Denial

Disclaimer and content warning: This story contains depictions of violence and descriptions of events that may be distressing to some readers.

This story also features strong language that may be inappropriate or unwelcomed by some readers.

Age Rating: 17

The Guitar

It sounded out of tune as he plucked the strings of his guitar. With a soft shake of his head he cleared his throat, twisting the knob of the A note a little more. It creaked softly under his fingertips as he applied pressure to it. It slipped, and the string loosened once again.

He began to hum his song anew, plucking at the strings as he got into the groove of things. It was still off.

As he reached for his glass, he heard the door open. Soft footsteps echoed through the cabin from the entry hall.

“Hun?” he reached out.

“Well, if you want to call me that,” the familiar voice whispered from the dark.

“Oh, thought it was Rhea,” he replied.

“Figured as much,” replied the voice, stepping into the room, into the darkness, dimly illuminated by a single candle and the moonlight.

“So, what are you up to?”

He shifted in his chair, slumped a little, and leaned against the guitar, turning the knobs to adjust the strings further, “Struggling, can’t you tell?”

“Mmmhmm, what’s wrong?”

“It’s out of tune is what. I mean, listen for yourself,” he replied, strumming the strings to create a soft, upbeat melody.

“Sounds fine to me,” the familiar voice replied.

“Ugh, no no, it’s not right. A is off, and D is too.”

“If you say so,” the person seemingly paused half-step, then turned to head toward the shelf with alcohol, “Drink?”

He reached for his glass, picked it up and swirled the liquid inside it, admiring the glistening of the candle’s light in his glass, “Nah it’s alright. Got enough.”

“Very well.”

There was a soft clank of glass against glass, and then a thud as the heavier object, a bottle presumably, was placed back on shelf. The person turned, leaning against the stand while looking around the room, “How are you guys settling down?”

“All good, quite nice here. Though Rhea, well, being as she is, is whining about the lack of wifi and ya know, being, well, Rhea,” he replied.

“Why did you ever marry her, Corwin?” the voice asked, still shrouded by the shadows, but he knew exactly who it was.

“I mean, she’s a diva, a spoiled brat, and a drama queen. But so what? She is sweet, caring, the usual, really. Though, admittedly, I did rush it a bit, but that’s alright. She’s alright,” he replied, reaching for his glass and taking a sip.

Steps echoed through the room as the figure walked into his blind spot.

“Yeah, I know how it is. Marriage is an amusing challenge to navigate, like-” they paused, pondering for a moment, “Like a magic trick-elaborate, precise, unexpected.”

“Yeah, exactly like that,” he responded, turning just in time to feel something hard and heavy hit his temple.

The thud of his body hitting the wooden floor echoed through the silent, dark cabin. He blinked. His mind reeled. His vision blurred, and the room spun around. He winced, reaching slowly for the injury on his head. Pain propagated through his body in an instant. Cold sweat covered him as his instincts screamed in unison to run, but his body refused to move.

“Ow, shi, wha-” he began.

“Hmm, it didn’t break. Good bottle,” the voice replied. The floor creaked beneath his head as the figure stepped over his limp body.

He heard a crunch; something broke violently yet slowly. A faint ‘ting’ echoed through the room as one of the guitar strings was ripped out. His mind slowly began to shift back into focus, alas, far too late. The moment his thoughts focused enough to realize what was happening, he found himself struggling to breathe as a thin guitar string dug itself into the skin of his neck. When he resisted, it cut his skin, but if he didn’t-it cut off his breathing.

The room still spun around, and his limbs still felt immovable and heavy as lead. Lack of oxygen made it harder to resist, and every attempt to breathe in a lungs-full of air was futile. He pulled on it with all his remaining might, and a faint and last ‘ting’ he ever heard. It was the A note.

With a soft groan, the figure released the string, and his lifeless body thudded onto the wooden floor.

Nights in the forests are shockingly loud. There is no traffic, no hum of plane turbines, and no honking of cars. It’s a different kind of noise, one that is deeply unsettling to those used to living in the comfort and safety of a city, the ones that may be called ‘prey’.

The forest at night is a hunting ground; a game of survival.

Wolves howl in the distance to communicate with their own, and owls hoot in search of their next prey.

Maze

Darian awoke shortly after sunrise. The curtains were wide open, and sunlight was his new alarm, blinding and merciless. His wife simply rolled over.

“Darian? Put on the coffee maker,” she began, but failed in her attempt, succumbing to sleep.

A click followed shortly after by a splash. Armed with a steaming cup of coffee, he was ready to take on the new day, and as someone who put in a great deal of effort to get away from the city would desire. He craved a morning with a fresh cup of coffee and lungs full of fresh, unpolluted air, while gazing down the alley and watching the dawn paint the forest in orange hues.

Just as he stepped outside the door and took his first deep breath of the chilly morning air, an ear-piercing scream startled him. His body instinctively tightened and jerked from the shock, spilling the fresh coffee over his pants.

“Fuck,” Darian cursed, but the frightened shriek repeated once more. It came from the direction of Corwin and Rhea’s wooden cabin, just a few meters away. He dashed toward it. He didn’t knock; instead, he twisted the handle and threw his entire body’s weight into the door, hoping only that it wasn’t locked.

As the twisted hand of fate would have it, it was not.

He barged into their small cabin, and in the entry hall, just at the end of it, found Rhea on the floor-her back firmly pressed against the wall and hands covering her face, “No gods no that can’t be it can’t be it just can’t be it’s not real it can’t be real.” she was repeating to herself.

“Good gods, Rhea? What happened? Are you alr-” he began, taking a step closer to her. It wasn’t his words or presence, it was the creak of the floorboard that caught her attention. She scrambled, crawling against the door just to the left of her, and screamed, “NO DON’T TOUCH ME!”

He took another step, hands outstretched, “Rhea? It’s me, Darian. What the hell happened?”

Her body trembled; and she was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. Her makeup was streaked, and her face was a mess.

“It’s not real right? I’m just asleep, I didn’t sleep I am just sleepy, it can’t be; this can’t be. It can’t be.”

As he took another step, his gaze darted to the living room, a small cozy room, a couple of chairs, old wooden coffee table, a small fireplace, a rocking chair in the corner, and Corwin’s corpse lying on the floor in a small puddle of blood. His smashed-up guitar lying beside him.

“Jesus, fucking christ,”, Darian whispered, unable to believe what he was seeing.

He paused, his gaze darting to the guitar, the corpse, the windows, the corpse again, the floor, Rhea, and then the corpse once more. He took a deep breath, frozen in place by a torrent of emotions. That was until he heard his wife call out to him from the entry.

“Darian? What the hell is going on? I heard a scream and-” his wife paused, noticing the sobbing mess of Rhea in the corner. As she took a step inside, he threw his hand out and shouted, “STOP! No. Don’t come in!” he turned on his heel and knelt instantly, hands firmly grasping Rhea by the shoulders.

Though his grasp was firm, it was gentle, reassuring.

“Rhea? Listen to me. Let’s take you outside right now, okay? We’ll be okay, everything will be okay. Let’s just go outside.”

Between her sobs, she managed to unveil her face. She looked him deep in the eyes and nodded slowly, hesitantly.

“Yeah? Good, come on now. Look at me, only at me. Keep your eyes locked with mine yes?”

She nodded.

“Good. Come on now. Nice and slow,” he held his hands out. She reached for his hands as he pulled her up. She kept her promise just long enough to take one step, then her focus snapped and she gazed past him-at the corpse of her husband.

“NO!” she cried out, her knees buckling and body slumped, almost falling to the ground, but Darian caught her fall and pulled her along with him toward the door, ignoring her cries and pleas.

“What the fuck happened in there?” Darian’s wife questioned him, embracing Rhea.

“I don’t know,” he replied, pacing back and forth on a spot.

“What do you mean? What the hell did you see?”

“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!” Darian snapped at her, keeping his eyes locked with hers for just long enough to show just how fucked up the situation truly was. Then he turned, grabbed the door, and slammed it shut.

“Nobody goes in there, you hear me?”

She nodded, pulling Rhea along with her to the nearest bench.

Darian paced in front of the cabin for another few minutes, pulling at his hair and scratching his jaw nervously.

He turned to leave, to head toward the other cabin, the one where Rhea spent her night, with Elric and his wife Mara. Just as he walked past the bench, Rhea called out, “We need to call for aid!? Call the police.”

Darian nodded, responding calmly, “Yeah. We do. I will.”

Jolted awake by the sudden banging, Darian leapt out of the bed, startled. His heart was pounding in his chest like a boxer training for a match.

“What was that?” cried out his wife.

“Hell do I know!?” he panicked, searching the dimly lit room for something, anything that could be used as a make-shift weapon.

“Here,” she called out to him, holding a heavy glass bottle of tequila.

He grasped it by the neck. Its weight, even though it was empty, was still quite hefty. A hit with this would certainly hurt. His thoughts raced and his heart drummed, his sleepy and hungover mind fully assumed somebody was trying to break in, or perhaps-something, a bear or such.

He carefully pried his door open and peeked into the entry hall. The hallway was pretty short and narrow, almost claustrophobic, just barely enough to enter through it and take one’s shoes and jacket off.

It was empty, as far as he could tell, and the bathroom door’s rusted hinges were quite squeaky, so if someone tried to surprise him from there, well, it wouldn’t be a surprise.

The banging started again.

“Elric!? Open up, it’s me, Darian,” the voice from behind the door called out.

“Who is it?” called out Mara.

“Darian,” Elric replied softly, lowering the bottle and approaching the door.

The front door creaked with an ear-piercing shriek.

“What the hell man? I was just trying to-”

Elric began, but Darian was pale as a ghost. His hair best resembled a crow’s nest, and he was startled-no, panicked. He was panicked.

“Holy fuck. What happened to you? Saw a grizzly? Christ, with all that banging, I thought you were one, trying to break in.”

Darian glanced Elric up and down, then sniffled and shook his head.

“No, no. No grizzlies here, I don’t think. No. It’s, uh. Fuck, uh, how do I even—” he seemingly struggled forming sentences.

“Alright, take a deep breath, man. Wanna come in for a coffee?”

Elric queried, calm but cautious.

“No, yes. It’s Corwin, he’s fucking dead,” Darian shot the news out.

Elric blinked, then paused, watching Darian’s eyes nervously shift between his own.

“What kind of sick prank is that?”

“It’s not. He’s fucking dead, what do we do? I don’t know what to do, his wife, my fuck. He’s just, there, there,” Darian pointed a shaky finger at Corwin’s Cabin.

Elric’s gaze darted to Rhea, who was crying on a bench, embraced by Layla, Darian’s wife.

“Alright, backtrack. What the fuck happened?”

“I woke up,” Darian began.

After Darian told him all he knew, Elric went to check the cabin. To his regret, the story was true.

“She just found him? Didn’t see anything else?” he queried, leaning against a tree.

Darian was a couple of trees over.

“No, well, I didn’t particularly ask. She’s not exactly in a chatty mood right now. Was she with you the night?”

Elric nodded.

“Yeah, had a few too many drinks. She stumbled out around Four? Maybe Five? I’m not sure.”

Darian glanced at his watch, as did Elric. It was eight.

“I heard the scream around seven? If I had to guess. I didn’t exactly check the watch. How did she only get home around then?” Darian replied.

Elric shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine. Passed out on the way? She was quite drunk. Anyways, what the hell can we do? You got service?”

Darian doubted that Rhea passed out within just a few meters, but now wasn’t the time to doubt her; she was hardly a killer.

“No,” Darian shook his head.

“Same, fuck. Sat phone? Radio? Do we have anything to call for help?” he asked.

“Do I look like a prepper to you? I barely got a first-aid kit with me and even that I almost forgot,” Darian snapped back.

“Easy, I’m just asking.”

In that time, the family of strangers who lived in the fourth and last cabin, came out of their cabin.

Elric threw a glance at them, “No way.”

“Then who? You?” Darian asked.

“Not funny, man. May as well have been you then,” Elric sighed.

“When’s the fucking bus coming to pick us up?”

“Uh, on the 7th? So, in two nights, at nine,” Darian replied.

“Alright, until then, nobody goes anywhere alone. We’ll do a night watch. I’ll be on watch till 3? You do 3 till 8?”

Darian nodded, “Sensible, but no hero-wanna-be bullshit. You shout, scream, kick things over, wake us all.”

Elric nodded.

“Yeah. Fuck. I need a drink. Let me know if you learn anything else.”

Game Set

The evening was fast upon the group. The daily liveliness of the forest was dying down. No longer did the birds sing and chirp in search of a mate, they were not preparing to hide, to sleep, and hoped to see the light of the next day.

Elric sat by a freshly set chessboard, with all the pieces where they belonged. Not far from him the fire cracked.

Darian was stirring the soup in the pot.

“Rhea demanded we leave, walk back,” Darian began.

“We’re like 50 miles deep in the middle of nowhere with a single road that is only ever used by a single shuttle. The randomers had nothing either. They said they didn’t see or hear anything. I, of course, didn’t tell them any details. No need to ruin the family’s fun,” Elric replied.

“What did you tell them?”

“Only that one of our friends injured himself and needed medical attention, but it wasn’t severe,” Elric shrugged.

“Good, let’s keep it that way.”

Elric nodded, “Game?”

“Just go easy on me,” Darian replied, setting the spoon down and joining Elric for a game of chess.

As the match neared completion, the meal was done, but the situation was hardly worthy of a friendly family gathering for dinner, so instead, each prepared food and brought it to their cabins for the women.

They met back up shortly after. The night was still young. They ate and played a while longer.

“Remember, no heroics,” Darian reminded Elric as he got up and stretched, prepared to leave for the night.

Elric reassured him with a confident nod and a flash of his flashlight, “Yeah. Last move?”

Darian glanced at the chessboard, dimly illuminated by a battery-powered lantern that sat on the table beside it. As he turned, something shimmered in his hands, catching the light of the moon just long enough to reflect it.

“Sure, you can checkmate me after this one.”

Elric let out a soft half-laugh, half-sigh.

“As if, unless you feed me.”

“Already did,” Darian replied.

“Was pretty good, all things considered.”

“Honestly? I’m shocked I could even eat,” Darian commented.

Elric fell silent for a moment, then uttered, “Same.”

Soft and rhythmic taps of wooden chess pieces on the board continued for a while longer. As the night grew colder and the game came to an end, it was time to end it.

“Checkmate,” Elric whispered, then lifted the lantern and examined the board, “Yeap.”

Before he had a chance to glance up at Darian, he felt something, or someone, grab him by the hair.

Thud.

And then another.

“Yes.”

Elric heard a familiar voice whisper. He pushed himself away from the table, opened his mouth to scream, and in that moment felt a chess piece get shoved inside his mouth. He gagged, choking on it. He attempted to spit it out but failed as the base of the piece pressed against the backside of his teeth, firmly jammed in place.

He gagged and fell off the chair, fumbling for his mouth to pull the piece out as he was choking on it. In that moment, he felt searing pain shoot through his body when his left arm refused to move. Amidst his panic, he saw a glint of steel in the moon’s light, protruding from the palm of his hand.

His screams were muffled; he pushed himself, crawling, scrambling to get away. Another jolt of pain shot through his body, raw pain, but not only that. Amidst the pain, he heard a noise that almost made him faint-it was the scraping of a steel knife against the bone of his leg.

He turned and twisted, kicking, groaning, whimpering, and screaming.

Desperation.

He crawled to the best of his ability, dragging his limp leg, pushing himself forth with his bloodied hand. Pain did not matter.

He felt steel bite into the flesh of his back. A burning sensation pulsed through his body. He could feel the knife dig deeper, slicing his flesh and grating against his bones. His consciousness began to fade.

“Good game,” he heard Darian’s voice whisper just as his mind succumbed to the darkness.

Darian glanced over at Elric and gave his corpse a nod.

“Hope to play with you again soon.”

Elric’s body was cold.

It was so unbelievably cold that night.

The morning came, and with it—confusion.

Darian awoke in his bed well past sunrise, nobody woke him for his shift of the watch.

“Shit,” he uttered, throwing his legs over and getting up in a hurry.

“Everything alright?”

Layla uttered.

Darian glanced over his shoulder at his sleepy wife, “Yeah, I hope.”

As he made it out of the bedroom, he froze. Confusion settling in.

“Uhm, Layla? Where’s uh, where’s Rhea?”

Layla sat up in bed sleepily and mumbled, barely audibly, “What? Don’t you remember? You said she insisted on leaving at night, and you couldn’t stop her. You kept mumbling something about how she ‘walked off on her own’.”

“I did?” he scratched his head.

“Well, huh. I guess I did.”

She flopped back down in the bed with a huff.

Darian reached for the doorknob and heard a knock before he could open the door. He hesitated for a moment. The knock repeated, it was an impatient kind of knock.

Darian opened the door and to his surprise, there stood Mara.

“Good m-” he began.

“Where the fuck is he?” she cut him off.

“Sorry?” Darian replied sleepily.

“Elric!? My husband. Where the fuck is my husband?”

“Uhh, I don’t know. I just woke-” he replied but she cut him off again.

“He told me you were supposed to take watch after him at three and you’re just waking up?”

Darian glanced around nervously.

“I uh, he never came to wake me, I,” he hesitated.

“Never heard of alarm clocks have you?”

She shoved him aside, storming into their cabin.

“Wait, Mara.”

He called out, but she ignored him. Her steps were heavy with resolve. She looked in the living room, barged into the washroom, and then pushed the bedroom door open.

“So? He’s not here, and you haven’t seen him?”

Darian shook his head.

Layla groggily lifted her head from the pillow-

“What’s wrong?”

Mara glanced around, “Elric is missing…”

“Oh no,” Layla gasped, jumping up.

“Wh-what? How? When was the, uh, the last time you’ve seen him?”

“I guess while he was out with your husband,” her tone shifted from concerned and frightened to harsh and accusing.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She scowled at him, “Go fuck yourself. And get dressed, we’re going to look for him, you good-for-nothing cunt.”

He hesitated, pressing himself against the wall so as not to be in her way as she stormed past him. Before exiting, she paused, then glanced over her shoulder, “Where’s Rhea? I-I thought she was sleeping with you guys. Elric said you two agreed to let her sleep here to keep her safe.”

Darian coughed slightly, clearing his throat. Nervousness was obvious in his voice, “She uhm. She left.”

He paused, swallowing hard, “She insisted on leaving, walking back. I tried to stop her, told her it was a crazy fucking idea but she wouldn’t listen. She threw a massive hissy fit, you know how she can be.”

Mara turned aroud, “You are shitting me. You let her go? What? Alone? In the middle of the fucking night? What? Did you just hand her a fucking flashlight and a bottle of water and pointed in the general direction? ‘Follow the road, you’ll eventually get to the town’? Seriously?”

Darian hesitated, “N-no. Nothing like that, no, no, uhm, no, well, she just walked off. On her own. I told her, I kept telling her but she’s just, she didn’t listen, she wouldn’t—” he paused, then gasped, “Oh shit. Oh no.”

“What is it?”

Mara asked. Her gaze was that of an annoyed lioness, sharp and primal.

“Fuck. Um, do you think Elric maybe saw her storming off? And, I don’t know, accompanied her?”

“Hah,” she blared out. A moment later, she started laughing.

“Hah, you really think he would just walk off with her in the middle of the night? A 50 or so mile hike back to civilization? Are you out of your mind, Darian? He’d have talked her out of it. I’m sure he would.”

He cleared his throat again.

“But it’s not erhm, not impossible. He is that kind of hero type and you know it.”

She glared at him, then glanced down at the floor.

“Doubt it, but maybe. Just maybe.”

As she turned to leave, Darian could hear a barely audible whisper escape her lips, “Beats the alternative.”

View

Few short minutes later, Darian was out the door, Layla right behind him.

“Alright uhm, how do we do this?” Layla asked.

Darian looked around, “I suggest we stay together. Enough crazy shit happened lately, I’d feel better if you two stuck with me, you know, so I can protect you just in case.”

Mara glared at him, “You are a pussy and you know it. You couldn’t even stop a single girl running off into the night. Such a man you are.”

His jaw tightened, and his shoulders rolled back. He swallowed audibly.

“I-if I tried to stop her by force, you’d be accusing me of laying my hands on a woman and hurting her. There’s no winning in such a situation for a man, is there? A bit hypocritical, isn’t it?”

Mara took a deep breath, her mouth opened to protest, but Layla cut in, “Now now, let’s not argue, only wastes our energy. Let’s go look for them. Maybe they are just sitting somewhere? Enjoying the sunrise and talking? I mean, we are in nature after all, and Rhea, well… after something so traumatic, she could use just company and rest.”

Mara sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, that’s, uhm, that’s possible. Logical.”

Layla nodded, stepping up beside Mara and wrapping her arm around Mara’s shoulders, gently caressing her.

“Yeah. Elric was logical. I think it’s possible. We’ll find them. I’m sure they’re alright.”

Darian led the way onto a nearby trail. At the corner of his vision, he noticed a broken branch and a smudge of blood on a leaf.

“Or maybe she fell asleep leaning against him, and he, being the gentleman hero that he is, didn’t want to wake the lady, so he’s just waiting till she awakens.”

“Darian,” Layla called out.

“What? I can see that happening.”

She sighed, pulling Mara closer as she walked past the broken branch.

“Why here?” Mara asked.

“Oh this trail? There’s a really nice spot at the end of it, if they were resting anywhere, it’d be there. Come on, you’ll love it too.”

It truly was a breathtaking sight. So much so that for a moment, Mara forgot what they were there for. The path led to a clearing atop a cliff. As if a perfectly served sight, presented to the travelers on a rocky platter. From there onwards was nought but forest and mountains. The sight was magical. The rays of the sun breaking through the canopy and illuminating the morning mist were a sight to see.

He stepped forth, ahead of them.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? I would come here to clear my head.”

His words snapped her out of her stupor. She threw her gaze around. There was not a sight, nor even a hint of Elric or Rhea.

“But they’re not here,” she began.

Darian looked around bewildered, “Ah, true. I got a little,” he stopped, then glanced down from the cliff, standing a mere meter from the edge.

“Oh. No, they are.”

Mara’s eyes shot up, “What?”

“Yeah,” Darian continued to look down, “Hey guys!” he called out.

There was no response.

“I-is there a path down?” Mara asked, stepping forward curiously, slipping out of Layla’s gentle hold.

“Yeah, a few even. This is a spot for tourists after all, they really thought of everything,” Darian looked back over his shoulder at Mara with a smile, and held his hand out.

She glanced at the edge of the cliff. His knees faltered but she kept her composure, “Did they hear you? They didn’t reply, I dind’t hear a response.”

“Oh,” Darian peeked down the cliff again, “They appear to be sleeping, as I suspected. Hard to pull an all nighter at our age, you know? Hah,” he paused, hesitating.

“Oh but I don’t mean like sleeping together, just sleeping. He’d never cheat on you.”

Mara let out a sigh of relief, “Oh, oh. Thank gods. Thank the gods.”

She took Darian’s hand and stepped toward the edge of the cliff.

Darian wrapped his arm around her, “Careful, don’t slip. The rocks in the morning are quite slippery. You’ve to take the ladder you see?”

He pointed at a few protruding roots from the cliff, upon one of which hung a jacket.

Rhea’s jacket.

Mara gasped, “Rhea?”

“Yeah, you see her? She’s sleeping.”

Mara’s gaze fixated on a mangled corpse at the bottom of the cliff. It was Rhea. Her body was in an unnatural state. Her limbs twisted in ways that shouldn’t be possible, lest they were broken.

She took a breath. Her jaw trembled and teeth clattered. Her eyes welled up, and her vision blurred from the tears. Panic filled her in an instant. Her body went cold, and her knees buckled. She gasped, a soft whimper escaped her trembling lips, but a knot in her throat made it impossible for her to scream.

Darian caught her.

“Easy now. Here-let me help,” he said.

“No,” she gasped, but it was too late.

She felt his strong hands on her back push her forth, with just enough force to topple her stunned body.

The whistle of the wind carried with it her fading scream.

Darian felt Layla’s warm and gentle embrace as she wrapped her arms around him.

“I love you no matter what,” she whispered, “But. Why?”

He turned. His strong hands wrapped around her neck.

He felt her warmth envelop him as he embraced her lovingly.

“Why what? She went down to see her friends. Rhea, Rhea walked off on her own. Corwin is just playing with his guitar. He’s just playing with the guitar. Elric is off with his own games, in his own world. Why, what, my dear? We’re here to rest,” he continued, ignoring the sounds of her choking and gasping, the sensation of her nails scraping his skin. He always enjoyed her playful nature when she’d gently scratch him while cuddling and hugging.

“It’s okay my dear. Relax. Rest.”

He closed his eyes for a moment. When he reopened them, he could see her smile.

He sighed, relieved.

“I love you too, unconditionally. No matter what.”

She smiled, “Come with me, let’s head back.”

“Yes, my love,” he replied, stepping over her lifeless body and walking into the forest.