The Trail

Chapter 26 | Confessions

I dreamt of small graves marked with bones, of blood spilled from silver chalices and of ravens pecking away at rotten flesh. I dreamt of an imminent darkness that flooded walls of light. Plumes of smoke slithered through, breaking the walls into prismatic clusters. They reached for me, calling me home in their ancient tongue.

Drums pounded in rhythm with my heartbeats as I desperately tried to escape the darkness that followed me.
I ran, swept in silk woven from the moon, my bare feet touching cold stone. As if struck by lightning, strands of hair danced wildly around my face.

Above, a luminous red light glowed. The skies opened, and from a deep cut to the valves of heaven, thick, burgundy drops crashed towards the ground. My sheet of silk was stained, moon silver mixing with drops of blood and wine.
My bare feet continued to carry me over stones that turned to sharp shards of glass. The skin ripped open and left a trail of argentate blood behind. Illuminating in the dark like drops of light they made it easy for my perpetrator to track me. To hunt me down.

I stood before the great abyss, wavering on a cliff whilst silk flared around my legs. Walls made of bones rose behind me, cutting off my line of escape. Instead, I was left staring into nothing but darkness. I felt its drumming presence, its cold fingers wrapping around my throat. It stiffened me until paralysation. Clawing away at nothing but air, I stared into eyes that glowed with the breath of fire. Then, I fell forever and ever more down the abyss of isolation.

***

I struck my eyes open, awoken by my own screams. Drenched in sweat, it felt as if my blood boiled beneath my skin. Yet, the air around me was cold. A crackling campfire contributed with fuel for my raging fever. Somewhere not too far away, I could hear the ripple of a river.

Slowly, I sat up. My head, that throbbed with pain, had rested on my backpack while Juniper's head had kept my legs warm. My hand ached, and as I looked down, I saw that it had been bandaged.

The smell of cigarette smoke tingled my nostrils. Owen's sunken in cheeks were half concealed in darkness, half lit up by flickering flames. He inhaled every stream of smoke as if it was the purest of mountain air.

When he noticed that I was awake, he leaned forward, cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, before he grabbed my small kettle. Then, he poured the steaming liquid into one of my cups.

"Hope you don't mind I went through your things... I thought you might want a cup of tea", he said and handed it to me.

As he leaned forward, his eyes were lit up by the fire, which made me drop the cup before I had even grabbed it. While cursing from the hot water scorching my skin, I did my best to apologize without being able to explain the resemblance that of which he had held to my dream.

"It's me who should apologize, Rhod. For letting you take the fall back there", he said and poured me another cup.

Slowly, my memory came back to me. The town, the woman and her children... The strange boy who had been able to see into the very depths of my soul.

"What you did back there...", I said in a low voice as my head could not bear the noise. "You threatened to shoot a child in the head."

He sat in silence, smoking the last of his cigarette.

"This isn't going to work if we don't establish trust, and so far, I've got to tell you - you haven't exactly given me a lot to work with. I don't know shit about your past, Owen. And to be honest, you scared me back there. One moment, it's as if you're this one person, and in the next...", I said and blew onto the surface of my tea in an attempt to cool it down.