Ending ELE (ELE Series) (6 page)

We laugh and
laugh, remembering those precious moments. We laugh until it hurts and then laugh some more. Finally, the laughter dies down and is replaced with silence and memory. I miss her so much it hurts. I hurt for my dad and the fact that he no longer has her either. I hurt because Sebastian was so young when we lost her and he never had the chance to really get to know her like I did.

Tony puts his arm around me and I lean into him.
“I miss her
,” I tell Tony in secret.

A muted silence follows and then Tony tells me,
“I know you do. I miss her too.
”

The fire is beginning to die down and the cave is filled with the sound of crackling embers and echoing drips.
Alec grabs a few more twigs that he finds and tosses them into the flames. We all lay in a circle around the fire with our heads either rested on each other or on our packs.

My body is exhausted but my mind is racing and I can
’t seem to shut it off. I’m getting the same vibe from Tony as well. I sit up and see him eyeing me in the dim light. I grab his hand and lead him to the mouth of the cave in an alcove surrounded by boulders. We find a few large rocks to sit on next to each other and watch the snow fall in sheets until it meets the waterfall below. The sound of the waterfall is soothing, yet scary. So much power in one area.

“
I’m worried,” I tell Tony while watching the snow. Silence makes its way between us as we sit huddled together to keep warm.

“
Me too,” Tony answers simply.

Words don
’t need to be shared right now. We just give the other person the room to worry. Sometimes you just need to let your mind race so it’ll tire and slow.

After a few minutes in silence,
Tony takes my hand in his and kisses me on top of my head. I look up at him, into his eyes. The cacophony around us disappears and it’s just him and me. He closes his eyes as I do mine and he leans in to kiss me. Our warm lips meet and I melt into him. He kisses me softly, slowly—his grip firm, yet gentle. He places his hand on the small of my back and pulls me closer. So near that we are both pressed up against the wall of the cave. I reach my hands behind his head and pull him even nearer still. My desires and my morals fight viciously in my head. My desires saying more, more and my morals saying wait, wait. I want so badly to give into my desires, to go further than I should. I can tell by Tony’s breathing he desires me in that way too.

Instead of me pulling
away, he pulls away first. The connection is broken immediately, like water poured over a roaring fire. I catch my breath as the cool air circles between us. We both breathe heavily only a few inches apart, watching our breath cloud up around us.

Tony pulls back, sitting up straight across from me, his muscles straining against his shirt.
Something is wrong—really wrong. I can’t tell what color his eyes are or what’s going on for that matter, because of the absence of light. “Tony?” I whisper. I shake him but he stays rigid. “Tony?” I say a little more loudly, but remaining quiet, so not to wake the others. After a few more seconds of shaking him, his body goes limp and he sucks in a lungful of air. I waste no time trying to figure out what happened. “Tony, are you okay? Tony?”

His arms encircle me and I hug him back
, but pull away almost immediately.

“
What’s wrong? What was that?” I ask him.

He takes a few more deep breaths and then answers me.
“A cabin, I saw a cabin hidden in the woods.”

Relief washes over me.
“You had a vision?” I ask, even though I know the answer.

I see his head nod in the shadows.
“I’m sorry. I’ve just never had a vision before. It caught me off guard.”

I rub his arms in comfort
, willing him to go on. “What else did you see?” I inquire.

He swallows
and then says, “I saw this cabin in the woods, not far from here. It was very excluded. I almost didn’t realize what it was until the vision pulled me inside. It’s huge and has running water and gas. The trees and brush are so overgrown around the entrance that it hides the place well. It’s fully stocked, unlike most of the places we’ve run into.” His voice sounds excited, but there’s a hint of worry in it.

“
That’s great, Tony, so how do we get there?” I prod.

Tony takes a deep breath and lets it out rather loudly.
“That’s the problem. It’s on the other side of the waterfall.”

I wake in the morning with a crick in my back. Sleeping on the hard floor of the cave doesn’t make for a restful sleep. I figure that I’m the first one up until I notice Tony is nowhere around me.

H
onestly, I don’t even remember falling asleep last night. I get to my feet and look over all the sleeping bodies. I can’t help but laugh at Connor, who sleeps in the fetal position. With him being so tall, it’s kind of awkward.

On a
serious note, Tony isn’t among the sleeping bodies. I tiptoe away from the others to look for him. The cave isn’t that big and it doesn’t take long for me to discover that he’s sitting outside the mouth of the cave with a pair of binoculars in his hand.

I walk quietly up behind him and wrap my arms around
his middle. “Couldn’t sleep?” I ask in a husky voice. I clear my throat.

He sets the binoculars down at his side and pulls me into his arms.

I can
’t help but notice his eyes look tired and drawn. “Did you sleep at all?” I ask.

He gives me a small smirk and shakes his head.
“That vision I got last night kept me up thinking. I couldn’t get my mind to turn off. I was out here at first light with my binoculars to scope out the area. The snow began to let up around two this morning.”

I rub his back
, knowing what lack of sleep can do to a person.

“
Here, take these.” He hands me the binoculars and moves around until he’s behind me. I put the binoculars to my eyes and scan the horizon. He helps me move the binoculars in place and I look at where he points. “Do you see that? It’s not much but I think that’s where the house is. It matches my vision.”

I
squint my eyes really hard to try to see it, but come up empty. Ignoring my lack of vision, I nod my head that I saw it anyway. No sense in discouraging him even more when he hasn’t even had a lick of sleep.

Tony begins pacing in front of me.
“The problem lies with how on earth we get there. Crossing the freezing water isn’t an option. Even if we hike down to the bottom, there isn’t a bridge that I can see anywhere along this river that could get us across.” He stops pacing and looks me dead on. “
This
is what has kept me up all night. It drives me crazy that I can’t come up with some semblance of an idea about what to do… not even a sliver.” He pursues his lips and then turns his attention back out of the cave in the direction of the house.

He looks so tired and exhausted. Protective instincts start taking over at seeing him like this. He needs to rest or at least eat something
. I hear the others stirring behind us. “Come on, let’s get some mystery breakfast. But, promise me you’ll give me the hook up this time.” I manage to get a small smile from him as I take his hand and lead us back to the others.

The fire has been fed with new wood
that I assume Tony must have brought in from his night-owl interlude. I look over at Connor, who sits next to it with a stack of cans. He’s shaking them and putting them up to his ear. He even tried to smell one of them.

Claire sits a few feet
away, smiling at him adoringly.

Tony leans into my ear
. “Watch this,” he says facetiously.

I stifle a grin as Tony makes his way over to Connor.
Connor watches him intently as Tony grabs a can of food and picks up the can opener.

“
Wait just a second!” Connor says passionately, pointing his finger at Tony. “I got pickled beets for dinner last night and I don’t plan on repeating that. I’ll take that,” he says as he snatches the can out of Tony’s hand.

Tony
seems like he’s upset but I can tell this is all just an act. Connor grins like the Cheshire cat and grabs the can opener from Tony as well. He sets the can on the open fire to heat up. Tony bends down and picks up two more cans. I’m assuming he just grabbed me breakfast as well. He places them over the fire and comes sits next to me.

“
Wait for it,” Tony says in a mild whisper. I bite the inside of my cheeks to keep from smiling too much and giving it all away. A few minutes later, Connor stumbles to get the can out of the fire with the help of a stick he found in the cave. He uses his shirt to hold the hot can as he wrestles with the can opener.

I put my hand over my mouth because I just know I
’m going to be laughing out loud in a few moments. Tony never fails to impress me with his wicked ways.

Lo and behold, Connor pops the lid off his can.
The smell begins to permeate the entire cave as he holds a flashlight over the top of the can. He immediately puts his hand over his face and nose, trying to contain a dry heave. He stands up, throws his hands on hips, and finds Tony with his eyes. “You CANNOT tell me that you had a hankering for sauerkraut this morning!”

I can
’t contain my laughter anymore. Connor plays the part of a pranked victim perfectly.

Tony holds his hands up in the air.
“What can I say? Gotta love sauerkraut at seven in the morning.”

Connor isn
’t buying this. “Well played, my man, well played.” He puts his first two fingers up to his eyes and turns them towards Tony’s eyes. “I’ll be watching you...” He pauses for dramatic effect. “And just when you think you’ve won, BAM. That’s right, you’ll get yours.” Connor keeps his eyes narrowed playfully on Tony’s.

“
Game on,” Tony retorts as he gives his head a slight nod.

“
Men,” both Claire and I say at the same time. We share a sideways smile and shake our heads. We watch as Connor pokes at his meal with a fork. He holds his nose and pops a strand of sauerkraut into his mouth. He gags as he attempts to swallow the delectable morsel.

“
Hey,” I say, trying to lend a hand. He turns his attention to me, contorted face and all. “If you squeeze your left thumb, it will stop your gag reflex.”

The blank look he gives me is epic.

“
Seriously, just try it.” He narrows his eyes at me, assessing if I’m telling him the truth or if I’ve crossed to the dark side with Tony and his pranks. He purses his lips and attempts bite number two with his thumb firmly held tight. He bites down on the sauerkraut and begins chewing. Swallowing, he glances over at me.

“
I can’t tell if this works because you’re psyching me out or because I’m holding my thumb. But seriously… thanks.”

I shoot him a grin.
“No prob.”

Tony fills everyone in on his vision last night.
He takes the others to the same spot and tries to show them the house he sees in the distance. Shockingly, no one else is able to see what he’s talking about. Every time they say they can’t see it, he points back to me and says, “Well Willow can! What’s wrong with you people?”

I feel my face getting red
, so I busy myself with packing up our supplies. Even when all the work is done, I find something else to rearrange. Tony stays up at the mouth of the cave, convincing the others about the location of the cabin.

“
So, what’s the plan, Willow?” Claire asks me.

I jump a little because I didn
’t hear her sneak up on me. I put my hand over my heart. “Sorry, Claire Bear,” I laugh. “I was off in my own world and didn’t hear you coming.”

She shares a smile with me.
“Sorry.”

I attempt to answer her
original question. Taking a deep breath, I let it out. “To be honest, I haven’t come up with one yet. The only thing I can think of right now is that we need to get off this cliff and onto sturdy ground. Once we are back on a flat plane, perhaps it will give us a different vantage point and hopefully an idea about how to proceed.” I shrug my shoulders, hoping that was a good enough plan. It has to be because it’s all I have.

Claire ponders it for a moment and then nods her head.
“I don’t see why that won’t work.”

I finish
‘packing’ while Claire goes back to the others and reiterates my plan… My lousy plan that obviously won’t get us any closer to where we need to be.

We all grab our packs and make sure the fire is completely out.
It’s stopped snowing for the most part outside. The accumulation still makes our path treacherous, but at least our vision isn’t totally obstructed. Holding hands and forming a train, we slowly make our way up the same path we came down the night before.

The bright snow burns my eyes as the sun ricochets off its surface. I can
’t hold my hand over my eyes because I have to hold onto the person in front of me and the person behind me. I feel like I walk almost blindly up the side of the cliff. It’s a little nerve wracking to say the least. After twenty minutes or so and some heavy climbing, we eventually all make it to the top in one piece.