Chapter Twenty-One #2
Since we were children, we could sense each other’s feelings and intuitions. It was like we operated on the same low frequency. A buzzing, like static electricity, coursing through our heads and fingertips, allowing us to keep track of each other.
On long summer days, we’d disappear into the woods for hours, making flower chains, climbing trees and being our feral little selves.
Clo never worried about us, because she understood the unseen cord that bonded us.
Allowed us to navigate the woods as one.
Lia was our compass, Aster our discerning eyes, and me, I was watching, tracking, the movements of the animals.
During those long days, we hardly spoke to each other, our heightened connection more vital than actual words.
‘I’ve been in combat zones,’ Bryce argued. ‘Had to hunker down with troops in some pretty uncomfortable spots in the desert. I can keep up. And if what you say is true about needing to find her as soon as possible, you need another set of eyes.’
Lia made that triple tap on her arm, but I didn’t have any other suggestions on how to keep him away.
‘We have a lot of ground to cover,’ Lia said, relenting. ‘Don’t make me regret letting you come along.’
He gave my sister a nod, and the four of us spread out. Every few minutes one of the crew or Lia would call out for Mara, but the forest remained eerily silent and still.
As we hiked up the trail deeper into the woods, I grounded myself in the soil, that low buzzing spreading over my body like warm bathwater.
With a few deep breaths, I opened myself to feel any hint of Banjo.
Aster took small steps, using her attachment to people’s color, and sense of emotion, to try and tap into Mara’s path.
The tense set of her jaw warned she wasn’t having any luck.
Lia’s head was on a constant swivel, scenting the air, going still every few minutes to see if she could hear or sense any movement. More than once, she warned of unsteady boulders and fallen branches ahead before we reached them.
The tension between us was palpable. A dull ache throbbed beneath my breastbone. Like they felt it too, both girls massaged a hand against their chest.
Bryce stayed a few paces behind us, the heat of his stare burning into my back.
When I turned to meet his gaze, he was back to watching Lia.
Keeping track of Aster’s movements. I pretended like I didn’t see them, but rabbits, marmots and chipmunks peeked their way out of the bushes.
Hovered at the edge of the path like they were waiting for me to pass.
Having Bryce here was dangerous, but it was too late now.
We spent another forty minutes on the trail until we reached the first open ridge.
Lia passed around a water canteen. Once we’d wet our lips, taken a few gulps, we continued along the narrow, rocky path.
A swath of aspens spilled out in front of us.
The churn of the Arkansas River thirty feet below made the air cooler.
Lia’s crew walked fifty yards ahead, continuing to call out for Mara. We stayed in a single-file line and were almost to the next ridge, which led farther into the forest. I tugged my sisters to the side of the trail while Bryce hung back.
‘Do you think she even came this way?’ I said.
‘I get a brief scent and then lose it on the growing wind. And I’m hearing nothing but the whoosh of the river below,’ Lia said.
‘Ast?’ I prompted.
‘No sense of any kind of heightened emotion, which you’d expect from a young girl lost out here.’
‘What about up ahead?’ I said. ‘Sometimes you can see much farther than either of us.’
Her chin tipped down and she shook her head.
‘We have to keep moving. I worry about what will happen once it gets dark,’ Lia said, taking off on the trail again. Aster and Bryce followed, but I remained a few steps back, trying to catch my breath and not give in to the fear that we were searching in the wrong place.
The group disappeared at the arc of trees that led away from the ridge and into the forest. That buzzing remained at a fever pitch, causing a blinding throb in the back of my skull.
As I took a moment, a dozen pika hopped out of the dense brush.
The small, furry creatures resembled rabbits but with no tail.
They raced to the edge of the path in a frenzied mass and stopped as if glancing over the trail’s edge.
I inched closer. The wind skirting through the trees, gentle sway of branches, were all the normal kinds of forest music I was used to.
I waited. Stayed still, anticipating the small creatures’ movement back into the brush, but they remained frozen in place.
A pull in my gut urged me forward. My chest ached and that throb in my head moved to my temples. Banjo was close.
I slid down onto my belly a few feet away, my pink coveralls skidding across the dirt. Inch by inch, I crawled to the edge of the ridge, my movement sending the pika fleeing back into the safety of the forest.
At least fifteen feet below was a ledge covered in a clump of trees.
A flash of something silver, a dog collar, made me jump to my feet, but as soon as I was upright, I calculated my mistake.
Loose gravel and dirt slid out from under me as a portion of the ground gave way, taking me straight down with it.