Page 6 of In the Pursuit of Haven
Another blast of lightning struck. This time it hit the island. The flash blinded me the same time the thunder rang through my ears. I couldn’t hear anything else. Jessie threw himself over me as the ground shook beneath us.
Panic consumed me. Jessie’s family was cursed! And by fire? Irrational thought, yes, but no logic could penetrate the sudden fear that the fates were coming for him… and me!
My fingers dug into his arm and I screamed into the wet grass, not even able to make out my own voice. I held onto him, my body shaking. I had nothing but the feel of Jessie to show that I was still alive. Nothing existed but the two of us.
His hand ran down my back, even as the world came back into focus, the darkness, my hearing—Oh God, thank you for my hearing!I could make out the sounds of my ragged breathing, running with Jessie’s. The feel of rain dripping down my cheek plastered to Jessie’s shoulder. We were alive.
For an instant there, I’d thought I’d died in Jessie’s arms.
I couldn’t even imagine what Aunt Haven would say about that. We were on our feet before I had enough air to speak, running for the boat, hand in hand, not really thinking, just doing, and… the boat was gone! It had washed away… along with my bag and my cellphone. The waves crashed between us and the harbor. Low tide had just become high tide in the storm.
We weren’t swimming to safety, were we?
Falling back against Jessie, I felt his arms go around me. Jerking me around, he rushed us into the tangle of forest to the side. I didn’t know what was wise anymore—stay away from high objects, fall to the ground? Jessie seemed to know where he was going. The branches whipped past us. The mighty trees splintered and cracked above us. They’d seemed so solid before and now bent like toothpicks under nature’s unimaginable power.
My heart pounded as lightning crashed through the air again. My tears of fear were indistinguishable from the rain. There was no time to regret my stupidity for coming here. I’d think about that later.
Jessie found a cement block in the ground—the remains of some structure that had been built on the island before we’d ever existed. I could barely comprehend the history of where our feet trampled, the same pathways where Old Dimond marched and shouted up at the vengeful skies in his madness.
There was a metal handle in the cement and Jessie worked the top open, revealing what looked like the remains of a forgotten cellar.Oh, we’re going down into that hole! No, no, I can barely handle this!
Jessie’s hands were on me, and I tried to turn away. His fingers found my waist and he carried me down with him into that underworld.Spiders and insects, move aside!I wanted to gag. If there was a rat? Or something furry?I think I’d die!
“Get down! Get down,” he shouted.
I landed on my knees against the cement floor. The thin material on that Greek dress ripped at the impact. His arms pushed me the rest of the way down and he landed over me to get away from the storm himself. The forest groaned and shrieked as we both flattened down. The pungent smell of rotten bark and soil invaded my nostrils, mingled with whatever musky scent Jessie wore. The storm raged above us as if enraged we’d gotten away from its grasp.
Was this like that cramped cell the pirate shared with his witch in that Puritan prison?
Another bolt of lightning lit the air in a strange way. That was followed by another blast of thunder. I huddled against Jessie, throwing my hands over my face at the answering crash in the forest. Leaves landed over us, cutting off the noise and blocking the rain. I turned, seeing a tree had landed over the opening of the cellar. Its branches reached down for us, trapping us down here and providing an odd kind of refuge in this storm.
I took a shuddering breath and tried to talk through this shock consuming me, but it only came out as a strange moan.
“Hey!” Jessie’s hand went to my shoulder. He was the only thing warm in here. “It’s okay!”
Was it? My heart wouldn’t stop racing, and the only security I had was Jessie. We were practically strangers and still, I burrowed into his arms, going against every instinct, every shield that I’d built to stop myself from falling into my mother’s shoes. Haven wouldn’t like this at all! And I wasn’t sure what terrified me more—getting caught like this by my aunt or getting killed in this storm—but Jessie’s body heated mine and stopped my shivering. I needed a distraction from all of this. I’d never met anybody who was better at it than Jessie. “Tell me… tell me the rest,” I said.
He laughed grimly, his finger tracing my chin. I froze, feeling the energy between us charge Through me at his touch. “The story about the pirate?” he asked. “Are you serious right now?”
Another flash of lightning filtered through the leaves above us, and clenching my teeth, I nodded.
His arm shifted under my back and he took a deep breath. “Let me think… where was I?”
“The witch.”
“Ah yes, the witch, well, okay, but first… Jonathon Crabb had a nephew that he trusted with his life.” Another thunderous explosion shook the leaves of the tree. Jessie’s heart raced beneath mine. His arms tightened over me before he continued: “His nephew from Marblehead came to visit him almost every day—he read the Bible to Crabb through the slats of the prison cell, tried all he could to give him comfort. Crabb knew that if anything happened to him that he’d leave his nephew the clues to his treasure, so he could safeguard it from those thieves who’d imprisoned him.”
“Clues?” My voice echoed through our makeshift cellar.
“Yes, clues,” he said. “Lots of clues. Everywhere, if that old pirate can be believed, all over Salem. Our family used to have one actually—the one that Crabb gave his nephew. A red glass locket covered in rubies. It had a silver snake across the front of it.”
“Used to have it? Where did it go?”
“I can’t give that away yet; you’ve got to wait for it.”
“Wait?” I asked incredulously. The storm sounded like a muted fireworks show outside. “I don’t know how much longer we have to live! Don’t leave me in suspense.”
Jessie propped up on his elbow. The flickering light through the branches showed me his intense expression as he watched me. “You’re going to be okay,” he said. “We’ve got an eternity together.” He ran his fingers through my hair. “We’re through the worst of this storm.”
