Instruments of Mortals, page 4
CHAPTER 10
Raven
What Aunt Naomi didn't realize when she pulled that stunt on me is that she'd ignited a part of me that she hadn't expected. I’m sure she had thought she’d shattered my will, well and truly; that I would be nothing but an empty husk that she could bend to her every whim. She hadn’t realized I had reached my breaking point — but then, neither had I, until I’d crossed that threshold.
I waited until my aunt and my bratty cousins left for church that Sunday morning, I'd told her I wasn't feeling well so I could stay home. I figured it wasn't exactly a lie. I wasn't feeling well, I hadn't been feeling well ever since I moved in that house. She must have taken the palor of my skin and hollowness of my eyes as a sign of sickness, rather than the lack of sunshine and proper nourishment that it truly was, as she had left without much complaint, apart from rambling about how stupid I was for getting sick and how much I deserved it.
I'd stolen an extra copy of the car key I'd found and replaced it with a fake one so she wouldn't notice. I kept that key hidden for weeks for just such an occasion when I could get away. I'd arranged to meet Ethan at a diner in the middle of the forest promptly at 10 am. Yes[12], Ethan. Did you think she really could keep the two of us apart? Never doubt the ferocity of forbidden teenage love, or the lengths we’d go to be together.
"I'll protect you," he promised me in the hall as he pulled me closer.
I tried to pull away, looking all around to try and spy who was watching us, but he pulled me even closer, kissing my lips. "If she did something to you, I'll kill her."
The sincerity and intensity in his voice made me believe he'd do anything for me. I spoke before I had even thought to. "I've got to get out of there."
"I know, beautiful baby. That's why I'm going to help you."
"But will you go with me?" I asked.
He hesitated for a second, his eyes dancing. "For you? Anything."
Yes, so maybe I did steal my aunt's other car to get away. I would leave it at the diner, so she could find it. I'd just gotten my driver's[13] license, thank God, and that was only because I'd convinced my aunt that it would give me the chance to do more work for the house.
I was so nervous, my hands shook as I snuck out the back door so the nosy neighbors couldn't see what I was doing. "Just calm down, Emma," I told myself. "Everything's going to be all right. You are going to get out of here ... alive and besides, Ethan is going to be with you every step of the way."
I sighed and smiled for a second as I looked at myself in the mirror. A raspy laugh breezed through the house and I took that as a clue to get the heck out there.
I looked at my watch as I waited in the diner parking lot, it was 10:17 am. Ethan was almost 20 minutes late and I was getting nervous.
"Ethan, where are you?" I said, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel.
This was a small town and all it took was for somebody to notice me here and they'd tell my aunt.
I text messaged him with our secret code. We used Disney characters to communicate. I know it's dumb, but it was the only way we could assure that if my aunt got a hold of my phone again, that she wouldn't be able to decipher what we were saying.
"Come on, come on ..." I said.
I scrolled through the last few messages he'd sent me, wondering if I'd missed one.
Ethan: Did Cruella let you out?
Me: I'm free. See you at 10.
Ethan: I'll be there.
Yet he wasn't here and I was getting antsy. He only lived five minutes from here, if anything, he should have beaten me here. I was tempted to call him, but I didn't have any minutes left on my phone. A heavy fog settled in to the area and it was freezing cold. I resisted the urge to turn the car back on, fearful of drawing attention to myself. My body heat fogged up the windows. Where was Ethan?
Bang-bang-bang! The sudden noise on my driver's side window startled me and I clutched my chest.
I could see the figure of a man outside my window and smiled. I felt flooded with relief, knowing that my wait was over. It must have been him. As I rolled down my window, my smile faded, and the relief I felt was horrifically short lived, as it always was.
"Emma Raven Ward?" the man said, scowling at me. I recognized the police officer as our local deputy.
"Yes, Officer Petersen?" I said, swallowing around the lump in my throat. The dread crept into the car with the cold and the fog, and it felt like my head was swimming for the damp chill that was rapidly settling in my bones.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
Chapter 11
Raven
Everyone was so nosy in this town. That was one of the reasons why I hated it. Everyone was in each other's business and I wanted no part of it. Case in point, Officer Petersen. He had to be at least 500 pounds of annoyance. He tucked his shirt over his beer belly and rapped again on my window with his flashlight. "Aren't you supposed to be in church, young lady?" he asked, squinting his eyes.
"Um, I wasn't feeling well so-" I stammered, my grip tightening on the wheel.
"Seems like you made a miraculous recovery." He retorted snidely, his lip curling back in obvious displeasure.
"Praise the Lord," I said offering a smile, as I pushed up my drooping glasses from the end of my nose. Everything I could do to look meek, bookish, and unassuming, I did, in the vain hope that he would believe I was just an innocent, docile student that wasn’t plotting to run away.
"Does your aunt know you're out here right now?" Officer Peterson asked, his frown deepening. I could hear the leather of his utility belt creak as he leaned closer into the window.
"Oh, I ... wanted to pick up a few things," I said. Not that it was any of his business, but if I could keep his suspicions down long enough for Ethan to show up, that'd be great.
"Well, nothing's open you know. It's Sunday. Everybody's in church, like you should be young lady."
"Oh, you're totally right about that, Officer. Well, I guess I better head back home then," I said, and cursed the way my voice squeaked. "Thanks." I tried to roll up my window, but he gripped it hard before I could.
"What are you up to, young lady?" he asked, beady eyes narrowing even further in suspicion of me.
"What? Why? I told you already," I said, annoyed but trying to keep as polite as I could to avoid any drama. I was cold for far more reasons than the weather, with how tightly fear gripped me.
"You know it's not safe here alone," he said. I wanted to roll my eyes. The adults were paranoid out here. All these rumors about missing girls had been permeating for decades and I didn't take any of the stories seriously.
"You wait right here," he said. As he walked away, I sighed, and as the tension left my body I forced my hands to let go of the steering wheel to look at my phone to see if Ethan had responded yet.
I had one message.
Ethan: Sorry, I overslept.
I was furious. I texted him fast as I could as I watched the officer reach into his patrol car and pull out his radio.
Me: Hurry up. There's a cop here asking me questions.
Ethan: Cop? Can we do this another day? My TV show is coming on in a few minutes.
TV show? Seriously? My life was at stake, and that was his priority? I was furious. Forget it. I should have known I couldn't count on him. Thunder rumbled and small beads of rain beat on my car roof. Just what I needed, bad weather on top of everything. I tossed my phone in the back as my attention was drawn to the officer's voice. I strained to hear it through my still open window.
"Yeah, you working near the church? Can you go and let Naomi know her teenage niece is out here using her car?"
My blood ran cold. Oh, my God. I freaked out. The windshield fogged even more as I began to hyperventilate. If my aunt found out, not only would she lock me up forever, but she'd leave me with marks and bruises all over my body where no one would find them. My hands shook with panic. He reached back in, putting his radio back then started walking toward my car.
I had a choice. Wait for him to arrest me or escort me back to the house, or escape while I had the chance. It was now or never.
I turned the key in the ignition and the car squealed and stalled in protest.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked, huffing and puffing and he tried to jog toward me. I didn't have time to explain, I turned the ignition again and it squealed again. He was getting closer and he was reaching for his gun. I could see his sausage fingers fumbling with the snaps on his gun’s holster. "Freeze," he puffed, red in the face.
I closed my eyes, said a little prayer and turned the ignition again. "Please, please" I hissed desperately. The engine roared and I set the car in drive mode, peeling out of the parking lot as fast I could, almost backing into him in the process.
He pointed his gun at me and as I saw him in the rearview mirror I prayed I could leave fast enough before he got in his car and chased after me.
Chapter 12
Raven
I weaved in and out of traffic, through the winding roads and up and down the hills, I checked my rearview mirror. Officer Petersen's siren blasted as he chased after me. I had no choice. I tried to convince myself that I had no choice, and really, considering the alternative would be accepting whatever hellish punishment Aunt Naomi would deem fit for me, considering how small the chance of ever tasting freedom would be if I stopped, I had only two options, as far as I was concerned: liberty, or death. If I died while fighting for my freedom, so be it. Either way, no one was hurting me anymore. Either way, I would be free.
I tried to even out the car’s treads, but my hands were shaking, my sweaty palms slick against the leather of the steering wheel. Even with the vice-like grip I had on it, my hands slipped every now and then with the sharper maneuvers I was doing. The pouring rain didn't help matters, making the already treacherous road more slippery. As much as I tried to obey the traffic laws where I could for safety, I had to more or less force most of those lessons out of my head and just focus on survival, on the stretch of road directly ahead of me rather than the pavement — and the predator — I was putting behind me.
I'd only gotten my license a few months ago, after begging and pleading with my horrid aunt. Trying to get permission to do anything was a dancing game that I was never any good at. She’d only capitulated when she realized I could do more of her errands if I could drive by myself, and if it was an opportunity to heap more responsibilities onto me, then she couldn’t resist, even if it meant giving me some form of independence.
As I sat behind the wheel of the car driving faster than the recommended speed limit, I realized I was not a very good driver, either. My hands were clamped onto the steering wheel, white knuckles and all, as the windshield wiper slashed back and forth at the blinding rain. My visibility was only marginally improved for that effort in the torrential downpour that was pelting against the glass. Windshield wipers do astonishingly little for clearing fog, however, and so my problem remained.
None of that mattered. I had to get away, even if I didn't know where I was going, there was no way I could stop. Not now. I had already gone too far. If the police were to catch me now I would have wounds and bruises that would never heal. I would probably be stuck inside the house until I shriveled up and died. My aunt would most likely outlive me at that point.
Swinging right then left, my aunt's car squealed in protest as I scraped against the railing. The screeching and scraping was the only thing keeping me from falling off the cliff. I regained control just in time for the lights around me to start to dim.
An eerie, thick mist had settled in front of me, making it nearly impossible to see. It seemed almost supernatural for how rapid its onset was, how rapidly it blinded me to everything in front of me but the hood of my car. I had to slow down. I should have slowed down, but I couldn't. They would catch me. She would hurt me. Panic dictated my actions at that point, though I realized that it had been dictacting most of my life, up until that moment anyhow. I might as well see this through to the end, panicking all the while. I stepped on the gas pedal harder and felt the acceleration[14] in my veins. It was at least more than the panic, more than the dread that I had lived with all my life until then.
My back window was completely fogged up, but I could see the muted blue and red colors of the cop lights as I looked back just for a second. I wiped the fog from the windshield with my sleeve so I could see what was in front of me.
Big mistake, I realized a few seconds too late, as I finally could see more of the road and something or someone ran in front of me. The brakes squealing, I swung the steering wheel sharply to avoid it, but my back wheel got caught on something sending me into a spiral.
Spinning wildly with the velocity of the spiraling car, I felt the car crash against something, ending its spinning. I fumbled with the seatbelt and the door as I tried to get out, but the crash had done more than just damage the car; it had thrown the car off the road, past the point where the divider would have stopped me from going over the edge, and the next thing I knew, my aunts car with me still inside was now tumbling down the cliff below.
Chapter 13
Raven
Where was I? Was I dead? I tried to remember, but it was like my mind was full of cobwebs, trapping my thoughts before they could reach me. My body felt like it was made of lead, with my head floating somewhere slightly above it. The more I focused, the more I felt things fall into place around me. I was in a car accident, that much I knew. I swallowed hard and felt the taste of blood. Blood? As my eyes cracked open I could feel my jaw tighten[15] in objection. Blinking back the fuzziness and the shadows, I tried to get my bearings.
My body was weak, my head was throbbing as if someone was continuously hitting me in the head with a bat. I reached for my head and tried to move but I felt the resistance of something smooth but firm wrapped around my arm— something was restraining me. I couldn’t smell the forest, I couldn’t smell the rubber of tires or gasoline that I was expecting. The air smelled somewhat sterile; almost antiseptic; but there was also a faint musky, sweet stench in[16] the room.
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I could make out what looked like a hospital room, or was it a bedroom. It was difficult to tell is such dim light. It was not any room I recognized. Even as dark as it was, I could tell the walls were too white and there were no posters or pictures on the wall that resembled my own room.
My eyes began to blink rapidly, as if my mind was being tricked, but nothing changed. I laid there for a moment in silence until I heard a weird metallic sounding noise. The sound of metal scraping on something, the shrill shhhhing triggered something I could only half remember, but it was enough to flash me back to that tense moment in the car running from the police, and then something running out in front of the road.
A grunt came from beside me and I turned to look in that direction. Someone who's back was to me sat nearby, a guy, but[17] hairy, so hairy.
My voice cracked as I asked in a gravelly tone, "Is ... where am I?"
He snapped his neck in my direction. The sudden move startled me. He moved so fast. It was something in the way he did it that made it seem so non-human, but then again, maybe I was hallucinating. Maybe I was on medications after the accident. It was an accident, wasn't it? I must be in the hospital or something, I tried to tell myself. It helped me cope with the fact that I was still tied down to the bed.
As he rose, he stepped further into the darkness and it seemed almost as if he consumed the shadow he melted into; I swore it looked as if he grew 10 feet tall, broader, stronger, hairy. The deeper into the dark he dwelled the more abstract his form became until he was little more than a pair of glinting eyes peering at me from within the void. There was a chill in the air and my heart thumped in a low, quick pound that I felt could be heard for miles. There was rumbling, growl that vibrated the room.
"Can I ... Is someone there?" This couldn't be real. This man was so hairy, so giant, and so, so scary.
The man — or monster, didn’t say anything, only stood in the darkness and looked. He was watching me. I couldn’t bare to stare at him for any longer and my eyes flinched as I scrambled to look elsewhere. Another bad idea, I looked at my body and saw straps across my chest and legs. There were more than just the ones on my arms. I furtively tested how tight they were. The straps weren’t rough, but looked and felt too sturdy to break out of.
I looked around and saw a small table beside the bed that I was restrained to. Tiny sharp knives were laid out, shimmering in the moonlight that streamed from the small window above me; some were soaked in blood. A lump caught in my throat and choked me up until my eyes started to water. I looked where else.
My eyes wandered into another direction in search of something easier to cope with seeing, and when I found more macabre doctor’s equipment, I wished I hadn’t. I saw jars filled with liquid and floating objects. It was like a real-life version of a horror movie, I thought distantly as the shapes trapped in the unidentifiable liquid became clearer. Are those body parts? Hands, eyeballs, ears ... My stomach turned and my throat was no longer in lumps. That was puke stirring around now.
My thoughts immediately went to the rumors of girls missing in the woods. No, Raven. That is just a myth. A story for kids. Though my mind when to it anyways. For decades, or so I was told, girls my age had been disappearing in the town, never to be found again. Nothing. Not even their cars.
I thought it was only a tall tale the grown-ups told us to keep us from going out too late in the woods, but now I wasn't so sure. Recently before I came to town, they'd found the remains of a girl and ever since then, the rumors had heated up more.
They were the first remains ever found and it took them an entire week to establish who the victim was. That only poured gasoline on the flames of imagination, as everyone wondered what the poor girl looked like when they found her.
Raven
What Aunt Naomi didn't realize when she pulled that stunt on me is that she'd ignited a part of me that she hadn't expected. I’m sure she had thought she’d shattered my will, well and truly; that I would be nothing but an empty husk that she could bend to her every whim. She hadn’t realized I had reached my breaking point — but then, neither had I, until I’d crossed that threshold.
I waited until my aunt and my bratty cousins left for church that Sunday morning, I'd told her I wasn't feeling well so I could stay home. I figured it wasn't exactly a lie. I wasn't feeling well, I hadn't been feeling well ever since I moved in that house. She must have taken the palor of my skin and hollowness of my eyes as a sign of sickness, rather than the lack of sunshine and proper nourishment that it truly was, as she had left without much complaint, apart from rambling about how stupid I was for getting sick and how much I deserved it.
I'd stolen an extra copy of the car key I'd found and replaced it with a fake one so she wouldn't notice. I kept that key hidden for weeks for just such an occasion when I could get away. I'd arranged to meet Ethan at a diner in the middle of the forest promptly at 10 am. Yes[12], Ethan. Did you think she really could keep the two of us apart? Never doubt the ferocity of forbidden teenage love, or the lengths we’d go to be together.
"I'll protect you," he promised me in the hall as he pulled me closer.
I tried to pull away, looking all around to try and spy who was watching us, but he pulled me even closer, kissing my lips. "If she did something to you, I'll kill her."
The sincerity and intensity in his voice made me believe he'd do anything for me. I spoke before I had even thought to. "I've got to get out of there."
"I know, beautiful baby. That's why I'm going to help you."
"But will you go with me?" I asked.
He hesitated for a second, his eyes dancing. "For you? Anything."
Yes, so maybe I did steal my aunt's other car to get away. I would leave it at the diner, so she could find it. I'd just gotten my driver's[13] license, thank God, and that was only because I'd convinced my aunt that it would give me the chance to do more work for the house.
I was so nervous, my hands shook as I snuck out the back door so the nosy neighbors couldn't see what I was doing. "Just calm down, Emma," I told myself. "Everything's going to be all right. You are going to get out of here ... alive and besides, Ethan is going to be with you every step of the way."
I sighed and smiled for a second as I looked at myself in the mirror. A raspy laugh breezed through the house and I took that as a clue to get the heck out there.
I looked at my watch as I waited in the diner parking lot, it was 10:17 am. Ethan was almost 20 minutes late and I was getting nervous.
"Ethan, where are you?" I said, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel.
This was a small town and all it took was for somebody to notice me here and they'd tell my aunt.
I text messaged him with our secret code. We used Disney characters to communicate. I know it's dumb, but it was the only way we could assure that if my aunt got a hold of my phone again, that she wouldn't be able to decipher what we were saying.
"Come on, come on ..." I said.
I scrolled through the last few messages he'd sent me, wondering if I'd missed one.
Ethan: Did Cruella let you out?
Me: I'm free. See you at 10.
Ethan: I'll be there.
Yet he wasn't here and I was getting antsy. He only lived five minutes from here, if anything, he should have beaten me here. I was tempted to call him, but I didn't have any minutes left on my phone. A heavy fog settled in to the area and it was freezing cold. I resisted the urge to turn the car back on, fearful of drawing attention to myself. My body heat fogged up the windows. Where was Ethan?
Bang-bang-bang! The sudden noise on my driver's side window startled me and I clutched my chest.
I could see the figure of a man outside my window and smiled. I felt flooded with relief, knowing that my wait was over. It must have been him. As I rolled down my window, my smile faded, and the relief I felt was horrifically short lived, as it always was.
"Emma Raven Ward?" the man said, scowling at me. I recognized the police officer as our local deputy.
"Yes, Officer Petersen?" I said, swallowing around the lump in my throat. The dread crept into the car with the cold and the fog, and it felt like my head was swimming for the damp chill that was rapidly settling in my bones.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
Chapter 11
Raven
Everyone was so nosy in this town. That was one of the reasons why I hated it. Everyone was in each other's business and I wanted no part of it. Case in point, Officer Petersen. He had to be at least 500 pounds of annoyance. He tucked his shirt over his beer belly and rapped again on my window with his flashlight. "Aren't you supposed to be in church, young lady?" he asked, squinting his eyes.
"Um, I wasn't feeling well so-" I stammered, my grip tightening on the wheel.
"Seems like you made a miraculous recovery." He retorted snidely, his lip curling back in obvious displeasure.
"Praise the Lord," I said offering a smile, as I pushed up my drooping glasses from the end of my nose. Everything I could do to look meek, bookish, and unassuming, I did, in the vain hope that he would believe I was just an innocent, docile student that wasn’t plotting to run away.
"Does your aunt know you're out here right now?" Officer Peterson asked, his frown deepening. I could hear the leather of his utility belt creak as he leaned closer into the window.
"Oh, I ... wanted to pick up a few things," I said. Not that it was any of his business, but if I could keep his suspicions down long enough for Ethan to show up, that'd be great.
"Well, nothing's open you know. It's Sunday. Everybody's in church, like you should be young lady."
"Oh, you're totally right about that, Officer. Well, I guess I better head back home then," I said, and cursed the way my voice squeaked. "Thanks." I tried to roll up my window, but he gripped it hard before I could.
"What are you up to, young lady?" he asked, beady eyes narrowing even further in suspicion of me.
"What? Why? I told you already," I said, annoyed but trying to keep as polite as I could to avoid any drama. I was cold for far more reasons than the weather, with how tightly fear gripped me.
"You know it's not safe here alone," he said. I wanted to roll my eyes. The adults were paranoid out here. All these rumors about missing girls had been permeating for decades and I didn't take any of the stories seriously.
"You wait right here," he said. As he walked away, I sighed, and as the tension left my body I forced my hands to let go of the steering wheel to look at my phone to see if Ethan had responded yet.
I had one message.
Ethan: Sorry, I overslept.
I was furious. I texted him fast as I could as I watched the officer reach into his patrol car and pull out his radio.
Me: Hurry up. There's a cop here asking me questions.
Ethan: Cop? Can we do this another day? My TV show is coming on in a few minutes.
TV show? Seriously? My life was at stake, and that was his priority? I was furious. Forget it. I should have known I couldn't count on him. Thunder rumbled and small beads of rain beat on my car roof. Just what I needed, bad weather on top of everything. I tossed my phone in the back as my attention was drawn to the officer's voice. I strained to hear it through my still open window.
"Yeah, you working near the church? Can you go and let Naomi know her teenage niece is out here using her car?"
My blood ran cold. Oh, my God. I freaked out. The windshield fogged even more as I began to hyperventilate. If my aunt found out, not only would she lock me up forever, but she'd leave me with marks and bruises all over my body where no one would find them. My hands shook with panic. He reached back in, putting his radio back then started walking toward my car.
I had a choice. Wait for him to arrest me or escort me back to the house, or escape while I had the chance. It was now or never.
I turned the key in the ignition and the car squealed and stalled in protest.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked, huffing and puffing and he tried to jog toward me. I didn't have time to explain, I turned the ignition again and it squealed again. He was getting closer and he was reaching for his gun. I could see his sausage fingers fumbling with the snaps on his gun’s holster. "Freeze," he puffed, red in the face.
I closed my eyes, said a little prayer and turned the ignition again. "Please, please" I hissed desperately. The engine roared and I set the car in drive mode, peeling out of the parking lot as fast I could, almost backing into him in the process.
He pointed his gun at me and as I saw him in the rearview mirror I prayed I could leave fast enough before he got in his car and chased after me.
Chapter 12
Raven
I weaved in and out of traffic, through the winding roads and up and down the hills, I checked my rearview mirror. Officer Petersen's siren blasted as he chased after me. I had no choice. I tried to convince myself that I had no choice, and really, considering the alternative would be accepting whatever hellish punishment Aunt Naomi would deem fit for me, considering how small the chance of ever tasting freedom would be if I stopped, I had only two options, as far as I was concerned: liberty, or death. If I died while fighting for my freedom, so be it. Either way, no one was hurting me anymore. Either way, I would be free.
I tried to even out the car’s treads, but my hands were shaking, my sweaty palms slick against the leather of the steering wheel. Even with the vice-like grip I had on it, my hands slipped every now and then with the sharper maneuvers I was doing. The pouring rain didn't help matters, making the already treacherous road more slippery. As much as I tried to obey the traffic laws where I could for safety, I had to more or less force most of those lessons out of my head and just focus on survival, on the stretch of road directly ahead of me rather than the pavement — and the predator — I was putting behind me.
I'd only gotten my license a few months ago, after begging and pleading with my horrid aunt. Trying to get permission to do anything was a dancing game that I was never any good at. She’d only capitulated when she realized I could do more of her errands if I could drive by myself, and if it was an opportunity to heap more responsibilities onto me, then she couldn’t resist, even if it meant giving me some form of independence.
As I sat behind the wheel of the car driving faster than the recommended speed limit, I realized I was not a very good driver, either. My hands were clamped onto the steering wheel, white knuckles and all, as the windshield wiper slashed back and forth at the blinding rain. My visibility was only marginally improved for that effort in the torrential downpour that was pelting against the glass. Windshield wipers do astonishingly little for clearing fog, however, and so my problem remained.
None of that mattered. I had to get away, even if I didn't know where I was going, there was no way I could stop. Not now. I had already gone too far. If the police were to catch me now I would have wounds and bruises that would never heal. I would probably be stuck inside the house until I shriveled up and died. My aunt would most likely outlive me at that point.
Swinging right then left, my aunt's car squealed in protest as I scraped against the railing. The screeching and scraping was the only thing keeping me from falling off the cliff. I regained control just in time for the lights around me to start to dim.
An eerie, thick mist had settled in front of me, making it nearly impossible to see. It seemed almost supernatural for how rapid its onset was, how rapidly it blinded me to everything in front of me but the hood of my car. I had to slow down. I should have slowed down, but I couldn't. They would catch me. She would hurt me. Panic dictated my actions at that point, though I realized that it had been dictacting most of my life, up until that moment anyhow. I might as well see this through to the end, panicking all the while. I stepped on the gas pedal harder and felt the acceleration[14] in my veins. It was at least more than the panic, more than the dread that I had lived with all my life until then.
My back window was completely fogged up, but I could see the muted blue and red colors of the cop lights as I looked back just for a second. I wiped the fog from the windshield with my sleeve so I could see what was in front of me.
Big mistake, I realized a few seconds too late, as I finally could see more of the road and something or someone ran in front of me. The brakes squealing, I swung the steering wheel sharply to avoid it, but my back wheel got caught on something sending me into a spiral.
Spinning wildly with the velocity of the spiraling car, I felt the car crash against something, ending its spinning. I fumbled with the seatbelt and the door as I tried to get out, but the crash had done more than just damage the car; it had thrown the car off the road, past the point where the divider would have stopped me from going over the edge, and the next thing I knew, my aunts car with me still inside was now tumbling down the cliff below.
Chapter 13
Raven
Where was I? Was I dead? I tried to remember, but it was like my mind was full of cobwebs, trapping my thoughts before they could reach me. My body felt like it was made of lead, with my head floating somewhere slightly above it. The more I focused, the more I felt things fall into place around me. I was in a car accident, that much I knew. I swallowed hard and felt the taste of blood. Blood? As my eyes cracked open I could feel my jaw tighten[15] in objection. Blinking back the fuzziness and the shadows, I tried to get my bearings.
My body was weak, my head was throbbing as if someone was continuously hitting me in the head with a bat. I reached for my head and tried to move but I felt the resistance of something smooth but firm wrapped around my arm— something was restraining me. I couldn’t smell the forest, I couldn’t smell the rubber of tires or gasoline that I was expecting. The air smelled somewhat sterile; almost antiseptic; but there was also a faint musky, sweet stench in[16] the room.
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I could make out what looked like a hospital room, or was it a bedroom. It was difficult to tell is such dim light. It was not any room I recognized. Even as dark as it was, I could tell the walls were too white and there were no posters or pictures on the wall that resembled my own room.
My eyes began to blink rapidly, as if my mind was being tricked, but nothing changed. I laid there for a moment in silence until I heard a weird metallic sounding noise. The sound of metal scraping on something, the shrill shhhhing triggered something I could only half remember, but it was enough to flash me back to that tense moment in the car running from the police, and then something running out in front of the road.
A grunt came from beside me and I turned to look in that direction. Someone who's back was to me sat nearby, a guy, but[17] hairy, so hairy.
My voice cracked as I asked in a gravelly tone, "Is ... where am I?"
He snapped his neck in my direction. The sudden move startled me. He moved so fast. It was something in the way he did it that made it seem so non-human, but then again, maybe I was hallucinating. Maybe I was on medications after the accident. It was an accident, wasn't it? I must be in the hospital or something, I tried to tell myself. It helped me cope with the fact that I was still tied down to the bed.
As he rose, he stepped further into the darkness and it seemed almost as if he consumed the shadow he melted into; I swore it looked as if he grew 10 feet tall, broader, stronger, hairy. The deeper into the dark he dwelled the more abstract his form became until he was little more than a pair of glinting eyes peering at me from within the void. There was a chill in the air and my heart thumped in a low, quick pound that I felt could be heard for miles. There was rumbling, growl that vibrated the room.
"Can I ... Is someone there?" This couldn't be real. This man was so hairy, so giant, and so, so scary.
The man — or monster, didn’t say anything, only stood in the darkness and looked. He was watching me. I couldn’t bare to stare at him for any longer and my eyes flinched as I scrambled to look elsewhere. Another bad idea, I looked at my body and saw straps across my chest and legs. There were more than just the ones on my arms. I furtively tested how tight they were. The straps weren’t rough, but looked and felt too sturdy to break out of.
I looked around and saw a small table beside the bed that I was restrained to. Tiny sharp knives were laid out, shimmering in the moonlight that streamed from the small window above me; some were soaked in blood. A lump caught in my throat and choked me up until my eyes started to water. I looked where else.
My eyes wandered into another direction in search of something easier to cope with seeing, and when I found more macabre doctor’s equipment, I wished I hadn’t. I saw jars filled with liquid and floating objects. It was like a real-life version of a horror movie, I thought distantly as the shapes trapped in the unidentifiable liquid became clearer. Are those body parts? Hands, eyeballs, ears ... My stomach turned and my throat was no longer in lumps. That was puke stirring around now.
My thoughts immediately went to the rumors of girls missing in the woods. No, Raven. That is just a myth. A story for kids. Though my mind when to it anyways. For decades, or so I was told, girls my age had been disappearing in the town, never to be found again. Nothing. Not even their cars.
I thought it was only a tall tale the grown-ups told us to keep us from going out too late in the woods, but now I wasn't so sure. Recently before I came to town, they'd found the remains of a girl and ever since then, the rumors had heated up more.
They were the first remains ever found and it took them an entire week to establish who the victim was. That only poured gasoline on the flames of imagination, as everyone wondered what the poor girl looked like when they found her.
