Skylit by Jordan Wadley (black female authors TXT) 📕

"Why are t-they looking for your brother?" I ask in attempt to keep my mind of the pain traveling up my spine.

"He's always had trouble with the law, that's no secret. He's killed people, and he's stupid enough to leave some clue as to who was there. It's not that he left any fingerprints or anything, it's just the fact that he leads the cops to believe it was murder, not suicide. They don't know for a fact if it's him, but he ran anyways. That definitely didn't look good." He no longer whispered anymore, seeing as no cars passed by us on the way further down the road.

"Down this path, it'll keep us off the road." The blonde grips my waist tighter to keep the weight off my injured leg, my head bobs in attempt to keep my eyes open.

"Murder huh? He some psycho path or something?" I ask, hopeful to keep the conversation going. I cringed when my leg brushed against a stump sticking out of the ground. The breaking of the trail near the woods was now only a few feet away. Once we broke through the tree line we'd be able to sit for a few seconds.

"Yeah, I'll tell you more later. Right now we need to get you somewhere safe so I can fix up your splint and wrap up your head. If you lose any more blood you might not make it through the day without passing out." His words didn't bring me any sort of comfort, I've been in pain before and I knew exactly how to handle it. The head gash wound didn't seem to weigh anywhere close to the gaping would in my calf. I'd endured pain before, only now it was almost too unbearable.

"I never did hear you when you told me your name, you know my name now it's only fair I know yours." I gasp out between heavy pants.

"Well, we weren't exactly in the best position to converse. Not to mention you sort of tried to kill me the first time you met me, not to sound like a whiny brat or anything but that wasn't the best time either." He smirked down at me with a cocky grin in my direction.

"I didn't try to kill you, I was just angry. I don't think before I act sometimes." I laugh in an attempt to apologize.

"I figured that out pretty quick, my brother's going to love you." He laughed loud and hard, gripping at his stomach to calm his booming laughter. Now that we'd finally made it into the woods we didn't have to worry about keeping quiet.

"Is there something funny Blondie?" I ask in clear sarcasm.

"Oh, it's nothing. You just sounded like my brother when you said that, he said the same thing to me when he tried to choke the life out of me too. It's not a bad thing, you just remind me of him."

"I remind you of a killer? That's something I wanted to hear." I scoff in annoyance.

"See? He'd say the same thing." Humor could be detected in his soft tone but I didn't respond, only in fear of being called a killer once more. I was a killer, I'd created the explosion some how, and I killed James.

"What's your name?" I asked, suddenly serious.

"Daniel, you can call me Dan now I guess. We're going to be getting pretty close on this road trip." He whispers.

"What do you mean? Where are we going?" I asked jerking out of his hold to face him. I nearly fell to the uneven ground beneath me, but merely managed to hang onto the truck of a tree next to me.

"We need to go to my brother, he'll let you rest until you recover. After you heal you'll go to a close relative or something and explain how you weren't there when the house blew up, don't mention mine or James' name. This is very important Rose, you weren't there and only Tris and Beth were there when the incident happened." He gripped my shoulders between his rough and callosed hands in order to dig the information into my skull, quite literally might I add.

"Why can't I tell them I was there?" I asked in alarm, now looking up at him with suspicion.

"Because it'll look suspicious Rose, one minute you're there then the next you're not. If you suddenly pop up out of no where then they'll question you. You'll say you were at a friends house as an alibi then go to a relative. Nobody knew me or James went with Tris to talk to you, I'm quite positive nobody knew Tris was even there in the first place. Tris was a quiet person so she didn't go screaming at everyone when Beth stole the liquor. Nobody knows why Tris was there so if you are questioned, you didn't know. We'll talk more about it when we get to Cade's place, but until then we need to start find a place to rest so I can fix your splint."

"We don't have an utensils to stitch my calve back together." I whisper, shocked at the sudden realization that I'd have to run away and lie to everyone about my whereabouts.

"Okay, come on. We can find an abandoned house on the other side of the woods, but we'll have to go around the park so nobody will see us. If anyone sees us in town, then our plan goes straight out of the window." I nod in return to his little scheme. Who would've known he'd be so smart when it came to avoiding the cops.

"Let's go," And with those parting words, he picks me up as to avoid the wound, and carries me through the woods at a much faster pace.

He continued to run until we crossed paths with a small clearing up ahead, shining with light down on the small pond in the center. The sun looked about ready to set amongst the fading mountains in the distance. I've never seen such a beautiful sight in my life, my constant view constantly consisted of a small two bedroom house with a small living room and a tiny kitchen to cover distance in the far side of the house.

"I guess we're going to camp here for the night, I'll find some needle to stitch up the wound in the morning. For now we need to cover it up and at least make it bearable for one night, I guess I can find better wood to keep it straight." He didn't wait for my reply, seeing as I was too busy gazing further out into the clearing where the pond lay, and sat me down on the soft grass.

"I'll be back in a second." His vague voice reaches my ears.

"Okay," I hadn't even realized the words left my lips, not until his shadow faded behind the thick line of the tree in the woods.

I slowly made my way to the beautiful pond, entranced by the shiny silver reflecting off the gold.

As soon as my toes reached the liquid substance in the pond, the silver of the sun reflected suddenly became brighter. I'd never seen such beauty captured in a moment like this, it was actually beautiful to me.

I slowly untied my ash covered shoes, staying eerily quiet when I also removed the socks covering my small feet. With a sigh, I dipped my feet into the warm water and gripped onto the muddy sand with my subbed toes.

I couldn't help the laugh that left my lips when the sand slyly lifted between my toes and ticked the bottoms of my feet. I felt like the power, that had managed to drain from my system at the fire, had finally returned to my pale and drained body.

I didn't think about the consequences of being completely naked if and when Dan came back to the small clearing, I only thought of the feeling the warm water managed to cause.

"Beautiful," I murmured into the empty silence while slowly sliding the clothes from my body.

I'd never experienced such a feeling in my life before, it was absolute bliss.

I didn't stop the short journey to the bottom of the pond, even if I wanted to stop, it felt completely impossible.

By the time every muscle, other than my face, was beneath the surface of the water, I squealed in delight. I couldn't describe the uncaring feeling I felt as soon as my body relaxed under neath the clear substance. Nothing in the world mattered anymore, the death of my own mother didn't matter.

Though she never was truly my mother, she did feed me when she was home and occasionally she paid for the bills. She was Beth, a woman that'd raised me for a short length of time. At a dark moment, Beth was there to comfort me, that was until everything fell apart.

He died in crash, he'd gone to the store to grab Beth something to eat for her newborn pregnancy. Nobody ever thought we'd end up with police on our front steps.

"Excuse me ma'am, are you Rose Smotherson?" Those were the first words I heard when I opened the door.

"Yes?" I look at the man in a sheriff's uniform with confusion. I know I didn't do anything bad this time.

"Is you're mother here?" The man looked at me with pity shining in his eyes like a flashlight. For one, I know I never did anything that made a cop anything but angry.

"Yeah, hold on." I stutter, slightly opening the door. "Come in."

My mom came wobbling own the steps with bags under her eyes, I never meant to bother her.

"Mom, the cops are here. They were asking for you." With an exasperated sigh, she opens the door more to see the three man standing at the steps.

"Yes officer? Is there anything I can get you? Please, come in." They thank her with a single nod of their head, then the three officers walk passed us with their heads held high.

"What did you do Rosa?" Her frantic tone reaches my ears. I turn to look at my mom with purple bags under her eyes and irritated irises.

"Nothing, I've been at home all week. I haven't went anywhere or done anything, the cops would've been here sooner if they were. They don't look particularly mad if you ask me." I mumble quietly as to not alert the officers of our conversation.

"Then why the hell are they here? Where's your father?" I shrug in her direction and slowly make my way to the living room where they all sat.

"Excuse me, Rose?" One of the younger cops walk up to me with a soft smile, hands held out in front of him with a look of question.

"Yes?" I looked the man up and down for a sign of what I could've possibly done.

"If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?" His question catches me off guard, and for assistance I look up at my mother standing next to me.

"She's ten, she hasn't been fighting has she?" Her tone shakes slightly, and I turn back to the man to avoid eye contact with my emotionally unstable mother.

"Oh,