“Where are we going?” I asked him, watching the highway fly beneath us and the lights of Cologne disappear.

“I don’t know. We are being hunted and now we need to run,” he said quietly, placing his hand above my knee. “I know a place we can go for tonight, we need to make a run for it, and then tomorrow we need to get as far away as possible”. We both sighed in unison as he finished.

“What about Evgeni?” I asked.

“We will continue our work from somewhere safe. If he’s after us, he will find us and I will take care of him” he finished. His gaze turned back to the road ahead, the howling of the wind and the forest’s darkness becoming more and more prominent.

Wie du aussiehst, wie ich mich fühle

Leon and I drove until nearly midnight before we finally made it to our destination, Bremerhaven, Germany, just under four hours north of Cologne. The small port city on the coast of the North Sea would provide us with shelter for a night before we found somewhere else to hide. Leon located a small hotel for us to spend the night and got us settled in. After cleaning up, I collapsed in my queen-sized bed. Exhausted from the events of today, I was overdue for a good night’s sleep.

I glanced to the bathroom where I had heard the running water from the shower come to a halt and the door open. Wrapped in nothing but a towel, Leon stepped through the doorway to grab a t-shirt and boxers from his duffel. The towel hung low on his well-defined hips and created a visual pathway to the rest of his body. He was more muscular than I had guessed initially. His chest seemed more broad now that is was bare. Every part of him seemed to me as though it were fake. I had only ever watches movies and read books about men like Leon. And now, here I was, running away with one.

He went back into the bathroom after taking his things and closed the door. I don’t think he had caught me staring for more than a second or two, so I wasn’t too embarassed when I sunk back into the bed, wishing the moment had been longer.

The bathroom light shut off as Leon opened the door and entered the room. He was clothed this time, in a plain white t-shirt and blue and white plaid boxers. He climbed into the bed across from mine. Though it was dark, I could see that he was staring at the ceiling, his arms folded across his chest. Despite how comfortable the bed was, with its many blankets and fluffy pillows, I couldn’t manage to settle myself down. The nerves of today’s events began to sink in.

“What’s going to happen to us?” I asked quietly. He turned over to face me from across our beds. He sighed and shook his head then proceeded to run his hands through his hair.

“I don’t know,” he began. I watched him closely before looking him in the eyes. Their cold blue gaze was looking directly into my own. “I have never had to run” he finished. This was the first time I hadn’t been able to identify his emotions through his eyes. I think it may have been a mixture between intensity and worry, or perhaps fear and panic.

With Leon seemingly not going to sleep anytime soon, I took the predictability of having a safe sleep, and closed my heavy eyes.

Next Chapter: Chapter Four