The Cost for Freedom

Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning to my brother's obnoxious siren alarm. He uses it because literally nothing else will wake him up. Guess the city noises really trained him well. Me, I hear almost everything and use a nice, soothing alarm to wake me up. This stupid thing shot me right out of a dream.

Shockingly enough, the noise still wouldn't wake Jeff up. I turned toward him expecting him to turn it off, instead he had rolled over and continued snoring. Unbelievable.

I got myself up and jumped right on top of his bed, "WAKE UP!!" I shouted as I continued to jump around him on his bed.

He finally rolled over and laughed as he pulled on my ankles knocking me off balance. I laughed as I performed a neat tuck jump to avoid his hands and flipped onto the ground next to the bed.

He simply looked at me, dumbstruck. "Dang, Alexis," he laughed. "I always forget you did gymnastics for so long."

I beamed at him. I actually surprised even myself, it'd been years since I've done a flip like that. My mother got me started on gymnastics when I was in 4th grade and I continued all the way up through high school. I stopped when I went away to college, though I still kept up with workouts.

"Just turn off that ridiculous alarm, would ya? I can't believe that doesn't even really wake you up." I said to him before turning to use the bathroom.

I turned on the light in the bathroom before examining myself in the mirror. My dirty blonde hair went a little past my shoulders and my light blue eyes were bloodshot. My olive skin was a little red around my cheeks, most likely because I'd just done a flip. Doing gymnastics for so long kept me thin, but I was never a stick figure. I liked to think I had what people called an Athletic body; I was strong, not necessarily skinny. Still, my definition had died down in my arms and legs since high school and my six pack abs were long gone. I sighed before continuing my morning routine.

Once we were in the car, my mother and I sat in the back seat examining a winery tour brochure we'd picked up at the airport. The tour went to two wineries and ended at 4pm for a selection of cheeses. The tour started about 10 minutes from the town we were now staying in.

The tour itself was better than any of us expected, even Jeff enjoyed it. Only thing was, it didn't end at 4pm. We climbed in the car afterwards, ravenous as we argued over a place to eat before finally deciding on one.

We sat down in the restaurant and I looked at the menu immediately, clearly ready to eat. The waitress came by soon after and we all ordered by pointing at what we wanted when we learned English wasn't enough. It was starting to become a joke how we couldn't seem to order food correctly, which then started one of our chatty dinner conversations.

When it was time to go, we took the long way back to the hotel so we could see more of the town. On the outer side of the town was a river, which I specifically wanted to see at night. While the rest of my family talked eagerly with each other behind me, I walked a little faster looking around me. Tonight I would notice the scenery.

The shops were becoming scarcer as were the people the closer we got. It darkened slightly here as I tried to differentiate between the sidewalk and cobblestone road. The stone bridge was just ahead of me as I picked up my pace even more. At this time of night, it was perfectly lit up with lights underneath its arches reflecting onto the dark evening water. Torches held up on mossy stone columns led the way to the bridge.

Then boom. I'd run right into someone, I'd been so engulfed in my surroundings. My reflexes had me grabbing onto the mystery person to apologize as I looked up into dark green eyes contrasted with thick eyebrows and dark brown stubble.