Genesis

For Wanting

     I couldn't sleep, but I told myself I wasn't leaving my tent until 09:00. So that's when I put on my boots and decided to take a walk.

     The air was brisk, as one could expect on a mid-September morning. The rain had stopped and so the air was still, resulting in a quietness rivaled by no other and interrupted only by the sound of my boots squishing in the mud. I was walking without a destination in mind. At least, not one that was clear to me at first. Instead, as I walked further, my direction became obvious. I needed some form of closure, and so I was walking towards my birthday surprise.

     The scene was tarnished by the rain. The strings that held the letters for 'Happy Birthday Quinn' had been swallowed up by the mud, and muddy leaves had blown all over the picnic blanket, somehow leaving the stain in the middle untouched.

     I sat down, staying deathly still by the scene of the crime. I anchored my gaze on the browning blood staining the bodiless mustard-yellow blanket lying on the ground before me, wondering what I should do next.

     "Hey, Dorian," I began, the words flowing out of my mouth like water in a stream, "This is Quinn. I... I miss you... I miss you so much. I don't even think you know how much."

     "Everything has been awful since you left, and I wish you were back here to fix it all with me. Like when the camp ran out of drinking water and we organized a water filtration team. Or when the terrible cooking was lowering morale and we established Kraig's kitchen. Everything we've done... everything I've had to face since the end of everything normal... you were always there by my side. And now you're not and everything's spinning out of control."

     "I don't want to do this by myself. The burden of looking after everyone... it's too much to handle alone. So... please, I need some help here. I don't know what to do. I don't know who to turn to. Lucius seems to have Xander and Maya convinced that I'm insane, and I had to manipulate him into not killing Colt at first glance. And there's something really off about him, too. I can't trust him anymore and I just need someone I can trust. I just need someone I can talk to, here, with me, right now."

     A few moments of silence passed as I waited expectantly. Of course, nothing happened.

     "QUINN!"

     The sound of someone calling me so far away. My head perked up, looking around to find the shout's source.

     "QUINN!"

      This time it was closer. And then I saw him. It was Xander, and he was hurtling towards me at lightning speed. He almost fell over as he came to a stop in front of me.

     "Quinn... thank god I... I found you," he said between gasping breaths. It was then that I noticed the state of alarm in his expression.

     "Xander... what's wrong?"

     "It's... It's Lucius," he exhaled, breathless, "He's trying to kill Colt."

     My eyes widened as I felt a tingling in my legs. Before I knew what I was doing, I was running, my body hurtling past tree after tree as my feet propelled me towards camp.

     I couldn't let Colt die. But what evidence could I present to make him stop?

     No. It didn't matter if I could prove Colt's innocence or not. He didn't do this, I knew he didn't, and the others were just going to have to listen to reason.

     I would not let Colt die.

     I entered the clearing and, as my ears stopped throbbing with the beats of my racing heart, I followed the sound of shouting closeby to a large mob, gathered around a tree. A sense of desperation overwhelmed my thoughts as I pushed to get through the crowd, throwing punches and shoving shoulders out of my path until I finally broke free of all the commotion. That's when I saw him.

     My eyes opened as wide as saucers, every detail of the scene in front of me coming into clear focus. The people around me were screaming with cheer, Lucius standing on the raised earth beyond them, their captain. The whites of his eyes grew as he noticed me standing there, taking in the bright, beaming sunlight, the deep blue sky, the evergreen trees, and, in the center of it all, there was Colt, hanging by his neck from the sturdy tree branch above him, his lethargic, bloodshot gaze resting on me before his lead-heavy eyelids came to a close.

"NO! "

     I felt that word zip through my throat and past my lips, so harshly that I could almost taste the desperation in it. The air split to make way for the sound as it hurtled itself into the crowd like a shower of sonic bullets, commanding silence from each and every one of the people who were cheering for death just moments before.

     One foot in front of the other, I started to sprint towards Colt, feeling the wet smush of leaves beneath my feet and hearing the sound of my knife's carbon-fiber edge scrape against my jean pocket. I knew what I needed to do. I needed to free him, and nothing was going to stop me.

     "QUINN!"

     One moment, my knife was inches away from severing the rope. The next, I had been thrown to the ground.

     Another moment, and I had been hoisted to my feet. A metallic taste coated my mouth as I felt someone grab hold of my shirt, shoving me against the tree. His arms crushed my torso against the bark as I struggled to push him away.

     I screamed in defiance, noticing the face of the boy who had stopped me.

     Lucius.

     "LET ME GO!" I yelled, trying my best to get away from his stone-cold grip. His eyes locked onto mine with an intense fire, his lip curling upward as I felt his hot breath against my cheek when he replied.

     "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?!"

     When I inhaled to reply, he rammed my body into the tree again, my throat collapsing on itself as the air fled from my lungs.

     "DON'T YOU FUCKING GET IT YET?!" he bellowed, "COLT HAS TO ANSWER FOR WHAT HE DID!"

     There was no time left to waste trying to argue. I gripped my knife tight and swung it upwards, making contact with Lucius's forearm. He yelled as he stumbled backward. I swung again. Blood splattered from his shoulder. I swung again. Blood dripped from his cheeks. I swung again.

     He toppled over, a look of shock still encompassing his face as he rolled down the raised ground, towards the feet of the crowd beneath him. This gave me just enough time to take the camping chair Danny was handing me, to place it, to climb up onto it, and to cut through the rope by which Colt was bound. Danny, Kit, and Emerson caught him as he fell, lowering him gently to the ground as I noticed Lucius standing up again.

     "HOW THE HELL DARE YOU?!?" Lucius shouted.

     "NO! How the hell dare YOU! You promised me you wouldn't try to kill Colt!" I yelled, the camp spectating the situation keenly. I sighed, "You're being insane, Lucius! Can't you see that?! Even if you're grieving for Dorian, it's no excuse for trying to kill someone for the crime you have no real evidence they committed! You need to start thinking straight!"

     "I-I AGREE WITH QUINN!" Emerson screamed defiantly.

     Lucius looked at Emerson with a flaming stare.

     "Um, Quinn?" Danny mumbled.

     "I ALSO AGREE WITH QUINN!" Kit added, "I think there isn't enough evidence to just up and kill a man! To take away his life for a crime we aren't even sure he committed!"

     "QUINN!" Danny exclaimed.

     "WHAT?!" I replied, in annoyance. My frustration fled as soon as I saw the look on his face. His eyes were like dinner plates. His pupils: pinpoints. I knew what he was going to say before his next words even escaped his lips.

     "Quinn," he started, his breath beginning to shake, "He's not breathing."

     "Colt's not breathing."