The House in the Woods

Chapter 5

As usual, I sat uselessly to the side as Jannosh worked. Any offers of help I would offer him would be gently denied, and today was no different.

“How far is the hike?” I asked him as he stuffed yet another water bottle into the backpack. There had to be at least ten already in there.

“Two or three hours, depends how fast we walk.”

I sat there glumly as I absorbed the information. Sure, I was fit, but two or three hours??

Jannosh looked up at me as if sensing my dissatisfaction. “Miss Lilah, you don’t need to come with me if you don’t want to. I can bring your truck back fine on my own.”

“Macy.” I corrected him automatically. “But it’s alright, I want to come.”

I really did. When Jannosh offered to bring her back to the house and fix her up, I eagerly offered to come with him. Apparently, no one used a car here, so he thought he could bring her back for me to use. Apollo never had anywhere to go, obviously, and Jannosh and Myrnah preferred “walking on foot” as they put it. Which I couldn’t really understand now that I knew how long it took. Two or three hours, on foot?

“If you insist.” Jannosh replied placidly. That’s one thing I really liked about him. He didn’t waste time arguing.

As we walked out into the lawn, I pulled uncomfortably at the collar of the blouse I was wearing. One reason that I wanted Macy back was that I really wanted to go shopping. Myrnah provided all the clothes I was wearing these days (which mystified me; why would she need them if Jannosh said they just shifted clothes into their appearance…?), but they were all extremely outdated and uncomfortable. I found myself dreaming about yoga pants and tank tops almost constantly these days.

Another alternative was to go back to my own home and get my things, but there was always the possibility that Ted Roscoe was waiting for me there. I obviously could never return.

When we stepped off the perfectly manicured lawn into the woods, I paused to look back at the house. It was regal and silent in the sunlight, and if I didn’t know any better I’d assume no one lived there. My eyes flicked up to the top right window, but the curtains stayed firmly shut.

“Miss Lilah?”

I turned and looked at Jannosh. He was waiting patiently a couple strides ahead of me, his usual docile smile in place. His violet eyes were shaded by the shadows of the trees.

I smiled back at him. “Let’s go.”

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I realized about an hour into our walk that I wasn’t as in shape as I thought I was. There was a stitch in my side, and my breathing was hitched as we climbed over various fallen trees and pulled ourselves up random little cliffs. I could feel beads of sweat on my neck just below where I’d braided my hair and I felt uncomfortably hot under my arms.

Jannosh, however, wasn’t even breathing hard. His walk was amiable and energetic, and he seemed more focused on his surroundings than on anything else. I’d used up a water bottle already, but he hadn’t even touched one, his smile serene as he looked around.

I didn’t blame him though. The forest was beautiful; sunlight dappled through the branches and lit everything into an amazing green wonderland. Everywhere you looked, lush green wildlife stood silently and proudly, and the occasional bunch of flowers would bring little explosions of colour into the green canvas.

Beautiful as it was, it didn’t stop me from getting steadily crankier. “How much longer till we get to the highway?”

Jannosh paused and squinted into the sky to look at the sun. I’d learned earlier on that he didn’t need a watch to judge the time; he looked at the position of the sun and how long the shadows were to find out.