MADE

Her Eyes

It was the same meadow, but this time the ground was damp, and the leaves were just beginning to bud on the trees. It was springtime I guessed, with the leaves and the smell of fresh new growth all around. Clean and crisp.

The sun was just rising, setting the dewy ground alight with crystal reflections. Even the trees seemed to shimmer in the bright light.

A breeze pricked my bare flesh, naked all except for the now crawling navy fabric beginning to move its way up my legs and over my skin. It created a dark contrast compared to the clearing alight with greens and golds. I smiled, the sight pricking a memory and setting it in motion.

I felt him before I saw him. The wind whistled around him, hitting my skin at different angles than before. And then I felt the other at my back, strong and sending the wind in new directions. Alaric's eyes were dark when I met his gaze, dark like the black of gunmetal compared to the silver norm.

Elijah was just as shadowed, green eyes the only thing cast in the morning light.

A figure appeared before us, atop a hill in the distance, unmoving but familiar. Sebastian.

And then a bang erupted, shaking the trees and dropping them men at my back to the ground like rocks in a river.

This day has been the longest day in existence.

Elijah woke me up at two in the morning, and we drove for hours to the nearest airport, where we then waited for another three hours to get on the flight because some jackass decided it was a good idea to pack his machete in his suitcase. Let's just say he didn't join us on our trip.

The plane was boring and awkward, mostly because it was massive and I was sitting between two men that somehow managed to make the aircraft look small. And while Alaric drank whiskey graciously given from whatever flight attendant caught his eye, and Elijah drank the tiny bottles Alaric didn't want, I struggled and prayed to whatever god or goddess would listen for a decent hour of fucking sleep.

Four hours later we landed in Houston, Texas where I learned we would be boarding yet another flight in five hours.

I wandered through the airport and got lost, nearly missing the boarding call for our flight. Unfortunately, an angry Alaric found me and directed me to the correct terminal.

Another couple of hours on a plane was enough to make me want to rip my hair out. We finally landed in Costa Rica on a plane that I wasn't sure would even be able to land, where we then drove well into the night with a creepy man in an old rusted van that smelt like cat piss.

I stopped asking questions hours ago about where our next stop was. I just floated behind them both like a cranky little shadow.

Eventually, we reached the edge of something, to meet another creepy old man. But this one didn't have a cat piss van; he had two very lovely and very clean speedboats. The cat piss man chucked our bags into one while we clamored into behind them.

We took off over the water, and in moments I was asleep. Finally, asleep with the rocking of the water and the smell of the ocean.

I boot nudged my ribs sometime later when the sun was beginning to rise. Alaric stared down at me, face an unreadable mask.

"Do you see it?" Elijah called over the engine from his place at the bow. I rolled and stood to look over the edge of the boat.

There, just beginning to appear on the horizon was a grey shadow.