I hummed until I could hear his breathing even out. Slowly, I lifted my head off his shoulder to look at his face; he was asleep. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. His face had smoothed out all of the glowering wrinkles. I smiled as I put my head back on his shoulder carefully and swept my gaze up toward Darren, who stared at me. Smirking at me, he closed his eyes. Restlessness crawled through my stomach; something wasn’t right about him. Deep down I knew he knew me, but why he didn't come out and say anything, I had no clue. He either worked for Kieran or for the army. I’d bet money on the former. Either way, he would be too dangerous to be around. Gregory and I would have to change our plans and find this Emma Farraday another day. It wouldn’t be safe for her to find us along with Darren, but how would we sneak past him? Was it even a coincidence that he was in the same compartment as us?
I couldn’t sleep knowing that we had a follower. I would watch over Gregory while he slept; he needed his sleep if we were going to start running again.
An idea of how to get away from Darren popped into my head. It wasn’t the greatest plan, but I knew it could work. I needed to figure out a way to let Gregory know without alerting Darren—Gregory had slept through the rest of the trip. The train conductor announced that we would arrive in Minonia in ten minutes, which meant I only had ten minutes to let Gregory in on the plan without Darren finding out. I’d hoped Darren would’ve left the compartment sometime during the trip, but he never did. I didn’t mind when he was sleeping; it was during the times he was awake that I felt uneasy. He would just stare at both Gregory and me, analyzing us. I tried to ignore the stare, but I could feel his eyes burning holes into my body. He didn’t try to talk to me, which I was especially happy about.
I looked up at Gregory; he looked so peaceful and not annoying. I think I preferred him that way. I grabbed his arm and shook a few times. Nothing. Finally, after shaking his arm and almost ready to shove him off of his seat, he bolted up. His eyes went to the door before they made their way over to me. He sat back in his chair, rubbed at his eyes, and then raked both hands through his hair.
“What’s going on?”
“We’re ten minutes out of Minonia,” I said.
Gregory nodded his head and yawned. “You should have woken me earlier.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “You needed the sleep. So, I was thinking about something.” Can’t wait to hear how smoothly you tell him your plan. My bet—you fail epically.
“About what?”
“Well, I know we’re supposed to be meeting up with your aunt,” I said, trying to choose my words carefully. “But I was thinking maybe tonight could be our night.”
Gregory looked at me like I had grown horns on my head. Casually, I touched the top of my head, just in case. Nope, no horns, which meant I had failed at communicating with him. I gave Gregory a stare and moved my eyes toward Darren and then back to Gregory. Five times. I did it five times, and Gregory still looked confused. This was harder than I had thought.
“What do you mean?”
I cleared my throat. Let’s try this again. “Wouldn’t it be easier to go search for her tomorrow during the day? When it would be easier to locate her?” I just stared at him, not moving my eyes from him. Trying to speak to him with my mind.
Gregory looked out the window, watching the black sky fly past. He was quiet for a few minutes. I looked over at Darren, who was now staring intently at the both of us. Damn. If Gregory didn’t understand what I was trying to say, then we were doomed.
I looked back over toward Gregory. His eyes caught mine, and he nodded his head so slightly that it would have been easy to miss. He knew. I would have cheered right there and then, but since Darren was in the compartment, I wasn’t able to. Killjoy.
“You’re right,” Gregory said. “It would be rude to show up at this hour.”
“Maybe we can get a sweethearts suite at the local inn?” I wasn’t sure if they had one of those, but seriously, it sounded nice. There would be a big bed. With clean bedding. A large bathtub. And food to di—
“Maybe,” Gregory said, interrupting my thoughts.
I smiled and sat back in my chair. As Gregory stood up and stretched, I, of course, looked at his exposed toned stomach and V. What girl wouldn’t? And I was a girl. But what I made sure to do was keep the drool from falling out of my mouth. If it weren’t for Darren in the room, I swear I would have launched myself at Gregory. This was a definite change from wanting to kill him every five minutes.
I peeled my eyes away from Gregory when Darren started coughing annoyingly, loud. I looked over at Darren, who was wiggling his eyebrows.
“Yes?” I asked. I could feel the blush creep up my face. I was caught.
“What’s with the hostility?” Darren asked, his voice clouded with amusement.
I took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. I needed to be nice. I needed to be nice. I needed to be nice. Just because you say it three times doesn’t mean you’ll listen to yourself. For example, you never listen to me when I have sage advice. I wasn’t sure if this whole talking to myself thing meant I was crazy or sane. But I was probably straddling that line. “I’m sorry.” Not sure who exactly I was apologizing to. Him or me. “It’s been a very long trip, and it’s gotten me edgy.”
“I accept your apology,” Darren said. He stood up and stretched, and I rolled my eyes. “Now if you will excuse me, I must use the little boy’s room. I don’t want to have to stand in line at the station once we stop.”
Gregory and I watched as Darren made his way out of the compartment, Gregory made sure the door was completely shut before speaking. “You apologize to a complete stranger but not me?”
“You and I never apologize to each other. Because neither of us cares enough about each other to be concerned about what the other is feeling.” Gregory narrowed his eyes, and I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m usually nice to people. It’s hard when I’m around you. So, how long do you think he’ll be gone?” I asked. I moved and started to grab our things from under the seats. Gregory walked over to Darren’s seat and started rummaging through his things. “What are you doing?” I yelped.
“Shh,” he said. I raised an eyebrow at him, but he just ignored me. After what felt like years of Gregory going through Darren’s personal items, Gregory finally withdrew a small black gadget. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?” I peered at the small object. “What is that?”
Gregory walked over to the window, opened it up, and threw the object out of the window. My jaw dropped. “What are you doing?” I looked anxiously at the door.
“That was a recording device,” he said, shutting the window and going back over to Darren’s belongings, putting everything back in its original place. “He’s been recording us since he’s been in here.”
“I don’t understand.” I stared blankly at Gregory.
“He’s been following us since Inonia.” Gregory started putting his backpack on. He’d been following us since Inonia? Are you really that surprised? “I saw him the night we first got to Inonia. And then again when we were at the train station. It wasn’t until I saw him in the compartment that I put two and two together. I don’t know why he’s following us, but we’re not going to wait and find out. He knows who you are and has been playing with us.”
“Won’t he notice his recording thingy is missing?” My stomach churned at the thought that he’d been following us.
“He won’t take it out while we’re still with him,” Gregory said.
“How can you be sure?”
“He doesn’t know we’re on to him. So he isn’t going to flash it out in front of us. I have a feeling that he’s out there—” Gregory pointed toward the door “—communicating with his people.”
“We can’t get caught. We can’t have him be the reason we get caught.” I started to pace back and forth. This was not good. I really shouldn’t have been surprised at this point. We had the worst luck in the world. Or at least I did.
&
nbsp; “I know.” The train started to slow down. “Which is why are leaving now.”
“How?” I looked at him suspiciously. We’d been down this road before, and it had ended with my arm being in a sling.
Gregory looked over to the window. I glanced over then back to Gregory. I dropped my head in my hands and whimpered. I actually whimpered. Out loud. He was crazy. First we had to jump off the back of a moving train, and now we had to jump out of the window of a moving train. Would I ever be able to ride a train without having to jump off of it while it was still moving? “Please tell me you are just joking.” Please.
He shook his head, and my stomach sank. “If we do it now, he won’t notice we went out the window. I’ll open up the door a little so he can think we went out that way, which will make him search the whole train.” He smiled. He actually freaking smiled. It was a crazy-person smile. Seeing how I kept talking to myself, we were both crazy. I didn’t like it. Not one bit. “At least this time the train won’t be going so fast, so neither of us should get hurt.”
“Well, that’s great to know,” I said dryly. I bent down, grabbed my backpack, and slipped it on.
“We should probably get going.” He moved to the light switch on the wall next to the door and switched it off while opening up the door just a crack. I could hear people talking excitedly outside of the room. I was jealous of them, I wanted to have a normal freaking day and doing normal freaking things. And ride a train without jumping off of it. Gregory moved his way over to the window and stealthily opened it. The train was going much slower this time, but that didn’t mean this wasn’t going to hurt.
Gregory looked at me expectantly, so I moved to him. I put my hands on the windowsill, and with Gregory’s help, I was sitting on the sill with my legs dangling over. I took a deep breath and jumped forward off the train. The wind whipped at my face as my body hurtled toward the ground. My feet slammed into the gravel, but I was able to keep my body upright. I looked over to see Gregory holding on and shutting the window at the same time. I walked forward toward his airborne body, and he landed smoothly a few feet away.
“Now what?” I asked as I made my way to him.
“We walk the rest of the way.” Gregory moved off the tracks a few feet, and I followed him, knowing that maybe if I survived this whole Kieran situation, I could tell an awesome story. It wasn't awesome at the moment though.
“Okay,” I said.
Gregory and I walked for forty minutes before we could see the lights of the station. We made our way into the deep, tall grass helping us hide our cover as we walked around the other side of the station. My feet kept slipping on rocks, making me stumble and at one point I fell down, scraping my hands in the process. Gregory was nice enough to help me up. “Thanks,” I mumbled.
Voices danced in the air as we got closer to the edge of Minonia. I was ready to find a place to stay and sleep for a week. Forget everything that had been going on and just bury myself in a comfortable bed. Preferably with Gregory serving me grapes. I smiled as I pictured him in a toga feeding me grapes. It was an admirable sight.
As we stepped up next to a large building, Gregory held up his hand. People were laughing and hollering while music played in the background. It sounded like a party was going on. Different smells of meat wafted in our direction and I started to drool. I thought my body might have floated in the air and followed the smell, but my body didn’t move an inch. Quickly, I wiped the drool from my mouth and grabbed my grumbling stomach. Gregory looked over at me with a smirk. I shrugged my shoulders. I was always hungry.
Gregory put his finger to his lips and moved down the building, bending under a window so that he wouldn’t be seen. Following him, I did the exact same thing until we were all the way to the edge of the building. I stood watching as Gregory peered around the wall, I checked behind us—no one was in sight. I thanked the heavens that nobody had followed us and asked for food. And a shelter. And all this mess to be over with. But unfortunately, no one answered.
“There seems to be a festival going on,” Gregory said.
“What do we do?”
“We might be able to go through it without being noticed.”
“Are you sure?” I had a nagging feeling that we would get caught. Because let’s face it, we’d been caught so far everywhere we’ve gone. Luck would be great to have on our side.
“Yeah,” he said. “There are so many people out partying. Most likely, they all have been drinking, so it should be easy to walk through and find somewhere to stay.”
I nodded my head. “Okay.”
Gregory put his hood up and reached in his back pocket, pulling out a black hat. Placing the hat on my head, he pulled it so far down that my eyes could barely see out. I raised an eyebrow that he couldn't see as he stepped back. “It will help us blend in.”
“Right.”
“Ready?”
I nodded my head. Gregory walked around the wall of the building with me on his heels. I got right up next to him, our arms slightly touching.
Gregory had been right. Some type of festival was in full swing. The place was lit up, and people were gathered around talking, dancing, and laughing. Cheering erupted farther down the road, and as we got closer we walked past vendors that stood every five feet, selling food, brightly colored beads, furry hot pink and dark green hats, and a type of feathered scarves. Who will wear those? We passed a bunch of women and young girls wearing beads and the scarves around their necks. Everything looked tacky, but it was like no one cared. I didn’t get it. That’s because you aren’t from here.
There were just as many kids out as adults. My jaw dropped as we passed two women walking completely topless, men whistling at them as they walked by. My cheeks burned, I could never do that. That’s because you’re no fun. I tried to keep my gaze off of them, but it was like I couldn’t control my eyes. It was a strange sight. This was something I definitely wouldn’t see back home. As we walked further into Minonia, women were dancing with snakes on their shoulders, men threw sticks lit with fire in the air, and women grinded on men while children watched in fascination. It was official: I didn’t like this place. Too much chaos. Beads of sweat started forming on my forehead, as my shoulders tensed. I clasped my hands together and swallowed down the unease that started to trickle up.
In the middle of the road, people were cheering, booing, and yelling out names. Gregory moved forward into the crowd, and I had to grab his jacket so I wouldn’t get lost in the wave of people. My hand slackened as we got to the front. Two men were punching each other, blood spurting all over the pavement. I could hear people yelling, but everything turned into one giant white noise. With each hit the men threw, I flinched. How could people be cheering them on? I felt sick. Nausea reared in my stomach, I took a couple of swallows to keep it from coming up. I looked over at Gregory, and my stomach dropped. He was enjoying it. He was laughing. He bounced from foot to foot as he gestured fake punches. How could this excite him? People were yelling and jostling behind me. I wanted out but couldn’t move. I was horrified that this was what Gregory found fun. Wasn’t it enough that we were literally running for our lives? Did he have to be excited about fighting? You don’t really know him. Why are you so surprised? For once I didn’t shut myself up. I was right. I didn’t know him.
I looked over at the two men just in time to see one of them grab the other and slam him to the floor, the man’s head bouncing off the pavement. A sickening crunch echoed in the streets as it hit, and I flinched while everyone—including Gregory—cheered. I stared at the man just lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving, and blood was coming out of his mouth and nose; his eyes were wide open. He should have moved by now. Not with a hit like that. I wanted to cry for this man lying lifeless on the ground. I wanted to run. I wanted to puke.
I pulled on Gregory’s arm and stepped up on my tiptoes so I could reach his ears. “We should get going.” I wanted to get out of here and find somewhere safe. And maybe puke.
G
regory looked at me, elated. “It might be better to stick around. Maybe find out information.”
I shook my head. “Shouldn’t we do that tomorrow?” I really, really wanted to leave.
Gregory didn’t answer me as his attention focused on the announcer.
“Ladies and gentleman,” the announcer said. “We need more fighters for tomorrow night. If you feel you have what it takes to be a champion, step right up and sign up tonight.”
Gregory looked excited. “I think I should do it.”
“What? No!” I grabbed his hand and tried to drag him out of the area, but he didn’t budge. “We need to get out of here and find somewhere to stay. I’m tired and hungry, and this is just all too overwhelming.” And I don’t want to see your dead body on the ground.
“Oh, come on,” he said. “We should have some fun while we’re here.”
I gapped at him. “Are you serious? We should have some fun? We are on the run for our lives, and you want to have some fun by fighting? Well, how about when we run into everyone who is after us you can fight them!” I placed my hands on my hips, trying to look intimidating.
“No one will recognize us,” he said, raising his voice. I watched as his eyes flashed with irritation and his face tightened.
“Fine,” I said. “You go and be stupid and fight. I’m going to find a safe place to hide. Because I don’t have a death wish.” I screamed the last part in his face. People glanced over, but I ignored them. I turned around and walked away from Gregory. Every part of me wished I would pull him with me, but I knew I was too weak to physically pull him along. Maybe you shouldn’t trust him. I ignored my annoying inner sidekick and moved along. I was so angry. What had gotten in to him? He just doesn’t care about you. You are running for your life. He is helping you. He could stay here and blend in and no one would notice or care. Maybe he’s tired of running. I gulped. I didn’t want to think that.
The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) Page 22