I didn't want to do anything, because that would mean accepting that it was time to move forward, from what, I don't know, and I didn't think I was ready for that.
"Can't we just stay here for today?" I asked Ryder after he had woken me up. I hadn't slept well that night, but I never did, so it wasn't really much of a surprise.
He just shook his head. "You know we can't do that. We don't know how far we have to walk, and the sooner we get there better. Besides, the longer we stay in one place the longer anyone chasing us has to catching up. Is something wrong?"
"I'm just tired." I lied quickly. He refused to tell me anything important, so I did the same to him. "But believe it or not anything chasing us would have to stop every now and then also, you know."
He just shrugged. "So? If they didn't have to stop neither would we, but since we have to sleep too, we're going to always stay ahead of them, but not get too far ahead. That's why we have to keep moving."
He was right. It was a stupid thing to ask in the first place.
"Do you think we might see any other people out here?" I asked instead, staring out at the field in front of us.
"I highly doubt-" He stopped talking and I glanced behind me. There was a person holding him down, though they weren't facing me so I couldn't tell anything about them. They didn't look like they were planning to hurt him, but it was alarming considering Ryder just said that there was probably nobody around.
"Hi, yeah, well, stranger person, is there a reason I'm being pinned to the ground? I mean, not that I don't appreciate randomly being attacked by a stranger, but it's nice to at least know why." Ryder said sarcastically, as though he was asking to be murdered right then and there.
"Be quiet!" The attacker hissed at him. From the back all I could see was that they had dark brown hair that was cut to the top of their neck. "Are you Raven Clarke?" They asked Ryder.
"Um, first, I'm offended that you seemed to confuse me with my companion, who is most likely offended that you got her confused with me. Also, we've been conversating for a good minute and a half now and you haven't even acknowledged her existance. Now, why do you need to know?"
"Ryder, please shut up." I said quietly. For the first time since I had realized that they were there, the attacker looked at me.
Her eyes were the same dark brown as her hair, to the point where they were almost black, and probably appeared to be when it wasn't as light as it was. Her skin was dark, but there was gave the feeling of being pale. Her face was thing, as was her nose.
"You're Raven?" She asked me.
I nodded slowly, because even though I didn't like the idea of just throwing my name around when we were being chased, I highly doubted whoever this person was was with them. If she were, she would probably be murdering us right about then.
"You're going to need to come with me." She said as she slowly stood up, getting off of Ryder.
I took a step back. "Why, exactly?"
I didn't know who she was, and even of she wasn't with the group trying to find us, there was nothing pointing towards trusting her, and she could be leading me off to wherever to get paid or something.
Was there a price on my head?
Probably.
"There's no time to explain!" She said, and she sounded desperate.
"You could be leading me off to who knows where! Believe it or not, we don't meet many people in the middle of nowhere when we've seen nobody for days."
She rolled her eyes. "They're getting close. I know somewhere nearby we can hide in until they pass, and they'll probably not even bother to look back. It will most likely guarantee your safety. Now let's go!" She grabbed my hand.
I tried to pull myself out of her grip. "How do I know you're telling the truth? You could be leading me right to them."
"Is there any reason for me to do that?" She asked, and she seemed offended by the idea that she was anything else than what she claimed to be.
"How would I know? I literally just met you! I don't even know your name!"
She sighed loudly. "Cecile King. Now can we go?"
"I still don't know if I can trust you. Why are you helping me? I've never seen you before in my life, and suddenly you decide we need to become best friends. Is there any reasoning behind that?"
Ryder decided that moment to join the conversation. "Yeah, Cecile, she's going to need a five page essay depicting every aspect of your life and what may have made you decide to help her by tomorrow, and then she'll read it over and decide if you're trustworthy. Sound like a deal?"
He was standing between us, but yet off to the side, so he wasn't in the way. We both turned our heads and glared at him. He put his hands up in defense. "Just trying to make a joke."
"You wanna hear a joke? Why did I even decide to trust you? I barely know you either, and we've been moving for days without finding anything. I've been following you this entire time, and for all I know we could be walking in a circle. I highly doubt that this field is that big." I almost yelled at him.
I didn't know why, but all my emotions from the past couple of days were suddenly breaking out, which was odd, as I had barely even noticed that those emotions were there. I had lost almost everything I had tried to rebuild when I left my house and left everything behind. The worst part of it was that I hadn't even noticed.
"Is this really the time for this?" Cecile interrupted as Ryder started to open his mouth. "I don't know what type of love fast you two have going on here, but there's an angry mob of serial killers on their way here and if you want to live to see tomorrow we should start running."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" I yelled
"Oh come on, Raven, it's not like we have any other choice." Ryder said, and although he was speaking calmly, I could tell that he was angry.
I shook my head. I wasn't leaving. Not when I didn't know what I would be walking into.
Cecile glanced at him. "How strong are you?"
He looked confused for a second, but then seemed to get it. I still didn't get it. "Stong enough." He told her.
"Perfect." She said, and then the last thing I knew was that something had hit me in the head, and everything went black.
~-:-:-~
Everything seemed to be swimming, and I couldn't quite connect my thoughts. I had just woken up, but I wasn't on the ground, like I had gotten used to. Above me I could see something that looked like a roof made of wooden boards. I was fairly comfortable, though I was still drowsy from whatever sleep I had been in.
Maybe everything that had happened was a dream. Maybe there wasn't a mob after me. Maybe Ryder never existed. Maybe my father never died. Maybe it was all a dream, and I was back at home, in my real life, with my family in our nice life, where there weren't torturings outside our front door every nighyt, and we didn't have to worry about being killed in out beds.
It was such an outrageous idea that I couldn't help but laugh, though I did so for only a second before my head started to hurt. There was no escaping from my life, no matter how much I hoped. It would never be a dream, or a nightmare, as it seemed to be most of the time. It would never be anything other than the cruel reality that I was forced to live with.
I wasn't entirely sure how I felt. I didn't know where I was, and I couldn't remember how I had gotten there, but for the first time on a long time I felt safe.
That was completely ridiculous, as I had never been completely safe in he first place, and I would probably never be safe. I would never know how it felt, but yet I did then. Maybe it was the fact that there was a roof over my head, or that I was in an actual bed, but I felt safe.
As completely horrible as it was.
