The Skeleton In Me

Chapter Eighteen

It's short but so am i 

en j oy

Chapter Eighteen

We landed in the middle of an empty field. The dirt was freshly plowed, which meant it was loose and covered my clothes like fine dust.   

Cousin was beside me, also filthy from the dirt, but other than that, he looked unhurt. "Are you okay?" I asked him, as I scanned his body up and down to be extra sure.

He nodded once, as we both stood up. I began to obsessively wipe the dirt from my clothes, but it really was useless. I should be relieved, as neither of us seemed to be hurt. Instead I began to get more nervous that I now had to make the decision on which way we should go.

Once we find a town, or any civilization for that matter, I'd figure out where the hell we were, or even what state we were in. I think we were somewhere in Nebraska, but we also could be somewhere in South Dakota and in that case I had no clue which direction was home.

Despite my doubt, I stood tall, and took on the façade of confidence and leadership. Maybe if I keep pretending to be sure of what I was doing, I'd begin to believe it myself.

"Let's start walking this way." I point left, the opposite direction the train was going, and beckon Cousin to follow me.

We walk for not even two minutes when Cousin stops, and I turn to look at him, "What's wrong?" I ask him, concerned he was hurt after all.

His face, covered in the bruises of Mr. Father, was lit under the moonlight, as his coal-black eyes stared up at me.

He said nothing, so I continued, "Are you hurt?"

He blinked.

I waited for a long moment, when it became apparent that he wasn't going to say anything, I walked over and gently grabbed his hand. He flinched and took a small step away from me, though he didn't pull his hand away.

"Come on." I slowly pull him to walk with me, "We need to reach a town before they find out we are missing."

And so, we walked for nearly half an hour before Cousin stopped again, this time he forcefully pulled his hand from mine.

I huffed, "Cousin," I tried to not show the impatience in my tone, "What's wrong?" I asked again, "Please tell me."

Then I noticed him swaying.

We barely made any progress out of the fields and yet, I watched Cousin drop to the grown like he was unable to go any further.

I quickly got onto my knees beside him, terrified that he was hurt and wasn't telling me.

I searched his body twice, three times, and then once more just to be sure, but I didn't see anything wrong at all. And then it hit me, he has been confined in chains nearly his entire life. Sitting caged up was his reality, of course he couldn't walk or even stand very long without getting exhausted.

He had no stamina at all.

I hated myself for not thinking about that. I was so concerned on getting his strength up through food, I didn't think about how little he could barely carry himself.

I frantically looked around, we were in the middle of an empty field, the train tracks were quite a few feet away, but they were still visible. I noticed a few trees about a mile from us, and I knew that was where we had to go if we were going to stop for the night.

Even if it felt as though the night just began, and really, it did.

We were going to have to take this a lot slower than I had initially planned, which wasn't fast to begin with.