Shadow Souls

Chapter Forty-Two

I think about texting Paige, to let her and Tyler know that I will be leaving the house after all, but I know they will both freak. So, I decided that I won't tell them anything. No reason to make them worry if I don't have to. I will just have to be extra careful and keep my eyes peeled for anything suspicious. This way they also stay safe and indoors. I know it's probably not wise to base our safety on the thought that this thing can't come inside our homes. But I also feel like if it could, then it wouldn't need to try and smoke me out. Unless that was something completely unrelated. Or maybe it was Makaria, and it was only trying to mess with me and shake me up just for kicks. There were still so many questions, so for now I will go with what I know to be true which is I haven't been attacked in my own house. Not by demons anyway, although Callie probably could qualify in my opinion.

Finn asks me to close my eyes and wait in the living room, while he goes around my house gathering up 'supplies' as he called it, and I must admit my curiosity is piqued. He runs outside and I hold my breath the entire thirty seconds he is gone hoping nothing is waiting out there, and after he comes back in, I exhale in relief, and he announces we are ready to go. A minute later we are in my dad's truck backing out of the driveway, but with him in the driver's seat, seeing as how I didn't know where we were going, and he didn't want to tell me.

"You're not taking me to another surprise family dinner, are you?" I ask him starting to feel anxious.

"No, I promise," he laughs at my discomfort then reaches down to grab my hand.

He pulls it to his mouth to kiss each of my knuckles in turn, before letting our intertwined fingers rest together on the center fold. I use my free hand to turn on the radio, and I'm about to change the station from my dad's classic eights rock channel, until Finn starts singing along. Unable to help myself I join in, and we spend our time driving down back roads, while shouting the lyrics to every song that comes on and laughing like crazy. It's absolutely perfect and the dangers of early quickly melt away.

                                                             Ω                Ω              Ω

About twenty minutes later Finn suddenly pulls over on the side of the road, and not seeing anything but trees, I start to look around confused. "Where are we?" I ask him.

"About ten miles outside of town."

"And what exactly is out here?"

"My absolute favorite spot in the whole world," he tells me with a smile.

We get out of the truck, and he reaches into the cab to pull out the so-called supplies he had gathered up earlier. A blanket and my purple backpack. Weird. Did he want us to do homework on this outing?

He walks around the truck to come up and take my hand, then starts leading us into the woods.

"You're not bringing me out here to kill me, are you?" I ask him and he looks down at me to give me my favorite half grin. "That's not a no," I say, but then he comes to a stop, and I see that we are there.

The sight in front me looks more like it belongs in an enchanted forest than the middle of nowhere Oregon. "Wow. How did this get here?" I ask him.

"I have no idea," he informs me. "I found it one day when I was out hiking about four years ago."

"And is this where you bring all your girls?" I joke.

"Actually, I have never shown this spot to a single other person before you."

He looks me in the eye to show me that he is being sincere, and I can tell this place is obviously special to him and sharing it with me is a big deal. I can feel myself beginning to blush and try to hide my face with a curtain of hair before he can notice too. I look up at the large wooden gazebo sitting so out of place in the middle of the forest, but also looking like it somehow completely belongs with the vines and tress seeming to be a part of the structure.