She was on the roof.
She couldn’t exactly remember how she had gotten up there—the past two days had been a blur of terror and confusion. Too many faces, too many people trying to touch her and people, yes they were all people. Not beasts. They smiled like they weren’t beasts, and had small, adorable looking children like they weren’t beasts, and gave her gift baskets like they weren’t beasts.
They’d been so excited to see her, to say a few words while she stared, wide eyed, with her heart in her throat and in the back of her mind preparing herself for any one of these things to kill her.
And that man—god, he never left her for even a second. His chair was pulled up beside her bed and he’d tried touching her at first, just his hand on hers, his fingertips on her arm, but she’d swatted him away and cursed until her throat was raw and he was yelling at her not to curse and she cursed him for telling her not to curse.
He was beautiful, in an aching sort of way, like if she looked at him for too long she’d just break. His dark hair was short and chopped and his face, cut so clean, dark hairs rising up on his chin to his hair line. And his eyes, she’d gotten too lost in them before. He’d say something and she’d look at him without thinking because sometimes it felt natural to converse with him, to be so close with him, for him to touch her hand. And his eyes would hold onto hers and she’d forget to breath.
She liked the doctor, though. They called her a healer, and she was kind and old and smarter than she could ever hope to be. She patched her arm up in a cast and when it was hurting, so unbearable she could only close her eyes and grit her teeth and ignore the man when he begged her to tell him what he could do to help, the healer would put a salve into her cast and she’d feel better.
But now she was on the roof, and in the house and the fields surrounding the house, she could hear the commotion of her captors.
The man had gone to the bathroom, telling her before he left like he always did, like he thought it’d distress her to not know where he was. She hated that she’d wake up sometimes and he wouldn’t be in the room and she could feel the distress bloom in her stomach. Like she needed him in there.
It’s why she pulled herself up when he left on that second day and to her feet, even when her ankle screamed at her. It’s why she shuffled to the window and pulled it open with one hand and pulled herself out, sweating now because her body was screaming at her, something in her side ripping again. She closed the window behind her and took in a deep, deep breath of the cool morning air.
She was on the second floor of an old Victorian house, and there was another floor above hers. She was standing on the roof overhanging a large porch. Charlotte wasn’t stupid enough to attempt escape. She’d seen a hundred people come through to see her in the past two days, and from her perch on the roof she could see the tiny, compact town bustling with people on the streets.
It was—beautiful. A place cut out in the trees with dozens of old, magnificent houses. She could see kids chasing each other just like in her own town, and parents chasing the kids, and men picking their women up and spinning them around, even when the women were squealing.
They didn’t act like a bunch of beasts.
So she couldn’t escape, not with everyone everywhere, not with her ankle so busted and only one arm. But she needed air, she needed to breathe, and that room wasn’t allowing her that. She moved so her back wasn’t to the window and sat down, laying so her head was against the rough tiling of the roof. She stared up at the sky, clouds tinting a beautiful orange and pink from the sunrise.
It smelled wonderful out here.
She could hear the man when he came back to the room. She thought he’d come straight to the window and drag her back in, because to her it was obvious she had crawled out here. But he howled instead to Odin, a man she had learned was some sort of friend to him. She could hear them running through the house, screaming hr name until their voices went hoarse, and then the whole town was calling for her. Queen, they called her. Did anyone know her name? No, she figured, because she hadn’t told them and she’d hung up on her mom before the beasts could hear her name.
She closed her eyes and breathed through her nose and out through her mouth so the pain was in the back of her head. She thought about quantum mechanics and the placement of electrons in their orbital’s. She thought about the semi permeable phospholipid bilayer of her cells and osmosis. She thought about her dog and how she would only sleep at the end of her bed, and when she wasn’t home she’d pace on the porch, waiting for Charlie’s return.
No one came looking for you when the beasts came. No one ventured into the woods to find their loved ones. It meant condemning the whole town, and if the officials thought you might go out for your daughter or sister or mother, sometimes your father or brother or son, then they’d lock you in the town jail cell until you calmed down, and mourned like the rest of town for the lost life.
Because that’s what Charlotte was now. A lost life.
“On the roof!” she heard someone cry. She closed her eyes tighter, cursing under her breath because her thoughts were ruined. She heard a sound, a grunt, and she opened her eyes to see her very own stranger pulling himself onto the roof. Had he jumped up here? Dear lord.
“You scared the hell outta me.” He panted, crawling towards her. She couldn’t deny it, no matter how she tried, that he was beautiful, perfect. She turned her head back so she was staring at the sky and he came to a stop beside her. “Come on, I’ll help you back inside.”
“Just another moment.” She whispered, her voice very quiet. “I like to watch the sun rise.”
He paused, she could practically feel his conflict, before he moved and laid down beside her, their hands almost touching. She also couldn’t deny that it had felt odd without him right beside her like he had been the past few days, a routine she had assumed. You live with something long enough and it’s weird when it changes.
“You always watch the sunrise?” he asked her. His voice was deep when he wasn’t yelling or commanding, rumbling from far within his chest.
She hummed in the back of her throat, watching the colors swirl and change above her. “I used to swim to it. I’d chase the colors across our lake.”
They were silent again and her body trembled with the pain of her small movements to get out here. She could hear people moving about below her, but she ignored them. She felt his finger tips touch the back of her hand, and she pulled it back so it laid across her stomach. “I won’t hurt you.” He mumbled, angered again by her dismissal of him.
“I would like to go home, please.” She mumbled.
Another pause, and she expected his answer. “You can’t.”
“You know, we all thought you killed the people you dragged away.” Charlotte commented, turning to look at the stranger beside her. His startling eyes met hers, taking away her breath.
He gave her a gentle smile that transformed his face into something more beautiful, more breathtaking, so it almost hurt her eyes. “No one will ever hurt you.”
She turned away, she had to. She got trapped when she stared at him for too long.
“Please don’t run off like that again, you scared me.” He said into the silence around them.
“The only reason I stopped at the roof is because I have a busted ankle.” She shot back haughtily. She’d never known how to hold her tongue, but she was only grateful she hadn’t sworn, too. He’d told her enough times so far how he hated her cursing.
He growled, low in the back of his throat, reminding her of exactly what he was. A sliver of fear ran through her gut. “You can’t leave. We’re everywhere, all the time. You’ll only upset the others by leaving.”
“Because I’m supposed to give up the feelings of my own family for those of yours? They think I’m dead, and you want me to stay here and I don’t even know your damn name.”
“Don’t swear.” He mumbled, but it was a seconds thought, like he didn’t have any conviction behind it anymore. “And my name is Gabriel. You can call me Gabe.”
And, for some reason, after he had helped her back inside and the healer came and made her tired muscles and bones numb, she turned to Gabe and whispered, quietly, “Charlotte.”