I'm in it for the Long Run // Edge of Winter

17

It couldn't have been five minutes before we had come to another stop. A smell lingered through the air now, it was extremely thick. One could almost compare it to a fireplace, a very large fireplace.

I shut my eyelids, lifted my nose in the air and sniffed a little harder. I opened my eyes and was met by a large smoke cloud hovering above all the trees. Bradley. Elliot. The cabin!

"Belle." Caleb muttered.

"Go." I began urging him forward. "Go!" I yelled. Yet again, we found ourselves sprinting through the dark forest in the middle of the night.

We followed the smoke cloud in the air until I heard the sounds of sticks cracking. I stopped Caleb by grabbing his hood, nearly choking him in the process.

"What is it now?" He whined, pulling his shirt collar away from his neck. I shushed him and listened again until I heard another twig snap.

"Did you hear that?" I asked. He nodded his head. "It's Bradley. He's out, he made it!" The two of us silently cheered as we ducked behind a bush.

In the distance, we saw his small silhouette. One step after the other, slowing down rapidly until he came to a complete stop underneath a tree. He leaned against it and turned around, on the look out for something.

"Brad?" I muttered under my breath, taking baby steps in his direction. Some force seemed to be luring me towards him, a force that I could withstand. I found myself beginning to skip farther down the small slope, not realizing how fast I was actually going.

"Belle stop!" I heard Caleb whisper-shout at me.

"N-no stopping. Bradley's right there." I leaned forward some more until I was at the bottom of the hill, right in the middle of a little divot.

"Belle he's not alone." Caleb's voice ricochetted through my brain and seemed to bounce right out. I continued walking, almost to the top of the second slope. I was in a trance, one that I couldn't snap out of. "I'm serious!" Caleb pleaded.

I shook my head and continued. I was almost there, Bradley was almost within reach! I thought to myself how hard I would squeeze him the moment I laid my hands on him, but before I could finish that thought, I was met by a hard push to my back.

I landed face first in the snow, right behind a small snow bank. I picked my head up and was alarmed when I found Bradley was no longer in my sight. I tried to push myself upwards, but a force seemed to be holding me down.

"Belle listen to me! Bradley's stuck there! With Elliot." He hissed. Just like that, I was back. I blinked myself awake and all the factors piled up in my brain at once. Almost too much to handle for me, but I kept my cool.

I heard Elliot's frantic yelling as he called out each of our names. "Bradley! Belle! Caleb! Where are you guys?!" He repeated this action two more times until his eyes finally landed on Bradley.

Bradley did his best to scurry away, but his body was too weak. So weak to the point that he could barely even move. Elliot caught up to him with no issue and grabbed ahold of both of his arms, restraining his movements.

"We've gotta do something!" I said to Caleb, trying to muffle out Bradley's pleas to stop. Caleb and I thought for a moment before I saw a lightbulb go off in his brain. He snapped his fingers and smiled at me, then rose onto his two feet.

"What? Caleb what are you gonna do?" I questioned. He heard me, but his mind was already set on fixing things. He leaped over the pile of snow as I tried to reach out and grab him. "Caleb no!"

He rushed his way into the clearing where Bradley and his father stood. The look on their faces were filled with confusion and surprise, but I'm sure mine was no different.

"Dad!" Caleb yelled as he stopped about five yards away. I quickly jumped out after him and pulled him a bit farther back to make sure we kept our distance.

"What do you want?" He sneered at me, pulling at Bradley's arm and making him cringe.

"It's not her dad, it's me." Caleb directed the attention back to him as he stared his father down. I watched his expression gradually turn soft and loving towards his father. How could he possibly do this even after what he had just put us through?

"If we stay here, will you take us to go fishing and hunting? And teach us? W-we could make it work." Caleb smiled, genuinely.

"What are you saying?" I scolded, meeting my eyes with his. He pushed off me and walked closer to Elliot. Now he seemed to be the one who was zoned out.

"It'll be fun." He giggled. "We can rebuild the house, everything will be fine. Just us."

"Of course! Of course. We could go hunting, fishing, whatever you want!" He promised, grinning from ear to ear. In that moment, he made the mistake of letting go of Bradley.

Being so caught up in his moment with Caleb, he had totally forgotten about the other two teens who wanted to get the hell away from him. He smiled and cackled towards us, then placed his hands on his knees and gave us another one of his devilish winks.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar black shadow lurk. It neared us quickly until all the sudden it flashed across all our faces and delivered a hard hit to Elliot's face. Elliot nearly flew into the air before landing hard on his back. The figure crawled on top of him and began punching him as hard and as fast as he could.

"Luc!" Caleb cheered. "It worked!" Bradley staggered over to us as I pulled him into a warm embrace and kissed his lips softly. It felt so good to have him back.

"Go! Go on! Get to the car!" Luc ordered, stopping his beating on Elliot for a second. The three of us turned and began running as fast as we could up the hill.

Is this it? Is it finally over?