Analise

Chapter Twenty-six

"They're both out," Leland chuckles. "Can you get the door for me?" He asks looking at Austin. Austin slowly gets off of the chair not wanting to wake Taylor up. He walks to the front door and waits for Leland to exit. Leland puts his arms under Layla's knees and back before lifting. "Thanks." He whispers. Austin nods his head and smiles as he wonders how he's going to get into the other cabin.

Julia and Carson left about halfway through because they were getting tired, and once the movie was done Jack and Analyze went straight to bed. Austin walks back to the chair and smiles down at Taylor. She's curled up in a ball and her face is in his sweatshirt. He leans over and picks her up. He carefully walks back to their room and is relieved to see she hadn't closed the door.

He walks through the door blind and slows down not wanting to trip on something. He makes it to the side of the bed and lays her down on the sheets. She just brings her knees back to her chest not even waking up or making a noise. Austin finds his bag in the dark and searches for a shirt and sweatpants to wear. He finds his shirt quickly and changes, but can't find his sweatpants. "Where the hell." He mumbles feeling around in his bag.

"Austin." He hears from Taylor. Her voice seemed to sound startled.

"I'm on the ground. Just trying to find some sweatpants." He says but stays looking towards the bed. He hears rustling around and then the pitter patter of feet. He's momentarily blinded as she turns the light on.

"They're over there." She says pointing to them. He looks and grabs them.

"I didn't want to wake you with the light." He says and she shakes her head.

"I would have been fine." She says and goes to sit on the bed. Her back pushed against the headboard and her knees back to her chest. She stares at the comforter as Austin changes quickly. He has worry in his eyes as he looks over at her. He goes to the light and turns it off. As he walks back to the bed he hears Taylor breathing unsteady.

"Hey, Taylor." He says feeling for her on the bed. She moves towards him and puts her arms around him. He holds her confused about what's wrong. "Shh, everything's alright." He says as he feels her tears through his shirt. He puts a hand in her hair and brushes it away from her face. "Hey, what is it? What's wrong?" He asks and she shakes her head.

"You...you can't leave....I can't.."

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere. I said I'd be at your side and I will be." He says putting his hands on her cheeks. She nods her head and he pulls them both down into the bed. Taylor lays her head on his chest and he keeps his arms tight around her.

He listens as she goes back to sleep in his arms. He begins to wonder what was going through her head in the beginning, she seemed so calm. He wants to understand why things seem to be getting worse if before she was fine. He thinks and thinks, but the only thing he can think of is she just keep putting it back and now it's all coming forward. Feeling exhaustion sink in, he lets himself go to sleep.

***

Austin wakes up to birds chirping and stretches. As he stretches he realizes he doesn't feel Taylor. He opens his eyes and looks around the room. She's not in there and he feels his stomach do a flip. He walks to the bathroom door and listens for any noise. Once he hears nothing he slowly opens it, but she's not in there. He then walks out of his room and searches the cabin, but still nothing. Feeling panicked he walks over to Leland's cabin.

He knocks on the door before entering and when he does he sees Taylor on Leland's back and seems to be trying to get him to the floor. He stands there shocked and Layla looks up at him. "Hi, Austin." She says causing his head to look over at her.