Wish You Were Here

23

Beth hopped closer to her, grabbing onto my shoulder for balance.

"Anywhere is better than standing here out in the open, right?" Beth asked us.

"She has a point," mI told Cal. "It's probably not the best idea to be out here."

"I agree, but let's go down that way, maybe?" She pointed to the woods next to us.

"That's kind of hard for me." Beth admitted. "And with what we just went through...If we can just please go right there, behind the cabin where you say you were hiding, that would be the best, I think."

"Yeah, agreed." I told Beth. I started to help her along, but noticed Cal seemed apprehensive. I tried to give her a smile, but I barely had the energy to do that. The weight of what had just happened started to hit me like a ton of bricks.

"How will we know when they're back though?" Cal asked me. "If Grant and Will..."

"If Grant and Will what?" A voice came from behind me.

I turned my head to see Grant and Will walking towards us. As I spun my entire body around, Grant's smile faded from his face.

"Ryleigh! What happened?" Grant rushed over to me.

"I'm okay." I assured him. "It's not my blood."

"What?" He exclaimed. "What do you mean it's not your blood? It's everywhere. It's all over you! Whose blood is it?"

Will came over to inspect me. "What happened?" He asked bluntly.

"We need to get out of...here." I said, motioning to the front of the cabin.

"Okay," Grant stepped past me. "Let's go inside-"

"No!" The three of us girls all shouted in unison.

Grant and Will both stared at us.

"What's going on, Ryleigh? Tell me." Grant demanded, looking concerned.

I sighed. "Okay, let's go inside. But not downstairs. Got it?" I said to all of them.

We stepped back into the cabin and I double checked that the hatch was completely shut. Beth sat down on a chair and I started pacing the floor. I explained what happened as they stared at me in shock. When I had finished, Will crossed his arms over his chest and was breathing fast. He looked at Grant.

Grant ran his hands through his hair. He walked straight over to me and embraced me in a huge hug. My arms hung awkwardly at my sides until I slowly brought them up around him. He pulled away after a few minutes with tears in his eyes. Then he looked at Beth.
Crouching down next to her, he took her hand in his and whispered a few words. She nodded and cried softly. He kissed the top of her head.

"Cal-" Grant started to say.

"I'm okay." She insisted. "They both went through much more than me."

Grant walked over and gave her a quick hug before turning to address me again.

"The guy..." He said. "He's downstairs?"

I nodded. "Some of our stuff is down there. I just realized that now. I'm sorry! I think our water bottles and some other stuff are still downstairs."

"Leave it!" Cal blurted.

"I'll get it." Will volunteered at the same time Cal had spoken.

Cal and Will locked eyes.

"No, I'll get it." Will stated softly.

Cal didn't respond. She just watched him turn around and walk to the end of the room, just like we all did. I had no idea what to say, and I'm guessing no one else did either. What exactly do you say to the person who is intentionally going into the room where you just killed a guy? And the body is there on the floor. There were no words.

He lifted the hatch and took a deep breath in and out before going down the stairs.We all stood by and listening to his footsteps descending down. When he reached the bottom, we heard him say Oh damn!
I looked away, not meeting anyone's eyes. I could feel Grant staring at me, but I pretended not to notice. I knew he wasn't mad. If I looked over at him, his face was probably a mixture of sadness and guilt, and there was no way I could see that right now. It would break me. We waited until Will came back up and placed our things on the table.

"You saw?" I asked Will quietly.

"You messed him up, girl!" Will coughed back a laugh.

Something about the way he said it made me laugh, and the two of us stood there laughing while the rest of them stared at us in total confusion.

"You're a savage." Cal spat at Will, obviously  repulsed by his reaction.

"Thank you, doll." He winked at her. "Maybe when all is said and done and, uh, we're outta this place, you and I could-"

"Never!" Cal shouted in disgust.

"Anyway," Will faced the rest of us. "I got most of our stuff. You didn't want the letter opener, right?"

I gave him a look.

"Kidding!" He joked. "I put the blue tarp over him."

"Okay!" Grant interrupted. "Listen. Knock it off. You're forgetting the reason for all of this in the first place."

"Aaron."