4:05
Chapter 1: 4:05
A foggy lake, the same foggy lake as always.
To reach the place you have to walk from the outskirts of the town, some minutes later you find yourself surrounded by tall trees, not skinny ones, huge, large and old. Of a green so alive the sun perished in comparison, the sound of faraway birds and active monkeys accompany the sound of the leaves crushing when you steeped on them.
The whisperings told of a young spirit, a black kid with one leg, that liked to walk those lands, they said he liked to play, he took you to his place and offered kindly food, the nicer you were the better he behave, but if you met him and didn’t do as he asked, he would change the forest, rearranged and left you there, trapped, so he could play with you.
She was not afraid of him, she had saw him and for whatever reason he didn’t come to her, he stayed behind a tree watching from afar, with a look of fear and perhaps sorrow in his eyes. He was a beautiful kid, you could clearly see mischief and innocence in his face and it somehow hurt her that he didn’t dare to talk to her.
It was a long walk through the jungle, vegetation always changing, some fruits with serpents as guardians along the way were, but with every step you got higher and higher, slowly the trees became smaller, the grass occupied most of the ground, and eventually the feet got cold, got hurt from the icy rock they step on. Fog covered it all and in the peak of the mountain a lake you could see.
Sometime before it was ice, and it the hat of the mountain was, now all melted yet could protected the purest of water human skin had touched. It was forbidden to drink that water, to get in it. She waited as always, there, on the top of the mountain, looking down into the valley, into the crystal water, then she saw it, a boat, never before such thing was left in the water, she believed never a boat had touch those waters.
She walked to the boat and once there took the chance and got in, maybe this way the fog won’t keep all its secrets to itself. With bare hands she manage to move the boat, such was her determination that she didn’t care when she stopped feeling her forearms, it would have been easy to froze right there with the coldness of the air and the water, but they were not the reason why she stopped, she had found a rock, more of an island in the center of the lake.
There a cub was seated, it didn’t call for its mama, and it didn’t move at all, its eyes settled in one direction. It didn’t seem lost, nor lonely, just alone and somewhat sad, very thoughtful, like calculating the risk of something. She followed its eyes and saw a kind of drum, it was broken, but not that hard to repair, she tough and she didn’t know about that stuff. “Do you need help? Don’t worry it can be fixed.”
He raised his head and locked his eyes with her, reproach in his expression, and sadness, so much sadness, she tough she saw a man, she tough she understood, she saw as the picture was swallowed by darkness and she heard the alarm clock like it was breaking her skull.
-
Slowly and with a groan she push herself up, smacking her clock didn’t help her, she wanted to sleep, last night she barely could, a paper to be delivered had taken most of her time and now she was certain that this was one of those days in which she was going to be a zombie, luckily escaping the silliest ways of getting killed.
She headed to the shower, she liked in days like these the cold water, it made her more aware of her surroundings. It was the first time she managed to go further in her dream, she always stay stuck in the part where she watched the lake from above, it was kind of disconcerting the new part but at the end it was just a dream, nonetheless she was curios as from where a cub could get in her dream, maybe she could dream it again and finally figure out what it was about, to know the full story, she sensed there was more to it, well who could blame her she loved stories.
Once she was out of the shower she dressed quickly and charged her cellphone a bit while she had breakfast. The clock read 4:45 by the time she was finished and looking franticly for her keys, those damn keys always got lost, it definitely was their fault, some kind of weird vengeance of them for been push to the dark hole every single day, it wasn’t her doing, she could not possibly be so careless.
-
The class hadn’t begun when she arrived; she was just a little farther then distressed, the bus had been a nightmare, full to the brim, she swore the last person on board was more outside the bus than inside, to make things worse the amount of people using the printer outside the college was unbelievable.
“Hey Nitty! Oh my god, you look terrible, what happened? Long night?” It was Dawn, one of her friends, she was nice and very active, her mind usually was in other place but it was sharp and she was one of the best at class.
“Oh, Hi Dawn. Well thank you for the compliment, but I guess it is true. This thing gave me hell last night. Who cares about this?”
Laughing Dawn shook her head. “You always say the same when you’re distressed but later you’re talking non-stop of how important it is for the academy and the people to care about this stuff”
“You’re saying I’m always the same, that I like to complain and nothing more, that I enjoy it?” Nithya said with mocking hurt expression.
“Yes, you love to complain. Also you’re interesting but not complicated; it doesn’t mean you don’t change”
“Should I be offended or flattered? I’m having serious issues making the decision”
“Take your time, no hurry”
-
Maybe she was not complicated as Dawn had said, but life seemed so much like that to her, she didn’t like to think about it, least of all in days like these. She though it was going to be simple, go to class, deliver the paper, eat something and come back to the apartment to sleep the last night off.
Things didn’t work out like that, it was exactly nine o’clock in the night already, and without money Nithya was heading finally to her apartment, Dawn and a couple of friends had convinced her to go and have lunch with them, and in one of the beautiful gardens the college had, they had been too caught up in a game of cards to notice that they in fact, missed said lunch. To make it up to her they went to a restaurant that still had food, and eventually started to drink a beer, then two, and well, she had no money now, the lunch had been free but the drinks not.
It all would be all right if it weren’t for the chilly night and the few drops of water that threaten of becoming a waterfall, it was for sure that today if she got to bed soon the rain was going to sing a beautiful lullaby while she slept. The lightning drew sharp lines along the high mountains, the church on the top as a ghost appeared and disappeared, yet the thunders too far away to be heard came as soft as the whisper of wind.
People didn’t care; everyone was on their own business, the streets filled with the common noise of the hour, so at least Nithya felt somewhat secured with the normality of the walk, if people could ignore the coming rain so could she.
A couple of blocks from her apartment building and the rain started to fall heavy on her, she didn’t slow down, she didn’t hurry up, it was soothing, if felt right to be against the water, to feel her clothes growing heavier, she liked that extra weight. Three girls passed her running, they stopped short once they realized the store, maybe they needed something in particular from there, was closed, the exchange some words and decided to keep going, they were be the corner running to cross the street.
Then a thunder was finally heard, it came once and a lightning stammered at its companion’s force, the lights went out in all the streets the eye could see, and time froze if only for a second in between the two shoots of light.
A dog was crossing the street at the same time the girls were, he looked at one of them, the one with in the front leading the way, the first light stroke and the image was craved, amidst the darkness came the second and he was looking at Nithya, was he trying to say something, was he expecting to heard something, the darkness reigned.
In less than a second, just a moment of indecision had left them both root to the ground, a scream nearby, of a woman, made the other two girls react and grab by the arm the third one, who still looked at the dog just as Nithya was doing, the ran back to where they came from, one of them nearly collapsing with Nithya, that woke her up.
She registered the meaning of the scream, the woman had yelled something, someone had stolen from her few seconds after the blackout; that was right, she didn’t notice it but Nithya lived in not a safe part of town, here things could get really heated if wanted. Tired, wet, and a little unfocussed she ran to her apartment, the keys weren’t cooperating and even dough she already was inside the building she couldn’t not stop, it was like something had took possession of her, she desperately wanted to be inside her home, just that.
Fingers too cold and the lack of light were not helping. The sound of the keys hitting the floor sounded too laud and Nithya had to stop, breathe a little bit, it had been not the greatest day but it was not like her to freak out so easily, maybe a cup of coffee would do.
No, better a hot tea with milk. Yes, that always worked.
-
She was running late, that was so like her. He would be one hundred percent sure that the world was going to end if she ever arrive on time to one of their meetings, but it was already five past four and he was starting to get nervous.
Sitting in a rock by the river, he continued to play with his Rubik cube, he had mastered the four lines one, so he had borrow, you could say, one of five lines and it was giving him a hard time, too hard, it was hell. After almost an hour of tardiness Val arrived, looking rather fresh and happy, damn it, the girl had such a luck, nobody that cross paths with her would notice she was an exiled outlaw that lived from what the forest could give, but him, either they look down at him, or call the police for being suspicious, well better for them to notice that he hated robbing from innocent nice people, the others kind of earn it.
“You were supposed to be here an hour ago, care to share your whereabouts?” They were past hellos and even if he wanted he had to admit to be in a foul mood. He wanted her to notice it.
“Oh, come on Ethy! You know I get distracted, like a lot.”
“You should work on that”
“You always say the same.”
“And I’m still hoping one day you’ll listen to me. Anyway today it was a lot of time, I was getting worried.”
“I’m sorry. It was just me failing to wake up early. I got a really nice place to stay; it seems to be an abandon cabin, some meters from the death path.” Well, that was interesting, it was obviously a lie that she didn’t wake up on time, she was an early person, she just could manage time pretty well; but the fact that she found a place to stay was new, they usually sleep under the shadow of a tree or a cave, of those there were a lot around here.
“Sounds nice, any clue if the owner would come back or when?” The owner could be a problem but he or she sounded as a hermit and possibly didn’t know who they were, or didn’t care.
“There were some letters in the kitchen table not too old. He, and it was clear it was a he, was summoned to go to the capital city a week ago, and for the terms of the letter and the state of the closet, I would say it is probably that he doesn’t come back, or at least it would take a long while. Want to come with me?” A letter? How does a letter get here? Perhaps it was just his paranoia talking.
“Val, you know it’s better to be separated most of the time, that way we have more chance to escape from them.”
“Be a little smart, think about it. We have the chances to our favor, we’re further away than necessary and we have finally found a roof to sleep under. Neither of them would dare to search in this land. And if they do, we have knowledge of the place and practice at running.”
“You may have a point in that last one. Still they’ll come for us, he could take longer for he likes planning his moves but her, she is a hotheaded woman, dangerous and powerful. She won’t stop.”
“We’ll find a way to make her stop but for that we should at least be able to talk face to face more than a couple of minutes twice a month.” Fair enough, she had a point. Getting up slowly he took her arm in his, a playful smirk on his face.
“Okay, I’ll come with you. But you have to tell me who is the man that keep you from coming here earlier.”
“What are you talking about? There’s nobody.”
“Sure, and I met you just yesterday”
-
The cabin seemed big enough to hold three people; it was more than enough for them. The owners had left the fridge full, a couple of batteries for the lanterns and wood for the fireplace. The letter, for it had been only one addressed the man by his moniker, “Hatter”, and it was a sketch of the imagination to call it and invitation, at least it was polite.
There lived the man and his daughter, the amount of pictures of them, of her, was overwhelming. She was beautiful and had a good hand for drawing, there was a drawing in every wall, minimum. “For Daddy, love you” could be read in most of them. Whatever it was that made the man leave the place, was a big and urgent reason, he had left too much personal stuff; he may only have carried the clothes he wore.
For it to be so close to the Death Path, it was very homey and beautiful. Nothing like an old witch house as Ethael expected it to be. The road had been named like that because of the poisonous fruit that there grow. It was a tiny fruit of an intense yellow and it’d kill you faster than a black widow. The place was not for a family, not for humans at all. But he supposed circumstances brought them to live here as now circumstances of some sort brought Val and him to do the same.
They chose to sleep outside the bedrooms, to not use the beds of the cabin, better not to get used to that kind of commodities, on a rug or in the couch would be enough to spoil themselves for a little while. The electricity was down and they left it like that, choosing to use the fireplace, and only for cooking. As improbable as it was, that someone could spot them in this point of the land it was better not to take chances.
Val had gathered some fruits by the river side, where they were not poison, and some roots too, they had become familiar with this food, Ethael took advantage of the last rays of sunlight and manage to hunt a little monkey, so tonight they were having a fest, accompanying it with what seemed to be a very fine wine. The people of the house were well accommodated, but something told Ethael that there’s something wrong in that family, at some point you could say it was more of an altar to the little girl than a holyday retreat house or a hiding place.
“Do you think we will ever be able to have a house on our own? I don’t know maybe be neighbors in a rural suburban neighborhood or share an apartment in the city? Be able to have a normal live?” Val ask him, they were lying in the ground in the biggest room on a very tick rug, a couple of blankets for each one of them.
“I hope so, to find a house and maybe if it struck my fancy have a family. You could be auntie Valy and be the nanny every time I ask.” Ethael said teasing a little. “You are my home now, you are like my sister, don’t get me wrong but I think I want something else, some kind of stability.”
“I know what you mean, I feel the same too. Never have I ever had a home, at least not since I was a little girl, I want to have a family, to give them that I never was given. But I can’t now and maybe not ever, I’m going to die running away, such a waste of live, I would give my life graciously for a cause. To die fighting, that I wouldn’t regret even if I never get what I want before it.”
“Don’t talk like that Val you know we are not running away as cowards; we are waiting for the best chance to act.”
“We’ve waited far too long. See what it has gotten to us, isolation, the life of criminals, we said we do the right thing but we do nothing more than to bent the laws in our favor, we break the rules every time we need.”
“And that is because we have to survive, to stay alive, so we may live to fight one more time as we agreed, we are going to think this trough and then we’re going to win and have the most normal live we can, taking into account is us we are talking about.”
“How can you be like that?”
“Like what?”
“So full of… Hope. Yes, hope is what you’ve got”
“Listen to me carefully Val hope is the only thing you need, to be happy, to dream, to love, to do anything you ever wanted, to keep on living and enjoying it in the meanwhile. Do never give up, once you find what you feel is missing, never lose hope.”
“For now you keep hoping for me and I swear I won’t give up.”
“It is then a deal.”
“Deal.”
Sleeping face to face, just to keep an eye on each other, they were like brother and sister, running away from their past, losing in a battle they didn’t choose to fight. In that moment in the middle of the night Ethael could swear that nothing and nobody would ever harm Val. He was going to keep her safe, she was important. No matter how late she used to arrive.