Eden's Children

by Sandy Johnson

  “Yeah we’ve got him sir. I shot him in the head.” I fell hard on the ground. I felt numb. No, it couldn’t be! I ran towards the voice and when I got there, only one agent was waiting. I looked around, but Aiden wasn’t here.

  “Ah you must be Evelyn. I thought you might come if you heard me. Too young to be pregnant thank god.” He was smirking at me. “But you are a beauty aren’t you. I’m not supposed to look you in the eyes but wow. I can’t look away.” He said as he walked towards me. It was a trap I turned to run when I felt a crack on my head and I fell into darkness.

  I looked up at the blue sky. The sun was shining brightly. I could feel the grass all around me. I was lying on my back and I felt at peace. I looked to my left and Aiden was smiling sweetly at me. I didn’t realise he was holding my hand until he lifted them up. He was looking at the heart shape our birth marks made together. That’s when I noticed a ring on my finger. I turned my hand to see it properly. It was a platinum band with two enamelled bright green leaves curving away from each other with an orchid in the middle filled with tiny diamonds. It was on my wedding ring finger. Aiden sat up then and kiss my hand. “You’ve made me so happy.” Then he laid his hand on my pregnant stomach. He smiled as he could feel them kicking. I sat up and hugged my bump. I could feel them moving around in there, our babies. I looked around at the beautiful world. It was pure paradise. Not a person in sight. I watched as animals ran free and happy. The trees grew enormous reaching up to the sun, and then it went dark… Aiden wasn’t there. I started to panic. I was screaming for him. Where was he? Why did he leave me here? Then the world started to burn. Every single part of every living thing was dying. I began to run trying to find Aiden while holding onto my babies; I had to protect them they were the future.

  “Edam!” I screamed. I had to find him. I could feel him getting closer.

  “Willow! Where are you?” That’s when I realised I wasn’t me and he wasn’t Aiden. I ran into his arms anyway. He was my safety and my love. When I looked up at him this time it was Aiden.

  “Aiden I’m scared.” I told him.

  “I’m here Evelyn. you’re safe. I have you. Please come back to me.” I opened my eyes.

  He was so close to me I could feel his breath on my mouth. He was talking but I could only hear my heart beating rapidly. I sat up and wrapped myself around him; I never wanted to be alone again.

  That’s when I heard howling… wolves? I looked at Aiden confused but he didn’t look worried.

  “Stay here.” He said to me and stood up.

  “Wait.” I said as I tried to stand, but I almost fell flat on the floor.

  Aiden came back, picked me up and laid me back on the bed. He went to the door and looked down. He stepped back then looked down again.

  “Erm there’s a pack of grey wolves down there.” He said.

  “What?”

  He came over, helped me up and took me to the door. I hadn’t realised we were off the ground. Aiden must have carried me up here. I was mortified at the thought, what if he dropped me? I looked down and he was right. There were about 7 wolves sitting at the bottom off the steps looking up at us. They seemed to be waiting for something.

  “I’ve been coming here for years. I’ve never seen any wolves out here. I didn’t think there was any grey wolves in Louisiana.” Aiden said with uncertainty.

  We decided to lock the door and get some rest and deal with that later. Aiden took me to the bathroom and I could see my hair was covered in thick red blood. I could feel the colour draining from my face in the mirror.

  “I did try to clean you up a bit, but I didn’t want to hurt you.” Aiden said looking at me from the door.

  “Thank you.” I said quietly.

  I had no idea how I was going to get the blood out, but more importantly where did it come from? I remembered being hit and I had a bit of a headache, but there was a lot of blood. I pulled my hair apart to see the damage. There was a long bump on my head, but it was more a scar now so why was there so much blood?

  “When I found you, you were on the ground and your head was split open.” He said. I could see the pain on his face. “I didn’t know what do to. I thought I lost you.” He was looking at the floor.

  I walked over and hugged him. “I’m here now and I’m fine. Look my head is healed. Wow I must have been unconscious for weeks! How long has it been?”

  He started to count on his fingers and then said sheepishly “Couple hours maybe?”

  “Wait. what? My head is closed. How could that have only happened a couple hours ago?” I squealed at him.

  “That is how long it’s been since I found you. Oh, and when I tell you to run and never stop running, do it next time!” He snapped at me.

  He was getting angry now as the worry was washing away. “What did you think you were doing out there? I told you to run and get away. Why would you stand there and more importantly why would you go back towards the house?”

  “I thought you were dead!” I shouted back. “I heard them say they shot you in the head, so I went to find you. I thought you’d died. Obviously, it was a trap. But I was so worried about you. How could I just leave you there?” I was calm now because I knew I did what was right, and I would do it again. I wasn’t going to back down now.

  “We need to leave this place, they will find us eventually.” He sat on the bed and held his head in his hands knowing he’d lost the fight.

  “I know somewhere.” I piped up.

  He looked at me. “Where?”

  “Well I told you before my mom had a cabin we used to go to. No one even knows it exists, well I don’t think they do. She said it was handed down to her. No one will even know we’re there. The only people who have been there are Caitlin and her brother when they used to come away with us but it’s in Michigan.” I said.

  “You’ve never mentioned she had a brother?” I could sense a bit of jealousy in his voice.

  “Yeah his name is Eli. He’s older so would look out for us, but when I turned 12 he couldn’t come anymore.”

  Aiden got up and walked over to the backpack on the desk. I walked up behind him and looked down to see a lot of official papers.

  “What are they?” I asked.

  “Well these are all the documents we’re going to need to get anywhere. It’s also our parent’s deeds.”

  “Deeds?”

  “Yeah all this was given to Sarah and Pete for us to have when we turn eighteen. From what I can see here they owned a lot of properties, but I can’t see one here for Michigan.” He looked puzzled.

  Then I saw an envelope addressed to me. When I opened it, it had the address of the cabin on it. Underneath someone had written;

  This is our safe house. If you’re ever in trouble no one will find you here. It’s safe and it’s protected. Follow your heart and you will find it

  Aiden was reading the note. “It’s protected?”

  “I have no idea. It’s just a house beside a lake. I never saw anyone else there and this note is very old. I guess this was handed down to mom and then to me… well us.” I said.

  “What’s with the follow your heart thing?” He asked.

  “Well the address here doesn’t bring you to the cabin. It brings you to about 2 miles away, and then my mom would just know where to go. We had to drive through trees though.” I hadn’t thought of it as weird until now.

  “Well we should probably clean you up and get going. These are our passports. It’s the best way to get there, and if we just turned up for a flight they shouldn’t know we’re there.”

  Aiden started packing away when I held up my passport. It was still my old fake passport. I thought it would have been confiscated.

  “What happened to the agents?” I asked wondering why I wasn’t taken away.

  There were a lot of them. I could see Aiden tense as he stared out the window. I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged me off.

  “Please don’t touch me.” He said g
ently.

  “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. It’s ok. I don’t care as long as we’re together.” I was trying to get him to look at me, but he wouldn’t. Then he passed me something. It was a bottle of washing up liquid. Confused didn’t quite cut how I was feeling.

  “For your hair.” He said.

  “Oh, okay. Thank you.”

  I turned towards the bathroom and turned on the taps of the sink. At least it was warm. I bent over and put my head under the running water. I could see all the blood pouring off my head and into the sink. Then I felt Aiden standing behind me, but my hair was soaked so I couldn’t turn around. He picked up the liquid and started washing my hair for me. It was sore. I kept wincing every time he had to go over the cut on my head, but I could smell the blood and it was making me feel sick. After my hair was washed, Aiden put a blanket around my shoulder and hand dried it for me. I was so grateful. My body was sore, and I was finding it hard to do it myself. I wanted to ask Aiden about what happened at the house and about how the tree got there, but it felt like something neither of us wanted to discuss. It was too much up in the air. It would just make things more complicated.

  “How do we get to the airport from here?” I asked.

  “Well that’s going to be hard. We will have to walk to the other end of these woods, there’s a town there. We can rent a car and drive.” He said. Rent a car?

  “You have a credit card?” I asked interested on how we were going to rent one.

  “Well what I mean is either buy one or steal one. We have to get out of this area and we need a car for that.” He sounded irritated now.

  “You have money?” He looked at me.

  “Yes, I have money. Now we need to go.”

  He went back into the backpack to remove the cash he had, and when he did a small box fell out.

  “What’s that” I asked. Aiden looked down at the box and picked it up.

  “Never seen it before.” He said as he opened it and turned the box around to show me.

  “Oh my god.” I whispered under my breath.

  It was the ring from my dream. The same platinum band with engraved leaves and a diamond encrusted orchid.

  “Have you seen it before?” He asked me, but what could I say? Yes, I had a vision of you and me together with me very pregnant! No, I couldn’t tell him that.

  “No never.” I replied.

  “Well it wasn’t from father. I guess it was moms. Do you want to wear it?” He asked me.

  I just shook my head and he put it back in the bag.

  “Time to go.” He said walking towards the door and I followed without question, back into the wilderness again.

  When we got to the door to leave the wolves were still sitting waiting patiently looking up at us. I was a little worried about climbing down the steep stairs, which was completely unfounded as Aiden picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

  “Can’t have you fainting and falling all that way now can I.” He said with a smirk. Honestly, I wasn’t sure this was much better. I was hanging off him 20 feet in the air with wolves looking at me.

  “What about them” I asked him.

  “I don’t think they’ll bother us.”

  He didn’t sound to convinced though. As we got near the bottom the wolves all stood up and came over to us. When we reached the floor, they started rubbing themselves against us like puppies looking for attention. Aiden started petting one and the wolf seemed to be enjoying it. I started to feel a little faint and sat down. That was when a female wolf brought over a tiny baby and plopped it in my lap. I was speechless. What was happening here?

  Chapter 15

  Aiden

  Wow she was so beautiful right now. She was sitting on the ground playing with a wolf pup. I just wanted to stare at her all day. I could sense the wolves came here for a reason and I’m guessing it’s to keep her safe. I had never seen any wolves out here before, but they connected with her straight away. I could see the bond growing between her and the pack like she was their alpha. I guess that makes her the dominant one out of us both. When she looked at me her eyes were shining brighter than I’d ever seen. She looked radiant. She looked so happy. I wish we could stay here forever. Just then the pack turned towards the way home and started growling. Their fur was standing on end, and then we heard the howls coming from deep inside the woods, it was a warning to run. They were coming. I quickly grabbed Evelyn and threw her over my shoulder and I ran. She literally felt weightless in my arms. It was almost like holding her made me faster.

  “You ok?” I shouted to her. It was hard to concentrate with her butt next to my face.

  “I’m fine. The pack is running with us though. It looks almost like they are chasing us.” She shouted back.

  I turned to look beside me, and a large wolf was running with me. We locked eyes and I knew we were in danger.

  “There’s more wolves coming out of the trees… oh no Aiden there a helicopter coming towards us.” But she didn’t need to tell me, I could hear it.

  That’s when the large wolf howled and headed into the trees. I knew I had to follow him as being out in the open like this would only get us caught. I ran into the treeline and followed the wolf for a few miles. When he stopped, we were in front of a cave. He walked inside, and I followed. There were wolves everywhere. They all looked at us, I put Evelyn down. They came up to us and rubbed themselves on our legs. It was surreal. Then the other wolves behind us arrived.

  “Aiden? What’s going on?” Evelyn was holding onto my arm now.

  “I have no idea.” I said slowly, but I wasn’t going to question it. They hadn’t harmed us, and it was getting dark outside. “We’re going to have to sleep here tonight and head out in the morning.” She looked at me in shock.

  “Sleep here?” We’ll freeze to death.” I knew she was scared. I was too, but I had to be strong for her.

  “We’ll freeze to death out there as well.” I pulled her over to the back of the cave and sat down.

  I pulled her down to me and turned her so her back was to me and pulled her up against me. I hated having her so close. It did things to me that it shouldn’t, and I just hoped she wouldn’t notice.

  She leaned back against my chest and relaxed. “I never thought in a million years that I’d be stuck with my brother in a cave full of wolves in the winter.”

  She gave a nervous laugh at the end, but the most horrifying to me was hearing her call me her brother.

  I wrapped my arms around her arms and chest, hugging her tight. After what felt like a lifetime, I felt her body start to relax and I knew she was asleep. I couldn’t help but laugh when she snorted. Thinking back, I realised I’d never been this happy and yet we were on the run. It was like she was my life and had been missing from it all these years. Having her here was paradise for me. I laid my head back. I was starting to feel sleepy myself when I felt something against me. It was the large grey wolf that led us here. It had lain right up against my leg, but I wasn’t complaining. He was very warm, and it was getting cold now. I patted him on the back and said thank you. He sat up a little then and made a groaning noise to the rest of the pack. They all came over and piled on top of us. They were keeping us warm. I smiled and thanked them all. Then I closed my eyes and I was asleep in seconds.

  When I woke, I wasn’t in the same position I went to sleep in. My head was resting on my arm. I was laid on the floor on my side. Then I noticed I was curled up behind Evelyn with my hand wrapped around her stomach. She was flush against me then she arched her back and I lost it. I pressed myself up against her, it felt right, and I needed this. I moved my hand down to the hem of her sweater and slid my hand underneath. I stroked her stomach with my thumb and I could feel her pushing back against me. She even moaned a little as I moved my hand up her body and rubbed my hand across her ribs. I could feel the bottom of her bra against my hand. I wanted her. I wanted to be inside her. I stopped when one of the wolves started moving around and I realised what I was doin
g. She was asleep, and we were in a cave! I moved away from her and went outside. What the hell is wrong with me? It’s like I'm not in control. The sun was almost up now, and we needed to make a move. I went back in and shook Evelyn awake.

  “Hey Evelyn, we need to go.” I said to her quietly.

  “No, it’s too early.” She said while turning the other way. Now she was practically spooning a wolf.

  “Wow Aiden I didn’t realise you were so furry.” She grinned but her eyes were still closed.

  “Ha-ha very funny.”

  I grabbed the backpack and put it on my shoulder. Then I scooped her up in my arms and started to leave.

  “Ok I’m up put me down.” I did as she asked but then she looked embarrassed. I started to panic thinking she had felt what I was doing earlier.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked sheepishly.

  “I need the toilet.” She said as she turned bright red.

  “Well there’s no toilet so go with nature.” I laughed to myself as she walked off into the woods. A few minutes later she appeared again still looking embarrassed.