Never Alone

Eden packed lightly but deliberately, stripping her life down to the essentials. Map, water, food, tent, clothes, sleeping bag, travel stove. She folded each item with careful and delicate hands, as though the organisation of this simple packing could keep the pieces of her broken heart from falling to the floor. She had gone through the entire house

(or what was left of it) grabbing everything that was Ben's, a shirt from the washing basket, a bottle of aftershave and their photo album, all went into a black bin bag. She didn't want to come home to reminders. it was time to take back her life, starting with this trip.

At the very last moment, she added her diary, its cover worn and its pages cramped with untidy, restless handwriting. It was full of dreams mostly, but some deep impulse told her she couldn't leave without it.

She stood holding the diary in her hand trying to find space for it in her already overstretched bag... She had purchased this Diary when the dreams started, the first had come on the night of her 21st birthday. A silhouette moving at the periphery of her vision, tall and for boarding, neither man nor beast. Shadows clung to him like a second skin, coils of black smoke rolling over his frame, his outline never quite going into focus, always moving, like he was a part of the shadows himself. Sometimes, she swore the shape had eyes, deep crimson eyes, like they were the very heart of a raging fire. Watchful of her every move, almost tender in their presentation. A couple of times, when she had awoken from one of these dreams she had thought she heard a voice, low and rough, almost a growl threading through her consciousness like a warm breeze, but she could never remember what the voice had said.

She had told herself time and time again that they were just dreams, but she could never bring herself to speak to Ben, or anyone about them, something told her not to. But these dreams had presented themselves to her at least once a week since the first one.. And then the foundations of her world had fallen apart and her future was suddenly a mystery, since then Eden had these dreams every single night, over the last few days she was sure she had seen this thing, this shadow man and those eyes in her waking hours too, just out of sight, and implanted into the core of her being was a soul deep feeling, he was real... he was out there.

Waiting for something.

Waiting for her.

A sharp knock on the door broke her out of her musings and startled her, she hastily shoved her diary and 2 spare pens in her back and zipped it closed, hurrying to answer the door.

She opened it to find someone she really did not want to see.

''Hey'' Ava said sheepishly, eyes downcast like a guilty child.

''I-I'm here to tell you the truth, about me and Ben"

"I don't care, I don't want to hear it" Eden replied mechanically

"Whatever happened, happened, you made your choice and so did Ben, now if you don't mind, I'm busy packing"

"Packing?" "Where are you going? Are you moving?, Because of what we did?" Tears began brimming in her sisters eyes but Eden felt nothing but the icy numbness that had flowed through her veins since the day she found her Fiancee at Ava's flat.

"No. I'm going hiking" Eden didn't know why she carried on the conversation but she knew she needed to let at least one person know where she was going, going on a solo hike without telling anyone was just reckless and that wasn't the type of person she was.

"The Mystic Mountains?, I thought you had finally given up your obsession with that place years ago" Ava said, rolling her eyes slightly and stopping herself, as if she suddenly remembered why she was there and what she had done.

"And I'd thought you'd given up your obsession with 'borrowing' my things when we were teenagers but clearly not" Eden admonished and slammed the door in her face, she locked the door and walked back into the other room to finalise her preparations.

She took a deep breath and tried to drive her sister out of her mind, that she could come and act like that after what she had done was truly astonishing to Eden, she couldn't believe the audacity.

'Obsession' That's what she had called it, The Mystic Mountains were always Edens happy place, she had found it by accident, wanting a simple nature trail to photograph one day, she had been in a photography class at college and had received an assignment for a nature portfolio, she had googled local trails and found one 6 miles down the road. When she arrived she was overwhelmed with the beauty and serenity of it. she had been so mesmerised that she didn't take a single photo, she had just walked... She had gone back at least once a month to decompress and regain her sense of peace, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes a few days. Until she met Ben, he wasn't an outdoorsy person and always said he was uncomfortable with her going alone, so she hadn't been for 3 years. And the pull of the mountains only grew stronger with each passing day, like invisible threads wrapped around her core and tugging her towards them. She had resisted, distracted herself with work and life and wedding planning and promises of a happy future, but all of that was gone now. The betrayal had cut her loose from everything, except from that place, her place. There was nothing left holding her from her souls destination.

Eden grabbed up her pack and headed towards the door, unlocking and relocking it as she left, she placed her key in the fake rock by the door and walked purposely away, not looking back. She put her bag in her car and got into the driver's seat, she wished she still lived close but it would be an hour before she arrived at her destination, she stopped for coffee at her favourite shop, trying hard not to remember the last time she had gone there. Coffee in hand and the open road Infront of her, she drove, mile after mile she shed the weight of her life, carrying only the heartbreak, her anger and the promise of the Mystic Mountains ahead.

The journey was long, but she didn't feel alone.

She never felt alone anymore.

The feeling wasn't the usual paranoia she would get on a badly lit street late at night, or when walking upstairs when all the lights are off, it was heavier, somehow more intimate, like the penetration of eyes into the back of her head, like she really wasn't alone, Sometimes she swore she could feel warm breath caressing the nape of her neck, or that she heard a low murmur with the wind.

Thinking about it, it really should have frightened her. But for some reason it didn't. The feeling of being watched, of being followed was somehow familiar, almost inevitable.

The hour long drive passed surprisingly quickly, the jagged outlines of the Mountains drawing closer, the familiar turn off for the small patch of dirt where cars could be parked, although she had never seen a car parked here, or indeed another person here altogether.

She turned off the ignition and got out of the car, throwing her pack over her shoulders and fastening the straps to keep it steady, it was midday, the sun at peak in the sky, a cloudless and perfect day, She began walking towards the gap in the trees, slowly at first but unconsciously picking up the pace as the anticipation grew to see the place she hadn't seen for so long.

And then, finally, the forest opened Infront of her eyes.

The trailhead almost yawned at the base of the Mystic Mountains, marked by a splintered wooden sign half concealed by moss. Beyond it, the trees stood tall and silent,their branches twisting upwards like skeletal arms clawing at the perfect sky, the darkness behind them that never seemed to lift.

Eden stopped at the threshold, taking a deep, cleansing breath, with the earch crumbling under her boots. She pulled her map from her pocket unfolded it and traced the dotted line that showed the three day loop she had chosen for this particular visit with her fingertip.

The pull had become nearly unbearable now, thrumming and pulsating almost like a second heartbeat. She knew, without a doubt, this was where she was meant to be.

Eden took another deep breath, tasting the Mountain air on her tongue and put one foot forward.. This, She thought was where her life would truly begin.