Red Water Lily

Chapter 7

Lily couldn't believe how stupid and careless she had been, everything had gone so well, and she just had to mess up. Now she was forced to run away without her backpack, without food, without anything except the clothes she was wearing. Tears were running down her cheeks and she didn't bother to look if Ryan was chasing her, she just kept running.

When she was about to run down a hill, Ryan caught up to her and grabbed her arm. She pulled back hoping he would let go, but the ground was wet and slippery so she ended up losing her footing and fell, dragging Ryan with her. They tumbled down the hill and Ryan ended up landing on top of her. They were laying there for a few seconds, catching their breaths before Ryan pulled his head up and looked at her.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he rolled off her and sat up. Lily was fast to try to get away from him, but he quickly grabbed her arm.

"Why do you want to leave?" He asked.

"Please let me go."

"Are you afraid of us- of me?"

"Please let me go." Lily was still crying, her voice quiet and shaky. If she had looked at Ryan, she would have seen by the look in his eyes that he cared about her, and that he was hurt for not being able to make Lily feel safe. But she refused to look at him.

"Do you really think that you will be safer in the woods? Alone? Can you even defend yourself?

"Yes." Lily mumbled, she barely believed that herself so she knew he wouldn't. Ryan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I'll let you go, but only if you follow me back to the house first. I can't get the deer to the house myself, and you need food... And you're hurt again." Ryan said and pointed at her bleeding hand.

"Okay, deal." Lily agreed.

He ripped a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around Lily's hand before he stood up, helped Lily on her feet and started to walk back.

When they got back home, she didn't notice that Ryan had suddenly stopped in the middle of the yard and walked right into him.

"Careful! Someone has been in our house." Ryan whispered. Lily peeked out from behind Ryan and saw that the door was open, and things had been thrown around the yard. Ryan let go of the deer and reached for the knife placed on his belt.

"Stay here, I'm going to make sure there's no one left inside."

"But-"

"No but's, just stay!"

She watched him sneak towards the house with the knife in his hand and kept looking around to make sure no one was sneaking up on him. Things were thrown around the yard, it almost looked like there had been a huge fight. She hoped that Ryan would be okay, if he got hurt she would have to stay and help, it would be the right thing to do since he did the same for her every time she got hurt. Eventually Ryan came out from the house and ran towards her.

"It's safe, no one is in there anymore." Ryan said as he grabbed the legs on the deer and helped Lily pull it towards the house. Something inside of Lily told her that whoever made this mess was somewhere close, watching them. Ryan took his knife and started to take care of the deer while she started to clean up the mess in the yard. She found her bag a few feet from the house and all her belongings had been taken out and spread around. The person who had done it must have been looking for something, but she had no idea what it was or if they had found it. All she knew was that it had to do with her, why else would they look through her bag? While she was sitting on the ground, putting her stuff back into her bag, she was suddenly grabbed by her hair and pulled backwards with force. She dropped the bag she was holding and grabbed her hair instead, trying to make the person behind her let go of it.