Forest Eyes

Chapter 30 We Will Be Prepared

I'm stuck. I'm stuck in that state of neither being fully awake or fully asleep. I remember where I am but it's as if weights are holding down my eyelids. I can feel the chair I'm sitting in as it digs into my back, and the air around me getting cooler and cooler. Finally I wretch my eyelids open.

The room is cascaded in darkness, a few streams of light are just beginning to touch Samantha's walls. She, is still asleep, those intense irises probably still illuminated under her eyelids. Her chest rises and falls silently, her matted hair almost creating a sort of halo around her head. I can feel the stiffness in my joints as I sit forward, almost zombie like. As I stand, I hear the popping of my spine and it feels almost heavenly, relieving the tension that I'm guessing was there all night. I look at Samantha her sleeping figure looks so peaceful. She's not going to wake up anytime soon, and this is probably the safest place she could be right now. I lean down to kiss her lightly on the lips. "Don't worry." I whisper to her. "I'll be back." I turn around and almost silently walk out of the room.

As soon as I exit Samantha's room a wave of heat hits me, and my cold skin tingles at the abrupt temperature change. I look back at her door. She must of been the one making her room cold, not the cabin. To be honest it's freaking me out a bit, just like her eyes had done earlier. I shake off the weird feeling as best as I can and walk down the hallway towards the stairs. I sigh and begin to take the steps two at a time until my feet hit the bottom floor. Surveying around I spot Charlie standing out back in a sunroom overlooking the beach. I pass by the living room and the kitchen until I'm at its doors. I watch him as he breathes steady and even, before I enter.

Once the door closes soundlessly behind me it's like I'm sealed off from the rest of the world. Out here there's a lot more light from the rising sun then there is in any other part of the house, and all you can hear is the beating waves from the beach below.

Charlie is leaning one hand against the glass, the other on his hip as I come to stand beside him. He jumps a little when he sees me out of the corner of his left eye. "Sorry." I say quietly. He just nods his head silently, and then after a few moments he speaks. "You know, if I'd never of done what I did, my daughter would of had a wonderful mother, she'd of been happier, and she would of had a better life." "One that wasn't plagued by a revengeful witch that she ended up killing in the end." "I mean what kind of life is this?" He asks me, pain and regret spread through his face.

I shake my head at him. "It's not over yet." "Just because Lauren's dead doesn't mean we're out of danger quite yet, any of her "followers" could find us." "Until all of them are gone, I don't think we'll ever be safe, I don't think Samantha will ever be safe." Charlie nods solemnly at me. "So what do we do?" He asks me. I shake my head. "We train." "Not just Samantha, all of us."

"We need to get stronger, Samantha needs to get stronger." "You saw what she did, that energy." I say. "She needs to learn how to harness that." "Whatever that is." "I can only help her so much." "We need to find someone who can help us."

Samantha's father nods at me again, agreeing with the delectable "spread" that I have just laid out for him. I can tell he's not much for words, or at least not much for words at the moment. We both look out the windows seeing as though we have come to some sort of an agreement between us.

The ocean waves crash hard against the beach, forceful, intense, like Samantha's eyes, knocking out all the thoughts in my head, all the thoughts, except one,

Next time. When almost seemingly impossible odds are stacked against us, odds that this time, we just barely escaped,

WE WILL BE PREPARED.

THE END.