Page 26 of Fallen to Thievery
Gods, no! I couldn’t survive this. I couldn’t live with this. I prayed, begged, any of the gods who would listen to take me away from this. To take me home. Or even back to the cabin. Anything was better than what was about to happen to me.
Suddenly, the weight that pressed me into the ground was gone. I rolled over in time to see Digger falling backwards, his eyes wide with surprise. Grayson was standing above me; his face contorted between fury and disgust.
He pulled me off the ground, looking me over. I adjusted my clothes under his stare, crying. He turned slowly towards Digger, who was scampering on the ground, trying to get to his gun. When he saw Grayson glaring at him, he got to his knees and held his hands up.
“Now, hold on. We can sha—” Grayson’s boot connected with his jaw before he could finish his word. It knocked Digger to the ground. Before he could push off the ground again, Grayson was already on top of him. He held Digger in place by his collar while punching him in the face. I watched in utter shock how Grayson delivered blow after blow; each strike just as powerful as the last. Digger had tried to fight back, but his flailing arms had gone limp. Grayson was killing him.
“Stop!” I screamed.
Grayson didn’t listen. I ran to them and tried to push him off Digger. “You’re killing him!” I screamed again, and this time he listened. He stood up and took a step back. His chest was heaving, his hands balled into bloody fists at his sides as he looked down at Digger. The look on his face sent a chill down my spine. I had never seen him like that. No matter what I did, he had always been eerily calm, I realised. What I had thought was anger, was mere annoyance, compared tothis.
Digger’s face was a bloody mess. He was still breathing, but unconscious. I was frozen in place. Grayson shifted his gaze to me, murder in his eyes. The predatory movement snapped something in me, and I ran. Never had he been so enraged before and it scared the shit out of me.
Grayson had me before I could reach the first trees. He spun me around and I instinctively tried to cover my face, expecting a fist. He grabbed hold of my shoulders and shook me.
“Look at me!” he yelled. I could feel the rage rolling off him in palpable waves. The heaviness of it, slithered into my skin, settling in the pit of my stomach.
I obeyed, trying to control the violent sobs that left my body.
“Are you staying with that piece of shit,” he spat, “or are you coming home with me?”
I couldn’t answer, even if I wanted to.
There was no way I was sticking around for Digger to regain consciousness. I also had no idea how to get to his truck. But going with Grayson? No way. Not when he was like this.
Grayson walked over to my hiking bag and picked it up. He threw the bag at me with enough force to make me stagger back a few steps. “Make your decision.” He turned around and stomped towards the trees, clenching and unclenching his fists. He picked up a backpack I haven’t noticed before and walked on.
“Wait!” I called, but he just kept walking. I threw the bag over my shoulder, strapped it on and followed after him.
WhatthehellwasI doing?
Walking right back into captivity, that’s what. I followed behind it, like my life depended on it.
My foot started to ache more and more as the adrenaline wore off. Within a few minutes I could hardly place any weight on it, and Grayson was getting further and further ahead. When had I hurt it? Another minute on a steep slope and the pain was unbearable. I sagged to the ground, giving up. The gods should just take me already, to spare me the agony of living. I pulled away the sock from my ankle to see it swollen almost twice the size as normal.
I was about to scream at the heavens to put me out of my misery when I saw Grayson watching me. He was a few metres ahead, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest. He still looked furious. I didn’t think he’d notice that I wasn’t following him anymore, he’d been too far ahead. Neither had I expected that he would care enough to stop.
Whatever. It didn’t matter.
I brought my knees up and pressed my head to them. Why was I in this hell? I just wanted to go home. Digger’s slimy hands still pushed and pulledat me; his body was still a suffocating weight on my back. How did I still have tears left after all the crying I had done lately?
The heavens must have seen my brokenness and wailed with me, because the rain started pouring down on me. Or it just wanted to add insult to injury. I was already so cold.
“Get up.”
Grayson stood in front of me. I hadn’t noticed his approach.
“Get up,” he repeated.
This time, I obeyed immediately, my body reacting to his dominating tone, which would usually have my teeth grinding together. It was a struggle to stand with the heavy bag on my back and my hurt foot, but I managed. Grayson took the bag off me as well as the backpack he had on. He tied the backpack to the hiking bag and pulled the hiking bag onto his shoulders. He stepped closer to me, and I was tempted to run again—or at leastwishedI could. He grabbed hold of my waist with one hand and placed his other arm at the back of my legs and lifted me off my feet.
My heart was pounding as he walked with me in his arms. I didn’t dare look at him.
If Grayson was bothered by the weight of the hiking bag and me, he didn’t let on. He kept a steady, fast pace. His breathing was even and rhythmic. Unlike mine.
After another agonising half hour, it was completely dark. The cold raindrops stung my skin as they fell on me, but that wasn’t what bothered me. The air changed, like static electricity slithering against my skin, making my hair stand up. I felt an overwhelming urge to hide.
Just when the worry that Grayson would attempt to walk through the night overwhelmed me, we came across a small clearing. He placed me down onto the stump of a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing. He dropped the hiking bag next to me and rolled his shoulders, moving his neck from side to side.
