“Define ‘anything’,” Lalita finally said after an eternity of silent gaping. Astrid took a deep breath and struggled to get her thoughts in order. “I mean that I don’t remember anything prior to the night I woke up alone in a creepy forest during a thunderstorm. That was three-actually, almost four-years ago.” Her voice was somber, controlled. It was a strange feeling finally telling someone the truth about herself. She especially never expected that person to be Lalita, someone she‘d only just met. She had been thinking, for the past few months at least, that Alex would be the first person she would confide in. “So you just…what? Got up and walked away and started living a different life? Just like that?” Lalita sounded incredulous. “It wasn’t quite as easy as that, but yes. Essentially, that’s what I did. What else could I have done?” Lalita didn’t say anything, just nodded slightly. Her eyes looked far away, like she was thinking. She ran her fingers through her long hair and propped her elbow on the table, leaning her face against her hand. She was settling in, getting ready for a long story. “How did you do it?”
“You’ll have to be a little more specific than that, Lalita. I’ve never done this before. I don’t know where to start.” “Okay. How did you get out of the woods? Where did you go?” Astrid was surprised. She expected Lalita to behave much like a school-girl, but instead she got a calm, collected Lalita who was asking her questions-not just out of pure curiosity, but out of a need to understand her and possibly even help her if she could. “I walked. I got up and walked out. For hours and hours in the rain. I don’t even really know how long it was. Eventually, I saw a house and collapsed on the porch. It’s the house I live in now. It was abandoned for years, but luckily when I got there, someone had bought the property and was planning to fix it up. I bought it and fixed a lot of it up myself.” “You didn’t just walk out of the forest and buy a house. You’re leaving a lot out,” Lalita pointed out patiently. She wasn’t treating it like gossip, but she wasn’t going to allow Astrid to skim over any details either. “Obviously, I had to get a job and to do that, I had to at least have a name.” “Obviously.” Exasperated with herself Astrid sucked in a huge breath and held up her hands. “Let me just start over. I’m messing this up because I don‘t know what I‘m doing.” Astrid was nervous, but she didn’t really know why. She was only telling her story. No big deal. It’s not like she killed anyone and was on the run. “I’ll start at the beginning and tell you everything and answer all your questions if you’ll tell me everything I want to know after. Agreed?” “Absolutely.”
They got a re-fill on their drinks and ordered some food, then Astrid began telling Lalita, slowly at first and then more quickly as the time passed, all that she could remember except for how she felt during the course of events. She couldn’t bear to re-live the terror, the panic, the over-whelming sadness and the emptiness again. She preferred to stay detached, only delivering the facts. She was the only one talking for quite some time and during her long monologue, she replayed everything in her head to make sure she didn’t skip any important details.
When she woke up on the porch of the decrepit house, the sun was low in the sky, glaringly bright. It must have been late afternoon, but Astrid had no way of knowing exactly what time it was or how long she’d slept. She raised her dirty palms to shield her eyes from the blinding, orange illumination and sat up to get a bearing on her surroundings. It was cold and her body ached a thousand times more than it had when she‘d first woken in the woods. She winced as she worked the stiffness out of her limbs, but the pain didn’t go away. She lowered her hands and as her eyes adjusted, she began rolling up the sleeves of her tattered, filthy sweater. A foul sight met her eyes. She was covered in bruises and scratches. Injuries that she knew she couldn’t have gotten just from walking through the woods, even if she did slip a few times. She pulled up her jeans, acutely aware of the pain with every scrape the rough fabric made against her skin. Her legs were even worse than her arms. Purple and blue, spotted with red and even black-where there were once open gashes, the blood had dried in flaky clumps, coagulating over the wounds. She felt positive the condition of her arms and legs was indicative of how the rest of her body would look and decided to post-pone the remainder of her examination.
Astrid looked around her, trying to decipher if she had any memory of this place, but had to concede that she did not. All around her there was nothing but woods. Tall, green trees spread out in what would have been a protective cover around her had she not recently developed a fear of them. There was an area that looked as if it had once been a trail or a driveway, but it was overgrown with weeds and plants and looked, like the rest of the place, to be abandoned and very unkempt. Astrid wanted to take a closer look around the house just to be sure, but she was in so much pain that she didn’t think walking around the back of the house would be a very good idea. She doubted she could even get down the stairs. Her right side was killing her and she was finding it difficult to breathe. She slowly and painstakingly pushed herself up from the dusty porch, clumps of dried mud falling from her clothing as she did so, and tried the rusted handle on the door, which almost fell off its hinges as she pushed it open.
Dust and bits of wood fell from the frame as Astrid thrust it even wider. She was reluctant to go inside, scared of what things could be hidden in the bowels of such an emaciated structure. There could be wild animals or snakes hiding in there. But as her head throbbed, the pain in her side stabbing her again, she knew she needed to see if there was anything in the house she could use before the sun went completely down and she lost the light. She took a light, cautious step inside, testing the floor to make sure it wouldn’t give way under her weight before she placed her other foot alongside the first. The floor, inside at least, seemed to be fairly sturdy. The place was dark, except where a few shafts of orangey light filtered in thin beams through grimy windows, highlighting the dust motes circling lazily through the air. It had a musty smell mixed with an odd scent like old wood and dirt.
She moved through what once must have been a kind of foyer, immediately through to a large, nearly empty kitchen and adjoining dining room. The only things there were an old stove and what Astrid hoped might be a large generator. She shuffled her blistered, tired feet back through the main entrance and to the left where there was a living room with one bedroom and a bathroom immediately off from it. She went to explore the bedroom first, but found it completely empty except for the battered twin size mattress on the floor and a smattering of debris. She went to the doorway of the bathroom and peeked inside long enough to see the rust stains inside the white sink and tub from where water had been left there once upon a time. She was struck with an overpowering urge to wash off all the filth she’d accumulated, but couldn’t see how that would be possible. Unless…the place looked old. She would have bet anything at that moment that there was a well somewhere on the property. Whether or not it worked was a different story, but at least she could try.
The sun was quickly fading so Astrid moved as hastily as she could with her damaged goods, which wasn’t very fast at all, searching the house for any source of light that she might take out with her in case it got dark on her before she could get back inside. She happened to get lucky and found a small box of matches sitting on top of the old stove that had been left in the dining room. It had only four inside, but it was better than nothing. Upon further investigation, she found a tea light candle laying on the dusty carpet of the living room floor. Dropping her bag by the door, she took these items and hobbled down the steps to see what she could find in the yard. It took about fifteen minutes in the thick growth around the back of the building to find a tiny little well house. It almost looked like a dog house to Astrid. She was steadily losing the light and a feeling of remembered panic started to creep up her spine as she was sucked back to that night, recalling being alone in a black thicket of trees too much like the ones surrounding her now.
Trying to ignore the pain and the fear, she stooped down and crawled inside praying she wouldn’t come face to face with any snakes. There was just enough light for her to see that there was a pump and she felt around until she found a switch. She should have checked to see if the generator was in working order before she did this-if, indeed, that was a generator in the kitchen-she had no idea what one looked like. She heard the pump hum to life and for the first time since she’d woken up in that awful forest, she thanked God. Maybe someone was staying in the house after all. Why else would there be a generator? It didn’t matter to her at the moment-no matter who was using the place, she wasn’t leaving until she at least got a bath.
Back inside the house, she tried flipping on some switches and found that there was actually a pretty decent amount of light in the place. She could hear the hum of the machinery in the kitchen and was thankful for it all over again, though she still kept the matches and the candle with her just in case. Inside the bathroom, she turned on the water and watched as the muddy substance slowly cleared. She wanted to clean out the rust in the tub but there was nothing for it except the clothes on her back and she’d have to wear those again so she settled with running her hand across the stain a few times to no avail. It was agonizing to lean over the tub in her battered condition so she wouldn’t have kept at it long anyway.
Astrid plugged the tub and turned the hot water all the way up to let it fill, but of course, there was no hot water to be had. She would have to wait longer for it to heat and she wasn’t sure how long the generator could last or how much power it could handle and as a result, decided clean, cold water was better than smelling like dirt, blood and sweat for the rest of the night. . She also needed to get her wounds cleaned-the last thing she needed was an infection. Hesitantly, she began to remove her clothing, starting with her shoes and jeans. She tried to get her legs out without scrubbing them against the denim, but it was unavoidable. The aching feeling only increased as she bent her knees, but it was her side that was bothering her the most.
She reached down to remove her shirt from the bottom, but it was impossible to stretch her arms up over her head without straining her side as well and the pain was too much to bear. Instead, she pulled her arms inside the shirt first and then pushed it up over her head agonizingly, little by little, until finally it came all the way off. She gawked at herself in the murky mirror and what she saw was painful, even to look at. There was a bruise across the whole of her ribs; big, black and hideous. The blood seemed to have blistered all the way to the top of her skin and it bulged out slightly, making it look as if the skin was straining to keep from bursting open. There was no way she could have gotten this without acquiring at least one cracked rib to go along with it, which must have been the reason she was experiencing a slight difficulty in breathing.
She took in her face next. Her hair was an oily, jagged mess. It was so short that it barely covered her ears. Again, more dirt covered her face along with a collection of cuts and scrapes. She had a small black ring around her right eye and a busted, swollen lip. Her cheeks were splotched with blue and purple, puffy and tender to the touch. Around her neck, there was a circle of bruises. In the shape of what looked, curiously, like finger prints. What she thought were the thumbs were the ones that stood out most noticeably, etched in blue against her larynx. She couldn‘t take her eyes away from the mirror for what seemed like forever, horrified as she was. “What happened to me?” she whispered aloud.
She inspected the rest of her body as she finished undressing and found that she was much the same all over. Covered in bruises and gashes, just like she knew she would be. Somehow, even though she knew it, she wasn’t prepared for it. She stepped into the cold water, shivering as the chills rocked through her and carefully sat down. She laid back and thought of nothing. There was so much to think of, but she couldn’t get a handle on it all yet so she lay in the tub, freezing, but unwilling to get out as she watched the water turn brown with the quantity of dirt that was floating off of her skin. She sat there until she shriveled up like a prune before she finally got out. She drained the once-clean water out and refilled the tub anew to wash her clothes as best she could. There was no soap and scrubbing proved to be difficult in her condition, but she did a fairly decent job getting the mud out. Enough so that she wouldn’t look entirely homeless when she went out to try and find the nearest town the next day.
At this point, Lalita was feeling dreadfully sorry for Astrid, who couldn’t stand the pitying look in her eyes any longer. “Will you stop looking at me like that? Please? I’m fine,” she said irritably. “Sorry. Go on.” Lalita looked down at her empty saucer unable to completely wipe the look of sympathy for Astrid off her face. “So anyway, I took off to try and find the town the next day, but I didn’t make much progress. I was so sore and I don’t know how long it’d been since I’d eaten. All I had was a few sips of water before I left the house because there was nothing there to use to take any with me.” “What were you planning to do in town? It sounds like you were pretty busted up-why would you want to strain yourself with walking so far that soon?” Astrid looked at Lalita like she’d lost her mind. “Lot’s of things. Food for one. I also intended on making a report to the police, but I realized what a dumb idea that was…”
Getting drawn back in, Astrid remembered. She walked, laboriously all day long in the cold, stopping frequently, but starting back just as quickly for fear that she would give out if she stayed still too long. It was completely dark before Astrid reached the town and she stumbled into a gas station to ask for directions to the police department. The clerk gave her the directions while a group of teenagers laughed at her from behind. She could hear them making fun of her appearance and one of them even made a nasty comment about how hungry she looked and threw a candy bar at her as she turned around. It hit her in her tender chest and fell to the floor. Astrid gave them all a look that could kill and stepped on the candy bar on her way out. Even though she probably could have eaten it with the paper still on it, she was too stubborn to pick it up and give them the satisfaction. On her way to the police station, trying to avoid constant pangs of hunger, Astrid thought about what she would tell them once she got there and all the things that would follow. They would want basic information about her that she couldn’t give before they took her statement, they would want to hear the story that would lead them absolutely nowhere. Afterwards, they would probably send her to the hospital when she had no money to pay for it and where they would patch up her physical wounds, but what about the long term? Was this just temporary amnesia or something she’d need further treatment for? Was there any treatment at all? Eventually though, she would have to be released. Released to go where? A homeless shelter? She stopped in her tracks, abruptly changing her mind. Forget the cops.
Astrid stood there, trying to figure out what to do next when she realized she was in front of a church. A church that had a water fountain out front. She rushed to the fountain and drank from it like it was the last drink of water she’d ever get. When she came up for air, she saw a clear, plastic bottle rolling underneath a nearby bench. She didn’t know whose it was or where it came from, but she stooped down carefully to retrieve it, rinsed it out and refilled it with cold water to take with her on the long walk back to her dilapidated hide-out.
Before she turned to leave, she noticed a young woman eyeing her speculatively from a swing in the neighboring yard. The woman was wild and exotic looking. She had a light olive complexion, long flowing black hair that waved down her back in loose, messy curls, high cheek-bones, a prominent nose and voluptuous natural pink lips. She sat completely upright, alert. All this was eye-catching enough in its own right, but it was not what held Astrid’s attention. It was her eyes that drew Astrid to her. They were a light shade of brown with small flecks of green; intelligent and intense, almost glowing, burning into Astrid as she stared at them. She pulled her gaze away, not wanting to appear rude and also not desiring to be noticed, although, she knew it was hard not to notice a woman who was practically limping along in the cold with dirty clothes and a battered face. Astrid began walking again, struggling with the urge to look back and see if she was still being watched.
It took her even longer to get back to the old house than it had taken her to get to town. She moved slowly and stepped off the road to walk in the cover of the trees. All the while, she was terrified of the woods, the darkness, but was even more afraid to move out of them and be noticed. She was thinking what a stupid idea it was to leave her safe hideout in the first place and trying to think of what to do next while horrible, hopeless thoughts kept spinning into her head. She was freezing, hungry, thirsty, sore and exhausted from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes, inside and out. She didn’t remember exactly where the house was, but she remembered the trail she walked down ended close to the road where there was a small break in the trees. She tried to keep on the same path with the road while staying out of sight so she would see the trail when she finally came across it, but it was hard in the dark.
Hours later, when the sun was almost up, she feared she had passed it and was bouncing back and forth between the ideas of laying down and dying cold and hungry in the woods or turning back to search again in the light. Her brain told her to turn back, but her feet kept pushing her forward, on and on until, eventually, sometime in the afternoon when the sun was high in the sky, she saw the little trail hiding much farther off from the road than she had previously believed. Still, somehow she knew it was the right one. Her heart leapt at the sight of it like following that trail would take her to heaven, but she was far too tired to show any outward signs of enthusiasm and soon she remembered how long the trail was-a thought that did nothing to cheer her regardless of where it led. As tired and sore as she was, she’d probably be walking until the sun went down.
When she could finally see the outline of the house, it was after dark. She was getting panicky and was in a hurry to get inside, but there was not an ounce of energy left in her to make her move faster; she was only still going out of sheer will power. Of course, she thought acidly, what good will it do me to get to the house if I’m just going to starve to death when I get there? Then, immediately after, she told herself that she’d made it too far to think like that now and she would think of something- food being her first priority. This is how it went for a time. She would think hopeless and angry thoughts and then override them in the next instant with determined ones. Whether she actually felt any confidence in what she was telling herself was a different story entirely. She went back and forth like this all the way to the porch steps where she clambered up clumsily, panting, her muscles on fire, blistered feet aching, injuries throbbing. She passed out at the door, but before she could hit the rotting wood of the porch, a pair of strong arms appeared swiftly and caught her.
Who caught her? READ CHAPTER 11 to find out :) But first, make your guesses here! Comment :D
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