When Souls Collide

Chapter 1: Unwilling Goodbyes

Eliza

For as long as I can remember, I always felt called to the forests. The rustling trees and the babbling of nearby streams soothed the ache in my chest and among the whispering maples and soaring pines the longing which gripped my chest finally released. Being surrounded by nature was my reprieve from a world that never quite felt like home.

The relief was why I always looked forward to family trips to our cottage near Blackcreek, Ohio. What had started as a one-off family vacation one year, quickly became a tradition when my parents realized that the only time I truly seemed free was at our little plot of paradise. With each year, the little shack my parents bought in the forest slowly grew into a sprawling home. The first year was spent fixing the leaking roof and installing plumbing, the next saw rooms being repainted, and my mother buying new furniture to make the cabin feel more like our place. As I got older, we began to make new additions to it. New rooms, a garage, a tree house, it was everything I could have dreamed of. It was where I belonged.

Now at 21, the crushing reality was that I had no idea when I would be able to return. Having graduated college the past April, it was "time to join the real world" as my parents liked to say. That meant getting a job in the city they lived in, moving into my new apartment, and settling down with my long-term boyfriend, Jakob.

There was talk about selling the cabin. Mom and Dad had never really been much for the outdoors, only really coming because of the positive effect it had on me, and with my new stage of life, their interest in retaining the property was dwindling.

It was like Blackcreek knew the pain I was experiencing as I began the 2-mile walk back to my sanctuary. With each step I took towards what felt like impending doom, the sky above me darkened with clouds, threatening to drench me and anyone else with the misfortune to be outside when the storm finally broke. I turned my face to the sky as the first drops of water hit me, stretching my arms to embrace the outward expression of the devastation I felt. The sound of rain hitting the leaves, and the crack of thunder played like a symphony around me, pulling me deeper into my thoughts as my clothes became heavy with moisture.

I was so lost in my mind that I didn't even hear the quad approaching from behind me until the absolutely mouth-watering man riding it yelled out.

"Are you crazy? Do you not understand how dangerous it is for you to be standing in the middle of a forest during a storm? What the hell were you thinking standing here, are you asking lightning to strike you?"

I stood there staring at him, arms limp by my side. In all my years of coming to Blackcreek, I couldn't recall ever seeing him before, not that I frequently ventured into the town. Those eyes though, dark green and wild just like the forest surrounding me, sent shivers down my spine. Logically I knew I had never met him before, I couldn't have. But he shared the same warm sense of familiarity of the knight that haunted my dreams. As though my soul knew him, but my feeble human mind couldn't remember from where.

I snapped back to reality as his strong hand wrapped around my wrist.

"Are you fucking deaf? I told you we need to leave! Now where the fuck am I bringing you?"

My face flushed as I realized what I had been doing, what he had seen me doing. Heart racing, I began to fiddle with the loose string on the hem of my hoodie.

"I'm staying at the cabin on the hill, it's only a 20-minute walk from here, I'll be fine on the way back. Please, don't go out of your way for me-"

"Get on."

His demand sang through my body like a strike of lightning, heating me from the inside out. With unsteady legs, I clambered my way toward the waiting ATV, climbing on and scooting myself as far back as possible to make room for the man. With a sigh of frustration, he swung his leg over the seat in front of me, grabbed the handles, and settled himself into the seat.