Beast of Venery (31 page)

              This wasn't quite the waiting game they expected when it came to Brian's return into their lives. If this event happened to be caused by him, that is. Andy didn't expect him to dare coming this close when more family members were surrounding Danielle, but unfortunately he might have underestimated this man, and he didn't like that feeling at all.

              Now all bets were up in the air, and he couldn't seem to read this person at all. His violent tendency, personally directed toward Danielle for leaving him, was something very different from this new anger toward anyone who came close to her. He didn't like that he had no clue what he could be up to next, and how far this man could take things.

              Jo and Danielle were still crouching down low behind the couch, watching Vernon and Andy standing silently positioned at each of the two doors. Waiting. Waiting for any proof that someone was out there, possibly messing with the wires connecting the cabin to the main power strip. Nothing. Minutes ticked by and still nothing.

              “Andy, it's been fifteen minutes already and there hasn't been any sounds. Maybe we just overreacted?” Danielle whispered, reassuring herself what she feared the most simply couldn't be true.

              “Baby, I'm not taking any chances with him this time. If I need to wait an hour I'll do so. Please stay where you are and don't get up.”

              She sat back down on her heels and let Jo hold her hand, rubbing it gently.

              “We're just gonna wait it out a little longer sweetie before the boys can go outside safely to check the wires connected to the house. It could have just been the wind or a few branches falling over, taking them to the ground. It has happened before. But let's just wait a little bit longer, okay?”

              Jo's sweet little whispering close to her face made her all warm and safe inside. She could wait. For the sake of safety. She thought she had Brian all figured out over the years, but assuming this power failure was caused by him was just too out of line. She knew he wanted to hurt and control her, but why the rest of the family? It seemed like his jealousy escalated into this animosity with stalking tendencies. His wish for her to return was going to the extreme.

              “Hey son, it's been thirty minutes.” Vernon noted, watching the clock on the wall. “No sound has been heard from outside. I suggest we go out together and look around the house. Bring the rifle with you and I'll grab a flashlight. You ladies stay where you are until we come back in.”

              A resonate
'yes'
came from behind the couch in the living room and with no further ado the front door slowly opened letting the two men step outside into the darkness of the night. Listening intently, Danielle could only make out some of the gravel shuffling around outside the cabin, and she really tried to follow the men's crunchy footsteps as they circled the building. Abruptly intense shuffling was heard on the short side of the cabin, where no windows were placed for them to peer out. Muffled sounds intensified but in an instance all the sounds were gone. Vanished in thin air. No more footsteps, no more mumbling. Silence.

              Jo and Danielle stared at each other in the darkness of the living room, the whites in their eyes shining in the light from the moon. Neither of them could figure out what took place outside or what they should do next. They were just told not to move anywhere and to simply try to stay safe, but those were hard rules to follow when their imaginations played tricks on their minds, creating vivid images of horrifying events of what could potentially have happened.

              “What should we do?” Danielle whispered to Jo, sitting so close she was practically in her lap. Jo didn't respond. Instead she held her index finger to her mouth as to tell her to be very quiet, and then she point with the same finger towards outside.

              Then she heard it too. The gravel was shuffling again, softly, but distinct footsteps could still be heard. Determined steps then walked over the loose gravel heading up the walking path to the front door. Jo and Danielle exchanged looks of anxiety, not knowing who would come through the door at any minute. As the footsteps outside left the gravel and entered the four wooden steps leading up to the door, Jo risked a small peek over the back of the couch, only allowing her forehead and eyes shine in the moonlight reaching her through the two large windows in the room.

              Slowly she sat back down as if in defeat, turned her face to Danielle, and said with a low but steady voice.

              “Run. He has a hammer.”

              Without hesitating she knew it was Brian. Her worst nightmare had just begun. She shot straight up, out of hiding from behind the couch, and ran for the back door leading out to the porch and the dark forest. With trembling dull fingers she eventually managed to unlock it and as if in sync, she opened hers to get out, and he opened his to step inside.

              She didn't dare to glance back in case she would lose focus, trip, and then fall. She let her door fly open and with panic raised feet her legs brought her straight out from the cabin door and into the forest.

              'Just run, Danielle, just fucking run.'
Her mind screamed to the rest of her body.

                                                                      *              *              *

              Her feet were pounding hard against the dirt floor of the forest, but she couldn't feel the thorns and sharp edges of the branches digging into the sole of her feet anymore. Her mind had to solely focus on running. Running like crazy. '
This is what people always talked about when they said they had to run for their life
.' She thought. She ran to save hers.

              The darkness of the evening didn't make the maneuvering among the trees any easier. Each tree looked the same as the other, the ground around her identical to the patch a few feet away. Everywhere forest, everything the same. No wonder so many people got lost. She thought the light of the moon would have guided her better by shining some of the paths up, but tonight it didn't returned her wish.

              Soon she would have to stop for a breather, she couldn't keep up this erratic panic gazed running all night. By the look of the moon, that had moved over the dark sky, an hour must have passed already. Rounding a large pine tree trunk she threw herself down on the ground, and crouched into a small tight ball.

             
'Please let him be far behind. I know I'm a better runner than he ever was.'
She prayed
.

She swallowed every breath hard down her throat, trying to get her pulse to quickly slow down, and not give away any sound of breathing in the quietness surrounding her. '
Hadn't monks always had the ability to do that, slow down your heartbeat by simply using your mind?'
Now was the time to try it, and she better make it work, otherwise that might be the last few breathes she would ever take in life. And she wasn't done living yet. There was still so much to do. Still so much to see. Still so much to love.

              Nothing yet. No sounds except for a few creeks high up in the wide crown of the trees. Possibly a bird or a squirrel woken up by her interruption to the evening forest slumber. She felt hunted. Maybe the animals recognized the fear and stayed away. All of a sudden sharp creeks and breaking of dry branches dispersed through the eerie evening.

             
'Please don't make it a bear. No bears. I cannot run from any more animals, humans or not, tonight.'
She prayed hard keeping her eyes shut, pretending what she couldn't see wasn't there.

The fast beat of her heart against her ribs had finally slowed down enough making it possible to take a few deep, controlled, silent breathes. Breathing quietly enough not to make a single animal notice her if they walked by. Not even becoming a shadow in the dark. Invisible. That was her goal.

              'Was she just going to wait, since she had found a safe spot? Or should she keep running deeper into the forest?'
She didn't know her way around the area at all.

              Then, some distance away, there was a crunch. Too loud to have been made by an animal awake at this hour, unless it was a bear or a mountain lion prowling. '
Fuck, fuck, fuck. It was too late to run now. If that was Brian making that sound he would both hear and see her take off through the forest. Damn her for not taking the chance of running when she had had it.'

              Another crunch. '
Was it closer this time?'
She couldn't tell. The aphonic tightness of the trees and the dimness made it almost impossible to calculate distance between things. Instead of relying on her eyes solely, her ears were on high alert. Just like that of an animal. It was like no other senses were working at the moment, all the focus had been transferred to her ability to listen. Like a bat preying in the night, listening for movement but without vision.

              Yet another crunch, and then she saw him. She pressed her body tightly against the rough tree trunk trying to make herself camouflaged, or at least make it look as if she was part of it, melting into the bark of the tree. Becoming one with nature at dark. In the periphery of her view, a dark shadow resembling a man was walking with slow steps over branches and small logs adjacent to her hiding spot. Brian, with the silhouette of a narrow hammer hanging from the grip of his hand. She still had a few feet separating them, but she wasn't sure if a sprint from her spot would actually be the best idea, and she wasn't sure if she could make the run back to the cabin without him catching on.

              This time she was lucky. The trunk of the tree was on her side in this outrageous hide-and-go-seek game, working its massive size cradling her securely in the dark. He didn't see her. Her eyes being the only thing moving in the dark, making sure they followed each and every one of his steps away to be further engulfed by the trees until she couldn't see his shape anymore. Perhaps she should close her eyes as well, in case he noticed the bright whites if he turned back slightly seeing if he had passed her.

              Sounds of branches being bent off and cracked from their limbs of the trees where he passed made it obvious he was walking away from her. She decided to count back from twenty, silently, and if he didn't return by the time she hit one she would go for it, leap up from the ground and run back the way she came. Her ears, the size of a desert fox, kept hearing steps striding slowly away from the spot where she huddled. She would have to take the plunge and run. Run like hell using her best knowledge of the way she came, trying to make it back to the house safely.

              “20, 19, 18, 17...”

              The waiting game nearly killed her, making her counting successfully down to eleven until she couldn't stand it anymore and bluntly shot up from her spot behind the tree, pushed away from the ground like a four hundred meter sprinting athlete, and made the muscles of her legs prove their capacity. She ran and ran, and once in a while she would do a dead stop behind a tree and listen for footsteps behind her. Nothing. She kept pushing. Further and further back among the trees the way she came, praying she ran in the right direction and that the cabin would appear in her view at any moment.

             
'Please let it be closer.'
She pleaded.

              Her legs wouldn't last for much longer to the frenzy of running in the dark while being soundless. Her tired feet and legs brought her over logs, over rocks, and in a few instances even threw some mud settling down between her toes like cold clay, making an imprint on the forest floor. Her shoes didn't make it this far. She threw them of in the middle of the nightly hunt. Thinking it would give her better odds by going barefoot. So far that statement had proven to be true. But it wasn't over yet.

             
“Where the hell is that cabin? Where is it?”

              Was her mind playing a trick on her, making her run in the wrong direction?

Finally, there it was. The slight clearing of the forest gave room for the small building and the dark color of the log house shone in the light of the moon. She made it.

              Still not sure if Brian had made it back as well, she hesitated at the last row of trees bordering the grassy field and questioned her idea of going straight back inside the cabin. Right next to the house was a large pine tree growing heavy branches reaching out like long, overprotective arms, brushing over the ground like paint brushes. “
That tree must hold her new hiding spot.”
She thought.

              Launching herself out into the few feet of open space of the low grass lit up by the moon, she quickly let her shadow be engulfed by the large branches. It was like standing in a tree cave. The soft needles of the pine stroke her back protectively while she tried to listen for any noise around her. It was quiet. That must mean that the rest of the family was part of the man hunt as well.

              “Pst, get over here.”

              A small whisper had broken the nightly silence, and made her peek around the clearing in front of her to see if the voice was directed to her and if it was safe to trust it.