Essence (Nectar 3)

“Are they definitely bad guys?” Kyla asked. Kyle took her hand and started moving.

“I don’t know, Kyla. I’m about to find out, though.”

Kyla suspected the answer was yes.

Kyle was pulling her toward the right.

She felt a sense of impending doom as she followed him. They began to jog.

She looked back over her shoulder and gave Sasha a hopeful look, chewing her lip, “I hope you’re okay.”

Sasha waved at her with a sad look on her face, grabbed two guns, and turned around and went down the other hallway.

Kyla fished the satellite phone out of her pocket. She found Tristan’s cell in the directory. They were out of the main area and now the drywall was transitioning to stone. A stone tunnel.

A stone freaking tunnel. Kyla’s blood ran cold.

She was about to hit dial but the phone started to ring.

It said, ‘Tristan - cell’ on the screen.

“Tristan!”

“Kyla?” he answered, “What the fuck? I can feel you. What the fuck is happening there?”

“Tristan, I.. shit,” she tripped and almost fell.

Kyle was jogging too fast.

“Slow down, Kyle!”

“What’s going on?” Tristan demanded.

“There were a bunch of lights on the shore. Boats. Three of them, I think. Sasha put us in the secret hideaway in the hill. She went back to be a distraction so Kyle and I could get out. Kyle and I are making our way through a tunnel. Holy fucking fuck!” Her voice went panicked.

“What is it?”

“A snake, a snake!” She saw a black snake slithering up ahead in the lit part of the ground that the flashlight shone on.

They were in a cave and there was a fucking black snake.

“Who am I gonna have to run from, Tristan?” In her dream she’d been running from Tristan in the stone tunnel.

“Kyla, slow down. Stop. Take a breath. Talk to me.”

“Kyle is on a mission. Sasha told him to get me out of the cave through this long tunnel and he’s freaking pulling me by the arm and he’s not lucid. He’s running. He doesn’t understand he needs to fucking stop. Stop, Kyle! Snap out of it, damn it! How the fuck are you running so fast after being asleep for two years?”

“Kyla and Kyle are in the hill, in a tunnel Sasha’s sent them down.” Tristan was talking to someone.

“Where does it go?” He was asking someone with him.

“She said it goes deep in the forest,” Kyla said but she was out of breath. The snake was out of sight but Kyle was still pulling her forward through the tunnel and she was a fast runner but hadn’t been running much and Kyle was evidently a fast runner, too, and somehow didn’t seem to have lost muscle mass, like you’d expect someone to do after being in bed for almost two years, so she couldn’t fricking keep up.

She heard Tristan talking to someone, then his voice got louder, “Kyla, Sergey knows where you’re heading. Get to the mouth of it and stay hidden in there. We’re coming. Please tell me you have a dagger.”

“I have a dagger. And two loaded guns.”

“Good. Good, princess.” He sounded relieved.

“We’re just about three hours out but we’re getting there as fast as we possibly can. I love you, baby. I love you.”

“Love you. Who is this here, Tristan?”

“No clue, baby. I’ll be there as soon as I can be. Don’t be afraid to use those guns, princess. Aim for the head. Double fucking tap. Okay? Don’t let anyone fucking hurt you. Promise me.” His voice was thick with emotion.

“Promise, baby.” Hers was, too.

“Gotta go. I’m on my way to you. Turn the ringer off. In case you have to hide. But before you do, look at it. Familiarize yourself with the phone in case you have to use it in the dark. There’s an SOS button. It has a tracker. I can track you myself but in case someone else here needs to track you, like a chopper. Okay?”

“Kay.” It’d be hard to do this while running but she’d try.

She ended the call, “Gimme the flashlight!” she demanded and Kyle gave it to her but kept running. She pulled out of his grip and tried to use the light to find the ringer setting, flashed the light all over the phone and noticed the SOS button on the top. She shoved the phone in her jeans pocket as he caught her wrist again and sped up.

They kept running, they ran for a lot longer, it felt like it was an hour before Kyla saw a bit of light.

And the whole time, she felt Tristan’s pure fury. He was stewing while he tried to get to her. She knew his blood was boiling. They could feel one another a three-hour plane ride apart.

Light was ahead. It was reflecting, coming from some reflectors at the mouth of the tunnel.