Forest is close, trees are far

7. Vibeke

It all started with the entrails. It seemed like it would all end with people running into the woods. Or that will be the beginning of an even bigger mess. Vibeke didn't know which outcome she would prefer. She didn't know which one was worse. But with one she would find herself face to face and she was convinced, whichever it was, it would not let her escape it. 

She thought of returning, after handing Eartn over to her Bjerne, she thought of turning around and going back the same way, while there were still traces of light, to follow them and take her home. But house and home were not the same term. The house was the material storage of the home. Without home, she was a blank sheet, wordless, a whiteness that warded off with its emptiness. Vibeka's home was everywhere but not in the house. She couldn't stand the creatures under that roof, she couldn't stand the air she had to share with them. The fireplace had stopped heating the walls long before the winters, the cold had crept in like a monster into empty walls, showing itself in the shadows only when night fell, threatening to expose everything. 

Let her, let her do it already, how many times did Vibeke whisper words that turned into a prayer that she would utter in the darkness over the bed. 

But make sure it hurts, that it all hurts them like a daughter was hurt when a mother stopped paying attention to her. Tokled didn't do anything wrong. He was just born with the right sex. That's his only advantage. And the biggest one, in that house of shadows that even ghosts don't go into anymore. 

Like all prayers, free from the shackles of thought, it flew away in the first rays of dawn, forgetting what it had promised in return if it was let go.

Vibeke didn't need prayer to make her plans come true. She needed herself. And that's when Delta's boys appeared in the story.