Darkness carved in bone

Chapter 2

When they all returned to their home, they had eaten the meal her mother had prepared for them. They had talked quietly about the things the priest had announced, talking about how rumors had spread that young and able men were disappearing from many villages.

Their house was simply one large room that contained both the kitchen and the living space, and two bedrooms. One for their parents and one for Helen and Solis. There was a large white painted hearth that sat in the center of the house, that burned constantly to keep the cold of winter at bay, making the room smell of fire and warmth. The four windows that covered the walls of the kitchen and living room, all had candles in the windowsill, that burned throughout the night, to keep the darkness that flooded through them at bay. The result was a white oily hem of wax that flooded the windowsills. The small tendrils drooping to the floor.

Helen had felt absent through the entire dinner, her decision making her mind go numb. She was still determined to seek out the fortune teller and marry Sam if she said she would be happy. But if not, she had decided to do something else than kill herself. After some quiet sowing under her mother's watchful eye, sitting in the deep and comfortable red leaning chair by the hearth, Helen had tugged her younger sister with her, and gone to sleep.

Helen had of course not slept, and once she was certain that the rest of the house slept, she jumped carefully out of the bed she shared with her sister and sneaked out to the shed beside their house. The cold winter air made her exposed skin shriek in protest. It could be deadly to walk outside for just a short time in just a wool pajama, like the one she wore now. But she had stashed her backpack that contained everything she needed for surviving outside in the shed after dinner. She put on her wool undergarments and socks first, before donning her snow pants and jacket, she couldn't wear a dress when she went into the night, that was way too unpractical. Her clothes were made from a mixture of white fur and leather that almost made her blend entirely with the snow, lined with wool on the inside. The jacket reached down to her upper thighs and was a jacket her father had used when he had been younger. It was a bit too big for her, but with her worn brown leather belt at her waist, the jacket was passable. And the looseness of the fabric around her hips, made it easy for her to use the jacket while moving. The snow pants, white leather that was also lined with wool, fit snuggly across her legs.

As she bent down to tie her show shoes, she heard the door to the shed open. She jumped up and saw a pair of eyes that were so like her own staring at her with slight disbelief. Her sister had entered the shed, holding a candle in her hand, her legs shaking ever so slightly from the cold. The candle lit the shed, and as Helen's eyes had already become accustomed to the darkness, the candlelight almost felt too bright for her now. Her heart was beating fast in her chest, her sisters approach startling her.

"Solis, you scared me!" Helen didn't use her sisters nickname on her when she was angry with her, which made Solis frown. Solis was only a year younger than Helen, but even though they were close in age they weren't really that similar. Solis seemed to enjoy the things her mother forced them to do. Solis could never shut up about how she dreamed about getting married and having thousands of babies. But they shared the fair skin and strawberry blonde hair. Helen had perhaps a shade clearer blue eyes, but Solis had a straighter nose. They both had a small but pouty mouth. Helen had always thought that her sister was rather beautiful in that classical way, and she was perhaps beautiful too, Sam at least told her she was. But Helen was pointier where her sister was soft.

Solis started rubbing her eye with her free hand as she yawned. "Do you have to go out tonight?" Solis of course knew all about her little trips into the forest during the night.

Helen looked at her younger sister as she cocked her head. "Soli, I have to." Helen already knew those words would hurt her sister. Grief stabbed her heart as she spoke.