House of Fallen Trees

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Karen’s head snapped back on her neck, hard enough to cause pain as the muscles were pulled.

A vile smell assaulted her nostrils and her eyes opened, watering furiously. She shook her head, trying to get away from the bitter scent.

“I think she’s back,” a voice said.

She knew that voice. It belonged to a handsome dark man with kind eyes and bright straight teeth he flashed whenever he smiled, which was often.

Getting her eyes to focus was a challenge but as she blinked the tears away, the foul stench retreated and the handsome man’s face was inches from her own. She was not particularly surprised to see him smiling.

“Welcome back,” Saul said. “We thought we’d lost you for a minute there.”

Karen tried to speak, found her mouth was filled with what could only be moon dust, so dry it had never known moisture in all the time of its existence.

Looking around, she saw she was no longer in the office on the third floor of the house, but back in her own room, on the second floor, lying on the bed. Rory stood at the foot of the bed, watching her with tired eyes.

Saul sat beside her. He held a tiny object up to her face so she could see it. “Smelling salts,” he said. “We didn’t know what to do so we went through your stuff, figuring since you had the Benadryl you’d probably have something for fainting too. You are one prepared lady.”

She wanted to tell him she hadn’t fainted, that she’d only backed away from the world and had done it intentionally and didn’t appreciate being pulled forward again.

“Here, drink some water.” He held a bottle to her lips and tipped it until her mouth filled with the cool sweet liquid and washed away the desert dryness coating her tongue.

“You’ll probably want a shower soon,” Saul said, taking the bottle away and setting it on the night table. She remembered peeing herself and felt her face burn.

“What happened in there?” Rory asked.

Karen’s eyes darted to him and away again. She didn’t want to remember and talking about it would bring it all back to the surface. Instead of answering him, she asked, “How long have I been out?”

“About an hour,” Saul said.

“Why did you lock yourself in my office, Karen?” Rory wanted to know. “Were you looking for something?”

She glared at him. “I didn’t lock myself in your goddamn office.”

“Oh, you didn’t? Then why was it locked when Saul tried to get in?” Looking away, she made no response. “If I didn’t have the key,” he went on, “we would have had to break the door down.”

For the first time, she noticed the lights were on. “The electricity came back.”

“Yeah,” Saul said. “Not sure for how long though. The wind is really kicking up out there.”

Karen cocked her head, becoming aware of the loud gusts shaking the trees around the house. “I want to go home,” she said suddenly. The revelation irritated her. She had come to find out what happened to her brother and was just now discovering the price of the truth was too steep. She was a coward.

“I want to go home too,” Saul said.

“Yes.” Rory began pacing at the foot of the bed. “We all want to go home. It turns out we came here for fucking nothing.”

Karen didn’t want to deal with him any more, and the only way she could think to get rid of him was to announce that she wanted to bathe, which wasn’t a lie, but it would also mean being alone, which she definitely didn’t want.

“You want to tell us what happened in there?” Saul asked, also ignoring Rory’s outburst.

“No,” she said. “But I will anyway.” She closed her eyes, searching for a single grain of courage. A minute ticked by, the wind howling with rage and she said, “I saw Sean.”

Rory stopped his pacing and stared at her.

Quickly, she added, “Not the real Sean, but some…I don’t know…apparition of him I guess.”

“You’re saying you saw his ghost?” Rory asked, unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice.

“I guess. I don’t know. Maybe I saw what the house wanted me to see.”

Rolling his eyes, Rory tossed his hands into the air. “Here we go again.”

Saul said, “You’re not helping anything, Rory.”

“No? Well, that’s probably because I’m not trying to help anything. She’s basically accusing me of killing my partner of five years!”

“She is not!”

“Are you blind? That’s been her purpose all along! She came here already thinking I’d done something to Sean! Why can’t you see that?”

“That’s not true,” Karen said. “But you can believe whatever you want to believe.”

“Oh, you think I want to believe my partner’s sister thinks I’m a fucking murderer? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“She didn’t say that,” Saul said, standing up.

“She may as well have.”

“What the fuck is your problem, man?” Saul asked, stepping closer to Rory, fists clenched.

Karen saw where this was going and spoke up quickly. “I think I want that bath now,” she said. “Saul, would you mind staying in here while I take it?”

It took him a few seconds to stop staring down Rory, but when he did, he said, “Yeah, no problem. I won’t go anywhere.”

Karen got up and went to the bathroom, closing the door and praying those two didn’t start beating the crap out of each other. She ran the tub and stripped out of her damp, urine-smelling clothes, much more comfortable being alone now the lights were back on. But, judging by the sound of the wind, they wouldn’t remain on for much longer, so she had to make her bath a quick one.

With the water running, she couldn’t tell what the guys were saying in the bedroom, but she could hear them talking, which meant they weren’t shouting. That, at least, was a good sign.

She lowered herself into the tub and washed quickly, not wanting to be naked when the electricity failed again. She was in and out in five minutes, not bothering to wash her hair.

Breathing a sigh of relief once she’d toweled off and stepped into her robe, she opened the door just as a tremendous cracking sound came from outside.

Saul, alone in the room now, leapt from the bed, hand held up to her in a stop gesture.

“Tree falling,” he said, head cocked, listening.

What seemed like a long time later, a loud thud shook the house as Karen’s eyes widened in alarm. “Yep,” he said, as if she’d spoken. “Close by too.”

“Fuck,” she said.

He looked at her, vaguely amused. “It happens. We’re in the woods.”

“But why does it have to happen now?”

Saul went to the porthole, looked out. “It’ll be dawn soon. We can try hiking down out of here, but I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?”

“If it’ll be too dangerous. These winds must be at least sixty miles an hour, which is a pretty serious thing around here. Not to mention, it’s the first wind storm of the season.”

“So?”

“So, that means that a lot of branches will be coming down and, as you just heard, some trees too.”

“I don’t care about that,” she said impatiently. “I just want to get the hell out of here.”

Saul ran a hand over his stubbled cheeks. “You don’t get it. A tree falls on you, you’re dead.”

She scoffed. “I think I can get out of the way of a falling tree, Saul. You think I’d just stand there? Hell, I’ll run the entire way back to the truck if I have to.”

“It’s just not a good idea,” he said.

“And staying here is?”

Evidently thinking this conversation was just going in circles, he changed the subject. “Why don’t you tell me what you saw in Rory’s office?”

She shook her head. “I told you. I saw Sean.”

“You saw Sean?”

“Yes.”

“And what was he doing? Did he speak to you?”

She crossed the room and sat on the bed, pulling her robe tighter around her body. “No, he didn’t say anything.”

“Well, what was happening? What was he doing?”

She wanted to shout at him for badgering her, for forcing her to say things she didn’t want to say, but found she didn’t have the strength for yelling anymore. “I think…I think he was being raped.”

“Raped? By who?”

“By…himself.”

Saul raised his eyebrows. “How does that work?”

“Look, it’s what I saw, okay? Don’t ask me to explain it!”

“Okay, okay. Calm down.” He sat on the bed beside her. “It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, that’s all.”

“Does any of this make sense? Saul, in case you haven’t noticed, this is one fucked up house we’re in and I’m starting to wonder if we’re gonna make it out of here alive.”

Taken aback, Saul draped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t say that. Of course we’re gonna make it out alive.”

Karen made a face, clearly not believing him.

“Unless a tree falls on us, of course,” he joked.

She didn’t laugh. “I want to get out of here.”

“We will. As soon as the sun comes up.”

“You said it would be up soon. Let’s just leave now. We can travel a little ways in the dark and then the sun will be up and we’ll already be halfway there.” The longer she spoke, the more this plan sounded logical to her. “We can take flashlights. We’ll be fine!”

“I think it would probably be better if we just wait. Maybe get a little shuteye first. I know I could use it.”

She felt her heart sink. “For fuck’s sake, Saul. You can sleep when you get home!”

He sighed and it had to be the weariest sound she’d ever heard in her life. “It’s too dangerous,” he said firmly.

She scowled, crossed her arms like a petulant child. “Maybe I’ll just go by myself then.”

“You know I can’t let you do that.”

“You can’t let me do that? I’m sorry — did I miss the part where you’re in charge of what I do and don’t do?”

“I’m not going to keep arguing with you about this, Karen.” As if in agreement with him, a huge gust of wind slammed the house and what could only be a branch — a big one — crashed down on the roof. Karen flinched. Sympathetically, Saul said, “Keep in mind that we’re on the second floor and it sounded that loud. Imagine if we were upstairs.”

“Seems to me we might be safer outside,” she said dryly.

“Sure, until one of those things clocks you in the head. Then you won’t be able to fight with me any more.”

“Wouldn’t that be a shame.”