After gulping down a couple more painkillers, I found a pot. I boiled water and poured it into a pitcher to cool. Then I found some salt and oil and cooked the meat in it before adding the beans. In an old skillet, I made as many pancakes as I could without finishing the box.
I had no clue where Alexander was, but I wasn’t about to panic over that shit.
If he’d finally decided to leave me, I couldn’t hold it against him. I was too tired to worry about it that much.
I sat down on the tiny couch and ate beans with a slice of Spam, surprised by how good it was. Then I finished off a pancake, adding a little bit of honey I’d found in a glass jar because I remembered reading somewhere that honey lasted forever. And at this point, if something was going to kill me, as long as it tasted good, there were worst ways to go. I’d already gotten lucky to not be crapping my brains out from drinking creek water.
There was a radio that looked to be from the eighties sitting on the side table, and I reached over and fiddled with the knobs, getting a pop before staticky voices filled the air. “…they’re monsters. The government needs to do something about them before it’s too late. I don’t care what anybody says about those three. They aren’t human. Why would they watch out for us? We need to put them down before they put us down!” the angry voice shouted.
I rolled my eyes as I turned the knob back in the direction it had been, turning that shit off.
I rolled my eyes again as I got up. What is wrong with people? He’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but he isn’t a monster, I thought while I cleaned up, then walked over to the door and cracked it open.
Lying in the clearing of grass and what I was pretty sure were pine needles, a few feet away from the porch, was one of the strongest people on the planet. Arms spread wide, eyes closed, his chest rose and fell slowly and steadily. He was still dressed in those dirty sweatpants and hoodie that were a mix of orange and brown-black mud.
But I’d watched him enough to recognize the depth of his breathing and what it meant.
The fucker wasn’t asleep.
Were his lips moving?
Knowing damn well he’d heard me and knew exactly where I was, I went back in to get him a plate. Carefully, so that I wouldn’t step on anything pokey, I crept outside. Everything shook while I crouched and set the plate of food beside him.
One eye opened. Both his nostrils flared.
I pushed the plate a little closer as I pretty much plopped onto my butt.
His other eye opened too, right before he knifed up and reached for the plate. Placing it on his lap, he started shoveling the Spam and beans into his mouth, peeking at me once or twice while he pretty much inhaled it. After that, he started in on the pancakes that were half covered in bean and meat juice, carefully cutting a little piece with the edge of his fork and taking a tentative bite.
Those dark eyes flicked toward me as he took a bite and then another, spreading the honey around the top of the three pancakes I’d stacked.
“There are two more if you want them,” I offered when he set his fork down and folded them in half, finishing them in three bites.
He got up with a nod in my direction and disappeared into the house.
I tipped my head back, sucked in a small breath of the clean, cool air, and blew out a slow, slow breath just as the door opened. It smelled better now that I knew we weren’t going to have to sleep outside. We’d gotten away.
We were… safe.
Even if they found search dogs to locate us, it would take them twice as long to follow. That reality was the only reason I’d probably been able to sleep.
I had to strain to hear his steps on the deck, then on the grass before he took a seat beside me again. I kept my gaze upward on the little bit of sky visible through the trees. I’d seen so much of it over the last few nights, but somehow it still looked totally different each time. When it seemed like it had been long enough for him to finish eating, I looked over at him, the plate on his lap. A single pancake remained.
He held it out toward me.
I shook my head.
“Eat it,” he said in that rich voice I’d barely heard any part of for the last few days.
“I don’t want to eat it,” I argued, or at least I tried to. It didn’t sound all that effective when I was still whispering and my voice was so hoarse.
“You need the calories. Eat it.”
I opened my mouth and closed it. “Half and half?” I croaked.
He gave me his look. The annoying one.
“Please?” I compromised. “My stomach is all off. It’s pathetic. I know.”
His gaze narrowed, but he seemed to think about it for a moment before eventually nodding.
Taking his fork, I ate half and then handed him the plate.
It wasn’t until sometime later, when my butt was numb and the temperature started to drop so quickly that I was considering going inside, that he said, “I’m going to spend the night out here.”
Really? Even after we’d done the same for the last three nights?
“I’ve had enough of enclosed spaces for now,” he explained, like he knew what I’d been thinking.
Oh. “Is that… was that… your first time, you know, being captured?”
Alex had leaned back on his palms, head tipped back and aimed up toward the darkening sky. “Yes and it’ll be the last.”
I “hmmed” and nodded. That was good.
“I told you, there’s nothing that can hurt me,” he explained.
Other than what already had, I thought.
Did he know what had happened to him, then? He didn’t seem all that concerned about it anymore. He wasn’t focusing on the sky like he was scared of something in it. If it had been me who had gotten hurt the way he had, I’d be fucking terrified. So why would he be so nonchalant about it?
And why was he admitting this to me? Because he knew we were stuck together? At least until we figured out some way of hiding my identity. Or was I going to have to live in a house within hearing distance so I could shout if anyone ever showed up again? I guess that wouldn’t be so bad. There could be worse things than living close to someone who could protect me against just about anything.
You know, I could have water poured down my face and into my mouth again.
Fuck.
Just thinking about it made my throat tighter than it already was.
I had to think about something else. “I’d give a year of my life for a bag of Cheetos right now.” I told him. “What about you? What would you want?”
“I could go for a fucking cookie.”
I snorted, surprised. Him having a sweet tooth was the last thing I would have expected.
We sat there quietly for a while before I thought about something that had crawled into my head while I’d been trying to distract myself. “Say, Alexander…”
I peeked at him to see what he thought about me saying his name.
The side of his mouth might have tweaked a little.
“You don’t happen to live near a beach, do you?” I asked him.
“No.” There was a pause. “Why?”
I took a shallow breath through my nose. “A couple nights ago, I had a dream about a beach, and it just reminded me that I’ve always wanted to go to a real one.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn to me. “You’ve never seen the ocean?” he asked, like I’d told him electricity was witchcraft.