There’s still the chance, though. There’s still the possibility that he’ll want to cover all of his bases.
The police will argue that I was kidnapped or hurt, but he'll know I’m alive. He always knows.
He’ll try to convince them to name him the heir, that despite bei
ng specifically excluded from my grandmother’s will, he should get the money. I know him. It’s the first thing he’ll do. Grandmother left very specific instructions, though, and had the best legal team in Ashborne prepare the documents she left behind. When he realizes he doesn’t stand a chance without my death certificate, he’ll do everything in his power to get it.
I don’t know what I’m going to do when he finds me.
My brother is the scariest man I’ve ever met, one of the worst villains I’ve ever encountered. The idea of him finding me, of torturing me, of killing me swiftly sends waves of nausea over my body. My stomach turns as I think about his dark sneer, about the blackness in his eyes. I shiver, wondering if I’m making the right choice, knowing full well that I’m not. He’s going to find me eventually. It’s really a matter of when.
It's too dark to run, but I walk as quickly as I can. I'm tired, I'm sad, and I'm lonely, but I keep going. I have to. I try not to think about my dead grandmother or how I've lost the last of my family. I try not to think about her last words to me or the letter I have in my pocket from her that serves as a reminder of her love for me.
The only thing I have to look forward to now is death, but I won't go down without a fight.
I can't.
I owe Grandma that much.
***
I walk until I’m out of breath. Then I keep going. Just a little bit further, I tell myself. The darkness can’t hurt me. The woods aren’t full of big, angry bears.
Or big, angry brothers.
The little noises that fill the air around me aren’t that big of a deal. They aren’t that bad. Everything is going to be okay. I’ll be just fine.
The lies float through my head before they vanish forever.
I can whisper all I want, but my heart knows these promises are empty.
Nothing will ever be all right again.
The time for “okay” has come and gone. I might be able to move forward, but it’s as a shell of a person. My heart will never be whole again.
Is this why people always say death causes you to reevaluate your life?
The loss feels like someone carved out my soul.
My need to survive collides with my sadness and I cry as I walk, stumbling forward. The woods are basically empty. At the very edges, there are signs of camping or picnics. I see some trash and stumble around a few abandoned water bottles, but once I’m 100 yards in, it’s just me and the wildlife.
No people.
No one to hear me cry.
My feet hurt as I walk, reminding me that I left my good hiking boots in my duffel bag. My Converse might be stylish, but they suck for walking. They were the only shoes I had in my car, so they’ll have to suffice.
I try to coax myself into going deeper into the woods despite the darkness. I don’t know how long it will take Jeffrey to realize he just has to search the woods for me. Surely he doesn’t have any memories of Grandma’s cabin, but I can’t be certain. If he finds me once I’ve reached it, there’s always the chance I’ll have managed to get the old hunting rifle to work.
Otherwise, I’m dead.
He can’t find me before I reach the cabin. He just can’t. If there’s one thing I know about my brother, it’s that he’s a vicious man who only cares about one thing: money. He likes to have it and he’ll do anything to get it. He’s always been this way. How did we turn out so differently?
We may have had different fathers, but from what I saw, my birth father loved Jeffrey as his own. He would have done anything for him and he often did.
I feel a bit sick as I think of the way he shifted in Grandma’s kitchen. He changed just enough to let his claws out, just enough to slice through her delicate skin. I think of the way her eyes locked on mine and she shook her head, just slightly, just enough to let me know I needed to stay hidden.
She was trying to save me.