Goldilocks (12 page)

Chapter 14:

“So are you going to tell me what happened last night?” Paul finally asked, when Hannah came around to his side of the table to take his plate.

He’d been headed up the trail to go and look for her when she’d come running down, her face flushed and tears in her eyes at the sight of him. The sleeves of her favorite red jacket had been torn, her hands scraped and bloodied, but she’d insisted that she was fine. He’d listened to her cry quietly in the bathroom, and then watched her go straight to her bedroom and shut the door. He hadn’t known what to do or say, so he’d left her alone, but after their quiet breakfast together this morning, he knew that something was definitely still bothering her.

“Hannah…?” Paul questioned when she didn’t answer immediately, her loose blonde locks hiding her face from him as she went about cleaning up the kitchen.

“I just got lost in the woods, that’s all,” Hannah mumbled, forcing a smile as she glanced over her shoulder at her father. “I told you, I stopped to rest and must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, it was dark, and I guess I just got scared. I lost the trail for a little bit, but then I saw the light from your flashlight, and…” her words trailed off when her father moved from his seat to stand beside her.

His eyes said he didn’t believe her
, but the hug he wrapped her in said that he’d been worried about her, and wanted to make sure that she was okay.

“You scared me Hannah,” Paul admitted to his daughter, planting a kiss on the top of her head before releasing her. “That trail scares me. I’ve said it before, and this time I mean it. No more running in the woods.”

“But Dad,” Hannah shook her head, her thoughts going over the plans that had started to form during her sleepless night.

“Hannah, don’t fight me on this. I already worry about you, and being in the woods alone is dangerous. When I’m not working, if you’d like me to come along on your run, then fine, but for now…”
Paul shrugged, ignoring the annoyed look on his daughter’s face. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you way out here after all,” he mused, his gaze shifting to the open living room window. I’m up to my waist in problems at the mine. I keep having to jump up and leave, and you still don’t have any friends.”
“I do have friends!” Hannah stopped him, nodding her head when her father’s eyebrow rose in question. “I was actually going to ask you if I could take the Jeep today and you take the car.”

“And how will I get home? And what do you need the Jeep for?” Paul asked, already shaking his head at the request.

While ‘Big Red’ was proving to be a dependable vehicle, he still didn’t want his daughter driving it when she didn’t need to. Every morning he drove her to the one stop shop in town to pick up the Audi. They parted ways there, her going to school over in Lake City, and him heading down to the mine here in Hinsdale. In the afternoons, he picked her back up at the one stop shop, where they parked the Audi until the next day. It was as far as these roads would allow the sports sedan to go, and he didn’t want to be stranded while he waited for her to finish practice.

“I’ll pick you up, just like you pick me up,” Hannah shrugged as she finished the last of the dishes and went about gathering up her homework
from the table. “It’s just that, Lindsey and Beth wanted to skip practice today and come out to the cabin. We all need a break, so I thought we could hang out here for a couple hours, and then I’ll drive them back. You usually don’t leave the mine until around six, right?” Hannah smiled sweetly, grabbing her father’s keys from the counter and tucking them in her back pocket.

“Why would they want t
o come here, and not the mall or something?” Paul questioned, looking around at the tiny living space. “I mean, what would you girls even do?”

“
There
is
no mall,” Hannah reminded him with an eye roll. “And I guess they’re just curious,” She added with a shrug, heading for the door so that she didn’t have to look her father in the eye. “You wouldn’t believe the rumors I hear about this place!”

“Oh I probably would,” Paul laughed, grabbing his bag of tools from the floor before following his daughter out onto the front porch. “Just promise me that you won’t take them in the woods,” he warned, his gaze moving to the trees surrounding them.

“Promise,” Hannah nodded firmly, glad that she hadn’t had to tell another lie.

She’d considered telling her father about the wolves attacking her last night, but the shotgun he kept in the corner reminded her that he had once enjoyed hunting, and probably wouldn’t hesitate to go into the woods himself if he knew about the mutant sized animals she’d encountered. The wolves she wasn’t worried about, it was the bear she didn’t want him to find. He’d saved her life
twice now, and as stupid as it seemed –considering the fact that it could kill her in seconds- she didn’t want it harmed.

She wanted answers, and the cave seemed to be the key. She just had to find it again.

**********

“Hey you! Snap out of it!” Beth giggled when Hannah’s head jerked around to face her and Lindsey again. “I said, who are you looking for?” she repeated herself, glancing around the cafeteria at the hoard of students still flooding in.

“Nobody,” Hannah answered immediately, stabbing her plastic fork into the wilted salad on her lunch tray.

“Could have fooled me,” Lindsey snorted, poking her elbow in
to Beth’s side. “I think she has the hots for one of the lacrosse players over there. She’s been staring that way since we sat down”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not sitting right here,”
Hannah snapped, ignoring the wide eyed stare Beth fixed on her.

She wasn’t in the mood for their chatter today, but she still needed them to get her father off her back about having no friends.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Hannah offered, shaking her head. “I’ve got a lot on my mind today, but I really wasn’t looking for anyone,” she lied, pointing to the clock on the wall behind her. “Got a dentist appointment right after lunch; was just checking the time,” she explained.

Another lie.

“Well even if you did like someone, we wouldn’t tell,” Beth grinned, winking at Hannah as she took another bite of her own salad.

“I don’t,” Hannah answered firmly, forcing a smile. “But I was wondering if you two wanted to come by the cabin for lunch on Saturday. We could go running, or just hang out…”

“I’d love too!” Beth chimed before Lindsey could protest.

“Yeah, because we’ve always wanted to see what the inside of a haunted cabin looks like,” Lindsey agreed sarcastically, rolling her eyes when Beth shot her a withering look.

“Come, don’t come,” Hannah shrugged. “It was just a thought,” she added, shoving her tray aside before glancing behind her once again.

It had been bugging her since last night. Once she’d gotten over the shock of the wolf attack, she’d lain in bed all night, thinking of the bear and the cave she’d found. Like the wolves, he was bigger than any of his species should have been, but it wasn’t his size that scared her. It was his eyes. The way that he’d looked at her when she
’d come running from behind the bedroom door. They were almost familiar to her, if that made any sense. She’d sat beside Jake long enough to know that his eyes were the same color, but it was the same gold flecks that lay within them that had the wheels turning in her head. It was the extraordinary features of the bear’s face that made her question the almost human expressions she found herself remembering. The shock, and then the pleading look that was now forever burned in her memories when she’d raised the knife.

Any way she thought of it, it was impossible to make a connection, but there was one
, she was sure of it. And her suspicions had only grown when Jake had been absent from government class today. He also wasn’t at his normal table in the cafeteria now. It had been her intention to ask him to come with her into the woods today. He was the only one that probably wouldn’t laugh at her. They weren’t exactly friends, but something told her, he would have gone. Rumor had it that his family lived somewhere out in the woods of Hinsdale. If anyone around here knew about the mutant animals, it would probably be him. But he wasn’t here, and she didn’t know when she would be able to get the Jeep from her father again. She had to go back today.

Lindsey and Beth had moved the conversation on without her, both of them arguing now over
who the cutest boy was on the lacrosse team. Hannah half listened to their chatter, counting down the minutes in her head to when the end of lunch bell would ring. Her father would be upset when he learned that she’d skipped school, but she already had an excuse worked out, and he’d never had any problems from her before. This would be her last lie to him; whether she found answers or not, she’d already decided to tell him everything.

Chapter 15:

Hannah almost expected her father to be waiting for her at the cabin when she walked in. A few quick blinks and you would miss the town, but driving ‘Big Red’ through Hinsdale in the middle of the day had drawn more attention than she wanted. One of the four or five people that had waved at her when she passed was sure to know her father, and would probably mention seeing her the first chance they got. It was a small town, and she was learning quickly that everything was news around here.

She wasted no time changing into the running clothes that she’d set out this morning,
securing her pack around her waist before slipping in a steak knife in place of the mace she’d lost somewhere in the woods. The dried mud caked to her shoes from the previous night, left a trail of crumbled dirt on the floor as she made her way back into the living space to grab a notebook and then to the kitchen counter. There was no time to clean up the mess, but she hoped she would be able to before it was time to head back into town. A quick note, to her father, let him know that she’d had to go into the woods one more time, and she would explain everything later. She signed her name as she normally did, with a few extra x’s underneath for love just in case she didn’t return as soon as she’d planned.

The thought gave her pa
use, the pen falling from her fingers to the table as she read the note over again. Her father would never forgive her, for disobeying him, if she didn’t return. But that wasn’t going to happen.
He was out there…

The bear’s pleading face flashed through Hannah’s memories, and she grabbed her ruined jacket from the back of the
kitchen chair in determination, tying it around her waist before heading out the door. Up here in the hills, the summer heat  -that would normally just be peaking back in D.C.- had already started to wane, giving way to cooler fall type temperatures, allowing a chilly breeze to waft through the trees. Overheard the limbs seemed to be waving at her, welcoming her back into the forest again, but there was no admiration for the beauty she’d been in awe of yesterday.

Bright sunlight once again shadowed the trail and woods around her with a golden hue, bringing out shades of color that she’d never even noticed until now. Her eyes searched in every direction as she climbed at an easy jog, but it wasn’t until she reached her normal three mile mark, that she spotted signs of the chase from the night before.
Wolf tracks were plain to see, their prints imbedded deep in the soft moss at gaping distances, showing the length of their sprint. It took four running steps for her to cover the ground that they covered in one bound, her tracks and theirs disappearing off into the woods to her right.

Hannah gave one quick look behind her, her heart hammering in her chest at the thought of leaving the safety of the trail again, but she’d come this far already. She walked carefully, listening for
anything that might alert her of danger, but except for a few birds singing, all was quiet. Two more hills up and she spotted what she’d been looking for from the start. A strip of torn red fleece dangled from a tangle of thorns ahead, the leaves surrounding them disturbed as if someone had lain there. Hannah remembered the fall she’d taken, the stinging on the back of her hands when she’d reach out in the dark and gotten snagged. She’d heard the fabric of her jacket rip as she’d jerked free, and was sure that there were a few more pieces left to be found.

More wolf tracks were visible around the bush, leading higher up into the hills until they disappeared altogether in the thick underbrush. Hannah tucked the piece of ripped fabric in her pack before extracting the knife, clutching it in her fist before continuing on. She was traveling at an angle now, her shoes slipping in still damp
leaves, her sore hands once again throbbing when she broke what could have been a nasty fall.

She’d walked another half mile before she spotted a second piece of red fabric, this one too high up for her to reach from the ground. She’d remember climbing what she thought was another hill, but in broad day light she cou
ld now she that it was a stack of jagged rocks that she’d scrambled up and over. The pile stood at least twenty feet high, the ledge extending further around than what she could see from this angle. Wolf tracks were everywhere the semi rocky ground wasn’t, even larger bear tracks smearing most of them out.

Hannah forced herself to breathe deeply, working her way around the massive clump of stone until she was certain that she’d found what she was looking for. Crawling vines covered most everything in the forest, but here they unified above her in a lush waterfall of leafy green, spilling over the top of the rocks
, forming a thick curtain that reached all the way to the ground and continued over the next hill. From here looking up, she silently thanked her good senses for not trying to jump down in the darkness that had cloaked the area the night before. The lip of the cave would have been nearly invisible had she not known where to look, the ledge even tinier than she’d remembered. It was sheer luck that she’d fallen right where she had, and even better luck that she hadn’t plummeted the remaining fifteen or so feet down onto the jagged pebbles she now stood on.

Her breath caught as she remembered just where the bear had left her standing, her gaze traveling to where the hidden stairway started. Guilt bubbled in her stomach as she looked around for any sign of life before taking her first step forward, the knife now held in front of her for immediate protection. The vines parted easily, the toe of her shoe stubbing as it connected with the first stone step almost immediately, causing her to nearly trip and lose her balance. She choked back a cry, swallowing hard as she step
ped up onto the narrow staircase, the curtain now hiding her from anything in the woods.

Cool air greeted her as she climbed slowly, her heart hammering so loudly in her chest now that it was the only sound
she heard. Even with daylight forcing its way in across the mouth of the cave, it still took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness she now stood in, her gaze traveling up to the smooth ceiling overhead. Ancient symbols she hadn’t noticed before, decorated the upper reaches of the stone, lining a trail that led down the confined passage way, the meaning of the markings lost on her.

Hannah shivered involuntarily as she
peeked around the corner and promptly fell back. A quick glimpse sent goose bumps racing down her arms and legs, but there was nothing ahead except the same door she’d discovered last night. She considered turning back, her mind racing at the possibilities the next few moments could bring. She’d come searching for the cave and the bear, but had yet to figure out what she would do once she found them. And now here she was, still unaware of whom the home belonged to, and armed only with a knife that could probably use a good sharpening.

Just do it!
Hannah chided herself, squaring her shoulders as she turned the corner and forced her feet ahead. She’d never stop wondering if she didn’t, and her father wouldn’t let it go once she told him the truth. She had to know.

Her fist poised to knock on the thick wooden door, her thoughts suddenly frantic as to what she would say if it was answered. For once her feet acted without her telling them too, backing her away just as the door swung open with a whoosh.

Hannah did stumble this time, the knife falling with a sharp clank onto the stone beneath her as her mouth fell open in shock.

It was Jake standing before her, his half naked, dripping wet body nearly filling the doorway as he took a step towards her, his
own expression matching the shock she felt.

“What are you doing here!?”

**********

Jake winced as Hannah shrank back at the threatening growl in his throat. That same aching feeling
he experienced whenever she was around, painfully shooting and exploding from every nerve ending as he inhaled sharply, her scent claiming his senses. He’d never been prepared for his encounters with her, but right now he was thrown completely off guard, the shrieking warning of the ancient wards still ringing in his head. He’d only ever heard that sound once, and that was when he was just a young boy and his father had shown him how the hand carved markings on the cave’s entrance worked. Rone had placed them there so that they would never be surprised by an intruder when they were home, but Jake had never been more surprised than he was now.

“J..J..Jake?!” Hannah finally managed, her green eyes growing wider as they slipped down over his bare chest to the towel he had clutched around his waist. “
You
live here!” she accused, her index finger jabbing towards the cavern behind him.

“You shouldn’t be here!”
Jake snapped, shaking his head vehemently; more so to block the thoughts that were now racing through his head from his father, than at her. “You didn’t learn how dangerous these woods are after last night?! Why would you…?” he trailed off with an irritated growl, his slip caught by Hannah, sending fire into her eyes.

“You were here the whole time?! Impossible!” Hannah declared,
her brows knitting in confusion. “And how did you know I was chased by wolves?” she demanded, fire flashing in her eyes at the stony glare he fixed on her.

“I didn’t,” Jake denied, already knowing that she wouldn’t let it go at that.

“Liar!” Hannah gritted out, taking a step forward so that there was only a foot between them.

Jake’s breath held, his bare skin igniting at the sheer closeness of her.
His enhanced senses had kicked into overdrive, the sound of her pounding heartbeat melting his resolve to stay as far away from her as possible. He could smell the fear she tried so hard to cover, hear the way her breath struggled to steady itself against the emotions she must surely be feeling right now. He wanted to tell her everything, but he couldn’t. He’d made a promise.

“Your tunnel saved my life,” Hannah whispered, her eyes searching his face as she spoke. “I…I was out and running, and I stopped to rest. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know it was dark, and the wolves! The wolves were humongous! Not like any wolves, I’ve ever seen Jake. They were the size of bears, maybe bigger!” Hannah cried, her hand trembling as she swiped at the tears that were threatening to fall.

She needed him to believe her, but he didn’t need to believe, he already knew. Her story was tumbling out in a rush now, so fast that he wanted to pull her to him and tell her that he would protect her always.

“The door was unlocked, and they were right out there, so I came in
,” Hannah admitted, her head lowering in embarrassment. “I didn’t touch anything I promise, but right there!” She pointed towards the dining table. It was a bear! I swear it! And…”

Another collapse Jake! I need you. I maimed it a little, but by the time it gets to you, it’ll be fully healed.
Where are you?!

Rone’s voice was strained, booming in Jake’s head, swallowing Hannah’s words as flashes of the most recent collapse played out. Jake swallowed hard as a glint of snarling teeth snapped near his father’s face and then disappeared in a swath of mangy grey fur. He had to move now!

On it…
Jake threw back at his father, the wheels in his head turning as he focused on Hannah once again.

He couldn’t leave her here; his mother would be back any
moment. Sending Hannah back to the cabin wouldn’t work because for one, she would never go without some sort of an explanation, and two the wolf might find her before he found it. The only choice he had was to take her with him, and hope that he could hide her at his new found thinking spot until he took care of this problem.

“You want to go for a walk?” Jake interrupted Hannah, already turning on his heel
s to head towards his bedroom for clothes.

He was already dressed and pulling on his shoes before she finally responded
, her voice hesitant, but relieved.

“Sure.
”

**********

Hannah studied Jake’s back as she followed behind him, back down the passage leading to the mouth of the cave. Unlike her, his skin was partially uncovered in loose fitting shorts and a tank top that hugged his broad upper frame like a second skin. Muscular was barely the word for the impeccable physique she hadn’t noticed before under his normal school clothes. His biceps and calves rippled with his natural gait, belittling every other teenage boy she’d ever seen. His silky thick brown hair had developed a curl at the ends from the dampness that still clung to it and she couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the base of the thick neck that it stopped at. No wonder his last name had become his nickname at school. ‘Bear’ suited him just fine.

“So did you hear anything I said back there?” Hannah questioned, almost jogging to keep up with Jake as they left the cave and started up further into the woods. “And where’s the fire?” she
called out, following his lithe footsteps over fallen trees, and hidden roots she would have probably tripped over had he not been in front.

“Yeah I heard you,” Jake tossed back over his shoulder, his eyes and ears on alert for what he knew could be coming at any moment. “And it’s all the more re
ason to stay out of these woods. You can’t just…”

“No!” Hannah cut him off, catching up to him so that she could grab his arm.

He bristled as he caught the sparks in her eyes, her tone accusing when she spoke.