An Echo of Royalty

11

     I woke up in the same position I fell asleep in. Being so tired, I was surprised when my eyes opened. Then knew what did it…noise. It seemed loud outside compared to normal. I sat up and looked at the ground. Joe was gone. Stretching, I got off my cot. I started to change my clothes. I wouldn’t have bothered, but after everything that happened yesterday, it seemed like it would help me feel better. 

     Pulling a clean shirt onto my head, I heard the door flap move. With my back to the door, whoever entered wouldn’t see me. I turned around and Joe stood with a plate piled with toast. He smiled at me as I grabbed a slice. “Good morning. How did your five hours of sleep go?”

     He wasn’t wearing a shirt. His muscles caught my attention and I looked down.

     “Okay for the small amount. Not that I’m not used to having little amounts of sleep sometimes but everything about yesterday was exhausting.” I stretched again reaching my arms as high as I could up towards the top of the tent. It felt really good. I took a bite of my toast as Joe sat down on my cot. Its natural to have him sitting on it. Even having him sleep in my tent seemed normal, but it wasn’t. Last night had never happened before.

     My chewing slowed as it dawned on me. I looked at how comfortable he’d gotten with his legs crossed on it and the plate of toast on his lap. 

    “How do I do this?” I blurted it out before I could stop myself. I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, although it was a good question.

     He looked at me. “Do what?” He said through half a mouth full. He finished chewing before I could answer. 

     “How do I not have a relationship with you, we’re so…effortless?”

     He gazed at me, caught off guard by my question. He looked down at the ground. “You noticed that too?”

     “I’ve always noticed it, but it’s gettin’ harder to stay away from you. I can’t go anywhere without bein’ around you. Were on the same patrol team. Our community isn’t that big, so I see you from anywhere. We can sleep in the same tent together without any problem.” 

     He peered back up at me when I said that. He had a smile on his face. The one he had when he was appreciating something small like a butterfly on a flower, or a kid giving a mother a kiss on the cheek.

     “I know everythin’ about you. I know all the small details. Right down to the smile on your face right now. It’s the tender smile you give. I know the way you laugh when you are having a great time. The laugh you give when you’re gonna do something crazy and the fake laugh you give when you’re mad at someone but don’t want to show it.” 

     His smile hadn’t gone away, just became smaller. He studied at the plate of toast on his lap. 

     I looked down also and found his shirt on the floor. It reminded me of last night. “I even know the sound of your breathin’ when you’re asleep and when you’re awake. You felt comfortable enough in here last night that you were able to take your shirt off at some point and leave it when you went and got us breakfast.” I gestured to both of us. 

     He focused on me. “What do you expect me to say? That I don’t like how comfortable we are together. That’s the way that couples are, and as much as you may not want to realize, we are a couple. I am the only man you let in and you are the only girl I am after. We are around each other more than a lot of married couples. We do things together constantly that you only let me help with. I love that you are comfortable around me because I’m able to do things with you that no one else gets to.” He jabbed his finger at his chest and stood in front of me. “I love how you look away whenever you get embarrassed when I notice you staring at me. The way your face get red. I love that small dimple on your cheek when you smile.” His fingers brushed down my chin softly, then let his hand drop. “By the sounds of it…I’m the only person who’s noticed it. I love you Echo.” He eyed me without moving. “I don’t know if that helps your question.” He walked out of the tent.

     I stood in the same spot thinking about what he’d said. I smiled and touched my cheek. I felt for the small dimple he spoke of. It was there, I hadn’t realized it. I went to my cot and sat down where he’d been. Grabbing a piece of toast and took a bite, and chewed it absentmindedly. He’d just admitted that he loved me, I already knew that I loved him. So why couldn’t I just get over my problems? We held hands on and off for the past couple of days. Even in front of people. 

     I looked down at the ground at his shirt. I debated whether I should keep it or give it back. He left it here, maybe I should keep it. I picked it up off the ground and held it to my face. It smelled so good, just like him. I wished I could wake up to that smell in the bed next to me. Pulling it away from my face I stared at it. I guess I’ll give it back. 

      “You know it wouldn’t be that hard to just be with him. It may be awhile before I ever leave. Plus Trina may be right, he may come whether were together or not. Maybe it would be better if we’re together. He’s right, we’re pretty much a couple.” I said out loud. As if hearing my own thoughts would help me decide things easier.

     I threw his shirt over my shoulder and put my shoes on. I noticed my shoelaces were starting to wear through themselves. They were getting harder to tie. It gave me something to think about, for about thirty seconds. A person can remember for only so long about making sure they remember to grab a new pair of shoelaces the next time they go out. 

     I looked back at my toast and realized I didn’t have an appetite. I picked up my tooth brush and pasted it. I brushed my teeth as I stepped out of my tent. Joe’s in the kitchen eating an orange. I notice that he still hasn’t replaced his shirt. I wondered if he’s even gone back to his tent this morning. James sat at the table talking to him while eating a bowl of cereal. 

     Letting go of the toothbrush still in my mouth, I took the shirt from my shoulder and set it on his the same way I’d had it on mine. I turned away to the wash tent and caught a glimpse of James’ face as I turned. There was a grin on it and I glared at him.

     Before I could take a full step away from Joe I felt a snap on my butt. I bounced, startled, trying to keep the foam from coming out of my mouth. It barely stung, mainly for the intent of fun. Joe smiled at me and James laughed. I glared at them both and turned back. 

     At the wash tent Melissa, and Emily were there. They were brushing their hair in a mirror hung on a peg. They looked at me when I came in. There previous conversation from before stopped so they must have been gossiping again. I spit and then rinsed my mouth out.

    “So you finally have some fun with Joe? I wondered when you two would make that connection.” I heard Melisa say. 

    I stopped in the middle of wiping my mouth. I slowly straitened back up. “Excuse me?” The most evil of looks on my face.

    She flinched and slowly pointed in the direction of the kitchen. “Well Joe came out of your tent this morning without a shirt on. Then you brought it back to him. Were not the only ones to connect the dots.” She said with a cautious look on her face. Emily had already tried to escape the tent by inching her way to the right of me to slip out. I shot her a warning look and she stopped in her tracks.

    I spoke through gritted teeth. “The dots are not yours to connect. This is none of your business. When you assume something you had better think about the consequences because, do you know what assume stands for?” Both of them shook their heads fast.

    “You make an ass out of you and me. So don’t you ever assume anything about my life because it’s none of your business. We were up late last night and talked about our decisions in privacy. Stay out of it or you will truly see how big of an ass I can be.” 

     I turned around and as much as I wanted to stay mad, I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face. The look on Melissa and Emily’s faces made me want to take a picture. It was perfect. 

    They had reminded me of the current issue in the community. I looked around to find more people up earlier than the norm. Many of them don’t have to do much in camp so they slept in. I looked at Trina’s tent and found her watching me. She waved me over. 

    She already had the list laid out on the table and studied it when I stepped into her tent. There were names that were checkered already. Mine and Melissa’s name were already noted so I knew she was checking off the ones that she’d seen this morning. I grabbed it and headed back outside to continue marking people off. 

    She came with me and stood in the middle of the camp noting when people got out of their tents. She brought a pen and we both assessed as we saw people. It didn’t take long before everyone on the list was accounted for. 

    I looked at her in confusion. “I hate this situation. This whole nightmare makes me want to cry.”

    She touched my shoulder and I turned to her. “We all want to cry hun. It helps to remind us that were still human. I wished we never met…in a good way, I mean.”

    I knew what she meant. She wished we had never gotten in to this situation where we were driven together to survive. I looked in Joe’s direction. Still in the kitchen, he sat on a stool, deep in conversation with James and Carter. I ambled over to him and held out the list. He had all the men’s names on his. He drew it out and set it on the table. All the names were checked. Now I could see what their conversation was about.

    “Now what are we going to do?” I looked at him. 

    He shook his head slowly. “Not sure.” He picked up the lists. He walked to the place we cut wood at. Pushing over one of the chopped logs we used to set other pieces of wood on. “Could you go get everyone to come over here? I’m going to tell them what happened yesterday.”

    I went around camp telling everyone to go to the meeting. I wasn’t sure what he was going to tell them, or how he was going to tell them. Everyone seemed a little scared when they assembled in front of Joe. He didn’t really look nervous. Just cautious. I wasn’t sure where to stand so I stood next to Trina and James off to the side of Joe. He mounted the log.

    “You’re probably still wondering what was going on yesterday. It was weird. I’m sorry if we made anyone uncomfortable, but it was a necessity. You probably all saw Rico.” He looked around at the people responding with nodding heads.

    He went on. “Echo found him only a little ways outside of camp.” People looked at me when he said this. “I know that were all used to the gory part of life now, but I’m not going to give any details. We know it’s a vampire that did it.” 

    People began to talk again, anxiety in their voices. “But that’s so close to camp, how would any creature get out here before hitting sunlight. They would be stuck out here and die. That doesn’t make any sense.” Jamanie said, a small Mexican woman. She had two kids here in the community. Her husband died in the original onslaught.

    “That’s the same thing we were thinking. I know this is scary but…we think it’s a d-w.”

    Now there was an uproar of panic in the crowd, their voices hysterical. Joe tried to soothe them. “Quiet down guys, that’s why we took the precaution last night to try to find out if anyone here in camp has a different tattoo.” That didn’t go over well with the crowd. People were mad now with them being suspects.

    “Guys, settle down.” Everyone looked at me now. “This isn’t just scary for you. We have to try to figure out how to solve this problem so we took a first step. We know everyone here but we were thrown together in all the confusion. We don’t want anyone here to be a vampire but the d-ws blend in well. We want to be able to keep track of everyone. We wrote down everyone’s scars, birthmarks and tattoos. It’s nothin’ against everyone here but wouldn’t you want us to try and keep you safe?” They fell quiet when I said the last part. Some seemed to be thinking it over. 

    I looked back at Joe. He shot me an appreciative look. “Like she said, were just trying to help and see if there was a way that we could tell the d-ws apart. My dad once mentioned something about d-ws having tattoos. Something they were born with. So we wanted to see if anyone had something like that. It will also help with the future attacks I think.”

    “So how is it a tattoo if it’s a birthmark? What’s it supposed to look like? How will we know if there’s a royal among us?”

    I didn’t know what to say. I looked at Joe. We stared at each other, until someone answered the question.

    “Oh, you’ll know. Some of you already knew about me.”