No Name Trilogy, Book I: No Name

Chapter 30 - Cabin

After night had settled in the woods, we reached the cabin. Jason kept a close watch over me after I'd fallen, walking right beside me rather than ahead or behind, but he hadn't needed to; I was fine the rest of the way, and I was relieved by that. My last memory had been scary, and I spent most of the rest of the walk trying to figure it out. It wasn't like it had been confusing in itself—I'd been in the woods, running from some people, and I was on my way to the cabin. The problem was, I couldn't tell how it fit into my past. If it had been a real memory and not a strange combination of a past and the present situation, I'd known where the cabin was long before Henry and I had thought we'd discovered it. That's why I'd known where to go.

Why was I recalling such disjointed pieces of my past? The process was wearing on me. If I couldn't get it all back, maybe I didn't want any of it.

When we got to the cabin, we could barely see it, just the same as it'd been when Henry and I had found it. The building was like some dark fairytale cottage attempting to hide from the children that came across it. Jason was thrilled to come across it at last; he said as much. But I wasn't as sure I wanted to go in, now, after what I'd been thinking about. I just stood there, staring at it in the gloom, trying to make out its various windows and recalling the layout, thought of the furniture and paintings and pillows sitting there in the dark, no one there to take care of them.

"How do we get in?" asked Jason quietly, startling me a little.

I sighed, supposing we'd have to do this. There was no way Jason would listen to me if I suggested we not go in, not after I'd led him all this distance. "The lock's undone. There's nobody there."

"How do you know?"

"Because. Nobody was there the last time."

"So? Someone could've moved in or come to vacation"

"Does it look like someone's there? There aren't any lights on, nothing." His questions irritated me. "It's deserted. Nobody vacations here. I just know that."

"Fine! No need to bark at me. Let's go, then."

Go in alone.

The voice in my mind, again--my intuition. Each time I heard it, so real in my thoughts, as if someone were speaking to me, I was caught off guard. I still didn't understand it, except that it had to be instinct. It was certainly my own voice. And it had been helpful . . . I knew I should listen to it.

I took a deep breath; Jason wasn't going to like this. "Can you wait here? I'll go in first, and if it looks ok, I'll turn a light on. If you don't see a light, then don't come in."

"Shouldn't I go in first, if it's dangerous?"

"No. I know the place. Just trust me, all right? Please listen to me on this? Stay here?"

Even in the darkness, I could tell he was scowling. His eyes looked like angry holes. "Ten minutes max. If you don't turn the light on, I'm coming in anyway."

That was all I could hope for; it'd do. I turned and walked away from him. When Henry told me what to do, I didn't mind, but I was beginning to find Jason insufferable. There was just something about him that made my skin crawl; it was probably the confession he'd made, how he'd beat Henry so bad he'd almost killed him. That sort of rage . . . it was ugly. And how anyone could hurt Henry, I didn't know. I couldn't stand the thought of him being hurt like that.

Going up the steps of the cabin, I winced when they creaked against the quiet. A tiny bit of pale moonlight had somehow crept down through the trees and was glinting on the pieces of glass still left in the windowpane right above the doorknob. The sharp edges of them stood out as if they were laced with a thin, electric wire, and I almost felt like it was a warning, like those shards of glass were telling me not to go back in. But I convinced myself that was stupid, and I reached out my hand to grasp the doorknob.