ODE TO THE END: A BALLAD OF BROTHERS

CHAPTER 32

NAOMI

Achim was close by. Naomi could tell. There was no evidence or any real explanation. It was one of those things that simply was, and the sun-kissed girl trusted her instincts. She laid against the couch, trapped in the homeliest room in the Caitlyn Castle, and contemplated her escape. She had to see him and not just because her heart demanded it.

There were things that needed to be addressed. Questions that needed asking, and explanations she knew she deserved. How could this have not been the case when her last image of him was one bathed in bloody murder?

Her thoughts flipped and churned. It was not just Achim that haunted her, but the gore in which he so casually showered. There was a smell that existed only in human innards. An indescribable odor so rank that mere memory of it caused her throat to flood with the grossest contents of her stomach. Naomi managed to swallow the vomit just before it was spat, yet still she sat confused.

How could he wallow in fluids so repulsive? How many times had he done so to do it without a flicker of disgust? Had the boy she had known, the friend she had made, not been who she believed him to be?

Of course not. That was obvious to her now. Naomi had not been deceived. Achim voiced his warnings about the world he walked. She was the fool. Naomi knew that, and yet her judgment could not be shaken. Was she wrong for that? Naomi would only be able to tell after she had spoken with him. The sun-kissed girl already decided to leave. The only obstacle now was the act itself.

No amount of pain would pin Naomi down. Not when her mind had already been made up. She made another effort to rise from her bedding and bit her tongue in order to keep herself silent during the rigorous ordeal. She did not know how far Mr. Damien wandered, but a healthy precaution led her to take a covert approach. The Caitlyn princess had already begun to sweat by the time she forced herself upright, but this was only the beginning of a long, torturous trek. It did not matter to her though. She would command her body to do the impossible. No exceptions. No excuses.

Her legs screamed as she stiffened them, but the wobbling things managed to hold her weight. Another order demanded that they move, and so Naomi walked with tears edging her eyes and blood bleeding from the lip she bit down on. Never had she questioned the breath of the Caitlyn Castle until today. Every room, from back to end, may have been a few steps worth of decorated sights on the average day, but today they were the high hurdles in a ceaseless gauntlet.

Naomi stumbled a number of times during the long walk and the result of those untimely tumbles were cries far louder than she realized. Luckily for her, when the colonel was finally found, he seemed none the wiser. Talking loud on his mobile while sequestered in the most isolated corner of the kitchen, Naomi thanked God for such blessed timing. She would not go through the front door even if the threshold stood a few feet away. That was too easy and way too noticeable from where the man stood. Escape would have been quick but only at the high cost of capture. No. Naomi would take the hard way, up the stairs and through the window closets to the dark woods. She would figure the rest out from there.

The climb proved more grueling than the first half of the gauntlet, but Naomi struggled on with determination that rendered her freckled face red. She collapsed from that torturous climb the instant she hit the midpoint. For a time, she lay in the middle of the stairwell, crying from the pain while she caught her breath. Once done, Naomi steeled her composure and pulled herself the rest of the way. After her herculean journey, Naomi saw the shining window.

The sun-kissed girl trudged toward the threshold and flung the window open so hard that the frame cracked. She was too tired to consider discretion now that she was so close. Naomi then hopped up, set her bottom on the roof, and dragged her limp legs through the narrow escape. When she found herself fully bathed in sunlight, Naomi took a well-earned moment and exhaled. The breeze soon arrived to greet her and, as if a divine reward, the cool air eased her burning body. Naomi smiled.