She swiveled on her belly and pulled herself along the ground, back toward the car. To her left was a small shed with stacks of old wood piled neatly beside it. The shed was only a few meters from the cabin, and the space between was at an angle that would make it difficult for Eddie to get a clean shot.
But the space between the car and the wood shed was wide open and would be directly in Eddie's sights. He was waiting for her to go to the edge of the clearing, so his gun probably wouldn't be trained on the short distance between the car and the woodshed, but she wasn't sure. He could just as easily be waiting for her to make a run for it, his finger on the trigger, just waiting.
Enough time had passed, that he might be wondering if she was having second thoughts about the clearing, and he may be trying to figure her next move. Going to the woodshed was the obvious choice, and in reality, it was her only choice.
Mae raised to her knees and surveyed the scene. They expect you to roll over and play dead, her mom would always say, but you defy them when you fight back. You win the fight when you're two steps ahead.
She needed a distraction, something to draw his searching eyes away from where she intended to go. Her fingers brushed against some loose gravel and ice beside the tire, and grabbed a handful. She sighed and looked around for anything else that she could use as a distraction. Throwing rocks would divert Eddie's attention for only a second, and she needed more than that. But the ground around her was bare, and to reach inside the car again would let Eddie know exactly where she was.
Mae closed her fingers around the handful of rocks, dirt, and chunks of ice and paused, breathing slowly and waiting for the silence of the moment to fully settle in. She could imagine his concentration, the butt of his rifle against his shoulder and cheek, his eye squinting through the scope and waiting for any movement, his breathing slow and methodic, misting the night air.
Now or never, she thought. If she didn't act soon, she'd be caught in the open. Mae dug her toes into the ground and crouched forward, like a sprinter on her mark, ready to go. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, her eyes closed and concentrating. She flung the handful of gravel to her left and it skittered along the ground. Bullets smacked the ground and the instantaneous boom of the rifle cracked the night air, but Mae was already running full speed to the wood shed.
Not even a second passed before Eddie realized her ruse and fired the rifle in her direction—one bullet—which punctured the aluminum siding on the shed. Mae ducked instinctively but kept running around the shed, to the side of the cabin. She heard Eddie curse from somewhere above and behind her, and she fled into the darkness of the forest.
She fled, and they followed.
Chapter Four
The vibrations in the floating rock seemed to be coming from within the stone, like tiny ripples in a pond, expanding outward. The rock hovered and rotated, vibrating more and more rapidly. Twigs and smaller stones began to rise around it, like a wave expanding outward, the smaller objects lifted into the air. The effect of the rising objects amidst the falling snow was surreal and beautiful, reminding Mae of dancers in a winter ballet.
"What is this?" Eddie said, his voice trailing off, the lust for blood completely gone. All that was left in his voice and on his face was the same wonder and amazement of a kid at a magic show.
"No," Mae said, shaking her head but unable to tear her gaze away from the scene unfolding before her.
"No, what?" Eddie said with an undertone of fear and disbelieve in his voice. He wanted to believe it was just a trick, a sleight of hand, or a puzzle that just needed figuring. On the other hand, he could see that there was no smoke and mirrors, nothing to explain the phenomena, and his mind was reeling, afraid of the possibility that it was all very real.
Mae looked past the stone to the wall of dirt, rock and tree roots beyond, searching for a way out of the small clearing. The gushing of water sounded close, and the last thing she needed was to be stuck between the rushing water and the men who would kill her. If she turned and ran, Eddie would snap out of his awestruck trance and follow her, opting to again pursue the girl rather than attempt to wrap his mind around something so inconceivable as a floating forest.
"We need to get out of here," she said. "We need to leave before—"
A tremendous crack filled the air, and the roots of a tree ripped from the wall, shooting boulders and giant chunks of frozen earth into the air, where they hung like lifeless marionettes swaying in the breeze.
"What is this?" Eddie muttered, his voice trembling with terror now, the childlike wonder completely gone. Mae glanced over her shoulder and saw Eddie as she never would have expected. His jaw was slack, his eyes wide, and his face instantly drained of all color as he watched more trees, their huge trunks and branches like a monster's claws against the night sky. He watched the trees lift from the ground, rip from the earth, and fall in a slow motion toward them.
Eddie screamed, not just out of fear anymore, but with the onset of insanity lurking in the timbre of his cries. Another tree lifted from the ground, and the boulders rolled away, hovering above the ground, dirt and branches in the air like an asteroid field in space. The massive trunk of the first tree was almost horizontal now, floating above the place where Eddie and Mae stood. The forest cracked and groaned all around as the branches on the floating tree ripped into the trees that still stood tall and reached toward the sky. The snow fell in sheets now, causing the massive trees and rocks to appear as shadows.
For some reason, the image of the grey wolf, standing on its haunches and grinning with its otherworldly snout and shiny teeth, skittered across Mae's mind.
In the distance, Mae heard the voices of the other men that were hunting her. She had to leave now, knowing that they would be on her in seconds, because despite the spectacle of floating rocks and trees and branches and earth, they would have guns and knives, and they wouldn't allow her to escape.
She rushed forward, dodging a chunk of earth, stone and ice that looked like a giant wedge, with roots and branches hanging about. Her shoulder brushed into it, sending a shockwave of pain throughout her body.
"Wait, stop!" Eddie screamed, hysteria and panic now in full force. "You're doing this, stop doing this! It's a trick, just a trick!"
He was babbling now, but as Mae glanced back at the man and saw his rifle raised, his finger on the trigger, she knew that he'd lost all grasp on reality. The rifle roared as he pulled the trigger and bullets shot, the muzzle flashing its bright explosions of light. Mae dropped to the ground and rolled beneath another floating wedge of dirt. There was just enough space for her to squeeze under it, the roots pulling at her cloths and hair, and she prayed that all of floating things would not, at that instant, relent to gravity's pull and crush her beneath. She wiggled under until there was enough room for her to get onto her hands and knees and crawl.
She was in the middle of it all now, the roots and rocks all around, vibrating and rolling on some unseen wave of force. Behind her, she could hear Eddie's screams of rage and hysteria.
Another gunshot blasted through the night. Mae slipped as she ducked, almost falling. She didn't know if he would follow, but she sensed that whatever was happening with these trees and rocks would not continue indefinitely. At some point they would fall, the chase would resume, and she could either stay put or get some distance between her and those who would see her dead.
Her path was blocked by floating chunks of earth and ice, so thick that they hung in a tangled mess with no space to get through. Mae looked up and saw the flakes of snow falling toward her through the snarl of hanging roots, and she began to climb. She used the roots and scampered up to the base of the tree that floated horizontally, her weight and movements barely causing any reaction on the floating objects. She climbed higher to another one that floated toward the top of the forest, using rocks to scramble up and over the hanging earth, and it all reminded her of when she was a child, climbing the trees in her backyard on summer days. The feel
ing brought a sense of comfort and excitement, enough to mask the fear of certain death if she didn't get clear of the boulders and trees before they rushed back to the ground where they belonged.
The sounds of Eddie's screams and the gunshots were fading as she climbed, and the sound of the rushing river was close. She moved toward the sound, dodging another tree that soared over her head like an island in space. She scrambled along the trunk of the tree and leapt. Below her, she thought she caught a glimpse of the river, the icy surface reflecting briefly through the heavy snowfall.
She felt the warm air seconds before the gentle vibrations that seemed to come from within her body and mind. The contrast of the warm air against the winter winds was so drastic that it took her breath away. She felt the vibrations within her, like butterflies in her stomach, expanding out through her muscles and limbs, and the vibrations were followed by a feeling of weightlessness.
All around, the floating trees and rocks seemed to vibrate faster, the wood in the tree trunks cracking and whining under the strain, the soaring islands of ice and dirt breaking apart, exploding with the force of the vibrations, and Mae climbed faster. She jumped to another boulder, twisting and spinning with a tangle of broken roots, and then to an island of earth that was splitting down the center, an expanding crack that rumbled. Mae slipped on a rock that gave way, and she nearly tumbled. She reached out and snagged an icy branch, catching herself from falling. The river was definitely there, right below her, its icy tendrils twisting through and along the forest floor. The entire river seemed to be covered with a layer of ice, lined with thick mounds of drifted snow along the banks.
The branch she was holding snapped away from the base of the tree, and her foot slipped out from under her. She tumbled a few feet and smacked into a rising boulder that twisted with her momentum. She fell to one side and grabbed a protruding root that had wrapped itself around the boulder, which kept her from falling into the river, but it caused the boulder to start spinning in the direction of her fall. The backpack slipped from her back and she barely caught it by the straps before it fell.
The warm air seemed to be swirling all around now, whistling in and out of the trees and rocks. The snow that fell from the black sky above instantly turned to rain, and the wavelike vibrations grew in intensity. To her, it felt like standing in the ocean as water was pulled into an oncoming wave. The power and force of the energy took her breath away.
The root that supported her weight suddenly began to break away from the rock and she slipped further down toward the river. She screamed as it kept pulling, finally catching on a small crack in the rock. She hung there, feeling the intensity of the swirling, gathering dark energy, the warm air and the rain pattering her skin and hair.
By now, her muscles and mind felt numb and somehow disassociated from her body. She was moving faster now, over the floating forest debris. She glanced behind her and saw that she was alone.
Well, probably alone.
She didn’t think that she’d been followed through the floating forest, or even could have been followed. Eddie was either in the throes of chaos while watching all this insanity unfold above him, or he was trying to find his way through the branches and roots and boulders to chase Mae. Either way, she'd lost him, and she was now alone.
Got to get clear of this, her mind screamed, just waiting for the entire, dream-like forest scene to right itself with the laws of physics.
As if in response to this thought, there was a sudden shift as the rocks and trees and islands of earth slid sideways, and a rumbling crack filled the air. An explosion of energy pushed out and away from the slide, like a static wind, with the faint metallic smell of lightning, and it burst outward, no longer a ripple in a pond, but a pounding, relentless wave of energy. The push was followed almost simultaneously by a low rumble that grew with intensity.
Everything that hung in the air suddenly fell, as if gravity had finally found its grasp and the floating forest clicked back into reality. The entire forest fell, a total rush of movement downward, like a hammer pounding from above, and Mae was thrust down toward the river.
A split second before her head and shoulders struck the ice, Mae had the fleeting thought that if the ice didn't crack and allow her into the water, cold as it may be, she'd likely break her neck or be crushed by the falling forest above. An image of her body beneath the rocks and floating islands, speared by the gnarly branches and roots, sent a split second of panic through her body as the icy river rushed to meet her.
Chapter Five
When she was just a girl, Mae's father taught her a way to escape her fears, to escape dark times or loneliness. A trick to escape.
"Paper and ink," he had said, tapping her forehead and smiling. She giggle in that way only little girls can laugh with their fathers.
"Imagine a blank piece of paper in you mind, white, clean, full of possibility."
"Okay," she said and closed her eyes.
"So you have the paper, it's in your mind. Take a pen and draw a line down the middle of the page. And there you have the ink. Whatever color you want, and in your mind, the world will open and be whatever you want it to be. "
***
As he fell toward the icy water, and after she lunged beneath the surface, her mind immediately reverted to that old trick. Paper and ink, in her mind. Paper and ink, to escape. Paper and ink, and the world opens, and her mind opens, and her heart opens. Here and now, her heart slowing to a steady and imperceptible pulse. Imperceptible, like everything else in her world, where the only feeling came from what her heart imagined and her mind forced into reality with paper and drawn ink.
Her heart thudded quickly, the only reminder that she was still alive. All thought and feeling seemed to melt away and combine with the world around her, until she felt as though she didn’t exist, that only her consciousness remained.
Paper and ink, here and now, and her world becomes real.
The feel of white paper, so clean and empty, beneath her hands, the pen pressed between her fingers. The smell of a coffee shop, so hard to forget, yet her mind struggles to wrap around the smell. She raises the paper cup to her lips and sips the Americano, espresso with hot water, no sugar, no cream, her drink.
The door opens behind her, and she turns, and hears the jingle of the bell and the shuffling and wet footsteps as someone comes in out of the storm. A shiver through her body follows the gust of wind and flakes of snow that sweep through the tiny café as the door swings shut behind the new arrivals. She can hear a man, his voice deep and his words drawled, give an order to the attentive, twenty-something barista, and the ding of the cash register, and the tinkle of coins changing hands, and the whirr of grinding beans, and the bubbling of heated water.
The tip of the fountain pen gleams with the fresh ink, and she studies the blank page before her. She places the tip of the pen on the white paper, then brings the tip toward her slowly and deliberately. And the world opens, with the smells and the chill of winter wind, and a feeling of love, however contrived, that tethers her sanity to reality.
A single line, from top to bottom, like a dark river seen from far above, cutting through the white and rolling plains. Another line, and the smell of their kiss is so real, and their bodies are close and touching. Pale light from above, flickering in the falling, wind-swept snow and sleet, their scarves—one orange and blue, the other dark green, floating in the wind, as if reaching for times gone by. He is wearing a backpack over his shoulders, his initials, JWH, stenciled to a square of leather, barely visible in the sleet and rain and wind, and his bag slips off his shoulder as their arms intertwine.
More lines appear on the paper, dark cuts against the white, and the feeling of butterfly wings fluttering as the couple embraces in the storm that screams all around. But together they hold fast, their arms ensnared, their hearts beating in sync beneath their heavy coats, their bodies sharing warmth against the night. The cold whirls around them, burning their exposed skin, and the sme
ll of her breath, and the smell of his lips, and the feel of their noses as they touch lightly at first, but he presses harder and she presses harder, and their lips and their skin and their breathing are one.
Ink on paper and the couple is real, the lines mesh into reality, the lamp post above, shining its yellow glare, and the wind whirling, and the snow pelting their bodies, and the cold stinging their noses, but the warmth of their touch, and the smells of her perfume and his cologne, and the feel of his cheek on hers, and their kisses.
“You’ll take care of me?” she whispers, her voice barely rising above the howl of the wind and the screech of the storm. She cries, tears escaping her eyes but mixing with flakes of melted snow on her face, and the smell of her silk hair that carries in the wind, blonde in real life, but a dark brown here and now, wrapping around his face, enclosing them both, and the snow at their feet, drifting against their legs. They don’t feel the cold, because her eyes are so green and deep, and his pale eyes so blue, and she feels a burning within, and he holds her close, they are one against the storm.
“Always,” he says, and she almost believes. She cries and her tears run streams down her face, and on his face, but she has never been happier. Right here and now, on this very page, with ink and paper, they are one.
Chapter Six
Mae struck the ice and plunged into the icy-black water. The shock was instant and debilitating. For several seconds, she could do nothing but allow the current to pull her through the inky water.
This is the end, she thought, her body numb and her mind struggling with consciousness. She tried the paper and ink, tried to escape into another realm, but everything was blocked by the freezing water. The cold darkness of the river swallowed her, extinguishing the flame that was her life.
The Snow Swept Trilogy Page 4
