Theo wanted my help navigating the pitch-black road, so I made sure to stay wide awake. We drove through what appeared to be a full-blown forest, no real track, only what had been trodden down over the years by sporadic car tires. It was spooky, isolated, and for a few minutes as we pushed on, bushes and branches brushing up against the sides of the car, I thought the cabin would never appear. Moths and other creatures darted through the headlights’ beams as we rolled through thinning trees.
Then the dense trees gave way to a small clearing and a cabin in the center. It was only lit by the car headlights, but looked sturdy enough. Typical, with wooden rafters and rickety edges, but sturdy. I hoped. It was unassuming, almost blending in with the trees surrounding the structure, a low porch only a few steps above the mud.
“Would you look at that,” Theo said with a relieved grin, grabbing the back of my head and kissing my forehead before climbing out of the car, groaning as he stretched his legs out and cracked his spine. I smirked and climbed out after him, walking around the car to fall into his arms, looking up at the cabin. Christian promised we were safe and secure, and I’d never seen Theo so relaxed, so I tried to let myself settle into that, too. Theo trusted Christian, so I did, too.
Out here, in the dark, in the middle of heavy woodland, it was like all that darkness chasing us wasn’t real, as if we were in our own little pocket of the world no one else could reach. I was a killer, someone being hunted, but out here, I was just me. Theo’s sister.
“Come on,” Theo urged, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “Let’s get inside.”
The night air was cool, and I didn’t want to leave it, but Theo dragged me in, muttering about needing real food, and to splash his face with cold water. We had time out here in this cabin, nowhere we needed to rush to next, I could come back out, sit and breathe in the fresh air. It was nice, to slow down, to let the tension in my shoulders drop just a touch. It was almost surreal, like the world was falling away, like our problems truly wouldn’t exist once we stepped over the threshold.
I would never be far from the urge to maim and kill those men, it simmered under my skin, itched in my veins, but this was our bubble, like a different universe, far from it all.
It was eerie here, peaceful in that unnerving way that was heavy. But I liked it. No one could get to us. None of my demons would reach us here.
We moved through the entire cabin methodically, Theo’s gun raised, my hand tangled in the back of his shirt like he insisted. But we found nothing, of course. Only a note from Christian in the printer tray and a thin layer of dust. It was clear no one came out here. That tension in my shoulders dropped a little more at the zero signs of recent life. Theo was right to trust Christian.
The note told us to hang tight, eat all the food in the kitchen because more was coming, and that he’d be in touch. Not much, but still a comfort. I had a feeling there was a bigger story to be told about Theo and Christian, but now wasn’t the time for anything other than what was right in front of us. We were exhausted, needed to refuel and pass out cold. Again, the trust Theo had for this mystery man was unwavering, and I would walk to the end of the earth if Theo told me it was safe.
“Shall I cook something?” I asked, frowning at the cupboard and its sparse stock. There were plenty of tins and jars, some dry pasta and rice, even what looked like powdered eggs - something I’d never cooked before. Not that I’d everreallycooked at all. But I could figure it out.
Those times in the kitchen with the nannies and my sisters counted for very little, but I at least knew how to turn on the oven, what food needed to look like to be considered edible…
“If you think you can make something that won’t kill us,” Theo said with a smirk, taking a few steps away from me, hands lifted in mock surrender.
“I resent that,” I responded, hands on my hips, trying to hold back my laugh. One thing we had in common, raised by a family with a chef we didn’t even know the name of. Food just appeared when I was allowed to have it. Mother would have scoffed at the idea of either of us cooking anything, let alone a proper meal.
Theo tilted his head, still smiling, and took another step back. “Have at it, beautiful,” he told me. “I’d eat a pile of bugs about now so you can’t do much worse than that.”
He hovered for a moment before turning and wandering away. I noticed his hesitation because I was hesitating too. Whenever he wasn’t right beside me, my bones ached for him to come the hell back. My feet turned to follow him, but I resisted.Independence, Vi, you need some independence…
“We’ll see about that,” I muttered to myself, frowning at the cupboard, trying with every ounce of self-awareness I had to remember it was nuts, needy and clingy. He was only a wall away. It was fine.
“I’ll be in the security room!” Theo yelled from the hall as I pulled down a tin of green beans and some instant mashed potato. The cabin was small, but in true crime family fashion, they’d managed to squeeze in a cupboard-like room full of screens, showing live feeds of the cameras around the place. The most interesting ones were at the gate and along the perimeter. When we’d found the room during our exploration, I struggled to turn away from those camera screens, convinced we’d see a hoard of angry men raging towards us, come to take me back to that life of despair. But the only thing that moved was leaves in the wind.
“What are you looking for?” I asked Theo as I carried in our plates of food a little while later, finding him reclined in on an office chair in front of the screens. He took the plates gratefully and kissed my cheek, sitting up straighter, muttering a thanks before diving right in.
I’d managed to burn nothing, to not make anything taste foul. It wasn’t hard with the very limited supplies I had to mess things up, but a glimmer of pride warmed my stomach, anyway.
“Just checking it all functions before I take you to bed,” he said around a mouthful of the food. “Getting comfortable with it.”
“Oh yeah?” I teased, unable to help the grin forming on my face. Despite how weird this all was, it felt kind of… normal. Hanging out. Eating food together with no stress. It was almost nice. With the security surrounding us and the seclusion, it was easy to forget there was anything wrong at all. We were just a young couple celebrating a weekend away from our lives. Nothing more.
And I think he knew that. He knew what I wanted because he turned from the monitors and grinned at me.
“Fuck yeah, I’m going to slide my cock right into your pussy and pass the fuck out.” He shoveled the food into his mouth and waggled his eyebrows, making me chuckle.
“As close as possible, hey?”
“Damn straight, beautiful.”
We slept for a few hours after Theo loved on me. It was short, romantic and cuddly, and we drifted off in each other’s arms soon after, both exhausted. I was always so bloody exhausted.
But when I stirred, the world still dark outside, my skin grew itchy, unsettled. I didn’t— my breathing came out heavy, my palms sweaty, clammy. I think I was having a nightmare, flashes of Rafael, of intense pain in my stomach, my toes curling and my fingers clenching as something broke into my body, invaded my mind.
Rafael looming above me, razor blade in hand as he swiped it across my skin, criss-crossing open wounds down my torso, my arms, laughing when I cried, smirking when I tried to hold it in.
The sharp, stinging pain of it overwhelming me, showing me truly, deeply, that any hope was useless.
