Chapter 17

The walk back to Damian’s cabin felt long. It didn’t help that neither of us were speaking to each other. A mutual silence transcended upon us the moment I walked away from the falls; an enormous rift seemed to develop between us.

What did he mean I taste good? I looked over my shoulder to see him staring dead ahead of him, unaware of my lingering gaze. Is it normal to say something like that?

I rubbed my hand over the back of my neck, feeling weary from the long walk.

I’m hungry too, I noted, since it was well past lunch time. Damian didn’t look in the slightest exhausted, more focused on the wildlife around him than anything else. He could not help but let his eyes follow a stray robin darting through the trees, or slow down once he spotted a green plant with prickled leaves. He belongs here, I surmised, but I couldn’t safely say the same thing about myself.

I let out a huff unknowingly, letting Damian revert his attention back to me. “You want to rest?”

“How much longer?”

“Another thirty minutes.”

“Are we in the heart of the forest, or something?”

“No.”

“I honestly want a shower,” I mused aloud. “And then take a nap for a little bit.”

“You can use mine,” he suggested without looking at me.

“Or I can use my own,” I countered through barely parted lips.

“Yeah,” Damian lightly replied in a breathless voice.

“I didn’t mean to put a wedge between us,” I acknowledged aloud, “but I would have appreciated you asking me first.”

“I understand,” he muttered.

“At least you know for next time.” Damian let his gaze fixate on the hanging tree branch ahead of us, taking note of the large black raven perched over top of it. “Right?”

He nodded his head at me, but I could tell his focus was diverted to the bird in front of him.

“It’s just a raven.”

Long black wings fluttered as we slowly approached it. The black creature eyed Damian with interest once we were only a few steps away. It dove into the air suddenly, swooping just over our heads which forced us to bend lower to avoid getting hit. Damian turned around to face the black raven, letting out heated breaths of aggression as he watched the bird swoop around to come at us again.

“Stay down,” he ordered, and went to the ground to pick up a rock. The raven squealed at us threateningly, and then flew sharply to the left to slip through a thin crack between the trees. “You can stand up now.”

“Why did it do that?”

“What?”

“Why did it attack us?”

“It wasn’t attacking us,” he firmly stated, and then strode ahead as if it was an everyday occurrence.

I ran after him yelling, “It flew right at us!”

“It did.”

My voice was full of sarcasm as I stated, “but you are saying it wasn’t trying to attack us?”

He looked over his shoulder as he shot back, “it’s just their way.”

I took a hold of his arm, not wanting him to walk ahead of me any further. “Listen!” I screamed out at the top of my lungs. “I grew up in cottage country, so don’t lie to me. I know what ravens are like, and that behaviour is not normal.” The very same raven made short screeches between the trees not far from us. “So, what exactly is going on?”

“Ravens are like that here.”

“Taunting us?” I questioned him. “It flew at you on purpose!”

“Sara,” he growled, “what do you want me to say?”

“Tell me the truth,” I demanded with a hard tug on his sleeve. “That there is something wrong here!”

The ravens call grew louder, irritating the man beside me. He pushed my hand off his sleeve and stormed away, determined to not say anything else.

I followed him reluctantly, aware of how the raven was stealthily following us through the trees. Damian’s grip over the rock tightened, looking into the forest to find the fiendish creature. It was clear the raven was playing a game with him, toying him in a certain way that was strangely odd. Damian wiped his brow with frustration with the back of his arm, knowing it was impossible to find the raven in the denseness of the forest. I simply stopped in my tracks to watch him, seeing this man for what he truly was, and none of it made any sense to me. “Leave me alone!” he finally called out to the left of him, hating the raven that was squawking loudly as it stalked him through the impenetrable trees.

There is something not right about this at all.

***

Light flecks of snow nuzzled into my thick ginger coloured locks, forcing me to pull up my hood to cover myself up from the cold. The day had been bright and sunny, but as darkness approached, the weather turned more sinister. The ash white gravel crushed under my feet, a lonely sound that accompanied me down the steep hill.

Damian’s large cabin was in view, a few bright lights shining through his open windows that assured me he was home. Our separation earlier had been rather awkward, both of us conflicted with unsaid words. Where do we go from here? was communicated through our eyes alone and unfortunately, I could not come up with an answer.

A few hours of solitude in my bare cabin was enough to knock some sense into me and I ended up texting Damian to see if the invitation to dinner was still open. Fortunately enough it was, which leads me here, trailing down the dangerous roadside with an unnerving orange glow from the autumn sun illuminating my pathway.

I abandoned the roadside for the soft patch of dirt, watching the snowflakes fall over the dewy grass only to melt a few seconds later. It was cold enough to snow, but not enough for it to last. In another month this rugged field would be covered in a thick layer of ice, but for now I could simply walk through the high grass with certain ease.

The sky was enchanting in a way, a deep fusion of fluorescent pink with a pale shade of blue simply hovering over Damian’s cabin. I almost wish I could take a picture of it, or maybe even paint it so that the image could be engraved in my memory forever. The problem with Damian was that I was so amazingly attracted to him, but I couldn’t fight back the flurry of red flags that there was something seriously wrong with him. I had known him for a day really; no, technically two, but already I could sense how attached we were to one another.

But the red flags, I thought, and even when I shook my head in denial, I could not put that part of my mind to rest.

There was something wrong with Damian; something strange.

The light over his front porch flickered on, bringing me back to the present moment. He was probably busy preparing dinner for me, all too excited that we should spend the evening alone. I knew we would have to talk about what happened earlier, a sensitive subject since Damian was so insistent on ignoring my questions. He could not ignore me forever, at some point Damian will have to reveal the truth.