by Alta Hensley
“I’ve seen what men do,” Violet says, her eyes on the canyon below. “They’re cruel. They’re ruthless. They truly are the devil in human form.”
“Not all men.”
She nods. “Yes, all men.”
“Violet…” I take another cautious step toward her, but I don’t want to get too close and startle her or have her try to take a defensive step away from me, causing her to fall. “Please come to me.”
“You hated it out there,” she says. “You hated it and didn’t fit in. You told us about the stories around the fire, and now you change it? You can’t take back what you said. You hated it! You told us so.” She still doesn’t step away from the cliff nor look at me. “You know Holly and I won’t fit in either. But Holly’s strong. She’s so much stronger than me. She may be able to adapt. If anyone can, it’s her.” She pauses. “But not me. I’ll never belong anywhere.”
“You belong with me.”
She shakes her head. “No, Ember. I don’t.”
“Do you want to stay here?”
“No. Scarecrow is a cruel man. And an evil man.” She looks over her shoulder at me for the first time. Her eyes are dark and appear sunken in. “Don’t you see? I have no home. I have nothing.”
“You have Holly. You have me. You also have you.”
I take one more step toward her, but this time she does move closer to the edge as a warning for me not to come any closer.
Fearing what she might do, my heart stops, and I struggle for the right words but decide I can only speak my truth. “You’re right that I was miserable out there. You’re right that I hated being away from Hallelujah Junction. We’re different people—outcasts. We’ve lived different lives than the masses, and no matter who I met, no one truly got me. Even Christopher. He sees me the way he wants to see me but refuses to see the damage inside. He doesn’t want to see the ugly, the pain, and the vileness that surrounds me. My past is suffocating and my future dim. He doesn’t want to see that. But I need to move forward for me. For me. Just as you have to move forward for you. You.”
“Move forward where?” Her voice is shrill, and I realize this is the first time I’ve truly heard her raise her voice. There isn’t a shred of timidness laced within the words she speaks.
“I don’t know. But I do know we can’t stay here. We have to escape Papa Rich and Scarecrow, and we have to stop being held captive. It’s time we’re free.”
She faces the canyon again and nods, taking a step toward the edge. “Yes, I want to be free.”
“Violet!” I stop myself from lunging toward her, fearing that my action could push her over the edge. “Don’t do it. I know you think all will be better, but don’t. Please. Think of Holly. Think of anything but what’s at the bottom of that cliff.”
“Go inside, Ember,” she says.
“I’m not leaving you. I’ll never leave you. Trust me on that. Never.”
She lifts her head and looks up at the sky, taking a deep breath. She extends her arms and says, “I’ve never been free. I’ve never truly been happy. It’s time I stop the suffering. It’s time. I have to escape the darkness, Ember. I hope you understand. I have to escape.”
“Violet, I love you!” I shout, hoping I’m loud enough that Holly and Christopher will hear and come running. I need reinforcements. I need help. But I’m too scared to scream for help, because I feel it’s all it will take for Violet to jump before Holly can see her do it. “Don’t do this. This isn’t your way out. It’s not your way out!”
She looks over her shoulder and gives me a warm smile. “But it is.”
Without hesitation, she flings herself over the cliff, disappearing into the mountain fog.
17
Christopher
* * *
Never in my life have I heard such a blood-curdling scream before.
“Violet! No! Oh God, No!”
It’s Ember’s scream. Ember is screaming!
I bolt out the front door with Holly close behind. I know I’m running, but I can’t feel my feet, and I’m not sure how I actually reach Ember at the cliff’s edge. It’s as if I somehow teleported at a hyper-speed. My heart beat once inside the house and then not again until I reached Ember and knew she was all right.
If you call the out-of-control, screaming woman I love all right.
“She jumped! Violet jumped off the cliff!”
Ember’s lying on her stomach in the snow, her arms outstretched over the edge as if she can somehow pull Violet back to land.
I start to reach for Ember and take her into my arms, but then I see Holly charging toward us, her own horrific scream howling through the frigid air. I intercept her run, feeling as if she would also fling herself over the edge, following her sister to her death, if I don’t hold her tightly.
“I tried to stop her! I tried to stop her!” Ember is clawing at the icy earth, madness taking hold.
“No! No! Violet!” Holly is beating against me with her tiny fists as she tries to free herself. “No!”
The sound of pain shattering through the sky stabs at every nerve in my body.
I’m rooted in place. I want to fall to my knees and help the woman I love, but Holly needs me more right now. And Violet… oh, God, Violet… there is nothing I can do to help her, but I can’t help but feel if I lie on the ground and claw at the earth like Ember that I too can miraculously bring her back.
But there’s no bringing her back.
She’s gone.
Violet’s gone.
I’ll fight with Holly for hours if it means she won’t follow her sister, but suddenly her pummeling of fists stop, and she wiggles out of my arms and charges away from the cliff, back toward the house. I see an extremely large man dressed in flannel and furs sprinting out of the thick woods, and Holly is headed straight toward him.
“Violet!” she screams. “She jumped. Oh my God, she jumped!” Her words turn to howls as she crumbles to her knees right in front of the stranger who swoops her up and cradles her in his arms.
He continues toward me, and I’m not sure if I should welcome this stranger or feel guarded. He’s larger than me, thicker. He has a full beard, long hair, and is rugged, but he’s not exactly dirty. It’s clear from his appearance that he is not just a hiker or a camper. This is a man who has been living off the land. He has a deer hide around his shoulders, providing him warmth against the storm. Furs are underneath the leather, and flannel beneath that. He is layered and warm, prepared for the mountain as only a man who lives and breathes it can be.
“No… no… no…” Ember’s cries bring my focus back to her. I bend down and pull her off the snow-covered ground and into my arms.
I don’t say anything, because what can I say? But instead, I hold her shaking body close to my chest and place kisses on the side of her head. I want so desperately to take away her pain, but I’m completely at a loss as to how I can.
The mountain man reaches us and places Holly on her feet next to me. Holly stands in place and watches the man walk toward the edge and peer over the side. I’m nervous for him, since the snow and ice all around doesn’t make the ledge a safe place for anyone to be. He falls to his knees and leans over more—so much so that I prepare myself to pull him back from his own death if I have to.
Holly—who hasn’t moved—cries out, “Violet, why? Why?”
Ember clings to my shirt and sobs even louder.
“I think I see her,” the man calls out. “She’s down there. I see her.”
I release Ember and charge toward the edge myself. “Alive?” I ask.
“I don’t know… but she didn’t fall all the way. A tree branch stopped her. She’s caught in the tree.”
Ember and Holly both start toward the edge, but I turn around and put out my hand to stop them. “Don’t come any closer. It’s slick here!”
“Is she alive? Oh my God! Is she alive?” Ember asks, her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she trembles in place.
It kills me to see
the woman I love appear so unhinged. I want Violet to be alive for her own sake, but also for Ember’s. I’m not sure she’d survive this if Violet truly is dead.
“Please tell me you can see if she’s breathing,” Holly calls out.
I lean myself over the edge, and the mountain man holds onto the back of my shirt to make sure I don’t slip off. He’s right. Violet is about twenty feet down or so, stopped by the large limbs of a cedar that has grown from the mountain.
“I see her!” I say as I try to focus on if she’s moving at all or if I can see her chest rising. “I can’t tell if she’s breathing.”
But then I hear a moan and see a slight movement of Violet’s head.
“She’s moving! She’s moving!” I shout, turning my head to look at the man. I then refocus my attention on Violet. “Violet! Don’t move. If you can hear me, you stay still! Don’t move an inch. We’re coming for you.”
“She’s alive?” Holly screams, running to the edge of the cliff, regardless of my warning. Luckily, Ember has regained some sense and is pulling Holly back to a safer distance.
“We’ll get to her,” I say, not sure exactly how we will, but no fucking way will I allow her to die down there alone.
She may have every single bone in her body broken, and death may be inevitable, but she’ll die in her sister’s arms, knowing she’s loved. Not alone. Not cold. Not on the side of a cliff.
The stranger, who has yet to give me any indication as to who he is, says, “Go get us some rope. Quick!” His voice is gruff, as if he hasn’t used it in years.
Holly spins on her heels and charges toward the house. I look up at Ember and tell her, “Don’t worry. We’ll get her.”
Tears are flowing down her face, but for the first time since running out here, I see some sanity returning to her expression. Hope is soothing the madness away.
I turn to the cliff and scoot my belly a little closer so I can get a better look. I’m not sure how we’re going to reach her, and I hope Mountain Man has an idea. I already know my phone isn’t working, and the hike out of here will take too long. So, any chance of rescue will rest solely on us. Holly returns quickly with an armful of thick rope. It’s dirty, tattered, and frayed in some places, but it does appear intact.
The stranger takes the rope from her and runs toward the nearest tree, which sadly is only an aspen, and not even a fully matured one at that. The thick-trunked pine trees are too far, and no way will the rope reach them. I’m not sure the aspen is strong enough to hold Violet’s weight, let alone the stranger’s or mine, but we don’t really have a choice.
The mountain man must be thinking the same as me, because he calls out, “I’m not sure this tree will hold my weight. I’m going to need you to also hold the other end and try to bear the majority of my weight.” He continues to tie the rope around the tree and looks up at me for confirmation that I’m on the same page as him.
Jesus Christ, we’re doing this.
This man is going to throw himself off a cliff to rescue a woman who is barely alive, and I’m going to hold him with nothing but my weight and hopefully a well-rooted aspen tree.
Ember and Holly both run over to where I’ve just gripped the rope and take hold as well. We can use all the help we can get, because he is not a tiny man.
With the skill of a true outdoorsman, the man wraps the rope around his torso and begins to rappel off the edge without the slightest hesitation. The tug on the rope burns my hand, but I hold firm as I glance at the tree, which is also remaining steadfast.
“If this tree breaks, let go of the rope,” I order the women. But I already know they won’t, just as I won’t. If Mountain Man goes down, we all do.
“I’m almost there,” the man shouts from the other side. I appreciate his feedback, because not knowing makes this harder.
I scan the length of the rope and am happy to see that so far it’s holding his weight as well.
“I’ve reached her,” he yells up. “She’s alive and conscious. I don’t think she can make it up the cliff alone. She’s pretty hurt. So, I’m going to have to tie her off with me. It might be too much for the rope—”
“We got you, man,” I shout out, sweat beading on my forehead. I want to take as much of the weight as we can so we don’t tax the tree until we absolutely have to. I’m terrified to hear the snapping sound of the bark.
“Please be okay. Please be okay,” I hear Holly chant under her breath as she digs her heels into the snow and holds the rope with a strength that only a sister trying to save her sibling can do.
“Go ahead and start pulling,” he orders from down below.
I can tell the minute Violet is added to the rope and the mountain man is climbing back up. I begin to pull with all my might, tearing at the flesh of my hands. Ember is yanking, Holly is as well, and slowly we are pulling them to safety.
Fresh snow begins to fall from the sky, but luckily it seems to not be sticking. The only sound is our heavy breathing and groans of exertion.
“Almost there,” the man calls out. “I can almost reach the landing.”
I pull harder with his words, knowing he’ll need that extra heave to get Violet to the top.
“Ember, you let go of the rope on the count of three, go to the edge, and help pull Violet up when you see her. One. Two. Three!”
I dig my feet farther into the wet snow as I feel the rope give when Ember follows my command. For such a small woman, it’s clear how much of the weight she was holding, because I feel my feet slipping a bit, and Holly and I both have to readjust our stance to pull even harder.
“I see them,” Ember calls out. “Violet’s eyes are open! She’s alive. Alive!”
“Be careful!” I shout between clenched teeth. “Get down on your belly to reach out. Don’t let their weight pull you over.”
Grateful that Ember doesn’t question my command, I watch her do exactly as I say. And within seconds, Violet and Mountain Man are cresting the impossible. His thick fingers grab the edge, and he climbs the rest of the way up, pulling Violet alongside him with Ember’s assistance.
Holly and I both release the rope and run toward them.
“Violet! Oh God! Violet!” Holly is nearly hysterical.
Ember sits back on her butt, winded from the exertion. She’s watching the sisters hug as tears run down her face.
Violet is weak, cringing in pain with every movement, but still able to give her sister the affection that none of us believed would happen again.
Feeling as if I can breathe for the first time since running out of the house, I walk to the stranger and extend my hand, helping him off the snow-covered ground.
“I don’t know what to say, man. Thank you.” If he hadn’t come out of the woods… Violet wouldn’t be alive. No way in hell could I have done that myself.
He nods, looks at Holly and then Violet, and starts to walk away.
“Wait!” Holly calls, jumping up and reaching for him. “You can’t leave. Please stay. Please. Violet needs you now.”
I get the feeling she knows the man—the way she ran up to him and now begs for him to stay. But at the same time, she knows it’s unlikely he’d stay without her begging him to.
Ember is looking at Violet’s leg. “I think it’s broken,” she says.
The man’s face appears pained, and he kneels where Violet is lying and takes over examining her leg. When he moves it, she cries out in pain.
“We need to get her inside,” I say, knowing she’s been outside in the elements for too long, and aside from broken bones, we’ll have to deal with hypothermia.
The mountain man reaches beneath Violet, swoops her into his arms, and begins trudging through the snow as if her body doesn’t weigh a thing.
I reach down and assist Ember up. Her body is frozen, and I worry about her as well. I wrap my arm around her and say, “We need to get you warmed up too.”
“Thank you,” Ember says as we head back to the house. “You saved her life. You saved he
r, and you saved me. I couldn’t have lived with myself if—” Her voice cracks, and a sob escapes her chattering lips.
I pull her closer to me and speed up our pace as the snow falls around us a little harder now. “She’s safe now. All will be fine.”
“Because of you,” she chatters. “Everything will be fine only because of you.”
18
Christopher
* * *
“I didn’t catch your name,” I say to the man as we all stand around the fire, trying to warm our soaking-wet bodies.
The man looks at me but doesn’t say anything. His long beard is wet, his clothing as well, but he seems steadfast and strong. I don’t see a shiver in his body. His only concern and focus is Violet, who he’s placed on blankets laid out by the fire by Holly in a mad dash when we entered the chapel.
“Do you live around here?” I press. I feel the need to get to know this man. Not because I don’t trust him, but because there’s a deep curiosity to find out who he truly is.
Ember is studying the man intensely as well. “You’ve been watching us, haven’t you?” she asks. “It was you who I called out to, wasn’t it?”
Ember’s right; it’s been him in the woods all along. “I saw you too, right? It was you who I saw and was yelling at.”
He doesn’t say anything but nods. It was never Richard or Scarecrow. It was this man… watching.
“You watch us and have been. That’s how you knew Violet went over the cliff?” Ember adds. “You were watching the whole time.”
“The mountain is no place for women to be left alone,” he says as he runs his fingers over Violet’s other leg and arms. “I think the only broken bone is your leg,” he tells her. “I’ll splint it if you’ll let me.”
Violet nods as she reaches out for his hand. “Thank you. Thank you for saving me… again.” She then looks up at Holly and begins to sob. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I did that.”
