I Am The Absorber

I Am The Absorber Ch 12

     Levi woke up, covered in soaking wet leaves. He sat up groggily, wondering why his bed was so uncomfortable this morning when the memory of being chased the night before arose to the top of his mind. He snapped awake, looking around for any signs of danger.

     The sky was almost bright, but not quite. It was very early in the morning and the birds flitted above his head, calling to one another, their sharp songs piercing the silence. His gun lay beside him, too wet to be of any use in the near future. The two bullets lay beside it, cold and hard. Levi suddenly panicked, thinking that he might have released all the water by accident during the night. He soon realized it was only dew and that every tree and leaf was covered in water. He moved a little and a cascade of water dripped onto his head, half of it seeming to actively seek out his ear canal.

     He paused for a second and then scrambled out of the hollow as fast as he could, not quite making it out before the branches above him dropped the rest of their payload onto his head. Irritated, he flicked his wet hair before concentrating and feeling his skin absorb almost all traces of moisture and becoming decently dry again.

     He began trekking through the mud and leaves after absorbing his gun, quickly moving away from his hiding spot. After the commotion last night, Levi had become hopelessly lost. Of course he wasn’t totally lost; this was practically in the middle of the city. All he had to do was begin walking in one direction and, in an hour or less, he would be in the city again. No harm done.

     Levi pushed branches out of his face, ducking under them and straining to hear any sound of traffic. It was pretty silent in those woods. He figured he should get back home soon. After all, he was missing work. Ben would not be happy. Laura wouldn’t care. She would just be glad he was safe. But what would they think? He mysteriously disappeared after a sheriff came to the front door; that was pretty bad.

     Suddenly, Levi found himself falling.

     His foot had not found the expected solid ground that it had been trodding on for the last ten minutes. No, it had gone straight through thin air.

     Levi crashed head first into soft mud and leaves. He put out his hands to catch his fall but they slid out to either side of his body, straining his arm muscles. His mouth collided with the ground and picked up quite a lot of horrid-tasting debris. Fortunately for his face, his nose and eyes missed the dirty ground completely. They were caught by something else.

     Levi rammed head-first into a pile of something rather clean and soft. A short, quick scream emanated from the heap.

     A… female scream.

     Levi jumped up as quickly as he could, a rather impressive feat, considering he had just fallen face first into a ditch. He brushed mud off of his clothing, arms, and face, and spit quite a lot of it out of his mouth.

     “I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?” he addressed the pile of pale blue blankets on the ground.

     The pile of blankets rolled over to reveal a young woman his age.

     The first thing he noticed about her was the freckles scattered across her nose and the telltale Scandinavian blush of the cheeks. Her skin was pale but not quite porcelain. Her face was sharp, her nose narrow and her lips were thin. Set in the middle of her sharp features were her eyes, round and circular. The last thing he noticed was their color.

     It should have been the first thing he noticed because her eyes were so remarkable. They captivated him like no other, enchanting pools of light. They were blue, a bright, royal blue. They were the color of the sky reflecting in the ocean, the color of a bluebird. Light and dark bands of color alternated in her irises, drawing his eye into her black-as-night pupil.