Sin: A Survival Romance Fiction (Her Story Trilogy Book 1)

by Kensley Hatch

  They marched on for what felt like most of the morning though it was hard to tell with the sun’s light trapped by the covering of angry clouds.

  “Maybe we should turn back,” Julian suggested as they got to the bottom of yet another bare mountainside that they would have to summit.

  “We’ve finally found their trail.” Summer objected, while her legs continued to crunch down on the snow as she pushed herself up onto the incline in front of them.

  They continued upwards. Summer didn’t look back once, but Julian kept on stopping and seemed to be uneasy.

  “We’re not really hunting for deer, are we?”

  Summer turned back to see Julian stopped several feet behind her with his feet planted against the side of the mountain.

  “Those definitely aren’t deer tracks, and we weren’t following anything at all when we started.” Summer carefully climbed back down to where Julian was standing.

  “You’re right.” She admitted. “I never saw any deer, but I think we can still catch something if we just go a little further.”

  “No.” Julian took her arm cautiously and looked her in the face. “What’s going on with you? When you came into my tent this morning, you were acting like you were on the verge of a panic attack.”

  “It was nothing. I was just nervous about not having anything to eat.”

  “You know that’s not true.” Summer turned her face, but Julian moved so she couldn’t avoid him. “Your whole body was shaking, and you could barely keep your voice steady.”

  “I’m fine! It really wasn’t anything to worry about.”

  “Why won’t you tell me the truth? You can trust me.” Julian’s voice was imploring, but Summer hid her face again and said nothing.

  Julian waited, trying to look into her eyes, but she would not meet his. He eventually sighed and looked back up the mountain.

  “Well, I still trust you.” He started forward slowly climbing up to where Summer had been heading.

  “Run away with me.”

  Julian stopped walking, and Summer went forward a few steps before she turned around to face him.

  “What are you talking about?” His voice was low and unsure. He was scanning her face, looking at the lines of hard determination that furrowed her forehead.

  “We need to get out of here.” Her eyes were like flint. “I’ve thought about this for a long time, and it’ll be fine. Bridger will take care of my family if I’m gone. He’s not that cruel to just abandon them, and it’s only me that he expects anything from.”

  “What does he expect from you?”

  “Nothing!” Summer blurted almost angrily before changing to pleading. “I just can’t take it anymore. The pressure of all of them. It’s driving me insane. I feel like a caged bird that’s expected to fly, and the cage is getting smaller and smaller with each passing day. I’m losing my mind.”

  “So you’re just going to leave your family without telling them anything?”

  “I can’t talk to them!” Her voice was beginning to show shreds of desperation. “You don’t understand.”

  “I think I do.” It was Julian’s eyes that were unflinching now. “You’re afraid to tell Bridger about us. You can’t face him so you’d rather just run away.”

  “It’s not that.” Summer moved forward quickly and grabbed Julian’s hands, bringing them to her chest. “I love you, Julian. It’s different with us. We can start out on our own and find someplace where we can be happy. Just the two of us.”

  “What about Tania’s happiness? What about your mother’s health? Summer, what you’re talking about is lunacy.” His fingers loosened from her grip, and Summer could see the retreat of disappointment.

  “I never thought you would be this selfish.” He nearly whispered the words with painful disbelief.

  Summer stared at him as she let his hands slowly slip down to his side. A burning knot was rising from the center of her stomach, and her face felt much too hot against the chilling wind. They stood there in silence for a moment staring at each other. They were only a foot away from each other, but Summer could feel the distance like a gaping canyon chasm. Julian’s face was calm and resolute like the flat edge of a cliff, which acted like a springboard for the rage that Summer felt mounting inside of her.

  Suddenly, in a violent burst of movement, Summer threw her hands against his chest and pushed him hard, causing him to stumble backward several steps.

  “Fine!” She yelled, her face molded in a snarl of anger. “I don’t need you!” She started to laugh, yet the sound was sickeningly hollow. “What was I thinking? That you could possibly understand the hell I’ve been going through just because you whisper sweet words into my ear and pretend to care.”

  He stared at her dumbfounded, but this only convinced her further of her words.

  “You’ve never understood me. We live in different worlds where things work out for you. Before the Invasion, you never struggled with family or money or anything. And even after everything has happened and our world is turned upside down your life is still that way. You don’t have anyone who can hurt you. You don’t have feelings of shame that make you want to throw yourself off of anything high enough to be fatal. You don’t have the crushing weight of being scared for the people you love most while doing things that make you hate yourself.”

  She paused to catch her breath in the whirlwind of words that were spewing into the freezing air and swept away with the ever heavier snowfall that was turning into a stronger storm.

  An angry, defiant tear escaped Summer’s left eye, but it felt like searing acid as it streaked down her cheek.

  “I’m done.” This time her voice was lethally quiet. She swung around and turned her back on Julian as she started treading up the hill.

  The storm was showing signs of a blizzard, and the snow obstructed any vision beyond just a few feet ahead. Julian jumped forward and grabbed Summer’s wrist before she could walk away.

  “Stop! Talk to me.” His voice was pleading. She whipped around and faced him with a look of utter disgust.

  “No, Julian! You’re just like them. You’re just a different kind of cage, and I’m sick of it. I’ll make it on my own!” She shook her arm to release his grip from her wrist and started running up the hill as best she could in the deep snow.

  “Wait!” Julian’s voice was almost lost in the glacial blast that was blowing downwind.

  Summer kept running as she became enveloped in the cyclone of snow that was turning everything into an undetectable mass of white. She was breathing hard as the winter air seeped into her lungs, making it even harder for them to push her body up the hill. She pushed herself forward, encouraged by the pain that was beginning to turn everything numb. In front of her, the ground was only visible a few feet, and the air was consumed by thousands of snowflakes that were pelting against her entire body with winter’s fury.

  She could tell she reached the top of the hill as the incline decreased, but Summer couldn’t see anything through the storm. She ran, but soon she was disoriented beyond recovery. The snow was blowing in all directions, and even the crunch of her feet against the snow was being overcome by the screaming of the tempest surrounding her.

  “I can’t see!” She yelled, desperately. She swung her body to the right and starting running furiously, but there were no trees or any living thing to help her gain her bearings. She turned to the right again, but felt the frightening tug of fatigue wearing at her muscles.

  “Where am I?!” Her cry was just another part of the storm.

  She turned once more, but this time she fell to her knees as cold white attacked her frame and began to stick all over her. It hurt to look around as her eyes were seared with the frigid wind. She closed her eyes and dropped flat to the ground, feeling the frozen snow melt against the hot skin of her face.

  “I can’t see.” She
mumbled as her last cry of protest.

  Chapter 21

  When she awoke, she couldn’t feel her feet, but it felt like her hands were on fire. The suffocating sensation of being buried hit her when she felt the weight of the snow on top of her, and she couldn’t open her eyes. Frantically, she kicked her legs with the little feeling that was still in them and pushed herself to sit up, freeing herself from the ice cocoon that had formed around her during the storm. Her vision was blurry as snowflakes clung to her eyelashes and added cold water to her bloodshot eyes. There was no hint around her to tell her how she had gotten here, and as she looked around, it felt like she was the only splotch of ink accidentally spilled onto a blank canvas of white. Snow was everywhere, and the only thing she could decipher was that she was on top of some mountain as she could see the height below her that made her head spin.

  She stood up shakily and headed towards the downward slope below her, but the blood in her legs was not used to circulating and her knees buckled, propelling her forward by gravity’s pull. She fell onto her knees and then onto her back, knocking the wind out of her in the already thinning air. The sky was white, but the corners of it were growing dark as she stared above her. She tried to remember the color that the sky was supposed to be, but her vision was getting smaller as the black was taking over like a spreading infection. Soon there was only a small white tunnel in the middle of her vision, and her head felt light as if her brain was shutting down. Blue, she remembered. The color of the sky was supposed to be blue.

  ******

  Everything was dark when she opened her eyes again. The stars were brilliant, but the moon offered little light to assist her. Summer could feel a patch of skin on her cheek turning numb, and she touched it with her hand in a panic as the freezing night warned her of the possibility of frostbite. She stood up and began stumbling her way down the mountain. Her body was shivering in an impossible effort to get her warm, and her teeth involuntarily clattered together as the wind hit her. She continued downwards clutching her arms around her body and dragging her feet in front of her. It felt like she had lost the power to think except for the one image that kept replaying in her mind of the warm fire in her family’s camp. Somehow, she had to make it back to them. Fear whispered that she would never be accepted back after running away from them, but she had to try.

  She made it down the first slope and started down her next steep encounter when the snow shifted beneath her causing her to fall. She tumbled down the mountainside, picking up speed as she rolled. Summer couldn’t tell the difference between the blankness of the sky and the whiteness of the snow, but somehow it still whirled around in her vision. Eventually, she stopped as the hill turned into a plateau, and her body sprawled out with the dying motion of her descent. The ground had bruised her hip and her shoulder, among at least a dozen other places, and Summer didn’t even attempt to get up this time. Instead, she laid there and waited for unconsciousness to come to her again.

  The next perception that Summer was consciously aware of was the feeling of her body being moved without instructions from her brain or movement from her muscles. It felt like she was floating ever so slightly above the snow and Summer wondered if this is what death felt like. Yet, she couldn’t fully believe that she had died since people had told her that once one had really died, the journey afterward was painless and light. It felt like the exact opposite for her. Her bruises were sore, and her body ached with the chill all around her that seemed to seep into her bones. She tried to lift her eyelids, but they felt like weights that she could momentarily lift but could never keep up for any substantial amount of time. She did happen to get a glimpse of the angel that was moving her. It was a black figure pulling her body with two ropes ahead of her, and the thought occurred to her that maybe it wasn’t an angel at all. However, she was too exhausted to be scared of anything, and she let the black figure pull her further downwards to wherever the consequences of her mortal life allotted.

  The image of Tania’s face emerged in front of Summer’s consciousness. She was suddenly standing on that bare summit once again, but this time Tania was with her. Except, it was confusing because Tania was dressed in shorts and a tank top while she held in her hand two pairs of folded jeans.

  “You’re abandoning us!” Tania yelled and started running towards the edge of the summit. Summer tried to stop her, but instead of falling, Tania disintegrated into a gust of wind that turned her into swirling snow. Summer gaped at the place where Tania once stood and held her head with both of her hands.

  “Summer!” She turned her head in the direction of where she had heard her name. It was Julian standing off in the distance, waving at her excitedly. Joy filled her being at the sight of him. She ran towards him, and he ran towards her until they had met in the middle. He held her in his arms, and she clung onto his coat, desperately wrapping her arms tightly against his body.

  “I love you.” He whispered, stroking her hair.

  “I thought I had lost you.” Summer cried, burying her face into his chest.

  He lifted her chin gently with his hand.

  “You have.” He said, and suddenly Summer gasped at what she was seeing.

  The face in front of her had transformed, and she was no longer looking at Julian, but rather, she was staring into Bridger’s face.

  “I told you I would have you.” He laughed as she pushed away from him and stumbled in the opposite direction.

  She could still hear his laughter as the wind howled with an animal-like quality.

  She dragged her feet through the snow until she felt something beneath her crack under the weight of her boot. She picked it up from the ground and found a broken picture frame half buried in the snow. The picture inside showed a man and a woman dressed for their wedding day. It was the picture that used to sit on the mantle of Summer’s house before her father had left them. The smiling faces stared up at her as Summer frantically tried to wipe away the snow that had leaked onto the picture from the broken glass. The warmth of her skin, however, just made the snow melt more and a jagged piece of glass cut into her finger, causing her to drop the frame in shock. She watched her finger start to drip blood from the cut. It seemed to taint everything in her vision to turn a shade of red.

  Suddenly, her unearthly ambassador was standing over her shaking her shoulders.

  “Summer!” It was calling her. “Summer! Summer!”

  The dark figure seemed to have the ability to transfer fear from the mere touch of its hands and Summer wrestled with it trying to keep its hands away from her.

  “Leave me alone!” She cried, striking at the persistent hands.

  “Summer! Summer, stop it! It’s me! It’s me.”

  Summer opened her eyes to see Michael standing over her, holding her arms desperately. She immediately stopped fighting and stared up at him in disbelief.

  “Michael?” She whispered, fearing that he too would get swept away in the snowstorm.

  However, there wasn’t a storm raging. Instead, she found herself lying in a sled next to the fire of her family’s campsite. The memory of her real circumstances came flooding back to Summer, and she looked up at Michael in amazement.

  “How did you find me?”

  Michael wiped snow from her hair, and he smiled in relief.

  “I saw you leave that morning. Most of your tracks got wiped away by the storm, but my sister didn’t teach me how to hunt tracks for nothing.”

  “Where’s Julian?” Summer’s voice grew anxious, and she tried to lift her head, but pain shot up her neck and made her speedily lay it back down.

  This time Michael was not smiling. He shook his head slowly.

  “We couldn’t find him.” He revealed. “We searched for a little bit, but you were in such bad condition that we decided it would be best if we got you back to camp as soon as possible. It was really a miracle that we were able to find you.” />
  Summer bit her lip and nodded.

  “It’s my fault. I made him go with me.”

  “Maybe he’ll find his own way back down to us. We’ll have to stay here for at least another couple of days until you’re recovered.”

  “Another?” Summer questioned. “How long has it been?”

  “You’ve been gone for three days,” Tania replied, coming to stand next to Michael. “Why did you leave the camp, anyway?”

  Summer fought to come up with an answer in her brain, but luckily she was saved from having to actually find it.

  “It doesn’t matter why she left,” Bridger said from across the fire. He was stirring a pot of soup, and he held out a bowl for Tania to come take. “It only matters that she’s back.”

  Tania took the bowl brimming with the hot liquid and kneeled down next to the sled holding out a spoon in front of Summer’s face.

  “Come on. You need to eat.”

  Summer opened her mouth, and Tania stuck the spoon inside, pouring the soup into her mouth. Summer moved her eyes to look at Bridger. He paused his stirring to stare back at her, though no one else seemed to notice. His returning look told her what she had suspected to be true. He knew why she had left.

  Chapter 22

  “They ran away.” The younger Mary whispered, breaking off a piece of meat from her plate to give to Summer.

  Summer took the piece and stared at Mary to encourage her confiding about the two older women. Since being in the camp, Summer had noticed she hadn’t seen Stephanie or the older Mary once and that was when she decided to ask Mary about it a few moments ago. Summer was still bundled up in the sled with the deerskin blanket wrapped around her sleeping bag. It had been two days of rest, and she was happy to find that her strength was returning. Her muscles still felt fatigued, and she had slept through most of the time in the camp, but she no longer struggled with delirium episodes and she could feel her feet and her cheek again.