Аманда Хокинг - Flutter

“It’s just Jack,” I told him, holding the phone a little way from my mouth.

“Ezra’s there? Let me talk to him!” Jack demanded, and his voice had gone hard.

“You don’t need to talk to him,” I sighed.

“I take it he knows we’re in Finland then?” Ezra asked me, and I nodded sheepishly. “Oh well. He’d find out sooner or later.”

“Look, Jack, I should get some sleep anyway. I’ll call you soon and let you know how things are going,” I told him reluctantly. Ezra had started rolling down the teal bedspread, meaning he was getting ready for bed and I should probably do the same.

“Alice…” Jack was almost whining, and he realized it so he stopped. “Just call me soon, really soon.

And take care of yourself, okay?”

“I will,” I promised.

When I hung up the phone, I had to fight the overwhelming urge to sob. Somehow hearing his voice had only made things worse. My heart ached dully in my chest, and my body felt completely out of whack. It felt like there was something missing, and I hated it. I hated that I could barely even survive being away from.

Being that dependant on another person was unsettling.

“You didn’t have to get off the phone because of me, you know,” Ezra said.

He had gotten into bed, and I glanced back at him, careful not to let my gaze linger long enough for him to notice how distressed I really was. I swallowed back tears, staring down at my phone, and heard the rustle of blankets as he settled himself into bed. Even though I’d just gotten off the phone, I thought about calling Jack back. It wouldn’t do any good to make me feel better, so I decided against it.

“I know,” I admitted. Setting my phone on the nightstand, I crawled underneath the covers myself.

“Are you going to call Mae?”

“Not until I know anything. Jack can fill her in.” He rolled onto his stomach and rested his head on the pillow. “Are you doing to be okay with all of this?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I nodded, and I wasn’t sure if I was lying or not.

I leaned over and turned off the bedside lamp, but even in the darkness, I could feel Ezra watching me. It would be impossible to hide anything from him, but I was determined to try anyway.

Rolling over so my back was to him, I allowed a few silent tears to slide down my cheeks. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything, and eventually, his breathing had the regulated quality that comes with sleep. Unfortunately, sleep wouldn’t be nearly as easy for me.

Ezra tore open the shades while the sun was still up, and I squinted and pulled the blankets over my head. The little experienced I had with the sun so far made me tired and cranky, and I had no urge to relive that feeling. Fully dressed and whistling an old Neil Young song, I heard Ezra go about the room, and I knew it was time to get up.

“What time is it?” I mumbled, still buried underneath the thin hotel comforter.

“It’s a little after one, but we need to get going. We’re burning daylight.” Ezra chuckled at his own joke, and I was starting to think that maybe I didn’t agree with his sense of humor.

“You’re actually expecting me to get up now?” I poked my head out, braving the blinding light that filled the room.

“We do need to get going,” he told me absently. He was checking something on his phone, then he glanced back at the open. “I can close the shades, if that helps.”

“You know it does,” I yawned.

Ezra complied, still fiddling around with his phone, and I hoped that meant that he had a lead on something. His half of the room was already completely straightened up, the bed made and everything, and I wondered what time he had gotten up. I had slept terribly, tossing and turning all day long, and dreaming horrible things about Jack. I woke up feeling more tired than I had when I went to sleep.

“I wish I still drank coffee or Red Bull or something,” I grumbled as I stumbled out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. (Fun fact: Vampires still pee. Blood is a liquid, after all.)

“Just take a cold shower. That’ll perk you right up,” Ezra suggested.

Following his advice, I took a quick, cold shower, and it helped some. I dressed in a hurry, then Ezra told me that I had to blow dry my hair so it wouldn’t freeze when we went outside. Instead of balking at the idea of being out in the sun, I just did as I was told. It would make the whole process faster.

The hotel was alive with people today, and I pulled the scarf up over my mouth and nose to muffle it.

When we were walking out, I noticed the décor in the hotel was distinctly green. There were potted plants everywhere, probably to counteract the seemingly endless winters and obliquely white window views. I personally enjoyed winter, but it would be odd to live in a place that had snow eight months out of the year.

It really wasn’t that cold out, only in the low thirties, but I had bundled up in a winter jacket and boots, like any normal person would. There wasn’t that much snow yet, only enough to crunch underneath my feet. Fortunately, Ezra had packed an extra pair of sunglasses for me, so I wasn’t instantly blinded, but the sun didn’t thrill me either.

“So what’s the plan?” I had followed him out of the building, and he was walking towards a silver Range Rover with snow tires. “What’s this?”

“How we’re going to get around,” Ezra answered vaguely, and I wondered if he was purposely infuriating or if it was just force of habit. He got in the driver’s side, so I hopped in after him.

“When did you get this?” I demanded when he started it.

“While you were sleeping. I figured it would be best if I let you sleep as late as possible.”

Without even looking, he whipped the Rover into reverse and sped out away from the hotel.

Usually, Ezra was the mild driver, but it suddenly became apparent to me where Jack’s driving skills had come from.

As he sped down the road, I pulled my hood up over my head and sunk lower in my seat, trying to hide myself from the sun’s rays as much as I could.

“How is this gonna work?” I yawned when he’d been on the road for ten minutes. Already, I felt like napping, and I knew as the day wore on, I would only get sleepier.

“We’ll be in tree cover most of the time.” Ezra nodded to the think pine trees that filled the world around us. “You have your hood and sunglasses, and when we get back in the morning, we’ll both eat. We’ll be fine.”

“Hmph,” I grumbled skeptically.

We had traveled about a half hour or so when Ezra abruptly turned off the road and parked the Range Rover. I had been dozing a bit, but I sat up when the vehicle stopped. There was a GPS system in the dash, so I leaned over to inspect it, hoping to find some kind of clue as to where we were at.

Unfortunately, Finnish words and town names kind of looked like gibberish to me, so I didn’t gain any insight.

“Okay. What’s going?” I asked, but Ezra turned off the car and jumped out in response.

“Thanks.”

I scrambled out after him, and naturally, I slipped in an icy patch of snow. When I tried to catch my fall by grabbing onto the car, I only succeeded in denting the side horribly. It was pretty awesome having almost no control over my body. I couldn’t wait for the grace and strength to really kick in.

“Are you coming?” Ezra had paused long enough for me to collect myself and scurry after him.

“Yeah. Where are we going?” I asked when I caught up with him.

“The woods.” We were already in walking into a very thick patch of trees, so he was doing nothing more than stating the obvious.

“You’re really becoming my least favorite person,” I muttered as I nearly tripped over a fallen log.