Chapter 9 - Whispers in the Howling Wind and the Final Desperation
The freezing mud seeped slowly through the knees of my soaked jeans,
numbing my legs completely as we crouched silently beneath the heavy,
protecting shadow of the massive stone boulder.
The bright beam of Aaron's powerful flashlight danced wildly across the wet trunks of the surrounding pine trees,
creating long,
terrifying shadows that seemed to reach out toward us like dark,
slender fingers.
He was moving incredibly slowly,
taking his time,
deliberately dragging out the psychological torture of the hunt,
knowing perfectly well that we had absolutely no shelter and no means of rapid escape.
"Did you really think you could take her away from me,"
he called out loudly into the howling wind,
his voice echoing strangely off the steep mountain walls,
making it impossible to tell exactly which direction he was coming from.
"I am her real father,
I have always provided absolutely everything for her,
I gave her a beautiful home,
and you just tried to ruin my perfect life because you were so incredibly jealous."
His insane,
delusional words sickened me to my absolute core,
proving completely that he lived entirely in a fabricated,
fictional reality where he was always the righteous hero and I was always the crazy,
unstable villain.
He did not love Hannah as a separate,
living human being,
he only loved her as an extension of his own massive ego,
a shiny,
perfect possession that he could show off to his wealthy friends and his important colleagues.
The bright beam of light suddenly swept directly across the ground just a few feet in front of our hidden crevice,
illuminating the deep,
fresh footprints I had accidentally left in the soft mud when I ran toward the boulder.
I held my breath so tightly my lungs burned painfully,
closing my eyes tightly as I waited for the inevitable shout of discovery,
waiting for his heavy boots to come stomping around the corner of the rock.
But the wind suddenly howled with a massive,
violent gust,
snapping a large,
dead branch off a towering tree high above us,
sending the heavy wood crashing violently into the brush about fifty yards to our right.
Aaron spun rapidly toward the sudden noise,
his bright flashlight beam darting quickly away from our hiding spot,
and he immediately began stomping heavily toward the location of the fallen branch,
completely convinced we were trying to run away.
I let out a long,
shaky breath of pure relief,
releasing my tight grip on Hannah's small mouth,
feeling her entire body sag heavily against my chest as the immediate danger passed.
But we could not simply stay here forever,
the freezing temperature was dropping rapidly as the dark night wore on,
and hypothermia was quickly becoming just as deadly a threat as the angry man hunting us.
"Listen to me very carefully,"
I whispered softly into her cold ear,
my lips touching her freezing skin.
"When I tell you to move,
we are going to crawl as quietly as possible toward the back of this rock,
there is a steep hill that leads back down toward the main logging road."
Hannah nodded her head slightly against my chest,
too incredibly cold and exhausted to speak,
her absolute trust in me giving me the desperate strength I needed to keep pushing forward.
We waited in agonizing,
freezing silence until the bright beam of his flashlight completely disappeared behind a thick grove of evergreen trees,
his heavy footsteps fading slowly into the loud noise of the raging storm.
"Okay,
go right now,"
I whispered urgently,
pushing her gently forward,
keeping my body positioned firmly between her and the direction Aaron had gone,
acting as a human shield against the darkness.
We crawled painfully through the thick,
freezing mud,
our hands and knees scraping against sharp roots and hidden rocks,
ignoring the terrible pain in favor of pure,
desperate survival.
The terrain suddenly dropped sharply away beneath our hands,
revealing a steep,
muddy embankment that sloped dangerously downward toward the dark,
winding path of the old logging road below.
We had absolutely no other choice but to slide,
so I wrapped one arm tightly around her waist,
and we pushed ourselves over the muddy edge,
sliding rapidly down the slick,
freezing incline.
Thick briars and sharp branches tore violently at our clothes as we tumbled downward in the pitch-black darkness,
the heavy mud filling our boots and covering our freezing faces,
until we finally crashed heavily into a deep ditch at the absolute bottom of the steep hill.
I lay there gasping for precious air,
my entire body screaming in absolute agony,
my vision swimming with dark,
dizzying spots,
but I forced myself to sit up quickly,
checking frantically to make sure Hannah was not badly injured.
"I am okay,"
she whispered bravely,
spitting a mouthful of dirty water from her lips,
wiping the thick mud from her freezing eyes with a shaking hand.
We had actually made it back to the dirt road,
but we were now miles away from my parked car,
leaving us completely exposed on the open,
muddy path with absolutely nowhere left to hide.
And then,
from the high ridge directly above us,
the bright,
blinding beam of the flashlight suddenly shot down through the dark trees,
locking directly onto our muddy,
exhausted bodies sitting helplessly in the deep ditch.
"I found you,"
Aaron screamed triumphantly from the top of the hill,
his voice filled with a sick,
May you like
twisted joy as he began scrambling recklessly down the steep embankment,
sliding quickly toward us like a terrifying avalanche of pure darkness.
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