“She’s okay,” Caspian responded, looking down at me tenderly with a smile. “She loves me,” he announced in a daze. Then he bent down and kissed me, a groan of satisfaction rumbling from his mouth into mine. “Ava,” he mumbled between kisses. I clung to him, finally feeling completely safe with him here. Finally thinking I might be okay as his soft lips molded to mine. His tongue dragged across the seam of my lips.
“Uh…” Brandon responded awkwardly. The booming steps of Mothman came from the porch as he followed us out. Caspian twisted us to face him and I gripped his shoulders.
“Don’t follow us! How many times do I need to tell you she’smine?”
“Caspian, I owe him my life,” I pleaded. I looked back at Mothman’s cabin and was hit with a sense of loneliness. He must always live alone and that felt depressing to me. Clearly, he craved communication and touch.
Caspian’s lips slammed shut at my response and his face turned sour. He jerked away from Mothman and began stomping into the woods. He was clearly unhappy but didn’t complain when Mothman followed this time. Instead, he just sighed but accepted he was here.
Brandon’s eyes were saucers as he stood shocked in place, looking at Mothman. He sucked his lip into his mouth nervously then began to follow us.
“I can walk,” I said.
“He’ll grab you and fly off again,” Caspian mumbled in agitation. Mothman shrugged as if that was a very likely possibility. Brandon shifted away from Mothman, even going so far as to stay close to Caspian despite knowing what he was. Probably hoping the monster he knew was better than the one he didn’t.
"You sure he doesn't eat people?" Brandon whispered to Caspian.
24
The campground was on fire. The flames roared and cackled. Brandon looked haunted because he knew what was burning. The tour bus, our cars, our phones, all of our things… and the bodies of his bandmates.
There was no doubt that Loren was responsible for the fire because of the potent, eye-watering stench of gasoline wafting around us.
The weight of the catastrophe bore down on us as the light of day crawled up over the mountains. We didn't welcome it. The brightening sky felt like a cruel joke. Instead of promising us that things were about to get better, all it did was bring our horrible situation into the light. All it did was promise us that daytime wouldn’t save us and that there was still more in store.
This fire meant we were now trapped in the woods, too far away to make it out in a single day. How many miles were between us and the nearest town? The highway? There was a madman on the loose--greedy and angry. We’d suffered through death and trauma but the fire told us it wasn’t over yet.
It didn’t matter that we were tired, hurt, and raw.It wasn’t over yet.
“The ranger station,” I said, turning to look at the others. Brandon kept looking at the fire as if he expected someone to come walking out. “We saw it when we drove in. Three miles before the campground,” I said to Caspian. He was the only one paying attention. Mothman was stomping around, eyes scanning the woods, looking for signs of Loren.
“Good thinking,” Caspian said, nodding. His arm slipped around me and he pulled me into him. He looked back into the fire. The flames had a way of pulling our attention, they danced, memorizing our worn out minds. Loud cracks echoed out from the fire and the loud bang of a falling tree made my heart race. This was on the verge of becoming a true forest fire. Someone would notice it soon, right?
“Your violin…” I said to Caspian. It had been a family heirloom, something so old they couldn’t even be certain the year it was made.
“It was just a violin,” he sighed before tentatively reaching for Brandon. His hand hovered over the other man’s shoulder before he finally dropped it on to him. Brandon startled, turning to look at Caspian in shock. Caspian squeezed his shoulder then pulled back awkwardly.
I realized I’d never seen Caspian have any close friends. He was popular in school but he was the type that floated from friend group to friend group. There was never any depth to his socialization. Caspian wasn’t exactly the charming, socializer with a heart of gold that I had imagined. Was he close to anyone other than me?
“We should go,” Caspian said.
Something whizzed by our bodies, a tiny thing speeding through the air and getting lost to the flames beyond us. A bullet, I realized.
Mothman ran towards us, his leather duster flapping behind him as he pointed off in a direction we should run. His red eyes burned, a static hiss in my mind kicked up before fading away again. I watched him run at us, my mouth cracking open and my heart thumping in my chest.
My shocked reaction was instinctual. He was just so tall and his body a mysterious hulk beneath his worn leather. He had wings, a frightening mouth, and talons on his long, thin fingers. The flames and approaching day lit him up, making it more than apparent he wasn’t human. Only the shadows of night could fool someone into thinking that.
The monster won’t eat you, I told myself.
Another bullet blazed by, snapping me from my revere. A burning line seared into my arm. At first I thought the fire had somehow lept out and lashed at me. I looked down to see the skin on my upper arm cut into a straight line. Blood welled up inside the wound then began to trickle down.
“I was shot,” I said in shock. Just barely, but I’d been shot. It took me back to that night at the concert. The chaos, the stampede, the blood on my face, the screams. Simon’s face. Matthias’ dead expression. My knees suddenly went weak, my heart uncomfortably fluttering fast and light in my chest. Caspian snatched me up roughly before I fell and took off behind Brandon.
We darted straight into the woods, heading the way Mothman had pointed out. Bullets bit into the dirt behind our heels like a ravenous animal snapping at our feet. I clutched onto Caspian while Brandon and Mothman ran beside us.
Caspian started to fall behind. Bruises were under his eyes and his arms were beginning to shake as he held me. He was clearly exhausted from everything he’d been through. I shivered as I thought about the fight next to the river, when that man—dead now—had tried to kill him.
“Put me down,” I insisted and he looked at me in concern but there was no choice; It was either put me down, or eventually fall over with me in his arms. He didn’t stop as he moved me down and we ran hand in hand. A bullet hit the earth right next to me and a scream tried to burst out of me but my throat was still too ragged.
