I was cold.
But now I’m warm.
The snow bank was coming for me as if I were the stationary object and it was a monster about to consume me. I didn’t want to die, but death was just waiting to claim my life.
Is that where I am now? Is Heaven warm and comforting?
Or maybe I’m in the fires of Hell. I probably deserve it. I didn’t do enough good in my lifetime to deserve Heaven.
Restraint, that’s the next thing I feel. Something is wrapped around me to keep me from moving. A steel band locks my arms in front of me where my hands are laid on something hard yet soft. Not squishy soft, more like soft to the touch, cozy fabric lining a structured form. And there’s a smell to it as well, I can’t quite place it but something invites me in like a crackling campfire and evergreens. I’ve never been camping but that’s how I imagine it would smell. Peaceful. Cool but warm.
Then the ache sets into my limbs and my cheeks. My pelvis throbs with a full pain spanning from hip bone to hip bone. My cheek is on fire. And my arms are a myriad of different sensations, mainly itchy.
I finally open my eyes but it takes a minute for them to adjust to the glow of the dark room to make out a thermal Henley on a hard chest, a beardedjawline, and pink lips. Finally, the realization that someone is holding me snaps into place.
Someone I don’t know.
I squirm out of their hold only to land on the floor wrapped in a wool blanket that I clutch to my chest as soon as I see I’m only in my bra and underwear. The drop to the floor electrified every injury I’ve sustained making me whimper in agony.
“What the fuck, what the fuck,what the fuck!” I don’t know what’s going on but I need to get away, call for help, and figure out where I am.
I try to rise to my feet but the pain across my pelvis makes me wince as I stand. I don’t fucking care. I have to push through the pain to save myself.
Did someone kidnap me?
I start for the door but a strong arm takes me by the waist and pulls me back until we are back to chest. I try to thrash and yell because it’s my only option. I won’t go down without a fight even if it’s a pathetic attempt. But I’m not exactly at my strongest.
I expect my kidnapper to say something, try to calm me down or taunt me. But he remains silent as if my pain and fear hold no sway over him.
“Let me go!” I try again, even though that’s never worked in the movies.
To my surprise, it does. He spins me so fast I can’t see before I’m seated on the couch and the man stands before me backlit by the enormous fireplace.
This must be Hell and the Devil has come to collect.
But the face of the devil becomes clearer and it’s somehow familiar. I don’t recognize the beard or the broad shoulders, but the stormy eyes and dirty blond hair trigger a memory I can’t pinpoint. The eyes especially, they strike a familiar chord I can’t place, like a song you recall but don’t know the words to. They bind me in shocked silence, I have no control over my movements when they are locked on me. I’m lost to the storm within those irises.
Then it dawns on me, and I’m one hundred percent sure I’m in Hell now.
“Jason?” I ask quietly, afraid to voice my suspicion. “Jason Alder?”
My suspicion is confirmed when Dylan Alder, who looks so much like his brother but with light brown hair and smaller set shoulders, bounds downthe stairs in a pair of banana print pajama pants with his shoulder raised as though he’s preparing for a fight. If I recall correctly, he’s a year younger than Jason and I. But he got his GED the summer after we graduated so he didn’t have to complete his senior year.
I’d heard the two brothers moved to their family cabin in the woods after that, after the death of their parents. Slowly, my surroundings filter into view. Wood floors haphazardly covered in Persian rugs. Log cabin walls of a darker stained wood bearing only a few pieces of art and two mounted deer skulls with antlers intact. And a never-ending darkness beyond the iron-paned windows that swallow the light whole.
Then there is the extra-large fireplace made of uneven stones giving it a look somewhere between woodsy and cottage-core. The fire inside was small in comparison to the size of the hearth. You could fit an entire bonfire in there, no problem.
I’m in their cabin on the mountain about forty minutes outside of town. How the hell did I get here?
“What the fuck is going on?” I blurt in a furious tone that only feels like it’s skimming the surface of my rage. “Why am I here?”
“Jason found you in a car crash on the road,” Dylan spoke up. I take it his brother still doesn’t talk. “I wasn’t there so I don’t know all the details. He brought you back in the truck. The snow is too heavy to get down the mountain now. You’ve got some pretty bad wounds from the accident.”
That explains the pain over my pelvis, the seat belt must have done that. And the airbag must be the cause of the pain in my face and arm. It starts coming back to me, driving, music playing way too loud. A deer in the road I couldn’t see because the snow was falling too heavily. Losing control of the car.Bang.Crash. Darkness. I must have been knocked out on impact.
It’s then I realize I’ve been bandaged from my face to my arm. I start scanning my body, taking stock of my limbs and checking for other injuries. Did they do this?
“In case you’re wondering,” Dylan pulls my eyes back up, “your clothes were freezing cold and we had to check you for other injuries. Didn’t need you bleeding out on us. You might have gotten hypothermia if we left youin those clothes much longer. We needed to get you warm. But we left your underwear on, we haven’t seen the goods.”
