The Hunt

Chapter 67: Hanna

I stare at the ground so long, my vision starts to blur, and I let my mind fog over. It's getting warmer, but my limbs don't seem to thaw. The gunshots have slowly stopped, but my ears don't seem to stop ringing. We left Javaar's body behind, but my heart doesn't seem to stop aching.

We have to go, Jonas had eventually said. They will send out patrols to eliminate us, he said. I knew he was right, but I was so paralyzed by Javaar's corpse that I couldn't be of any help. I just sat on me knees and stared.

Like I'm staring now. Staring at the ground, unblinking, oblivious to the commotion around me. I'm sitting on a log a little ways away from the rest of Vihaan and the rebellion he took with him as backup. They shout and grunt and move on as if nothing had happened. They don't care about losing Javaar, why should they? They're just happy the Prince is alive and they got to shoot at some soldiers.

"Hey," I glance up to find Jonas approaching me. He's shed his heavier coat, so there's just a sweater underneath. For a moment, my eyes flick up to his lips, and I remember how they felt against mine. He comes and sits down on the log beside me, so that his shoulder leans into mine. We sit there for a bit, staring into different parts of the forest.

"It's almost peaceful, isn't it?" I remark.

Jonas looks over at me.

"It's a little ironic, considering everything. We are at the complete mercy of all the chaos around us, and yet the forest doesn't change. It isn't phased by any of it. It never has been."

A pause. "Are you okay Hanna?"

I turn my head so that I'm staring at him. His eyes search mine. "I hated him for so long, you know? When he was in confinement, I hated how scared I was of him. When he was in the sanitarium with me, I hated how much control he had over me. When we were out in the forest, I hated how I trusted him and he kept betraying me. I hated him so much, I tried to kill him. And then when I saw you again, and I was so angry with you, and I was so angry at the world and my life, he showed up. He hadn't changed a bit. And I think that's why he grew on me, because when everything and everyone in my life was changing, he was still the same. He was just himself, the same little untrustworthy shit he'd always been. He was so....reliably unreliable."

Jonas smiles, but I think I see tears coming to his eyes.

"Are you going to miss him?" I ask.

"I didn't even know him, really," Jonas laughs slightly at this thought. "I don't think I have the right to miss him. I called him a brother, but I didn't know him. It's strange to me that you knew him so well. It's strange to me that you liked him more than me."

"Yeah, I guess I did," I laugh suddenly, a hollow shell of a laugh, and think of something. "Remember when you fought him? In the interrogation room, I pulled out a gun on him and you rushed in to my rescue, and the two of you fought on the floor until the guards pulled you apart."

Jonas' face breaks into a tired laugh, "That seems like a long time ago now."

I sigh and turn my gaze back out to the forest. Jonas does too, his eyes straight ahead, and in my peripheral vision I see him fiddling with his hands. I reach into the pocket of my jacket, and my stone is still there. I'm always surprised how it stays with me no matter what I go through. It's just always there. I flip the smooth stone over in my palm.

"Is that your stone?" Jonas says in shock.

I look up, "What?"

"That," he points to the pocket with my hand in it. "Is that the same one?"

I pull out the stone to reveal it flat on my palm, "You remember it?"

A smile plays at his lips, "You still have it? You kept it all this time?"