The sky twisted into an ominous beast of inky black, like molten tar churning above us. Heavy clouds writhed with malevolent energy, their undersides illuminated by streaks of pale lightning.
A distant roll of thunder rumbled through the air, vibrating my bones and dredging up the memory of our last kayaking trip. How the wind had snatched at our paddles and sent shivers crawling down my spine.
Now, as I stared up at the furious heavens, cold dread pooled in my gut.
At last, we crested the ridge and dropped into the flatlands, where pines stood as lonely sentinels amid scattered aspens, their pale bark flickering in the dying light.
A narrow stream cut through the meadow.
“Caiden, I think it’s going to rain,” I murmured, tension tightening my chest.
He didn’t pause. His boots crunched against the rocky soil as he kept walking. “No shit, Sherlock,” he snapped, sarcasm laced in every syllable.
I wanted to throttle him, but I was too spent for violence. The fatigue in my bones was so deep it felt geological, as if I’d always been made of salt and dust and regret, and every step I took was just the world grinding me down a little more.
We trudged onward, the ache in my calves and soles eclipsed only by the war in my head.
The wind picked up, flinging needles of rain against my face, each drop a cold slap that made my vision blur and double.
My hands were numb. My lips had gone blue. I might have been dying, but it was a slow, boring death.
I thought about Lillian, about how she’d always hated storms. The electric charge in the air would make her hair stand on end, and she’d clap her hands over her ears at the first rumble of thunder.
I wondered if she’d made it to the other side, wherever that was, and if she would be waiting to laugh at me when I finally gave up and crossed over myself. I wondered if she’d forgive me, or if she’d just look at me with that same disappointed silence she’d mastered in life.
We barely made it a quarter mile before the first drops fell, a light drizzle.
I hunched my shoulders and kept walking, every step a sullen admission of defeat, a surrender to the fact that the universe always had one more humiliation up its sleeve.
“Great leadership,” I muttered, the words barely audible above the roar of rain. “March us right into a fucking cloudburst. I’m sure that’ll get us rescued real quick.”
He fired back without turning, his voice slicing through the storm. “Next time, I’ll schedule the weather just for you. Maybe get you a golden umbrella to match the attitude.”
I wanted to scream, to pick up a rock and split his skull, but the only thing that came out was a bark of laughter.
It surprised us both. The sound was so raw, so unlike me that I clapped my hand over my mouth and nearly bit through my tongue.
He stopped dead in his tracks. “What,” he demanded, “is so goddamn funny right now?”
“I don’t know,” I said, choking on a fresh wave of giggles. The hysteria came fast, brittle, shattering the numbness that had been calcifying inside me. “It’s just you. Me. This. We’re in the middle of nowhere. We’re going to die out here, and you’re still that kid who thinks he’s some kind of messiah. It’s pathetic. We’re pathetic.”
He stared at me, rain streaming down the planes of his face, then sloshed through the muck toward the nearest copse of trees.
“We need shelter,” he muttered, his hand already peeling wet branches aside. “Unless you want to sleep standing up.”
I rolled my eyes and glanced skyward, where the clouds swirled faster now, black veins spreading outward.
A sour gust raced past, wrapping us in its icy grip, and the murmuring breeze sank into a savage howl that echoed between the trunks.
A thunderclap shattered the woods, louder than any beast’s roar, and the ground shivered beneath our feet.
My heart lurched. Gooseflesh prickled my arms. “That doesn’t sound good,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around my ribs.
Caiden’s voice was strained. “We might have to wait it out.”
“Where?” I protested. “There’s nowhere to hide under these trees, storm’s right on top of us.” Every instinct screamed that we were trapped, like prey pinned in the jaws of a predator.
He shot me a glance of anger “I never said we’d find perfect shelter. We just can’t stray from our path. We’re going to get drenched.”
