It
was a dark and storm night. Lightning flashed across the skies illuminating
everything around her for a moment or two. Not long enough that she could see
great distances ahead but long enough so that she didn't walk smack dab into a
tree. Between the flashes she was virtually blind. The night was so overcast,
there were no stars shining, no moon to illuminate her way, no street lights
aglow. That was probably due to the fact that she was truding through the
underbrush of a densely packed woods. Another reason she had no light was
because her flashlight had quit working about a 1/4 mile ago when she had
fallen head over heels down the side of the "mountain". Okay,
so it wasn't really a mountain, but it sure as heck felt like one as she was
crashing down it grasping for anything to slow her fall. With a deep sigh
she trudged on hands outstretched ahead of her muttering under her breath about
stupid deer.
Two
hours earlier:
Taking
one last look to make sure that her car wouldn't be seen from the road, she
added a few more branches to the hook of the car. Hopefully anyone passing this
way would just think it was a pile of brush and not look bother to look any
further and see her dirt brown second hand beater car. She decided to
leave her gear in the car until she was able to hike down to the cabin and make
sure all was clear. She didn't want to stumble into any situation that she was
unprepared for. The only thing she grabbed from car was her flashlight,
which she shouldn't need because it was only a 2 mile hike down a dirt road. It
was still hours from sunset. She could easily make it to the cabin and have a
look around and make it back to the car for her stuff. The other item she
grabbed was the napkin that had the hand-drawn directions she had received from
the waitress at the diner. Abbie didn't know these parts so she had casually
mentioned to the waitress, "Meg" that she was out hiking and
had been given the recommendation from friends that Harper Hollow had some good
trails. Meg was nice enough to provide Abbie with a map that she quickly jotted
on the back of a paper dinner napkin. The very napkin that was even now in her
right hand as she started heading north down the dirt road in the direction of
"No Access" trail that Meg had warned her not to take because it was
off limits to hikers. Problem is that was exactly where Abbie wanted to
go. At the end of that no access trail was a old hunting cabin that she planned
on staying at for awhile until she figured out what she could do to get herself
out of the situation she was in. She didn't know how long it would take but she
knew that she needed help, but she needed safetly and secrecy first.
Setting
off down the first leg of the hike she was taking it easy. Looking around
her, enjoying the scenery. It really was beautiful out here. Abbie had always
loved early spring. The way everything was so lush and new feeling. The leaves
of the trees more gorgeous, birds chirped in the branches, flowers bloomed
every where they could take root, bunnies scampered through the fields
and...... angry does blocking your path bleated at you to back
off!! What the heck!! Abbie hadn't been paying attention to the
road ahead of her and missed the female deer and her two fawns trudging across
the path ahead of her, she had just blindly trudged on aimlessly almost walking
directly into the grazing mama deer. That was until the doe snorted angrily to
warn Abbie off while blocking her passage that would bring her too close to the
calves that were shakily hiding behind their mother frozen in spot. Abbie
stopped abruptly and raised her hands in part surrender and part calming motion
to show the mama deer that she was not a threat and had no interest in her
offspring. Backing slowly toward the side of the road she quietly retreated
from the doe letting her know she meant no harm. Apparently the deer
didn't believe she wasn't a threat because instead of scampering off with her
babies, she started advancing on Abbie grunting menacingly. Who knew that deer
could grunt?? Well Abbie did now! She continued backing slowing , no
making eye contact with the doe. She could feel the edge of the road at her
heels and tree limbs jabbing her in the back. Suddenly the doe reared up and
jumped toward Abbie with one last snort. Abbie screamed and jumped back .. into
nothing... No road, no brush, just air. That is when she started falling
down the mountain. Rolling like a run away boulder. Crashing through the
underbrush. Snagging her clothes and hair on twigs and trees before finally crashing
into the bottom of ravine.
aligurl75
Abbie
wondered what the doe thought of her as her body tumbled down the....whatever
and wherever she was. She was grateful for the intermitent flashes of
lightening that helped her see where she was and what was around her.
Lots of twigs and leaves was about it. And they were poking her and
probably cutting into her, as the dirt was getting into her mouth.
Blah! But she really didn't have time or energy to think about
that. Everything was happening so fast! Now that she had stopped rolling
and was trudging along on her knees, she just hoped she'd reach safety soon
enough. Wasn't the cabin up ahead. She sure hoped so. It was
an old hunting cabin, but it was sure to still have quite a bit of the stuff
she needed to survive and bandage up these cuts and bruises. She could
feel warm blood oozing from her elbow. Was it a deep cut? Hopefully
not too bad! Oh well, her right arm hurt, but at least it wasn't broken.
--ScrapLady
(Mary Beth Farley)
5/9/2016
Standing up and brushing all the twigs and brushes off
of her clothes and running her fingrs through her hair, she started to access
the damage. She wasn't really THAT hurt, more bruised and embarressed. Thank
goodness no one else was out here in the middle of nowhere to bare witness to
her tumble. The cut on her arm had already stopped bleeding but she knew that
she better get a move on so she could get it cleaned up and bandaged so infection
didn't set in. Coming from where she did, when she did, she didn't have
the same immune system that would support anyone else. She still couldn't
believe that her first taste of nature had literally been a TASTE! Dirt did not
taste good. She was happy to put that behind her. Now she just needed to figure
out where she was and in which direction she needed to head. Abbie reached up
to grab the necklace around her neck and found it missing. Instantly she began
to panic! No! She couldn't lose that necklace. It was her ticket home. Without
it she was literally lost. Lost forever and unable to ever return to a home.
She frantically look aroud searching for the gold chain. It must have fallen
off when she was tumbling down the slope. She looked on the ground around her
feet. Getting back onto her hands and knees she rifled through the dead leaves
and detritis where she had landed. Suddenly another flash lightning lit the sky
around her and she saw a metallic reflection out of the corner of her eye.
Before she could pinpoint the location, she was surrounded by darkness again.
Abbie slowly got to her feet trying to calm herself by taking deep
breaths. She patiently waited in the dark waiting for the next flash of light.
Her eyes slowly scanning back and forth searching for that shimmer. A flash of
light. THERE.. there it was! Half way up the slope hooked on a tree root
jutting from the ground. She focused her gaze on the necklace so that she
wouldn't lose it again and slowly made her way back up the slope towards the
prize. She untangled the chain carefully from the root and realized that the
clasp of the necklace had been broken when it was torn from her neck. That was
okay. It wasn't the chain that was important, it was the locket that was still
dangling from the chain that mattered. She ran her nail along the side of the
locket until she found the spring latch that opened the front of the piece but
quickly realized that it was too dark to ascertain that everything was
undamaged within. She looked around her and realized that she was closer to the
top of the slope then she had initially realized. It would be easier to make
her way back up then to go back down. At least if she made it back to the road
she would have an easier time finding the cabin.
Abbie made her way back up the side of the steep hill.
Pushing her way through the brush at the top she gasped out loud at what she
saw.
"Oh no, oh God no!" the road at the top of the
slope had been replaced with a hard macadem surface. It was no longer a dirt
trail through a hiking area. The surface under her feet was hard, smooth and
well maintained. She must have shifted while falling down the hill
without even realized it. The question now was when was she and could she still
go ahead with her previous plan of hiding out? Who knew if she would still find
the hunting cabin at the end of this road. As lightning flashed above her
it finally brought the rain with it this time. She was soaked to the bone
in moments and starting to shiver. Deciding that she had no choice but to
proceed as previously planned she shoved the locket into her pocket to
hopefully protect it from the storm as she started jogging down the road. She
needed to move fast but with caution since she didn't know now what she was
going to find.
Twenty minutes later she rounded a bend in the road and
was totally taken by surprise. Where she had been expecting an old abandoned
hunting cabin she found a large log home with windows ablaze with light like a
beacon in a dark night. She slowed to a walk and slowly approached the log
house. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. It almost took her breath away.
It was the house she had always dreamed of living in. A story and a half log
structure nestled into the surrounding woods making it feel like it belonged
there. Like it had grown from the woods. Shiny timbers bigger then she had ever
seen, a dark charcoal gray shaker tile roof, hunter green shutters lining the
sides of most windows... and windows.. so many wonderful multi-paned windows.
Windows ran the whole length of the porch shining forth with their inner light.
Abruptly Abbie halted in her tracks. There was someone on the porch. She wasn't
expecting that, but it shouldn't have surprised her with the house being so
lit. It made sense that someone actually lived in the home. She couldn't
make out the person on the porch, they were standing in fron of one of the
windows so all she could make out was a shadow form. But she could tell by the
size of the shadow that it was a man. She started to slowly retreat back into
the woods behind her when the man caught sight of her.
"Hey there! Are you okay, do you need help?"
she heard his deep voice reverberate across the distance between them. He
started to come toward Abbie, moving from the shadows of the porch into the
darkness of the night. Just as Abbie turned back to tell him that she was okay
and just had gotten lost, the sky lit with lightning and it momentarily
illuminated the man's face.
"Ethan!" she gasped out. He was here in this
now. She was frozen to the spot she stood. Time stood still for a moment. Her
thoughts circled crazily in her head. It was him, she had accidentally found
him. Abbie's heart pounded in her chest, her head was spinning. Oh no, she was
going to pass out. She could feel the world narrowing in her vision. Abbie
reached out a hand toward Ethan as she whispered his name. The last thing she
saw before she passed out was Ethan running toward her. Then there was
only darkness.
-aligurl75
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