"
"Deer steak!" I grin and nuzzle his shoulder.
"Mine, too!" He pumps his fist into the air.
"What's your favorite type of music?" I look up expectantly, hoping he'll say one of the forbidden genres so I don't look like too much of a rebel. Anything that isn't child-appropriate is against the law.
"Rock and roll, baby!" He laughs.
"Mine, too! Favorite book?"
"Science fiction." He blushes. I guess he doesn't think it's manly.
"How much do you love me?" I blush and watch my feet as I walk.
"When you're away, I ache for your presence, baby." He squeezes my hand.
"I'm not away now." My voice is barely a whisper.
"I'm not aching. I'm throbbing for you to be closer." He curls his pinky into my belt loop and I do the same to him.
"Is this close enough?" I pull him closer so that our hips are touching.
"You wouldn't be close enough even if we shared the same body."
"So you're saying we'll never be close enough?" My heart freezes and shatters inside my chest.
"I'm saying that I want to be as close as we can get physically, but even that isn't close enough. I want to hold you as tight as I can without hurting you but even that isn't tight enough. I want to give you kisses that last for hours, but even hours aren't long enough." He pulls me to a stop and looks into my eyes.
"I feel exactly the same." I smile, my heart gluing itself back together.
He pulls me closer to him and kisses me gently, holding me tight. Then, we resume walking. Not much longer now. We bask in the comforting essence of love and silence for the rest of the first hour.
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