Chapter Two
Finally, after the ten-hour hike back to our car through the deep of the night and into the early morning, we drove for a few hours and found a little hotel in the middle of a forest. I was looking forward to a hot shower and a warm bed as well as changing out of the bloody clothes that I was wearing.
They were stiff and reminded me of my most horrible memories—memories of seeing Ryker bloodied and broken on the cave floor, memories of Shad walking away from me as he let Cade take away his soul’s melody.
Still, they also reminded me of one of the best memories I owned: Shad holding me, and our first shared kiss.
I looked out of the window as we drove into a parking lot, trying not to think about Shad's lips on mine in that small cell, trying to forget about his hands holding me close to him and the promises that he made to me, promises that I feared would never be fulfilled.
It was my best and it was my most painful memory, and I felt tears drip down my face as I thought of it.
I wanted to punch something—shatter the glass of the window.
I wanted to pulverize anything and everything. I wanted him back—us back—us together.
“Are we close enough to see Ryker?” I asked as Mary parked the car. The sign, “Log Tree Hotel,” was lit up in bright neon lights and made the inside of the car glow. How was it night already? Time was speeding by, and I was totally oblivious.
“I have to check my phone. I think my messages should have loaded by now.”
I watched as Mary turned on her phone and read through her messages.
“It looks like we are a half-hour away. Should we keep driving? Do you think? To be closer? This is the first cell service I’ve been able to get out here,” Mary said, looking to Shad and then at me.
Shad looked out of the window. “I don’t know this Ryker person,” he said. Shad didn’t know anyone anymore, not even himself.
“Yes, if it’s really only a half-hour more, it would be nice to be close so that we could get to him whenever he needs us,” I gulped.
I looked over at Shad after I spoke. I could only see his profile in the glowing light of the hotel sign as he glanced out the window.
I took in a shaky breath, trying to restrain myself from jumping into the back seat and kissing him senseless and begging him to come back to me, to remember me.
Mary nodded and reversed out of the parking lot.
As we drove down the twisted road, I drifted to sleep.
The quiet of the car, the slow movement from the turns, caused me to calm a bit, and exhaustion finally overcame my mind; thankfully, my mind went blank.
“Emma, we are here. The hospital is only one block away.” Mary was unbuckling me and speaking to someone.
“Can you?” she asked, and I barely heard her—for the sounds were muffled again.
My eyelids were so tired that I couldn’t open them.
I tried to move, tried to, but my body had given up, just as my mind had.
The blackness of sleep was comforting. I wanted it back.
As two hands pulled me into two arms, I felt the electric current flow between us, and my eyes opened as his electric touch seemed to jump-start my body. Shad was carrying me into the hotel, and I knew that I had to have had the biggest smile on my face because my cheeks were hurting.
“Why are you smiling?” he asked as I lifted my head to look at him.
“You are carrying me. I don’t know.” I felt my face grow warm. How embarrassing, he will not only think that you are useless, but also that you are obsessed with him. Emma, stop it; play it cool, I tried to coach myself.
He rolled his eyes as if I were some idiot child that he had been forced to deal with.
Great, already lost this match; one point goes to Shad.
I don’t know why I am helping my captor,” he said, looking away from me. “Mary said your name is Emma and that you are a princess.” The way he spoke my name sounded so wrong as it fell from his lips with so much confusion and anger in its tone.
I looked at him, and I wanted so many things. Still, he was not himself—literally, and I would save him from that prison, just as he had saved me from my sorrow, from the snake that almost killed me all those months ago.
I can do this.
But can you? I pushed that negative thought away immediately after it popped into my head. I couldn't focus on that.
I won’t fail. Failing isn't an option, not with him. “That’s what they tell me, but I don’t know what or who, exactly, I am anymore these days,” I answered, leaning my head against his chest as he continued to walk.
“But we didn’t capture you.” I listened to Shad's heartbeat. It still sounded the same, beating in time with my own. I was still so tired, and my body still ached, but being in Shad’s arms made me happy and content in the moment, and I didn't want to lose that feeling. I would take whatever I could get from him whenever I had the chance. I knew that eventually he would hate me; he would resent me, for loving me had cost him his soul’s melody.
“Mary got two rooms. You are sharing one with her, and I am sharing the other with Keil.”
I nodded as I watched his mouth move, felt the vibration of his voice as I kept my head against his chest.
Words from our time in the cave floated to me.“I want to be the kind of friend whose lips know your lips so intimately—that I know them better than my own.”
I was sure that my cheeks were bright red. He looked at them and then eyed me with a million silent questions bursting from him, but he held them back. “You make me—frustrated.”
“I make you ‘frustrated’? How?” I whispered.
“I should know more about things, and you know them all, and yet you won’t tell me. It is cruel and frustrating.”
“And that makes you frustrated with me? Mary won’t tell you either.”
“Yes, and I know Mary’s reasons. She explained them openly. But you? Why are you not telling me? Are your reasons the same as hers? You think that this Keil will tell me everything I need to know better than you could?”
Our eyes met.
“You—something happened to you—in that cave. You remember the cave we walked through?”
He nodded and clenched his jaw, as though along with the memory came the deep pain that he had experienced while within.
“In that cave, that’s where you tried to be all heroic and save me.”
“It seems as though it worked, whatever I did,” he replied with a side smile that lit up my entire body. “You are saved, are you not, Princess?”
Oh, how beautiful it was to see him smile, even just slightly. I could forgo the use of “Princess,” however. I ached to hear him call me ‘darling’ again, even just once more.
“It worked, but at your expense.”
“It made me forget who I am? Everything?”
“Yes.”
“Why would I do that? Why would I do that—for you?” he asked, looking ahead of his stride as he walked.
“I told you before, because you are an idiot.”
“I remember unimaginable pain, and then you,” he added as we reached the brown hotel door. The hallways were brightly lit; the carpets were ornate with colorful, swirly patterns. It was all too pleasant for the pain of the situation, for the discord I was feeling.
“I tried to help you, tried to stop you,” I said, looking away from the hallway carpet to look upon my bandaged hands.
“You did?” he asked as his arms shifted, and he set me down. My legs, they were so weak, yet they still held me up.
“You wouldn’t listen to me, though, and then someone took—” I stopped talking. I wasn’t the right person for it. I couldn’t say all the right words that he needed to hear.
“A part of me?” he asked.
I looked up at him; then he folded his arms across his chest as if his heart hurt, and I imagined that it would break into a thousand pieces if he didn't hold it in place with his strong arms.
“Yes,” I whispered, looking at my feet. I wasn’t wearing any shoes, just a pair of what used to be bright, hot pink socks, but were currently caked with mud as well as with Rykers blood, mixed with my own.
“Mary said that Keil, this man named Keil, will give me more answers.”
“He knows you well. He has been with you a long time.”
“That’s good.”
“So, you really remember nothing, nothing from before the pain of the cave?”
He looked at the floor in front of me. "I know nothing. Some stuff, basic things, are just fuzzy, like I can just barely reach them."
“I am so sorry. We will do all we can to help you, to help you remember and get your memories back.”
He nodded and unfolded his arms, running fingers through his shiny, black hair. “Can you please just tell me, what exactly happened in that cave, at least? Not who I am, just that much? I need to know.”
I turned as I heard the door open behind me; it was Mary.
“Hey guys, we should get some sleep so we are rested for tomorrow.” Mary looked at Shad. “Shad, Keil will come in the morning to get some sleep. After that, he will try to explain things to you.”
Shad nodded, and I looked at him as he crossed, then uncrossed, his arms over his chest again.
“Are you both—are you my family? No, that’s not right. I had a family,” Shad mumbled.
“We are your friends,” Mary responded, walking into the hall near Shad. “I am sorry this happened to you, but I promise, we are trying to help you.”
“Thank you, I am glad I have friends, and I am glad you did not attempt to murder me.” He smirked at that last part.
“I am sure you are, as are we—there has been enough darkness during the last few days to last a lifetime. You have nothing to fear from us,” Mary said with a sad smile.
“You have a family, too, but they are far away—is all,” I blurted, receiving a hard look from Mary.
“Far away?” he asked, looking at me. “On Terra? We are in a different realm–” He looked shocked, and I looked back at Mary, who was also surprised.
“This is Earth, ” Mary breathed.
“Is my sister okay? My mother? Embra?” His eyes looked from me to Mary, quickly, clearly searching for answers.