SORROW WOODS (4 page)

own. Me? I’m the guy who got an illegal tattoo, the one that messes around with girls and then gets into fights with the girls’ brothers. And their friends. And anyone else who bothers me. I’m the guy that skips school to hang out with my mates and smoke cigarettes. I’m the child that every parent dreads. Do I care? Not one tiny little bit.

I fall asleep on the drive home. We’ve come a long way from home today and, as much as I

moaned about it the whole way here, I’m glad we did. I might have been the only person to ever

come across the two sisters.

My Father shakes my legs to wake me when he’s pulled the truck into our driveway. I climb

out into the darkness without a single word to him and hear the electric metal gates clanging shut at the bottom of the drive. I tear through the house, completely ignoring my Mother, who comes

walking out of the kitchen in her nightie holding a mug of something hot whilst smiling at me.

“Good day, Kai?” she asks.

I race up the stairs without even acknowledging her. I burst into my Father’s study and boot

up his computer. I could rummage through the drawers, but I can’t be bothered to tidy back up after myself. The anticipation of what I might find burns through every single bone in my body. I log into Google and hear my fingers swiftly moving across the keys on the keyboard. When the search results come up, a smile creeps right across my face and images of parties, holidays, and a sparkling new car sweep through my mind.

I’m going to do the unthinkable.

Serena

It’s been three days since my Mother left us and that means it’s been three days since we saw the boy in the woods. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. I see his face in my dreams. I see his eyes staring back at me through the reflection of my window when I’m washing the dishes. He’s everywhere and nowhere.

I close my book and let my eyes drop shut. The boy in my book reminds me a little bit of

Kaiden. He has dark hair, but not ink black like Kaiden’s, and his eyes are brown, but not chocolate brown. In my book, the guy is desperate to impress a girl that he thinks he’s not good enough for.

It’s true, he isn’t good enough for her, but it makes me wonder about boys and girls and if things like that really happen. Do boys try to change who they really are just for a girl to like them? Do girls care about things like that? I have no idea what goes on in the world where Kaiden is from but instead of scaring me, it excites me to the point that I feel dizzy just thinking about it.

“Serena, what are we gonna eat tonight?” Elodie asks me.

The image of Kaiden slips away from me as I open my eyes and stare at the gas ring. “I guess

we’ll have fish. It probably needs to be eaten today. I’m not sure it’ll last another day.”

Elodie rolls her eyes. “We’ve had fish for two days.”

I get up and walk towards the sink to retrieve the saucepan. “You know we have to eat what

we can get and fresh fish is very good for you. I read about it.”

“What are we gonna have with it?”

I pull the pack of rice from the cupboard with the wonky door and shake it at her. I can tell

she’s not happy. I don’t like eating the same foods again and again either. “Why don’t you go and see if there are any vegetables ready?”

She huffs, making it very obvious that she doesn’t want to get any vegetables, but walks out

of the door and heads towards the vegetable patch that’s on the edge of the woods. I watch her

until she slumps down in the soft soil onto her knees. I still don’t understand how we have rich, brown earth right next to dry, orange sands. I smile at the sight of her digging and turn back towards the sink. I peel the skin off the grey fish and rip it’s spine out. I hate skinning fish. I hate the smell of fish even when it’s cooked, but I know we need to eat well. We wouldn’t be able to run around all day in the woods if we didn’t eat good food. I put the pan onto the flame and pour in a splash of oil as Elodie comes back into the house and grins at me.

“I got some potatoes, carrots, and onions.” She plops them onto the top of the old wooden

table and pulls the chair noisily out before sitting down. “I guess I’m gonna have to peel?”

I turn and smile at her. She’s so moody when Mother is away, but this time she seems so

much worse. I think her seeing Kaiden has made things harder for her. Maybe she’s starting to

realise – just like I have, that there’s more to the world than just our house and the woods.

After dinner, we sit out on the veranda and watch the stars burst out across the twilight sky.

We’ve done this many times before, but since that day in the woods, everything seems different.

Some things seem more important, some less.

Elodie sits up and leans on her elbows. She looks down at me in the moonlight and I see the

perfect, round moon reflected back in her blue eyes. “How many stars do you think are in the sky?”

My eyes flick up. “Billions.”

“Really?” she asks with wide, curious eyes.

I nod. “It says so in my encyclopaedias. We could read about it if you wanna?”

“Sure,” she says. “I like learning new things.”

I grin at her. “Me too.”

I stand up and follow her across the creaking floor into the house and to our bedroom.

Elodie jumps straight onto the bed and underneath the covers. I grab the book from off the

bookshelf and turn to the astronomy section. We spend two hours reading about the universe that

we live in and the planet that we live on. Elodie asks question after question. She reminds me so much of myself when I was her age. When her eyelids start drooping, I put the book away and blow

her candle out. I lean down and kiss Elodie on her forehead.

“I love you, Serena,” she whispers with her eyes closed.

I give her another quick kiss and smile. “I love you too, Elodie.”

“Do you think Mamma is alright?”

I nod. “Of course.”

“Night then.”

“Night, little one.” I grab the last lit candle and move my way carefully over the furry rug and

through our bedroom. I’m tired but I’m not ready for bed yet. I pull the curtain across the middle of the room that separates our bedroom from the living area, and make a fire in the far corner.

Wherever in the world we are, it certainly gets cold at night. Even if the sun has burnt our skin red raw during the day, as the darkness crashes down on top of us, so too does the freezing air.

I stack the logs in the corner of the living room and poke a piece of paper underneath them

before lighting it with a match. That’s when I hear a knock. I freeze, wondering if it’s Elodie, but then the knock comes again and I know instantly that it isn’t her. I’m vaguely aware of the sounds of

wood crackling and snapping at me from the fire, but nothing else. My chest is rising and falling but I can’t hear my breaths. My hands are shaking, but I’ve gone so cold that I can’t feel them.

I hear another knock. Who is knocking at my door? What am I supposed to do?

I stand up. My eyes roam crazily around the room, over the wooden floors that are covered

in tangled worn-out rugs and the four small kitchen cabinets. Then I see the gleam of silver. I try to remember what my Mother told me, but I’ve completely forgotten because it was so long ago and

we haven’t ever had anyone knock at our door.

It might be someone that’s lost. Maybe they just want some help. Or maybe they’re here

because they know we’re here. If they need help, am I supposed to help them? I suck in a deep

breath and walk slowly towards the door, grabbing the meat cleaver from off the kitchen unit as I pass it.

Knock. Knock.

I take a deep breath and glance once more at the curtain before I swing the door open and

raise my arm.

“No.” He steps forward and grabs my arm with his big hand. “Don’t do that, Serena.”

His words slice through me like the knife in my hand slices through chicken. When I realise

it’s him, I snatch my arm out of his hand.

“What are you doing here?” I gasp. He must have followed us the other day. I look back

around to check that Elodie is still sleeping and thank the stars that my Mother isn’t back.

He stands on the step in a thick, black coat and a woolly, grey scarf and shivers in front of

me. “I need you to come with me.”

I stare at him and the way his clothes make his face look paler and his eyes two shades

darker than when I last saw him. He doesn’t seem real. How can a boy look so magical and

interesting, yet utterly terrifying at the same time? I feel myself frowning at him. “What for?”

His fingers dart towards the meat cleaver that is still grasped tightly in my hand, but I pull

away before he can touch it.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he says, trying to assure me.

I notice a pale, yellow rope flung over his shoulders and wonder why he wants me to go with

him. “What do you have rope for?”

His head snaps around to his shoulder. “I was hunting and thought I might have to drag

something large back to my truck. The rope helps.”

How can anyone hunt in those woods in the dark? He must be deranged. “You were out

there in those woods in the dark? On your own?”

He smirks. “Yeah, why not?”

I shiver, remembering the one and only time that I went out in the woods at night and those

orange eyes that followed me the whole time. “It’s cold and there are things in those woods that

don’t want you in there.”

He laughs. “Don’t be so ridiculous.”

I frown at him. I don’t like the way he’s laughing at me. “What do you want, Kaiden?”

He sighs and rubs his hands together. “I told you; I need you to come with me.”

I’m not going anywhere with him. I don’t know him. He’s still a stranger, even though I’ve

not stopped thinking about him for the last three days. I can’t leave Elodie and I don’t understand why he wants me to go into the woods at night. We’d get eaten alive. “I’m staying right here. I can’t leave Elodie and it’s not safe in the woods.”

He takes a step towards me, his boots stepping on the small step that you have to lift your

feet over to get into the house. “Come on, Serena. You need to come with me.”

“I don’t need to come with you. You keep saying that but you’re not telling me why.”

He huffs. “Just come with me and I can show you.”

“No.”

He sighs and slams his fist into the door, making me feel like I’ve jumped out of my skin.

After my heart has stopped thrumming in my chest, I feel my eyes narrow at him. “Go away. Leave

us alone and never come back.”

I start to shut the door, but his hand stops me. “Don’t,” he sighs, hanging his head down.

I hear his deep, laboured breathing but I can’t see his face. I want to ask him what’s really

happening and why he’s acting like he doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but I don’t dare. Not yet anyway. I can feel the door shaking in my hands from the resistance he’s creating, but I don’t let up. I know we don’t know anyone else but ourselves, but I don’t think people should just turn up and

demand that you go with them without a reason.

“I need you because there’s an animal,” he says hesitantly.

“An animal?”

He lifts his head and blinks at me as if he’s surprised about something. “Yeah, yeah there’s

an animal.”

“What about the animal?”

“It’s injured,” he rushes on, “I, er, need your help so I can make it better, but we need to be

quick.”

I can’t just leave an animal out there suffering. It’ll only end up getting ripped to shreds by

something else. I glance back in the direction where Elodie is sleeping and feel myself sighing. I wish he’d never knocked on our door and told me about the animal. “How far away is it?”

He nods towards the darkened trees. “It’s about a thirty minute walk away from here. It

won’t take us long.”

If it’s only thirty minutes, then it shouldn’t take too long for us to get to it, help it, and then come back before Elodie even knows I’m gone. I think about what would happen if she woke up and

found that I wasn’t here. Would she worry? Would she just assume I was out collecting wood for the fire or something? “Okay,” I finally sigh. “I just need to go and get some warm clothes on.”

He smiles and starts to step into the house.

“No,” I say, as I push the door against him. “You can wait outside.”

He frowns, making his whole face wrinkle up, but takes a step back and allows me to shut

the door. I pull the bolt across and hurry into my bedroom and grab my warm clothes.

We’ve walked in silence since we left the house and my eyes haven’t stopped roaming across the

ground and trees around us. I haven’t got a watch on so I’m not sure how long we’ve been gone,

but I know we can’t be that far away. Kaiden has shifted the rope across each of his shoulders

numerous times, and in the last five minutes alone, he’s pulled it from his shoulders and into his hands at least five times.

“How much farther away is it?”

He pulls a knife from out of his pocket. The moonlight gleams and reflects off it, my eyes

following it like a moth to a flame. “It’s not far now,” he says smoothly, “you’ll see.”

I keep listening for the cry of an injured animal, but the woods are silent for once. There isn’t even a hoot of an owl that I can hear echoing out around us. Something about the way Kaiden

lingers behind me, instead of leading me to where he knows the animal is, makes me feel nervous. I don’t know why I feel like this and it’s a feeling that I’ve never really encountered before, but I know it doesn’t feel right. I think I should turn around and go home to Elodie and the warmth of the fire.

Kaiden

We’ve walked for about twenty minutes now. I’ve trailed behind, letting her lead me through the

trees even though she has no idea where this animal could be. In the strip of moonlight that sneaks down through the trees, I can see her frightened eyes darting around. She keeps turning her head