Eva's Expedition

Chapter 40: Rise N' Shine

Looking up, you could see the billions of stars that glittered in the sky. Swatches of the Milky Way stood out as a light contrast against the dark sky.

I've always been amazed by the sky and the secrets it held. Space. The great expanse. The void. Whatever you preferred it to be. It was so interesting and I had always been curious.

My mind shifted to a different field as I picked my way over a small pile of rubble.

I wondered what my parents would think of me now. I knew they'd be angry, that was a given and I was prepared for that. But what if they looked at me like they thought it'd been impossible? Impossible for me to be raised such a way and then suddenly break away.

What if a small piece of them wished that they had taken a chance like I did? Did it never cross their minds that there was something more beyond documents, galas, sky scrapers and money?

I questioned if either had ever looked out their windows at night and wished they were somewhere else. That they were someone else. Maybe at least one of them used to be me until they became corrupted.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Logan asked quietly, cutting through the silence and my thoughts.

I glanced at him and shrugged, "I was thinking about my parents."

"What for?" He mumbled casually, scanning the light around the trail as he checked for any snakes.

"Do you think they hate me?" I asked quietly.

Logan paused and looked at me seriously for a moment, "Hate you? Why would they hate you?"

I shrugged again, unsure how to string my thoughts into a sentence, "Well...I did run away and after people know that, it'll embarrass their name and company. I ran off with a boy I didn't know, cut my hair off, got a tattoo, stole fifteen thousand dollars, and most likely ruined a contract my father had been working on for months. They're going to hate me."

"Eva, don't you know how hard it is to hate you? I can't even do it and you kick me at night in your sleep,"Logan grinned at me.

I giggled, "Sorry."

"They may be angry, or even ashamed, but its only because they failed," he said, taking my hand and guiding me as we started walking again.

"They failed?"

"Yeah. What were they raising you to be? The next CEO of Rivers Co? I bet they never thought that you were capable of so much. They tried to force you into a mold you didn't fit in. You're parents tried to make you exactly like them. They failed," he clarified.

I smiled to myself. They did fail. Thank god.

"I think we need to find a spot," Logan said, looking up.

I looked at the horizon and saw the tints of purple and orange creeping up the sky. It was near sunrise and we needed to find a place to sit and watch.

I hurried along with Logan as we could now see the point. Logan switched off the flashlight as the grey light gave us enough illuminance to see.

We got to the point and I grinned. The view was already incredible. We stood at the very end of a narrowing cliff and looked out over the canyon.