AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I took a break from my masterpiece and headed upstairs to see what was going on. I found the antisocial couple on the couch for once. The guy was in his forties with a receding hairline and the woman looked like she’d put her bright red lipstick on while fending off a squirrel attack. Otherwise, they seemed mostly normal.
At the sight of me, they both got up and went to their room upstairs. Reggie was on the patio, but he spotted me and headed inside, a wide smile on his face. “She emerges from her basement!” He checked his watch. “Wow, and before ten this morning. I’m impressed.”
I slow blinked at him. It was my subtle way of saying “I hope a hawk mistakes your laptop for a rodent, picks it up, and hurls it down the valley so nobody ever has to read whatever pretentious garbage you’re writing.”
Reggie smiled wider. “Where’s the boy toy?”
Sebastian looked like he’d been suiting up for some kind of run this morning, but that had been hours ago. Either he was also training for a marathon, or he’d suffered a fatal bear attack.
“He’s not my boy toy, and I think he’s exercising.”
Reggie rolled his eyes. “Before he writes? Does he have any idea what that’s going to do to his nervous system?”
“I’m pretty sure Sebastian St. James has a pretty decent grasp of what he needs to do to write well, Reggie,” I snapped. It was almost impressive that Reggie annoyed me enough to goad me into defending Sebastian, but there we were.
Before Reggie could drag me into more of his droning conversations about how his method of writing was superior, I went outside. Sebastian really should’ve been back by now. I thought back to when he’d gone for his run and was fairly sure it was at least two hours ago, but maybe as much as three. There was no way he’d been running for so long.
I chewed my thumbnail, looking down the mountain trail that led from the cabin. There was only one way to run, and that’d be along the road for at least a few miles. One side of the road was a sheer drop into heavily wooded mountainside and the other was almost vertical.
I figured I could use a walk to clear my head, so I set off down the path. I couldn’t kid myself, of course. In reality, I was looking for him. Worse, I was worried about him. The thought was enough to make me want to throw myself off the cliff. Sebastian made me feel entirely unhinged.
I wasn’t used to this side of myself. I was decisive. I made choices, whether they got my ass kicked or led to me kicking their ass. But I didn’t second-guess, and I didn’t change my mind. Until him, at least. Now I was wandering a mountain trail in the middle of nowhere because I was worried about a man I should’ve been hoping was bear bait. For all I knew, there were actual pickling lunatics out here. I was risking my life for the man.
I muttered angrily to myself as I walked, but I kept walking and looking down the long drop off from the trail for any sign of Sebastian. I would deny it until the day I died if anyone ever asked, but I may have even broken into a slight jog.
I wobbled, rumbled, and bumbled my way downhill. It felt like any step could be my last. I was not built for movement. I was built for… Well, I was probably built for something. I just wasn’t sure what it was. Couches? Long, relaxing baths? Spa days?
I was deep in thought when a gigantic squirrel thing emerged from the brush. It squatted low and batted its tail aggressively. I shrieked, throwing my hands up as I tried to stop. My feet skidded on gravel, and I fell on my ass, but kept sliding down the path. I folded forward and rolled sideways like a felled log. In a heartbeat, I was airborne. I had a glorious second of free fall before a tree slammed into my thigh and sent me thudding into the hard packed dirt.
I blinked in surprise and more than a little pain. With a grunt, I rolled onto my back. I had a view of little bits of blue-sky streaking through the treetops like the veins of some huge beast. I blinked a few times, then lifted my head to see why I hadn’t fallen a few dozen more feet down the hillside before stopping.
I’d landed on a little flat outcropping that had formed around a tree’s roots. A few feet in either direction and it looked like I would’ve been doing my best impression of an attractive ping-pong ball with an outstanding personality. And then I would’ve died. I inched to the edge of the flat chunk of earth around the tree and looked down. Definitely would’ve died.
