Hidden In The Woods

by Rachel Burns

“I didn’t have to fend him off. He wanted to take care of me.”

  Daddy kissed my cheek. “How does a wolf take care of a little girl?” he asked. I could see that Daddy was relieved that I was back at home where I belonged.

  “I think he wanted to keep me. He looked so disappointed when I told him that I had to go back to you.”

  “Really?” Daddy was surprised.

  “Could it be a circus animal who got away?” His mother looked at the others worried.

  I shrugged my shoulder. “I talked to him, and he understood me. He even showed me a secret spring so I could drink some water.”

  Daddy gripped my forearms in his hands.

  “Ouch, Daddy. You’re hurting me.”

  “Repeat what you just said.” Daddy had a crazy mad look in his eyes. He was mad at me like I figured that he would be when I first showed up.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wonder off. I thought that you would want to talk on the phone in peace without me bugging you. I didn’t run away. I swear, I didn’t.”

  “Tell me about the water.”

  “It was hidden under a tree. It was covered up with rocks, but the wolf pushed them to the side.”

  Daddy let go of my right arm and walked off swiftly, dragging me along with the hold he had on my left arm.

  He practically ran into the woods. Ten minutes later we were in front of the ash tree again. Daddy removed the rocks. His parents were following us. They looked shocked by what I had done.

  “You drank from this water?” he yelled at me.

  “I was thirsty,” I explained.

  He let go of me. “No, no.” His fingers grip into his hair, and he ripped a large bushel of hair out. It grew back, attaching itself back to his head right before my eyes.

  He turned back on me with his pointer finger wagging in my direction. “I clearly told you to stay put. All you had to do was not move. Why was that too difficult for you to understand?”

  “I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to make you so mad. I swear I didn’t try to run away. I thought all I had to do was turn around, and I’d be back beside you.”

  He took hold of me, swinging me around like I was a rag doll as he laid me over his knee. He was furious with me, madder than he’d ever been before. This would be the worst punishment I’d ever get, and his parents were watching us.

  This was terrible. I didn’t understand what had made him so mad.

  To my horror, he lifted up my skirts and yanked down my undergarments before he laid into me. The heavy swats were delivered with anger, but they only hurt for a second then the pain melted away, completely away.

  Still, I cried. I hadn’t wanted to make him mad.

  Whatever I had done, it felt like Daddy didn’t want me anymore.

  His parents tried to stop him and reason with him. They said that I hadn’t known what I was doing, but nothing could stop Daddy. He was furious with me. I didn’t understand what I had done wrong.

  Daddy was saying things that didn’t make any sense to me.

  He wouldn’t stop spanking me. I cried terribly even though each spank felt like it was the first one. I didn’t feel the usual burn and sting that got worse with each blow.

  I heard a low deep growl from the woods. I looked in that direction just like everyone else did. Even Daddy stopped spanking me.

  My wolf entered the clearing. He was focused on Daddy.

  Pa pulled out a gun and aimed it at the wolf.

  The wolf looked his way for a second and them he dismissed the gun and Pa.

  Pa moved so he was standing in front of Daddy. He wanted to protect his son.

  Daddy stood up, and I fell to the ground. I didn’t want my remains to be found in the woods half naked so I pulled up my underthings and yanked my dress down so I was covered properly.

  I didn’t fear the wolf. I knew that he was only here to stop Daddy from hurting me.

  The wolf didn’t stop. He snarled his teeth and looked at Daddy like he thought that he would be tasty.

  I screamed when the shot was fired. Birds flew away, and the woods became a very quiet place. I couldn’t bear to look.

  “He’s like us,” I heard Ma say.

  I opened my eyes and saw that it had only been a warning shot.

  Daddy shook his head and stepped in front of his Pa.

  The wolf pounced at Daddy and sank his teeth into Daddy’s arm. He ripped it off.

  I screamed out again. This was all too much for me. I wanted to go back to this morning and redo this day.

  Then I saw that Daddy’s arm was healing. It happened so quickly that I wasn’t sure what I saw, but Daddy’s jacket and shirt were ripped to shreds. His arm was white and clean without a drop of blood on it. How was that possible.

  Daddy looked at me and then at the wolf. “Looks like you got yourself the dog you always wanted,” he said with hate in his voice. I wasn’t sure if the hate was directed at me or at the wolf. A second later, Daddy was running out of the clearing, and his parents were calling after him to come back.

  Once Daddy was gone, his pa announced that Elias needed a moment, and that he would come back when he got his thoughts straightened out.

  Ma helped me to my feet. She brushed the dirt off of my clothes with her hands. Then she straightened my hair. “Elias reacted very badly. Men tend to do that,” she told me.

  I nodded at her.

  Pa had his arms over his head he was trying to get the wolf to leave, but he wouldn’t leave. In fact, the wolf was especially calm now that no one was hurting me.

  “He wanted to help me,” I told them.

  “We understand that now,” Ma laid her arm around me. “Let’s go to the cottage. Pa, cover the spring again. Use a lot of heavy rocks so no more animals can get at it.”

  I saw a toad leap out of the way as Pa neared the spring.

  Ma brought me back to the house. She whispered reassuring things into my ear, saying that Elias needed to blow off some steam, and that he would be home soon.

  I stayed by her side as she unpacked her things.

  I had thousands of questions for her, so many that I didn’t know which one to ask, so I said nothing.

  Pa brought in the tree, and we set it up. No matter what, Ma claimed that it wasn’t straight. It took over an hour for them to get it right. I told them that my parents had a tree-stand where you only had to hold onto the tree and pump with your foot on a lever, and the tree was straight.

  They decided that it would be worth investing in next year.

  How could they have not heard about them? My parents had the same tree-stand since I was a kid. They didn’t sell any other kind as far as I knew.

  It got dark, and Daddy still didn’t come home. I told his parents that I was worried that something might have happened to Daddy.

  They assured me that Daddy could take care of himself, and that I shouldn’t waste my time worrying.

  When they said the word time, they traded looks with one another.

  Something terrible had happened today, and I didn’t know what it was. The only thing I knew was that it was my fault.

  Chapter 12

  Elias

  It was time to explain. Britney needed to hear the truth, and she needed to hear it from me.

  I put out the fire that I made to keep warm the past two days while I thought things through. Then I got up and stretched.

  I began the long walk home.

  It was nightfall when I reached our cottage. There were positive aspects to this. If Britney wanted me, I would be hers forever. I’d never be lonely again.

  My parents were sitting at the table drinking coffee.

  “Where is Britney?” I asked them.

  “She’s in her room in bed. She’s been crying since you left,” Ma told me. “Elias, you reacted so badly.”

  I lifted my hand to stop them from saying anything else. I needed to talk to my wife.

  “Does she know the truth?” I asked them.

  “No,�
� Pa answered me. “We thought it would be best if you explained it to her.”

  I nodded, agreeing with him. “I’m here to do that now.”

  I went down to the basement.

  I found Britney sobbing in her bed. “Britney,” I called to her.

  Her body snapped so she was facing me. Already her body had reached her optimal level. She could move faster and with complete accuracy now. Britney could see better than she had ever before, and the same was true of her other senses. She was perfect.

  I sat down beside her, wondering how she would react to the truth.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Her voice was hoarse from crying, but then it came out as clear as a bell, healing itself.

  “We need to talk.”

  She nodded at me. “Do you want me to leave?”

  “No, I want to explain what happened and why I was so mad. I want you to understand what took place. You may not believe me, but you will in a few years.”

  “I’ll try very hard to understand you,” she promised me. This was typical of Britney. She couldn’t stand anyone being mad at her.

  “Britney, I’ve already explained that you shouldn’t try to run away. I would like to explain to you why.” I looked into her eyes, and I was struck speechless. I knew she wouldn’t believe me. I should have waited with this. But when you start something, you finish it. She needed answers now, even if she didn’t know what to do with the answers.

  “You asked me why I’m so fast. I’ll explain that to you now. I was born a long time ago, a very long time ago. My parents and I were traveling. We stopped here in this woods for a rest. There was a large ash tree. Between the roots of the tree was a spring. Water was bubbling out of it. I’ve never heard anything more pretty in all my life. It was like the water was calling us. It wanted us to take a sip. And we did, all of us.

  “Afterwards we felt really good, strong. I had a race with my brother. Still, he didn’t feel so grown up that day, and he agreed to race me. We took off, running faster than we ever had before.

  “Everyone was happy, and our feet weren’t sore from walking anymore. We moved on, but with time, we noticed things. We never got sick, and we couldn’t die. I fell out of a tree once. I should have died, but I got right back up again.

  “After that, we started to experiment, to see if our theory was right. We tried all sorts of things to die, but it never worked. Lots of time has passed. Centuries have gone by, and I haven’t changed since the day I drank from that spring. The water made me strong, immortal. At the moment, I’m two hundred and thirty-nine-years old. I was born in 1776.”

  Britney stared at me. I could hear the wheels turning in her head. She believed me, but she was telling herself that she shouldn’t. She’d asked me questions before. I knew that she had her doubts that I was a completely normal man.

  “I see,” she finally said. She was silent for a while, and then she looked at me again. She had a question that she wanted to ask, but she didn’t know if she would get in trouble for asking it.

  “Why didn’t you want me to drink the water?” she asked me. It was clear that she thought that I didn’t want to take care of her for that long.

  “A long life isn’t always a gift. We don’t know what will become of us in the years to come.”

  “Have you had other little girls before me?” she asked.

  “Yes.” I gave her a short answer because I didn’t know what was going through her head, and I didn’t want to scare her more than she already was.

  “Why were you so mad at me? Don’t you want to keep me forever?” She was fighting not to cry, but a tear trickled down her face.

  “Our baby will never be born. You’re going to remain pregnant for all of eternity. We will never have children. You’ll never be a mother. You gave up everything without knowing it.” I shook my head, disappointed with myself. I never should have taken her into the woods with me. Because of me, she lost everything that she didn’t know she wanted.

  Her hands covered her belly, and she stared at it. Then her head snapped up, and I could see her doing the math in her head. Her eyes widened when she realized that I was right.

  I had trusted her not to runaway, and I believe that it had been a mistake, but I should have foreseen that the woods could be a problem.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, barely able to speak. “If you want, I’ll leave and never come this way again.” She wiped the tears away from her cheeks, but new ones immediately replaced them. “I understand how awful what I did was. I didn’t know that I was pregnant. I didn’t mean to harm anyone.”

  The look on her face was breaking my heart. She looked like she hated herself.

  She stood up and went to her door, moving fast like I usually did. Everything felt so wrong. The balance I so loved had been taken from me. Britney would never let me care for her if she were immortal.

  I lowered my head and saw that her bear had been knocked down to the floor when she got up. He’d fallen when she got up so suddenly. “Don’t leave,” I called to her.

  “It might be better. You can’t even look at me.” She sniffled and gulped.

  I forced myself to look at her. She didn’t look like an immortal with her red nose and her watery eyes. She looked like my Britney.

  “I want you to stay. I want you to need me. I guess I need to be needed,” I confessed. “That’s why I liked having a Daddy relationship with you. I want to care for you and love you all of your life.”

  “But you wanted that relationship to have a set time frame. I understand that. Staying with one person for the rest of an eternal life would get very boring.”

  “I’m the problem not you. I’m not worried about spending eternity with you, and we will be spending that amount of time together because you aren’t going anywhere. But I’m disappointed in myself. Perhaps, if I had given you a choice, explained what would happen …” I let my voice drift off. I needed to explain this better than what I was doing. “You see, no one warned us. It just happened. We saw the water and drank it. But I was here. I could have warned you. I’m disappointed in myself because I didn’t warn you.”

  “Daddy, I don’t know what to do, and you aren’t being very clear. I feel so tired, and I want to sleep.”

  “Eternity is longer than anyone can imagine. And sleep is the only reprieve or chance to escape it. The reality of eternity is horrific.”

  “Nevertheless, I want to lie down. But if you’d rather, I’ll leave.”

  “If you can find comfort in your bed, then you should lie down.” I pulled away the covers for her.

  She was looking at me like she was afraid that I’d attack her. I wouldn’t. She was my eternal soulmate. I’d stand by Britney’s side until the end of everything.

  The thing that really bothered me was the baby. The poor little thing was trapped inside of her. Would he ever have the consciousness to know that fact?

  She got into her bed, and I covered her up. I went to the door and turned off the light. Britney was crying in her bed, a place where she went to feel safe. I would have thought that she would want to cry in our bed, the one we shared, but I had pushed her away. I wasn’t perfect.

  She had her hands on her tummy as she lay on her side and sobbed. My poor Britney and my poor child.

  Why had God put that spring there?

  It only caused pain.

  I joined my parents in the living room upstairs.

  Ma stood and came to my side when I entered the room. “She didn’t mean no harm by it. She’s a sweet little thing. You shouldn’t have punished her. Living forever is punishment enough.”

  “She’s pregnant,” I told them. Then I yanked my arm away from my mother.

  Ma covered her mouth with her hands. She was in shock.

  This wasn’t going to be a happy Christmas.

  Chapter 13

  Britney

  The next day, we pretended that nothing had happened. We ignored the howls from the wolf outside, but Ma did go out a
nd bring him food to eat. She told me that she couldn’t stand the thought of anyone going hungry.

  Daddy whispered that he wanted me to sleep in our bedroom tonight.

  I forced a smile on my face and nodded at him. I knew what he really thought of me. I was a murder who had as good as killed her own baby.

  Daddy whispered into my ear that he was sorry, and that he loved me very much.

  I wanted to ask him how he could stand to be in the same room with me. I cursed myself for playing in the woods like a child, pretending that I was Snow White.

  “I love you too, Daddy. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

  “I know, but it was my fault too. I should have warned you.”

  I turned to Daddy and buried my face in his chest and cried my heart out.

  Once I had cried myself to the point of exhaustion, Ma suggested that he take me up to our room and make love to me. She said that it would help heal us.

  I blushed all the way down to my toes when she said that, but the others didn’t bat an eye.

  Daddy took hold of me by my hand and led me up the stairs. I felt slow and heavy as I walked up. The others spoke of feeling strong and healthy. That didn’t describe how I felt.

  Daddy took off his clothes when we reached our bedroom.

  I turned away from him a little ashamed of myself. Since he was gone, I had been constantly eating. I ate when I worried, and I was getting a bit fat.

  When I looked down at my tummy, I saw that I had gotten even fatter than yesterday. I didn’t want Daddy to see me this way so I turned away from him to hide how fat I was as I undressed.

  Daddy stood behind me. He cupped his hands over my breasts and massaged my nipples between his fingers.

  I moaned out in pleasure, quickly responding to his touch.

  I felt his penis nestling into my backside. I was wet and needy. I had never been ready for him so quickly.

  I bent forward and rested my hands on the brass bed end. I lifted my buttocks up, offering it to him. If he accepted my offer, this would solve two of my problems. The bed wouldn’t squeak, and he wouldn’t see my tummy.