Inside Evil

Chapter 15 - Part II

*Inside Evil and its sequels are available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks* 

Susan laughed as she fell through the door and looked at Martha.

"What on earth do we look like?"

"Like a pair of tramps," Martha replied as she closed the door behind her and dumped her and Susan's coats at the bottom of the stairs. "Gin, I need gin." She stumbled past Susan towards the kitchen.

"Martha, I didn't realise that having half a tree in your hair was the new trend," Susan smiled as she saw that several leaves and twigs had become caught in Martha's normally immaculate and styled hair.

"Yes, well, had I known that you'd decided to take ditch leaping up as a hobby I might have stayed at home." She eyed Susan with a disapproving look before breaking into a grin and removing a clump of pine needles from her hair.

Having returned from their fifth forest walk in as many days, the two women were no closer to finding where Barry's path had led him than they had been at the start. As Martha had put it to Susan at the end of the second hike, "at least we know where not to look". They both started out with the best plan of action, carefully using a hybrid map on Google to try and anticipate where a precipice might be, before setting off into the woods. The only problem was that with such a vast landscape of uniform forest, they quickly became confused as to which direction they were supposed to be headed. Twice on the first day they'd ended up almost back at the point where they'd started, whilst on their latest outing they'd come across a huge muddy ditch which Susan had insisted that they cross in spite of the thick muddy bank. In addition, the decreasing length of day meant that the two women were aware that their forays into the forest couldn't be too long, otherwise they'd end up becoming stranded amongst the trees in the pitch black; something that neither woman was keen on. As a strange side effect, Susan was feeling remarkably relaxed for once, and though in the back of her mind she knew the dark circumstances under which they were entering the woods, she felt oddly calm. The woods helped her forget and Susan found that she and Martha, rather than returning home despondent, were invigorated and refreshed by their daily jaunts.

Susan sank back into a chair as she was passed a glass, the ice cubes in the gin clinking as they floated on the surface.

"I know it's not the time of year for gin," Martha said, taking a seat, "But to hell with it, all this walking's got me fired up." She picked another pine needle out of her hair and threw it into the fireplace. "I wish Barry had felt the need to actually write down some directions along with all the other nonsense."

"I think he was otherwise engaged," Susan said, taking a sip of the underwhelming gin. She liked a bit more punch to her drinks.

"Well, we can try again tomorrow," Martha replied, "There's only so much scouting we can do until we at least stumble upon it by accident. And we better do so soon because there aren't many days left."

"Days left?" Susan asked, presuming she'd missed something.

"Full moon was several nights ago now Susan," Martha said, taking a sip of her drink before putting it on the placemat in front of her. 'a glowing sphere you'll see', don't you see, it's the full moon. And, 'eight days from that day past' must mean that the entrance to this so called Gathin opens a week after full moon."

"But eight days Martha, that's the day after tomorrow," Susan said in astonishment.

"Exactly, and that's why we have to try again tomorrow,"Martha said as she got to her feet. "We need more gin." 

*I will be posting one or two scenes a week as the story builds. However, if you can't wait that long, Inside Evil is available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks.

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