Page 30 of Carte

After what felt like a year of hiking, we finally made it to a stop.

“Finally,” I gasped. My lungs were burning and I was in desperate need of a shower, coffee and a candy bar.

He turned to look at me, a weird look in his eyes. Something that looked a lot like pain and torment mixed with deep satisfaction. “We’re here.”

The whole place looked like it jumped right out of a fairytale.

The A frame was completely surrounded by woods. Pine trees were the only ones I recognized, but there were a bunch of others too. I knew that much. The area around the cabin itself had been cleared, and meticulously cleaned of any pine needles. A stone pathway led to the door, a pathway that started in the middle of nothing. But it was lined with flowerbeds, and solar lamps with long flexible spikes that were gently swaying in the breeze. Every few steps. I couldn’t wait to see it at night. I had a feeling they would look like fireflies were dancing around the flowers.

I couldn’t help myself. Seeing the look of agony on his face, I reached out, and gently grabbed his forearm. “You okay?”

He yanked his arm from my grasp like the touch of my skin burned him even under the layers of clothes. And I couldn’t help but flinch from that sting. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

I knew he was lying, but I didn’t have the strength to push, not with the blow he just landed. “Okye-doke.”

He walked to the door, unlocked it, and then we were inside.

The house itself was open plan, and I could see from the entryway a giant stone fireplace in front of which brown leather armchairs were dotted, but the massive couch stood directly opposite it. Each armchair had its own small, neatly folded plaid blanked in green, red, brown, and yellow. I couldn’t see, but I was willing to bet my life on it that the couch had one too.

Frames were on the walls with pictures of kids running around, and adults gathered around the fire. A soft afternoon light poured from the massive windows that were lining each wall. This wasn’t just a cabin in the woods, a safe house.

No, this felt like home.

“Who’s place is this?” I asked softly. I was too scared to disturbed the peace this place was providing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Carter grumbled. There was still something off with him. Something I couldn’t put my finger on. But something I knew was vital. However, that all fell from my mind when he said, “It’s safe. It’s not accessible by the road. You need to know where it is to find it. And there’s no internet or signal here. No one can find you here. You’re safe.”

“There’s no internet or a signal?” I gaped at him.

“We’re in the middle of the forest, Dynamo. You would have to have a satellite phone and a router that connects directly to the satellite with an amplifier to be able to make a phone call or connect to the net.”

“Do you have those things? What if something happens and we need to call for help’”

“I have what I need to keep you safe.”

“So you meant to tell me that I was kidnapped by the military and dumped in the wilderness.”

“Not a military, Dynamo,” he walked further into the home. “Just me.”

I couldn’t help it. He looked so serious when he said it, watching me, almost to see if I would freak out and run away, that I burst out laughing. “Good thing you’re such an excellent company, Warden.”

“Smartass,” he muttered, but his lips twitched.

I fought the urge to raise my fist in the air and scream Victory! That was how great a feeling it was to see that I almost made him smile.

It was at that moment I vowed to myself I would do anything, give anything to get Carter Ryan to smile. I didn’t know what it was, but something was haunting him. A ghost or multiple ones that whispered in his ear he would never be good enough. Never deserve anything good that came his way. And I knew it because I recognized the look in his eyes that became more acute the moment he stopped before the cabin. I had the same ones, I knew how they hurt. I couldn't banish my own, but I would go to war to decimate his.

“Let me show you around,” he motioned for me to follow him. That momentary flicker of fun was gone. A serious note strung low that hummed through my entire being.

“Lead the way, Warden,” I muttered and followed him around.

The first was a kitchen. It was a mix between rustic and modern. The big, white, ceramic sink was a dream fit for every farmhouse coupled with the worn out butcher block for the counter tops. Through all of that, stainless steel appliances were fit in. The kitchen looked on the living room and its massive fireplace, but on the right side, there was a big dining room table that seated twelve. And in the left corner, right under a massive window, a breakfast nook sat.

It was charming, cozy, and promised you only good things would happen here.

I just wished I could believe it.

“Though there is a mud room, hall closet, utility room, half a bath, and a storage room.” Carter said as he flicked his hand down the hall ready to climb the wooden stairs-