Sweeter Than Heaven and Hotter Than Hell

Chapter 9 - Losing Grip

Reeve reminded Logan of a cat; slinking swiftly in between branches hanging from the trees, her footsteps hardly making any noise, and moving with delicate speed. She was muscular and tall, yet held a remarkable grace that she used with every movement. Logan, however, reminded himself of an ogre. His footsteps were loud, and tangled in every root he came across. His breathing was labored from the exertion and his brow was beginning to sweat. Reeve was just as big as he was, but she obviously had more experience in the woods than he did. Come to think of it, Logan wondered if he had ever stepped foot into the woods before now. Hell isn't really somewhere you go camping often.

Though she didn't say anything, Reeve was definitely annoid at the slow pace she had to adopt for Logan to keep up. Of course, he didn't think of it as slow. She knew this was all knew to him, and he was unfamiliar with the forest, so she relaxed and tried to have patience with him. It felt like leading a child through the mall to her; always having to look back and be sure he's there, checking to see if he was hurt or needed help, telling him 'no, you have to go this way' so he wouldn't get lost. It was tiresome, and she could see them stopping very shortly, or she would lose all patience and just leave him there. Which, she reminded herself for the hundredth time, would be a bad thing. She needed him, just in case.

Once again she looked over her shoulder at the young boy following her, and once again she sighed under her breath and stopped. He was untangling a vine, wrapped around his ankle.

"Sorry, sorry..." he muttered as he hurriedly tried to remove the vine.

Reeve's blood began to flow faster and faster through her viens, causing her face and ears to flush in anger. Breathe, she reminded herself, just breathe. It took him several minutes to untangle the vines and before they could continue. Once he finally took another step, he tripped over a root.

She looked down at his coughing body, lying on the forest floor. "Why don't we stop for a rest," she suggested blankly, collapsing to the ground. Logan sat up and scquirmed away from the root while Reeve simply leaned against a tree, unloading the bottle of water and last scraps of meat. She offered some to Logan before lying back and closing her eyes, trying to find a happy place in her mind. She found none. All she found were old memories that seemed more like nightmares - none of which she wanted to relive.

Logan sighed after putting down the water bottle and looked to her. "Do you ever sleep, or do we keep moving?" he asked, the desperate tone evident in his voice.

"Do you want to sleep?" she opened one eye to look at him.

"Not here, no..." he murmured.

"Well, you have no choice. It's either don't sleep at all, or rest while I watch."

"I can watch first if you like," he offered, eager to show some sort of sign that he could help, that he was important to her, and that she can't just let him die. He wanted to be of some use to her.

"No, I'll be fine. I don't sleep much anyway. Go to sleep, I'll wake you when we need to keep moving."

Logan nodded and laid down, trying to find some sort of position where he could be comfortable enough to fall into a restless sleep. It took a lot of wiggling and tossing, which grated Reeve's teeth, but eventually he found a spot where there wasn't a big root in his back, or a rock digging into his leg. Before long, all the running and hiking had gotten a hold of him and carried him to sleep. Reeve looked over his face as he slept. For the first time he looked peaceful, and not frightened or uncomfortable. His use to her suddenly felt wrong. She didn't understand; she had never felt something wrong in her life...or afterlife. She looked away, unable to keep watching him sleep, and tried to keep her train of thought on something simple, and not involved in her past, present, or future.