All Chapters of The Whispers in the Woods: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

I hated that he had such a great ability to get under my skin. It made no difference. I might have wanted to stay with him for so many reasons, but there were even more reasons to leave. For one, my parents still didn’t know where I was or even if I was alive. I needed to speak to them. It wasn’t like Brodie was stopping me from doing that, but I knew if I spoke to them, it would break me. They would want to know where I was and I would want to tell them. I couldn’t do that, so it was safer to not get in touch until I could tell them everything.I headed for the stairs. I knew he wouldn’t be able to stop me, but I also knew it wouldn’t stop him from trying. He grabbed my upper arm and forced me to halt my climb. I turned to him and I knew there was nothing but hate in my eyes. I summoned every ounce of hate for everything he had done just to hurt him. If it worked, he showed no indication. “We need to talk about what happened before. Even if you’re going through with this sui

I pulled the phone from my ear and just stared at it, the little clock ticking on. I could hear her faintly repeating her words with increasing desperation. I looked at Brodie and he squeezed my shoulder and nodded at me. I took a deep breath and brought the phone back to my ear. “Mum, it’s me.” The sigh of relief was so loud and only made me feel worse because I knew I was about to shatter any hopes she had that I was coming home.“Esme, where are you? Are you okay? We’ve been worried sick…”“What the hell are you playing at?” It was my dad and the anger he emulated made me want to throw the phone away and hide under the covers. “Are you listening to me? Your mother had been sick with worry.” It wasn’t as though I needed him to tell me. I already knew, and I already felt beyond guilty, even if it wasn’t strictly speaking my fault.“I’m sorry. That’s not what I wanted.” I whispered the words into the phone. My dad was regularly angry with me, but I thought relie

As we walked into the woods, I kept my head down. I was convinced someone would see us. It seemed silly to risk everything for hunting. I couldn’t see how I would be able to relax enough to do anything other than stand there staring at the ground while we were so close to the camp. I didn’t like being there, but I did like being anywhere with Brodie. Things seemed to be looking up, and I wasn’t ready to declare battle on them all. Once we did, we would both be on edge until it was all over and I wasn’t ready to live like that. Not to mention, I needed to get plenty more training done before any declarations of war.“Have you worked out how fast you are yet?” He asked me out of the blue as we were walking. I couldn’t help but think he was trying to change the direction of my thoughts.“Nope, you kidnapped me before I got the chance.” I joked back, looking up at him for a moment, before returning my eyes to the ground.“I like to think of it more like liberating,

As soon as I was back in the basement and uncuffed, he left to deal with business. I sat and brooded about the deer I had killed and continued to hate myself for killing Bambi, but at least it wasn’t Brodie. I pulled my laptop out and started it up. Feeling particularly impatient as it took its time turning on and booting up. Heading straight for my emails. I wanted to send something to my mum without my dad being able to interrupt me. Hoping to try to explain at least a little. I spotted the email from Flint but decided to wait until afterwards to open it.Mum,I know you and Dad don’t understand. I didn’t expect you to. I am safe, I promise. I need you to stay away from Cassie’s dad. He’s not the good guy you think he is. I lied before, I am with Pip. I know you don’t trust him, but he has had so many opportunities to harm me and has done nothing but protect me over and over again. I’m still training. I can heal, I healed Pip. I’m pretty

I just sat there looking down on the situation and just prayed Brodie didn’t arrive too quickly. I knew him well enough to know that once he did, he would find me out, rather than heading towards the house. I looked into my dad’s eyes, but all there was in them was confusion. Not that it was surprising. His daughter had scarpered from him as though he were the enemy. “What are you doing out here?”“I’ve been coming out each morning and looking for any sign of you. I thought you might have been close by for safety. I must admit, I didn’t expect to find you, let alone for you to drop from the sky.” It hurt that I was surprised he cared enough to be out looking for me.“I’m not staying anywhere near here, but I came to talk to Mum.” I didn’t really know what else to say.“She will be relieved to see you.” I might have trusted him more if he had been full of rage and demanded that I go home. Instead, he was completely calm, and I felt like he was trying to lure me i