The important thing right now was to move fast and get to Cherry’s side as soon as we could.
Once I saw what we were dealing with, I had no doubt we’d do whatever it took to keep Cherry safe.
Chapter 2
BLADE
The clouds floating outside the window reminded me of why I didn’t like flying. I’d always preferred the feeling of two feet on the ground — or two wheels would do, just as well. As long as I had the solid ground under my feet, I felt safe enough.
Up here, way up in the sky, anything could happen. And I would have absolutely no control about the situation if something went wrong. I suppose that fact made me the most uncomfortable of all.
Being in control was a necessity that I needed just as much as food, water or air to survive. That’s what I liked the most about this amazing organization I was now a part of — not only was it actually called Solid Ground, but it gave me the stability I needed to get through the days, it gave me a sense of being in control of my own days, in addition to a sense of knowing exactly where I was needed and how I could best put my skills to use to help others.
I never expected going back to Savannah would be a helpful thing, though. Ignoring the sick feeling quickly growing in my gut, I started scrolling through my phone to avoid looking at the clouds free-floating along in the air next to this time bomb of a metal tube I was stuck inside of for another hour, or until it crashed — whichever came first.
Of course, by ‘scrolling through my phone’ I mean strolling down memory lane and looking through the pictures I’d saved on my phone from days gone by.
I mean, I knew where I was headed with that scroll, of course. To the old familiar photo that would have been in really bad shape if it had been an actual picture made from paper, but the digital age had preserved this photo like it was taken yesterday.
But yesterday was a very long time ago.
Much longer than I cared to admit. I pushed away the guilt, continued to ignore my sour gut, and just stared into the face of the past, getting lost in the memories.
I never meant to stay away this long.
But one year turned to two and then three and then it just seemed like time began moving exponentially, leaving the past in the dust like an after-thought. After a while, I didn’t see the point in going back at all. There was nothing left for me there, no matter how sentimental I felt about the place, or rather a few of the people that lived there, sometimes.
I stared into Rose’s eyes for the millionth time, memories flooding my brain like they did every time I looked into those grass green eyes. We’d meant so much to each other at one point. But everything changes, and that did too.
I’d taken the photo on my brand new camera, seconds after I kissed her the first time. We’d kissed under a huge magnolia tree under a full moon, with the silvery curtain of Spanish moss waving around us. A shadow fell on the side of her face, just as I snapped the photo, concealing a corner of her smile, so it looks like she’s smirking. I’ve relived that moment a million times throughout my life, the picture bringing it back like it happened yesterday, each time I look at it.
Going back to Savannah was taking a huge risk. I’d left without looking back and purposefully avoided as much news as possible of the going-ons of that insane town.
On the outside, Savannah is all proper Southern politeness, but once the sun sets over those tall live oaks, the darkness descends, bringing out an entirely different culture. Those that ran the town could pretend to be all prim and proper in the light of day, but once you lived there long enough, you learned to see right through that act.
I didn’t have to wonder if Rose was still there. Girls like that, members of the kind of family she belonged to — they didn’t leave.
No, it was men like me who were told to leave, if they knew what was best for them. I may not have known it at the time, but packing my shit and heading out in a rage of fury was the best thing I’d ever done, even if I thought it would be the end of me back then.
I let Rose’s eyes haunt me the rest of the flight, and when the wheels of the plane screeched and bounced against the hot asphalt of the runway, I said a prayer to a God I’ve never really believed in that I made it out of Savannah alive.
Chapter 3
CHERRY
The darkness was thick, like walking through dense mud, pulling my feet down, sucking the life out of every step. I scanned the shadows, searching for a spark of light, a breath of life, the will to keep going.
No destination, no plan, I was simply existing in nothingness, seeking something I couldn’t name — a way out, a prayer, a spell that would magically lift me up and away into a different time, a different day, a different world.
Anywhere else but the incessant darkness that engulfed my every thought.
In the distance, the air swirled, disturbed by another presence, something that wasn’t me, alone in nothing with me.
I tried
