An Echo of Royalty

4

    When his lips pressed against mine, my breath caught and my heart thudded harder. His lips slid away, and then came back. I mirrored his movements. 

    I admit I enjoyed it. Where we were, and how we got there, was no longer an issue.

    His hands came to my face, one of them caressed my cheek and the other held my chin. They slid down to my neck, then shoulder and then my arm, curving around to my back. Then he pulled me forward, closer to the border of the cot.

    When I was on the edge, I bumped against the wood frame, halting his pull. One jerk and I’d land in his lap. 

    The back of my neck tingled as I looked at his unopened eyes. He tugged and I fell into his lap.

    As I fell onto his lap, I put my feet on both sides of him to stand, pushing into him and knocking him over. 

   His breath came fast as he stared up at me with wide eyes. "What's wrong?"

    "Why did you do that?" I glared at him. It's not just his fault. You kissed him back. I wasn't as mad at him as I was at me for giving in and enjoying it. "I can't do this," I said, then took a step towards my door.

    He scrambled to his feet behind me. "Echo, stop, please wait." Grabbing my shoulder, he spun me around and pressed his lips to mine again, holding me in place with his arms wrapped around me. 

    I put my own around him. Falling into it again and becoming absorbed by his touch. My hands were in his air while his arms explored my back. His mouth trailed down my throat. 

    Without his mouth to distract me, I gazed at the far side of my tent. Oh my gosh, we’re kissing. Oh no, he’s kissing you. You have to stop. Move. Now. I took a step back, but my body wouldn’t move with me. Joe wasn’t letting go. 

    I struggled my way out of his grip, pushing on his firm chest to free myself. 

    "Don't touch me again." Taking a step back, I held one hand up in front of me, and the other behind me feeling for the flap. 

    He put his hands out in front of him, palms up, breathing heavy. "I told you I just wanted to try something. You could have stopped me at any time. You didn’t."

    "I am now. Please stay there, it's bad enough that you can't keep your mouth shut throughout our normal daytime activities, but now you're making my own tent uncomfortable. Why can't you just leave me alone?"

    "If you didn't want me to kiss you, why did you kiss me back? That's all I want to know. You could have stopped me, but you didn't."

    "It doesn't matter if I did or not, you shouldn'a kissed me. You can't do this to me. We can't be together, and that's that. So stop trying."

   He ran his hand through his hair. "I don't see the problem here. It was a simple kiss. No one got hurt." He dropped his hands, shook his head, and walked towards the flap, going around me. 

    With his right leg out under the flap, he turned to me. "You should know though, I'm not going to stop trying," he said, then disappeared under the flap. 

    Shaking my head, I went back to my cot and sat down. My hands shook in my lap so I pumped them.  My gaze drifted to the green tarp fabric of the cot, where he slid me off. What would have happened if we wouldn’t have stopped? I touched my lips. Would we still be kissing? I laid back on the bed and squeezed my eyes shut. “Stop it.”

    Dad yells, “No matter what happens to us, run keep fighting. Don’t let them get you. If you see us dead, don’t check us, don’t sit and cry, just run.” 

    Her blond hair is streaked with blood…so unnatural. It shouldn’t be that way. Why is it like that? Her hair isn’t supposed to be so red, like mine.

    Stare at the steering wheel. I try, but macabre things attract even the queasiest of hearts.

    I reach for the shifter, tears rolling down my face. My mom’s eyes, lifeless, stare off into space. Her mouth set in a soundless scream.

    My dad’s hand rests beside her shoulder as he lies on his stomach, his shirt shredded and bloody.

    There’s no helps for us.

    I’m alone.

    I drive for hours and my car sputters and slows. Ease it to the side of the road. No more gas. 

    I’m next to a forest.

    Grab the gear out of the back of the car. Guns, stuff food in pack, coat. Get into the trees.

    The further I walk, the darker it becomes. Where should I hide for the night? My feet hurt. Can’t I stop? No. I need to get away from them.

    There is no more light through the trees. I get the flashlight out. Where should I sleep.

    Snap.

    Freeze, don’t move. Where is it?

    Holding my breath I listen. I knew they’d come for me. My hands shake, the light bounces off the trees.

    Snap. c***k.

    That sound came from the right. Then a pop from behind.

    I spin, the sounds come from all around me. What do I do? Run. I move, skipping between trees.

    Something long in front of me, coming right at me. Pain on my face. My head snaps back and I land hard. I blink through the spots that now pepper my vision. My nose hurts. There’s something wet and warm on my cheek. Someone, they’re above me. Did he hit me? Lights bounce around, shadows come up beside him.

    His hands move to my nose, they pull away red, then fingers on my throat. “She’s human,” his whispers.

    Someone growls. Rumbling. The faces disappear as smoke. Light, brightness. I blink…

     My stomach rumbled and I moaned, rolling onto my side on the cot to stretch. 

    The intoxicating aroma of dinner seeped into my tent. My stomach growled as I got off my cot, stretching my arms above me. My hunger     pulled me out of the tent in search of the food. 

    The day was almost gone. I had slept for a few hours and I was grateful for the sleep.

    Trina was cutting carrots in the kitchen, adding them to the plate that was to be poured into the pot above the fire.

    "How's it going?" I asked as I sat down at the table.

    "It's going fine Echo, what do you need?" Trina said and looked up at me from her cutting.

    "I can't simply come over here to talk?" 

    “Echo, you’ve never been chatty.” She'd almost finished with the carrots.

    I grabbed a carrot end off the table and picked at the green frills. "Sorry.”

    "I know you’re not being rude. You’re quiet, like me." She started on tomatoes, glancing at me.

    “Are you going to ask me about it?” I asked her, waiting for a lecture about not leading Joe on.

    “No. What you do in your tent is your business.” She slid the tomatoes onto the same plate as the carrots.

    I nodded. “Okay. Can I ask you when dinner will be ready. I need to get some chores done.

    "Dinner will be done in about half an hour. You have plenty of time to do your laundry." She winked.

    “Do I smell that bad or can you read minds?” I smiled at her.

    “You usually do your laundry every few days. I haven’t seen you at them in a while. And besides hunting, which you wouldn’t do right now, that’s the only chore I know of.” She slid the plate towards me. “Poor that in before you go.”

    I nodded and got off the stool to do as I was told. Before I left to grab my clothes, I set the plate back on the table.

    When I stepped in to the wash tent, Melissa was working her own. Well, more like staring at her hand where her engagement ring was sitting.

    "Hey," I said. 

    She jumped at my voice and thrust her hands into the water before looking up at me. 

    "Jason says I should stop staring at it, but I can't help it. It's the prettiest thing we've had around here for a long time. I just love it. She pulled her hand out of the wash bucket to look at her ring again. The diamond shined in the torch light.

    "It's beautiful. I'm happy for you. Where did he get it, if you don’t mind me asking? We usually pass the jewelry store when we’re in town.” I poured my clothes into the nearest wash bin and pushed them under the cold water.

    “He didn’t say. I’ll bet that’s where he got it though. We're thinking we’ll do it in a month. There’s no reason to wait in the state of things. We just need to find a dress for me and nice clothes and a ring for Jason. It'll be nice to have it all done with." Her cheeks reddened. 

    "So, when do you think you and Joe will get engaged?" She pulled a shirt out of the water and squeezed it, glancing at her ring again. Her eyes came back to me as she let her arms drop. “What?”

    "We aren’t together, nor have we, or will we ever be." I looked at my clothes in the grey water. "Not if I have anything to do about it," I muttered turning back to my bucket.

   "I'm sorry. I didn't know. The way you two look at each other, and your secret meetings, I just thought you weren't comfortable with an open relationship." 

    I shrugged, pressing my water against the grader.

    She pulled more clothing out of her tub to ring them before placing them in a clean water bucket. Putting a water worn stick in the clear liquid, she stirred.

    "If you don't mind me asking, why don't you allow yourself to be with him? There’re only so many men out here now. You need to get him before someone else does," she said, pulling her clothes out to crush them again and set them in her basket. 

    I rested my arms on the sides of my container. "To be honest, I really do like him." Maybe even love him. "We've been through so much together for the last two years."

    "But?" she said.

    "But you’ve heard me talk about leaving. I am going to go sometime. He’s such a good guy, I can’t take him away from you. I would always feel guilty, and stress over you all.” I squished a pale shirt against the scrubber. “Why am I tellin' you this?" I swirled my shirt in the used to be bubbly water. 

    My mom used to use a soap that would stay foamy for a long time, before she died, when her hair became an unnatural red. 

    "Echo?"

    I blinked up at her as she smiled at me. “Sorry, what?”

    "I said it's nice to be able to get things out. If you bottle everything up and never tell anyone, you're going to have a problem venting to people," she said.

    "Yeah, I've noticed that. It's nice to talk to someone, besides Trina." My clothes were good enough, so I rung them out and stuck them in my plastic Walmart sack. 

    "It's not any of my business but, I can kinda understand with the whole needing to leave and avenge your parents, but why the big to-do with Joe? I can see how he cares about you. He loves you. You should take him with you, we’ll be fine.”

    I nodded taking a step out of the tent. She followed suit. 

    She passed me and put her hand on my shoulder “If you ever want to talk again, I'm here. You can talk to most of us, you just need to try." She walked away but turned back to me. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone your secret." 

    I nodded again. What secret? 

    I walked back to my tent, glancing at the card players. Joe was among them. He didn't wave or signal, just watched me. 

    What would it be like to be sitting there with him? Maybe my hand on his knee, while he played cards, being together.

    I smiled then shook my head. Turning back to my tent, I moved past it to my clothesline. It was tied between two trees and even had the little clips to pin the clothes to the rope. 

    Pulling a shirt out of the bag to hang it, I laid it on the line. "So, why were you smiling at me?" He was behind me again. Stepping next to me, he crouched under the rope and stood in front of me on the other side. He grabbed my bag and pulled out a pair of pants. 

    I stared at him while he reached for some pins. "What are you doing?"

    "I figured I'd come and help. I had a question for you anyways. Why were you smiling at me?"

    "I wasn't. I had a thought that made me smile." I pinned my shirt and grabbed another one.

    "I think I know what you were thinking about."

    "I highly doubt that,” I said, pinning that last shirt. I left my undies in the bag for my tent. 

    "You were thinking about this afternoon. You probably couldn't get it out of your mind." I smiled.

    "Wow, you’re really…off." Snatching my bag, I turned to go to back to my tent. 

    He trailed behind me. "So here's another question then. Why are you doing laundry at this time of day? It's dinner time, how come you aren't eating?"

    Shaking my head again, I stepped into my tent. What happened this afternoon was a first, so I doubted he'd try again. "I had to do my laundry. My pile was getting high so I wanted to get it done before dinner, then I wouldn't have to do it after. I took a nap this afternoon instead of getting things done." Kneeling down, I spread my underwear out flat under my cot, where I always dried them. Hanging my skivvies in public was not a great idea to me. Joe had seen them in here before, so that wasn’t a worry.

    Joe sat down next to me on my bed. "Wow, the kiss really knocked it out of ya didn't it." He grinned.

    "You are so annoying. Why can't you go bug someone else." Finished with my underwear, I stood. 

    Joe reached down and grabbed one of my bras, then swung it on his finger. "I can't wait to see these on the floor of our tent."

    I took them from him. "There will never be an our tent. Keep your grubby mitt's off of my underwear." I put it back up while he smiled at me.

    I glanced up at him while I stood back up. "Melissa thought we were together." My stomach growled as I started for the door.

    "I'm okay with that." He said, following me.

    "Yeah, you would be. You don't care that I don't want to."

"Yes you do, we both know that you want do. You're just not letting it happen."

    We were almost to the table where some people still ate. "Do me a favor, stop trying. Go find someone else to pester." I walked away from him  and grabbed a bowl. I felt his stare on my back as I got my food and went to my tree to sit alone.

    When I glanced back where I’d left him, he was gone. He was sitting in the same chair he sat in earlier, with his back to me. James was in the group of men in the new game. He leaned towards Joe, his eyes flicking to me. He nodded and Joe turned to look at me.

    His eyes were tense. Not necessarily angry, but not exactly happy either. He must not be happy with what I said. Putting his back to me again, he shrugged.

    What did James tell him?