The promise between us

Chapter 11: Hopes

I ran through the tree's towards the tree house where we would always play during our childhood.

It was our safe place and I still find it being that way for me, but is it still Taylor's safe place?

Would he still think to come here after all these months being gone in that place......

My feet sting and I can barely breath, all the tree's are a blur as I run as fast as I can to the treehouse.

I can hear Mark calling for me, telling me to come back, that I need shoes; but I don't turn back, not now, I'm so close.

"Krisa." I run faster as Taylor's voice hits me like the smell of vanilla.

"Taylor!" I yell back, "Taylor, I'll be right there." my feet burn with scraps and cuts, but I don't slow.

"Krisa." I hear him say again and I climb the ladder to the treehouse as quickly as possible.

Throwing open the hatch door, I climb inside and my breath is knocked out of me when I see him....

His beautiful blue eye's bright and looking right at me, his smile glowing making my heart beat fast, and his out reached hands invite me in. I leap into his arms and he wraps them around me, he swings me in a circle as we both laugh and cry.

"Oh, how I've missed you." he whispers into my ear as I cling to him tightly.

I let out sobs of relief as I feel him hold me closer to him.

"Baby, its ok, I'm here." he says turning his face into my neck to kiss right below my ear.

"Taylor." I sob and hold him even closer.

He positions me so that I am in his lap and he is bent over me as I continue to sob and touch his back, neck and arms to make sure he is really here.

"shhh, it's ok now baby." he coos kissing my forehead, "It's ok now."

I barely pull away from him to look at his face and I see the dark spots of bruises and old scabbed cuts. I trace a cut along his eyebrow and look into his blue eye's as he stares at me.

"Taylor, your here." I whisper weakly as my voice try's to recover from the sobs.

He smiles at me and places another kiss on my forehead, "Yeah, I'm here."

He stares at me for a few minutes later and then lowers his head to my lips; I can't even move, I just close my eye's and let him. Slowly I feel the semi-warm, soft flesh on my lips and I move in sync with them.

"Krisa." I hear Marks voice again, but I ignore it.

I kiss Taylor harder and he does the same, his arms wrapped around my waist holding me so tight its hard to breath, but I don't complain, I need to feel him.

"Krisa." Marks voice calls for me again, but it sounds more urgent.

I ignore him again and I move so that I am on his lap with my legs on either side of his.

Taylor kisses my neck as I tangle my fingers in to his hair, the thick blonde locks silky and smooth.

"Krisa, answer me!" Mark yells at me, but I don't answer, I finally have Taylor in my arms again and I don't plan on letting him go just yet.

Before I could do anything else, I was jerked up from the floor, ripped from Taylor's hold on me and left cold and numb.

"KRISA! DARN IT!" Mark says with worry and urgency.

I open my eye's and wish with all my heart that I hadn't.

The bathroom ceiling is a white fuzz above me, and I'm in Marks lap.

He's blue eye's looking at me with wide pupils; his hands holding m wrists so tight that it hurts.

The red silk like liquid slips in between his fingers and it dances down his wrist to join the rest on the floor.

"Mark...." I whisper, my voice cracking as tears run down my face.

"You scared me fireball!!!" he says leaning down resting his forehead on mine.

"I dreamed that I was with Taylor.....It was so real.....he was with me" I hiccup and sob, "He was so close to me, yet so far away from me." I let the tears pour down and slide down my cheeks to dampen my hair.

Mark grabs a towel and gets it wet; he cleans up my wrists and then washes his hands as I lay on the bathroom floor crying.

Once he puts the towel in the sink, he sits on the floor and pulls me into his lap, curling me up into a ball, he breathes calming, but his heart beats a million miles per hour.

"Krisa we will find him, we will." he whispers into my hair.

We have been trying to find Taylor for the passed two months, spending all day on the computers tracking, using maps to circle in on their location, getting a group together to go in and get the men out.

We were supposed to go get him today.........

But they moved locations in the night.

So we have to start over on how we will get to them and bring Taylor home.

He was so close to being here, to being home, to being ok.......

Yet he slipped through our fingers just like my blood slid out of my wrists.

"I'll bring him home Krisa....." Mark kisses my hair, "I'll bring him home for you."

Mark continues to whisper encouraging words into my ear as I cry.

His hands working skillfully to wrap up my wrists.

I was so close to him.........so close.

 I sob and choke a little, Mark stops to look at me. "What do I do if he really disappears, if he never comes back, if- if his already dead.." I say with more tears streaming my face.

Mark holds me tighter and holds my wrists, "Krisa, he will come back, I'm going to bring him back." he smiles at me trying to reassure me, "Krisa promise me you will be here for him when he comes back."

I look into Marks eyes as he searches for my answer, but I don't give him any sign of it.

The only thing I can manage to do is nod and secretly hope that I can keep this promise.