Forest of Rope

Chapter 31

Two Americans, scarcely older than teenagers, going at it like rabbits. Here, of all places. Their grotesque lust made his blood boil. Writhing, corpse-white lovers. Hadn't he come to this place to avoid such perverse disgusting things! And yet even now the forest itself seemed to be mocking him with yet another reason why he should kill himself. A million years of evolution and what are we? Animals. The spectator turned away.

                                                                           *

Alexis Moore lay wide-eyed under a comfortless twilit sky. Against her bare breasts her hostage drowsed, similarly naked. Struck by his appearance of purity she couldn't help but watch him silently, daring him to wake up and find the strength to rediscover the path and lead them home to a meaningless death. He let out a snore.

Cautiously, she freed herself from his sprawling arms and climbed back onto her feet. An evening breeze kissed the sweat around her arms and navel as she navigated the bed of moss and dead leaves. Within moments she was fully clothed and searching through the backpack for materials. A blanket, a throng of serpentine ropes, a hunting knife. The knife was incredibly sharp and sturdy, a woefully macabre thing.

Silhouetted by the dying embers of the day Alexis stood over her prey, armed with the blade. She watched the rise and fall of his chest, the serene calm of his expression, the white bareness of his throat... His bare throat was like the stalk of a young plant that begs to be trampled underfoot. Sighing, she used the knife to collect a sizeable pile of twigs and branches which would serve them for a fire.

When Riley crawled out of his slumber a curtain of darkness had drawn itself over the forest, hiding the stars from view. He found Alexis by the assembled tent, busied in front of a dancing orange flame. He could smell the distinct fug of meat cooking over the fire which restored him wonderfully.

'Hey.' He joined her by the pot in a vacant collapsible chair. 'You should've woke me up, I'dve helped you set up.'

'It's fine,' she shrugged, poking the broth with a utensil. It bubbled acidly over the heat.

'That looks great.'

They took a plastic bowl each. Beef and mushroom stew. Riley swallowed it hungrily down. Curiously, Alexis barely touched her food.

Riley pretended not to notice, he wanted to keep the peace. He couldn't remember the last time the two of them had sat down to a meal together like this. Wistfully, he thought of their apartment and of all the solitary evenings he'd spent waiting for Alexis to come home. The thought repulsed him, he almost couldn't keep his food down.

'So...' He broke the silence awkwardly. 'This is a first.' He gestured around the campsite with a plastic fork. A branch disintegrated noisily in the fire. When he didn't get a reply he half-heartedly praised Alexis for the whole thing being her idea. He didn't mention the travel sickness or the jet lag or the nausea or the weird food or the temptresses or even the unpleasant roots that had gnawed uncomfortably into his back as he'd slept. He didn't mention any of those things.

'It's been great,' he assured, willing her to crack a smile. 'I think we really needed it.'

A glimmer of sadness swam in her eyes. It was probably because their honeymoon was coming to an end.

'We should head back tomorrow morning. Don't wanna miss our flight.'

'Okay,' Alexis murmured sleepily putting aside her bowl, it looked almost full.

'I'll set an alarm.'

'Right.'

They clumsily got into a sleeping bag together. Outside the tent the forest shifted and contorted against the movements of the wind, masking the suggestion of footprints within the fathomless darkness beyond the faint glow of their fire. Untended the flame quickly extinguished, like a fading star. Riley drifted in and out of sleep.

'Alexis?' he whispered hours later as the dying fire gave out its last gasp. Her lack of heavy breathing told him she was still awake.

'Do you ever, you know, think about the future?' The question hung suspended over them like a new moon, physically undetectable, yet its crushing gravity was impossible to ignore.

'Like, do you ever think about... children?' Silence. An invisible glass dome seemed to have dropped onto their tent, sealing them off from the rest of the world, suffocating them.

Finally, a voice broke through the containment.

'Riley?' It said softly, impatiently.

'Yeah?'

'Go back to sleep.'

                                                                                   *

Complete darkness. The night refused to end. Riley woke up in mid-sentence, lying in pain, drenched in sweat. He'd evidently been talking in his sleep, talking to his own nightmares. A skull-puncturing migraine forced a hand to his temple. He cradled his hurt like a wounded animal, letting out a low groan. A strange noise was churning around the tent, or maybe it was only in Riley's head. A high-pitched skin-crawling howl. Only the wind, he was sure. He felt desperately for Alexis but missed her in his blindness. The blackness swam like strands of cloth before his eyes, blindfolding him. Then a profound need to urinate made him postpone his search and drove him out into the woods. The flickering insubstantialities of the trees danced around in the moonlight, casting horrific shapes. The ground made sickeningly loud cracking noises as he stumbled helplessly in the dark. Like he was stamping on bones.

A nerve-wrecking feeling of terror stopped his heart as he relieved himself. Something was wrong, horribly wrong. His body felt like it was under attack, poisoned. More than usual. What was happening to him?

With difficulty he dragged his feet back toward the general direction of the tent. The forest was spinning, a revolving labyrinth.When he finally rediscovered the tent by accident he wanted to wrench Alexis into his arms and hold on for dear life. He wanted comfort, he needed to be told that everything was going to be alright, even if it wasn't. His arms grasped searchingly around the tent. 

Empty. Alexis was gone.