Continuing the Trip

I almost lost my senses and didn’t realise when I was in James’s arms, hugged tightly, without asking me anything James only said “Don’t be scared I am there with you, just go to sleep.” As he hugged me the rest of the night I had the most peaceful sleep since Ethan’s death.

Next morning I woke up in James's arms but he was already awake and staring at her, I felt my cheeks blush as I was lying so close to him. I lowered my head and my cheek turned even more red as I spoke "Sorry for bothering you last night and thank you for taking care of me."

He smiled and came closer to me covering almost all the distance between us and pulled my head up gently by my chin "Did you sleep well."

Inodded as my heart thumped into her chest before James could continue talking Selina entered the camp in which we were sleeping and seeing us so close she turned around and talked nervously "I am sorry to interrupt you but you should get ready everyone is waiting for you." saying this she rushed outside blushing. I was frozen on my spot while James let go of me moving out of the tent "You get changed first, I will be waiting outside with them." I nodded blushing and quickly started searching through my bag.

I changed and came out where the food was being cooked and seeing me, my friends surrounded me for some gossip and I already knew what they were going to ask so my cheeks turned red even before they said anything.

I knew I could not avoid them so I had to go to my friends eventually. As I was intentionally moving very slowly towards them, they hurriedly moved closer to me and smiled at me teasingly.

Ashlie was the first to speak "So how was the night."

I blushed and looked up at James who smiled at me as if he could hear what we were talking about but I immediately lowered my head when Selina's teasing voice rang in my ears "As if that was not enough I interrupted some special moment this morning."

Jessica had to speak along with everyone "Fill up in with all the details girl, hurry up."

I blushed harder and finally spoke "It is nothing like what you are thinking we just slept late night and this morning he was just asking me if I slept comfortably."

As I cleared herself, her friends teased her with an "ooooooo" and I knew they were never gonna believe me and were only looking for gossips so I looked at James to help me out of the situation, he looked at me then signalled his mother to call everyone for food. She nodded and called "Come on girls or the food will be cold."

I heaved a sigh of relief and said thanks to James in a signal and he nodded at me as we headed for the breakfast. Icould not focus on my food and was sure that James had the power to read minds but I wished to ask him to clear my doubts which was not possible because I could not directly go to him and ask if he could read minds. As I was not focused on my food and had a very little appetite so Ileft soon and went inside to start packing my stuff to get ready for climbing further.

James entered while I was picking my stuff off the ground he coughed to make his presence known. I noticed him and straightened myself out asking "Are you ready?"

"Yes, what about you."

"Give me a minute."

"Are you sure you can climb or we can go back."

"Yes, I am feeling great and enthusiastic right now so let's not cancel the plan."

He gave his breathtaking smile "Okay, I will wait for you outside."

I nodded flattered by his smile and he left. I looked around and saw that a lot of my things had to be collected so I stood on her feet, opened my bag, took a deep breath and with one click all my things were in the bag, I checked outside that no one noticed anything strange and when everything was clear she headed out.

Lucus stepped forward and as usual he gave the instructions "We will follow the groups we made yesterday and I if you feel any danger quickly inform the others."

Everyone nodded and left then Lucus came to James and asked him to protect Jamie well,he nodded and Lucus left James and Isabel alone and went ahead. James smiled at me "Are you ready."

"Never more than this."

"Be careful and stick close."

I nodded and then we started climbing. I felt his gaze on me all the time, he was rather focused on me than on climbing, it gave me chills but I had to keep up and not loose the balance this time so I kept my focus on climbing and steading my steps. Halfway through I was irritated by his stare so I complained "James will you please focus on climbing than on me, it is distracting me."

He teased me "So you are distracted by my good looks too, that is good to know." but he did stop staring at me.

I felt heat buildup in my cheeks but I could not refuse he was rather quite handsome. Soon we were interrupted by the shouting sounds of someone which definitely felt like Jessica but before I could do anything I felt a swift cold air pass by her neck and voice turned me week to my limbs, I lost my balance and fell again but this time I was unconscious but just before I turned unconscious, I heard a voice say "check your pockets" and then I was caught by cold arms.

I opened my eyes and I was in the tent but the place felt different because I could not breathe properly so I guessed that we were on the top. My head was hurting and when I looked around only James was by my side "Where are the others."

"They are climbing."

"Who was the person who shouted?"

"It was Jessica, she disappeared."

"I knew it." I could not help but my tears started rolling out as I was worried.

James patted my head as I cried then as I calmed down a little he asked "Why did you fall and why were you unconscious all of a sudden?"

His question made me realize that the voice asked me to check my pockets but I definitely could not do that in front of him nor could I answer his questions "Ah! James I feel suffocated inside I want to go out for a bit to have some fresh air." without waiting for his answer I ran out and searched all my pockets and I found a piece of paper in my back pocket.

Before I could read it, a voice from behind me read it for me "If you want your precious friend alive, you know were to meet me tonight at 9 my love, Cameron. I froze on the spot when the voice pushed me back to reality "Wherever it is you are not alone."

I turned around to see James standing behind me, as I stepped away from him he stepped forward and with to large strides he covered all the distance between us, standing close to me he emitting a very cold and distant aura that I was not able to say anything so he leaned his head close to my ear "It is dangerous I can't allow you to go alone."

I pushed him back, gathered up the courage and answered right back "Jessica is in danger and I can't put her life at risk taking you with me so please don't interfere."

He was not ready to loose "I will follow you from a distance."

"James what he wants is me so you should stay here safe, please don't risk your life for me."

He was a very difficult person to deal with so he pulled me by my arms and said sternly "I am coming with you." and this time I could not refuse.

I knew it was useless to talk sense into this man so I decided to go there when no one was around and skip when I was not being paid attention at, I made a successful plan to escape.

I was feeling cold outside so I went in and sat down, he sat in the corner while talking to me "You should take some rest, they will take some time to reach." I nodded and lay down but I could not fall asleep, my heart was racing on the thought of meeting the demon once again. He messed up my life once, I could not allow him to do it this time. I had been waiting to face him because now I was a lot stronger than the last time, I could fight him but I was scared and the thought of Jessica with him was also scarring me. As I was thinking of all this a pair of icy cold arms hugged me which send shivers through my spine but my body and mind were relaxed as if he had the power to heal all my problems and in no time I was sleeping with my head buried in his chest. It was like he had a power of making people sleep.

Next when I was awake it was about 7:30, I have been sleeping like a log and didn't know that I had slept for so long, if I had to reach on time I had to leave in half an hour or I could not make it on time, I had to go down the other side of the mountain. it was a dense forest on the other side and he had a big villa in the middle of the forest. I was alone in the tent and I could hear the noises outside so I made out that everyone was back. I went outside and Selina and Ashlie came running towards me and hugged me then both spoke together "Thank God you are fine we were so worried about you."

I smiled and pushing them back I said "I am fine, don't worry about me, worry about Jess she might be in danger."

They both nodded with tears in their eyes so I reassured them.

"Rest well, we will look for her in the morning."

They agreed and everyone had their dinner, James had his eyes on me all the time but I had to do something to escape him or I could not leave, he was very clever and not easy to fool so I had to think something big. I asked Mrs. Black to accompany to some place because I had to empty my bladder, she agreed and I slipped few important things in the pocket of my jeans and left with her. When we were in some depth of the forest I asked her "Mrs. Cullen you should wait here, I will be back in a minute."

She nodded and I was able to escape, though I could not run fast and I knew that James could catch me with his speed but I had to give it a try. At least I had the time until Emily returned and informed them about it. I had been running for 20 minutes and the villa was nowhere in site but I kept running having the thought that I might have lost the way. My legs could not move any further and all the energy was drained out of my body, I fell to the floor drained out of energy and this is what he did turning me weaker so that he could get his ways easily. A tall figure appeared in front of me and a pale white hand was extended forward for help. When I looked up in his eyes he finally spoke "Long time no see my love."

The power that I had built was all gone I was scared and wanted to run away but I knew I had to face it. I put up a courageous face and got up "Cameron, you won't get anything this time, I will kill you."

He stepped forward and pulled me closer by my waist with one hand and with the other he held my chin and spoke softly "Is this how you speak to your husband meeting him after so many years."