Capture My Heart

We ran through the night, never pausing for a breath or anything. We had no idea when or if the vamps would figure out we’d escaped, but we hoped that our scents were disguised enough now.

Half way through the morning, we reached a large river, not sure whether to stop or not. That decision was made simple when Violet plunged right in, telling us all to cross.

The water washed away all of our sweat and weakened our scents. It rushed past our legs and waists and felt good against the thick hot air, not that it bothered me much in the first place.

Poppy was already ahead of all of us, but she had been that way all night, since she was so much faster. She didn’t duck her head underwater, but sloshed across with the piece of paper she’d stolen still clutched in her hand. I had yet to ask what that was, but I knew Poppy didn’t do things without a reason, so I guessed whatever it was, was worth holding on to.

Going on forty six hours of uninterrupted running, we finally stopped.

There was no sign of a pursuit, and we were all too exhausted to continue. Joana was practically crying in relief, and I felt like I should be doing the same.

Everyone had stopped in a secluded – well it was all secluded – but a very quiet part of the jungle. There was a waterfall close by, but it wasn’t loud all things considered and it seemed like the water was stroking the rough stone it was made of instead of pounding on it.

Violet dropped, her hand still in mine, and her eyes shut in exhaustion. I scooped her into my arms while she slept, for some reason feeling that she would be safer there than on the ground.

She curled willingly to my chest while everyone with us all dropped down to the ground and in only a few seconds almost everyone was out, besides me and Poppy, who volunteered to stay up and watch.

She spread out the paper she had and I peered over at her as realization hit me.
It was a map.

I gently shifted Violet and she curled up on the ground while I stood up to go over to Poppy. “You stole a map?” I whispered at her. It seemed rude to talk loud, as everyone was asleep.

“Yeah,” Poppy said, her eyes peering over it as she tried to figure out where the hell we were. She grumbled to herself, “A lot of use it is though, it’s wide scale and I have no idea where we started. This writing is so sloppy.”

And so I spent the eight hours that everyone passed out to help her figure out the vampire's map. I wasn’t very useful, seeing as I didn’t speak, much less read, Portuguese, but I was too on edge to sleep anyways, so at least I felt like I was doing something.

Beck was first up, lying off to the side by Jeremy and Kyle before he literally crawled over to me and Poppy, grumbling to no one in particular.

“What the fuck is that?” He grumbled as he peered over Poppy’s shoulder while she coyly shifted away from him.

“No need for the language,” Poppy chided, her eyes fixated on the spot we had narrowed down to be where we were.

“It’s the map Poppy grabbed,” I said to him and I knew he didn’t care too much. He was about to pass out any second actually, from the looks of it.

“When did she take that?” Briana suddenly asked, getting alert. It seemed like Beck was trending, as everyone was waking up now.

“Ten seconds before we took off,” I said seriously. Poppy reached a hand out to affectionately smack me and I laughed more easily than in a long time, successfully waking up Violet, who was looking around in daze. I hadn’t noticed her before.

She frowned at me and Poppy, and then I swore she glared at Poppy before she stood up and came over to us.

Violet.

I woke up curled on the ground, uncomfortable and confused. I didn’t know how much time had passed but the sun was high in the sky.

I frowned to myself, sure that I had gone to sleep in Jacob’s arms, and now I was alone on the ground.

But that wasn’t the case, because I looked up to see him laughing with Poppy, so close to her. Closer than Beck who was passed out not five inches away.

I gave Poppy a dirty look I couldn’t stop before I went over to the group of people gathered around her and Jacob.

I shouldn’t have been jealous of Poppy at all, but I couldn’t help it. She was with Jacob while I was asleep, and who knows what had happened while no one was conscious. I mean, I knew Poppy wouldn’t do that to me, and it seemed as if Jacob was close to me, but things change when you can’t remember anything.

I was jealous again now, not only because of Jacob, but because Poppy had that map. I mean, I was the one who got us out of that damn place, and it wasnt easy; shouldn’t there be a little credit? A little question about how I had slept or if I was okay? There was nothing. I felt unappreciated.

“You figure out where we are?” I asked, and it sounded mean. Jacob frowned at my tone, eyeing me critically and muttered “Yeah,” while I couldn’t read Poppy’s reaction.

“Now we just have to figure out where to go from here,” Poppy stated, looking at me. There was recognition in her eyes, and also a bit of aggression, like she was daring me to have an attitude again. It shocked me back to normality.

I felt bad for my rudeness and attempted to keep my jealousy under control so that no one would call me out on it.

I wasn’t ready for that conversation just yet.

XxX

I distanced myself from Poppy until it was time to go find some food, when she offered to go with me. She had something to say, and I knew it, and I was planning to let her, to see what she had to say about my wild jealousy.

We searched the nearby area, far enough away that no one could hear us, and we both waited.

“You know there’s nothing going on between me and Jacob right?” Poppy said, after a long silence as we searched for something edible.

“I know,” I said, not even convincing myself. My back was to Poppy so I didn’t see her get closer until she put her hand on my shoulder.

“It’s you that he loves,” she whispered, and the pain in her voice was enough that I felt bad for her. I had turned against her so easily.

“Im sorry,” I apologized turning while she grinned to cover up whatever had been in her expression before.

“Don’t worry about it,” She said, and her pain was still there under the surface, but neither of us commented on it.

Jacob.

“I think I remember this from Geography,” Jay was grumbling, his fist against his temple as he tried to remember.

Everyone but Briana, Jay and I had left to go hunt up some food already. Probably fruit or something if we were lucky. I wasn’t interested in eating tarantulas when Beck suggested it, although Poppy assured me it wasn’t as bad as the food in the camp. There were eight to many hairy legs on it for me.

“Well, what do you remember?” Bri asked.

The jungle seemed to quiet with the lack of wolves around us chattering away and the vampires barking at us. Not to mention the occasional abuse…

“Something…I can’t put my finger on it…” Jay growled rubbing his head like he was trying to push the idea out.

It was then that the rain picked up, and it didn’t disgruntle me as it would’ve otherwise. Rain meant that our scents were washing away. There was no chance the vamps, if they had noticed we’d left at all, would be able to catch us now.

“Good thing we were by the river,” Beck’s voice called, and he and a few of the others came out from the trees and other various amazon plants.

“Papayas,” Beck said happily, tossing two of the fruits at me. I had never eaten them before, although I knew what they were, and they did sell them in Washington.

I waited to eat mine until Poppy and Violet came back, and was sporting the same fruit. Everyone was starving, and we had to divide the fruit as evenly as possible, in order to keep people from fighting.

I bit into it, and it was the most amazing thing I’d tasted in a long time, even sweeter than freedom.