Taken

Chapter Fourteen--JEREMIAH

It had been a week since we had showed up on Sarah’s doorstep and I started to feel restless.  I didn’t like being stuck in the cabin all day, watching the world from inside.  I had never been the indoors type, I always preferred the wilderness.

          I zipped up my coat and slipped on the old pair of gloves that Ladd said he never wore anymore and that I was welcome to.  I slid my toboggan over my ears and opened the door, letting the icy air in.

          “Where are you going?” Denny asked, coming into the living room.  She didn’t say it accusingly, just curiously. 

          “I need some fresh air.” 

          She nodded and shepherded Haven into the bathroom for her bath.  I left, leaving the cabin behind me and just began walking.  I didn’t know where I was heading, but I didn’t head towards the road.  I headed deeper into the woods.

          The snow had melted for the most part.  Underneath the trees in the shadows where the sun had never reached, a few piles remained.  I could see the grass though, but the blades were frozen and as I walked on them they crunched under my boots.

          The sun had been up for a few hours, but still hadn’t chased away the morning chill.  The few birds that had stayed back for the winter hopped from the branches here and there, chirping once maybe twice, but for the most part stayed quiet.

          Everything seemed frozen, as if I was walking through a winter wonderland when the whole world had stopped around me.  As if time itself had stopped, or I was the only human around and had the land to myself.

          I had walked for a while, so far I lost sight of the smoke from the cabin’s chimney.    Dead brambles littered my path as I made my way deeper into the unknown.  I felt exhilarated.  Everything about the forest sent my senses wild.  My head was clearer, my hearing seemed sharper, and I breathed in the smell of the trees until my nose stung from the cold.

          Finally I stumbled into a clearing, the first one I had come to since I set out on my “journey”, per say.  I was thinking how unusual it was that there were little buds of green grass on the ground when I looked up and saw a dark cabin looming at the edge of the tree line opposite me. 

          I was surprised to see that the windows were still intact, no shattered glass.  I walked closer, escaping the safety of the trees to put myself out in the open.  I cautiously made my way to the porch and stepped up.  The wood was a little damp, but sturdy. I jumped up and down a little to test its strength.  I didn’t fall in.

          I put my ear to the door, but heard nothing.  I backtracked off the porch and went around, looking in every window.  There was not a soul in any room, but it had furniture and seemed rather nice.  I finally decided to try the front door’s knob.  It opened easily, and I walked in.

          The hallway was empty except for a few photos hanging on the wall.  It was of a couple, no older than fifty but definitely over thirty-five.  I studied them, wondering why they were out in the middle of nowhere.  I hadn’t even noticed a road, a path, not that I looked though.  This was strange.  People didn’t normally just disappear like that, but I guess they did.  All the adults did, although I didn’t know they came all the way out here.  If they did, how did they miss Sarah and Ladd?

          I searched through the house to find out it was in excellent shape and was very nice. Suddenly my mind started reeling.  What if we could live there?  It was the perfect spot, no one around to capture us, and Sarah was only a mile away.