FENRIR
Starting the engine of the Jeep, I watch the plough turn into the drive, then swing back out slowly onto the road, the driver not giving me a backwards glance.
I’ve kept myself busy all day because if I’d stopped, I wouldn’t have been able to fight the anxiety burrowing under my skin about whether we’re doing the right thing.The mountain is dangerous, the road precarious.Thoughts of getting trapped under an avalanche or the Jeep sliding off the road and down the side of the mountain have been plaguing me since we decided we’d leave the house.But the alternative isn’t much better.
By now, Devall will know something is amiss, having been unable to get in contact with us.Yes, I could explain the issue with the phones as the connection being disrupted by the weather, but how the fuck would I have explained why Willa isn’t here?Why she couldn’t come to the phone?
I keep trying to justify the decision to run since Hayami mentioned the idea herself, but I always come back to the fact that she hasn’t run.Because she knows how it’d end.We both know what will be at the end of this.
The whole time we’ve been digging, I’ve been avoiding looking at her.For the past six months, Hayami’s carried the darkness around with her—the one I presume arrived the minute I pulled her from that pool.But today, it’s grown darker, as if the shadow’s swarming her, watching, waiting, growing stronger by the second, knowing death is near.
I haven’t looked in a mirror in years.If I were to do so, my own shadow would be the same—pulsing around me like it’s clapping its hands.It knows we’re doomed.
So, I’m sitting in the Jeep, revving the engine, heater on full, prepping myself for the most dangerous drive of my life.We’ve chased off death before, so I’m hoping we can do it again.We have to try.
The plough moves slowly, reaching the corner of the road where it will disappear, its lights blaring against the dark backdrop.
The dark.
Fuck.
I dip my head, analysing the sky that’s changed from a lucid grey to a penetrating gunmetal in the last few minutes.I give it ten more minutes before it’ll be pitch-black.
Come on, Hayami.
I look back at the house.
I wait.
Nothing.
No Hayami.
Impatience drums at my insides along with something else—a nagging familiar feeling that has nothing to do with the icy road, the treacherous drive, or the death run we’re about to embark upon, and everything to do with the shit that’s been going down in that house.
The door is wide open, Hayami having not bothered to close it after she ran inside.I can only just make out the dying headlights of the snow plough.
The sky is closing in on us.There’s no more time.
As I fling open the door to the Jeep and swing my legs out, the house goes black.All the lights have gone out.
Fuck.
I jump out of the Jeep and run towards the front door, trying not to pay attention to how dark the inside of the house looks.
“Hayami!”I call as I race into the grey foyer.No reply.
Fuck!
Stupid, Fucking stupid.Why did I let her go inside by herself?
Stepping further into the house, I can’t ignore the drop in temperature, the sinister feeling that envelops me as soon as my feet hit the floor.
“Hayami!”I call out again.My senses are playing tricks on me, as I swear I see something move by the stairs, a flicker of something dashing by me.
It’s just nerves, just the tension of this situation playing mind games with me.
Stay alert.
