Wish You Were Here

40

Exhaustion hit me harder than ever. My entire body felt heavy and I drifted into a deep sleep within minutes of lying down. Grant was breathing steadily in my ear, his warm breath against my face. Thankfully, I didn't dream at all. Even my brain was too tired to have nightmares, fortunately.

It was almost sunrise when I started to stir. I turned over and felt dirt against my cheek. Figuring I must have rolled off of Grant's arm, I turned over to the other side and reached out for him. My hand grazed across the dirt. I opened one eye and then the other, waiting for my sight to adjust in the dark.

"Grant?" I whispered, feeling around again for him.

He wasn't there. I let my mind wake up, trying to leave sleep behind me. I heard the cracking of branches coming from the other side of the tree trunk and I froze in place.

"Ryleigh?" Grant whispered.

I sat up quickly. Grant was rushing toward me, crouching down until he got to my side.

"What are you doing? Where'd you go?" I whispered.

"Shh. We're not alone," he said as he slowly pushed me back down.

We both stayed completely still, listening for sounds of someone else nearby. Just as I was about to drift back to sleep, I heard it. The slow crackling of tree branches that littered the ground around us, serving as our very own burglar detector. The sound made my stomach drop.

Grant reached up, grabbed the backpack, threw it onto his back, and then poked me. He motioned for me to get up and follow him. I rolled onto my side and carefully stood up, staying slightly bent over to conceal myself as best as possible. He took each step slowly and carefully and I tried to follow his exact moves. My shoe misstepped, landing on a crooked stick instead of on the ground, and it cracked loudly. I froze before releasing my foot.

Footsteps came toward us at a rapid pace. Grant rushed through the trees, glancing behind himself to make sure I was still there periodically before continuing on. I shot a quick look over my shoulder, and when I turned back around, Grant was gone. I had lost sight of him. It was still dark and the woods were too thick to benefit from the moonlight. When I listened for his footsteps, I wasn't sure of what I was hearing belonged to him or someone else, and I wasn't about to wait to find out.

"Grant!" I called out.

More crackling from behind me. Whoever was after us was getting close to me. I called out for Grant again.

"Grant!" a voice came from behind, mimicking me.

I shuddered and frantically ran through the trees. My eyes shot back and forth, scanning my surroundings for him.

"Grant!" the voice yelled again, followed this time by a short laugh.

A hand reached out and grabbed me, and I screamed.

"It's me! Come on!" Grant had jumped out from behind a tree, waiting for me.

I stayed right behind him. We ran toward the light, the moon shining closer to the edge of the cliff. Grant screeched to a halt and I was so close behind that I almost collided with his back.

"Why'd you stop?" I blurted.

He stepped back and I leaned to see over his shoulder. We had reached the end of a cliff, it's neighboring piece of land sitting next to it, but not close enough for us to get across.

We both backed up. It was too far away for us to jump; we'd have to backtrack. As we turned around to head in another direction, we froze. A shadowy figure was heading straight for us in the dark. I grabbed onto Grant's arm tightly.