X-Marks: Hiding Shadows

Bitter

It tasted funny. Whatever Nate had between his fingers as he slipped his hands over my mouth. The bitter taste as it slid down my tongue was the last thing I remembered before the drooling jaws of wolves howled at the sky.

It didn't matter how hard my chest had been jumping. Or how much my legs quivered from the pain in my scalp. I couldn't fight it whatever Nate had given me. I fell asleep through it all.

Once the haze of sleep began to lift, I was surrounded by leaves and cradled in the soft arms of someone who smelt of pine wood. I looked up and saw Nate's kind brown eyes.

"Evee," Nate said from above, "It's okay they're gone,"

"Is she going to be okay?" another soft voice said.

Ocean stood beside Nate, the yellow ring of the sun was rising between the trees behind her.

"What happened?" I said and choked on my dry throat.

"What happened?" Mat said from behind Ocean and pointed his palm at me, "You almost got us killed! We had to carry you when you gave up our cover!"

Valen was leaning on a tree next to me with her cheeks pressed into her fists. Her wet red eyes told me everything. Something more had happened when I was asleep, and I knew it was all my fault.

•·················※·················•

Just one more home, I thought to myself as I sat on the flat rock of the garden.

We had arrived at the supply home in one piece for the most part that is. This new home was just the same as all the others.

Dusty brown in color, windows that were covered with black soot, a pointed roof and built in the middle of nowhere. It looked no different than any of the other homes we had passed, and I had guessed that was the point. It was packed with enough supplies to last us a few weeks.

I continued to look out into the garden from my seat on the rock. It's bushes of green thorns, and little white flowers bloomed over the black metal fence that surrounded the home and blocked my view of the outside world. I could only look at the mess in front of me.

"Hey," Nate said from behind me, "We're getting some cans heated on the stove if you want to join."

Nate stood from the back door of the dusty brown home. A tan blanket was wrapped around his shoulders, and his body shook from underneath.

"Aren't you cold out here?" he said and looked at the clouded sky above.

"I think it's kinda nice," I said and stretched out my back to face the sky with him.

Nate stepped out from the back door and walked onto the stone path of the garden.

"Cold or not," he said and sat down next to me on the flat rock, "I bet you're still at least hungry by now."

I lifted my back to sit straight and looked away from Nate. I hadn't wanted to eat in days and still didn't feel like it.

"Evee," Nate said and stressed my name so much it made my chest sink, "It wasn't your fault, okay."

"You don't have to lie to me," I said and turned my body away.

"You know I wouldn't lie," Nate said and placed his hand on mine, "At least not anymore."

"What?" I said as the hollowness in my chest filled with warm flutters.

"Evee, I never got a chance to tell you," Nate said, his brown eyes trailed the stone path littered with dead branches below, "I never got a chance to tell you what really happened, to my family."

"It was the Allys, wasn't it?" I said and leaned closer to the pine scent of his hair that made me dizzy on the way.

"Yeah, but I never told you why," he said and curled his lips into his mouth, "My parents knew how to do things. Things that the Allys didn't want Allys to know. They taught my sister and me what they knew too."

"You had a sister?" I said, the mention of a sister broke the haze in my head.

"Her name was Alex," Nate said with a painful smirk.

"Then what happened to them?" I said.

"I don't know if you would understand but what I did turned us into targets to the Allys. It was a mistake. A mistake that cost me, my family. If anyone knows how you feel right now," Nate said as his teary eyes turned to glass, "It's me."

It was the last thing I expected. To sit here with Nate and feel so warm. But that's exactly what had happened. What was happening all along, and I didn't stop to notice until now.

I lifted my head as pain shoot down my neck along the way. It was as if there was no one else in the world and this gave me courage. I held my lips against Nate's lips and felt everything melt inside.

"Gross," Mat said from the door and stomped back into the home with heavy brows covering his eyes.

It wasn't disgust on Mat's face. It wasn't confusion either. This was anger. But why would Mat be angry? He hated me? Surely he did.

Then why did I feel so guilty? Like I had done something wrong?