Another longer chapter. I hope you guys like it and I love all of your comments so please keep letting me know what you think about it!
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"J" I yelled but he didn’t move "Jace" I yelled again as I walked closer. I noticed that is eyes were fixed on the basket in front of us. He was completely still which really started to freak me out. I had never seen him life this. I waved my hands in front of his face until he returned to reality.
“J what’s wrong?” I asked but he just looked at me and said nothing.
I looked between his frozen face and the basket. “J are you scared of heights?”
“No” He snapped back but his face didn’t convince me.
“So let’s go then” I suggested waiting for his reaction
“No” He yelled again and grabbed my arm.
I smiled and rolled my eyes. “It’s fine if you don’t want to go.”
Lee came skipping back up to us. “Come on guys we don’t have all day. The suns about to set and you will ruin the magic if you don’t move your butts.” I looked back at J who quickly pushed past me and climbed in the basket next to Leo and Becks. I knew this would not go well. I also wondered why J had never told me he was scared of heights. Surely that’s a pretty big thing to not tell someone. I must have been thinking hard because Lee walked right up to my face and sand “Let’s go fly a Kite”
“Lee I know I am English but how many times do I have to tell you I am not Mary Poppins and no one this century in England is.” I said pulling my unamused face.
“Up to the atmosphere” He continued whist dragging me along before picking me up and chucking me into the basket before climbing in himself. “Up where the air is clear” he sang staring at me waiting for me to join in. The longer I stayed silent the more ugly his sad face became so I did what a good friend would do and pretended to be Mary Poppins.
Mya, the young woman, climbed in and got us up into the air. With all of Lee’s singing I had completely forgotten about J’s reaction to the balloon. I only realised when Becks came sliding up to Lee getting all coupley. I moved over to J who didn’t take his eyes off the bottom of the basket as the sweat pumped and ran down his face. His breathing became fast and I thought he would end up passing out. I took his hand without saying a word. I knew that he wouldn’t want to talk about it here. His eyes never moved but his hands were cold and sweaty.
I noticed that in the corner of my eye my brother was getting closer to Mya clearly feeling award being a fifth wheel he thought he would try his charm. I smirked waiting to see how she would try and avoid him in such a small space. He was always terrible with girls he just blurted words at them. It was a family trait which was hilarious to watch. To my surprise there was no blurting but smooth conversation that was more an exchange of whispers. Mya giggled and so I took that as a good sign but it was so odd to see Leo like that. I guess he had changed just as much as I had. I elbowed J to show him the two of them flirting but again no movement.
I turned my head to look at the view and the sun was just setting. It was the most stunning thing I had ever seen.
“Guys, look at the sunset.” I told them
“I told you it was a magical adventure” Lee said sticking his tongue out at me.
“Yes Lee. I admit it you were right” I sighed.
Lee did his little I was right dance which shook the basket. J grabbed the sides and looked at Lee in terror. Lee pointed at the sunset silently before turning his back to us to better see the view and avoid J. As J looked across he relaxed, not completely, but enough to appreciate the view. After that it was silent other than Becks taking pictures until we got back onto solid ground.
J leaped out of the basket and walked straight back to the RV without a word. The rest of us thanked Mya and I am pretty sure Leo got her number before we headed back. Lee jumped into the driver’s seat as J was nowhere to be seen. As I walked towards the bedroom door Becks pulled me to sit next to her.
“Let him be. He must be embarrassed to let him come out when it’s ready” Becks whispered in my ear.
“I don’t know why he would be embarrassed” I replied.
“Perhaps it’s because you’re so strong not scared of anything someone else feels they have to match you especially J.” I sat thinking about what Becks had said. It was my job not to be scared or show weakness, I was trained for it but I had never expected the others to be like that.
To get back into the party moved I moved to sit nearer to Lee and I turned the radio up and started singing. Lee was so chuffed his little face lit up. It was only about twenty minutes later that we stopped for the night. Becks had chosen this place because it was quiet with a calm lake right in front of us with a small forest to the left of us. As soon as we had pulled up Lee was jabbering on about building a fire.
“Guys I don’t think that a fire is a good idea” Becks pleaded as me and Lee skipped off into the forest for wood.
“She will love it when we build a big bonfire” Lee assured me. I wasn’t so convinced but a fire sounded like fun and after all the drama the trip wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. We needed to relax and get back into the party, even if Leo had gate-crashed.
I must have zoned out again because when I looked around I had lost Lee. He probably raced off to find the biggest piece of wood he could find or he wanted to play hide and seek. Knowing Lee it was probably both.
“Fine Lee I will play. Marco?”
“Polo” a sinister voice replied. That was defiantly not Lee.
“Sorry I’m playing this with Lee” I replied trying to get the creepy dude who apparently hangs out in trees to leave me alone. It was dark so only the light from my phone was lighting my path.
“But we have so much fun when we play games. So here’s another one it’s called Guess who escaped from your friends again.”
“Max?”
“Of course. I wanted to let you know that I can get to you. Where ever you are I will get you.”
“Now Max that sounds like you have a stalker issue so maybe you should go see someone about that.”
“Always joking to cover fear.”
“Always trying to intimidate me to get me to stop being mean to poor little Max awww am I a mean bully?”
“You have messed things up before but I will not let this happen again.”
Then I heard a rustling behind my left shoulder so I swung around to be ready for confrontation. I felt a sharp scratch on my right arm and then the menacing cackle of Max. Footsteps came from my right and so I rushed to the next tree to hide behind to check around. The footsteps were getting louder and so I turned the light on my phone off and I crouched down extending my leg out in the path of the enemy. I felt their foot hit mine and as they fell there was a loud clatter. A light shined in my face which blinded me.
“Teri what on earth did you do that for? You damaged my stack!” Lee screamed pulling his very ugly sad face.
“Sorry Lee I thought you were someone else.”
“In an empty forest? You are getting paranoid and lazy, I see no wood.”
I apologised again before helping Lee restack his wood and split the load between both of us before walking back to the RV. Maybe I had been paranoid it might just be that I am so tired I am hearing things. Leo was sat outside facing the lake texting someone. I had a feeling it was his new friend Mya so I would have to remember to wind him up about it later but first I needed to talk to J. We placed the wood down with a loud crash and Lee ran inside to find matches to light his bonfire. Becks ran outside having a full on panic about the fire.
“I swear he will set fire to everything and anything nearby.” She fretted.
“Becks” I called so she turned to look at me. “Dude chill out”
She just looked at me and took a deep breath then walked off back into the RV. J walked out of the RV and sat down by me. "Hey, Becks had a chat and I'm sorry for not telling you about my issue with heights."
"I just thought we were always honest with each other. I know I may be different but im not a monster. I have a job where I have to be strong but I don't want to have to act like that when I am with you."
He nodded "Your right I'm sorry. Sometimes I can forget that you are just a big softy" he joked as he gave me a hug
Lee ran back with his matches and built up his fire. I started singing Billy Joel “We didn’t start the fire” and Lee just babbled along because he didn’t know the words. Leo joined in it seemed like he still knew good music. J came out of the RV and join in even Becks had relaxed and was putting wood on the fire.
Becks screamed and startled we all jumped up.
“What?” Lee question urgently his face filled with worry. She showed him the piece of wood in her hand. We moved closer to her to get a better look. There was blood on it. I looked down to my right arm that was still stinging. In the fire light I could see it was covered in blood. At that moment everyone else’s eyes stared at my arm in shock. It wasn’t a trick of the mind. Max was coming to get me.
I rushed inside, my heart was pounding. He had got to me. This mark was to warn me that I was vulnerable. I ran to the bathroom to wash the blood off my arm. I heard a collection of footprints racing towards the bathroom. Leo pushed past the rest of them and stood in front of me.
“What the hell happened?” Leo demanded.
“It’s a scratch from a tree.” I replied. Most of the blood was gone but the cut was too big to be a branch and we all knew it.
“I don’t believe you” He snapped back
“I don’t care if you do. It was a branch.” As these words left my mouth he stormed out of the RV slamming the door.
“What happened” Becks asked as she walked over to me to inspect my cut.
I snatched my arm back and firmly repeated “It was a branch”. I stormed out of the RV and I walked until I was out of earshot. I dialled Vince on my phone he picked up almost immediately.
“Do I have to design prisons for you lot now since it is too hard for you to keep criminals from running free as well as reform, frankly the dumbest intelligence department ever.” I screamed down the phone.
“So I am going to guess you have been briefed that the prisoners did escape.” Vince replied calmly.
“No I wasn’t briefed I have just been cut with a knife by Max as a warning.”
“Well we have intteligance that we believe he has something to do with the chips.”
“Is that all you have?”
“At the moment, yes”
I sighed. “Okay, keep me updated”