Chapter Six – Thea
Chapter Six
Thea
I made a second stop later and ate another sandwich and an apple. I wasn’t feeling hungry, what with the nerves constantly roiling in my gut, but I forced myself to eat. I drank water and was back on the hike in no time. The terrain was getting steep. I’d begun to climb.
I realized it was late evening when I could barely see a few feet ahead. It had gotten dark, and I hadn’t even noticed. I’d been too focused on putting one foot in front of the other and breathing calmly, evenly, so I wouldn’t freak out every time I saw a critter scurrying in the underbrush. I checked myself for ants and any other insects often, brushing my fingers through my hair countless times to make sure no spider had fallen from some tree and decided to stay.
I had a sleeping bag, but the idea of sleeping outside was terrifying to me. My father had prepared me for this. When Matthew and I were little, our dad tried to bond with us by taking us camping. It worked with Matthew. It didn’t work with me because I always preferred to stay home. We had a fight once because Dad couldn’t understand why I always refused him. He was trying so hard. He was busy with his job, he rarely had time for us, and when he wanted to take us camping, I refused to go. I couldn’t tell him then. Because I didn’t understand it myself. I just knew that the thought of being out in nature made me feel ill.
The day before, my father had pulled me aside and hurriedly explained everything I needed to know. He went through all the things in my backpack with me, and I paid attention to the best of my ability. But it was one thing to learn about camping in theory, and another to do it. Did I regret not going with him and Matthew when I was little? Yes. Dearly. But I seemed to be the kind of person who would always regret doing or not doing something. Here I was now, regretting having said yes to Soren Sinclair and his stupid ritual that wasn’t a ritual at all. It was more like something that would get me killed.
Could I sleep under the open sky tonight? I would have to.
I kept walking, postponing the moment when I’d have to stop, choose a spot, and take out my sleeping bag. Dad had also taught me how to make a fire, and as nervous as I was about that, I’d have to give it a shot, because it was starting to get chilly. Plus, I had three cans of soup, one for each day, and I needed a warm meal in my belly. The sandwiches, as delicious as they’d been, had me appreciating our personal chef and her exquisite meals like never before.
I just wanted to be home, in my bed, reading a book. Was that too much to ask? Yes, it was. Matthew had screwed up, and I was doing this to save him. I had no idea what he’d done, as Dad had said it was better if I didn’t know, but I was ready to help him in any way I could. If this was the way – marrying Sinclair – then I wasn’t going to complain about it. Too much.
By not telling me what Matthew had done, Dad was protecting me. Anyway, I doubted what my brother had done was so preposterous. He was a good guy. Before he got into drugs, he was the best guy I’d ever met. He could still be that person, once he got clean.
It was proper dark now, and I had yet to find a place to sleep. To soothe myself, I began to sing. In a small, quiet voice, I sang my favorite songs from the Disney cartoons I grew up with. It helped a little. As I walked, squinting to see in the dark, I got the feeling that I wasn’t the one choosing my path anymore, and the path was choosing me, because the vegetation was moving and whispering in such a way that it was guiding me in a specific direction.
It must’ve been my imagination. The forest wasn’t alive. It was only a little bit louder than during the day. It was a miracle I wasn’t freaking out. My absolute luck was that I wasn’t afraid of the dark. Afraid of nature? Yes. Afraid of the dark? Not really. I saw light and darkness as a change of perspective. The world was the same.
It was as if a path was clearing before me. I followed it, unsure whether I was still going in the right direction. I had a flashlight, so I took it out and inspected the map for a minute. Yep, just as I’d thought, I’d veered a little bit to the east, and I’d have to turn back. Well, it wasn’t my fault it was easier to walk this way. I looked up, and just as I was getting ready to turn around, I noticed something in the short distance. It looked like... a cabin?
A shack, maybe. It was made of wood, and it was close enough that it was worth checking out. If it was empty – which I hoped it was – then it was better than sleeping under the stars.
I reached the wooden construction, and indeed, it was a small cabin. The door was unlocked, and I stepped in. There was one room. No bathroom, and the couch had seen better days. It was so worn out that I had no intention of sleeping on it. There were two inches of dust on every surface. The furniture was sparse, and half ruined, but there was a small fireplace that I could use.
I dropped my backpack on the floor and chose a spot in front of the fireplace. The cabin was dirty beyond belief, but I was going to suck it up. I took out my sleeping bag and laid it out, then made the fire like my father had taught me. I opened the can of soup and heated it up. After the day I’d had, this soup was the best meal of my life. I couldn’t remember anything tasting so amazing.
I was exhausted. Which was a good thing, since that meant I would fall asleep fast and stay asleep until dawn. This cabin was a blessing. I couldn’t believe my luck. I took off my boots and slipped inside the sleeping bag, keeping my backpack and my flashlight close. The fire was slowly turning to embers in the fireplace. I wasn’t feeling cold anymore, nor hungry. As I drifted off, I actually thought to myself that I wasn’t doing too badly. I’d survived the first day in a place that terrified me like none other. After this whole thing was over, I was going to emerge stronger than ever. Maybe my phobia would be cured! Trial by fire, but hey! Worth it.
“Good night,” I whispered. To whom? To myself, or my backpack, or to the forest itself, which hadn’t eaten me alive. Who cared? These were extraordinary circumstances. I was allowed to talk to myself.
I must’ve been sleeping for an hour or more. It was impossible to tell. I was woken up by noises outside the door, and I lay still in my sleeping bag, listening and trying to figure out what it was. Wild animals? There was no lock on the door, but I’d secured it well enough by placing a rotten chair under the doorknob. I hoped it wasn’t too rotten, and if whatever animal was outside tried to get in, the chair would stop it.
I wasn’t a complete idiot. I knew how to take the most basic security measures.
The noises stopped for a moment, then started back up. They sounded like... footsteps. Like someone was walking towards the cabin, slowly and intentionally, and twigs were snapping underneath their soles.
I sat up and gently slid out of the sleeping bag. I had no weapons with me. As I pushed myself to my feet, flashlight in hand, I cursed my own stubbornness. Dad had tried to give me a gun. I didn’t like guns. They frightened me, and I was convinced that if I touched one, I would just shoot myself in the foot. Dad had laughed when I told him, but it was no joke. I was that terrified of guns. He’d mumbled something under his breath in the vein of he didn’t know how I was even his daughter, then dropped the subject.
Now, here I was, in a terribly dangerous situation, with nothing to defend myself. The footsteps sounded louder and louder, until whoever was out there stopped in front of the door. The doorknob rattled. My heart skipped a beat, and I took a step back, looking around me for anything that I could use as a weapon.
Why did I think whoever was out there wanted to hurt me? Well, it was the middle of the night, and I was in someone else’s cabin. Even if the place looked like it hadn’t been inhabited in at least ten years.
The doorknob rattled again. I heard a muffled curse, then the person started slamming their body into the door. I covered my mouth with my hand. There was a window to my right. If I broke the glass, I could go through it. The door was not an option for me anymore. The chair that was holding it closed gave in, breaking into a hundred splinters, letting the intruder inside.
I screamed.
“Oh, you’re loud.” A woman’s voice. “There, there... I’m here to talk, nothing else.” I saw the glint of a knife in her hand.
She was tall, athletic, dressed in black from head to toe. She had her head and face covered, so I didn’t recognize her. I didn’t recognize her voice, either.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“I just told you,” she said. “We’re going to have a quick chat.” She took a few steps towards me, waving the knife.
It didn’t look like a chat was what she wanted. I moved closer to the window, bracing myself for when I’d have to break it with my elbow.
“Thea, is it?” she said.
“Who are you?”
“I’m not here to answer your questions. I’m here to give you a message. Go back. You’re unworthy of the Master, so just go back to where you came from. We don’t want you.”
“What are you talking about?”
Who was this Master? Was she insane? I would’ve thought she’d confused me with someone else, but she’d said my name.
“Are you listening, Thea? Pack your stuff and fuck off.”
Maybe because I wasn’t reacting the way she wanted me to, she closed the space between us, knife first. I didn’t wait to see what she’d do next. I bolted towards the window, broke it, and climbed out, tearing my clothes in the process. I felt the glass pierce my skin, but there was so much adrenaline coursing through my veins that I didn’t feel the blood.
I landed on the ground with a thump and didn’t stop to think about how I was getting myself all dirty. I jumped to my feet and started running.
It was dark. I couldn’t see a thing. I slammed into a tree and fell. When I tried to get up, the strangest thing happened. There were branches and vines all around me. It was as if the tree had caught me in a cage.