Into the Darkness

Chapter 7

"So where'd your brother run off to?" Lin asked Evan as she sat close beside him with her legs pulled to the side. She had noticed that Jeremy wasn't in the room when she had woken up. When she thought of Evan's brother, all she could remember was how he had told Evan that Lin had been missing for two years. She must have been 16 when she was kidnapped. She had missed two years of her life. The kidnapper prevented her from memories that she could have had. How could anyone do that? Then Lin wondered if she still would have met Evan if she had never been kidnapped. It was a strange thing to think, but she couldn't help it. He would have never found her lying in the snow if Lin had never escaped her kidnapper; they would have never been reunited. It was strange how Evan had found Lin though, the thought of him knowing exactly where she was stood in the back of her mind since he told her.

"Oh he left a little bit after you...uh...fell asleep." Evan sounded like he was trying to find lighter words, because maybe "passed out" or "became unconscious" didn't sound too pleasant. "After him and me finished speaking and we left the kitchen, I saw you lying on the floor. Panic immediately struck me and I rushed to your side. I tried to wake you up, I tried calling your name, I probably said 'Lin' about a hundred times, but nothing worked. You were still breathing though, but your breaths were faster than normal as if you were panicked too. I carried you to this room and laid you carefully on the bed. I had forgotten that my brother was still with me, that he was just watching me as I cared for you in the only way that I could. I think he finally saw how much you mean to me. He told me before he left that I had to tell someone where you were, he told me that someone must be missing you. I know he's right." Evan grabbed Lin's hand and just gazed into her eyes. Lin looked back with terrible realization that Evan's brother was right. But Lin felt that she and Evan could live in their solitude for years to come, and no one would have to know that she wasn't kidnapped anymore. She and Evan could just be together without all the chaos and reunion that comes with a found kidnapped victim. She couldn't push these thoughts away and she didn't know why a guy she had only known for a short while could be so important to her; so important that she would give up her old life for him, even though he never asked.

"I don't think I'm ready to go yet, I don't think I'm ready to face all of the questions when I don't have any answers." Lin was sure that this was only one reason why she wasn't ready to leave.

"What about your family? Don't you think they should know you are alive? It was wrong of me to bring you here, to keep you here. It's like I'm the kidnapper." When Evan stopped speaking, he released Lin's hand and removed his eyes from her. He had an ashamed look on her face. It horrified Lin to see him like this. So beat up and forlorn. She grabbed both of his hands, adjusting her legs in a crisscross position for comfort ability; this prompted him to look at her.

"No, you aren't. I'm here on my own free will! It's like what you told your brother, that I could leave any time I want. But I won't, because I am yours, and you are mine. And that's never going to change. As long as our hearts beat for each other that will never change! So I will stay until I am ready and you will not feel like you are the bad person here, because you saved me! You saved me. I owe my life to you." Lin was almost in tears when she finished speaking. She knew Evan would be a little shocked at the escalating tone of her voice, but as long as it got her point across, that's all that matters. "And yes, my family should know, but this is not entirely about them, if I stay with you longer I might remember more and I'll be able to help find the monster that kidnapped me."

"It seems like your memories are coming to you in terrible dreams, do you really think you could handle more of that?" Evan asked in a caring tone. Lin still held his hands; she could feel one of Evan's thumbs slowly moving over the back of her hand, back and forth. Her nightmares did terrify her, but it seemed like the only way to get the answers that she needed. It seemed like the only way to discover all of the memories that her mind was suppressing.

"I think I can. I mean, I have to. It's just something I'm going to have to deal with." Lin said with great assurance. Her nightmares were inevitable, like Evan and her meeting again. If something was meant to happen, it happened for a reason. Lin did wish that her mind could just tell her what happened instead of making her witness it in her sleep. "How long was I sleep?"

"About three hours, but that's nothing compared to when I found you" Evan gave a small laugh, almost unsure if it was the appropriate thing to do. He was relieved when Lin gave a small laugh too. Laughing was good; it helped dissipate some of the tension that surrounded the grave circumstances. Lin wished they could do more of it, but there wasn't much to laugh at.

Lin had let go of Evan's hand and drew them towards her face. She placed her face into her palms so that they were supporting her head. She wasn't frustrated or mad, she was just mentally tired. She was also annoyed at how easy it was for her to fall asleep; for her body to shut down. Evan put his left arm around her shoulders and he pulled her toward him, so that she was now leaning on him. Her head lay on his chest and she wrapped an arm around him without even thinking about it. It just seemed so natural to be entwined with Evan.

"Do you ever think about how you were able to find me? I mean, it wasn't luck." Lin asked, but she didn't know exactly what she was expecting him to say. If it had been something simple, like he was driving by and saw her, then that would make sense, but seeing that she was stuck in the snow from a dream didn't make sense. Lin knew that some people had dreams that actually occurred in the future, but his dream didn't seem like that type of dream.

"It could have been luck. If I had never had that dream, then I wouldn't have had the urge to get in my truck and drive. I wouldn't have found you." Evan replied as if he was completely sure. Lin still had doubts.

"But how could a dream have told you where I was?" She knew Evan might not know the answer, but she still wanted to know if he was even slightly questioning his dream too. He had to be.

"I don't know Lin! I don't know why my dream decided to show me you in the snow or why it decided to have me hear the word 'help', but I'm just glad it did. There are just some things that you can't explain, but that's fine with me. It's not hurting anyone if we don't know." Evan's tone when he began speaking shocked Lin, she felt like she was a kid getting scolded, but she understood why he reacted the way he did. She was pushing him, trying to figure out what he really thought; she didn't want to believe that he didn't care about the strangeness of his dream. And then she thought of how he had mentioned that he heard the word "help". Her eyes went wide.

"Evan. I remember that I yelled the word 'help' when I was lying in the snow." Lin said, hoping that Evan would think more about how his dream was not an ordinary dream.

"That's just a coincidence. 'Help' is such a common word to say when you need help. Now if you had said 'I really want some ice cream', now that would be a different story." Evan said, possibly trying to find humor in the topic, but Lin didn't see it, she felt like he was just trying to evade the fact that she had just presented.

"Wake up Evan! Can't you see that you dream was not normal? Can't you see that there is more to a dream like that? People don't just have dreams that tell them what is going on in the present so that they can save someone or help someone." Lin felt a little bad for practically yelling at Evan, but she just wanted him to realize what she had. She just hoped that this whole thing hadn't put their relationship in danger.

"You know what Lin? I am awake. And I'm done talking about this." Evan's tone was as stern as she had ever heard it; she didn't think she had even heard him sound so harsh. When he was done speaking he got up from the couch and left the living room, leaving her alone in the dimming light of the late afternoon.

When Evan was gone, it felt like her heart was tearing slowly or maybe it was like there was a piece crushing inwards. Either way, it pained her to have him leave; to have him be so far from him, even though he was probably a room or two away. She didn't know why it pained her so much to be apart from him, it was if there was a string between the two of them that was being pulled tight, if it stretched any farther, she might just shatter into a million fragments. Lin wondered why she felt that way, as she often did. Were they meant to be? Is this what true love was? Or was this fate, and Evan was her soul mate, but Lin didn't believe in that stuff, it was illogical to have someone who was meant to be with you. How could that be true? There were tales of a red string connecting the two people, and then eventually when the string got short enough the people would meet. No, she thought, that just couldn't happen in real life, but her mind kept telling her, there is a string attached to you and Evan.