Taken Bride by Alta Hensley

14

Christopher

It’s been twenty-four hours since I arrived, and I’m going freaking crazy. Cabin fever is truly a real thing. The snow is falling softer now, but it dumped overnight and most of the day, and I’m not sure how easy hiking down the mountain is going to be for any of us. The women don’t have warm clothing, or at least not warm enough. They go out into the elements to collect wood with nothing but crocheted shawls over their thin dresses that hang off their narrow shoulders. At least they all seem to have rainboots to slip on and off when they do go out, but even those may not be good enough if we are sinking to our knees with every step.

Holly and Violet also seem to be malnourished, and though their strength and energy seem to be up, I still worry if they will have the stamina it will take to make it to the makeshift tarmac in the valley I was dropped off on.

The other concern I have is their respiratory system. Both women have a hack when they cough. Neither seems sick, but after staying in the chapel for one night, I clearly see the culprit. The fire is releasing too much smoke in the chapel. Though they have worked on a chimney of sorts, it’s neither completed nor all that effective. It’s blocking the snow from extinguishing the flames, but the amount of smoke now being trapped inside is downright dangerous. And based on their coughs… this is something they have been dealing with for a while.

Violet stands from where she’s been sitting and staring at the fire in silence for the entire day. “I’m going to get us some more wood.”

The rate we’ve been burning the wood to keep warm is keeping us up all hours and having to recollect to stoke the fire. And it’s going to be another cold one tonight.

“I’ll go,” I offer, needing to get up and stretch my legs anyway. Plus, my eyes are starting to burn from all the smoke.

She pauses, nods, then sits and stares at the fire some more. She has barely spoken since her conversation with me near the cliff. It’s very clear I am not one of her favorite people, and though I feel for her situation and am trying to be sensitive to her feelings, I will pick her up and carry her down the mountain if I have to if it means Ember agreeing to leave with me.

Ember has agreed, but I see her wavering. I think it depends on the moment for her. One second, she wants to run away with me this instant, but the next minute, she wants to stay with the sisters and feels obligated to keep them happy with whatever they need.

I’m scared that the longer we stay, the harder it will be to convince any of them to leave.

I walk over to Ember, who is peeling some potatoes, and kiss the top of her head. She stops to look at me. “Do you want some help?”

“I’m fine. It’s too cold for any of you to be out there without the proper clothing,” I say, reaching for my coat and hat hanging by the fire. “I’ll be right back.”

I need to check out the path I took up here to see if it’s even possible for us to leave anytime soon. I also reach for my satellite phone again in hopes that maybe, just maybe, I can get a signal.

I’m right in worrying about us sinking to our knees in snow, because the minute I walk out of the chapel, that is exactly what I do. I suppose it could be worse—it could be to our thighs.

Trekking through the snow, I walk all around the area with my arm up, hoping I can catch a signal if I just turn the right way. The snow has stopped falling for the time being, and the evening sky is peeking out from the clouds. Maybe it will warm up some, and the snow will start to melt tomorrow. I can’t even see where I hiked up, so I’d have to carve a new path for us, which I’m prepared to do.

Giving up on the phone, I pocket it and head toward the barn that is holding the firewood. When I make my way in that direction, I hear a rustling in the dense forest to my left. I freeze, wishing I had brought a weapon with me so I could hunt whatever animal is nearby. But when I steal a glance, I swear it’s not an animal I see. It’s human.

Whoever it is quickly scurries away, but I know without a doubt it isn’t a deer or a bobcat or any other woodland creature.

It’s them.

It has to be them.

They are watching. Waiting. Planning.

I run toward the edge of the forest, not truly thinking my actions through. I have absolutely nothing to defend myself with, but if it’s Richard or Scarecrow, I’ll kill them with my bare hands if I have to.

“Richard!” I shout toward the forest. “You fucking coward. Come out and face me! I know it’s you. Scarecrow? Can you hear me? I’m here with your wives! They’re mine now. Mine. Do you hear me? How does that make you feel? Get your one-legged shithead self out here and fight for what’s yours!”

Silence.

“Fucking cowards!”

Silence.

I run toward the exact location I saw the movement and don’t see any footsteps in the snow. But I do see disruption. They’re covering their tracks behind them as they run away. I know I can follow the tracks… and I may, but first I need to get back to the chapel and prepare the women. I also need to grab my gun that I packed. I didn’t plan on using it unless necessary, but if those assholes are here… it’s necessary.

Ember must have heard me shouting, because she comes running out of the chapel, wide-eyed and calling my name.

“Go back inside,” I say as I run toward her.

She doesn’t do as I ask until I reach her, but we both run inside together as I slam the door behind me.

“Richard and Scarecrow are here. They’re in the forest,” I say, winded from my run in the deep snow.

Holly and Violet both stand up quickly, panic on their faces.

“What? You saw them?” Ember asks, her hand over her mouth, terror in her eyes.

“No,” I say. “I didn’t get a good look, but I know there was someone.”

Holly and Violet look at each other and then back at me. “It could be an animal,” Holly suggests.

I charge toward my pack and pull out my gun, turning off the safety and preparing to use it. “It was a man. I know it was.”

“I swear I saw someone watching us too,” Ember says. “I worried it was them as well.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Violet says. “If it’s Richard and Scarecrow, why wouldn’t they come inside? Why would they stay in the woods with no shelter? Especially all night in a storm.”

“Because they’re insane! They’re sick motherfuckers with no rhyme or reason to what they do!” My voice booms throughout the chapel, and I realize I’m losing control.

I have to keep my control and wits about me to defeat them. I can’t let them get inside my head so that I make poor decisions. They’re playing a game of cat and mouse, but this time the mouse will tear the cat to shreds.

Violet runs to the window by the door and peers out. “I don’t see anything.”

Ember joins her to look. “I don’t think you should go out there. What if that’s what they want you to do? They might have guns too.”

“If they wanted to shoot me, they had the opportunity,” I say, marching to the door. “And if they were wise men, they would have. I’m not going to be afraid of those men and hide in this chapel. If they want a fight, I’m ready to give it to them.”

I run back toward the forest’s edge. My trek is easier this time with the adrenaline as well as running back across packed snow from where I was before. I run into the forest and follow the trail for as far as I can. I’m getting farther and farther into the thickness of the trees until I reach a creek, and then just like that, the trail is gone. I can’t tell where they went.

Gone.

The motherfuckers are gone.

I spin around and call out, “Are you watching me? Get a good look, fuckers. Look at the man who is going to bring you down. You can hide like the rats you are. But I’ll find you. I’ll find you!”

My voice bounces off the trees and seems to echo back at me.

Complete silence after that.

I don’t even hear a chirp of a bird.

“Christopher! Christopher!” I hear Ember’s voice calling from up near our shelter.

I know she’s got to be terrified, so without wasting another second taunting men who may or not be within earshot, I run back toward her.

When I see her, she appears frantic as she trudges through the snow toward me.

“They’re gone,” I say as I approach and take her into my arms.

She glances around me at the forest. “I swear I saw them too.” She’s winded from her run. “But why? It makes no sense that they’d stay out there. They could freeze to death.”

“I don’t know,” I reply as I lead her back to the warmth of the chapel. “But we need to get out of here as soon as we can. They’re planning something. I’m not going to just sit here and allow them to hunt us like prey.”

“Did you see anything?” Violet asks as we enter.

I shake my head. “They ran off.”

“How do you know it wasn’t an animal? We’re surrounded by them here.”

“I just know,” I answer.

“I agree with Christopher,” Ember says. “I still feel like I saw someone as well. My gut tells me it isn’t an animal out there.”

“You both don’t know this mountain,” Holly says. “We do.”

“And we know what is and what isn’t out there,” Violet adds.

They both look at each other, which sends alarm bells off inside me. It’s the second time they’ve given a knowing look to each other.

“What the fuck aren’t you telling us?” I ask firmly. “I can tell there’s something.”

Holly snaps her head toward Christopher as if prepared for an attack. “Excuse me?”

“I’ve seen you both looking at each other,” I say.

“I’ve felt like you may be keeping something from me as well,” Ember confesses. “You were quick to tell me what I saw was also an animal.”

“We just know Scarecrow wouldn’t stay out there. He doesn’t like to be uncomfortable. He wouldn’t allow us to be sitting by the fire while he’s out in the cold,” Violet cuts in.

She has a point, and it truly doesn’t make sense how Richard and Scarecrow could have survived last night in the snow. But maybe there is a hunting shack they know of and are hiding there. Regardless of their reasons, their thinking, or their sick plans, I know what I saw, I know what I feel, and I know there was a man watching. Not an animal, but a man.

And though I’m not going to push the issue anymore for right now, I also feel that Holly and Violet know something and are keeping it secret.

Holly hasn’t stopped glaring at me, and Violet is biting her nails so hard there may be nothing left when she’s done. I’m not going to apologize for my actions or my beliefs, and if I have to stand here watching them all day to get some answers, then I will. Eventually I’ll be able to read them and figure out what’s going on.

Ember must be picking up on the tension in the room, because she suggests, “It’s getting dark. Why don’t we settle in for the night, eat some potato soup I made, and go to sleep early.”

“You never got the firewood,” Violet says with a scowl. “I’ll go get it.”

I consider stopping her to go get it myself, but Holly adds, “I’ll help. We can chop some wood while we’re out there.”

Frankly, right now, I need them out of the chapel. I need a minute to breathe. I need a minute with Ember. And I need a minute to just process the madness that is presented before me.