“You mean…” Cassie stopped, relief washing through her. She realized how much it meant to her to have him. She felt foolish, she’d only been with him for a few weeks, and already she couldn’t, or at least didn’t want to, imagine life without him. Was she really in love with him? “Oh, Kyler! I thought you might only have a month to live! I was so worried!”
He smiled, but it wasn’t quite as happy as she would have expected. It was full of irony. “No, as long as I leave here within the next month, I will live longer. If I don’t leave by then, there are no guarantees. Heh, I’d forgotten what an active imagination you can have.”
Her dignity required ignoring that last comment. “So you really are leaving? Why? And if you aren’t sick, what have you been doing that limits your time?” She was still curious, but her happiness was overwhelming.
“I am really leaving, and I truly want you to come with me.” He neatly side-stepped her question.
“You want me to leave in a month? I can’t do that.” His face fell.
“Are you sure? I would give anything to have you come with me,” He pleaded.
“You misunderstand. I will come with you, but I have to finish school first. My mom would kill me if I didn’t. And it’s just five weeks. And if you have to leave sooner then I will just follow you when I’m done.”
Kyler’s face glowed. “Really? You… you want to be with me?”
“Yes. I don’t understand everything. Not at all, but I don’t want to be without you.” She waited, hoping he would explain. He didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes, weighing his options.
“I can’t explain everything now. It’s not safe. I promise I will tell you everything when we are safe and far away from here,” he said, his face darker than normal.
“Can you at least tell me why it’s not safe?” She pleaded. They had stopped swinging and were just facing each other. Cassie took his hand.
“Do you remember when I told you that after my parents died, my sister and I were given something that was extremely valuable? Well people are after it. They want it very much, and if they find me they’ll take it. If I stay in any one place they will find me eventually. But my sister has… taken measures to ensure that they do not find me for the next month. She’s been monitoring them and she’s convinced I’ll be okay for that long.”
“She didn’t sound that convinced to me.”
“Well, convinced enough.”
“Okay... so you leave in a month. And where will you go? Where will I meet you?”
“I’ll go to find my sister. We haven’t seen each other for too long. But you must promise me right now that you will leave immediately after your last final.” His face was grave.
“Why?” Cassie asked, surprised.
“Because I’ll miss you,” He said, attempting to wipe the concern off of his face, making her laugh.
“I thought you were worried about me at first,” she teased. “So you’ve told Halle all about me, then?”
“Yes,” He smiled, understanding her unspoken question. “She is very excited to meet you. And I’m sure she’ll like you.”
“Tell me more about her.”
“She’s funny and sweet. She’s always worrying about other people. And since I’m away from her, I’m the lucky recipient. But more importantly, she’s very understanding... very empathetic. And so she gets along with anyone,” He said fondly. “She’s been my only constant friend since my parents died.”
“And how long has that been?”
“11 years,” He said sadly.
“Wow, you must have been young. Who took care of you after that?” Cassie was struck by how little she knew of him.
“Well, for a few months the same people that are now after me. But then we left them and I took care of my sister and she took care of me. We’re only a year and a half apart.”
Numbers weren’t adding up. How could a young teenager take care of his sister? “How old are you, Kyler?”
“Heh, I wondered when that would come up. I am 28.” He watched for her reaction. It was obvious she was surprised.
“You don’t seem it. Your face... it shows nothing you don’t want it to. No lines, no emotion, nothing. It makes it difficult to place your age. You could be anywhere between 17 and 40.” She grimaced, “I hope that doesn’t offend you.”
“Not at all. In fact, the same could be said of you. You may recall that was one of my first questions for you,” Kyler said.
She nodded, remembering. “I have way more questions,” she told him.
“Don’t you think that’s enough for tonight? I think it’s my turn now.” He stood, still holding her hand. “Time for the jungle-gym?”
“It seems a year since we were here last,” Cassie commented, trying to distract him. It didn’t work. It never did.
“So... Craig? A boy you dated for a while. The one you liked, maybe?” He asked, his burning curiosity obvious, but there was something else there, behind it. Something Cassie couldn’t place.
“Hardly,” She snapped involuntarily. The thought of Craig like that was offensive to her. “Just a one-night stand, really.”
“And your friends happened to remember this one’s name and report back to you on his circumstances... why?” Then he caught onto her words. “A one-night stand! Is that why? What happened….” He asked, trying to not look as bothered as he obviously was.
Horrified, Cassie turned to face him, “What! No! I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it more euphemistically. Just one date, one evening. You don’t think of me like that do, you?” She rushed to clarify.
“No, I guess not,” He said, relieved and contrite at once. “Well what did happen, then?”
She answered lightly, “We had a class together, but after our date he never came back to class. It was quite strange.”
“So he didn’t... make a move on you or anything?”
Cassie looked up at him sharply. “How did you know?”
He looked a little uncomfortable. “Just a guess.”
“Kyler. Really?” She stared into his eyes.
“Well, I had a hunch. You get pretty uncomfortable any time he’s mentioned. But it was more or less a guess.” He worded his sentence carefully, and she still had the feeling that he was only being half honest. “You were right; I shouldn’t have brought it up. Let’s focus our attention on the month we have together.”
“Yes, let’s.” Cassie began running her fingers lightly up and down his forearm. “How much of my conversation did you overhear today with Jenna?”
“Not too much. But it was a good part to catch,” He said softly, pulling her closer on the top of the jungle gym where they sat.
“Can you tell me—” she paused, unsure whether she wanted to know. His wanting her with him made her continue. “Why you haven’t kissed me yet?”
He chuckled so softly she could barely hear it. “Believe me, I’ve wanted to. Since we first met, actually.”
“Then, why?”
“So many guys like you, I could tell from the very beginning. I wanted to be sure that you wanted me. I didn’t want to kiss you just for me. I wanted it to be for you too. And for that to work, I had to be sure you wanted it.”
Her hands curled around his arm in nervousness at the word, “kiss”. After her disastrous first kiss, she had never felt an ounce of anticipation. Now it was coming in thick.
“Well, you know for sure now,” She smiled challengingly, “What are you going to do about it?”
He cocked his head at her, going in slowly for a kiss. She leaned in close to him, but at the last moment, he stopped and looked her in the eyes with a playful smile. “You sure? Our first kiss on a jungle gym?”
“Can you think of a better place?” She asked, frustrated. She barely got the sentence out before his lips were on hers, preventing further movement. Her eyes, wide with astonishment took in the unexpected view of Kyler. He backed away from her after a few moments.
“No, I guess not,”
He said, softly pressing his lips against hers again.
Not long after, Cassie was in her room leaning against her door still with a surprised look on her face. Kissing Kyler was like no other kissing she’d ever experienced. It felt right. Something she had no experience with before. She’d never felt that level of happiness before. Ever. It seemed like something had been missing from her life until that point. She wondered how she was going to live during the weeks when she was not with him.
She changed in to her pajamas, still thinking about him. Suddenly, a knock at the door surprised her.
“Hello, Cassie?” Jenna’s voice called.
Cassie threw the door open, “Jenna! Come on in!”
“Actually, I was just coming to let you know that there are a couple of people downstairs asking to see you,” Jenna said, smiling, “Looks like we’ll have to talk later, though.”
“No kidding.” Cassie looked down at herself. “Hey, can you tell them to hang on a minute. I just need to change then I’ll be right down.”
“Sure.” Jenna walked out and closed the door.
Before Cassie had even moved she heard another knock, this one coming from behind her. She jumped, not understanding. She heard it again. It sounded like it was coming from the window, which was impossible. She was three stories up. The third time it was much louder, more insistent. Hesitating, Cassie walked to the window and pulled back the curtain.
Her mouth dropped open. “Kyler? How on earth….”
“Open the window!” He said too quietly for her to hear the words.
She pulled it open, “What are you doing? And how did you get up here?”
“Shh!” He demanded as he jumped through the window. He had a small backpack on. “Get dressed. Put some warm clothes on overtop your pajamas.”
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely. Please, just trust me,” He pleaded.
In response, Cassie did as he instructed. “Is this another date? Cause it’ll have to wait, I have people waiting downstairs for me.”
“No,” He said, suddenly furious. “It is because of those people that we are leaving now. Tonight.”
“What? Leaving where?”
“Leaving town, we’re going to meet my sister, I don’t know how they found me this soon, much less how they found you. But we can no longer afford to wait a month.” His face was stony.
“I can’t leave now!” She thought of the irony of her earlier thoughts. She didn’t even have a month to get used to the idea, now she was going to have to be alone tomorrow! “I have to finish my finals. If you really have to leave now, I can throw them off the track. Just tell me what to say.”
“NO!” He was positively livid, and Cassie took an involuntary step back. “You do not understand.” He annunciated every word clearly. “I did not want to scare you, so I didn’t tell you the whole truth. These people will gladly kill you. They will kill anyone who gets involved and gets in their way. But worse than that, I think they have somehow found out what you mean to me, and they intend to use you as bait. That is why they came here for you. They will not leave you alone until they have me.”
Cassie stood in front of him, shocked. He was serious, she could see that. But he couldn’t be correct. People didn’t do things like that here. It was Pennsylvania, for crying out loud.
“I’m so sorry, Cassie. But we have to leave, and we have to leave now. Is there anything you want to take with you?”
Cassie, mind blank, took her backpack out, emptied it of books, threw in a few pairs of pants and shirts, and added her diary and her pepper spray (a recent gift from Zach.) “Alright, let’s go.” She went to open the door.
“No, Cass. Not that way.” He opened the window wider, and offered her a hand.
“Where do we go from out there?”
“Trust me. I got up, didn’t I? Get on the ledge and wait there.” It was a mark of how much she trusted him that she climbed out, supported and followed by him.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s get down from here. I can’t handle it much longer….”
“Wait, they’re almost here. They’re about to give up on you coming down and they’re coming up.”
“How do you—”
“Shh!” He insisted. He carefully closed the curtains and then the window. Then he pulled her to the side of the window where she could just barely see into the room.
She was about to say something else when her door opened. Three men stood there, one with a gun drawn. Cassie caught her breath.
“She’s not here!” The one in the back shouted angrily. “Search the whole building!”
“Time to go, Cass,” Kyler whispered.
“How?” She was paralyzed with fear. She wasn’t sure which was worse, that Kyler’s words had been proved true or that she was three-stories up on a window ledge. “We can’t go back in there!”
“Hold on to me, tight. And don’t look down.” He put his arms around her, holding her tight as she did what he said. She pressed her face into his chest.
She felt him jump, and she wanted to scream, but it caught halfway up her throat and never reached her lips. Before she could think anything else, they landed lightly on the ground, and he was running, pulling her behind him as they disappeared into the woods behind her dorm.
Chapter 8: Confusion
At first the forest was dimly lit by the ambient light of the dorm buildings. But all too soon it faded to almost pitch blackness. Clouds covered the moon and stars. Cassie had no idea how Kyler knew where he was going. As for Cassie, she was blindly following him. She merely stumbled along behind, trying not to think about the impossibility of what just happened. Against her will, her mind kept wandering back. Instinctively protecting itself from panic, her mind focused on the most believable part. She’d climbed out onto a window ledge. She closed her eyes tight against the next image that hit her, of a man standing in her comfortable little bedroom with a handgun.
And finally... the jump.
They were practically jogging as they hurried along an invisible trail through the darkness. Why am I so shocked? She wondered. Sure we jumped out of a three story window. And sure we landed softer than if I’d jumped up and down. I stopped midair from falling off a fifty foot climbing wall. How different can it be?
Feeling as though physics had lied to her, she closed her mind to the insanity of it. Refusing to accept the circumstances exactly as she remembered them she tried to find a logical explanation, there must have been something she’d missed. She’d seen impossibilities, but there was always an explanation. Maybe she just hadn’t seen his rope in the darkness.
“Kyler, where are we going?” She asked wearily. They had gone at least three miles.
“We have to get away from them,” He said, apparently single-minded.
“I realize that, but is wandering into the wilderness the best way? There has to be a more effective means of transportation besides legs!”
“I’m sorry, Cass.” He didn’t slow his pace. “You can rest in just a couple more miles. There’s a bus station on the other side of this wilderness.”
Cassie nodded in relief and they trudged on.
As Kyler predicted, two miles later lights shone through the trees, exposing Cassie’s relieved face. She started to hurry forward to sit on a bench, but Kyler caught her arm and pulled her back into the trees.
“No! Wait here. I’ll go make sure it’s safe and I’ll buy tickets. They’re looking for two of us. People may not remember just one. Be careful. If I’m not back in 20 minutes, come in, buy a ticket for the next bus headed anywhere and go. Do not look for me.”
Before she could question him he was gone. His instructions made no sense. Surely if he was captured, she should turn and run the other way, not walk out into their waiting arms. Or guns, she thought with a shudder.
Cassie found a mossy patch and collapsed to rest, at least physically. Despite her best efforts, her mind was still racing. To distract her immediate worry for Kyle
r she focused on the whys. What was it that Kyler had that would drive these people to kidnap her, in order to force it from him? And why hadn’t he gone to the police? He and his sister had been avoiding these people for years! It was insane.
“Cassie! Come on,” Kyler quietly called from the clearing beyond the trees. She joined him, and they inconspicuously boarded a bus headed to Cleveland. The bus left barely five minutes after they took their seats. They sat down at the back, near the emergency exit.
As the bus pulled out, Cassie saw three unmarked cars with flashing lights pull into the stop.
“Kyler!” she whispered excitedly, they can help!
“I know. I see them. That was too close.” His voice was still full of tension.
He misunderstood her. Her hands clenched the seat under her. “But... those were unmarked police cars!”
Kyler shook his head. “Military, actually.”
Cassie’s mind froze in horror. “Military. Whose military?”
He noticed her tone then, and took her hand. “The United States of America. But it’s better than it sounds. It’s actually just a small, unknown branch.”
She didn’t relax.
“Cassie, I wish I could explain,” He pleaded, “but the more you know, the more danger you’ll be in. For now, please trust me. I have done nothing wrong. There are very specific individuals after me for wholly illegal reasons.”
Cassie nodded mutely. For reasons she couldn’t define, she trusted him. “How did they find us?”
Kyler looked strangely uncomfortable. “I’m not sure. Try to sleep, if you can. It was a long walk for you. You’ll feel better when you’re not so tired.”
She nodded again. He pulled her against him, gently pressing her head on his chest. She closed her eyes, working hard not to think until she fell asleep. Once there, she lost all control.
“Halle!” A dark-haired, blue-eyed boy shouted.
I look over my friend’s shoulder. “Mmm, who is that?”
Halle, very amused, says, “That’s Kyler. My brother.”
“Oh.” I’m embarrassed. And stupid. Of course he is her brother; they have the same pale skin and eyes. The only difference is that he’s traded her curls for straight hair. And Halle did tell me they were going to meet in Paris.
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