Rise of a Queen

Chapter 12

Sleep did not come easy that night whether it be due to the hard ground or the growing caution of what tomorrow would bring. My mind was a whirlwind that buzzed with unease as restless thoughts tumbled throughout my headed, each one bombarding me with enough anxiety to keep me awake despite how my eyes drooped and begged for rest.

Across from me on the other side of the fire, Brandon dodged sleep as well. He sat up, leaning back on his hands, staring at the sky above. Beside us, Lumiere lay on his back, arms tucked under his head, eye also wide open and in full examination of the stars. Corinth had her back towards the fire but in her hands was a cheap burner phone from a stash kept at the compound for members who need to contact acquaintances without being traced.

Corinth has been texting Eli since we set up for the night, but he has yet to reply.

Both Lumiere and Brandon have assured her that Eli's lack of response is due to the time difference and how busy he must be with Tribe affairs. But even I knew something wasn't right because no matter how busy Eli is, he would never blatantly ignore Corinth.

Never. Corinth knew that, and her concern kept her conscious.

I also tried texting Toby again, considering this might be my last night to do so, but he too has not replied. It has been two days since I called him at the motel, even if he was busy he would make time to reply. I wanted to be more concerned but my emotions were already spent on our current issues. Once Dustin is safe, contacting Toby will be my next priority on a long, ever growing list.

In the end, stopping here was pointless. No one is sleeping, each for our own reasons, but beneath those reasons was the same, constant overwhelming fear of tomorrow.

So there we lay, all of us awake, burdened by our thoughts and lassoed in heavy chains of doubt.

Eventually Brandon realized this as well and called for our departure. If we weren't going to sleep we might as well use this time to travel. So we loaded our belongings, put out the fire, and took to the road to begin the last of our trip.

How odd it is to feel so drained for an occasion we should be brimming with anticipation about. Instead we are barely holding ourselves together, let alone our ties as a team. We started this trip in hopes of finding Dustin but so much more has been unveiled, so much grief and past feuds leaking into the present, and that purification was driving barriers between us. No matter how this mission ends, none of us can go back to who we were before Brandon led us out of those compound gates.

By darkness we drove, following the tail of our moon for as long as she held vigil, and with the arrival of dawn came our final arrival to the city.

The farthest reaches of New York began as suburbs under different names, each one more pristine than the last; Scarsdale, Larchmont, Woodcliff. Large subdivisions with larger houses that spanned for miles with rolling hills and bright green lawns bordered by white picket fences and shiny new minivans. Children rode bikes down the street, the elderly tended to their bright flowers, and men in robes strolled to the end of the driveway to collect the morning paper.

They all stared at us as we rode past, irrefutably wondering what a caravan of dusty strangers on beaten motorcycles were doing dirtying their streets.

Everything here was so normal, so mundane, like pictures from a magazine or scenes from a movie. Perfect upon inspection, despite how it might be in actuality. This was a single morning in the lives of people not scrounging for food or taping up bloody injuries or fighting to protect those around them. I knew nothing of this life, they have their own hardships, but the idea of living in a place like this with neighbors like these where life was long and crime was low ... it sounded nice.