Ephemeral

Midnight Dinner

I numbly took my seat at the large dining room table --

I was still in a complete state of shock from how everything had fallen apart so quickly. I had a chance to call for help and I wasted it by a wrong choice that I had made --

I had tried to climb up the highest tree that I could spot.

It was only after about ten minutes since Zander and I had finished our solemn yet unsettling conversation in the forest. I began to climb up into the tree, watching where my feet had landed to prevent sliding. I could practically hear my pulse echoing loudly inside of my ears, muffling out all the other noises that were taking place around me.

Focus --

I was focused.

I could taste the victory that I was about to achieve – I was going to save the other students and also send Aidan, and his brother, to what I hoped would be federal prison with just a single click of a damn magical button that was resting around my neck.

Unfortunately...my luck had not improved at all from earlier.

As I kept climbing up the tree, I must have sprung a trap that I couldn't see. I hadn't made it up very high – about nine feet above the ground. A sharp burst of electricity suddenly shocked my entire body, and I lost my grasp on the tree. My arms tried to latch onto the base of it, though they fell limply to my sides and my legs that had been wrapped around the base, keeping me in place...had turned numb instantly.

I fell backwards while convulsing lightly as my nerves were shot --

The shock was meant to stun and not to kill – lucky me.

I tried to get my bearings quickly as I stared up into the night sky. I could see the blurry stars gazing down at me, taunting me with their soft glow. They had a freedom that I wasn't privy to, and I felt the burning self-loathing of my failure stab directly into my heart.

Fuck those stars...

I breathed out, or at the very least, tried to...I didn't have any strength to continue.

So, I laid there -- relentlessly staring up at the sky with a glare permanently etched onto my face.

Continuously cursing the stars and everything that they stood for because I wanted someone, or something, to blame for the predicament that I had currently found myself in. This shouldn't have happened this way – my plan should have worked.

My hair was fried and my entire body felt sore. I couldn't move even a single muscle, and if I tried, the best I could do was let out a meaningless twitch.

There were quiet footsteps approaching me, and I could see Zander's familiar head begin to show in the bottom of my vision. I was unable to move my head even an inch, and the best I could do was follow his movements with my eyes.

He was getting closer and closer until he stood directly in front of me. The older Mathis brother was watching me, making sure to not help me until the allotted time. It was silent up until then, though I didn't need to wait for very long...

Once an alarm went off on his phone, he leaned down to look at me with a tilted head.

"Why did you climb a tree, Brittany?" Zander question. I remained silent, not being able to feel the tongue inside of my mouth. It felt too heavy to move, anyway. "Aidan had me set up traps along every tree," he placed a hand up to his chin in thought. "I think he said that he had some...problem targets that climbed trees once before..." Zander trailed with a raised eyebrow.