of us will die. It was a choice I made a long time ago that I can’t take back.”
He clings desperately to me, holding on to my arms. “You have no idea what this place is like, what it does to you. I’ve been here for so long. I’ve lost so much. The only things I’ve held on to this entire time were my memories of you. I can barely remember my mother’s face or my father’s name. But I never let go of you.”
Tears run down my cheeks. “I can’t let you die. I can’t do that to you. If anything happened to you because of me, I couldn’t forgive myself. I’m sorry but my dad was right. I can’t be with you while this curse still exists.”
He drops his hands to mine and squeezes them tight. He begins to speak but stops himself and stares down at our linked hands. A tear slides down his face and breaks my heart over and over again with each millimeter it travels. He dejectedly lets my fingers slip out of his.
We stay close to each other for a minute, neither of us wanting to break our connection. I finally take a step back and wipe the tears from my eyes, trying to regain my composure.
After pulling myself together I finally manage to ask, “you said there were others. How many people are you hiding with?”
“A few,” he answers dejectedly, with a quiet, broken voice. “Why?”
“Because I came here with a job to do. I'm here to help lost walkers find their way home.”
He looks at me quizzically, his eyes bloodshot. “How are you going to do that?”
I sigh deeply. “I have no idea. But we’ll figure it out.”
“We?”
“Zoë and me.”
He turns and looks at Zoë who is watching us from a distance. “When we found each other, who were you looking for? It obviously wasn’t me. You didn’t even know I was a walker.”
“My sister.”
“You don’t have a sister.”
“That’s what I thought too, until just a few days ago. It turns out I do though. She’s Jonah’s age. Her name is Natalie. She looks a lot like I did when I was younger. Have you seen anyone like that?”
“Not that I can remember. I wish I had.”
“She's being used as bait to catch me. The person who created all of this, her name is Isabel. She's been searching for me for a very long time. She needs the caligo to capture my soul so that she can become human again. I’m the missing piece to her puzzle. She originally wanted my dad, but now she wants me.”
“Wow. And you're going to do what, when you see her?”
“I’m not sure exactly. But luckily I have Zoë here to help me.”
“Right. Zoë. Your witch protector,” he says disdainfully.
“They don't use the word witch. They call themselves meiga.”
“Meiga?”
“Yeah. It’s the type of witch she is.”
He lowers his voice and leans in close. “So can she really cook my insides?”
“Yes, I can. And I will if I have to!” Zoë shouts from her position some thirty feet away from us.
“Apparently she now has super hearing as well,” I quip.
“I want to help you,” he pleads.
“Charlie, no, you don’t have to do that. It’s barely safe enough for Zoë and me to do this. I can’t have to worry about protecting you too.”
“I don’t need protecting.”
Zoë and Jones walk back over to us. “The fact that you think you don’t need protection, shows exactly how much you do need it,” Zoë says. “Isabel isn't going to show you any mercy at all. She knows exactly what you’re thinking and feeling. She knows Emma loves you and she knows she can hurt Emma by hurting you. She won’t hesitate to torture and kill you.”
“Well, I’m not just going to sit in the cave hoping you’ll come back for me. I’m going with you.”
Jones chimes in. “You can’t just leave everyone without telling them where you’re going. We all depend on you to keep us focused in here. If we lose you, we’re never getting out.”
“We’ll go back to the camp then, I'll explain everything to everyone and then we leave.”
My mind runs over a hundred different scenarios of how Charlie can be taken away from me again. I want to be with him more than anything in the world, but I also want to keep him safe. Detaching myself from him is the best way to do that. But I understand how he feels. I wouldn’t want