The Long Way Back

Chapter 21.

I woke with the dawn nestled in Colby's arms, my mind swarmed with feelings both freer than they were the day before and tormented with last night's revelations.

A protective instinct I didn't know I held washed over me and I tightened my arms around Colby protectively. No chance in hell was I gonna allow him and Theo to return to that house of horrors he called a home.

They could both live with us at the very least. He had become my home in the past few days and there was no way I wouldn't let him into mine.

I knew without a shadow of a doubt that both mum and dad would be welcoming if they knew the circumstances. Especially to Theo; no young child deserved to grow up in a house like that.

Looking around us the trees danced in the wind waving to us as if saying good morning.

Frankly, I had discovered this to be the best possible way to wake up - free, looking out upon nature, waking along with the sun.

Despite our circumstances, dire as they may be, nature was and would always be a reprieve for me. We could simply wash our troubles away with the wind.

I vowed to live in a place as open and magical as this in the future. It was perfect. Here felt like home, be that because of the location or simply the person beside me I wasn't sure yet.

Today absolutely had to be the day we made some form of progress. Today would make or break us, it was the end of our food supply and I doubted whether physically or mentally we would make it much longer when it eventually ran out.

Today we had to get back. We would get back. Even if we accidentally took the Long Way Back.

I turned to Col and kissed his forehead gently. "Wake up." I whispered gently trying to ease him awake, unlike his harsh methods involving a certain ice-cold lake.

He didn't move, remaining as still as the dead. I peppered kisses over the entirety of his face, laughing at his adorable sleepy expression. Still no movement.

I started to move lower laying kisses down his jawline and neck. Nothing. Exploring with kisses I eventually found a spot that made his breathing turn laboured.

Bingo.

I sucked harshly on his sweet spot until low and behold he let out a deep growling moan making shivers run down my spine.

I looked up to his eyes and found him wide awake smirking down at me. "I was quite enjoying that wake up call Daisy." He said in his gorgeously accented morning voice. I blushed furiously, turning red in an instant.

Colby burst out laughing as I hid in his chest. "Aw, Where did all that confidence from a few seconds ago go, huh daisy?" He teased.

"My little Daisy's gone as red as a little rose." He cooed.

"Urgh." "I hate you." I grumbled and Col only laughed harder.

"We have to find camp today." I mumbled against him, breaking us from our reverie. "Otherwise we're really screwed."

"Yeah..." he answered halfheartedly. "We really do."

After sitting cuddling as we watched the sun climb higher and higher over the water we eventually stood hand in hand and headed off, no closer to knowing what the correct direction was.

********************************

"Col, over there!" I shouted, pointing in the direction of a small wooden hut not even a hundred yards ahead of us. A smile adorned my face instantly. We had hope.

"Careful!" Colby shouted frantically from behind me as I barrelled towards the hut clueless to what he said.

Step after step I ran closer and closer till suddenly my foot slipped into a burrow in the ground, hidden from sight. I heard a deafening crack in the ground followed by a piercing scream I recognised as my own before I hit the ground.