Chapter Text
A sign, an old and weathered sign was all that was needed to give Wilhemina some hope again. Ever since leaving the highway it seemed like the flood of blue and white signs had just ebbed away and was instead replaced with small wooden boards with sweet sounding town names. They were arguably some of the cutest signs she had seen but unfortunately they were also not as reliable as the inexpressive blue ones.
The sides of the road stayed empty and without any signs for a great while, such a great while that Mina had started to wonder if she might have missed it. The heavy rain and lack of street lanterns illuminating the road definitely helped hide any signs that might have been present along the roads but did nothing to hide her growing anxiety.
“Should I turn around?” Mina questioned herself while slowly starting to panic. “There had been a motel around forty five minutes ago, I could always go there and try my luck again tomorrow when the rain is gone and the sun's out.” She had muttered out loud, a habit she had picked from her mother when she thought no one else was around.
But going back would go against the very reason she was even doing all of this, to prove herself and show to others that she was capable of getting things done. So, even against better judgement did she continue along the narrow and winding road on one hand praying everything would go alright and on the other questioning if it was all worth it.
For a while Mina was stuck, stuck in her loop of repeating the same two things. Stuck until the headlights of her old but trusty car suddenly lit up a light wooden board with the words “Sweet Meadow Cottage - 5KM” and instantly all her doubt faded.
With newfound courage she pushed her foot down onto the pedal with more force, all her fears had faded, even the one about driving in the dark while it was storming. She could already imagine what it would feel like to lay down on a soft bed, drinking a nice warm tea while reading a chapter of her new book before dozing off into a well earned rest. To feel relaxed and no longer filled with stress.
The further she drifted off into newfound bliss the more of a rude awakening it was when she had to suddenly slam on the brakes just in time to avoid crashing into a giant tree blocking the road. Snapped out of her daydreams she was suddenly faced with reality again and the only way to face reality for Mina right now was to sit still and process what had just happened, or even worse what could have happened.
The idea of dying was something she had never given much thought to, but right now looking between her steering wheel and the fallen tree everything suddenly felt more real and unreal at the same time. For a couple of minutes Mina just stayed there, or was it maybe hours? Time felt weird as she kept being dragged into what-if scenarios accompanied by the comforting sound of the rain still slowly dripping away outside. It wasn’t until the engine stopped that she snapped awake again and realised she could not stay here in her car forever.
After considering sleeping in the car for the night or at least staying a while until the rain died down she settled on just walking the last bit. If she was correct she had to only walk around half an hour before reaching Sweet Meadow Cottage.which would probably take less time than waiting for what might be hours before the rain stops.
After settling on her decision Mina quickly reached into the dashboard grabbing her most important things, keys, phone, wallet and handbag before getting out and opening the boot to take out her suitcase as well. Wrestling the big and heavy bag to take it out was more taxing than she expected but when it eventually got out she immediately put it on the ground with a loud thud, or maybe more like dropped to the ground with the way it landed so ungraciously on its side. Quickly flipping it up in the correct position again Mina closed the boot and completely locked up the car, not that it would do much if someone really wanted to get into the old and rundown vehicle but it was the thought that counted.
With determination in her steps she walked in front of her car ready to face this last challenge before finally getting her well earned rest. A short hike is something Mina could do without too much difficulty, even if it was dark, raining and cold. Or at least that is what she liked to think until she once again saw the tree in front of her. It was big but not so big that she could not climb over it. The real issue was her suitcase, the one she could barely lift out of her car, the one she was definitely not getting over this tree trunk.
While looking around hoping to find a nice solution that would not cost too much energy Mina noticed the only option she really had was to walk around the tree. Unfortunately on one end there were still thousands of leaves adorning the branches even when autumn was fading away and winter was approaching. On the other end there was the base of the trunk with lots and lots of mud surrounding it, but there was also more space to move around.
Swallowing her pride she rolled the suitcase as far as she could before having to step off the road and into the slimy mud that seemed to squelch with every step she took. With every step her feet seemed to feel like they were sinking into the ground and her suitcase was slowly turning from a soft blue colour to a dark brown with all the mud she was dragging it through. It wasn’t until Mina got out of the mud and back on the road that she saw how much damage she had done to both her shoes and suitcase.
“Ugh, so gross! This will take hours to clean. And maybe the clothes inside as well if the mud and rain got in through the zipper!” Mina whispered-yelled while already imagining the painstaking task of scrubbing everything with the hand. But still she did it, she managed to get to the other side of the tree without any major issues and for that she was proud of herself.
Riding the momentum of her pride she picked up her pace again and started walking on the narrow and winding road again with the last of her energy. Having also fished out her phone from her small bag she turned on the flashlight function to lighten up her path to decrease the chance of her accidently stepping off the road at one of its many turns or twists and ending up in the mud again. The walk continued for what felt like an hour but when Mina checked on her phone it had only been a small half hour before she saw the silhouette of a building in the distance. Not just any building no, it was Sweet Meadow Cottage, her safe haven in all of this.
With her phone in one hand and her suitcase handle in the other she prepared for the last few minutes of walking, no not even a walk anymore but a small jog, or at least it was until she stopped dead in her tracks. It could have been a trick played by Mina’s mind or maybe it was just the forest creaking with all the wind, but she swore she had heard something, or rather someone. She stood there for a moment both frozen in fear and fascination for what might have been out there.
For a while there were no more sounds except for the sound of raindrops and Mina’s own breathing until she heard it again and this time she was certain it was no hallucination. A loud and piercing screech had come from beyond the treeline, a sound she had only heard on tv before, a sound that was now paired with the noise of glass shattering on the concrete road as Mina had dropped her phone out of fear.
Without another thought Mina raced towards the cottage, the sound of her heartbeat thrumming in her ears while the adrenaline kept pumping through her body giving her enough power to continue until she had reached the front porch of the cottage. Clumsily she had walked up the steps together in her bag while rummaging through her handbag looking for the small set of keys buried somewhere in there. When her fingertips felt the cold metal of the keys she yanked them out and shakily tried to insert them into the front door lock, a task which had proved more difficult due to the shaking of her hands, an effect which could have both been from the adrenaline or the fear who were both freely ruling her body.
After what was probably a minute of Mina accidentally stabbing the door multiple times with a key did she finally manage to slip it into the lock and open the door. Quickly turning around she grabbed her suitcase and threw it into the hallway, the former heaviness of the bag having suddenly disappeared without a trace. Spinning around one last time she yanked the keys out the front of the door before stepping inside and pulling the creaking door shut tight. Yet at the last second before the door clicked shut did she get a glimpse of the branches of a tree not too far away swaying against the wind, almost as if there had been something up in the tree that had jumped out. But what bird or animal in this part of the world was big enough for such a reaction?
Not dwelling too long on that question was the choice Mina went with. Plenty of weird things had been happening this night from almost getting lost, to fallen trees, to midnight hikes being disturbed by weird sounds coming out of the forest. A couple of branches not moving the right way hardly seemed at the top of the list after all these crazy things, crazy things which might disappear after a good night’s rest and a proper meal.
Without paying much attention to the rest of the cottage Mina just made a beeline upstairs straight to her bedroom. Reaching the tops of the stairs she dashed through the hall until she got to the door of the master bedroom. Opening it in a quick and fluid movement she basically tumbled into the room before slamming the door shut and pushing her suitcase in front of it hoping to make some kind of barricade in case something would try to get into the house.
Dumbfounded, she sat there on the floor of her new bedroom trying to once again process everything that had happened this evening before scrambling over to her bag and pulling out her small notepad together with her favourite yellow pen. She had learned that she best managed with stress by putting everything in a row, specifically a written down row where everything was neatly written down. That was the first and most important step because identifying the issue in some cases already helped solve the issue. Sometimes she would take it a step further and also try to write solutions to the problems but that was not a standard thing for Mina to do. After a few minutes of scribbling away her list finally looked well organised.
1. Scared about getting lost
2. Realisation that death is near and you are never truly safe
3. Walking through the rain and mud
4. Hearing scary noises in the forest (not clear what it was)
5. Strange movements in the trees
Looking at her completed list Mina slowly started to realise how her list got more and more insane with every point and that sleep definitely would fix point 4 and 5 as they were most likely some kind of hallucination that her mind had made up to get her to the cottage quicker. With that solution in mind Mina started to take off her wet clothes that stuck to her body at every possible place and slowly opened up her suitcase praying that her pyjamas had survived their trip through the rain.
Luck seemed to have been on her side at least once this night because by some miracle all of her clothes had survived the harsh conditions they had been put under. Quickly she took her sleepwear and a small towel out and hung her wet clothes to dry throughout the room. Drying off her body with the small towel was quick work, the real nightmare was her hair which had been soaked through and through before putting on pyjamas.
After Mina had deemed her hair dry enough to sleep with, she made her way over to the big and soft bed which had basically been inviting her to come and lay down. Not thinking about anything else other than her rest did she find her way under the warm covers with ease and her eyes slipped close within a minute. Slowly she had drifted off until a loud bang startled her awake again followed by a flash of light not too long after.
While she had never been scared of thunder or lightning everything had her on edge this evening, especially loud sounds after what she had witnessed on the road. Turning around and away from the window did she hope to not be woken up again at least by the lightning, but to no avail as the next flash illuminated her room again with ease. Getting up she walked over to the window in a slow pace, sleep hanging in basically every muscle and bone of her body. Reaching the window she grabbed the curtains and closed them just as another flash of lightning lit up both her room and the surroundings of the cabin.
Mina completely froze up again, standing there outside of the cottage was a figure. A tall figure with broad shoulders and what looked to have been a sword, in other words a crazy person that should definitely not be on Mina’s property. It did not help that the lightning only showed his silhouette and nothing else, making it nearly impossible for her to identify anything else about the crazy person.
Scrambling back further into the room Mina started to frantically search everywhere, in her handbag, on the bedside table and even in her suitcase hoping to find her phone, her only way out of this situation. Trying to remember anything about her phone she realised she had dropped it when she heard the sound and it had shattered on the ground, even worse in her fear she forgot to take the phone with her so any chance of it still working would be completely gone now that it had been in the rain for so long.
All she had wanted to do was to fix up the cottage as a nice retreat for both her family, friends and herself. She could see herself living off the grid in a beautiful forest and if she got lonely she could always invite family and friends. But first until she was done with school she would rent it out and use the extra money to help her survive life in the city. Now she was stuck in a house with someone outside who carried a dangerous weapon and she could not even call the police to save her as her phone lay broken outside far out of her reach.
Not knowing what to do anymore Mina crawled into the corner next to her bed praying to whatever deity was out there that they would have mercy on her. While she kept thinking about all kinds of things ranging from what she could possibly do to survive this from hoping that if she got killed that her death would be swift. She stayed there alone in the quiet cottage until she heard loud knocking downstairs disrupting the eerie calm that had settled and when it did not get a response the person outside knocked again.
“Open up, we know there is some inside this building and we won’t ask again.” A loud and booming voice echoed through the house, but the only thing Mina could think of was the word we.
We.
As in plural.
As in more than one person.
As in less of a chance of survival for Mina.
And she knew her chance of survival had dropped even closer to zero as she heard the front door of the cottage open with its characteristic creaking.