Chapter 1 #2
I tried not to make too much noise, but it was hard to move quickly and silently, the gravel crunching loudly under my feet.
And honestly, I felt better moving fast. It wasn’t hard to get a bit of a jog headed down the incline, but I was already winded.
When was the last time I went for a run?
A year ago? Two? The last few years had consisted of nothing but work.
I should’ve made time to exercise, like my doctor told me. The extra pounds didn’t help.
As I made my way around a tight turn, a giant gust of wind pushed me back.
Everything around me shuddered. Trees bent dangerously in all directions.
To my left, the wind pushed some brush to the side, revealing a driveway leading up the mountainside.
So focused on being lost, I had missed it on the way up.
Seeing it now hit me with a flash of recognition, like I’d been here before, a bone-deep certainty, although this was my first trip to Tennessee.
Goosebumps rode my arms and crawled up my neck.
Another brisk gust blew through my thin clothing, and I changed course.
The steep incline of the driveway gave me an idea.
Maybe I didn’t have to walk back to civilization if I could get up high enough to snag a cell signal.
Matthew sounded desperate enough to come get me.
Plus, the tightly knit trees would shelter me from the wind.
The relief from this idea almost made my knees give out.
Good. New plan. I hiked with greater determination.
The pitch was steeper than anything I’d climbed before, the gravel loose, roots and ruts making the road impassable to anything without four-wheel-drive.
It didn’t look like anyone had driven up this path in years.
But this realization didn’t slow my steps.
Since I had my work phone, once I found a signal, they could trace my location.
Matthew would know where to look for me, and I could meet him at the bottom of the driveway.
My thigh muscles burned with each step, and I slipped quite a bit, but I felt pretty good about my plan. And if I triggered an alarm, well, then I would run back to the road, sit on my ass and slide if I had to, playing dumb about the break-in but able to flag the cops down on their way up.
Then there was the last scenario I tried not to think about—the one where the solitary owner, the kind who hated trespassers of all varieties, met me on the porch with a shotgun.
As I made my way up the driveway, huffing and puffing, doing my best to stay upright, I listened for other noises, signs I wasn’t alone.
Other than the racket I was making, it was quiet around me.
Too quiet. Eerie. The blackness beyond the phone’s flashlight felt impenetrable, and my skin crawled as if I were being watched by a hundred pairs of eyes.
If someone actually lived here, they didn’t make this trip often, not just based on the neglected condition of the road, but also from the angle.
The rental would have bottomed out way back.
The road eventually began to level, and I caught my breath as I came to a gate.
The stone wall rose taller than my head, but it had been worn down from its original height, no longer even on top.
Large chunks were missing, giving it a ragged, jack-o’-lantern’s smile.
On either side of the gate, perched on top of the wide posts, sat two hunched over gargoyles, facing the opening.
They stared down at me, sneers giving me an idea of how unwelcome I was by trespassing on their land.
But the gate hung crookedly off the top hinge, a further sign I was alone, and I’d always been curious.
Shame this old beauty had been left to crumble.
Gripping the stone pillar with my left hand for support, I swung my leg over the lowest corner of the old gate. Once I had cleared it completely, I dropped my bag and checked my phone. A single bar popped up and then died. SOS. Tempting, but I’d wait until I’d exhausted all options.
The driveway continued uphill, so I started climbing again.
The house loomed like a dark shadow in the distance, but my thighs ached, begging for rest. The creepy tingling at the base of my neck had blossomed into the feeling you get when you’re watching a horror movie, screaming at the screen from behind your fingers, go back, you idiot, go back.
My feet kept moving. As if once I stopped propelling them forward, I’d have a hard time getting them going again.
I should’ve turned around and headed back down to the highway. But the thought of the lonely trek down the mountain, with who knows how many miles of winding mountain road to hike before I found help in the middle of a dark night, seemed hopeless.
I would try this first. There had to be a cell tower somewhere. I trudged up the hill that led toward the house, grateful for the moonlight covering the world in its silver glow. At least I would see if something jumped out at me. Maybe.
The driveway turned and leveled out, finally giving me a better look at the structure.
It was a wide, stone creation, more fortress than house, complete with buttresses that were in style a millennium ago, and a bell tower.
I had never seen anything like this building in North America.
The outline resembled mountaintop monasteries I had seen in books, but those were all on other continents.
This one was too big to be a residence, and I doubted there was anything as modern as a phone line or even electricity.
There were no lights on, no signs indicating that anyone had come this way in the last century.
Maybe I had discovered an important, forgotten building? That could be worth the inconvenience of the last hour.
To the right of the building rose a large granite promontory.
It was shaped like a high mountain peak, a miniature Matterhorn, smooth in the moonlight, about twenty feet high.
Whoever built this old ruin had placed it in exactly the right spot, facing the natural stone sculpture.
The almost-full moon sat between the tower and the monolith.
If you could get past the creepiness of the setting, it was truly beautiful, in a gothic, make the hairs on the back of your neck stick straight up, kind of way.
I checked my phone again, dialing Matthew as soon as I saw I had a bar of service. Waiting for the line to connect, I looked at the granite peak, which no longer resembled the top of a mountain. Instead, it appeared to be changing shape.
That couldn’t be right. And yet, my eyes swore it was happening. A large boulder, the size of the bedroom in my dingy apartment, seemed to be spreading straight out, then curving up.
“Freya? Thank goodness. Where are you?” Matthew’s voice sounded distant, as if coming from the end of a tunnel.
And still, the earth kept shifting. The other side unfurled in the same way, making what had looked like a stone mountain top appear more like a dragon with wings spread.
Except, as the tip of the mountain transformed in front of my eyes, while it resembled a dragon in overall shape, the body was that of a large man.
On top of the humanoid figure sat a wide, horned head, more at home on the devil than anything that walked this earth.
It turned to look down at me; iridescent cat-eyes blinked once. The phone fell out of my hand.
What are you doing here? How dare you trespass on my land? His voice sounded in my head, ringing through me like the peal of a bell straight from the bowels of hell. My knees knocked together, and the cold sandwich I had eaten on the plane jumped into my throat.
“I was just calling for help. My car broke down at the bottom of the hill.” What was I doing? This ancient monster probably didn’t even know what a phone was.
You cannot be here, not now.
“I-I…”
He flexed his wings, clanging like giant cymbals in the still night.
I took a few steps back. He bent his knees and with one loud snap of his twenty-foot wings flew down, landing a few feet in front of me.
The moon broke through the clouds, illuminating him in silver.
Outlining each muscular ridge of his broad chest, strong arms, alien face.
He towered over me, this creature out of a nightmare, staring into my soul as if he could see each flaw, every judgment I had passed while trying desperately to fit in somewhere.
You chose the worst time to be here, but your timing has always been terrible. He reached down toward me, and I tripped, falling so hard I felt it in all my joints.
Swallowing bile, I looked up at him, trying to crawl backwards as the gravel tore the skin from my palms. He leaned down to get a better look at me, giant fangs dipping out from under his scowling lips, like a monstrous shadow here to pronounce judgment.
My life didn’t flash in front of my eyes, but some of my most recent mistakes sure did.
“I’m not who you think I am,” I tried, in case it would help me get out of this.
I can’t deal with you tonight, maybe not even for a while, but what should I do with you in the meantime?
And the world went dark.