The cabin in the woods

Chapter 3

The Never ending Hunger

Day turns to night and light turns to dark..

Hunger turns to desperation and anger turns to guilt..

It had taken me the past year to get to grips with how things worked around town, and I dedicated my time and efforts into making some connections with others. Clutching onto my locket on my chest I had kept it safe for a long time, I keep it close at all times It's a reminder of why I keep going, why I have to keep moving forward. Despite Aden's distance from me he’s always not far from me, I sometimes catch him staring at me, even when I’m sleeping. Since being held responsible for me he’s kept an eye on me, always watching, making sure I don’t do anything stupid. The boss has made his appearance several times since our first encounter, the boys still crawl at his feet. I never kneel, my head stays high every time I see him, he detests me deep down I can just feel it. Although I don’t bow he knows I bring them good stuff when I steal it, so he just accepts it now. It wasn’t always like this though, he would beat me and still I would stand back up. “I bow to no man..” I said one day last spring, the boss jolted forward and slapped me across the face. “Kneel you swine!” aggressively hitting me again and again until I knocked his hand away, spitting out a broken tooth with some blood I stood back up and held my ground. “No matter how the wind howls..” he came swinging towards me again as I simply moved the side letting his hand hit the wall, he flinched and pulled his hand back in pain. “The mountain cannot bow to it..” he continued to argue with me and I said nothing after that, simply let the words I said sink in with him. “You can’t keep me here forever.. I will find my own way eventually..” I said as the shock and horror filled his face, “You will do no such thing Rayne.. I own you now and you will do as I say, I am your master.” he looked happy with himself as he stood more prominently with his arms crossed.

“Master? you are no Master of mine, you show no leadership nor power. You reek of piss and boss some kids about, that's no Master at all. You lack everything a master truly holds, your very existence disgusts me” Spitting at his feet I grabbed my small bag and started walking off. “Come on Aden we have work to do” he grovelled and shook his fist in anger. “You better bring something good back you ungrateful bitch” I heard his voice echo through the streets. Aden walked behind with hands in his pockets shaking his head, “How on earth did I get stuck with you knife ears..” he looked annoyed but a little too chilled out to be so calm about the situation. Normally Aden is the first to step in and put me in my place, not today, today I feel like we finally had a mutual understanding. “Ya know.. You shouldn’t keep pissin him off” his street slang came up again as he spoke, he pulled his cap down and tried to keep a cool face while talking with me. “I know but where's the fun in that” looking back to him with a little wink I punched his shoulder and we laughed together for the first time. “I should have took you when I had the chance” he punched me back and laughed knowing full well he’d never beat me fairly, Aden smiled properly for the first time and it was nice to see his grubby little smile and cheeky grin. “Stupid boy.. we have more concerning matters at hand you know.. like.. dinner?” shrugging as we reached the top of the alley together. We went on to find food and talk like normal human beings for once, to think it had happened months ago and we had started forming an unbreakable bond, one that would keep us together even through all the tough times.

As we traveled through the blustery winter cold me and Aden couldn’t find anything to eat, we had looked for days and days, even leaving town to search the woods for anything we could get our hands on. Unfortunately the wild had moved on further to the west and nothing was left here, we had been hungry for days and clean water was hard to come by. Watching Aden dithering and fading away concerned me greatly and I realized we had to find something soon or the cold winter would soon eat us alive, my fingers and toes had become numb and my face felt like it was about to drop off. Me and Aden had come a long way since the day we first met, we had also aged as well, puberty was starting to hit me and my body was going through changes. My clothes barely fit me anymore and chest had started growing, I don’t know if the others had realised but I felt my ears burning more frequently recently. I couldn’t help but feel paranoid as the others never really spoke to me much, Aden was the only one who actually talked to me and approached me at times. Struggling through the harsh winds of snow and roads of ice me and Aden forged our path and tried desperately hard to find something, as we carried on we spotted some fresh tracks and kept our eyes open. In the distance a small bunny was finding it hard to get out some snow, in the flash of an eye Aden through a small knife through the air towards it barely missing it. “Damn it Aden now we have to find something else..” falling to my knees as i huffed out of breath, “Little bastard.. sure I had him..” he said getting to one knee huffing himself. “We should go back knife ears.. we’ll die out er..” shaking my head fiercely I refused. “I’m not letting the boss win over me.. not until his blood has been spilled at least, that vile man has been torturing you all for years and for what? to give him some sense of pride and dignity. What a waste of human flesh.” Aden looked white in the face for a moment as I spoke of his so called master. He swallowed his pride and stood back up, “Then we better catch that damn rabbit..” trudging through the thick snow Aden went forth in a blaze of glory wanting to prove himself to me, I knew he thought so little of himself but he wanted that recognition from someone other than his master, he wanted it from me. I had no idea what Aden truly felt about me I never stopped to ask and he never brought any feelings into the occasion either, maybe one day he’ll talk to me about it then again maybe he won’t.

The storm persisted and just when we thought we’d reached our peak the rabbit made another appearance, trying so desperately to get by the icy lake the rabbit slipped and fell into a pile of snow. Keeping our wits about us we positioned ourselves correctly this time and nodded silently to one another, I got out my dagger just in case he missed again, watching Aden from a distance as his icy cold breath hit the air, he calmed his nerves and focused. Closing his eyes he breathed in and out slow showing no fear or mercy and going with his gut instincts he slowly and precisely threw his small knife again, this time hitting his target. He smiled and threw a fist in the air “I did it.. I did it Rayne I did it..” calling me by my name for the first time, he always called me knife ears but It was nice to finally hear him say it and with a beaming smile on his face too. “Good work.. now let's take this back for the rest of the boys to enjoy” getting up and placing my dagger away I patted him on the shoulder and walked with him to his proud kill. After wrapping up the rabbit and finding whatever scraps we could find we headed back to the boys in town, “Its close to dusk we should hurry or find somewhere to hold up for the night, we may not make it back tonight.” I said a little concerned that we wouldn’t make it back in time. “There's an old abandoned lodge nearby we could hold up there until dawn.” He said soon realizing that I had a point. We walked for a while and it was getting darker and darker, by the time we reached this lodge it was night. Clambering through the door I held it open before closing it after Aden stepped through, “We almost didn’t make it” he said. “Aye we were cutting it for time” throwing my bag to the ground and sitting down on the floor to regain some of my breath. Aden immediately walked around trying to find anything we could use, an old log fire still remained with some wood to the side of it. “Perfect.. I’ll make a start on our well deserved late dinner” he chuckled a little to himself, it was safe to say we had found safety and warmth for the night.

After eating our meals and laying our bedrolls down for the night Aden and myself decided it was time to sleep, “We should probably sleep close by ya know for body heat.. don’t want you freezing in the night.” he grinned and started to lay down in just his undergarments. I looked down at my clothes noticing they had gotten tighter recently, I also had no money for such undergarments so I stripped to just my panties and told him to look the other way as I blew the candle out. He stayed looking the opposite direction as I climbed into the blankets, my back pressed against his and we both felt a shiver go down our spines. Truth be told we were still cold, our log fire ran out of wood and we had no other way of keeping warm. Staying back to back for a while as the warmth filled up inside the blankets, I felt his hand move up the blanket for a second. “What is that” I said quite prominently. “Uhh.. Ohh.. Nothing just an itch on my leg is all” I heard him nervously cough and try to sleep again, my eyes were heavy and soon enough I felt myself drifting off to sleep. It was warm, comfortable and quite relaxing for once compared to sleeping in the bitter cold.

Slowly waking up from the light outside it was a beautiful morning, I yawned and tried to slowly move before realizing something. Aden’s head and where it was, where it definitely shouldn’t be. Somehow he managed place his head right in between my buzzums, snoring away quite happily as I tapped his shoulder. “Comfortable are we?..” I said awaking him, “Hmmm yesss.. “ he said moving his head gently rubbing his cheek comfortably against me. “Good” I picked up his head and slapped his face hard leaving a very red mark for him to nurse later, “Because It’ll be the last time you do..” standing and dressing myself immediately as Aden came to a sudden realization as to what just happened. I never saw him so red and flustered in my life, his words were stuttered and didn’t make any sense as he had his hand to his cheek almost crying from the pain. “I… I’m.. so sorry.. I.. Didn’t.. Didn't know.. what I was.. doin.. “ he stammered his words out. “Enough Aden.. I can’t believe you’d do such things.. I told you before to never touch me, Your lucky I didn’t beat the living shit out of you.. just you wait till we get back” fully changed I grabbed my bags and left without him. Slamming the door as the heavy cold air hit my face, my heart was racing, my cheeks were on fire. What was this feeling, and why am I short of breath suddenly?. Could I.. Could I have feelings?.. **** on the cold air I pushed on ahead of him and quickly got myself together.

Was this just a one off or was this something far more deeper than I had Imagined? I Had no idea but I prayed that someday someone would answer my questions. I prayed for Winter to end so I could finally start doing something properly again, I daydreamed of a warm summer night and laying on a field of green somewhere far away from here. Little did I know.. That's not what destiny had in store for me.