Chapter 4 #3
I was certain that Brody was leaving out a lot of information from his stories, and maybe even completely making some of them up.
Military service surely involved a lot more violence and danger, so he must have been cherry-picking only the most innocent events to tell me about.
Still, I listened eagerly and soaked up every word he said like a desperately dry sponge.
Not once in any of his stories was there a hint of romance between him and the other men. Magnus and Creed were clearly important to him, possibly even closer than brothers, but it was an entirely platonic relationship.
It also turned out that Magnus was already dating someone. The third man I’d seen around their home was named Trent, as I’d thought, and although he didn’t live on the property, he and Magnus had practically moved in together.
Brody completely supported the relationship despite it being between two men. While that didn’t mean he was necessarily gay, it at least meant he accepted of homosexuality.
That meant there was a chance.
A chance for what?
I still wasn’t sure, but I filed that information away for a closer examination later.
After a couple of hours of easy walking, the path began to tilt into a more drastic elevation.
Soon enough, we were staring at an almost vertical cliff.
It was traversable. There were obvious signs of people climbing it before, including several rungs that had been permanently hammered into the stone, but we wouldn’t be able to scale it on our own.
“I thought as much,” Brody said as he peered up at the top of the cliff.
“Mountain terrain is treacherous even under the best conditions. A lot of hiking paths around here require some form of climbing gear to traverse. Well, it’s good timing at least. We would have needed to turn back soon anyway in order to get back to town before nightfall. ”
“Uh huh,” I nodded, though I wasn’t really listening.
My mind was split into two places at once. I was here, with Brody, but at the same time I was also lost to the memory of facing the cliff wall for the first time. The two memories superimposed over each other until I couldn’t differentiate between past and present.
A sense of urgency struck me, just short of true panic.
I needed to move. I needed to keep going or they would…
They would what?
It didn’t matter. I had to keep going. The cliff required climbing gear, which I didn’t have, so that only left me one option. I’d have to go around.
I looked left and right. To the right, the land angled downward. It wasn’t steep, but it also wouldn’t help me get past the cliff.
I’d have to go left.
Without warning, I darted off the path and into the trees, using the rock wall as my guide and sticking close to the cliff. Sticks and leaf litter crunched under my feet as I ran. I didn’t know where I was going, yet at the same time it felt like a destination waited for me just ahead.
The sight of a particular rock formation brought my feet to a sudden stop.
It looked no different than the rest of the rocks around me, but something about it filled me with fear.
I could almost see someone appearing around the rock, lunging at me like they meant to attack.
It was just a shadow, a figment of what was no longer there, but I reared back in fear all the same.
My back hit the cliff wall, and I raised my arms to shield myself from an attack that never came.
It wasn’t real. These were just memories of what had already happened. They couldn’t hurt me.
The sound of approaching footsteps shattered my moment of clarity.
Someone was calling my name. They sounded angry. I really was being pursued.
Pushing off of the cliff wall, I kept running, this time heading straight into the forest away from the ominous rock formation.
With each step I took, the air grew darker around me until the air under the forest canopy looked like dusk in the middle of the day.
Small golden sunbeams occasionally broke through the leaves, illuminating roots and stones I needed to avoid.
It was like the forest itself was spurring me on, helping me keep running and put space between me and my pursuers.
There was no telling how long I ran. Minutes or hours, it all felt the same.
I began to grow tired. My breathing faltered and my steps slowed. I thought I was safe. I’d left my pursuers far behind and was safe within the labyrinth of the forest.
So, it was a surprise when, the moment I stopped running, something grabbed me from behind and forced me to my knees.
“What are you doing?” a familiar voice shouted in my ear. “Ellis. God damn it. You are the most self-destructive person I’ve ever met. Now answer me.”
I knew that voice. That voice was safe. The hand gripping the back of my neck was also familiar, and although it should have been threatening, it only brought a feeling of safety.
“B… Brody?”
The moment I spoke, all the anger left his body, and he crushed me to his chest in a tight hug.
“Hey. It’s all right. Whatever that memory was, it’s over now. I’m sorry I yelled. You just scared me.”
My cheek pressed against his chest and I automatically wrapped my arms around him to return the hug. Every inch of my body was shaking, and I panted so harshly I could taste blood. The scent of him, fresh cut cedar and bergamot aftershave, filled my nose and calmed my nerves with each breath.
“Someone was chasing me.”
“That was me. I’m sorry I scared you, but I couldn’t just let you run off alone.”
“No, I mean…” I pulled back just enough to look up at him. “I remembered someone chasing me. Before. They were bad people. I was… I was afraid, so I just kept running. Being back here, it was so similar that I couldn’t tell the difference between then and now.”
Brody’s arms around me tightened for a moment, before relaxing enough to let me pull away. “And I’m guessing that me chasing you at the same time didn’t help.”
“It did, actually.”
I stood up. My legs were shaky, but they held my weight. The forest around us opened onto a small clearing. Among the patch of unobstructed sunlight, a single familiar tree stood alone.
“If you weren’t chasing me, I wouldn’t have come this far. I think… I think this is where I stopped after I got away the first time. Look. I know that tree. I’ve seen it before.”
Small pink flowers and a wonky branch. It was exactly like I remembered.
I took a step toward the tree, but stopped and turned back to Brody, urging him to follow me. “I came into the forest to hide, but I was held up by the cliff. They caught up to me. The… bad people. I got away, but I decided it wasn’t safe. I had to hide it.”
Taking hold of my hand, Brody followed me into the clearing.
“Hide what?”
“It’s… something important.”
At the roots of the tree sat a patch of freshly disturbed soil. Everything pointed toward the fact that something had been buried here, but right on the verge of getting my answers, I froze.
Before all this, I remembered burying someone. Surely whatever lay beneath our feet couldn’t be a dead body.
Right?
I clearly remembered running here while being chased. I couldn’t have done that while carrying the weight of a person, dead or alive.
Shaking away my worries, I knelt before the tree and started digging with my bare hands. The area of disturbed soil wasn’t that big. Certainly not big enough to conceal a person.
Maybe my first memory had been wrong. Maybe I never buried anyone at all, and the memory had just gotten twisted in my mind.
Brody joined me, and together the two of us soon uncovered a small box.
It was plain, with no embellishments. There wasn’t even a hinge. The lid just sat loosely on the top. I could easily hold the whole thing in one hand, and it barely weighed anything at all.
“Well,” Brody nudged me. “Go on.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened the box.
Inside, sat a key.
It wasn’t secured by anything and rattled around loosely. Based on the sound alone, I could tell it was made from solid metal and seemed to be very old. About the size of my palm, it had intricate carvings on the handle and looked expertly crafted.
It also brought no memories at all. I remembered how desperately I’d run to get here, and how determined I’d been to hide the contents of this box, but when I looked at the key, I felt nothing.
This couldn’t be it. There had to be more.
As I was still processing my lack of reaction, Brody suddenly snatched the key from the box.
The little bit of metal looked ridiculously small in his large hands as he stared down at the key.
His mouth hung open, and his eyes were so wide I could see the whites all the way around his blue-green irises.
“Where did you get this?”
All I could do was shake my head, gaping at him silently like a suffocating fish.
He waved the key in my face, pointing at the carving on the handle. “Do you know what this is? It’s a poppy flower. This is Poppy Milford’s key.”
“Who’s that?”
“It’s—”
Before Brody could even begin to explain, he was cut off by the jarring sound of his cellphone ringing. It was a miracle he could even get cellphone reception out here, but since he lived in these mountains, he probably had some way to ensure he always had a signal.
The sound of his ringtone made Brody jolt in surprise. Still gripping the key in one hand, he answered his phone with the other, putting it on speaker so he wouldn’t have to hold it up to his ear.
“Magnus. What is it?”
“Brody,” Magnus’s voice rang clearly through the phone. “Whatever you’re doing, you need to get back here now.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“Creed—” Magnus’s voice broke and the phone suddenly went quiet.
Brody and I both checked the reception to make sure the call was still connected.
“Magnus,” Brody shouted into the phone. “Talk to me. What about Creed?”
Magnus’s voice wavered, but he managed to spit out the words.
“I just got a call. Creed’s gone missing.”