A billionaire's daughter - The Outlaws Series

18

Elena knew the forest from the back of her hand, therefore she wasn't scared to run into it in the middle of the night.

Although the trees had grown and it was dark, Elena found her way to the little tree house fairly easy. It had been long ago since she last paid it a visit, which was visible through the creaks and the mold on the wood. The tree house hung low to the ground, but the leaves from the tree were perfectly covering it up.

Carefully not to fall through the old wooden panels, she climbed into the little house. Apart from two beer crates she used as chairs and an old blanket used as decoration, the room was bare and cold. The wind blew through the thin walls. She only used to do sleepovers in the summer.

The moon shone right above her, providing her with enough light for the night, 'At least I don't need to worry about that', she whispered to herself, shivering in her almost dried shirt.

The black coat she had brought with her barely helped her with how cold she was, after all, it was a designer coat, not a winter coat.

'Stupid rich ego', she whispered to herself again and looked up at the sky. They never had found the time to give the tree house a roof, but Elena liked it that way. At least she could watch the stars while she waited.

She didn't know whether the woman was still in the house or had followed her out. Elena looked through the tiny windows beside her, trying to find any clue that another human being was walking around.

It was dead silent.

Elena shivered again and pulled her coat even closer, crawling towards the left window. The trees' shadows let the forest look like a haunted place, plants moving ever so often. She tried not to look at that and focused on any sound the forest might give free.

The hooting of an owl, the rustling of leaves, chirping of crickets and somewhere in the forest was the howling of a wolf audible. It really made it difficult to focus on sounds that might be produced by humans.

Suddenly, when the distant sound of the roaring from a motor echoed through the night, Elena perked up and listened closely. It removed itself fairly quickly and soon she was met with the sounds of the night.

After waiting another hour, she took the risk and slid down the ladder, her only knife in her hand. She couldn't do much with it except when she would be able to surprise her attacker, so she had to be careful.

Her footsteps sounded like screams through the night and every time Elena heard something, she would freeze, not being able to move, and wait for the fatal hit.

It never came.

It took her an hour in total to get back home and she was exhausted. The little amount of sleep, fighting and stress took a toll, she felt it.

With her heart beating a thousand miles per hour, Elena walked back into the house. As she predicted, it looked the exact same as when she left it. The woman was clearly out to get her.

The books were still lying all over the floor, some of them open, some of them closed. She picked one up and turned it around; A good girl's guide to murder, interesting. She hadn't read that one in a while.

Carefully placing every book back in its rightful place, Elena took another book; prins în propriul meu cap. 

Trapped in my own head, mhhh... That one wasn't supposed to be here, she thought. She wasn't allowed to have books in different languages other than English, French and Spanish, so what was a book in Romanian doing here?

Carefully opening it, Elena prepared herself for anything.

But nothing happened.

She had opened it, read the page she ended up on and continued browsing through. Yet nothing happened.

Not until a bright yellow color on top of one of the pages caught her attention. It was a simple line, made by an average marker. The word cheie was now drenched in yellow, looking back at her.

Elena frowned and traced over the word, what had a key to do with all of this?

---

'Why can't I open it dad?'

'Because you'll fall out of it.'

'But what if there's fire and I'm locked up?'

'Then it'll open.'

---

The key from her window! Elena now remembered, her dad had locked it after her mom's death and hid the key. She had looked for it several times, but gave up years ago.

It just came back to mind that he in fact told her, if there's fire, it'll open. She tried using a match in front of it when she was ten, a lighter when she was twelve, but that was immediately her last attempt. She had burned her finger back then, the scar was still visible.

But what if her father didn't mean actual fire? What if he meant; When you're in danger and you can't go anywhere, the window will open?

But why would he say that? What does he want her to do?