Willow
Rocks loosened and crumbled beneath my feet, skittering down the steep side of the ravine, each of them landing with resonating thuds that seemed to echo from all around. Scrambling for a sturdier ledge, I paused to swipe the gathering perspiration from my eyes. Sweat clung to every inch of me, making my clothes stick uncomfortably. My arms and legs ached terribly, my left leg especially, as I struggled to keep my balance and my muscles strained to keep me still.My leg was infected—courtesy of the injury I’d sustained during the violent rainstorm. For the last several nights I’d done my best to try and clean it, though my ministrations only seemed to make the wound angrier. Today, the painful throbbing had seemed to have taken on a life of its own.
“Not so fast!” Logan shouted from below—the canyon nothing more than a silent, empty abyss. The hundreds of Creepers had disappeared; though how they’d escaped their rocky confines, we hadn’t figured out. “You’ve got to go slow!”
For four days I’d searched for Lucas—three of them with Logan. Four days, three nights, and a handful of hours spent combing the woods around the ravine, searching up and down the highway near the farmhouse, and in and around the house itself, hoping Lucas might return there. We didn’t sleep, we hardly ate, and we rarely spoke—we only searched and searched and yet, there was still no sign of him. It was as if he’d vanished into thin air. Eventually, after plenty of begging on my end, Logan finally agreed to attempt crossing the ravine in order to search the other side.
“Whatever,” I mumbled, the single word barely audible. I resumed my descent, this time slower; arms and legs quivering with exertion, I ensured my fingers found purchase in the more substantial rocks jutting from the ravine wall. As my feet finally hit the ground, my left leg buckled, forcing me to cling to the wall until I was steady.Breathing through the pain, I briefly considered telling Logan about my leg, dismissing the thought almost immediately. He was angry enough as it was, and there’d be time for that later…after we searched the ravine.
Logan stood in the center of the ravine, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes narrowed, surveying our new surroundings. Remnants of the horde lay all around us; the earth was trampled—small trees lay crushed, not a single flower or blade of grass to be found. Nearby, a small stream slushed lazily along, discolored by gore, and clogged with bones and bits of clothing. My muddy gaze bounced nervously around, terrified I might actually find something of Lucas among them.
“Are you sure this is where he fell?” Logan demanded.
My hands knotted into fists. He’d only asked me that question several thousand times, each time growing more and more agitated by my unchanging answer.
“No,” I bit out. “I already told you—I didn’t see exactly where he fell.”
All I’d seen—and I’d never forget it—was Lucas running, grinning over his shoulder, his blond hair blazing gold in the sunlight, just before he dropped out of sight. It was burned forever into my memories.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he muttered. “A horde that size doesn’t just disappear.”
“They were climbing on top of each other—maybe they climbed out?”
Logan shook his head. “They couldn’t have all climbed out—there’d still be some down here.” He’d begun walking away mid-sentence, disappearing behind a rocky overhang. I stared after him, feeling nauseous and fatigued, fighting the urge to sit down where I stood.
“Willow! Get the fuck over here—I found something!”
A jolt of adrenaline forced me to move; I limped quickly along the edge of the stream, following Logan around the large outcropping of boulders.
There was a car there—a rusty four-door sedan, its entire front end resembled an accordion, as if it had been driven full speed off the ledge and smashed headfirst into the gorge below. It had landed in such a way, mostly hidden by the rocky overhang, that it hadn’t been visible from above.
“The driver’s still in there.” Logan yanked fruitlessly on the vehicle’s busted door handle. Muttering curses, he divested himself of his pack and pulled a crowbar from his tool belt.
I limped closer, peering through the grime-coated windows. The skeletal remains of the driver remained pinned to their seat, having been crushed by the mangled dashboard.
“The windows on the other side are busted open,” Logan called out from inside the car. Having successfully pried the door open, he was rooting around in the back seat. “And there’s blood here, too. Not sure how old it is. You think Luke could have fit through here?”
I tried to envision a scenario where Lucas had fallen from a cliff into a ravine full of Creepers and somehow managed to evade the Creepers by slipping into the small space between the car and the rock wall, finding shelter through a half-open window. It seemed impossible… but a lot of things seemed impossible until you’re faced with them. And we’d been defying odds for years now.
“He’s skinny enough,” I agreed quietly. It was a desperately needed sliver of hope to cling to while the rest of me fell to pieces. Chewing the inside of my cheek, I looked over the numerous dried blood smears on and around the car, feeling caught between hoping that it was Lucas’s blood, and yet also not wanting to think about what that might mean for him.
“There’s nothing here. Let’s move.” Sliding out of the car, Logan shoved the crowbar back in his belt and pulled on his pack. He marched off without another word or backward glance, his boots pounding the ground with purpose.
Initially, I tried to keep pace with him, but as the hours passed and the temperature continued to rise, my nausea worsened and my steps began to drag until the distance between us was little more than a blur.
“Logan!” I rasped, my words falling on deaf ears.
I attempted picking up my pace only to catch the tip of my boot on a rock. Tripping, I fell hard on my hands and knees. I stayed that way—my eyes squeezed shut, the pebbled ground cutting painfully into my palms, too tired to move.
“Hey,” Lucas said. “Wanna get out of here for a little bit? Go exploring?”
“Oh my god, yes!”
Lucas laughed as I dragged him from the room. “We can’t go too far, and we definitely can’t tell Logan! Willow—are you listening to me?”
Nope, I hadn’t been.
Ineverlistened.
