Page 55 of Night So Silent
Is that…Alex Barrera?
When he gets to the top and turns around, I see an emblem emblazoned on the back of his jacket with the words,SEARCH AND RESCUE. Soon, another man pops over the rocks behindhim, also dressed in the same jacket and affixed to safety ropes. And when the light hits his face, I blink in disbelief.
Colson?
Once he reaches the top, he unclasps the ropes hooked around his waist and legs and joins Alex, Sergei, and the deputy. Now it looks like they all know each other. Then again, why wouldn’t they? I grew up in a small town; everyone knows everyone, they’re in everyone else’s business, there are no conflicts of interest, and if you’re nice, you get invited to the family cookout at the lake. I bet this was the big excitement tonight in Gunnison.
Confident that Sergei isn’t about to be placed in custody, I decide I can’t watch anymore and turn from the window. I need to calm down, so I trudge back to the bedroom to lie down. As soon as I crawl across the blankets, perfectly smoothed over the mattress, I collapse on the pillows and exhale the weight of the Alpine night. The bed is firm and familiar, like I’ve always slept here, a cozy cave on the mountainside in the middle of a snow globe.
I focus on my breathing and the reflection of the flashing lights on the bedroom wall. I never knew those red and blue strobes could be so comforting. Usually, they strike fear when I see them in the rearview mirror and think I’m about to be issued an outrageous speeding ticket. Finally, my eyes get heavier and heavier as I start to drift in and out of sleep.
I don’t know how long it’s been, but when I awaken, I realize that the lights are gone. There’s a series of rumbles outside as vehicles drive over the gravel and packed snow. Everyone must be leaving. Soon enough, I hear the front door open and shut, and then Sergei’s heavy footfalls as he comes down the hallway.
A flutter sweeps through my stomach when I hear the click of the latch and I can’t help but smile in the darkness. I’ve just been attacked by some red-pilled psycho in the woods and mynerves are fried, but I still manage to get hot and bothered when Sergei Mikhailov walks through the door.
I’m facing away, but I know what he’s doing; the same thing he does whenever he walks in this room. He comes to a halt at the foot of the bed and stops. I know he’s looking, evaluating, and then deciding. But he shouldn’t—not anymore. Moments later, the comforter swishes against his pants and I feel his weight on the mattress as it sinks down at my feet. I roll over as he arrives at my shoulder, a daunting shadow in the dim light. He plants one elbow next to me and bows his head until his nose nearly brushes mine.
“Printsessa…”
As if on instinct, I reach up, drape my arms over his shoulders, and gently take hold of the knot at the crown of his head. With my other hand, I hook my finger in the band and start slowly unwinding it from his hair. Careful to avoid knots, my hand hovers over his thick blonde hair until I pull the band free and his mess of wild waves falls over his shoulder and onto my chest.
“Is that better?” I murmur, running my nails over his scalp, releasing the tension settled on his shoulders.
He nods back softly, but remains silent, his iridescent eyes burning like embers. I could gaze into them, all day, every day. Now, I can’t imagine evading his stare like I did over Brett and Colson’s table. But, still, one question lingers on the tip of my tongue.
“What did you tell them?”
Sergei’s eyes shift to the window, and then after a few seconds, back to me.
“I saw you, I saw him, and I aimed,” he replies. “One shot. The blood showed them where to find his body.”
It’s the only thing I need to hear, because we both know the rest. I can debate right and wrong later, but tonight thereis no justice except for which the forest doles out. Now I see what Brett meant when she told me what happened to Bowen, when his story ended, and the laws of the forest could not be circumvented.
The forest is a place of rebirth just as much as it is a place of death. You go on a walk, disappear, nature claims you, the animals prey on you, the scavengers steal your bones, the earth absorbs you, and new life grows.
But I don’t want to speak, I just want to feel Sergei’s body against mine, where it belongs. After what just happened, I don’t want to flee. I want him to wrap me in his vast embrace and hide me from everything else.Since when did Sergei become the one who keeps my secrets? And when did this mountain start to feel like my home more than refuge from a storm? Because the longer I stay here, the more I’m hopelessly bound to him and this place.
I reach down and tug at the button on his waist until it pops open. He pulls back, a pointed look competing with the rabid desire simmering behind his eyes. I know what he’s thinking. I know what every movement of every muscle means and what his eyes say before his voice can.
“I don’t need you to be logical or reasonable right now,” I argue, running my hands around his waist and pulling his shirt up over the tight muscles on his back. “This is what I want you to do for me right now because I don’t want to think about anything else but you and me. I want time to stop. Because I love being here with you.”
Sergei reaches up and tugs his shirt the rest of the way over his head, letting his hair cascade back over his broad shoulders. And when I run my hands over his shoulder blades, it’s as if I can feel the ink on his skin, like a prophetic story written into the fibers of his being that was always meant to pass.
Mankind’s relationship with something bigger than himself is universal, as is the struggle between good and evil.
Like fate.
Mikhailov slaying the devil on the mountain.
But where does that leave me?
Sergei’s face softens ever so slightly. “You know I’m not going anywhere. If you came back to me, I’d give you as many Christmases as you want.”
I pull him close and kiss him softly, memorizing his supple lips that fade into the thin, coarse scruff along his jaw. “I will come back to you, somehow,” I murmur, “because you’re mine now, too.”
“Unless I make sure you stay put, like last time.” Sergei drags his eyes up and down my body beneath him. “Something I should have done tonight.”
My eyes flick to the side table, where a pair of black padded cuffs are sitting next to the lamp. The same ones that bound me to this bed just this morning.
