My Perfect Bride

chapter 11

"Every time I close my eyes, it's like a dark paradise."

- anonymous

chapter 11

A young man parked his snow mobile in front of the cabin, he was wearing expensive cloths. He thought about all the trouble from which he went through just to reach this cabin. Was it worth it?

That question was still troubling him a lot. Due to storm all paths to the forest were closed or blocked. He had to bribe some forest rangers to clear this path for him. But it was still dangerous to drive, all they could manage to do was remove a tree from the path and give him a snow mobile.

When he asked them why aren’t coming with him. They all laughed at him and the most senior one replied to his question while placing both his legs on the table and took a long sip from his coffee.

 “We appreciate the gesture that you have done for us boy, but do you watch the news at all. This is the most dangerous storm that we have seen in years. And I don’t understand why you want to go in this god forsaken forest at all. But that’s your business so we won’t stop you.  But if you don’t mind taking an old man’s advice, don’t go. Much easier for us, less bodies to find.” He felt a little a disgusted by them. So he stormed away from the office. He took the snowmobile and with the help of GPS drove to the cabin.

Sp here he was after two hours of long journey. He removed the key form the snowmobile and placed it in his pocket, and with a lot of questions exited the snowmobile.

He looks at the car which was parked behind the snowmobile. The car was covered in 5 inch thick layer of snow. It was clear that the owner of the car hasn’t made any attempt to leave due to the storm. And most importantly he knew to whom this car belonged to. It was Rachel.

He looked up in the sky and realised that the sun was still up; nevertheless it was still covered by dark clouds. For a second he thought ‘who would want to celebrate their honeymoon here’ the cabin was old and rusty.

He started taking slow steps towards the porch. He thought if anyone would answer him if he knocks since there was no activity inside the cabin. If they can’t hear the loud roaring sound of the snowmobile engine how can they possibly hear his knock?

But nevertheless he did knocked, no response. Then his eyes saw the lock hanging on the front door. He face palmed himself realizing how stupid it must look to be knocking on a locked door. But then a new question arises in his mind, who would go for a walk in the forest in this weather. Or if they were really here, why the front door was locked.

The young man in the expensive cloths becomes agitated with himself. Did he just really have gone through all this trouble, just to find no one here! He decides not to jump on any conclusion and he takes out his phone one more time to read the message again.

“PLEASE COME AND GET ME – R”

The young man got this message on his phone early this morning. At that time he was suffering from hangover but once he read the message he forgot all about it. Now his only problem was to tell the two girls who were lying in bed naked with him to ‘get out’. They were bridesmaids at the wedding and they were really easy to get along too.

He began to question his motives, is it really okay to just barge in here? What if she was playing a prank on him? Or what would Ethan think?

In a matter of few minutes he was ready to leave and drove back in his snowmobile and never look back. He had only taken out his keys yet, but a large explosion sound stops him dead in his track.

He turns around to see, birds flying away from the sound that came from the forest. And he also manages to see mushroom shaped cloud which was created by fire, the once grey sky now was threatened by this new source of orange light. And then suddenly a piece of wood which was on fire lands in front of him.

His heartbeat stops, his body becomes rigid. Explosives like that doesn’t just happen on themselves, somebody must have done this. Or what if Rachel was here? Or Ethan?

He thought if the forest rangers will come, but he knew better that no one was coming. They were located far away from the forest; they can’t see or hear the explosion. He quickly makes his mind and starts running into the direction of the forest.

While thinking and hoping that he makes it on time.

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Have you ever felt like if you took one more step forward you might faint? Well this is how Ethan felt right now; he had been walking since an hour now. And in the condition which he was it was becoming really difficult.

Ethan’s whole body was aching from pain. His arms were numb now, which he considered a good thing since now he cannot feel the pain anymore. Rachel was still unconscious and was under the effect of the tranquiliser, Ethan have been carrying her in his arms since the past hour.

His upper lip was swollen, but the good news is that it stopped bleeding. However there was pretty good chance that his nose was never going to look perfect again as it used to. His stomach still hurt where the hammer hit him.

His stitches were open now, which he applied just yesterday when he punished himself for punishing Rachel. His right thigh was bleeding where he stabbed himself. This made it much more harder to walk or think straight. He looked up in the sky to realise that sun will be down soon maybe two hours if they are lucky.

According to his calculations if they were going in the right direction so the cabin must be only 100 or 200 meters away. But that was only if they were going in north. There was also a chance that they went in the wrong direction which meant the cabin was still pretty far away from them and to reach there it can maybe take a day in there condition and also they would have to spend the night in the forest with no food or extra cloths.

The thought of spending night in this cold weather outside made Ethan faster. His steps were short yet they were quick but with Rachel in his arms and the wounds that he was bearing it was just impossible to stay active much longer.

He started counting every step in his mind, and he was cheering himself by saying “one more step, two more step.” But soon the counting stopped as soon as the wave of dizziness hit him. This was his mind telling him that ‘this is it. You cannot do this anymore’

But despite his body’s and his mind’s pleas he took another step only to find out that he was falling on his face now, with Rachel still in his arms. And the sweet darkness surrounded him soon.