Zach continued to cry for over thirty minutes while I tried to comfort him in vain. At some point he stopped crying and I figured he had probably slept off. I didn’t mind that I was in the same situation. I was more worried for my innocent brother. I started shouting “help” as loudly as possible but no one came to save us. After sometime, I gave up and stayed silent, left with no other option.
Being alone made me think of my mother’s death, a subject I had successfully avoided for a long time. I had kept myself busy to avoid thinking of her and now I had all the time in the world. I was starting to feel the emptiness she had left behind. Mama was who I rushed to whenever I felt overwhelmed. Her hugs were the best and never failed to make me feel better.
Had she been alive, we wouldn’t be in that shanty town. We would be back home, living life the way it should be, not stuck in some pit in the middle of nowhere.
Suddenly, I heard whistling. I stood up and listened attentively before hearing a voice.
“Anyone here?” the unfamiliar male voice made me panic. It was strong and raspy. Very manly. Was he the one who had set the traps? Rationalizing that the traps were probably for animals, I yelled.
“Over here.”
I nearly collapsed in shock when a head immediately popped up at the opening of the pit I was in. That was fast.
The man had a perfect face with a chiseled jaw and symmetrical masculine features. He had this strong but yet beautiful look one could stare at all day. He was devilishly and deliciously handsome. My breath hitched in my throat when I realized he was staring with his sharp eyes.
“Who are you?” he asked. “A tourist?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m Emilia Colman. We’ve recently moved to this town. Please save my little brother. He is in another pit.”
“I shouldn’t save you?”
“He’ll get me help, if you can take him to town.”
He raised a brow. “The Colmans. I’m interested. I’ll save you all. I haven’t seen dear Hannah in a long time. She is supposed to know that this is forbidden territory. Humans don’t learn.”
“What do you mean?”
“This place is reserved for animals, a hunting area. If you’re a not hunter you shouldn’t be coming past the hedge. Everyone who lives here knows that.”
“Why not put up a sign that shows that? What about tourists?”
“We don’t like tourists around here. Didn’t you read the reviews before coming? Have you seen any tourist?”
“Why don’t you like tourists?”
“You’re too inquisitive,” he said, standing up. “Let me check out this baby brother of yours.”
Barely a minute later, he returned.
“What happened?”
“I got him out. He’s asleep so it was easy.”
“How?”
He chuckled. “You don’t want to know?”
“You’re weird.”
He walked away and soon returned with a rope which he threw to me. “Tied it to a tree. Get yourself up.”
“You won’t help me?”
“Nope. Tell Hannah that Rafael said hi. And by the way, be careful where you step, don’t want you falling into more holes. You’re lucky I was the one who found you.”
It was a tough struggle but I was able to bring myself up using the rope. To my relief, Zach was sleeping peacefully under the tree. I untied the rope from the tree. I had no idea where Rafael got it but I decided to keep it in case he came looking for it.
I went back to the pit and looked down. A man as tall as him might be able to grab the grass at the top and get out easily but how easy would it be to do that when holding a child. I wondered if he had lifted Zach up. Wouldn’t that have woken him up? How had he done it so fast? I checked Zach’s pulse and noticed he was breathing steadily.
I was beginning to think there was something strange in the town. Why did they have hunting grounds so close to the lake with no clear signs? Was it negligence or had it been intentional? Why did they discourage people from touring the town?
“Emmy,”
I glanced at Zach who had woken up. He had already sat down. “How did you get us out?”
I smiled. “Someone saved us.”
“Who?”
“Rafael. You don’t know him but you will soon enough.”
“Can we go home now? I’m hungry.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to walk?” I asked, staring at his cute sleepy face.
“Yes,” he leapt up to his feet.
“Not so fast. There are lots of traps around here. Rafael said we should be careful.”
“Are the traps for people?”
“No, of course not. It’s a hunting ground. I think that’s why that website recommended having a guide. We are not supposed to come past that part of this place.”
“We should have remained the other side.”
“Why is there no sign?”
I sighed. Zach was always asking questions I could not answer. I knew almost as much as he did about the two but he didn’t know that. As someone older, I was expected to have more knowledge of the place. When we reached the lakeside, I found that my things were gone. My phone, purse and flip flops. Had Rafael taken them or was it someone else? Had someone else known that we were in the pits but left without helping? This town clearly had more mystery than any place in the world. Its people were shady.
Zach seem to have no idea about my missing things until we got near the main highway when I was still barefoot.
“Where are your sandals?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
We found Hannah pacing about the living room.
“We were mobilizing a search time to look for you,” she said, hugging us. “Where have you been?”
“We fell into animal traps,” I said.
“How did you get out?”
“A friend of yours helped. Rafael.”
“Rafael?”
“Yes. My stuff was by the lake and someone stole them.”
I found your stuff on top of my car, at the resort. That’s how I figured something was wrong.” Hannah said, glancing at the dining table. My bag, flip flops and phone were intact. Nothing was missing.
“I wonder who brought them. Could it have been Rafael or someone else?”
I have no idea. I don’t know what kind of person Rafael is at this point. I last saw him five years ago at dad’s funeral. But, we’ll figure it out, I hope. First, I’ll take you both to the hospital to make sure you’re okay. Do your feet hurt?”
“They do,” I glanced at them. “Some thorns pricked me when I was looking for Zach.”
“I’m fine,” Zach said.
“You fell. I need to know you did not get internal injuries,” Hannah said. I smiled. A few weeks ago, Hannah was some lazy college dropout who didn’t want to do anything and now she was in full mum-mode, making things happen. She seemed to have matured overnight.
“You were going to tell me something about the town,” I reminded her. If I was going to be safe in Artheford, I needed to know everything.
“I never found time. I’ll have a talk with all of you on what you can and can’t do around here.”
“This town is very weird,” Zach said.
“I agree,” I said, patting his back.
Emmett seemed to be the only person enjoying the town.
The doctors found nothing wrong with Zach. As for me, I had to have a minor surgery to remove part of a thorn that had lodged itself in my leg. I ended up limping on my third day in town. If I had a choice in the matter, I would have left the town immediately. But first, I needed to figure out what was going on. I wanted to leave but not without answers. There was something mysterious about the town and I knew that if I left without finding out, I would always wonder what it was.We settled in well at home. Hannah liked what we had done with the little space provided to us. We had managed to find a place for everything we had carried with us and made sure to organize them neatly. I knew that sooner or later, the organization would crumble and everything would go back to being a mess. When my siblings started looking around for their stuff, they would put everything in disarray.On the third day of arrival, a letter arrived. It was addressed the Colman children. At any other time, I wo
“What does it say?” I asked Hannah, unable to take the suspense anymore. Hannah glanced up and turned her eyes back to the letter in her hand. She continued to peruse through it before sighing.“It says a lot,” she said and handed the letter to Emmett who was next to her.“Give it to me,” I told Emmett who was just holding it. He gave it to me without resisting. Zach was chewing food while staring at us. I was surprised he had not yet started bombarding us with questions.“Should I read it out loud?” I asked Hannah, throwing a glance at the youngest member of our family. I needed to know if there was any information in the letter that was not appropriate for him.Dear Hannah, Emilia, Emmett and Zach. I hope you’re well, adjusting and moving on from the terrible things that have happened to you. I know this is a very tough time and I don’t want to make it harder but there are things I cannot keep from you because you deserve to know them in order to be safe.On the other hand, there
By the time we reached outside, some of the other residents had gathered near the protestors who were chanting, “Do not reopen”. As we walked towards them, Emmett and Zach decided to go and stand near the residents while Hannah and I went to face the protesting group.Even as we approached, they continued to chant, their lips moving in sync. The chanting grew louder when we stood right in front of them. There was a woman with huge dreadlocks wearing a black t-shirt with a huge drawing of a skull and crossbones at the front. She seemed to be the leader.Hannah and I remained silent, waiting for them to stop so that we could have a decent conversation. But they never stopped. When I had heard enough, I yelled. “STOP.”Suddenly, the group became silent and stared at us in anticipation. The woman with dreadlocks stepped forward. She was very tall and big boned. Those characteristics made her very much intimidating but I knew she would not dare to try anything in front of so many people.
Hannah and I watched as Bradley walked towards us in calm, collected strides. His frame, covered in black garments, looked taller than before. My heart rate was slowly skyrocketing as I watched the hottest man I knew head towards me. I had fantasized about running into him and my chance had arrived.“Who are you and what are you doing in our home?” He asked.“I believe you already know who we are,” I said. We were the newest family to move into the town and he had seen us on that first day at the resort. Surely, Mr. Morgenstern had told him about us.“Sorry about my sister,” Hannah said. “We haven’t met. My name is Hannah Colman. Your father and I spoke yesterday and he agreed to let us have some flowers from your garden, with the help of the florist who will be arriving soon.”“Okay,” he said and walked away.“Rude,” I said.“Not more than you,” Hannah lashed back.I rolled my eyes. “If Mr. Morgenstern is his father, why is his name Lightwood?”“He’s adopted,” Hannah informed me.“Oh
We returned to the resort and found Emmett and Zach lounging on a bench on the balcony of the ground floor. Zach was playing a game on Emmett’s phone while the latter was looking through some house plans.We passed them without a word and made our way to the flower garden where Hannah started to sort through the soil she had dug up the previous day.“We have to get rid of anything that is not soil,” she told me as she collected grass stems and put them in a growing pile. “We get rid of all the rubbish and grass residue. Once everything is gone, we shall begin planting.After watching her for a few seconds, I grabbed a pair of black gloves, squatted down and started removing everything that was not soil. Hannah was doing it without the gloves but I thought gardening barehanded was not healthy. In science class, I had learnt of several microorganisms and germs. I was sure the soil contained most of those.The work was going fairly well until I saw an earth worm. I screamed out loud befo
A few minutes later, I saw Leon coming out of the forest. He had changed into purple overalls and seemed to be in high spirits. I could swear he was even singing under his breath. “Hey Emilia,” he said as he passed by me. I barely glanced at him. After everything that had just happened to me, I was sure Hannah was giving the threats from the locals less attention than they deserved. This was gravely serious and I was not going to let her ignore it anymore. I had been a few feet away from an animal that could have erased me off the world. I knew that Zach could not tolerate another loss in the family, especially that soon after another. Hannah was going to have to listen.Speak of the devil and it appears.“Hey you,” she said, appearing in my view. “I’m hungry. The workers are going for lunch so I guess we need a lunch break too. Why do look like you just saw a ghost?”She pulled out a hander kerchief. “Here, wipe off that sweat. Have you been running in the forest?”I refused her ha
Hannah and I did not talk much for the rest of the day. After lunch, she dropped me at home and returned to the resort alone. To avoid the negative thoughts, I decided to try and bake some cookies by following a recipe book. I ended up making a mess of things but the cookies turned out to be pretty decent. The extra sugar I put in them made them eatable. Otherwise, there was not much to them. Zach actually loved them. Emmett said he was not going to risk upsetting his taste buds and stomach while Hannah acted like they did not exist.We all returned to the resort the next day. Hannah dropped us there and left, claiming she had a meeting with Arthforde high school’s principal to get us vacancies. She did not forget to warn us about going to the forest. I had a feeling that would not be listened to because when I had told my brothers the story, they had seemed to be filled with curiosity.“I want to see the big bad wolf,” Zach had said. “I don’t think it will bite me either.”“No one is
It seemed Emmett had not been expecting Zach to turn down his offer for an adventure in the dangerous forest. His skin turned red in anger.“Okay, I will go there by myself.” He said and started walking towards it. I relaxed when I saw Leon coming out of the forest in black shorts and a black shirt. My smile faded when I realised that it meant Emmett was safe but Zach and I were in danger. How many of the workers were like Leon? Was everything I had seen real?It was as if Leon had also known that I had seen him because he walked by u without making eye contact. I decided to wait for Hannah to return before confronting him. Knowing the people of that town they would rather kill foreigners than their own, regardless of who was wrong really scared me.Zach and I played a game he liked as we waited for Hannah to return. When she took too long, I started to get worried. I had grown suspicions of everyone around me, expecting them to suddenly turn into animals and devour us.“Do you think