Grey Eyes: Book One of the Forever Trilogy

Chapter Two

My mind had shut down; becoming a jumbled mess of random thoughts and half memories, yet my training persisted.  I’d made this trip a hundred times in my year and a half in Pelion, my mother saw to that, and my legs were now running, moving me through the unyielding black of the woods without my telling them to. 

It wasn’t until I reached the clearing that my brain reloaded, focusing long enough to give me control of my own body.  This clearing was my destination, where my mother would be waiting with a stopwatch and a frown.  It was never fast enough, no matter how fast I ran.

I looked for her, not truly expecting to see her, but hoping just the same. Reality sunk in.  I broke down, crouching in the tall grass as images of my mother flashed in my head.  The pain was agonizing, as if my insides were on fire, my nerves scorched by the flames, the smoke choking my lungs so that I couldn’t breathe.  I laid out in the grass and ignored my mother’s screaming voice in my head, the voice that told me to keep going…

Did I want to?  Did I deserve to?  I blocked out my mother’s voice—I blocked out the thoughts of her altogether.  She was dead because of me; because she was trying to protect me—me, who had hated her for It.  I closed my eyes and wished for the monster’s return.  That it would come to reunite me with her, with my dad…

Suddenly, the insides of my eyelids became bright red and when I opened my eyes there was light against my face, disappearing for brief moments, but always finding it again.  It was a flashlight, its owner a bushy brown-haired boy no older than ten or eleven.

“H-hello?  Are you okay?” he asked as he approached.  His eyes scanned the woods behind me. 

“Who are you?” I asked. There was no indication that he was anything like my mother’s killer, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

He didn’t answer, instead he just stared. “Your eyes…you’re—Can you walk?”

 Quickly, I got to my feet and took up a fighting stance. “Who are you? I won’t ask again.”  

The boy backed away from me. “N-Nathan. It’s Nathan. I’m a friend, I promise.”

“Why are you here? How do you know about this clearing?”

“This is our property. We have a house on the other side of those trees.  We need to get inside—it’s not safe to be out here.” He waved the flashlight across the woods once more. “Please miss.”

This couldn’t be a coincidence. My mother must have known about the boy’s house. Maybe even worked out something with his family so that if I ever showed up here they’d take me in, no questions asked. It certainly felt like something my mother would do. “Okay, I’ll come with you.” 

Nathan picked up the first aid kit and turned for the trees behind him at a sprinter’s pace. “Come on,” he shouted. I followed. It was an even shorter trip than expected as the next bit of woods were shallow, a modest wooden cabin stationed in the next field.

Nathan led me up through the side door and into a small kitchen, taking one more look into the shadowy woods before locking the door behind us.  The kitchen was homely; there was an old iron oven to my right, a wide square metal sink bolted into the opposite wall, and an icebox sitting in the middle of the room.  He paced quickly for a few moments then abruptly stopped, turning to me and asking, “You wouldn’t have a phone, would you?”

 I reached into the pocket of my sweats, pulled out the cell phone from the yellow envelope, and handed it to him.  He took it and smiled at me; his smile faded when not returned.  Instead, I moved to the far wall and took up a seat on the floor.  I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself.  It wasn’t working.  I couldn't stop myself from trembling.  My mother’s screams still rang in my ears. That monster’s face haunted the insides of my eyelids, snarling, inching himself toward me until I could feel his rancid breath on my face. “So pretty…”