Runaways- Runaways 1

Chapter 30: Peyton

I was sobbing uncontrollably. I should have been the one taking the bullets, not him. I should have been the one dead. Heck, if we'd found a way around this stupid forest no one would have died in the first place. My shoulders shook and I willed myself to stand up, but I couldn't. This couldn't be how our relationship ended. Our short relationship was too short.

I felt someone wrap their arms around me from behind. I expected it to be Marcus, but it was Luke. I couldn't help myself. I leaned back against him, resting my head on his shoulder. This felt so surreal. Like it wasn't happening. But I'd seen it with my own eyes.

"This is my fault," I muttered hoarsely. Luke pushed away and shook his head.

"No, it's not. There was something he'd been hiding. I'm sure he did everything he could to protect us from it, but whatever it was was what killed him. Not you. This is not your fault." Marcus and Aaliyah knelt down beside us. We stretched our arms around each other in a four-way hug.

I saw Aaliyah's eyes glimmering with tears. Marcus and Luke were both quiet and sullen. Then Marcus checked the time.

"We've been out here an hour," he said quietly. "We need to move. Especially since we're in a park. Who knows what the rangers thought if they heard the shots? I don't know what the hunting laws are here."

"Bodies?" Aaliyah said it like it was a question. Her voice cracked almost inaudibly. Marcus nodded.

"We'll cover them somehow." We turned to face Eli's body again, preparing to bury it in the leaves, but what we saw wasn't the same brown-haired, blue-eyed teen I'd kissed this morning. His short red hair was in a buzzcut and his eyes were a dark brown. He was taller than he'd been only minutes ago. It was like looking at a different person. Aaliyah shrieked.

"What the hell?" Luke exclaimed. I blinked and shook my head, as if it was a hallucination. But clearly it wasn't if they were all seeing it too.

"Something is very wrong here," Marcus stated.

"Duh," Luke agreed. I looked behind us at Natasha's body. She looked relatively the same. I had no idea what was going on. It had to have something to do with what he didn't tell us.

"Let's just bury him and get going. Her too. No point in figuring out what's going on right now. For all we know, it's a dream," I said. I knew it wasn't though, no matter how much I wished it was. I wished we could go back in time by an hour. Prevent all of this from happening.

"How do we even know that's Eli?" Aaliyah asked. Marcus shrugged.

"No one else was here."

I shuddered. I had no idea how we were going to figure all this out. I wished Eli could have explained it to me before he died. It would be so much easier. Even easier if he hadn't died at all. I forced back the new stream of tears trying to spill over. We'd work this out.

We decided to camp on the edge of the forest. After another hour or so of walking, we reached a suitable spot. Marcus had offered to take over my watch shift tonight since I hadn't slept the night before. To be honest, I didn't know if I would sleep tonight.

I was exhausted, true, but my dream had been reoccurring every night, and now with Eli's secrets, I started to wonder if it was linked to something. I stared at the stars for a long time while I laid next to Aaliyah. She fell asleep after just a few minutes, leaving me alone.

I must have fallen asleep because the dream came back.

☁

I was prepared for the terror of it all this time, especially after facing Eli's death in real life.