It was a sticky mid-summer night in late July making it difficult to fall into a comfortable sleep. She couldn’t stand the heat, but her paranoia of the eerie shadows caused her to stay wrapped up and sweltering in her blankets. Her irrational fear of the dark made her senses acute even in her dreary state. In her subconscious mind she heard the occasional squeak of the old floorboards. Each creak sent her heart pounding in her ears, as her eyes searched through the endless night for a possible intruder; she came up with nothing.
Reassuring herself that she was just acting paranoid and the noises were nothing more than her overactive imagination, Anna allowed her eyes to drift closed. Seconds later the echo of a feminine grunt from across the room causing her cerulean blue eyes to snap open.
“Logan?” Anna whispered.
“No it’s me,” Faye replied and Anna released a breath that she didn’t even realize she was holding.
“God Faye, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought they found us.”
“Sorry,” Faye switched on the light showing her apologetic expression, “I was heading to the kitchen for a midnight snack and I kind of ran into the wall.” A light blush of embarrassment crossed her features at the confession, accompanied with a sheepish smile.
Anna let out a breathy chortle, “You’re hungry again? We just ate a few hours ago.”
“What can I say? I’m a growing girl,” Faye pointed out as she tapped her flat stomach.
“Well I’m a bit hungry now that you mentioned a snack.” Anna stood up and headed towards the kitchen.
Once they were in the small, rustic kitchen Anna slid herself backwards onto the countertop to watch her friend pull out ingredients from the cabinets overhead.
“So tell me how you managed to run into a wall?” Anna questioned, her slightly sour mood vanishing.
Faye giggled girlishly to herself as she placed the meats evenly on the two slices of bread, “This cabin is much smaller than what I’m use to. It’s like everytime I turn around BAM! there’s a wall right there!” Faye clapped her hands to exaggerate the impact of her hitting walls.
“Shh! Before you wake the Beast!” Both girls laughed as Anna referred to their sleeping companion in the other room.
Minutes later Faye was handing Anna her finished sandwich, “Your sandwich my Lady,” Faye curtsied mockingly at Anna’s feet.
“Thank you Servant,” Anna smirked.
“Uh, I believe I’m considered a best friend,” Faye stated matter of factly.
“Whatever floats your boat.”
The girl’s silenced their playful banter to enjoy their midnight sandwiches while just enjoying one another’s company.
Anna’s mind began to drift to a life without Faye, but the idea was close to impossible. Anna and Faye have been best friends from as far back as their memory will take them. Everybody believes they have been friends since they were toddlers but truth is that they were planned to be friends since before they were born.
The girl’s heritages have been intertwined for centuries. Faye’s parents have been under Anna’s mother’s family’s service decades before the girls existed. Anna’s mother, Queen Rosaline, was very fair to her ‘family’s assistants’, as she prefers to call them, though her husband, King Jonathan, has never been so pleased with his wife’s hospitality to ‘the servants’, but he respects her wishes without much of a complaint. When Queen Rosaline learned that she and her personal assistant, Mary, were expecting she made plans for the two unborn children to become companions.
Mary was thrilled with the idea and proud of the Queen’s trust in her and her unborn child. A deal was made that Mary would receive extra pay and rations to support the child until he or she was eighteen and old enough to take care of themself.
The girl’s knew of this arrangement but it wouldn’t have mattered because their friendship would have been inevitable.
“What are you girls’ doing up?” Anna’s heart pounded in her chest as she shared a look with Faye. Busted.
Anna spun on her heel facing the tall green eyed boy, her personal body guard, Logan.
“Eating,” Anna managed to choke out with her mouth full of a half chewed sandwich.
“Sorry, Logan, I accidentally woke her up when I was going to the kitchen.”
Anna swallowed her sandwich, “We were just going to bed now actually,” She grabbed Faye’s hand as she brushed past Logan who was standing in the entrance to the front room where the girls were currently sleeping.
“We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow to make it to the next safe house.” Logan peeked outside through the blinds as if expecting someone to come running out of the woods.
“Why can’t we just stay here another night?” Faye questioned annoyed.
Logan turned around from the window looking at Faye like she just grew a third eye.
“We have people looking to kill Anna and if we-”
“Logan,” Faye started with a dry tone, “We are in the middle of nowhere. Nobody is going to coincidently choose this exact spot to look in the next twenty-four hours. If they find us here then they know where we are and where we’re going anyway.”
“Faye it’s my orders to keep us moving.”
“You were also ordered to keep her safe. What if moving sends us straight into a trap or better yet, our deaths?”
“What if staying does the same?” Logan challenged the obstinate girl.
“Listen,” Anna’s strong tone of voice sounds, “My death, or capture, is inevitable unless we get home safe and sound.”
“Anna don’t say that,” Faye disagrees wistly, shaking her head.
“But it’s true, right?So far they have been one step ahead of us. Who says that when we show up at the next safe house they won’t have people waiting there for us,” Anna took a sharp breath withholding the emotions she wanted to discard of before continuing with a tone of pure exhaustion, “I’m just tired of all this. All this back and forth.. We’ve almost died twice in the previous three days. Who says we’ll make it out alive the next time.”
“Anna! Anna don’t cry!” Faye gathered her best friend in her arms giving her a tight embrace of reassurement. “Everything will be alright. I promise we’ll all be alright. We’ll be home safe and sound soon.” Faye pulled away from the hug placing her hands on Anna’s shoulders and gave her a bright smile but Anna could see how aghast her friend really was. Anna couldn’t believe how selfish she has been to ignore how her companions were feeling and expect to revolve their emotions and actions around her. Guilt washed over Anna like a cold bucket of water on a hot day.
“Faye I love you dearly but please don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Anna managed to keep the whining inflection out of her voice and force a small smile on her face.
“Why don’t you girls get some sleep right now. I’ll let you know the plan tomorrow morning,” Logan sighed running a hand through his hair obviously uncomfortable with the sentimental moments. Logan has never been one to show much emotion so his discomfort was expected.
Not denying Logan’s request, the girls’ moved to their makeshift beds as Logan traveled across the room switching the light off when he saw the girls comfortable under their covers.
“Good night ladies.”
“Night,” the two girls replied in unison before making another attempt to sleep away the night that could possibly be their last.
***
Anna woke up with the first light of day gleaming in her eyes. She squinted her eyes at the window to see a ray of light had slipped through a crevice in the blinds. There was a banging of pots behind her that seemed to echo off the walls, her ears absorbing the sound. The muffled noise of voices slowly mixed in with the banging and the serenity of the morning as she began to become fully conscious. Anna sat up and ran a hand through her snarled deep brown locks and groaned. Anna, not being a morning person, sounded like an elephant stomping into the kitchen.
“Well good morning Sleeping Beauty,” Logan smirked at her as he looked up from the sizzling bacon on the stove.
“Ha ha, you’re so funny,” She retorted dryly not particularly enjoying the princess reference, but perked up when a plate of food was placed in front of her.
It was quiet throughout the cabin other than the clinking of their silverware on their plates and the light sound of chewing from three mouths.
Their serenity was interrupted by the sound of gravel crunching underneath tires from the front of the house. Looks were exchanged by the three friends in confusion. Nobody even knew this cabin existed let alone the three people temporarily living inside it.
Before the friends could even react, the sound of car doors slamming could be heard from the kitchen, which is in the back of the cabin. Rushed feet stomped onto the porch in seconds and rapid knocking came on the door.
Logan, being the first to come to his senses, jumped up glancing at the girls. Anna could see the gears turning in his head to formulate a plan of escape.
“Both of you go and quickly shove all your things into the bags,” the first command was told, “Go out the back door and keep going straight through the woods. Don’t wander left and right or I’ll never be able to find you.”
The girls nodded quickly as they pulled each other into the front room gathering their things before jumping in Logan’s room to pack it away.
Sighing, Logan ran his hand through his hair disheveling it as he went up to the door. Slowly he opened the latch that kept the door closed throughout the previous night, it squeaked with age, as it revealed the face it covered.
“Hello sir,” a deep voice rumbled to greet Logan.
The man had ashen hair that swept over his forehead with black eyes accompanied with bags of exhaustion underneath, but the man still held a wide smile on his features. Logan was taken aback by the grin because it wasn’t one your grandfather might hold while knocking at your door bright and early in the morning, it was a cheshire smile.
“Hello,” Logan greeted dryly putting a bit of a curve on his accent.
“Sir, I’m John. I’m here on behalf of the F.B.I. I’m just here for some questioning on events that have been occurring in this area.” Logan detected the lie instantly knowing the man’s manipulative ways.
“Hunter,” Logan lied in response as he held his hand out to the older man.
John shook his hand in a strong lock, Logan returned the tight hold with ease.
“May I come inside?”
Logan glanced out of the corner of his eye to see the door to the bedroom still tightly closed indicating the two girls’ haven’t left yet. A wave of frustration and impatience washed over him. ‘I told them to be quick,’ he thought annoyed.
“I think it better we speak outside. My… girlfriend is still sleeping,” Logan flinched at his hesitation in his lie but brushed it off, closing the door behind him as he stepped on the porch.
“So Hunter… How long have you been in the area?”
“Got here late last night,” He answered quickly making sure to keep the accent to hide his natural tongue.
John hummed to consider Logan’s answer, “Have you noticed anything unusual since last night?”
“Nothing,” Logan glanced behind John to look inside to find the girls’ hurrying towards the back door.
The girls’ stopped at the door freezing when they saw big men with big guns facing towards the cabin almost waiting for the two girls’ to come running out.
The men haven’t seen them yet so they turned and hurried back inside. In their rush Faye tripped over the rug pulling it with her but revealing a trapdoor that probably leads to the basement of the cabin.
Anna shook her head at the cliche moment of discovering. She thought things like this only happened in the movies, but she didn’t think much of it for long; now it’s a blessing. Quickly the girls’ unlatched it and pulled up the hatch which was surprisingly easy to open considering how decrepit the rest of the cabin is. Anna went down as quickly and delicately as she could, afraid that one of the steps would snap under her weight.
Faye closed the door over them enveloping them in the dark, but not before she carelessly tried throwing the rug over the top. Faye struggled reaching the bottom in the dark with only slivers of light seeping through the crevices of the floorboards to guide her eyes to the next step; whereas Anna had the hatch open and a direct light to see where each and every step was.
A slip of the toe was all it took to bring Faye tumbling down the last six feet of her descent. She didn’t cry out, and neither did Anna, knowing that if one of them so much as whimpered, would mean they could be caught; it was better to be injured than dead in some cases.
Faye hit the ground with a heavy thump, and took a strong intake of breath on impact to hold her yowl of pain within. Anna covered her own mouth to mask the gasp, and allowed a silent sob, as she knelt next to her friend.
“Faye? Faye!” Anna whispered as quietly and firmly as she could without being too loud.
“Shh!” Faye shushed her friend, “I’m alright, Anna. Just got the wind knocked outta me.”
Anna nodded vigorously then stopped, realizing Faye couldn’t see her motion in the dark; then flushed, feeling embarrassed by her ignorance.
“You were nodding weren’t you?” Faye asked comically. Anna could hear the smug smirk in her voice.
“Shut up.” Anna rolled her eyes, but had a smile on her face glad that her friend wasn’t hurt enough to cease her witty comments.
Faye chuckled a light laugh, “Help me up you idiot.”
Anna pulled Faye up after searching a good minute or two to find each others’ arms in the dark while trying hard not to laugh at their stupidity. Once Faye was up she took a few steps and stretched out making sure she wasn’t too maimed by the fall.
“Where is she?” The deep gruff voice thundered over their heads.
“I told you already! I don’t know who you’re talking about! There is nobody here but me!” Logan’s voiced howled back impatiently trying to get through to the man, but both girls’ knew it was useless. John knew where they were, and it was only a matter of time before he ripped apart the house and found them hiding.
“Don’t lie to me boy!” John’s voice shook the entire cabin followed by complete silence.
The girls’ didn’t even try looking at one another before moving forward trying to see what was happening through the cracks in the floorboards. They traveled to the area where the ceiling creaked as they strained under the weight of the two grown men.
“John, come on, you’ve known me for years. Just put the gun down,” Logan spoke to the devil man slowly, as if talking to a misbehaved infant.
“What? I don’t know you! Now don’t make me ask again! Where is she?” There was no time given to answer before the unmistakable flash of the light illuminated their hiding place followed by a deafening crack of the shot that caused their ears to bleed and their eyes to water.
The sound of a limp, lifeless body thumped to the floor above the girls’. Anna jumped into Faye’s arms laying her head on her friend’s shoulder allowing her tears to fall silently while trying to comfort her at once. Slumping to the floor they weeped in each other’s arms as their best friend, protector, brother, family laid asleep forever.
Footsteps shuffled above, as he searched the cabin for his next victims. Logan’s blood was on the stranger’s hands and they were trapped. Anna couldn’t believe the insanity of this man. She didn’t comprehend his intentions for her, why he wants her so badly. This was the closest she has ever been to her stalker, her tracker, Logan’s murderer. The only thing she knows about him is his voice. He’s changed since the last she’s seen him and not for the better.
Anna tried collecting herself and the heartbroken girl beside her, but she couldn’t. Faye was lost now, and she couldn’t be found. She buried herself in her own grief and didn’t want to be dug out. She needed time to mourn; time they didn’t have. The clock is ticking and Faye was pulling them deeper and deeper, slowly taking away time. Slowly take away their lives.
“Anna,” the voiced drawled out excitedly, “it’s time to come home.”
The basement now felt like a cell as the sunlight highlighted her surroundings blinding her momentarily.
All this time Anna feared the dark with it’s mysterious creatures of her imagination looming in it’s shadows watching and waiting.
When all this time the real monster is out in the daylight where she can see his eyes and see his menacing grin expanding over his face.
As the thrill of the hunt comes to an end and his prey are shaking in fear waiting for their inevitable death. Anna looks up and sees the Ruler standing above her.
“But Daddy, I don’t want to go home.”