Aiden and Aveline

But Aiden, don’t you remember?

I remember everything, I thought, leaning my head against the wall, closing my eyes against the horrific present and the pleading face of my Aveline.

Yes, honey, I remember. But what are you specifically referring to?

She rested her head on my chest, and I stroked her hair gently, apologizing in my mind to her over and over again.

Two months ago, we were in almost the exact same situation…

I knew what she was talking about.

I had taken her on one of my ‘errands’ and we had been cornered, almost trapped, except that time we had gotten away.

I remember doll baby, I remember.

We got away that time, and we were both fine. Why shouldn’t we be able to do that again?

I sighed, and felt her bring her hand up hesitantly before placing it tenderly on my chest. Just the warmth of her long, slender hand on my chest was enough to make me want to cry. My baby, my Aveline, was suffering because of me, and yet she didn’t blame me. She never did, no matter how badly she suffered because of me.

Oh Aveline, doll baby, I’m just so sorry, so sorry…

I felt her arm snake around my chest, her head under my chin as she hugged me from her rather awkward position in my lap.

Please don’t apologize Aiden, you didn’t do anything wrong.

It killed me every time she did that, every time she wouldn’t let me apologize and wouldn’t accept my guilt.

I don’t know what I would ever do without you, baby, please don’t make me find out.

I was about to respond, but then I just shut my mouth and wrapped my arms around her.

And that was how we sat for awhile, just holding each other. I tried to remember what ‘errand’ was so important that I brought her along, tried to remember why I ever brought her along.

The first time was just to scare her off, honestly. I remember telling her that I had to go ‘take care of business’, and she asked to go with me. I shrugged nonchalantly: I had only known her for about a month but I already liked her enough to know that she shouldn’t be drawn into my world.

So I let her come, figuring that this naïve, innocent girl would shy away from my life, from me.

I remember it hurt some, taking her with me knowing what would happen, but thinking that it was for the best if she wasn’t involved with me.

So she came with me. I drove around for awhile, and she asked me a few questions before falling silent. It was a simple enough errand: break into the factory, locate the items, then break back out and escape in the car. Easy, right?

Apparently not. Aveline came inside with me, her willowy body shimmying easily through the small window I had jimmied, and she opened the door for me.

We crept through the then-deserted factory with an almost frightened stealth and searched for nearly two hours. Finally, she found the small, worn blue suitcase behind a giant boiler. She gasped, having burned her hand on the boiler, but retrieved the suitcase anyway.

I checked, and sure enough: she had it. I looked at her hand, shocked to see how red it was, how tender it seemed. I kissed her cheek before taking her other hand and leading us out of the mammoth factory. We were almost out, almost in the clear.

Except, the people that we were stealing the suitcase from had just arrived.

She immediately balked, and I couldn’t blame her. I saw them before I turned the corner, so we backed up and hurried in the opposite direction.

For an hour, we tried to find an escape that wasn’t covered by the People, as Aveline as referred to them. They knew the suitcase was missing, they were looking for us.

And they almost found us.

We were in a room that had no windows and only one door out; the other door was for the closet. Aveline was on her knees, praying, because we heard men outside, working their way through the hall.

I went into the closet, pushed my way back and found another door. It was almost too small, but I called Aveline urgently and practically shoved her into it. She tumbled down, and landed far away with a disheartening thud. I dove through, hearing the door of the room opening, and found myself lying next to Aveline on a bed of pine needles.

She looked unconscious, but she soon opened her eyes and looked around.

Where are we? She asked.

I have no idea, I answered honestly, looking around too. I could see the trapdoor-type thing above us, a small square in the ceiling. The rest of the ‘room’ appeared to be a cave. I stood unsteadily, walking towards the only light I could see.

Aveline soon got to her feet, nearly falling in the process, but catching herself before she did. Walking over to me, she said, Why did they build a factory over a cave? Rather foolish, I would think.

I shrugged, and put my hand lightly on her back, between her shoulder blades, and gently propelled her forward towards the light. We walked for what must’ve been ten or fifteen minutes before finally reaching a point where water was up around our waists. I carried the suitcase above my head as the water climbed up to our chests, our necks.

By then, though we were at the mouth of the cave. I could see a shore about a hundred yards away.

Aiden, you’re going to have to leave the suitcase. We have to swim a long way and I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to carry it while doing so.

I juts grinned and took off my shirt, laughing at her reaction. I tied one end around the suitcase handle and the other around my waist.

And off we go? I said, asking if she were ready.

She smiled. And off we go.

We swam that hundred or so yards, reaching there soon. The suitcase floated, much to my pleasure and Aveline’s amusement.

We were exhausted by the time we reached the pebbly beach, dragging ourselves onto shore. Panting, we looked at each other wordlessly for a moment. She smiled, and I asked why. She just said,

We made it baby, we made it.