Carnelian

by B. Kristin McMichael

“And with that, good luck and see if you can get any flags,” Chris said, dismissing us with a wave of his gun. Sim and Will ran back toward main campus as I waited behind.

  “Something tells me you’ll probably see Will again,” I said to Chris.

  “I got that feeling, too,” Chris replied, nodding.

  “Don’t hesitate to maybe borrow a gun from the other team if they pass by,” I suggested.

  Chris grinned. “Man, you’re brutal. Glad to have someone finally competitive on the team. Is your plan still in place?” Chris replied. Chris was actually a junior who had been on two previous losing CRUSH teams.

  I smiled and nodded. I was a little competitive. “Working perfectly. I trust Sim to not let anyone know about it. She’s not about to fall for a pretty face, or big boobs, as is Will’s case.”

  “Then I’ll wait to see you at the end and find how many flags you have by then,” Chris replied as a blow horn squealed once to indicate a flag was taken. “Well, with that we aren’t in last place.”

  I wandered back through the woods, making a large loop to keep me from the fake flags. As I got near the last part of the woods, I paused at voices. I looked outside the woods from my hiding spot and counted at least three teams heading into the woods, none of them were shooting at each other. As I expected, the other teams had made alliances, and that was the main reason why Murdley never won. They were the first target everyone ganged up on. I stayed in my spot and let them pass. From the woods tree line, I ran to the nearest building, keeping to the shadows.

  I waited to see them leave. I would have to follow them back to the spots as I didn’t really know where anyone was. How I was going to even get one flag was beyond me. I wasn’t the best at fighter games; I was more into quest games and simple logic. This was actually just a simple logic game the more I thought about it. I could go run around and try to get flags. The more people saw me, the more likely they would find out our secret. If no one could find our flag, all I really had to do was to wait for the last group and take all the flags they found. I sat down inside the doorway alcove and waited. It made more sense to just wait.

  I watched as all three groups left the woods. Two groups were spattered in yellow dye and marching behind the girls leading the way. One was talking loudly.

  “Now what do we do with them?” the girl asked.

  “Keep them for the ten minutes and send out everyone to get their flags while these guys are away,” Melissa said as she led in the front.

  I pressed back into the shadows of the building and let them pass. No one noticed me as I scanned over the two groups following her.

  “What about Murdley?” the first girl asked. It was the girl that was always at Mellissa’s side.

  “We will have to come back,” Melissa sounded like she had a sour taste in her mouth.

  “I can’t believe we did all this to just get a bandana. The real flag must still be hidden in there,” the girl replied. They had been to a fake tree, but I didn’t know which one. I don’t think anyone expected us to actually play the game.

  I felt the buzz that Seth was around, but I didn’t see him. He had to be hiding just like me. The buzzing of his arrival was quickly gone with the large group that passed by. He had to know I was there, but didn’t stop to look. I waited in my spot for another twenty minutes and heard two more horns. Three teams were already out. A few people came and went in pairs, but no one came back with a fake flag. Soon I felt Seth return.

  “Still here?” he asked, walking up to me in my spot without his gun drawn. I kept mine pointed on him. I wasn’t going to lose for my team just for a guy, no matter how well he kissed. Yes—I was a little competitive.

  “Truce?” he asked, holding out his hands. I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to shake it. His dorm was known to always win with all their jocks. “At least until all the other teams’ flags are gone? I could help you get a flag or two… or are you on guard duty?”

  “Nope, not guarding. Supposed to be finding flags,” I admitted. It sounded worse out loud than in my head.

  “And not moving somehow will find you flags?” Seth asked, moving closer to me to hide in the shadows as we talked.

  “Well, eventually,” I replied. “Everyone will get all the flags and have to come here to get ours.” We were now standing shoulder to shoulder.

  “Very confident,” Seth said. “You must have done a good job hiding it.” I shrugged.

  “I didn’t technically hide it; that was Sim, but yes, I think we will be the last one everyone has to go after,” I answered.

  Seth looped his arm around my waist and cornered me into the doorway. “Come on, I know you want to be with me. We’d make a good team.” Seth kissed my neck, and I giggled.

  “Fine. Truce until we’re the last two teams,” I replied. I really had no reason to refuse him. Either he wasn’t going to attack for my flag, or he didn’t know I had it. As I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my face to his chest, I noticed a piece of blue fabric out of his pant pocket. Seemed like maybe Seth had the same idea as me.

  “Are you sure? I still have a few more convincing techniques to try.” Seth nibbled on my ear. I giggled at what I found and the nibble on my ear.

  I reached forward and pulled Seth close as more people approach. The team Melissa was leading was heading into the woods. Seth watched along with me and smiled.

  “I’d say this is a good time to go hit the sorority team. Melissa took more than half her team with her. She must really be determined to get you out. Let’s go, partner,” Seth said, taking my hand and leading me back into the game.

  It was great to be Seth’s partner. He was the best at the game. In twenty minutes, Seth had managed to get us four flags. Somehow he was really good at the game even though he was not from my time, not that I expected him to be otherwise. After another twenty minutes the blow horn indicated that there were only three teams left. Seth and I were hidden near the frat house team. We saw the flag, but we couldn’t get near it. With only three teams, they seemed to be taking the approach of waiting for us to come to them. Sim sat in their team jail along with several of both mine and Seth’s team. Dee was marched over to the group and sat down sullenly from just being caught.

  “And what is the great plan now?” I asked.

  “We need a distraction,” Seth replied. “And I know the two to do it.” Seth looked at his watch and waited. Dee would be free in ten minutes and he would have to return to his base to go back out. At the end of his ten minutes, Seth whistled. It sounded closely to the birds in the area, none of the frat team even looked up.

  “Free to go,” one of the guys said, pointing to Dee. Sim was already back after being caught a second time. Dee leaned down and patted her head.

  “Nice to see you again, Shorty,” he said in a friendly manner, and even Sim looked at him strangely. We both knew Dee, but he wasn’t one to talk to us. I actually got the feeling he didn’t like either of us. As he ran off, I finally noticed why he talked to Sim. He had a different gun in his hand, and no one noticed. Dee stopped by us first and tagged us both. It only counts as being shot if the person’s armband and the dye matched. We weren’t officially caught, but with blue on each of our shirts, we could sneak into the holding area and closer to the flag. Seth led the way, and we snuck in the back of the holding area.

  Chris was next to me and his eyes widened in shock.

  “They caught you?” Chris asked. “There goes our big plan. Without me there, I’m sure Will will lead someone back to the tree. I didn’t get the chance to get him.”

  “The game’s not over yet,” I replied and Seth moved. I followed him to the edge of the group. With the dye on our shirts, no one noticed us or even paid attention to us.

  With a war cry, Ty ran into the group shooting with two guns. As guys got hit, they dropped their guns, but soon they were all confused. They were hit with a mix of blue and green dye, blue being their own.

  “Wait a second,” one guy called
as they all were shooting around. “I just hit him, and he isn’t stopping.” Ty continued to shoot more people as they stopped, confused. Soon Ty had shot all the people there.

  “This isn’t fair,” the frat guy complained. “I know I shot him.” He didn’t even look at his gun, which had sprayed green water and not blue. Everyone stopped to listen. They had all been hit, and Ty only had his own color on his shirt.

  Ty played confused as they all stopped shooting. “I know I shot you before you shot me. Besides, you missed,” Ty accused the guy talking and pointed to his shirt. “You can’t just play it off as your color.” Seth led me closer to the flag, and we slipped into the slowing commotion.

  “No, I hit you,” frat guy replied, still confused by the lack of blue on Ty.

  “No, I shot you. You are our team prisoner,” Ty replied back getting into the argument.

  Sim saw me in the crowd and spoke up. “I saw Ty shoot you. You had to miss. Ty is only green.”

  An argument broke out with all the guys yelling at once. The frat guy was not going to back down, and Ty was only green. Frat guy lacked the proof to get Ty out. Everyone on Seth’s team were goading the fight on in support of Ty, while the frat boys yelled otherwise. Seth led the way through the arguing crowd and took a few steps to the flag. Even the flag protectors were in on the group argument and with blue dye on our shirts, they didn’t think twice about us being there.

  Seth reached into the spot and took the flag. He grinned at me, and I smiled back before shooting him with red dye. He laughed at me shooting him.

  “Only until we were the last two teams right?” I asked. “Guess you’re my prisoner.”

  The frat boys looked at us finally and realized we had their flag.

  “What?” the first frat boy asked. “You’re our prisoners.”

  “Not really,” Seth replied. “Can any guy here admit to catching us?” Not a single guy could place us.

  “I can,” Dee replied from the shadows, holding onto a gun. “Man, you have my gun.” Seth pointed to the guy complaining about shooting Ty. “Guess it’s just our two teams left.” Dee grinned at me.

  “Actually,” I said as I pointed out to Dee. “I just took out Seth. The game is done.”

  Everyone looked at me confusedly, including Seth. With all the eyes on me, I reached over and pulled the flags he collected out of his pocket. I laid each flag on the ground to show each color. There were still two flags missing, and I smiled as I reached in Seth’s other pocket. He wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively. The guys all around were too captivated by the flags to notice. I pulled out Seth’s team flag to add to the pile.

  “Aw, you saw that?” Seth asked. He didn’t actually sound disappointed.

  “Yep,” I replied. “When you first found me.”

  “But the game isn’t done until your flag is with the rest,” Dee added hopefully. “That means we still have a chance. You have to make it back to your flag to collect it before we do.”

  “Not really,” I added, untying my armband and pulling the flag free from the roll. I dropped my flag on the pile and smiled at the guys. “Game’s done. Murdley wins.” All the Murdley prisoners erupted into cheers and even the frat guys were impressed that I had beat Seth. Seth pulled me into his arms and kissed me. He wasn’t mad in the least about my sudden turn on him. He was grinning more than anyone on my own team.

  “I think I just might love you,” Seth said, as the Murdley team members caught in the frat holding spot cheered louder, covering up what he said to the people around us. Only I heard. Seth loved me.

  Chapter 11

  Time to go Home

  My life took a new turn after the CRUSH game. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Seth that I loved him also, but he didn’t seem to even mind or look to me to say it back. I wish I could tell him the same, but I couldn’t help but hesitate. If I admitted how I felt, he might just disappear. Maybe the goddess just wanted me to fall in love. There was going to be heart break, but by not saying it, I could save myself a bit from it. Despite my lack of telling him the same, he became the perfect boyfriend. He met me for meals, escorted me to classes, and spent the little free time he had around football with me.

  We didn’t actually get a lot of time together despite our newfound agreement on our feelings toward each other. He had school and football, and I had school and tutoring. There was very little free time that overlapped. It had been mostly weekends that we were with each other, and he hadn’t been around for those either with his games. The month was passing, and I felt like we hadn’t time at all together. He had been gone two weeks in a row for away games.

  It was already October and the leaves falling just reminded me every day that what I had with Seth could not last. He would go away someday, maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day he would be gone. It was getting harder to be excited about the fall and the coming snow like I normally was. The more I grew attached to Seth, the harder it would be to see him gone.

  “I have a question,” I said as Seth joined me on his couch at his house one warm, cozy Friday night. He had a free weekend, and we planned to spend the entire time together finally. His brothers had nicely found things to do for the evening, and we were alone watching some action film on their gigantic TV.

  Seth handed me the bowl of popcorn. There were three different flavors divided in the bowl. Miller didn’t do anything with food half way. Seth settled down beside me and wrapped his arm around me.

  “About what?” he asked.

  “How do you travel between times?” I blurted out. It had been on my mind for weeks, but he seemed a bit touchy about the time travel subject, like he also felt our time slipping away.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. The goddess does it for you.” Seth started the movie and the previews flashed on the screen. He didn’t elaborate.

  “And how do you contact the goddess to do that?” I had tried several times when I was completely alone to talk to the goddess like Seth did that night weeks ago. He just talked and she appeared. I had tried to do that, but it didn’t seem to work that way for me at least.

  “You don’t need to worry about that.” Seth wrapped his arms around me. “If we need the goddess, I can call for her.” He went back to watching the previews. I waited a few moments, but he was done talking.

  “And what if I’m alone?” That question had been haunting me for weeks.

  “I won’t leave you alone. I can’t,” he said while nestling into my hair and planting a kiss on my head. “I’m way too addicted to you, Mari, to let you go anywhere without me.”

  I believed him. I felt the same way. I settled back into his arms. He was warm and strong, surrounding me as we sat. It was hard to picture being alone when he was right there. He was probably right, anyway. If he wasn’t at football or school, he was always with me. The goddess couldn’t take him from football or school without people noticing, and I doubt she could just appear and no one would care. If she appeared when I was with Seth, I could ask her to let me keep him. My resolve easily was set. I’d spend every waking moment with Seth when he wasn’t around anyone else. That way, if she came to him, I’d be there.

  I settled back into Seth’s arms and let his warmth keep me happy. I didn’t see too much of the movie as I laid there. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it felt like time was pressing down on us. Things were too quiet and peaceful. It couldn’t last, but I wanted it to. I had had boyfriends before Seth, and a very serious one in high school. None of them felt like it did when I was with Seth. The world around me changed when he was around. I couldn’t help but see everything differently. He had changed me. Maybe not deliberately, but he had. Just the thought of Seth leaving me alone where I could never see him again made my chest hurt. I wasn’t sure how I could live without him now, let alone say goodbye.

  Somewhere before the movie ended, I was asleep. I felt Seth lift me up and carry me to his room. He tucked me in before joining me in bed. I heard him speaking softly as we lay th
ere, but I didn’t think much of it. I was too tired to carry on a conversation and that just made Seth chuckle. Who knows what I actually said or probably agreed to? It wouldn’t really matter, though. Anything Seth asked I would say yes to. I trusted him as much as I loved him.

  I woke the next morning to find myself lying on Seth’s chest while he played with my hair. He was already awake as I expected. Still a morning person, no matter how late he was up the night before. Sometimes I wondered if he actually ever slept.

  “That was a yes last night to going to the CRUSH Halloween party together tonight,” Seth said more as a question than a statement.

  “Party?” I asked. I hated parties. Yep, I’d agree with anything when half asleep and with Seth. I would have to scold him later not to ask me questions when I wasn’t awake.

  “I asked you last night. You said you’d go. I asked if you had any of those sexy Halloween costumes, and you told me you could find one.” Seth continued to twirl my hair as my face turned bright red. I’d never readily agree to something like that. I was more the fun Halloween costume type, not the sexy. I had to find a way to not answer questions in my sleep in the future. Seth laughed.

  “Sorry, I had to say that and see if you’d agree. No, last night I asked you to go to the party and told you that you didn’t need to wear a costume,” Seth replied. I smacked the rock hard arms beneath my hands. “Hey, that was payback for falling asleep on me during the movie last night. I didn’t even get a coherent goodnight from you.”

  “I couldn’t help it,” I complained with my checks flaming red. “It’s been a long week.”

  “I could tell.” Seth smoothed my hair out. “You’ve been a bit distracted.”

  “Just thinking,” I admitted.

  “About?” Seth prompted. I shrugged. Seth pulled me tighter. I have a feeling he’d been thinking about the same things, but neither of us wanted to say it out loud. Seth’s impending departure would always be on our minds. I had to find a way to go with him, no matter what. Someone called his name from the hallway, and he maneuvered himself out from underneath me.