Betrayal Chapter 28
We drove for around fifteen minutes before we reached their cabin. The whole time, Clara kept up the small talk. A deliberate tactic that I assumed was designed to keep me calm. She must have been able to see how much of a mess that I was in. My hair was dishevelled, my hands and face were smeared with grime and gore, a testament to the terrifying horrors I had fled from. But despite my appearance, Clara continued with her casual chatter, and it worked. There was something reassuring and comforting about having a simple conversation with another human being about nothing in particular. Leaning back against the warm leather seats, I took a deep breath of that comforting cinnamon scent which hung in the air.
I hadn’t spoken to someone like this for a very long time, and I could feel myself being drawn into Clara’s world. It was a world of mundane sanity and everyday life. A world that felt a lifetime away from my recent existence. We spoke about simple things, things such as going shopping or walking the dogs in the park, normal things. I almost began to forget about the horrors that I had been through. Those terrible images that had plagued my thoughts so vividly began to fade.
The low hum of the engine and rumble of the tyres made a steady backdrop. Against it, Clara’s soft, kindly voice remained soothing. Matthias stayed mostly quiet, his eyes were fixed intently on the road ahead.
I glanced out of the window as the car pulled up outside a large cabin. It was one of the bigger cabins in the area, more of a chalet really. The cabin was set over two floors, the ground floor was built from rough grey stone with the upper floor clad in deep red wooden weather boarding. Nestled among the trees, the building rose up, its steep-sloped roof standing out darkly against the starlit night sky.
“Here we are, Heidi.” Matthias said as he glanced at me over his shoulder.
The German pair opened their doors and climbed out of the car. Clara then walked around to my side and opened the door with a soft click and a smile.
Stepping out into the frosty night air, my gaze drifted back to the cabin. My stomach twisted slightly, a knot forming deep within it. There was something else there too, a fluttering in my chest. A small smile began to spread across my face. Was this really it? Was I finally going to be free? Deep from inside my mind, I could feel the darker thoughts, the mental scars from the trauma that I had suffered. They still clawed at me, whispered at me, but with an effort I forced them down, pushed them back out of sight into the dark corners of my psyche.
This was my moment, I was finally safe. If I phoned Lela, she would come and get me, and then everything would be alright again.
I would be alright, wouldn’t I? Lela would help me, wouldn’t she? She was my best friend.
Lar’s cruel voice echoed in my ears as the darkness began to bubble up again. ‘It’s true that she did ask after you for a while, but she seems to have moved on now.’ I shoved his words away from me. I had to have hope. I had to believe.
Those thoughts, the thoughts of my parents, the thoughts of the bodies that I had abandoned in Grandfather’s cabin, I pushed all of them down. I locked them away, out of sight, in the cold vault at the very back of my subconscious. Slamming the door closed with a crash. I could hide them there and ignore them, just like I had hidden and forgotten about all the other dark memories from long ago.
I followed behind Clara and Matthias as they walked up to the front door. The white door seemed to glow invitingly in the dim light, a stark contrast to the hard, deep grey stonework that surrounded it.
There was a rattle from the lock as Matthias fumbled briefly with the key before the catch released with a click. He turned the handle and swung the door open and I followed him into the warm smelling room with Clara stepping in beside me.
My eyes blinked as Matthias flicked a switch, bathing the room in a dazzling, sudden light. As he did so, I heard a gasp from the woman behind me. Gradually, as my eyes adjusted to the light, I could see Matthias looking at me wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open.
In the bright light of that room, they could see me clearly for the first time. The girl before them was gaunt and thin. Blue tracksuit bottoms, smeared a deep, dark crimson, hung from my skeletal frame. My hair was a tangled mess and my hands and face smeared with blood.
“Christ, Heidi! What’s happened to you? I’m calling you an ambulance! That hasn’t come from a little graze.” The dark haired man’s voice quivered as he spoke.
Flinching, I felt Clara’s hands grip my hips, holding me tightly as if she thought I was about to collapse.
“No! No ambulance, I’m fine!” The words snapped sharply out of my mouth as my eyes flicked up to meet Matthais’s gaze.
“Look at you, Heidi, you’re covered in blood. You’re not fine. What happened to you out there?” Clara’s soft voice cut through the sudden, deafening ringing in my ears.
My heart began to flutter in my chest, pounding against my ribs. My breath faltered as my eyes darted around the luxuriously furnished room before coming to rest on the door. The primal instinct to run screamed from inside me, almost taking over me as quivers rippled uncontrollably through my muscles.
What was I supposed to tell them? I couldn’t tell them the truth. Would they even believe me if I did? Would they think it was me who had committed that terrible murder and hand me over to the police? Even if I told them the full story and they believed me, they would still want to get the police involved. I couldn’t allow that. I couldn’t let anyone know what had gone on in that cabin.
My mind tumbled over itself. I needed a story. I needed to tell them something, so I told them a lie.
“I think somebody attacked me.” My story began to form in my mind as I spoke. “I was out walking on the trails; I don’t really remember what happened. All that I can really remember are some heavy footsteps as someone came up behind me. Something struck me.” My voice grew stronger and more confident as I spoke. “I don’t remember anything else. I woke up in the forest. I managed to find my way to the road, and that’s when I saw your car coming.”.
Matthais fixed his eyes on me, his expression set like stone. Did he believe me or not? I couldn’t tell.
“And you didn’t see who it was, what they looked like or what they were wearing?” Matthias asked in a monotone voice.
Shaking my head, “No, I don’t remember anything.”
“Come on, let’s get you sat down.” Clara spoke as she gently led me to a large, plush, green velvet sofa facing a grand stone fireplace. The deep red glow of embers still burned deeply in the fire. Sitting me down, she continued, her large, dark eyes fixed intently on me. “Why don’t we call the police and get you checked out properly? Whoever attacked you could still be out there.”
“Please, I don’t want the police involved. I just want to call my best friend and go home.” The tremble in my voice betrayed the rising emotions that were starting to bubble up within me again. Those bleak memories strained and pushed against the door I had locked them behind.
Clara nodded her head slowly. “You’re more than welcome to use our phone.” Her eyes flickered towards a dark, polished mahogany sideboard. “You must be starving; do you want anything to eat or drink?”
Shaking my head, I stood and made my way over to the sideboard. As much as I was desperately trying to keep my emotions under control, my stomach still churned and twisted. I doubted I would have been able to keep anything down, even if I had tried.
Maps of the local ski trails littered the sideboard. A number of routes had been highlighted in fluorescent yellow ink. One route in particular caught my eye, a trail leading around the lake and towards Skyggespor. An icy chill grabbed my heart as I realised that the route would take them around the lake and straight past Grandfather’s cabin. Would they see the cabin? Would they see the abandoned cars outside? Would they investigate the cabin and find my brother and Kristina’s bodies?
Taking a deep breath, I forced the panic down. Of course they wouldn’t. What was suspicious about two cars outside a ski cabin? They probably wouldn’t even notice it, the cabin was barely visible from the trail anyway.
Reaching out, I placed my hand on the red telephone receiver and lifted it to my ear. A breath released from my lungs, a breath I hadn’t even realised that I had held as I heard the ring tone, clear and loud. A smile crept across my lips as a wave of relief washed over me. I don’t know why, but for some reason I had expected the line to be dead.
Slowly, my fingers tapped out Lela’s number. My heart fluttered in my chest; a cold bead of sweat ran down between my shoulder blades as the phone began to ring.
The phone rang once, twice, three times. My eyes locked onto the wooden carriage clock that sat on the sideboard, half buried among the maps. With the golden clock face shining in the light, the black hands pointed to two thirty in the morning.
How many times did it ring? I had lost count. The bead of sweat between my shoulders froze, she wasn’t going to answer. She wasn’t!
I was just about to put the receiver down when I heard a crackle followed by the most beautiful sound that I’ve ever heard.
“Hello?” Lela’s clear, crisp, melodic voice seemed to sing out to me from the telephone. The lilt of an English accent still edged her voice, even after so many years of living in Norway. It was at that moment that the box where I had locked all those emotions finally burst. Clutching the telephone to my chest, my knees folded underneath me, and I sank to the floor.