Beyond The Pines [Pt. I]
[Series description: Two years ago, dad died from cancer, leaving you to raise your younger sister, Vivian, alone. Your best friend, Ellie, was one of the few support systems you had until your feelings for her seemingly put a strain on your relationship. When Vivian goes missing, can you trust Ellie to help bring her back?]
[Author comments: I've put together an audio to go play along as you read. Voices are *ALL* AI-generated using ElevenLabs. I did not include Y/N's voice in order to preserve your own inner dialogue. This series will be slow-burn, and will have smut and graphic depictions of violence. 18+ only.]
[Credit to Youtube Channels Ambient City (horse stables); Hursty Outdoors (walking/snow); Music: Gustavo Santaolalla (Opening Suite; Longing; Unbound)]
Be sure to expand the audio to play from the beginning!
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You slipped a glove off, braving the winter chill to scavenge your jacket pockets.
Sugar cube.
A rare commodity for your generation; you were lucky to find a small box of them while scavenging a ravaged coffee shop. You twiddled the rock-hard substance between your thumb and index, anything to dissociate from the girlsâ conversation. Something about Dina falling into a pile of shit; you tried not to smile at that.
Fresh, powdered snow crunched beneath the heel of your boots. The warm glow of faerie lights danced across the ground at the stableâs entrance.Â
Jackson was quiet. Peaceful. Safe. A stark contrast from the nightmarish infected and worse â bandits â roaming the mountains outside town limits.
They pass you.
âCâmere, Phantom,â The sleek, black mare whinnied and happily trotted into her refuge, âmy pretty girl.â
She was a young horse, strong, with a spitfire nature. You had that in common.
When you werenât on duty, you and Ellie used to race her and Shimmer on Cirque Trail, stopping to stuff your pockets full of wild huckleberries, which Joel made into killer pies. You frowned at the thought.
Gently, you threaded your hands through Phantomâs mane, silently thanking her for keeping you safe another day.
"Because you've been so good today," you murmur, presenting the sugar cube in a cupped hand. Immediately, Phantom gnashes it between her teeth, nose flaring.
Her face is just too comical. You laugh, wiping the slobber from your palms on your worn blue jeans.
The shrill creak of another stable door shutting disrupts the moment. Dina laughs at something Ellie says.
âNight, Ellie.â
From your peripheral, you see the woman leave.
The last six hours of patrol were miserable, from the clutch of infected you cleared to the dry dialogue between you and your friends.
Well, you were friends until three months ago at the town dance when you watched Ellie and Dina kiss. At this, you passed your glass of whiskey off to an equally dumbfounded Jesse and walked straight out of the hall, tears pricking your eyes and bile rising in your throat.
Beyond patrols with themâ which, despite your pleas, Maria continued to schedule, likely to force a reconciliation â you hadnât talked to either since.
Apart from working well together, you and Dina werenât inseparable, so avoiding her has been relatively easy. On the other hand, avoiding Ellie, your ex-best friend, has been excruciating. No matter how hard she tried â showing up at your door in the dead of night to beg you to come outside, leaving joints on your windowsill, landing snowballs square in the back of your head â Ellie couldnât get more than cut-and-dry responses out of you.
Eventually, she stopped trying.
Part of you was embarrassed at your childish behavior, but you couldnât face her, not after that night.
You closed the latch to Phantomâs stable, hyper-aware of the forest green eyes that bore into your side profile.
Without a word, you make your way over toward Mike, who was on duty tonight.
âHey - thanks again for picking up a shift so short notice, Y/N,â he gave you a sympathetic smile, âwith the horde thatâs passing through, we canât be too careful.â
âBullshit. This is all Maria.â
âSure, donât mention itâ Your tone was casual, but irritation and exhaustion were etched into your features. Desperate to go home and avoid Ellie â who was clearly waiting for you, you quickly scribbled in the logbook.
âFour runners + three clickers in Tetonia. Cleared.â
You said goodnight to Mike and walked straight past the freckled girl. She was propped up against the stable entrance, brows furrowed and lips in a tight line. She looked tired.
âUh - hey...â
You keep walking.
ââŠokayâŠâ
âFuck off,â you wanted to say. Instead, you shook your head and gripped your backpack tighter, eyes unable to meet hers.
No more stargazing with her. No more all-nighters snuggled up watching cheesy 1980s horror films. No more spitballing ideas for her next set of tattoos â a rabbit skull; an arrow; the numbers 000129 â she never explained that one; an ouroboros. No more. You had bigger things to worry about.
She made her choice, and it wasnât you.
âUGH,â Your face scrunched up in a cringe.
She could have at least told you. While her head was in your lap â your fingers gently combing her auburn locks to the soft tune of Johnny Cashâs Hurt filling your bedroom â she was dreaming of Dina the whole time.
And you could have it all, my empire of dirt.
I will let you down.
I will make you hurt.
Heat bloomed across your face in embarrassment. You never told Ellie that you loved her â that you were in love with her â hell, you didnât even understand it until you saw them lock lips at the dance. Now, you were cursed to watch them fall in love while you self-isolated and grew more bitter by the day.
The walk home was about thirty minutes from the stables. A good chunk of land on the outskirts of Jackson that's been in the family for generations.
Hopefully, your sister wasnât asleep. You needed to vent.
âIf I walk fast, Iâll probably get home at 10ish.â
Fragrant pine and earth filled your frost-nipped nostrils. Even with your heavy parka, and thick, fur-lined boots, the cold settled deep in your bones. Without a flashlight, seeing your hands in front of your face would be impossible. It was that dark out.
The metal of your keys stung your battered hands. You became keenly aware of something behind you as you turned the lock. No need to reach for your pistol; it was obvious who was in your driveway.
âHow the fuck did I not notice her?â
âSo, youâre stalking me now?â Without turning around, you tapped the heel of your boots against the worn, wooden deck to knock off the snow. You then kneeled to untie them. âGo home, El.â There was an authority in your voice.
Footsteps approached, crunching through the snow.Â
âMaybe Iâm not here to see you,â Ellie shrugged, âmaybe Iâm here to see Vivian.â
âI really doubt that.â
You turned and looked up at her, batting snowflakes from your lashes. It was the first time youâd really studied her face in weeks.
Dark circles hung beneath her eyes, cheeks hollow as if sheâd not slept or eaten, yet, with that constellation of freckles smattered across her face, the deep forest green of her eyes, those lips, she was still the most beautiful girl youâd ever seen, more beautiful than any model from those Vogue magazines your sister collects.
âYou look like shit.â You lied.
âGee, thanks.â A smile tugged at the corner of Ellieâs lips. âCan I come in? Itâs cold as shit out here.â
You hesitated; time seemingly slowed as you studied her. Ellieâs eyes met yours, unwavering. That stupid cocky smirk was still etched into her face.
âTake your shoes off,â you conceded. âDonât track horse shit into my house.â
Family pictures, odds and ends from your grandparentsâ vacations to Maine, and cheesy words of affirmation your mother hung years ago adorned the entrance of your home. It wasnât your style, but it felt wrong to take them down.
Ellieâs eyes traveled around the room, searching for changes.
The cabin was simply too spacious for just Vivian and yourself. Two stories tall, there were four rooms and three baths. Maria has scheduled to move incoming residents downstairs sometime next month. This angered you more than Viv. This was your familyâs home, and you certainly didnât want strangers sleeping in what once was your parentsâ bedroom. You didnât have any say in the matter.
Your younger sister, on the other hand, was enthusiastic. For her, it was âtoo quiet,â being just the two of you. You couldnât really blame her, though. Most interactions between you since your dadâs passing have stuck to mostly your venting about patrols and Maria and all the house repairs needed. Vivian would talk about her newest boyfriend â if you can even call them that â the boys never lasted more than a month.
Dad passed two years ago from cancer.
It was a devastating loss to both of you, but you especially had little time to grieve. Vivian was just 14 at the time. Sheâd started supervised patrols with Jesse only one week prior. Dad was proud.
When everything went to shit, you took extra patrols to cover Vivâs duties. You did this for a few reasons, to let her have the chance to be a kid and grieve, to provide for your baby sister, and to avoid facing the reality of your situation. You two were alone in the world, and you werenât ready to raise a 14-year-old.
Ellie made the extra effort to be there for you both. Sheâd walk Vivian to school and training, cook dinner, and often help with chores. Sheâd spend ration coupons on old, crumbling makeup or cheap-smelling candles that your sister adored.
It wouldnât be totally out of character for Ellie to walk all this way to check on Viv, not at this hour, though, and you both knew it.
âSo why did you let her in?â
You set your shoes down at the entrance, inviting Ellie to do the same. The grandfather clock in the adjacent dining room read 10:13 pm.
âIâll tell Vivian youâre here. Iâm gonna head to bed ââ
âCome on, Y/N,â Ellie grabs your arm, âI canât live like this anymore. You donât answer the door, you wonât talk to me,â she grips you tighter, âyou wonât even fucking look at me.â
Her touch burned your skin. You try to yank back your hand to no avail. She was much stronger than you.
âI fucking miss you, I miss my best fucking friend, and I donât even know what I did wrong.â Her eyes are pleading, desperate.
âLet go of me, asshole,â you demand in a whisper-yell. âyouâre gonna fucking wake Viv.â
But it was useless; Ellieâs eyes were determined, glossy, as if she were on the verge of tears.
She pulls you closer to her, chest pressed against yours, and youâre sure she can feel your heartbeat pounding out of your ribcage. This is too close. Intimately close.
âTalk to me. Say what you need to say.â She demands. âyell at me, hit me â anything â so we can move on and pretend you havenât been acting fucking insane the last few months.â
Her lips are too close to yours.
âDonât make me.â Your voice was small, eyes welling with tears. Emotions that had been bottled for the past three months. It was your turn to beg. Beg her not to do this. Not here, not ever. All you wanted was to grieve the loss of your friendship and move on so you could get your shit together for your sister. There was no room for weakness in your life anymore. Cutting her off is easier than a painful rejection.
Ellieâs eyes searched yours for an answer, and her lips were pulled in a frown.
âI need to know, Y/N.â
âDonât do it.â
You werenât the best at impulse control. It was a trait you got from mom, something you thought youâd begun to improve at. But the body heat between you, the desperation in Ellieâs eyes, and her nails digging into your now-bare shoulders were too much.
Ellieâs lips were chapped compared to yours. Salty from the tears that had flown moments prior. The kiss was innocent, sad. Your lips moved gently against her still ones. This wasnât how you dreamt it happening.
The kiss was over as soon as it began.
Ellie pulled back, freeing you from her iron grip. You both stood there, facing each other for an eternity. The grandfather clock ticked loudly.
She looked dumbstruck, cheeks blooming red, and it wasnât from the cold.
âShitâ
White-hot shame finally engulfed you as you realized what youâd just done.
âSo much for self-control.â
Without another word, you grabbed the jacket at your feet and rushed upstairs, two steps at a time.
Part of you wanted to seek refuge in your sisterâs room, cuddle up, and cry into her shoulder like when you were kids and mom and dad would have screaming matches downstairs. Instead, you barged into your room and locked the door behind you.
Ellie doesn't follow.
