"We're inside the challenge, Med. You were supposed to tell him and not look back."
I stared at the boy in front of me. Suddenly, he felt like a stranger. "How am I supposed to know the rules of your dumb game, Jared? Mark is getting hurt out there, we have to help him."
He shrugged, and a smile cracked his lips. "He stepped up to the bat. If you read the poetry, epic battles have been fought over women for millennia, whether they like it or not."
"That's not funny," I said, and I pulled the door open. The storm wrenched it from my hands and stole at my lungs. The pages of the books behind me added their flutter to the chaos.
The entire backyard was gone. We were in the middle of a funnel of roaring wind, the treehouse at the eye, the remaining scenery--house, garden, lawn--vanished behind a wall of swirling debris.
I felt Jared grab at my waist to pull me back inside, but I wrenched myself from his grip and stepped determinedly out the door to the edge of the platform. The ladder had been ripped away but I'd grown since I needed it. Covering my mouth with the skirt of my dress so I could breathe, I jumped from the edge.
I crawled awkwardly, as quickly as I could toward the house. The wind whipped at my streaming eyes and the debris ripped at my skin. Mark had to be fighting at the opposite side of the storm. I couldn't hear his voice anymore, but I had to get him away before this challenge of Jared's hurt him, or worse, killed him.
What a stupid game. I wasn't worth this kind of destruction. That kind of irresponsibility was meant for fairy tales.
Dad would be furious about the yard.
The wind pushed at me ferociously, and instead of bumping into the porch lattice, my mom's rose bushes loomed in my face.
The rose bushes....
Before the thorns could catch me, I flattened myself to the ground and pulled myself through the tiny opening beneath the branches.
In this alcove, no wind blew. It was my other haven, the place I came to after I couldn't go to the treehouse. The reason? I'd buried my cat here the second time he died. A large stone marked the location of his bones and fur, and two years of dried posies decorated the stone, lying undisturbed except for a new one I hadn't placed there.
A bouquet of purple daisies, tied with a blade of grass.
I stared around but I couldn't see Mark.
I brought him here, once, to show him. I knew he wouldn't truly understand because I'd never told him about Jared or the cat's life after life. He'd watched me as I placed the flowers on the grave, though, and wiped at my silly tears with his thumb. And then he took me to the park and twisted us up on the swing, with me on his lap, until the chains creaked, and let go. By the end of the day, I didn't need to go back to my cat. He could finally rest in peace.
Mark had connected the dots. He'd known exactly where to lay his token in the fight.
A stillness filled me, as completely as if the storm had never touched me, as I remembered my promise to myself.
All I had to do was get us all out of this ridiculous battle alive.
___
Hope you're enjoying the story :). Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are here if you'd like a refresher. As always, take a look at Suzanne Warr's blog hop for more flash fiction.
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