Don't Go Into The Woods

Chapter 41

"But aren't the guardians good guys?" I asked.

"You are not allowed to be here! The guardians will follow the rules of the Order who don't want the humans to be in the woods or know about the woods any less than what the rebels do!" Ms.Jennings explained.

She was in a total panic now. She rushed up to me and yanked me off of the foot stool I was comfortably seated on. She hastily pulled me into the kitchen area. I just barely managed to place the mug down on the table before being pulled down a set of stairs which Ms. Jennings had revealed after opening a secret doorway which led to what I believed was some sort of hidden room under the cabin.

"Stay here till I say you can come out." Ms. Jennings ordered.

She really didn't give me a choice on the matter. I winked my eyelids once and just like that she was gone and the door above the stairs were closed behind her, leaving me standing in a cold dark room under the cabin floor. I remained quiet and stood very still as I wanted to hear what was happening above me. I was also too uneasy about just moving around in a dark and unfamiliar room. Seeing as I was in the woods, anything could be down here. Listening carefully to the noise above, I heard Ms.Jennings running to answer the door. She paused before gracefully opening the heavy wooden door to greet who she said were guardians.

"Hello! This is a surprise! What brings you three here?" Ms. Jennings said, trying to sound like she was not secretly harvesting an illegal immigrant under her floor boards.

"Good to see you too Jenna. I only wish it were under better terms."
The voice belonged to a male and sounded very familiar to me. If only it was not so muffled out by the floor boards which separated me from above and showed me that I had sort of poor hearing when it came to eavesdropping on someone's conversation. Still, I tried my best to hear what was being said.

"What is wrong?" Ms. Jennings asked.

"We have received reports of a female human entering the woods last night. One of your students, Savannah King." The man said.

The fact that this guardian knew my full name was rather unnerving to me. And he knew I was a student of hers! Clearly these guardians were very well connected in the human world as much as this one. Again, I worried about Carmen. Had I covered our tracks enough to protect her from these guardians bringing any harm to her?

"What?! Why on earth would she do such a thing?!" Ms. Jennings asked, pretending to sound absolutely clueless about my whereabouts in the woods mixed with a heap full of concern for my safety. "Have you found her yet?" She asked.

"It is why we are here Jenna. We have traced her scent here to your cabin."

"But how is that possible? I haven't seen her."

"Perhaps you will allow us inside just to have a quick look around to make sure Savannah is not here."

"What are trying to imply Vladimir?! Are you trying to accuse me of harboring a human in my home?!" Ms. Jennings said angrily.

Vladimir quickly got to work trying to defend himself and heat he had just said. My mind trailed off on what was being said as an argument erupted between him and Ms. Jennings. All I could hear was his name echoing through my mind over and over again.

Vladimir. Vladimir. Vladimir.

And almost simultaneously I could hear his voice clearly in my ears. The Russian accent hit me hard and I was jolted backwards in my steps from shock. Dimitri's father was a guardian of the woods! Did that mean so were the rest of his family? Did that mean so was Dimitri?! I jolted backwards again and found myself tripping over what I could only hope was just a bucket of some sort. I landed on my backside rather hard. The assumed bucket made a loud clanking noise as it toppled over along with me. The noise echoed and trailed upstairs. Almost instantly silence fell above. My heart started to pound in my ears. I tried to force my heart to stop pounding away like this just so I can try and hear what was going on above. I heard some sort of shuffling upstairs as I believe Ms. Jennings was pushed aside by the guardians who had forced their way into the cabin.