Keep Watch

Chapter Four

Grief acts in mysterious ways.

For Umber's group, who had seen a body just the day before, it came and went like a swift winter storm.

For the rest of the dozen — or... the reverse baker's dozen — it was a lingering cloud, nailing their mouths shut and pinning them to their seats as if coffins.

For Chloe, it was the rocking of her curled-up body as she stared, listless, into what could only be described as a graveyard. She could practically still see the flames there, hovering just above the cabin like floating lights, turning the air around them into wavy heaps. Her eyes still burned with the smoke and heat, though it was her tears that ended up blurring them.

They could speculate Jess's intentions. They could plot and grumble and twist their stomachs into knots with a thousand horrid ideas. But all Chloe knew was that she had heard the lighter, watched the flames, and touched the body. That was all the proof she needed.

"She wasn't okay in the first place," she heard somebody hiss out from behind her. They must have been arguing; she didn't care.

Chloe couldn't say she'd liked Jess. She couldn't even say she hadn't hated her. But what she could admit was that she had known the girl, and now she didn't; there and then gone, like the changing of seasons or the tick past midnight on a clock.

Aava approached her from behind, and she almost elbowed him in the face as he tapped her. Jeremy was by his side, and with a sickened stomach, she realized that they were still going along with their plan from earlier. She didn't understand how they were capable of leaving the group at such a crucial time, but... she wasn't one to go back on her word.

"We'll be back," Jeremy explained. "We're getting water. You all stay here and stay together — keep calm. We will be back."

With that, the three of them departed down toward the river, which was more than two kilometers away. It was silent as they walked, and they would not so much as look at one another. Jeremy was no longer a comfort to her; when he thought of him, all she could imagine was being there, in his arms, as the flick of the lighter alluded to what was to come.

She thought of Lachlan, and this time, her guilt lingered.

The path was sandy. It made its way into her shoes, up her socks, and somehow, all over her legs. Chloe was thankful that the walk was downhill, because she could barely breathe as it was — the smoke still seemed to swirl in her lungs, and the compression of her feelings squeezed out whatever space for oxygen might have been left.

"So, what did you need to tell us?" Jeremy asked. They could hear the rushing of the water, but they were not quite there.

"Just wait." Aava sounded anxious.

When they came upon the water, Aava started filling the filter. The three of them watched the trickle-down as it emptied into the bottles, and it took nearly ten minutes of total silence for every one of the bottles to be filled. They piled them back into the bucket and packed everything up, and when Aava set it down, Chloe knew it was game time.

He started stripping.

Chloe glanced at Jeremy, but he looked just as dumbfounded as her. When they didn't follow in the boy's footsteps, Aava said, "Well, hurry up. We're going in the water."

Aava kept nothing but his boxers on as he dipped himself into the frigid river. He looked profoundly uncomfortable, and Chloe had to commend his discipline when he just kept stepping deeper, sliding all the way in until he had enough space to dunk his head under.

When Jeremy started pulling off his pants, Chloe finally followed suit. She tugged her shirt over her shoulders and tossed away her jeans, revealing her skin-tone bra and panties.