Requiem

Chapter Nine:

Morning hits hard. 

Jasper wakes me gingerly, shaking my shoulders slightly. Sebastian simply moves forward and Monique, who was leaning against him, ends up falling face first into the ground. She jump starts awake and spits out a mouthful of dirt. Gritty streaks of gray and brown stain her cheeks and forehead and chin. 

I snicker. 

Jasper lightly nudges me off of him and stands, turning to offer me his hand. I swat at him and stand without his help –using the tree to pull myself up. His baby blues roll. 

I brush the dirt off my butt and back. 

Monique stands and shouts something unintelligible at Sebastian before wiping her face off. I adjust the sword on my back. My shoulders roll, a feeble attempt to work the kinks out. Jasper slides his gun into his holster. 

“Climb.” Sebastian shoots me a look. 

After a few moments of heavy glaring, I turn and search for a suitable tree. The one Jasper and I were using as a bed last night is too thin. I find one swiftly and jump up, fingers curling around a branch. I hoist myself up onto it, using the tree trunk to push myself up, and then slowly begin to climb with one leg. 

I obviously don’t move very fast.

Squeezing the trunk in a death grip, I weasel myself up higher, until I can’t go any further. I peer around the side and my eyes scan over the treetops. 

Nothing; there’s not even a bird or a cloud. 

I swivel around against the tree trunk, shifting so I face another direction. Something glints against the sunlight. I gasp and shift closer. And the trunk snaps beneath me. 

“Oh!” My voice cracks up an octave as I slowly start to fall back, arms coiling tighter around the trunk in my grasp. 

An ear splitting shriek rips past my lips –for all but a short burst. My stomach leaps up into my mouth, cutting the scream off instantly, and I let go of the branch, batting it away from my face. With a sickening lurch, my fall is halted by two strong arms. 

I blink, swallowing back sickness. 

“Why hello there, fancy you dropping in.” Jasper imitates a horrible English accent, smiling cheekily. 

I groan loudly in warning. Jasper slowly sets me down, feet first, and my knees buckle. I stumble forward, cringing at my ankle, and collapse to my knees. I promptly throw up what little is left in my stomach. Fingers tug on strands of my hair, holding the loose strands back away from my face. 

Once I’m finished, I shakily wipe the back of my hand across my mouth and sit up. 

Monique lets my hair drop, a mildly disgusted look on her face. I shoot her a thankful one and slowly stand, quickly averting my eyes so I don’t see the contents of my stomach.