Primal Promise

Nine

Outside in the street, someone laid on their horn, the rising sound of shouting and other horns joining in afterward. Pressing a palm to her head she winced. She had to get out of the city. It was poisoning her. Not her body, but her self. Her spirit or soul or whatever it was that made her feel whole and content.

She again went over the events of the last few months. What had prompted the last time she'd run away to the woods. It had begun when Aunt Julia died. CJ had always tried to think well of her aunt, that she'd tried her best in a bad situation, but now? Now she wasn't sure the woman had tried at all.

Aunt Julia never wanted kids, and having one pushed on her was a great burden. She never tried to hide her feelings about that. The older CJ grew, the less her aunt liked her. CJ took to working every day after school if only to be out of the house until after midnight. Aunt Julia would be passed out by then.

When she was sixteen, though it had been illegal as hell, she'd said she was eighteen and got a small apartment where she could live on her own and finish school. If her aunt ever noticed, she'd never done anything about it.

When Aunt Julia died, CJ would never have known if not for the woman's lawyer contacting her. Not to tell her of any inheritance or even mention in the will, but to warn her that the contents of the apartment were to be sold away and if she had left anything behind, she might want to collect it before the estate cleaners came.

It was during this somewhat bittersweet perusal of the home that she'd found the photo in the back of a closet. The slightly faded image was of a happy couple, their arms around each other, their little girl was wearing a Dora, The Explorer tee shirt, shorts, and a big smile. The cabin filled the back of the picture, a few small trees around the edges. On the back Diamond Lake Cabin - 1990 was written in heavy pencil.

That had been the first time since she was five she had seen her parents' faces. She had felt a need to find that cabin. To see where they had once been so happy. Maybe she could find out what really happened to them. To her.

The resort was beautiful, and she spent her savings to spend a whole week. There were boats gliding across the lake, folks swimming and laughing, kids running about. Mount Bailey rose on the lake's far side, the blue sky was dotted with fluffy clouds. The air was still and warm. It seemed idyllic, but something about the reflection of the mountain on the lake's smooth surface made her feel uneasy.

She'd found where the cabin had been. The grass was wild and uncut, there was no sign of there having ever been anything here but wilderness. That it was an open spot was odd, perhaps, but even naturally, clearings happened so why did this feel so intentional?

The woods around her seemed to be simultaneously welcoming and warning. The tickle of memories she'd never been able to touch with her waking mind, like ghosts, haunted her just beyond reach. In her head she could almost envision a mother over her, her mouth moving, the sound a muted murmur, more a feeling than a sound. They know you're here. They will hurt you if they find you.

She'd fallen back a bit, drowning in a panic that had no logic behind it. She simply had to get away from this place. It was too much, and nothing at all. All feeling and no fact. She couldn't solve anything with feelings. She pulled away from the place more uneasy than when she'd tracked it down.

Even now, she'd not been able to quite shake that feeling of foreboding, but if what Jameson had told her was true, it was only to be expected. Get nearly blown up and buried alive someplace and it probably wouldn't be your favorite vacation spot either.

She ran a hand up her arm to dispel the chills that erupted. That wasn't the only bad thing that happened there. She'd gone hiking. She'd been distracted and got turned around and lost. Then, someone - she had to remind herself it was a someone, not a something - had attacked her.