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It is too easy. As expected, Kaiden does fall asleep after a couple of hours. His mistake was putting the heating on. That boy could never stand to be cold, but being warm and cosy always made him sleepy. I guess old habits die hard, and work in my favour, though I do wait another hour to make sure the others aren’t coming back and to check that Kaiden isn’t going to suddenly wake up, then I allow myself to rest.
“Come down, Peony. You’re climbing too high!”
That saying about sleeping with one eye open? Yeah, I understand that better than anyone. I close my eyes and slow my breathing, but I’m still aware of the rhythm of the forest around me. Every time a new sound encroaches on my peace, my eyes fly open and my heart races.
“Come down, Peony. You’re going to fall!”
“I’m not,” I shout back from my perch high up in the tree.
“You’ll get hurt,” Axel warns, though he makes it sound more like a threat.
“I won’t! I can do this!” I insist, too stubborn for my own good as always. But there’s something about Axel, about the way he considers me less than them, that always spurs me forward to challenge his expectations of me.
“You can’t make that jump. It’s too far.” Zie sounds afraid but he’s always been such a baby. He doesn’t have an adventurous bone in his body. Not like Kaiden. He taught me to climb, to fight, and to use a knife. He said next summer he’ll show me how to use a gun but Axel doesn't approve at all. He’s probably just scared I’ll shoot him when he’s being a control freak…which is always.
“Fuck! Did you see that?”
“She flew.”
“Atta girl!” Kaiden’s chirp is laced with pride and I grin as I fly through the branches swinging and jumping from tree to tree. I’m quick and agile and damn near uncatchable.
Until I slip.
And then I’m falling, falling, landing hard on my back with an ‘oof’. Winded and dazed I lie on my back and blink at the sky, trying to work up the courage to move.
“Fuck! Peony, are you okay?”
I silently laugh at the boys’ panicked vocalisations, my shoulders shaking even as I try to suck in oxygen. I think I’m slightly hysterical from the shock of falling, but at the same time I feel alive.
Climbing to my feet a couple of minutes later, I grin at their three worried faces.
“I’m fine. That was fun. I’m going to do it again. Want to join me?”
Without any way to tell the time, I estimate that I doze on and off for a couple of hours. When I think there’s about an hour to go I shimmy down the tree grateful that it’s still semi-dark. In October the sun won’t rise fully until about an hour after the challenge ends, so if I stick to the shadows I still have adequate cover. If I’m careful.
Shots ring out, disturbing the peace and sounding way too much like real guns to calm my nerves. What is going on out there?
For a second I wonder if someone is hurt, if I should investigate, and then I shake myself. There’s no fucking way I’m going back in that forest willingly. There’s enough guys out there to take care of whatever is going down.
Tentatively I approach the back of the Jeep and peer through the window. Kaiden is out cold, mouth open, catching flies. I smile. When he’s not being tormented by nightmares, Kaiden sleeps like the dead, always has. A herd of hellhounds could crash through this clearing and unless they actually slammed into the car, he wouldn’t stir. How lucky for me that Kaiden was elected to stay behind and not Axel – his hearing is freakishly good and I swear he doesn’t know how to switch off or unwind. If I sleep with one eye open, Axel just doesn’t sleep, period.
I’m still tentative as I open the back of the Wrangler though. Kaiden doesn’t stir as I climb into the boot and quietly close the door behind me. The boot space isn’t huge but I’m able to curl up and lie down, pulling a blanket over me. This time I fully relax because if I get caught now, I’m fucked anyway. There’s no escaping a space this small.
But I have a feeling I’m going to be alright. And I can’t wait to see the motherfuckers’ faces when I do.
* * *
I’mjolted awake by the Jeep’s movement coming to a standstill. I didn’t even notice that we left the clearing but we seem to have arrived at a new destination. I wait while Kaiden parks and jumps out of the car.
“Well? Did she make it back?” He asks. I grin and wait. We’re back on campus then.
“No she hasn’t,” Axel snaps. “Was there any sign of her in the woods, Zie?”
“No, nothing.”
“Shit. Do you think she’s okay?”
I open the door and climb out, grinning at the Trinity whose jaws are on the floor. “Aww boys, for a second there you almost sounded worried about me.”
