Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (17 page)

Determinedly I wipe
the s
not from my nose. I ignore
the small bag of money under the bed.

I’ll
have to find work almost from the moment we
land in St. Lucia.
I’d made a good friend at c
ollege who was from that island, and though
we’d lost touc
h after she’d returned home, I’
m praying that she will be willing to help me
now
.

Coming out of the bedroom,
I see Elaine and Aubrey
waiting, towels already secured around their necks. I do the same with mine.

Elaine comes forward, reaches a hand to me, which I coldly ignore, she drops it to her side. “Daphne
are
you sure about this?
Th
at
there’s no other way?
”

Not this again. Why i
s doing the right
thing turning out to be so hard?  M
y eyes narrow as I take in the
concern o
n Elaine’s face. “If you want to stay you’re more than welcome to it, but I promised dad that I’d take care of Aubrey and I intend to do so.”

Anger flares in h
er eyes an
d her mouth tightens.
N
ow she resembles the Elaine from my past and not this silent,
contemplative creature that has
taken over her body almost from the moment we’d fled from Emmanuel in Antigua.

She draws a sullen looking Aubrey protectively to her side. “You seem to forget that I’m his mother.”

Scorn curls my lips. “
Are you a
ccusing me of your own lapse? I have never forgotten that you gave birth to Aubrey,” I take a deep breath. If she wa
nts
the truth in front of Aubr
ey then so be it, “but until these last day
s
I had
n
ever seen you act like a mother-”

Her slap
whips my face to the side. B
ut I’m more stunned by the shout from Aubrey, the way he yanks himself from Elaine’s arms and tries to use his f
our foot frame to shield me.

A sob gets caught in my throat.
I bend to
him,
catch him up in my arms. He’
s crying and
sadness
suddenly overwhelms me.
I start crying too. His little body feels s
o frail in my arms.
I cannot
bear
the thought of not doing everything I can to protect him. I love him so much. But you also love Na
te, a voice whispers in my mind. H
ow will leaving him help him?

No. No. No. Aubrey has to come first.

I stare into his little crumpled face, the dark chocolate eyes. “It’s okay little man,
”
unbidden Nate’s nickname for him comes springing from my mouth
.
“I should not have said that to your mom.”

He shakes hi
s head hard, looks up at Elaine.
“Mom, please don’t hit Daphne again. She’s my sister and I love her.”

A cracking sob breaks from my mouth, and I ga
ther him back
into my arms, press my face into his. “I
love you too
.”

Moments later
I look up at Elaine whose hand is clasped over her mouth
, eyes wide
in
horror.
I blink and
cannot believe what I’m seeing. T
here are tears in her eye
s and she is looking at me as if she’s seeing me for the first time.
“Forgive me Daphne. That was not my place. I understand that now.
But I want to keep Aubrey safe too and I wouldn’t be going along with this plan if I didn’t think this was the best way.
”

This is
too much to take in
.

Behind Elaine’s shoulder I see Stacy
watching us avidly.
Caught
,
she colors
,
but doesn’t look away. Elaine and I hoist the backpacks over our shoulders and move to the door.

“What should I tell him?” Stacy
suddenly asks.
I stop and turn to look at her. H
er raven colored brows
are drawn together in what appears to be
concern.

I pin her with
a cold look. “W
hatever you want,” I snap. Though she doesn’t know anything beyo
nd our leaving
I shudder to think of her delivering
the news to Nate.

Telling him of my betrayal.

An hour
late
r
I
stop and wait for Aubrey to catch up as we make our way through the trees
tucked
far enough from the road
so as
not to
be seen.
A
t least until we get to
a spot close enough to
the
pier and the ferry
.

It’
s growing dark and the air is bitter with
the
smell of ash.

Aubrey began wheezing about half a mile ago and every time I hear him struggle for breath my heart constricts sharply in my chest.

And
by my estimation
it’s still
seven
or eight more miles to
our destination. We have only covered three miles at most in the rapidly deteriorating visibility.

Another cloud of dust comes raining down from the branches of
the trees, which all appear
ethereal and haunting, sunk under
the growing burden of the ash
.
I
grimace
as some of it
manages to sneak through my now unrecognizable
towel which is practically caked through.
Little bits of ash
enter
my mouth. I gag at the
bitte
r tang on my tongue
.
I
risk another glance overhead and
it’
s coming down even harder
now
.

I cannot see more than a foot ahead. I could easily be gouged in the face by any protruding tree branch.

I
stop and wait for a struggling
Elain
e
and Aubrey
to catch up
.
Our chances are slipping away the longer we take to reach the ferry.
“
Hurry up.
I don’t want to be caught outside when it gets dark.”

Elaine
draws alongside
slowly
and she is heaving
as though she’s having a heart
attack. “Daphne, I can’t ...

Then w
e both hear it, feel it unde
r our feet. It’s a rumble like the
headlong rushing of
a
large dump
truck barreling out of control. B
ut there are no dump trucks in the middle of a tree laden hill and the thought gets dashed aside as
my body is flung
clear.
I hear Aubrey and Elaine cry ou
t
, as they too go airborne
.
I land hard
on my bottom on
a small outcropping of rock
s
and a painful cry escapes my mouth.
Thank G
od
it wasn’
t a tree branch. I could have been impaled.

I squint
through the thick ash for a glimpse of Elaine and Aubrey. “Elaine, Aubrey. Are you alright? Are you hurt?” In the fall my towel had come undone from around my mouth and I immediately give up trying to find it in the terrible visibility.

A whimper comes from close by and I stagger towards it. I make out the
silhouette
of Elaine,
then
Aubrey sprawled in the ash on the ground.

Wincing
,
I head towards
them when another loud rumble sounds
.  I
nstead of a
n earthquake it
sounds more like
t
hunder.

Rain.
Thank God
.

R
each
ing out a hand I
eagerly
wait for the first droplet
s
which will surely clear this ash
away enough for us to go on. M
oments pass and the sounds only grows lo
uder, much louder and my body stills as I listen more
closely to the thrashing sound.  Then a sickening thought starts to form and I
listen closely and
grasp that there is a
di
fference in t
he way these cracks of thunder
sounds.

That’
s when it hits me. A
horrifying thought solidifies inside me, the meaning of the earthquake, the ongoing rumble which is re
verberating through the trees, shaking my body to the bone.

The volcano is blowing
its
top
. A
nd this time ash may
be just one of the contents it
spews.

Adrenaline shoots through my body, taking away the tiredness, amplifying my fear to such a degree
that I’
m breathless
with the effort to contain it.

I race over and
haul a
still staggering Elaine to her feet. Aubrey takes one look at my face and
begins
wailing
.

Oh no. T
his can’t
happen. Not now.
If the volcano is
erupt
ing
they will
immediately start evacuating
t
his last
remaining
side of the island which sits closest
to the danger.
The ferry w
ill
be used as
the safest route
, instead of goi
ng over land to get people to the safe zones
on the other side of the island.

My heart is
beating wildly
. I won’
t be able
to escape to St. Lucia
. I’
m trapped.

I pull Aubrey into a hug and
he
grasps me with all his
strength
then pins me with a frightened
look. “I want to go back.” H
e moans
and
drags
his grubby hands across his nose
,
un
-
caking the lower half of his ash covered face.
“Nate
will take c
are of us like he did last time, won’t he Daphne?
”
His eyes are wide with fear. My heart clenches. I had promised dad to take care of him. But what should I do now?

I want to
break down and
weep with frustration. I can’
t go back
but if I press on to the ferry
and I’
m forced to
wait as they gather e
veryone,
I will have no choice but to face
Nate. H
ow will I ever able to face him again
after what I’ve done
? The horror of the confrontation makes
me
almost wish to be extinguished by a lava blast from the volcano.

The g
round rumbles again and I hold o
nto Aubrey as the earth heaves migh
tily, sending
us
back
to our knees
. W
e all
cry out and there is no other
choice
for me
.

Being in a house was safer than walking unprotected through what could be greater
ash
fl
ow and I shudder to think of
the far deadlier danger of
pyroclastic flows
. W
ith their combination of rocks and hot gases which ca
n wipe out all life around them within
second
s
of leaving the volcano
.  W
e won’
t stand a chance.

I won’
t think of what Nate will do
when we show up. I have to sustain myself on the hope that we will be safer there and we’ll stand a good chance of being rescued if the volcano has truly become a greater danger to all life around it.