Ravenous (The Ravening 1)
Page 50“I know we do,” I muttered.
“It’s getting dark now, we should be going soon.”
I couldn’t wait to get out of this apartment, and to put some space between Cade and Bret. But the thought of being outside again, of being completely exposed to those creatures once more, caused a cold chill to run down my spine.
CHAPTER 25
I turned the scuba tank over in my hands. I had no idea what we were going to do with these things. What were we thinking to even attempt this incredibly crazy idea, even if it had been my crazy idea? Drowning was not the way I intended to go out, but then again neither was getting my blood drained by some crazy freaking spider/tick/octopus/jellyfish-like monster.
Both options sucked, but I preferred to give my body over to nature than the aliens any day. “There might be some kind of manual or something around here,” Aiden muttered as he wandered behind the counter. “A video even.”
“A video?” I inquired dryly.
“DVD maybe.”
I rolled my eyes as I shook my head. Only Aiden would think that he could play a DVD and know what to do, or that there even was a DVD on the basics of scuba diving. But then again, for all I knew, there actually might be one. Abby was holding up a set of flippers, studying them carefully as she flapped them in the air. We had lived on Cape Cod our entire lives, but strangely enough my siblings and I had never donned a set of flippers before.
Aiden shrugged absently. “Would still like to learn as much as possible beforehand.”
I followed Aiden behind the counter and held a flashlight for him as he rummaged through the shelves. I didn’t think he had a snowballs chance in Hell of finding a video, but I didn’t say that to him. I figured he simply needed something to distract him from what we were going to do. “Here’s something.”
“What?” I asked in surprise.
He pulled out a stack of papers and fluttered them in the air. “It’s a manual.” Well that might be helpful, I thought. Though, I was pretty sure that reading about scuba diving wasn’t the best way to learn how to do it. It was better than nothing though, that was for sure. He sat back on his heels and flipped through the pages. “It will help.”
He put it on top of the counter as he stood up. Cade and Molly came around from where they had been exploring the back of the store. “There’s a room back there, but it has windows. We either leave tonight for the mainland, or we go back to the apartment,” Cade informed us briskly.
He’d been on edge since we’d left the apartment. The strange thing was that I didn’t think it had anything to do with what had happened with Bret, but something else entirely. He was pale again and his mouth was pinched once more. I wondered if perhaps he hadn’t slept like the rest of us. I worried that he was going to make himself sick with lack of sleep and nutrition.
“I would like to read this.” Aiden drew my attention back to him as he tapped his fingers on the pages before him. “Maybe we should go back to the apartment till tomorrow night then.”
“Are we taking all this stuff with us?” Jenna inquired. I'd noticed that she'd become a lot more agreeable since she’d seen Cade and I holding hands in front of Bret. “It’s pretty heavy.”
“There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to make it back here,” I interjected.
“Hmm, true,” Aiden muttered.
I sighed as I shook my head at him. I moved away from the counter and headed toward the window at the back of the store. Through the trees and homes, I could just make out the light of the moon sparkling across the gleaming surface of the ocean. It all looked so peaceful, so delightfully normal and safe. For one brief second I could almost believe that everything was as it should be.
I closed my eyes as I tried to bottle the rush of emotions that swelled up in me. For a minute I allowed myself to long for everything that we had lost, and everything that we would never have again. Then, I opened my eyes, and forced myself to accept the fact that this was our new reality. Running, hiding, being hungry, scared, dirty, and tired was all we would know for the rest of our lives. But at least we were alive, we still had loved ones, and we were still moving which was more than I could say for most people.
“Are you ok Bethy?”
I hadn’t heard Abby approach but she was suddenly at my side. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You seem so… ah… I don’t know, but you don’t seem like you lately.”
She was trying to discreetly ask about Cade, but I didn’t have any answers for her. I didn’t know what it all meant, how it would all turn out. All I knew was that everything was extremely complicated and I wasn’t ready to talk about it. “None of us are the same lately.”
“I don’t want to talk about it Abby.”
“He loves you Bethany. He’s our friend. What are you doing?” Unable to stand the pleading look in her eyes anymore I turned back to the window. I felt bad enough without her heaping more guilt onto me. “Cade is…”
I glanced pointedly at her. “Is what?”
She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “I don’t know; he’s always so distant and aloof, so cold and hard. He’s a stranger, Bethany…”
“I can’t explain it Abby, but Cade isn’t those things, not really.”
Abby's gaze drifted toward where Jenna stood with Molly. I knew she was thinking about when Cade had threatened to leave Jenna at the dump. “That is who he is Bethy. It’s the way he is toward all of us.” Her doe eyes flitted back to me, her mouth parted as she gazed at me with dawning understanding. “It’s just not who he is with you.”
I shifted slightly before turning my attention back to the window. She was right, Cade was detached, he was remorseless, and he was deadly. They were all traits that he had clearly exhibited over the past few days. He just wasn’t like that with me and he never would be. I knew that intrinsically. I didn’t know how to explain that to her though, and I wasn’t sure she would understand even if I could explain it to her. People had been wary of Cade for years; that wasn’t going to change simply because I wanted it to.