The Bewitching - Midsummer Aine - Book 2

Chapter 24 - The Wendigo's Secret

Dantes wiped the sweat from his furrowed brow. He had completely lost track of how long he had been buried in the caves deep underground. His sole purpose was to escape this prison and rescue his friends to rescue Elyssa. This thought drove him to work nonstop, to push through the pain and exhaustion his body had felt for days and weeks on end. It gave him purpose, a purpose he had not felt for centuries.

He glanced at the Wendigo who had been working beside him. They had gone from barely speaking, to almost arguing, and back to barely speaking again. Yet the words said during that short burst of what almost amounted to a conversation had stuck in the back of Dantes’ mind. The only thing he could think of was that the words bothered him because they contained a hint of truth he wanted to ignore.

Who was he kidding. It wasn’t just a hint of truth. The Wendigo had basically hit the nail on the head. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, no matter how much he hated the truth, he was still madly in love with Elyssa. And he hated it. He hated the fact that someone who had hurt him so deeply still consumed his thoughts on a daily basis. He hated that he couldn’t forget her with the ease she showed when she removed herself from his life centuries ago.

That was the silly thing about love that bothered him. Logic would dictate that someone who disappeared without giving it a second thought likely wasn’t worth a thought in return. Life changes, people and their perspectives change, and all that matters is in the present for the past has already played out. It was set in stone and unchangeable. To put the slightest bit of energy into even just the thought, particularly of someone from years in the past, would seem unreasonable at the least, and illogical at most.

Yet the human heart didn’t quite see things in this logical manner. It often reminisced of the past, its failures and successes, the moments it held dear and those it feared. It had hopes and dreams of the future, things that had not, and in all probability, would not happen. These thoughts brought with them a range of emotions, from happiness to anger and everything in between. They were draining in so many ways, and took away from energy that could be spent in the present on more fruitful experiences.

Of all the emotions the heart clung to, worst of all was that of love. The heart yearned for love in such a way that defied any form of logic. The want of humans to be accepted, to be cared about, and to often times invest so much energy in those that didn’t return such feelings. To those on the outside, it would appear as if one who was heartbroken enjoyed the pain in an almost masochistic way.

Yet, there were so very few who could claim they had never yearned for someone who, whether through actions or words, had hurt them so terribly at some point in their lives. It was as if we were naturally drawn to those who held us in such little regard. Some of us broke those habits as we aged, and others continued them into their graves.

For many there would always be that one that stuck out in our minds, regardless of how much time had passed. A one who would pop into our thoughts from out of nowhere, and cause both the feeling of butterflies in the stomach and an immense anger and pain. It leant a certain truth to the saying that we sometimes wanted for what we could not have. It defied all logic and yet didn’t seem to care that it did.

“Is everything all right?” The Wendigo’s deep voice rose from out of nowhere, startling Dantes.

“...Uh, yeah. I umm....” He hadn’t realized that he had gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he had stopped working for a moment until the Wendigo interrupted.

“For someone who claims to not care for much of anything, you tend to brood quite a bit.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just another observation that I find quite strange.”

“And what happens to be so strange about it?” Dantes asked as he resumed removing boulders.