5. Autumn
Iwoke up warm and laying on the most comfortable bed I had slept on in my whole entire life.
I definitely wasn’t tied up to the tree anymore and I certainly wasn’t laying on any of the pallets in the encampment.
We didn’t have such luxuries as soft mattresses. If you wanted to make a better bed for yourself you were always welcome to gather grass and leaves and make your own bed from that. I had had something similar to that, but still it was nowhere anything like this.
This is what I imagined sleeping on the softest of clouds felt like. I briefly wondered if I had died and gone to heaven because this felt lovely and nothing in my life ever really felt lovely before. Heaven was supposed to feel lovely, right?
My community taught that it wasn’t but that we went back into the earth to be born anew after there was nothing left of our bodies anymore.
I always wondered about worms feasting on your remains. Worms really grossed me out for some reason. I think it might have to do with being pooped on once when I was younger.
I opened my eyes and immediately shut them again. I had no idea where I was at. I just knew I had never been any place like it before.
What in the holy hell had been done to me in the woods? Had I hit my head and damaged my poor brain?
“You can relax, Autumn. You’re safe here with this coven. They’ve been taking care of you for over a week now. We’ve just been waiting for you to wake up.”
Excuse my language but what in the actual fuck?
I hadn’t even noticed there’d been someone in the dang room with me.
And what coven was he talking about?
How had I gotten here?
A whole week, he’d said? I wracked my brain. My brain gave me no good answers in response.
I had no idea who this man was, where I was, or how I’d gotten here. I just knew that I was no longer in the woods and amongst my own people.
I had seen people, they hadn’t been my magical wilderness creatures, but maybe they actually had been real people after all and not just figments of my imagination. And they’d clearly taken me with them.
This was not good. How was I supposed to find my way back home again? Did I really even want to go back home again?
I wasn’t so sure that was the right choice for me. Those people clearly didn’t want me there. Did I want to be somewhere I wasn’t wanted and constantly abused?
There had to be more to life than that. At least I hoped there was for someone like me.
I opened my eyes and looked around the room again.
I found the man this time. He was sitting in a chair in front of a window with the blinds closed. He was semi hidden in shadow and I was willing to bet that’s why I had missed him on my first look around the room and also something he’d done on purpose for just that reason.
He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his chin resting in his hands. His dirty blonde hair was tucked back behind his ears and his moss green eyes were gentle and solely on me.
“My name is Rain Kimber,” he said in a gravelly voice. “I’m friends with the coven who removed you from the woods. I am actually the one who sent them in there to check on the situation. Can you tell me a little about your life, Autumn. And I’d really like to know how it was that you became tied up to that tree and bleeding from an alarming amount of wounds on your body. Wounds that weren’t inflicted by you but clearly by someone else who meant to hurt you. I’d like to hear all about that, if you don’t mind.”
I shrunk into myself and wrapped my arms around my chest. I did mind, actually I didn’t know this man at all and we were taught to never speak to outsiders.
It was against the rules to speak with him about what he wanted me to. I didn’t know why I cared, they were probably going to kick me out of the community when they figured out I had disappeared. That place was so backward it wasn’t even funny.
I had no idea why I even wanted to be loyal to them at all when they’d gone out of their way to leave me there to die. But there were some good people who lived there who didn’t deserve anything bad happening to them. I couldn’t go against those people, I didn’t have it in me. Apparently I was stupidly loyal.
His eyes shifted over my shoulder and I felt something loosen inside of me now that his focus was no longer directly on me.
Sheesh. He was freaking intense.
I could take no more of it, I’d easily crack under the pressure. I was no match for this man. And he’d barely even said anything to me yet. I hoped he didn’t try to grill me because I’d either go down fast and hard or I’d set the whole room ablaze with my magic when I panicked and I really did not need to have to explain that one to anyone.
His eyes shifted back to me. Very intense indeed.
“You’re not much of a talker, are you, kid? That’s okay. From the looks of it and how they tell me they found you it sounds like you’ve really been through the ringer and back. I don’t blame you for not trusting easy or not wanting to talk. Tough chick. You remind me of both my daughter and my significant other, my coven”s female witch. They’re both as tough as they come. You’re in good company with them.”
He was so very wrong about me. I absolutely was not a tough chick and I had no idea why he’d even think that in the first place. This man did not know me and had no business making judgment calls about me whatsoever.
“My daughter’s married to all the men in her coven but she’s been to hell and back several times over. My sister kidnapped her when she was little and my wife died not long after. I spent years trying to find her and all that while she was being abused by own goddamn flesh and blood. She was lucky enough to find her coven on her own but that wasn’t where her trip to hell ended. Not by a long shot. She’s younger than you but she’s one of the strongest people I’ll likely ever meet in my whole life.”
I stared at him with wide eyes and rapt attention. I did not understand why he was telling me these things but I’d really like to learn more about his daughter if he was willing to tell me about her. Her life sounded fascinating to me. Almost like she were a heroine from a novel and I adored books. I just didn’t get a chance to get my hands on them often. I was lucky I had been taught how to read at all.
“I imagine you’re a bit like my daughter,” he mused quietly.
It was doubtful. His daughter not only sounded brave but she was obviously a very well loved young woman. I was neither of those things. I had never ever been compared to someone with bravery before. I’d never been brave myself before, and I had never, not once, been loved before in my whole entire life.
This man was intense, this was true, but he had no idea what the hell he was talking about. I was happy for him that his daughter sounded like a cool chick though. A cool chick who’d clearly been through a whole lot.
I was nothing like that. He was, unfortunately, mistaken.
He sighed heavily, like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. I honesty had no idea why he was bothering to tell me any of this. And maybe I really didn’t need to know any of it in the first place. It wasn’t any of my business.
“And, my significant other, well, the female one… you see, we’re a bit of an odd coven, all about the love. And there’s a whole lot of love to go around between all of us. Well, we’ve all been through a whole lot, myself included. But, our female? Her entire family was murdered by people who’s entire purpose in this life is to murder witches. She was the sole survivor. Where she ended up after that was with people who tortured her and she is very lucky to be alive.”
Yeah, I wasn’t so sure he should be telling me any of this because none of it was any of my business and it was all really horrible. Or, at least it sounded like it had been.
I wished he’d stop talking immediately. I didn’t ask him to because that would be rude. He kept speaking anyway and at this point I wondered if he was actually talking to me or simply speaking because there were things he needed to get off his chest. Who better to tell your secrets to than a stranger?
“She ended up with the Council. Have you ever heard of them before? Well, they abused her, drowned her, and left her in a hole to die. She came to my daughter in a dream and I went and fished her out of her hole.”
Holy moly. If he didn’t stop over sharing and soon I might actually have to be bold and tell him to because I didn’t want to hear anymore about this poor girl I didn’t even know.
But, really, there were some things you just shouldn’t share with strangers and I felt like every single thing coming out of his mouth was one of those things. And, really, why was he sharing them with me in the first place, what did he get out of it? We were strangers, he’d just met me and all he knew about me was my name. A name I hadn’t even told him.
“You’re really not a talker, are you?”
I looked over at him to find him staring right at me.
He wasn’t wrong. I tended to observe or day dream more than I ever talked.
But none of that would have mattered where he was concerned because this man was no-one to me and, again, we were not supposed to converse with strangers.
“When you’re ready to talk I’ll be here ready to listen. I will tell you that winter is coming on fast and what I’ve been able to observe from them already they’re quickly running out of food and the ground is blackened with something foul, nothing will ever grow there again. The younger men are somewhat bullies and they are starting to turn against everyone else. Pretty soon they’re going to overthrow and overrun everything and everyone.
“I don’t know what exactly happens after that but I can guess, and if you’d like me to I’d be more than happy to fill you in. But I bet you’re not going to like hearing about any of it. I also would like to know if I should expect to find anymore innocent people tied to trees so I can have the guys keep an eye out for them.”
That was a whole lot of information I hadn’t expected to hear out of him but given how much he’d shared already about the women in his life maybe I should have.
What was going to happen to my sweet friend Plume if those idiots were allowed to carry on how they were? She was so old and fragile, I worried she didn’t have much time left as it was. I’d never forgive myself if something bad happened to her. She was by no means my responsibility and we weren’t family. But she’d been my only friend, and that meant something to me. I desperately wanted for the sweet old woman to be safe.
But it had been ingrained in me for so long not to ever talk to outsiders.
No matter how hard I tried to open my mouth it just didn’t seem to want to work.
I shook my head at him sadly.
What the hell was wrong with me?
“It’s alright, sweetheart. You’re safe here. You don’t have to be afraid while you’re here. Or ever again, for that matter.”
He was wrong.
There was always something for a witch like me to be afraid of.