In The Woods ➳ H.S.

☙ f i f t y - o n e

My breathing was slightly harsh now, trying to calm myself down. There was a heavy weight in my chest as I said the words, as if my own body hated the lies that it expelled. Who was I kidding? Somehow, someway, I did manage to fall in love with that man - and that just proves how weak I was to begin with.

"You could spend a lifetime with a man and only then realize that you love him, but you can also spend a day and already have the same result. Love and time don't really need each other." Gemma says, and something in her voice told me she spoke from her own experience.

Wanting the subject off of me, I decided to jump on the chance when I see it. "Anne told me about you and Liam. Is that who you're thinking about now? Did you fall for him in a day?" I question, honestly only paying half of my attention to what she was saying - more of it directed at the path we were taking.

"No - not really. Took a lot more than a day, but -" she starts and trails off.

It was only when several minutes had past in silence did I realize she actually had stopped her story. "But?" I push, I'd take even her voice over the eery silence of the journey.

"But I have fallen for a man in just a day." She says, and I'm actually a bit taken aback by her words.

I had thought when she said her little speech that she meant that it doesn't matter how long you've been together and all that garbage - I didn't think she meant that one could fall in love in literally a day.

"With who?" I ask.

I look at her from the side of my eyes and I see her huff, her eyes seem to harden at my question before she shook her head. "No one you need to worry about." She says.

I kept my stare at her for a little while more, hoping she'd tell me who it was. I mean, can you blame me? A man who managed to get a princess to fall for him in a day? Seems like some sort of sorcery to me.

In the end, I just placed my eyes straight again, deeming the information unimportant. I was about to see a village full of corpses, with my family possibly among them, I had to prepare myself for the worst.

Oddly enough, I find myself wishing that I do find my mother's, Lea's, and Christian's bodies in the mix when we get there. Once I see them I would be able to pick them out and bury them with the respect they deserve - and it'd be over. No more questions, no more what if's.

If I don't find their bodies there it would probably drive me into madness. I would wonder where their bodies where, or if they were alive. And I couldn't afford that - thinking they were alive, I mean.

Hope could be a good thing, but in this case it would be a curse. The small hope that would give me would burn in my mind and drive me into insanity as I knew that there would be only the smallest of chances that I would learn the truth.

"You need to stop that, zoning out I mean." Gemma's voice cuts through my thoughts, pulling me back to the real world. "You're the only protection I have and if a bunch of robbers come out of the darkness, I'm going to need you to shoot them down." She says.

"I highly doubt there would be robbers when we are barely to the first city." I say, slightly rolling my eyes. "Besides, I only have a bow and arrow, a containers filled with water - what can they rob me of?"

Gemma gasps, as if offended by my words. "You are traveling with the princess of this damn kingdom! They can take me!" She basically shouts.

"Good idea shouting it out to the sky then. I'm sure the robbers hiding in the streets heard your invitation loud and clear." I say, sarcasm heavy on my tone.