“Maybe you’re right,” Aiden replied hurriedly. “I heard it that time.” There was a second scraping noise from above – and before I knew it, I rushed to the fireplace and went down on my knees in front of it, only just managing not to skid right into the hot metal.
“Hello?” I yelled, as loud as I could, hoping my voice would carry up the chimney through the air vent we had up there. “We’re down here!”
Aiden skidded to his knees beside me. “Heeeeeey!” he yelled, his voice seemingly much louder and deeper than my own. “Hey, can you hear us? We’re alive down here!”
“I should bang something,” I said, casting around. I found a candlestick up on the mantlepiece that looked to be made of real metal and clanged it against the furnace, rhythmically hitting it over and over again.
“That’s really good,” Aiden said encouragingly, lifting his voice to yell again. “Hey! Down here!”
The more I clanged that candlestick against the hot metal, the more Aiden’s voice sounded in my ears, the more my own voice tore out of my throat, the more overwhelming it all became. I thought about the unknowable weight of all the snow on top of us, about the fact we could have been dead already, about the dangers that awaited us in terms of starving or dying of thirst or freezing. And about the fact that until rescue came, I was stuck with a very attractive but very straight stranger who might turn out to have any number of bad habits or neuroses that I didn’t know about yet.
I screamed for help until my voice went hoarse.
When I finally stopped, I realized Aiden must have stopped shouting some time before. He was sitting there with his back against the wall of the cabin, watching me, resting his elbows on his bent knees like he was exhausted. I dropped the candlestick. I was exhausted, myself – the repetitive movements and the reverberations up the metal stick had hurt my arm, and my throat was aching fiercely.
“You need some water,” Aiden said, maybe recognizing that I was finally done and he could actually get through to me. He scrambled to his feet even as I slumped down further, leaning against the brickwork that surrounded the fireplace. The bricks were warm. The heat on my strained arm was maybe a little too much, but I couldn’t find the energy within myself to move it.
“Here.” Aiden was back next to me again, even before I had really managed to realize he had gone. He was holding out a bottle of water. After a moment’s hesitation, he took it back, unscrewed the cap, and then held it out to me again.
For a moment, something in me warred against taking it. I didn’t deserve it, I thought. I was worthless, after all. I had nothing to offer anyone.
But my throat hurt, and Aiden was giving me such an earnest look, and I reached out and took it. I took two gulps and then stopped, not wanting to waste too much of it too early. “Thanks,” I managed to say, remembering my manners at least.
“We should get some food,” Aiden said. “My phone says it’s gone seven in the evening. We need to eat and rest.”
“How can we rest? We don’t even know how long we’re going to be down here!” I protested. My voice creaked and cracked, barely audible at times due to the strain I had put on it.
“I know,” Aiden said soothingly. “That’s the point, isn’t it? We need to make sure we get enough rest and nutrition. This kind of situation will only be harder to deal with if we’re tired and cranky as well.”
“How are you so good at coping with this?” I asked – half a complaint.
“I’m in college sports,” he grinned, his teeth white even in the orange glow from the fire. “I’m used to working under pressure. Come here – let’s sit at the table.”
I sat, too exhausted now to argue with him. Once he was certain I was seated with my bottle of water in front of me, he moved to our piles of rations and picked out a few things, bringing them over.
“A cookie, an apple, and a bag of chips,” I said, describing what he laid out in front of me. “I feel like I’m on a class outing.”
Aiden chuckled. “Yeah, well. Cookies and fruit are going to go bad first. The chips are for fun.”
I made a decision right then to skip the chips this time. I would save them for later. I didn’t know how long we were going to need to stretch this food out for, after all. I didn’t say anything right away, in case Aiden was going to argue with me.
I unwrapped the store-bought cookie that Keaton and Olly must have prepared, taking a bite of the double chocolate dough. There was no way that this would have lasted longer than a couple of days. Aiden had made a smart choice.
“Mm, it’s good,” Aiden said, taking a healthy-sized bite.
I stifled a chuckle at his enthusiasm. “It’s just a cookie,” I said.
“It tastes so good,” Aiden said, rolling his eyes. He licked one of his fingers where the chocolate had melted onto it. “I love food, man. Always have. Especially after practice or hitting the gym. When you’re really hungry enough to appreciate it.”
“I bet,” I said with a hint of amusement. I’d grown up around Caleb, after all. I knew from experience that when a horde of sports players came through your house, they left you with an empty fridge.
There was a pause of silence between us, both of us enjoying the food. I finished my cookie as Aiden finished his apple, and by the time I’d eaten my apple, he was done with his chips. I sighed and put the tiny amount of apple core I’d left to one side on the table, sitting it carefully so it wouldn’t fall off and mess up the place.
I had to do something to put my mind off the fact that it wasn’t really enough food, and that I wanted nothing more than to run over to my stash and eat all of the chocolate and candy I could find.
“You don’t know if you’re right, you know,” I said. It was still bothering me from earlier. “About me not being to blame.”
“I know you’re not to blame,” Aiden said, taking the topic change in his stride. “I can just tell.”
