Writing Prompt: Buried Treasure: Pan (The past doesn't stay hidden part 3)
Pan
Originally uploaded by Lara JayToday's prompt!- One of your characters keeps something in a box, buried where no one will ever find it. What is it, and what's the significance of that object?
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The scramble of feet was the first sign that anyone was awake. It was a rather odd hour to be awake- not quite the beginning of the day, not quite the end of the night. But there it was, someone was awake, and indeed, outside in the biting cold of the air, furtively scrambling around in the undergrowth. Looking for something.
It was the sudden intake of breath that really woke him up. Renn had always been a light sleeper, but how he had heard the sound he wasn't sure. Leaving the sleeping form beside him in his bed, he quietly slipped on some pants and a jacket, before slipping out of the door to the garden, stopping only to grab his boots. He crept down the garden, unsure of who was there.
An single ray of light from the rising morning sun soon gave him his answer, in the form of a flash of blonde hair. He relaxed, and gave a sigh of relief.
The blonde in front of him froze.
"Pan, what the hell are you doing out here?"
The woman in front of him slowly turned her head to him and grinned sheepishly. Familiar green eyes met eachother, one pair confused and still slightly sleep addled, with the other pair guarded.
"Errr, morning Renn! I was looking for something I left out here the other night- just couldn't sleep without knowing what I'd done with it. Found it though, so everything's okay now."
The words came out of her mouth stiltedly, as though she wasn't really thinking as she spoke. A previously un-noticed cloth, with something wrapped in it soon found its way into Renn's vision, though he suspected that perhaps Pan wished it hadn't. He frowned to himself.
"So, if you dropped something out here the other night....why is it wrapped in a cloth?"
Pointing out the obvious had always been a trait of his. One that Pan had never appreciated, even when they were kids. She froze again, trying to think quickly of an answer, and growing more alarmed when one wouldn't come.
"Well?" He spoke again, with a more insistent tone to his voice.
"I uhhh....wrapped it the other night to keep it safe...?" She tried the excuse on him, hoping that he would simply take it at face value. Knowing that he probably wouldn't.
She was right. He didn't.
"Seriously, come on, what is it?" He reached out to try and take the cloth from his sister. Pan jerked it away, but unfortunately the weight of the item inside shifted, and it fell out of the cloth.
Both of them stared at the newly revealed item on the floor, not quite knowing what to say. When someone finally did speak, it was Renn, in a very calm voice, with no hint of the anger and shock bubbling away underneath the surface.
"Pan, would you care to explain to me, in as few words as possible, just why the hell you have a gun in your possession?"
The sun glinted off of the metal of the revolver that now lay in the grass between them, as awkward minutes ticked by. A thick blanket seemed to lie in the air between them, suffocating all attempts to speak. At last, just as Renn was about to burst, Pan finally spoke.
"I think he's about to find me."
"What?!" Renn's eyes widened. The anger he'd felt only seconds ago was suddenly extinguished by shock, as he stared at her.
"You heard me. I think that man knows how I got out of Borginia, and now he's following the obvious leads. I don't know how much longer its going to be before he works out how I got back into the area." A hint of fear, unusual for Pan, crept into her voice as she spoke.
"So how long do you think you have until he makes a move?"
"I don't know. Oh god, I don't know. Shit, what am I going to do? I'm not going back. I simply am not. I'll die if I go back."
A very somber morning broke over them, holding very few promises of anything.