Chapter 19: Cabin Fever
Once we exit the office, the tension inside me drifts away like a leaf in the breeze. The alleyway behind the office is quiet, almost peaceful. My dad’s office, which from the inside felt disturbing and unnerving, returns to being unoccupied and undisturbed, just the way he would want it to be during the middle of the night. The surrounding darkness doesn’t feel quite as dark or dangerous as we walk back towards the car. There is even a slight breeze that seems to lift up my spirit as it blows through my hair.
Any other time in my life, this walk with a beautiful woman would put me at complete peace. But at this point, peace is but a momentary release of pressure. We approach the car as the weight of everything settles back onto my chest, while I search the area for any signs of danger, even though I still have no clue what this danger looks like.
However, there isn’t much to see as the darkness of the night covers much of the street and buildings around the car, which is why we parked here in the first place. There are a couple outlines of vehicles parked along the street, well off into the darkness. I can’t remember if they were parked there when I left or not. There is a slight familiarity and absolutely nothing appears dangerous. So, I get in the driver’s seat without much thought of impending doom.
I slide the file onto the dashboard and face Ryleigh. When I look into her eyes, something plays with my emotions, but it's like a bag of mixed chocolates, so many different conflicting emotions that it makes no sense. It seems like forever ago since we last embraced and yet the sight of her is both sweet and bitter.
My hand reaches out and finds comfort resting on her leg as I say, “We should head to the cabin. I’m not feeling too good.”
“That sounds good to me. I’ll look through the file while you drive.”
“I guess we have a plan. Just don’t take anything out of the file or mess it up. I don’t know how much help it will give us because it looks like only part of a bigger file. But I still don’t want to lose any possible leads it might contain.”
She grabs the file gently off the dashboard. “Of course… We are in this together, Ryan. I need answers, just as much as you do. We are looking into your family, but it's my ex that did all this.”
I remove my hand from her leg and clench the steering wheel. “Trust me! I know of your ex’s involvement! And I know you need answers to. Just don’t screw the file up!”
Immediately after I finish my sentence, I regret saying it. I know she is just trying to help, but she makes me crazy. I don’t know why I keep snapping her head off like that. I sure am not going to apologize right now. I don’t have the energy to baby her anymore. If she is going to help, then she needs to get some thicker skin.
We sit in silence as I drive us out of the city. Ryleigh sits sulkily staring at the file while I drive. Luckily, it isn’t far to the cabin. The cabin is located just out of town, but it's secluded enough to shelter us for the night. It will shelter us much the same way that it sheltered me from the outside world the other times I had visited the cabin.
I drive deeper into the woods, and the living atmosphere of society gives way to the deadness of night. There are no streetlights or houses and even the road gets thinner as we inch closer to the cabin. I steer the car around a few tree branches that partially cover a bend in the road. Almost immediately after the bend, the cabin appears out of nowhere.
The first time I drove to the cabin, I remember almost driving straight into the tree out in front of the cabin. I barely missed it and only stopped the car about seven feet from the building. This time I’m prepared for the sudden appearance and gently ease the car to stop under the tree in front of the cabin.
The sanded down wood that forms the exterior of the building glows in the darkness of the forest. As I get out of the car, it strikes me that Ryleigh hasn’t even looked up from the file yet. I walk around to her side of the car and gently knock on the window with my school ring. A bit startled, Ryleigh drops the file as her hand moves to her chest.
I open the door, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
She replies, “No, it's fine, I was busy reading the file and wasn’t paying attention to anything else. Interesting stuff.”
I reach for the file, but she picks it up from the car floor before I reach it. So, I turn and head for the cabin door. As I inch closer to the door, I realize I have forgotten about one key element in my hideaway cabin plan. I need a key!
A brief moment of concern overpowers me, but it only lasts for a moment. My mind focuses on the last time I was at the cabin. I’m walking on the porch heading directly for the door. Once at the door, I begin twisting the knob and find it locked. Just as I turn around, away from the door, Matt is reaching underneath the porch and resurfacing with a key.
I instinctively retrace the actions of the person in my memory. As I bend down to reach under the porch in the approximate area, my hand rubs against the dirt and gravel. The porch has a lip that protrudes from the walking surface at a right angle directly down towards the ground. Raised only a few inches off the ground, the lip gives me very little room to investigate for the exact location of the key. Add in the darkness of the night, and the task of finding the key seems almost impossible.
My hand slides left and right under the lip. The wood is course and a couple jagged pieces of wood scratch against my fingertips, causing me to jerk my hand out from under the lip. After the pain as resided, I place my fingers back under the lip and continue my search. Luckily, my fingers eventually, ever so subtly, come across a nail sticking out from the lip. My finger traces the outline of the nail and sure enough hanging from the nail is a key.
Ryleigh is already standing by the door, so I hand her the key. She unlocks the door with ease, and we head into the cabin. Ryleigh inspects the quaint interior of the cabin as I head over to the couch. “I’m just going to chill here for a little while there’s a bedroom just past the kitchen.”
She mutters something back, but I’m not really paying attention. The cabin grows abnormally quiet, and the weight of my emptiness bears down on me once again. My mind is trapped somewhere between logic and emotion. Embedded in my very nature are logic and reason, which my thoughts and actions crave. Nevertheless, in these moments of lonely silence since my parents’ murder, my body tightens as my hefty emotions move throughout my entire being like a ravenous virus.
Flashes of images of my mother and father seduce my mind away from logic and into terror. My body convulses on the couch, and my head throbs while the sounds of screaming fill the silent house. My eyes twitch as shadows jump from wall to wall. Eventually, my eyes shut and soon after my brain shuts down as well.
At some point, a vibration on my leg wakes me from my slumber. It takes some time for the vibrating to register as my phone. I pull the phone out of my pocket and check my messages. Once again, I have a message from the unknown number. ‘Where are you? Something may be about to go down’.
I have no clue who this person is and the more texts I get, the weirder it gets. I shouldn’t text back… should I? I’m finally in a secure location. I’m not going to jeopardize our safety once again by giving my location out to whoever is playing games with me.
I close the message screen out and check the time. It’s a little after five, so I decide to try to get a couple more hours of sleep. Before I close my eyes, I turn around looking over the couch through the darkness in the direction of the bedroom. I notice a faint light penetrating the darkness in and around the bedroom.
The text message has me a bit paranoid, so without hesitation, I push myself off the couch. My legs are a bit shaky as I stumble around the cabin in the dark. I make my way to the bedroom without falling over in the dark rooms. Ryleigh isn’t asleep either; instead, she is sitting cross-legged on the bed with the file resting on her lap.
“I couldn’t sleep.” She says once she notices me in the doorway.
“Yeah, me
neither. You figured out anything useful yet?” I reply.
“No, nothing that can help us.” She sets the file on the nightstand as she gets out of the bed. “I keep staring at it but nothing is jumping out at me. You know what? I want to go for a jog, clear my mind. Are there any good trails around here?”
The question catches me completely off guard. Here I am freaking out at every passing shadow, and she wants to jog. Has she lost her freaking mind? Who wants to jog in the middle of the woods after everything we have been through the past few days? Apparently Ryleigh, that’s who.
She must sense my bewilderment and concern because she takes a few steps in my direction, until she is only a couple feet away from me. “I can’t just stay in the cabin all day without getting all this nervous energy out. I will be fine. Nobody knows we are out here, do they?”
Once again, the question catches me completely off guard. My heart begins to beat faster in my chest as a few seconds of silence fill the room. Should I tell her about the text? Here is my chance. “No, nobody knows we are out here. I still don’t think it is a good idea. Can you at least wait till later in the day?”
She takes a few seconds to think through my request before responding. “I honestly don’t think I can. I have only gotten a couple hours of sleep, and there is no way I’m going to be able think clearly in this state. Jogging is the only way I calm down sometimes and the longer I wait the crazier I get. But even if I could wait later in the day, it will be burning up by then. If I’m going to jog, I need to do it at sunrise while it is still cool.”
The struggle between logic and emotion creeps its way back into my thoughts. It’s a bad idea. We have no clue what we are even up against and that doesn’t even include the police, who we do know is after us. There are so many ways this could go wrong. There is also the text. Despite what I want to believe, there has to be something of value in the messages, they can’t be nothing.
Then again, it’s all probably a hopeless situation, so why shouldn’t she at least calm down the way she knows she will give her peace. Look, at all I have gotten her into, am I really the one to tell her not to do something that she knows will help her cope?
“I think it’s safer to stay in the cabin, but if jogging is what you want I’m definitely not in any shape to be giving advice on calming your nerves and staying sane.”
She smiles. “No kidding. You look awful.”
“I bet I do.” I reply with a slight grin. “There is a decent trail just behind the cabin, off to the right. I think it goes down to the river if I’m not mistaken.”
“Sounds good. Thanks. You should try to get a couple more hours of sleep. You really do look pretty beaten down.”
“I think I will. Just be careful when you go. Take your phone and if anything suspicious happens, call me. I have no one else but you right now.”
Her body noticeable tenses up, “I know. I’ll be careful. I promise.”
I climb up onto the bed as she walks into the kitchen. The bed isn’t all that comfortable, but it does make me sleepy just by resting on it. Sounds of plastic scraping against the wood counters screech into the bedroom as Ryleigh fumbles around in the kitchen. She returns to the doorway with a cup in her hand. “I’m going to watch something in the living room to kill some time until sunrise. Do you want me to wake you when I head out?”
“No. It's fine. Just wake me up when you get back from your jog.”
As she disappears back into the darkness, I close my eyes and attempt to find solace through sleep. I don’t know why, but even though I want to sleep, I can’t. This bothers me because it seems the barred cages of two extreme kinds discomfort have trapped my mind when it comes to finding rest. Either I all but pass out, or I’m restless to the point that I can barely even keep my eyes closed at all.
As time ticks by, I start to become increasingly agitated. I don’t feel mad or upset, but my body is on edge. My hands want to crush something, and my arms want to flail out against everything within a couple feet of me. I toss and turn in the bed, but nothing will suffice my body’s urges. There comes a point where I turn and face the nightstand with the file on it. Out of sheer frustration, I pick the file up and sling it across the room. Papers fly out in several directions as the file slams against the floor.
It isn’t long before the unmistakable sound of the wooden creaks from the opening and closing of the front door of the cabin disturbs the building’s morning rest. I assume that it is Ryleigh leaving for her jog. Should I go check and make sure? No. Everything is fine. Maybe I should go jog with Ryleigh. Running usually helps me with stuff too.
It is very tempting, but the thought of the jog that led to the discovery of my parents’ dead, lifeless bodies ultimately squashes the inclination to jog in the middle of nowhere.
All of a sudden, a filthy and rotten appearance saturates my body. My skin begins to crawl and crave purification. The feeling of rottenness intensifies to an unheard of level of stench. I have no choice but to relinquish my attempt at rest and get a bath instead. My only hope is that the water from the bath can wash away the filth that I have become.