Rags and Riches

Ch. 11: Ablaze - Courtney

The slightly panicked look on Shayne's face and the way his voice wavered when he told me to speed up got me worried. What made Shayne afraid? He surely wasn't scared of the tunnel, which we were almost at the end at, so it couldn't possibly be that. He made it clear that he didn't believe in ghosts or aliens like I did (sucks for him when they descend upon us all one day), so what was it?

These thoughts distracted me from the fact that we finally made back into the glorious sunshine. I almost forgot until I felt the rays of sun hit my eyes again. "Argh!" I spazzed a bit as I slapped my hand over my eyes. Shayne laughed. I removed my hand from my face just to hit him, eyes still tightly shut. "Don't laugh at me, you jerk."

I felt Shayne shrug, which only made me hit him again.

As we walked, my eyes slowly adjusted back into the light again. What I saw was trees. Again. No surprise. But as I looked further, beyond the shrubbery, the top of what looked like vending booths came into view. "Oh my god, Shayne, you were right! I remember this place..."

When I turned to look at him to express my happiness (he was right! It was a shortcut!), I was surprised to see how close his face was. I never looked at Shayne this closely before; how he had a sort of line on top of his cheekbones, how his bangs were quite long and slightly obscured his left eye... How oddly charming...

...It was at this point I realized I was still gripping onto his arm. "Oh, sorry!" I jumped, yanking my hands away, face red, making some considerable distance between the two of us. Shayne stared at me a good couple of seconds, as if trying to figure out what was wrong with me, while I tried to regain my composure. Soon after, he merely shrugged it off as he closed the distance again.

I noticed he had put on the forced smile he had back in the cave again, and tugged on my arm before leading me down to the marketplace. It was as if he suddenly remembered something again. "Come on, Courtney! Let's go down to the marketplace." He tried to say it nonchalantly, but I could tell that something was off. "Let's go...!" He chided before I yanked my arm away and walked back. "No! You've been acting really weird these past couple minutes, and we're not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong." I crossed my arms as if to solidify my stance.

"Aw, come on - uh - Court! We gotta get a move on." He tossed his arms up in the air, as if he acted like this all the time. "We're not going anywhere until I know that you're okay. Are you alright, Shayne? I-" I paused. "...I'm here to listen if you need to talk about it." Now it was his turn to pause. It was like he was snapped out of his stupor, giving me a sort of surprised look. But he shook it off once again as he resumed his act. "I'm fine, don't worry. It's totally cool. We should really get going, though." He closed the space once again and looped his arm around my shoulder before getting in close to my cheek, as if he was giving me a peck. Shivers went down my spine before I heard him whisper lowly in my ear instead, "Seriously. It's not safe here. We have to get to the marketplace so I can tell you."

Oh.

I'm pretty freaked out right now by his ominous message, but if he could stay calm during this potentially extremely dangerous moment, then I can too. "Okay, fine. I'll follow you." I pretended to be exasperated by Shayne's constant nagging as I let myself be pushed along by his arm.

Minutes passed as we walked down the path towards the marketplace. The whole time I felt Shayne's warm arm around my shoulders and cold fear within my heart. Why couldn't he say it there? Were we being followed? Is Shayne being held against his will by somebody?

When we finally reached the marketplace, I had managed to successfully scare myself even more. "Let's check out those fresh fruits over there, hm?" Shayne suggested. The fresh fruit booth was in the busiest parts of the market, but I didn't question it as I let myself get dragged once again. My legs felt like robotic ice as I moved them along. I noticed that the whole while, Shayne's eyes kept darting around, observing the area, which only made me even more paranoid.