Aiden Beaks's Arc

Chapter 5 of 10

Aiden woke under the white willow at first light. His mouth was dry. His stomach ached with hunger. He stood and looked for the cobalt building, but the trees hid everything. He walked one way, then another. Every path looked the same. His uncle could be anywhere in these woods. Aiden had no wall, no door, no place to hide. If he stayed in the open, the ragged man would find him again. A bird landed on a branch ahead. Its feathers ran red, blue, and gold. It hopped closer, then dropped to the ground. When Aiden stepped forward, it hopped again, keeping just ahead. He did not trust it. But it moved with purpose, and he had none. He followed. The bird led him through the brush to a stump. Ethan lay there asleep, curled small, his bare feet caked black with old mud. Aiden knew him at once. This was the boy he had left in the woods. The boy who said he watched and did not help. Aiden crouched and studied him. Ethan's shoes sat torn beside him. His curly hair held bits of leaf. His chest rose and fell fast, even in sleep, like someone still running. Aiden thought of the massage worker laughing while Ethan cried in the mud. He thought of his own voice shouting at this boy to leave. He could wake him. He could speak. Instead he stood and stepped back. He had a locked drive and a man hunting him. He could not carry a weaker boy through that. Aiden turned and walked away. He looked back once. Ethan was sitting up now, awake, watching him go. The boy did not call out. He did not chase. He only looked, wanting something, the way Aiden once looked at his father's sealed files. Aiden made himself keep walking. The trees thinned ahead. A house rose beyond them. Grey walls, cracked and grim. Blood-red gates. Bare black trees clawed at the roof. It was the ugliest building Aiden had ever seen. But it had walls. It had doors. It could hide him from his uncle. He walked toward it. With every step, Ethan's face stayed in his mind. The boy had smelled like fear and old wounds. He had two things Aiden did not: no one hunting a drive, and no one who might help him at all. Aiden had abandoned him twice now. The weight of it grew heavier than his hunger. Aiden stopped at the red gate. He could go inside alone and be safe. Or he could turn around. He gripped the cold iron. Then he let go and looked back at the woods. "Ethan," he called. His voice shook. "Come here. You can come with me." Branches stirred. Ethan stepped from the trees, slow, watching for the lie. Aiden had chosen. He was not alone anymore, and now he had two lives to keep hidden behind those grey walls.