Fear The Fire

Chapter 13: Fearing For Someone Else

Erika woke up when she felt something lightly shaking her shoulders. Abruptly regaining consciousness, she jerked out of her slumber to face her attacker, swinging her arm aimlessly to defend herself.

"Woah," a male voice whispered in surprise and Erika felt her wrist get caught by someone's hand, "Don't be afraid, it's just me."

After recognizing Nixon's voice in the dark, Erika relaxed slightly. Her mind stopped racing and the memories of the passed few days rapidly resurfaced as she remembered where, and with whom, she was. In a forest alongside Nevane, Nixon and the new addition to their 'team', Ivory. Nixon let go of her wrist as her arm relaxed back to her side. So she was still. . . here. Away from home, away from comfort, away from family. Her heart sank and she wished she'd never woken up.

"It's been a few hours," Nixon whispered, "I'm getting a bit sleepy. Is it okay if you take the next watch?"

Erika nodded, then she remembered he probably couldn't see her in the dark, "Sure."

"Thanks," he whispered and she could hear the rumbling of leaves as he slowly moved away from her. A few feet to her left Erika heard more leaves cracking and shushing as Nixon positioned himself to sleep.

She carefully felt around the roots of the tree next to which she was lying and located her knife. Her palm enveloped its hilt firmly. As her vision adjusted to the darkness, Erika could start to make out the slight shimmer of the knife's long blade. She prayed silently that this wouldn't be the night when she had to use it. She began thinking of how she could just leave, right now, while everyone was asleep. She could walk up the river, she'd have water, find some wild berries or something. . . and then what? She'd still be stuck here, still probably in danger of being eaten by something; she'd just be alone. Sighing, Erika pulled her knees into her chest and closed her eyes, keeping them open was practically pointless anyway, and took deep breaths of the cool, forest air. Air was never this clear in the city.

An uncertain amount of time went by before Erika heard another rustling of leaves. Scared, she gripped her weapon more firmly. The rustling continued.

"Nevane? Nixon?" she whispered, preparing either to flee or swing her knife around aimlessly.

"It's me again," Nixon whispered from where his bed was positioned and Erika felt a weight drop from her chest, "Thank God, I thought something was creeping up on me."

Nixon chuckled under his breath, "Crazy what the mind can come up with when you're scared."

Erika tried to ignore the fact that he'd just implied that she got scared. . . because it was true, "Can't sleep?"

"No," Nixon sighed. After a few moments of neither of them speaking, he added, "I can't stop thinking about my mother. I wish I knew where she was."

Erika let her grip on the knife relax, "Are you two close?"

"Well she is my mother. Do I need further reason to love her?" came Nixon's voice.

Erika wasn't sure how to answer. She'd heard of some pretty horrible mothers, who definately didn't deserve unconditional love, but this probably wasn't the time to bring that up. It made her feel bad for not spending as much time with her own mother, who, aside from her own human flaws, really wasn't all that bad.

"I can't say I know how you feel," Erika admitted eventually, "But I do know how it feels to be completely lost."

"So it's true. You're not from here, are you, Erika?"

Something about that sentence made Erika shiver. Or perhaps it was just the cold night air. "No. And I have no idea how to explain how I got here. Because I have no idea how I got here."