Long Way Home

6. Theo

Chapter Six.

Theo.

I woke up to the sound of a crackling fire. Groaning, I rolled onto my back, rubbing my eyes. I sat up and yawned, looking around for the source of the noise.

Nicole was still sleeping soundly, facing away from the clearing as if she had fallen asleep on guard duty. However, Ollie was sat hunched over a fire, holding a stick near to the flames, cooking a few sausages.

"How're you feeling?" I asked him hesitantly, watching his expression.

Staring deep into the flames, he didn't answer me for a few seconds. He lowered his eyebrows before glancing up at me. "Better than I did a few hours ago..." He muttered.

"That's good." I replied awkwardly, nodding at him. "Nicole fell asleep?"

"Yeah, I don't blame her though. She was real tired." He looked over at her and sighed, holding the sausages closer to the flames. "Do you want breakfast?"

"Yes please." I raised an eyebrow as I realised we hadn't brought any matches or anything that could light a fire. "Ollie, how did you start the fire?"

"None of your business." He growled at me, digging the stick into the ground so he could prepare another few sausages.

"It has to do with last night doesn't it?" I chanced the question. "Your hands set on fire but didn't burn. What's happening to you?"

"I don't know!" He shouted at me, making me reel back in fear of him lashing out. Looking down at his hands, I wondered how he was feeling. No doubt he would be confused, scared, worried. But I knew he wasn't going to show it on the outside. I'd only known him a day and I knew he wasn't like that. He distanced himself from us and kept himself cooped up so we didn't find out more about him.

"Sorry..." I looked down, seeing the stick of sausages lean dangerously close to the flames. Ashes scattered as they fell in, hissing at the contact with the fire.

Ollie cursed loudly and instantly dove his hand in, grabbing the sausages and pulling them out, scraping the black bits off with his knife.

"Didn't that hurt?" I leant over to look at his hands. They weren't even slightly red.

"Didn't what hurt?" He looked confused, as if he had no idea what I was talking about.

Hesitantly, I told him what he'd just done. "You picked them up straight out of the fire. That should have burned you!"

"Did I?" He took a bite out of it and threw it straight back into the fire, climbing to his feet. "Ruined..." He muttered and passed the new ones over to me.

"Don't you want one of these?" I questioned, looking up at him. Wow, he was pretty tall. But that just made him look more daunting.

"No. You have them..." He paused and glared down at me. "You're the weakest anyway. It would be best to get your strength up." Just as I thought he was being kind, he goes and blows it. I'm sure he does it on purpose. No normal person could just let those comments slip out.

He approached Nicole and squatted down beside her, shaking her shoulder softly. If she had told him to wake me he would probably have kicked me awake, and there he was being all gentle with her. "Nicole, I've got breakfast going. If you don't wake up I'm eating yours." He rose up again, going to get his bag.

"Where are you going?" I asked through a mouthful of sausage, raising a hand to flatten my hair after the mess it had worked its way into last night.

"For a walk. I'll be back in twenty minutes. Be ready to leave." I wondered how he knew what the time was as he didn't have a watch. He didn't seem like the kind of person to know how to tell time from the sun either.