~
“Out catting around again?” Phil’s sarcastic voice rang out from his regular spot on the couch. “That professor was calling here all night. Your poor Aunt Angie barely got any sleep!”
She ignored him, hurrying up the stairs for her things. She reached under her pillow, taking her pink keychain and thrusting it into her pocket with a smile. She groped under the air mattress for her knife and sheath, strapping it firmly onto her calf. Most of her clothes were already stashed in the old duffle bag, so she cast about for a pen and paper and sat down on the floor cross-legged, contemplating what her last words to her aunt should be.
The squeal of brakes startled her, and she looked out the window to see a van had pulled up in the street directly in front of the complex. Three big men dressed all in black with mirrored sunglasses rushed out, purposefully coming straight towards her aunt’s unit. There was a pounding on the door, and she crept out into the hall to peek down the stairs.
Phil opened the door, “That was fast–Hey!”
The men brushed past him. “Where is she?”
“Where’s my money?” Phil asked belligerently. “You better tell him I was the one who called you!”
Two of them started up the stairs, ablaze with color and radiating a purposeful eagerness that she knew all too well. It was the same kind of excitement that Caledonia felt when she was closing in on her prey: the acid yellow anticipation of hunters. She doubted her ability to combat three grown men with such strong emotions working in concert.
Caledonia backed up, realizing she was trapped. She darted into the bathroom, locking the door and pulling open the vanity drawers as a barricade. She had just started the water running when the sound of a fist banging on the door made her jump.
“I’m busy,” she called, “I’ll be out in a minute.”
The banging on the door grew more insistent, so she went to the small window above the shower, sliding it open and popping the screen out. With considerable effort, she climbed up, contorting her body to get through the tiny opening. Once she was out, she reached up for the rain gutter, hauling herself onto the tiled roof, panting with exertion.
Within moments she heard the shattering sounds of wood splintering, and she realized that they were actually breaking down the door. Now she was really scared. They were too big to follow her out the window but she knew they could climb up from the outside, and she looked for a way down, trapped again.
When the door gave way she could hear the men cursing, and she paced on the roof, with no time to think. The identical buildings in the complex were at least ten feet apart, but there was no other way. She took a deep breath, visualizing how she used to jump over spring-swollen streams. She backed up as far as she could, and with a running start, took a great leap across the two-story chasm between the roofs, landing with a thud and three feet to spare.
Emboldened, she leapt from that roof to the next one, and the next, until she came to the end of the development. She swung down onto a second story balcony, surprising a woman with a towel wrapped around her head. Without stopping to explain, she climbed down from the balcony, dangling with her feet groping for the fence below. A small dog on the patio started in with a frenzied barking.
“Shhh … Calm down,” she whispered. She sent a cloud of tranquility to engulf the hysterical creature, but it was too late; there were footsteps on the gravel heading straight towards her. She reached into her pocket, pulling out her keychain and flinging it into a hedge of shrubbery around the corner, holding her breath to listen.
The footsteps sped up, crunching away in the direction of the noise.
Caledonia tumbled to the ground, scraping both her elbows with a rough landing. She sprang up to bolt from the spot, leaping over a retaining wall behind the complex and sliding down a steep cement bank. She landed with a splash in a shallow muddy drainage ditch, and scrambled into a bank of shrubs on the opposite side of the waterway. Moving carefully, she worked her way deep into the underbrush, where she sat as still as possible, scared, bleeding and bruised, but free.
If she needed any more evidence that Professor Reed was up to no good, this was it. He obviously knew that she was different, and he wanted to collect her because of it. The violent way in which the men had been sent to take her stood as a testament to his ruthlessness. No wonder her parents had feared him so much.
She heard voices as the men searched all around the complex, and saw them looking over the fence through a veil of leaves. It seemed like they were there forever, and just when she was about to break cover they were back, looking again. It occurred to her that if she was caught, she might never see Calvin again. She touched her knife for reassurance, and settled in to wait them out.
Hours passed, and she finally stirred from her spot, brushing the leaves and cobwebs out of her hair. She dared not take the road back to Calvin’s, so she headed south, walking along the drainage ditch, picking her way through broken glass and discarded tires. She passed a row of bushes loaded with Juneberries, and stopped to eat her fill, gathering some extra in the pouch in front of her sweatshirt.
When she reckoned she was near enough to Calvin’s house she climbed up the embankment and through a stranger’s backyard, peeking around to the street to find she had come up within a couple of houses of her target. Staying well back from the road, she stalked across the landscaping, finally bursting through a hedge to find Calvin and Jarod standing out front by their bikes. Both of them looked up with surprise.
“See? Told ya she’d be back,” Jarod said, turning to head back into the house.
Calvin rushed over to take her by the arms and look her up and down in a panic. “What the hell happened to you? Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you!” He crushed her in a tight relieved embrace, and she tried to push him back to no avail.
“It’s okay! I’m fine!” she gasped, finally pulling away and looking down. A large red stain appeared, spreading across the front of her sweatshirt.
His heart nearly stopped. “Oh my God! Are you hurt?”
She looked down and started laughing, overcome with relief that she had made it back to him. “I’m fine … It’s just berry juice … I picked some berries back in the creek over there … I wanted to make you guys a pie.”
He looked at her like she was crazy, making her laugh even harder.
“What were you thinking?” he said in horror. “There’s bums living back in there!”
“I was hiding,” she explained, trying to catch her breath. “Some men came to my aunt’s house to take me … to take me to him.”
They both knew who she meant, and the look on his face made her stop laughing.
“What happened?”
“There were three of them–Phil called them right after I got there. I had to climb out the window onto the roof to get away. I’m sorry I took so long, but they looked for a long time. They were really very persistent.”
“How did you get down?” he asked.
“I jumped to the side over by the creek and climbed down from there,” she explained.
“You jumped between the buildings?” Calvin asked, aghast.
She cocked her head at him. “I didn’t really have any choice, did I?”
He embraced her again, heedless of the smashed berries between them. “I was so worried. I went over there and that jerk told me that you ran away. I was afraid. I–I thought–”
He took her face in his hands and crushed his mouth to hers, needing to convince himself that she was really there. She kissed him back, as much in need of reassurance as he was.
When their lips parted she looked down at her muddy, berry-stained clothes. “Is it all right with you if I take a shower?”
He smiled, awash with relief. “Of course.”
“I didn’t get my books … or my clothes,” she complained.
“We’ll get you some new ones. And a phone.”
She panicked, reaching into her pocket and sighing with r
elief to find the key was still there. Then she looked so sad and dejected that he held his breath. “What?”
“I lost my keychain,” she said with a pout.
Now it was his turn to laugh out his relief. “I’ll get you all the keychains you want.” He slipped his arm around her waist and walked her to the front door.
She paused in the threshold, anxious. “Do you have lots of hot water? Phil says I use too much.”
“Use all you want. I want you to feel at home.” He kissed her again, opening the door for her and standing back.
She had the power to take him from fear and despair to joyful bliss in an instant, and he realized that she held his heart in the palm of her hand. It was a fearsome and awesome thing, and he watched her go inside, surprised at how fast his whole world had changed.
He had the overwhelming feeling that something big was about to happen, but he wasn’t sure if it was something wonderful or terrible. All he could do was follow her inside, and take his chances on love.
~
Chapter Eighteen
HUNTED