Rendering Flames

I was feeling much like my older self by the end of the week. I had done what Peter had been ordering me to do all along: rest. It wasn’t easy. Someone can only sit and lay around before they become restless. You feel your muscle cramp up, like they’re shrinking from not being used. You feel dirty all the time, like you just waste away in your days of wasted filth. I was begging to get out of bed but I didn’t say a word until Peter came to take a look at me. He kind of stared uncertainly at me before I uttered ‘please’ over and over again until he relented. I really did feel fine. I wasn’t going to lie to myself about that anymore.

Between the time of me being bedridden and being discharged from my own room, Jaden and I had talked quite a lot. We caught up on things and got a better understanding of what the other had been doing and going through. It wasn’t forced like I thought it could’ve been, telling all the hard stories to tell was easy. We both skated around certain things that just wouldn’t be discussed until the time came. Some of them being Constantine and having him be killed so suddenly, comparing our opinions on Kruger in the flesh, and then the less important and more personally fact of where Jaden and I were headed when everything went to hell. It was easier just to ignore some things and we had a boatload of them.

It was a gloomy day when I was outside for the first time since getting better. It was a day for hunting apparently and the only reason being was that we were low on meat. And the only other option was to sit around all day. I really rallied to go hunting. I had done plenty of sitting.

It was a good group of us going. Deven, Alex, Jaden, Luke, Quinn, and I. Of course we all wouldn’t go and conjured on a deer at the same time. We were spitting into groups. Deven insisted on going off by himself, he hunted better that way. Luke and Alex would go off and then it’d be Quinn, Jaden, and I. We wouldn’t split until we hit some certain mark, kind of like a meet point.

There was some talking as we all made our way through the trees. Alex and I were bringing up the rear of the group in awkward and slightly tense silence. She hadn’t said a word to me since she confronted me that one day and it was really her who was the tense on. It looked like she was holding her breath all the time, her neck tensed up and body stiff. I just felt awkward because for all I knew the someone that hated me was choosing to walk beside me. It didn’t make sense.

“I need to say something.” I was a good while before she actually let that breath out and she just seemed to fumble for her words.

“I’d appreciate not being cornered again.” I was trying to be light but I also meant it seriously.

“No, course not.” She smiled warily, “I need to apologize. When I had came after you the other day, I didn’t know what your business was with Jaden before or really when you showed up.. I mean, like he didn’t say anything to me about you. All I saw was how stressed and upset he was getting after talking to you. I was protecting him.”

“It’s understandable,” I shrugged, giving her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But I kind of do,” she stopped me, looking ahead to Jaden. “I don’t have anyone else but him. He told me all about you and while I really respect the relationship you two have with each other, I’m worried he’s going to just ship off without me. I’ve been left behind too many times, Dahlia.”

“He won’t leave you, Alex. I can’t see him doing that to anyone that he cares about and besides, I wouldn’t let him if he tried. Any friend of Jaden is a friend of mine.” I couldn’t help but turn my cheek with her. Alex was just misunderstood and I felt like she is often by people.

“God, I feel like such a bitch now.” She fell into step with me as we caught up to the group.

“Again,” I assured her. “It’s in the past.”

I noticed the group splitting up, Deven continuing off on his own. Alex noticed the same and went off with Luke. Quinn stepped over towards me as Jaden bumped shoulders with me. “Let’s go?”

They nodded, going opposite the way anyone else was going. The rain had picked up a little, the only sound around us was the pattering of water hitting leaves. We kept our eyes peeled, having our talking to the minimum so not to disturb anything around us we didn’t quite see yet.

We must have walked for about a half and hour before Quinn started to get impatient. “Maybe I should head off myself. We’d cover more ground if we did.”

I didn’t have a preference if he stayed or go but Jaden thought it wasn’t the best idea since none of the other group would know that he was off by himself. Quinn handed Jaden a small walkie and after that Jaden was good with it. Quinn radioed that he was going off by himself and after the replies, he went off east as Jaden and I continued north.

We were quiet but it was comfortable. Jaden holding out a helping hand when we had to climb up and over some fallen trees. I caught something odd looking ahead of us in the thickness of the trees. It was a small house, white and green. Jaden and I slowed as we approached it, nervous that squatters could be in it. Odd were that if there were people in it, they weren’t friendly.

We leveled up next to it, the old paint chipping off the cement exterior. Jaden went around the back as I took the front. The place was completely barren, the windows broken in and some of the floor boards missing. I watched my step as I found Jaden wandering around a back room. We both walked out into the hall but Jaden stopped when he saw a door cracked open. He gave me a small look before he slowly opened it. Narrow stairs led down into a damp and dark basement.

Jaden dug around his backpack for a flashlight. When he found it, he turned it on and led the way down the stairs. I shivered some as the air became chillier as we stepped off the last step. Jaden turned the flashlight around the basement until he gasped, stumbling back.

“What? What is it?” I panicked, my fingers having trouble grabbing at a knife.

“It’s-it’s..nothing’,” he smirked, shining the light in my face. “This place is dead.”

“Don’t scare me like that.” I smiled and rolled my eyes, relaxing.

I started back to the stairs when I heard a thump upstairs. We stopped, looking up above us as we heard it again and then a long drag. I turned to him, my eyes wide with uncertainty with what to do. He held a finger up, waiting.

We heard a few voices talking before footsteps came to the basement door. I shoved Jaden ahead, ducking under the stairs. Jaden fumbled with the flashlight before he got it off. We cramped ourselves back in the far corner until our heads grazed the wood above our heads.

I tried to keep my breathing quiet as the footsteps seemed to purposely take their time down the steps. “This place seems empty, Jim. I think it’s safe until the rain lets up.”

The voice sounded like it was snagged on nails. Gravel rolling off each syllable as he retreated up the steps. The men were loud above us, no telling how many there actually were. Something heavy was tossed down on the floor, causing Jaden to jump a little. I heard him swallow roughly as he shifted his weight between his feet.

My heart slowed after a few minutes. Jaden was still tense in front of me and practically jumped out of his skin when loud static came from the walkie. “Turn it off!”

My voice was almost undetectable as Jaden dug it out and flipped it off. I waited with baited breath as I prayed that they didn’t hear it.

“You guys hear anything?” I heard the same voice boom through the floorboards, footsteps starting to drag themselves again.

Jaden was trembling, his hands bumping into mine in a frenzy. I looked up at him in the darkness. It was a rare situation that Jaden was more afraid than I was. It was hard to tell if he was shaking out of fear or stress. Either way, I slowly laced my fingers between his. He stopped moving and it took a second before his hands fully enclosed around mine.

“Rain stopped.” This time it was a different voice and there was scraping against the floor.

Something heavy dragged against the floor and there was some commotion before there was silence. Jaden and I waited quietly, listening for anything. I noticed Jaden had stopped shaking and I looked up to where I assumed his eyes would be, wondering when that had happened. I felt his gaze turn to me and there was this contradictory mix of hasitness and stillness between us. If he could see my face clearly, he would see me blushing.

What ever moment it was, it passed as quickly as it came over us. Our hands dropped from each other and I heard Jaden let out a much needed breath. “I think they’re gone.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, starting to step out from the corner.

Jaden tried sliding around me and we became trapped by one another as I felt the heat rising up my neck and to my cheeks. We were just inches from each other and it felt like someone had an iron gripped around my gut, shaking it violently. I could feel his breath wisp against my hair, my face no longer trying to shrink away. Our noses bumps only slightly and I waited.

“I’ll go first,” he whispered and for a second I didn’t know what he was talking about.

My body went limp when he weaseled his way out from under the steps, clearly not doing what I had been expecting him to do. I cleared my throat lightly, coming out behind him. We cautiously went up the steps to find the place empty. I couldn’t relax though but let my eyes follow after Jaden as he went around the corner ahead of me. Talking on the walkie broke me out of my trance, listening to Jaden talking to who was on the other end.

“We got two. A buck and a doe, we’re good. Head on back.” It was Luke’s voice coming from the other side.

“On our way,” Jaden responded, averting his eyes from me as I stood in front of him.

After he put the walking in his back pocket, he looked at me when a normal expression. “Alex and Luke found a pair. Everyone is meeting back at the spot.”

“Okay.” I looked to my feet, still dazed from what had happened down below.

“You coming?” Jaden was waiting by the door and I hurried after him as he starting walking ahead of me, blissfully overlooking yet something that we would not talk about.