Haeven

Chapter 9

"Herrik?" I woke slowly, painfully. "Herrik?"

He didn't answer and when I managed to sit up, I looked around expecting to find him nearby. Then I realized I was in the cabin again. It seemed utterly quiet. The fire had died down and the room had grown cold. When I looked out the window, I noticed that it still snowed and the sun was setting. It made the room look and feel darker than it was.

I wondered what time it was and where Herrik could be. After what had happened I didn't think he would leave me unless he had a very good reason to.

"Herrik," I whispered nervously. "Where are you?"

I slung my legs over the edge of the sofa and stood up. It was too cold with just the clothes I wore so I wrapped the heavy throw around my shoulders and walked from room to room searching for him. I ran my fingers along the walls as I went hoping to find a light switch only to be disappointed.

"Herrik?" I called out every few minutes. "Herrik?"

As each room turned up empty, I grew more and more fearful that I was completely alone. I finished my circuit of the cabin and when I realized he wasn't there, it devastated me. I ran to the front door and threw it open.

"Herrik!!" I screamed into the emptiness beyond. "Herrik!!"

The wind was the only answer I received. I ran out into the fading light determined to locate him. My heart kept telling me he was there, that he was close and I knew I had to find him or...I didn't want to think about the or.

The snow was deep, up to my knees as I walked and at times I mistakenly stepped into drifts that came up above my waist. I lost the throw at some point and shivering and shaking got turned around trying to find it. The darkness swallowed up what remained of the day and my fear increased exponentially when I realized that I'd lost my way back to the cabin.

"Oh, God!" I thought. "I'm going to die!"

I tried hard to banish the idea but it persisted over and over again, "I'm going to die...I'm going to die..."

"Herrik! HERRIK!"

I needed to keep moving and frantically threw myself forward knowing that if I stopped moving the cold would hurry me to that fate. I trudged for hours it seemed, hours and hours. Eventually my strength gave way and when I called out my voice sounded like nothing more than a raspy whisper.

"You should give in to the inevitable," my mind suggested. "It will be like falling asleep." I had read it somewhere and wondered if indeed it was true – that freezing to death was just like falling asleep. "I'm so tired," I mumbled. "So tired."

I made my way towards a massive evergreen with a trunk several feet wide. Its branches hung low to the ground and so close together that they had kept most of the snow from settling around its base. It was dry underneath and when I moved around to the opposite side I had approached it from the tree completely blocked the wind.

"This is nice," I decided. "I'll rest here a while and once I catch my breath, I'll be able to go on."

I leaned back against the tree, pulled my knees into my chest and closed my eyes. Before long my teeth stopped chattering, the shaking and shivering that had been rattling me right through to my bones subsided.

It renewed my determination when I realized that my body had stopped protesting against the cold. "You see, that's all you needed...some rest," I told myself.

I decided to go on and tried to stand up but I couldn't feel my legs. I tried wiggling my toes but they wouldn't even twitch. When I reached back and tried to claw my way up the tree trunk to standing my fingers wouldn't open or close and I couldn't get a good enough grip to hoist myself up.