WHO: Kaden, Marcie, Ares WHEN: Friday evening WHERE: Just north of the Canadian border WHAT: Kaden calls home... and is interrupted WARNINGS: Ares. Angry Ares.
The motel Kaden found was one of those places built for people passing through. With a gas station on the other side of the wide road, a diner right next door, and not much else besides, this corner of road had everything a person could need; gas, bottomless poutine, running water, beds.
Kaden and Lil T both slept most of the afternoon away, the oil heater on full to make the room toasty and warm. It was peaceful here - occasionally the sound of a large truck passing through rattled the windows, but mostly the only background noise was the wind in the pine trees that stretched over the hills in (Kaden assumed) every direction. Every now and then the wind threw a splattering of rain against the windows, but mostly the weather had eased off, and the sun had broken through the clouds.
The next leg of the journey was going to be just as hard, maybe harder… setting up a life sounded just as difficult as running from the old one, and Kaden couldn’t handle tackling it yet. Soon. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he’d make it to Winnipeg and disappear into the big city.
Today, though, was for a little more sleep. Was for a shower, and Lil T’s first Canadian bath. And today, too, was for an inability to stop shaking, like all the tension of the last eleven days had no other way to leave his body.
And today was for finally speaking to Marcie again. Kaden felt such a hard pressure in his chest whenever he thought about Marcie. He wanted her to be proud of him, he wanted her not to be scared for him. He really wanted her to hug him, but he thought this least likely to happen of all.
The sick nerves he felt when he called her were intense, and Kaden paced in circles as the phone rang. Lil T was strapped to his chest as he moved, mostly because it was the closest thing to a hug Kaden was likely to get for a long, long time. Having him there was a comfort, even if he was a heavier comfort than he looked. Still, Kaden was far from calm. What if Marcie was mad at him still? Or worse, way worse, what if something had happened to her because he left?
Each ring drove another nail of panic into his heart. Kaden couldn't stop himself blurting out, as soon as the maddening ringing stopped "Please don't be dead!"