Secret Keepers

Chapter 21

The next morning, I woke up and I noticed that the space beside me was empty. Cutter wasn't there. I groaned and sat up, brushing my hair out of my face. I loved me and Cutter's physical relationship, but I always woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a train. Cutter always smiled and gave me weird looks whenever I said that. I sighed and got dressed, going into the hallway. I could hear people bustling near the front hallway so I walked towards them, but then I heard voices. "Are you sure she should leave the cave? She's not strong enough to protect herself."

It sounded like Rage. I stopped and listened around the corner, making sure they couldn't see me. Cutter responded. "I don't know. I would rather have her here safe, but she's gonna get upset if I stop her. Dagger can protect her, but I may send you with them just to make sure."

"Well I feel flattered by you choosing me, but honestly I wouldn't think you'd trust me."

"Well, honestly I've seen changes in you. I can tell you don't see her like that anymore."

"Wow. Thanks. I'll go then. I really wanna keep her safe."

I silently cursed. Now I wouldn't be able to ask Dagger about Greenwich. I came around the corner and they turned and saw me. Cutter smiled. "Rage decided to go with you and Dagger fishing."

I nodded and yawned as if still half asleep. Rage chuckled and walked past me. "Better wake up soon. Or you'll doze off and miss the fun."

I chuckled, but as Cutter led me to the kitchen for breakfast, I honestly would've preferred to have curled up and slept another hour. After breakfast, Cutter and the others went into town for supplies while Dagger, Rage, and I packed up our things for fishing. As we walked out of the cave door, Rage protectively grabbed my arm and held me behind him as Dagger gently closed the door. I sighed and pulled my arm from him. "I'm not a child. I won't wander off."

He frowned, but didn't say a word. We walked quietly through the woods until we got to the banks of the Liif River. The creek I'd met Cutter on was connected closely to this large water source.

Dagger set about to hooking up some fishing poles while me and Rage sat at the top of the embankment. He took a huge sigh and then picked one of the hundreds of daisies around us. I rolled my eyes, expecting him to play the "She Loves Me" game with it. But that's not what he did.

Instead, he picked a second and lopped them together. Then he added a third. And a fourth. He kept stringing them until he had a nice lengthy daisy chain made. He strung the two ends together and then tossed it over my neck.

I gasped and studied it closely. "Really? You know how to make daisy chains? I'm a girl and even I never knew how."

He shrugged and laughed. "Well it was actually Runner who taught me how."

"You really expect me to believe that? Now come on. Where'd you learn?"

He gave me a weird look. "No. I'm serious. Runner used to make dozens of them whenever we'd go out. He'd make really long ones and then hang them around tree branches. I watched him enough that I eventually learned how."

Dagger gave a loud disruptive cough from the bank and then he jerked his head at the water. Rage sighed. "Oh. That's right. Fishing."

We each went down and cast a line, but I was still curious. "What is it about Runner? I know Cutter's backstory, but even though him and Cutter are step brothers, he seemed shady on his own."

Rage opened his mouth, but Dagger gave another cough and mumbled under his breath at him. Rage closed his mouth and shook his head. I gave then each a strange look. "What? Just because I'm a girl and I'm new doesn't mean I'm not entitled to know."

Dagger hastily looked at me and shook his head as if in desperation for me to be quiet. "Just don't ask. Please. Runner has secrets that no one knows. All we know is that he isn't truthful about anything he says about himself. Yes. The story of him and Cutter is true. But according to Cutter...it wasn't his mother's death that made him emotionless. It was something else. Something early on. Even Cutter doesn't know. All he knows is that he's been like that ever since he met him. Now please. You can't talk to Runner anymore. Don't ask him anything. Don't try and make conversation. Don't even tell him we talked about him. He can't know."

With that, he turned back to the water and hunched over, staring at the ripples. Rage was in the same position. I sighed. Maybe Greenwich wasn't what I should address first. I needed to crack Runner's history open. I wouldn't be okay until I did. We caught several fish before Rage escorted me back. Dagger had stayed to remove the bones from the fish.

As soon as we got back, Rage let me in and then paused. "I'm gonna go catch up with the others. You should be fine here. Besides. I'm sure at least someone is back by now."

I nodded and walked back to the kitchen, but as I walked in, I heard something behind me and I gasped, whirling around quickly only to see nothing. I gulped and backed up...right into someone behind me. I turned around to meet the sparkling eyes of Runner. Somehow in all this I had failed to see that he had one blue eye and one green eye. It was hard to tell in different lights.

He stared at me and shrugged. "Something wrong?"

I shook my head. "But I am curious."

He sat down and quietly sipped tea from a mug. "About what?"

"About you."

He froze and his eyes shifted up from the mug to meet mine. He pulled it from his lips and then slammed it to the table, crushing it into pieces. I gasped and backed away, but he shook his head. "My apologies. But I don't think I need to talk to you that."

I frowned and bravely stood my ground. "Why hide your past from everyone? Even your step brother."

"Brother is a word for a boy born from the same father as you. But the word step. Step is merely a word you stick you in front of family to always remind you of the fact they aren't your real one. It's just something you add to the truth to make it a lie."

I paused. "So this is about your family? Your real one?"

He stared off into the space in front of him ad then his pupils snapped up to my face. "You're persistent. Do you really want to know? Because the last thing you ever asked me got an answer you weren't...comfortable with."

I hated those pauses he was adding to his already monotone and creepy sentences. I gulped and then nodded, hugging my waist. He gave a solemn nod and then gestured to the seat in front of him. I sat down with merely a freak from the chair, but suddenly he pulled something from his pocket. A small box. He held it up and it was covered in jewels and gold. "Has Cutter ever mentioned a woman named Kirlin? Or a girl named Rebecca."

"No."

"Good. Then this is new story for you. Kirlin was my mother. Rebecca was my sister. This may come as a shock to you, but I wasn't always an emotionless ghost of a man. I once laughed. I played. I cried in anger, sadness, or fear. I felt. But everything changes eventually. I heard of a boy named Leeland Martin. The pride of our town. Everyone knew him. Everyone wanted to be him. He could shoot a bow like you wouldn't believe and it earned him a reputation, even at six years old. And me, little Daniel Saden, wanted to be like him as well."

He gave a long sigh once again. "So one night I decided to practice with a bow my father had bought me. I notched one of his hunting arrows, took wobbly aim at a target and let it fly. As a six year old wielding a bow, I thought I was on top of the world. I stole my father's arrows and started shooting up a storm in the backyard. Everything was fine until Rebecca, three years old at the time, decided to pay her big brother a visit. She called my name. I turned with the bow. In my excitement, my fingers slipped." He stared at the crushed mug on the table. "I went from a nobody to a somebody really quick. But not like Leeland. I was a somebody...because I had murdered my own flesh and blood sister."