Bailey

My eyes ached as they opened. Everything ached. I looked around the room from the bed where I was laying. I didn’t remember coming here. I didn’t remember any of this. Where the hell was I?

I scooted up in the bed, realizing the pain in my hip and my leg. When my leg slid to the side of the bed, it felt as though it ripped from my hip socket. I struggled not to scream out in agony, but I couldn’t contain the low grunt that rolled from my throat. My head was still foggy, but I knew this place wasn’t familiar, and panic set in as I planned my escape.

My eyes scanned the room, quickly finding the front door. I stood, letting my weight bear down on the pain, but not willing to scream out for fear I’d alert my captor.

I pulled myself towards the door, dragging my left leg and doing my best not to put all of my weight on my left hip. My hands shook from the pain as they reached out to the door. Gripping the door knob, I got my first glimpse of the dark from the small window to my right. It was pitch black, no street lights, no lights from other houses, nothing.

“I didn’t hear you get up,” a male voice sent shivers down my spine, causing me to jump. I shrieked in pain and fear as my eyes moved towards a tall, scruffy man, with long hair that was wild as the sky in a storm. He looked confused, maybe concerned, it didn’t matter. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know what I was doing here. I didn’t even know where ‘here’ was.

As he moved towards me, his thick muscles caught the dim light of the room, showing off the artwork etched with ink into his skin. He smiled, his teeth straight, white, and nothing like I’d expected from his rough appearance.

“Don’t come any closer,” I screeched, lifting my hand from the door knob and lowering it into a copper bucket near the door. I grabbed the object sticking out from it, long, black, and what I thought possible a weapon. I swung it around in front of me, trying my best not to lose my footing as I realized it was only an umbrella.

The man stopped, his smile widened, and a chuckle rolled from his lips. “I’m serious, stay back. I’m not afraid to use this,” I yelled out to the man who seemed more amused with me than fearful.

“You’ll use that, huh?” he moved across the floor. He picked up a coffee cup from the ornate carved table by the fireplace. I watched him as he moved to the large fireplace that looked to have lost most of its once fierce roar of a flame. He gripped a tin pot that hung above the cinders, poured coffee into his cup, and then turned to me. “Coffee?” he asked as if we were old friends and I’d stopped by for a visit.

“No,” I muttered, shifting my weight to release some of the pain from standing. “I want to leave,” I said, almost as if I were asking his permission. He didn’t come towards me, threaten me, or even act as if he were interested in stopping me, but something froze me to that spot by the door.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, but you can leave if ya want to,” he smiled, then moved to the couch centered in the room. His back was to me, so I lowered the umbrella back into its copper bucket, and gripped the door knob once again. “Although, while you were sleeping, nearly ten inches of snow came down. Not sure you’re gonna make it very far, even if you didn’t have a hurt leg,” he said calmly, not even bothering to turn to me.

I snickered at the man, not willing to fall for his games. I turned the knob, opened the door to a fierce wind, pitch black skies, and snow so deep that it fell into the cabin and onto my feet. He laughed, again with amusement. “Where the fuck am I?” I demanded.

“You’re safe,” he replied, turning to offer a smile.

I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t know where I was, or how I got here. I was… where was I before I got here? My head felt foggy, and for some reason I couldn’t place myself anywhere before waking up in this strange cabin with this man. I couldn’t place myself anywhere before I got here.

“Come have a seat and get off that leg. I need to check your head bandage anyway,” he insisted.

My head bandage? I lifted my hand to my head, pushing my hair away from my forehead to feel the bandage attached to my skin. I cringed as my fingers rolled across the sore wound. That explains why I couldn’t remember—I hit my head. But it still didn’t explain what I was doing here.

His hand patted the cushion on the couch beside him. My weight was pushing my pain to heights I couldn’t handle much longer. I felt myself start to give in, to just fall, but I wasn’t ready to admit defeat just yet. I strained, pushing a loud yell from my lips that caused the man to stand quickly from his seat and move towards me.

I couldn’t run. I could barely stand.

Tension tightened in my shoulders as his strong arm wrapped around me, pushing under my arms to support my weight.

Up close, in the glow of the fireplace light, he was handsome—rugged, but extremely handsome. His smile was warm, kind, and for some reason eased my tension and offered some relief. I let him help me to the couch where I sat as he’d suggested moments earlier.

The cabin was one large room, the bed I’d woken up in pushed against the far left corner. A large fireplace was the focal point with the couch we sat on placed directly in front of the flickering flames. A kitchen was pushed off to the side. It was simple with just a small black refrigerator, an old gas stove, and a stainless steel sink big enough to bathe in. There were candles placed throughout the cabin, all burnt to at least half way down.

“No electricity?” I asked, not turning to look at the man who sat beside me, but instead, continuing to scan the room for clues as to where I was.

“It was a bad storm. No one was expecting it, not even you, I suppose,” he answered.

What had I done, or not done, to plan for this unexpected storm? He still hadn’t told me how I got here. I turned towards him. His long, shaggy, blond hair glowed against the flame that began to revive under the large black log that once smothered it. He had light blue eyes with speckles of gold that glistened and danced along with the growing fire. If I’d met him before, I knew I’d remember. There would be no way to forget a man so handsome as the stranger beside me.