Cabin 13 ~Book 1~

11

The inside of the cabin was completely different from the outside, in a sense that it was much worse. As the door shut behind us, we were both completely emerged in darkness and I was left, alone and vulnerable, as he went to find the switch. Fear coursed through me as I realized just how easy it would be for him to kill me now. It was dark, and almost no one knew I was here. I probably wouldn't even have time to scream, let alone if anyone would hear it this far out. How could I have been so stupid as to have trusted him?

The lights flickered to life suddenly and as I turned around to see the whole room, I could see Jesse- with no knife or anything that could hurt me- leaning against the wall. I tried to hide the fear I'd felt before, and looked around at the small, old cabin. I could see now that someone really had lived here once. Nothing looked moved- or cleaned for that matter. Dust covered the bed, the dresser, the floors, the lights... Everything. The door to the bathroom was shut and had a bunch of crime scene tape, and I shuddered at the thought of the body still being there...

"They cleaned her up right after it happened. Right after she was found. And I've checked in there anyways when I first got here, she's not there. Don't worry about any bodies being here..." He said, reading my mind. I spun back around to look at him and found him standing right behind me. I hadn't even heard him walk over. I thought.

He didn't have that smirk on his face. He looked legitimately serious, and concerned...
Why would he be worried? Is he worried about me?

"Oh. Okay." I said, nodding slowly as I tried to make sense of all of this. Then I remembered the real reason I was here. "You are going to tell me what happened with Brandon Faye."

"I promised. No walls, no secrets. Ask whatever you want."

The most important question came first. "Why??"

"Why did I beat him up?" he asked. I nodded and he ran a hand through his hair. He turned away from me, and reached over to grab something by the door. Foldable chairs. "For our personal comfort, so we don't have to sit in the dirt like scrubs." He told me, still maintaining some sarcasm. I didn't argue though and followed him as he sat down, waiting patiently for him to start.

"I live with my mom. And my two younger sisters. One's seventeen and one's thirteen. I've got one who's in college now at UNC." He smiled, more to himself, as he talked about them. "All three of them are kind of their own version of the devil for me, especially when we were little and they first got into makeup..."
He chuckled a little at some memories, and I swear I saw this spark in his eye, one that didn't match the dangerous, arrogant attitude he usually wore.

"My sister that's in college- Danielle- had never had a boyfriend. At least, not until her junior year when she met this one guy..." his face darkened. "Brandon. Since I was the only guy of the house, it was my job to meet him and make sure he knew how to act with my sister. She was only seventeen at the time, so I was pretty hard on him. But he seemed nice enough when I met him. Didn't look like some drug addict or anything."

He took a deep breath. He leaned forward, trying to stay calm but before he did I saw something that surprised me even more than that earlier spark. I saw guilt in his eyes.

"Their first date... he raped her on their first date." He said, barely able to get the words out. "She came home- almost two hours late- and was in tears. Her shirt had been ripped from the bottom up and she'd walked back, trying to keep her sweater shut to cover herself. She even flinched away when I went to hug her..."

I sat there, shell shocked as he covered his face with his hands. But he wasn't entirely done yet. "I could have stopped it Sydney. I could have kept it from happening by just saying no, but I didn't see the signs... it's my fault." He whispered, his voice breaking at the end.

I was shaking my head before he even finished speaking, and I leaned forward so that I could really see his face. "No... No, it's not your fault. It's not your sister's fault. It's not anyone's fault but Brandon's. You can't blame yourself for not seeing the signs because he could have hidden them really well Jesse. It's. Not. Your. Fault." I said, enunciating each word.

"I was supposed to protect her. The only thing my dad told me before he passed away to do was protect my family, and I failed."

"You did not fail. You risked your future- you risked going to jail- for your family. That's not failing. Did Brandon have to die? Well... no. I think living with his crime in prison would have been better but you still did what you had to do to help your family. Which means... you didn't fail them."

"I didn't kill him. I wanted him to live with his crime." He said, looking me in the eye. "I didn't kill him, I swear. I was ready to go to trial that morning, when my lawyer came to my house and said I was free. That the charges were dropped. Then I was being accused of murder by Faye's family but there was no evidence or proof. So those accusations were dropped too. My only punishment was to come here to try and 'get better.'"
It all made perfect sense. Except for one thing. "But if you didn't kill him... who did?"

He hesitated then. His eyes fell to the floorboards and he grew completely silent. I waited a bit for him to gather his thoughts, but as each minute passed and he still hadn't spoken, I became angry all over again. Angry and distrusting.

I'd let my guard down again. And he still hadn't even told me the whole truth.

"Jesse, you promised. No secrets, no walls." I said, throwing his words back at him.

He looked up at me, his eyes almost pleading with me now. "Syd, I can't. I-"

"Don't call me that." I snapped, standing up. "Look, you dragged me out there today to tell me about all this. Then you told me to meet you here. You promised that there'd be no more secrets. So either you tell me everything right now or you can just stay out of my life."
When he didn't respond, I started towards the door. I'd only taken one step away from him when he reached out for my hand and spun me back around to face him, pulling me right into his arms. We were so close that I lost track of my reason for leaving for a moment, as I stared into his green eyes. They had dark brown flecks in them- something I'd never noticed before.

That moment was plenty of time for him to pull me even closer to him so that he could bring his lips down to mine.

I froze at the sudden turn of events and didn't move at all. I didn't kiss back. My hands rested on his chest. My mind had completely stopped working.

Then my body seemed to really comprehend what was happening. I gripped his shirt and pulled him with me as I walked backwards and into the wall. His hands pressed against the wall on either side of me, trapping me there as our lips moved in sync. For once in my life, I had no sarcastic remark about what was happening. I honestly had no words at all- which also never happens to me.

When he finally pulled away, neither one of us moved. We just stared at each other- I noticed then he was breathing just as hard as I was- and I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking.

Why did he kiss me? Why did I kiss him back? Could I even trust him?

What did this mean for us now?