The Pocket Dimension

Chapter 6: Sarah

Chapter 6: Sarah

At the soft clink of the cabin door, Sarah turned from where she had been studying the dusty hearth to John as he came in, his confident posture filling the entry. For a moment, she marveled at him. The way he moved and carried himself seemed to speak to her in a way she wasn't sure she was ready to understand yet.

John coughed, a playful light in his eyes as he caught her staring not-so-subtly. Heat crept up Sarah's cheeks and she ducked her head, embarrassment coating her throat.

"I've been thinking about the cabin." She blurted, trying like hell to put her thoughts back together.

"Oh?" John mused, a faint smile ghosting his lips, probably at her stumbling.

"If we are the only ones here, why is this cabin here? Yes, we could argue that the forest made it for us, but the dust and pictures seem to suggest it's been here awhile. Do you think that means there are, or were, others here?" Sarah thoughts tumbled out, though embarrassed, the excitement of what this cabin might mean had her brain working at breakneck speed.

Though their original plan had been to find a way out, Sarah was not sure that was what she wanted anymore. Though she didn't dare say that to John. The peace they had found in this strange realm had fallen over her like a warm blanket, beckoning her to stay in it's safety.

"That's a good point. I'm not sure. I imagine the forest could have made it to look old intentionally, though I don't see any point in that. What have you found so far?" John shrugged off his coat and hung it on the ornate iron hook that sat embedded in the log wall to the right of the cabin door. Sarah turned back to the pile she had accumulated on the wood floor before the great hearth.

"I've been looking for anything to suggest someone plans to return. We don't want to steal away in someone's summer home, after all." She said, smiling sheepishly at him. Something that Sarah had always appreciated about John is that he let her mind work. Rabbit holes and all, he seemed to always be willing to let her chase those wild thoughts that everyone else in her life had always written off.

Sarah continued on as John sat beside her on the dusty wooden floor. "All that I have found are these photos. They are as dusty as everything else, but they show two men and a woman. See this one here," she passed him one framed photo that showed three people looking to be in their late 20s standing in front of the cabin with their arms slung over each other's shoulders and lazy smiles painted on peaceful faces. "It's some variation of those three in the other pictures as well. Based on their clothes, I'd say they were here some time in the 90s. But if that's the case, they haven't returned in nearly thirty years." Sarah's words stopped short as she realized what that might mean.

John, as if reading her own thoughts, sat up straight. "So either they found a way out, left for a better home, or... something happened to them." His voice lowered slightly at the implication that, in this seemingly peaceful realm, there might be a danger lurking.

"Maybe we should be a bit more careful, just to play it safe." Sarah's voice was barely more than a whisper as her thoughts flew. If this realm was capable of producing buildings and campsites from nothing, what evil could it also manifest?

"What should we do then?" John's gaze was steady as he met her eyes, a promise of the safety he had always held for her bearing itself as if in offering to her fear. Instantly, it quieted her mind and steeled her own resolve.

Again Sarah picked up the framed photo that John had set back into the pile, pointing a finger to the background of the picture.

"I think we need to explore the cabin more in the daylight and see if we can find any clues as to what happened to them. If you look, there's a window at the top of the cabin in this picture. Yet I have looked everywhere and can't seem to find any sort of attic door. And the window is gone when looking from outside. As if it was sealed off. I want to check it out tomorrow and see if there is an access point that I missed in the dark." She sighed in irritation as the cold crept into her bones. Sarah had been wondering how long it would take for this realm to give up on fixing her broken body.