HAVEN BLACK - complete

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

CHAPTER 35 - THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

"Jill? Jill? Is that really you?" I exclaimed breathlessly. "But how?... I don't believe it..."

The light around the silhouette suddenly diminished and a low, hoarse tone from the mouths of the prisoners filled my ears. Jill appeared near motionless, her face painted with a contorted expression of disbelief and horror. But something didn't seem right; she was shimmering as though she was fading in and out of reality. I couldn't lose her again, so with a sense of urgency I entered the cage and swept her up in my arms; she felt so incredibly light; her skin was warm, almost hot, and it was covered in soot. She remained frozen in her expression as though she was a statue - I realized my movements were still lightning swift - Jill hadn't had a chance to react.

After turning to face the exit, I sprinted to the ladder and jumped up ten feet, landing on the floor above. Glancing down at Jill I noticed that she was unconscious - I moved with such high acceleration she must've passed out from the extreme forces.

"Sleep my love," I whispered to her before rapidly running out of the mosque and out of the war torn city - my destination: the seaside manor.

Only a couple of forest covered hills into the run back, I felt my power decline; Jill started to feel heavy in my aching arms and the incline of the hill had started turning my legs into quivering sticks. The surrounding forest sounds were becoming louder, more pronounced, and I began to hear innumerable screeching sounds as though a million tiny fingers were running down a chalk board. Pushing myself to the brink of exhaustion, my motivation stemming from the sleeping Jill in my arms, I arrived at the edge of the manor's clearing some hour or so later and although my unnatural strength and speed had dwindled to next to nothing, my hearing had increased in sensitivity by a hundred fold - and it was utterly unbearable. Struggling forward towards the manor in a now snail-crawling pace, I could just make out faint voices beyond the stone walls among the grinding cacophony of the forest. Diminishing the very last of my strength, I stumbled to the front door and as my legs began to cave from underneath me, the door burst open; Samara glided through the doorway and lifted Jill from my arms preventing me from falling to the ground in exhaustion - somehow she managed to hold the weight of Jill who had been slung over her shoulder, without a single flinch of a struggle. No longer having to carry Jill I was now able to hold my own weight, but only just.

"Oh, Jacob!" Samara began softly. "Everything's okay, let me help you inside."

Out of breath and too exhausted to even speak, I nodded weakly before scuffling in.

"Samara, I, I, found Jill." I stuttered breathlessly. "I can't believe... I found her... ...but these, these horrible noises...do you hear them?"

"Jacob, sorry no I don't but please listen..." Samara said concernedly, "this is not Jill, she um, she looks nothing like the photo..."

"...Huh?...what do you mean? What are you saying?" I said bewildered shaking my head in disbelief. The room started to spin, the noises pitching higher.

"Sorry Jacob, she's, well she is someone else..."

"No, no, I can't, I can't lose her again... No you must be mistaken!" The room spun faster and more violently now.

"Jacob, I'm afraid to say that she is indeed, correct...it's not Jill." A familiar voice sounded faintly from the shadows of the far side of the room.

"No you're all wrong! ...WRONG!" I screamed above the noises that were consuming the gray matter in my head.

A figure of a man emerged from the shadow, his outline silhouetted against the moon light that steamed through the stained glass angel.

"Who are you?" I screamed blindly, feeling the last of my strength suddenly leave my body in a flurry. Falling face first towards the cold floor, I caught a glimpse of the mysterious man's square glasses, which briefly reminded me of high school, before the side of my face collided with the dusty wooden floorboards.