Always by Amy Richie

face, but I could tell he was very angry.
    “ I’ll try to do better,” I said in a small voice. I had tried to keep up with him, but there just wasn’t enough air in my lungs to keep me going.
    “ You did fine,” he said after a long moment of dark silence. “I should have listened to you when you asked me to slow down.”
    “ I’m fine,” I repeated. I attempted to stand up to prove how fine I was, but I fell back down to the ground. “I’m just…tired,” I breathed.
    His scowl was almost as dark as the night around us. “Come on, then,” he reached down to me.
    “ What…what do you mean?” I stammered when I realized that he meant to carry me. “I’ll be able to go again in just a minute,” I promised. “Just let me catch my breath first.”
    “ I won’t chance you falling again for one thing,” he growled, “and for another, we don’t have time to wait,” he pulled me forcefully to my feet, “and third, I can’t have you bleeding a path straight to us.”
    “ It’s almost done bleeding,” I mumbled.
    “ No, it’s not.” In a swift movement, he put his hand behind my knee and knocked me off my feet. My tiny squeal was cut short by his glare. He already had me in his arms before I could protest any further.
    His heart beat out a steady rhythm as he stared down at me. I raised wide eyes to his dark ones. “I hardly think this is appropriate,” I breathed.
    He shook his head slowly from side to side. “I’m going to carry you.” His words left no room for any type of argument.
    I stayed tense in his arms while the trees went by at a frightening pace. I couldn’t understand how he was able to know where we were going or how he could run so fast without hitting any trees. A few times, I had to close my eyes out of fear.
    “ Do you know where we are going?” I asked him as we ran.
    He didn’t even slow down to answer me. “I’ll know when I get there.”
    We didn’t run much further before the trees began to thin. Marcus finally began to slow down. He came to a stop just a few yards from an old building that may have once been a barn.
    “ He’s gone,” Marcus said in a strangely flat voice. “You’re safe now.” He put me gently on my feet, but didn’t let go of my waist.
    I stumbled twice, but still tried to create a much-needed distance between our bodies. “He’s gone?” He nodded, still watching me in case I fell. “He just gave up?”
    “ Not likely.” He let go of me and walked off a few feet. He ran his hand roughly through his hair and smacked a tall tree with a bit too much force.
    “ Marcus?”
    “ We’ll sleep here tonight,” he called without looking at me.
    “ On the ground?”
    “ In the barn,” he growled. He turned once to glare at me, then he began walking at a brisk pace to the old barn.
    Surprised that he wasn’t waiting, I hobbled after him as quickly as I could only to fall to my knees. I got back up before he could realize I had fallen again. When I looked up, he was watching me with his lips pulled into a thin line and his dark eyes almost black.
    I swallowed over the lump in my throat. “Are you sure we’re allowed in there?” I asked when I caught up to him.
    “ No one is here.”
    “ It must belong to someone,” I reasoned.
    “ No one has been here in a very long time.”
    I peered around his broad shoulder at the darkened entryway. It didn’t look very inviting in there. It seemed like a better idea to me to just sleep outside and start a fire like we had before.
    “ The fire is what attracted Ryan to us.”
    Once again, it startled me that Marcus seemed to know just what I was thinking. “Oh,” I nodded.
    “ We’ll be safe in here tonight, but we won’t run for much longer.” I saw the muscles at his jaw and temple clenching and unclenching.
    “ You can’t think to fight him.” His jaw tightened, but he didn’t look at me. “Marcus, you can’t. Did you see what he did to my arm?” I held my arm out so he could