The Owls Who Watch

Prologue: The Abandoned Church

The forest Eva found herself running through had always seemed so ominous down in the village she had just escaped. Deep down, she had always been afraid of what might lurk inside. 'Rumours are just rumours', is what she'd tell herself whenever shrieks and howls occurred in the dead of night, deep inside the forest.

It was when she found herself lost and sweating in the Redwoods that she finally admitted how much terror lurked within her. Not just from the forest, but from the patrollers in the village of Arumlily. Escapees received the worst punishment.

Despite the tarot deck in her bag, she never predicted ever entering this place, especially so late at night. A week ago, she would have found this entire predicament preposterous, from escaping from such a village to receiving the mysterious note which instructed her to meet the sender at an abandoned church deep within the Redwoods. The days leading up to her getaway felt surreal, so different from all the days spent locked within the village. Every day prior felt very repetitive. Yet when she was slipped that note in The Dark Lady, the week that followed was spent in curiosity and hope. She finally had a chance at attaining freedom – to see Adam again; the only family she ever knew. That was the only thing that kept her sane throughout life in Arumlily. The book titled 'An Ode to Imagination' was the last gift her lover ever gave her. But that was 3 years ago. Her only choice now was to run – to hope. She had already passed the point of no return.

The deeper she ventured, the thicker the overhead became – obscuring both the moonlight and her sense of direction. When the darkness became too much to navigate through, Eva stopped and sat upon a fallen tree, pushed back her blonde ponytail, dabbed the sweat from her forehead and eyes with a tissue, then took out her penultimate match to desperately read over the note's instructions again.

"Head directly northwest from The Dark Lady and enter the Redwoods. Continue north and follow the cairns until you hear the river, follow it downhill and cross the bridge. Traverse the graveyard and knock upon the blue door in the depths of the abandoned church. We avidly await our unification. Stay safe. Hope is far from lost".

It was only when Eva sat in silence and stabilised her breathing that she heard the water flowing to her right. Relief washed over her, but it wasn't enough to quell her racing heartbeat. There was too much uncertainty in this whole situation. If she were to be caught by Arumlily's patrollers, or if this were all some elaborate setup, things would end terribly for her. On numerous occasions, Eva succeeded in seducing the patrollers to receive more lenient punishments. She was never frightened of the patrollers, seeing them as indolent stooges. Now, however, she knew now what they were capable of. She was terrified. Rising, she brushed away some of the twigs and nettle from her jeans and denim jacket and ventured into the darkness.

It wasn't long before she could see the river. An old, rusted fence protected travellers from falling down the steep, rocky hill and into the flowing stream. Down below, the stream reflected the moonlight that breached the open area above her. I'm walking down a path, she realised, I'm making progress at least.

The trees began to clear out now, revealing more light from the full moon, a bittersweet sight. Both the forest and the village below enjoyed a clearer atmosphere from the smog-infested cities of the lowlands of Scotland. If she was going to miss one thing from that place, it would be the clean air.

Eva walked downhill, a welcome change from running upwards, carefully avoiding crooked, half-buried steps. When she reached the bottom of the hill, she came across a large bridge stretching all the way from one side of the forest to another, hills filled with trees descended from both sides until they met the river at the centre. Mustering her failing courage, Eva walked across the bridge, trying not to peek down past the blue metal bars. Hope is far from lost, she reassured herself, repeating the final sentence from the note.