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Panic had set in, even before the first rumbles of thunder had rolled across the sky.
Gabe looked up, but the clouds remained hidden behind the canopy of trees. The light had been dwindling before, but now it faded rapidly against the ominous sounds of a building storm.
There was nothing else to be done about it. He trudged on.
He had been on the right path at noon -he was certain of that much. And it should have looped him back to the parking lot hours ago. He was certain of that much, too.
He should have been heading downward. And he had been, for awhile. But then it rose, and kept bringing him higher. Each time he nearly decided to turn back around, the path would drop again and he would reluctantly go on. Each time he looked out through a break in the trees, he found himself just a little higher up the mountain.
The first drops of rain slipped down from the leaves as thunder rumbled out, gently rattling the earth. He stepped faster, watching the dirt path ahead narrow and twist. As he mounted another hill, the path vanished entirely, fading into nothing but heavy stones and dead pine needles.
A flash of lightning lit the forest, and a sharp snap of thunder cracked down just above his head. He flinched instinctively, ducking to the ground. The rain dropped down like a flood and the world around him went black.
Gabe went on. His sneakers sank into the mud with every step, and skidded across the wet stones as he moved. Wet leaves and sharp branches scratched at his face as he pushed onward.
“Stupid,” he growled.
He reached out ahead and found another tree trunk to latch his hand onto. He was hiking around a mountaintop blind, with poor footing. He knew what it would mean to slip now. He blinked around in the dark, feeling the water pour down his back, and he shook his head grimly.
“Stupid.”
There was nothing else to be done about it. He pushed on, keeping his head hung low to avoid the worst of the branches. He took slow, deliberate steps through the flood of water and mud, going nowhere but forward. Somewhere ahead, there would be another trail, and that trail would lead him home. Hours seemed to pass as he searched for it.
He nearly didn’t see the light, at first. He had shut his eyes as he walked, focusing on the feel of the mud beneath him, and the trees ahead. His eyelids flickered open by chance, at the brush of a raindrop. And, when they opened, there it was, soft and yellow and faint.
He glanced about until he spotted the source. It was coming from somewhere to his right, somewhere far above the canopy. He turned toward it and pushed ahead.
It wasn’t long before the light vanished again, disappearing beyond a steep wall of stone. He felt around for a moment, but there seemed to be no break in the wall. He groped at the rock in a building panic, knowing what had to be done. He would have to climb it. Water poured down the face of the wall, but there were holds, and they were deep enough to get a hand in.
If he died here, the world would think he was a moron, Gabe realized. He shook his head, and he climbed.
It was his shoes that were the problem. They were too wide and too slicked with mud to get a grip. He couldn’t fit them into any of the holes, couldn’t grip them against any of the shelves. With no better ideas in mind, he peeled his sneakers off and tossed them upward. With his feet free, it only took a moment to scale the wall. The light was there once again, waiting for him.
He squatted down into the mud of the cliff edge and moved to slip his shoes back on. The first he found quickly. Ten minutes later, he still hadn’t found the second.
“Stupid,” he moaned out again, limping onward once more toward the light.
There were a few more walls to climb before he found the source. Only once did he have to take his shoe off again, and he still had no better plan than to throw it overhead and hope he found it again later.
It was a flood light, perched low on the roof of a two-story cabin. It took another twenty minutes of steady hiking to finally reach it. The rocks became steeper, and slicker, as he climbed. The rain came harder, pouring down the mountainside like a vast river. The trees became sparse, making it difficult to get a grip and pull himself along. He climbed the last of it on all fours, his fists digging into the mud with each step.
“Help!” he cried out, as he clamored over the crest of the last hill. Even he could barely hear his call over the noise of rain and thunder.
He limped his way closer, barreling toward the sheltered porch from where the light shone out.
“Help!” he cried out again. He limped toward the door and hammered his fist against it.
There was no response from inside. He glanced around wildly, but every window was dark. The flood light was the only sign of life. His phone still showed no service.
He beat his fist against the door harder. “Help! Anyone there? Help!”
The sound of dogs erupted through the night. Harsh, angry barks gebze escort poured out from just inside the door. Gabe leaped backward on instinct, nearly tumbling off of the porch, but a smile lit across his face.
“Hush!” a woman’s voice on the other side commanded. The barking went on, louder than ever. “Yes? Who’s there?” the woman asked, shouting over the noise.
“Thank God!” he shouted, crawling closer to the door. “I’m-” He paused for a moment, trying to think of how to explain. “I think I’m lost.”
The curtain at the window beside him pulled aside. She had a small, pale face. A thick tussle of blonde hair laid across her shoulders. Her eyes looked him up and down, seeming uncertain. The dogs went on, howling and barking in mindless, violent rage.
“I’m afraid they don’t like strangers,” she said, glancing sideways for a moment. “How did you find this place?”
He gestured upward. “Your light. I think I’m lost. I was supposed to be heading down?”
“Your at the very top of the mountain,” she shouted through the glass, and her eyes narrowed.
Lightning flashed overhead and a deafening crack of thunder blew above his head, making him duck. “It’s very dark,” he shouted over the noise. “I lost a shoe,” he added, gesturing at his leg.
She blinked at him for a moment in confusion. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head. “No. I don’t think so.”
“I can’t let you in. And I’m afraid the phone lines don’t run this far.”
He nodded quickly out of pure politeness, trying not to look disappointed.
“I don’t want to be murdered,” she explained. “No offense.”
“That’s fine,” he replied. “Could I… stay here, though? Under the porch? It’s very wet. I’ll leave in the morning.”
She leaned closer to the window, looking over the ground outside, possibly looking for others hidden in the shadows. After a moment, she looked him over again and nodded.
“Thanks,” he called out. She disappeared back behind the curtain before he could get out the words.
After awhile, the sound of the dogs faded. But the lights inside the house stayed on.
Gabe looked around, shaking the rain from his arms. There was a bench beneath the window. He wedged himself into it, wrapped his arms around himself, and tried to sleep. But he was wet, and sore, and the wind was bitterly cold.
He wasn’t lost or alone anymore, though. He wasn’t stumbling through the mud, waiting to fall from the edge of a cliff. The worst of it was over, and it would be morning before longer.
He nestled himself up tighter and shivered. Eventually, despite everything, he fell asleep.
The crack of thunder woke him with a sudden jump. From the ache in his neck, he could tell he’d been asleep for some time. The sound of barking dogs was back, but quite muted compared to the night before.
He grit his teeth as he rolled off the bench and stretched out his arms. The rain poured down from the roof above in heavy sheets, no lighter than before.
“Good morning,” the woman’s voice called out.
He spun around, but stayed where he was, not wanting to startle her. “Good morning. Sorry.”
She shook her head. “Do you want coffee?”
He didn’t want to intrude, but he also couldn’t resist. He nodded.
“I’m feeling more charitable now that it’s morning,” she told him.
She disappeared for a moment, and the window opened, just enough for her to slip the mug out to him. He took it carefully, and retreated a step while she locked it once more.
“I don’t mean to seem paranoid,” she started.
“But a ragged man came screaming out of the dark while you were all alone?” he offered with a shrug.
She took a sip from her own cup and nodded. “And I was asleep, at that.”
Gabe cradled the coffee against his chest. It was blistering hot, but his skin was numb from the wet clothing.
“You don’t get this a lot then?” he asked.
“A ragged screaming man? Not often, no,” she said, giving him a soft smile. “How’d you get here then?”
He walked her through his journey -how he’d found a short hiking loop online, how he’d headed down it with no water, food, or hiking equipment to speak of. Somehow, the path had kept going on. Until it suddenly vanished.
“Turkey Ridge Lake?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Wow. That’s… That’s miles away. I didn’t even think you could get there from here. It’s a bit of a drive even.”
Gabe shrugged. “Well, that’s probably why I lost my shoe getting here then.”
“You could have walked off a cliff.”
He gave a nod and choked out a laugh. “I did think about that, yeah. But it was that or I had to start swimming.”
She studied him for a long moment as she sipped at her coffee. With a glance back at the pouring rain, she let out a long sigh. “I suppose I can’t leave you out there shivering, can I?.”
His eyes flickered over her shoulder, where the sound of growling dogs was still quite audible. “Are you sure?”
“Don’t worry about them. They’ll behave so long as you do.”
The gediz escort locks clicked open, one by one, and she pulled the door open wide.
“Just try and stay on the tile a moment. I’ll have to find a way for you to get to the shower without tracking mud.”
He slipped in through the doorway, and waited as she bolted the lock again behind him. His body shook as he looked around the place. It was nice. Strangely nice, in fact. A bustling fireplace ran up towards a high ceiling. The wide, open rooms were all tastefully decorated and clean. The kitchen along the wall was very modern, and thoroughly equipped.
“My God, you’re a wreck,” she sighed, looking him over closer. She pulled her white robe tighter. “Never mind the floors then, just get in the shower.” She pointed toward a distant room. “Go,” she prompted.
Gingerly, he stepped his way across the clean wooden floors, leaving mud and sloughing off debris with every step. Once inside, he shut the door, and peeled the wet clothes from his back, letting it slop to the ground and ooze between the tiles.
The shower was bliss. Hot, stinging jets melted the filth from his body, turning the skin first pink, and then red. As he washed the caked mud from his hair, a sudden bustling sound came from just outside the curtain. Peeking his head out, he spied her gloved hands collecting his things into a bag.
“Would you like me to wash these?” she asked.
“Oh,” he stammered. “I don’t want to trouble you,” he murmured. Except he had nothing else to wear.
“I’m teasing,” she laughed. “I’ll find you something that’ll fit.”
He heard her out there for a moment longer, and again later as she came back to drop off the fresh clothes.
She had left the door open when she left, he noticed. He had to stretch out carefully, to close it without showing off anything indecent.
Once he was clean and dried, he dressed himself in the T-shirt and shorts she had left him, feeling entirely refreshed. Other than a few nicks and bruises, he had survived intact and better than he could have imagined.
Out in the main hall, he found the woman seated in a chair beside the fire, with glasses on her nose and a book in her lap. The dogs had gone silent as he showered, and hadn’t made a sound since. But the rain still poured down outside the window, as hard as ever.
“Feeling better?” she asked, glancing at him over the rim of her glasses.
“Much better,” he nodded. “Thank you. I’m Gabe, by the way,” he said with a wave.
She gave him another small smile. “Lexi. It’s nice to meet you, Gabriel.”
He looked around for any signs of the mud he had tracked in, but every trace of it had vanished. “I’m sorry. About everything. And for bothering you.”
She shook her head. “And I’m sorry I had to leave you out in the cold.”
“What happened to your dogs?”
“Ah. Them,” she sighed.
The sound of earsplitting barks suddenly erupted around him, making him jump. And then they went silent. The woman pulled a small remote from her pocket and waggled it in the air.
“I told you they’d behave.” She slipped the device back into her pocket and took off her glasses. “Sit down. Would you like some breakfast?”
He leapt after her instead. “I can do it!”
After a lot of polite assurances from both sides, he was sent back to sit on the rug, and he waited beside the fire for his eggs and toast.
“How about you then?” he called over to her. “Have you always lived out here?”
She certainly didn’t seem like the type. He didn’t know much about jewelry, but the pearls in ears seemed real. And the furniture, which he knew just as little about, seemed nice. More expensive than practical or comfortable.
It certainly wasn’t any rustic, hunter’s cabin they were sitting inside. It was nicer than most homes.
“No,” Lexi told him, shifting easily around the kitchen island to grab a whisk, “but I did grow up here. At least in the summers anyway. It’s my father’s place. He always did love the outdoors.”
Gabe nodded, looking over the mounted heads that hung above the staircase.
“Until last Tuesday, I hadn’t been here in twenty years,” she went on.
He tried to do the math. She didn’t seem more than thirty or forty now. She must have been a teenager. A high schooler, at most.
“No longer in love with the outdoors?” Gabe ventured.
Lexi gave a tight smile. “I was no longer welcome.”
When he didn’t respond, she went on. “But now he’s dead, and he has no more say in the matter.” She poured eggs out onto a plate beside his toast. She stepped back into the living room and handed him the tray.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she replied. “It was his loss. He drove us all out, one by one. He had always been a bit more tolerant with me. But being Daddy’s favorite just meant that I was the last one to leave.”
She looked out the window at the rain as she talked.
“Eat,” she told him, not turning to look.
He took a forkful, and gölbaşı escort she went on. “I did love it here, though. That buck there beside the clock was mine,” she said, pointing a small finger up at the wall. She stepped around the fireplace to examine it, and rubbed her hand down the stones. “I used to come here with friends. Everyone loved it as much as I did. They’d have to drag us back to the city at the end of summer.”
She seemed to lose herself in the thought.
“Then what happened?” Gabe prompted.
“Then father caught me kissing Derrick Reyes right there where you’re sitting,” she said, looking him over. “We were a few years younger than you are now.”
Gabe swallowed heavily and set his empty plate aside. “He never talked to you again over that?”
It was hard to believe that was all there was to the story, but she nodded, giving him another pained smile. “He could be a good father. Just so long as you did everything exactly as he wanted.”
Gabe shook his head. “I mean, I’m no therapist, but if someone’s only nice to you like that, I think that just means they’re an asshole.”
Lexi laughed. “Well, I tend to agree. Still… It’s one thing to know it, and another thing not to still feel shamed for it.”
“For kissing a boy in high school?” Gabe shook his head. “That’s nothing to feel ashamed about. Not even by the worst of parents. Jesus. No offense, but I think you should just be thankful you got away from him when you did.” Gabe looked back into her eyes. “If you ask me, I think you should give that Derrick a call right now. Bring him back here and-“
Before he could finish his thought, the lights went off, making them both jump. The house went quiet as the last of the appliances powered down. Only the sound of rain and the crackling fireplace was left around them.
“Well, maybe don’t call just yet,” Gabe said, blinking around in the dim light.
Lexi gave a laugh. “You’re very sweet, but Derrick has been married for a long time now. Him and his husband are quiet happy, as far as I can tell.”
“Well, still,” Gabe pushed on. “It doesn’t matter. You’re a beautiful, adult woman. And your father was just some asshole -no offense,” he added quickly. “And he’s gone now. This is your place. So, if not Derrick, then anyone else.”
The storm poured down harder around them. He watched her in the firelight, his anger from the story melting at the soft curves of her. She turned toward him. He was suddenly very aware that he was anyone. He swallowed uneasily and turned away.
With a sigh, she came and sat down beside him, near the fire light. For a moment, it seemed like something more, but she leaned back on her hands and only starred at the heart of the fire.
“I don’t disagree with you,” she said finally. “I’ve spent the past week trying to believe it. I think it was a poor choice to come here all alone.” She turned back toward him. “I’ve done nothing but brood this whole time. The rain certainly hasn’t helped matters.
“But perhaps it’s what I needed, because now it’s brought me some company,” she smiled. “You’re very sweet. Even if you’re not so good with directions.”
He was thankful she couldn’t see his blush in the dark. “I can always walk back, though. If you need space. Or if you get sick of me.”
“Hmm,” she said, glancing to the window. Thunder boomed in the distance. “I think we may be here for quite some time. It could be days before the road is drive-able. We may just have to entertain ourselves.”
Gabe tried and failed to swallow. He tried to think of what to say, but nothing came.
But she didn’t wait for him to speak. She leaned in and pressed her lips against his. Soft blonde hair trailed against his face as her mouth held against his. The scent of her took the air from his lungs. He had to gasp as she peeled back away.
“Well, you’re a better kisser than Derrick,” she sighed.
He swallowed hard and tried again to speak. “Do you… feel any better?”
She laughed as she crawled a step closer toward him. “Getting there,” she whispered.
Her mouth found his again. Then her breath was on his neck. Her robe slipped to her shoulder, revealing white lingerie beneath that glowed in the fire light.
Lexi climbed closer, until he spilled backward against the fur rug. Her breasts dragged up his body as she crawled onto him.
Her small hands gripped around his wrists as she sat upright, holding her eyes on his. Slowly, her hips rocked between his legs. His eyes rolled and he trembled against the floor. Her tongue ran up the length of his neck and he had to gasp for air once again.
Lexi stretched her long body back, peeling the robe off her shoulders as thunder rolled over them. She wore sheer white, all the way down to her garter belts. He only had half a moment to take in the sight of her before she pushed her tongue into his mouth. She ground herself between his legs faster.
But she was moving much too fast. He tried to cry out, his body teetering dangerously close to the edge. She only pressed her mouth down harder, grinding against him faster until it was too late. With a howl, he pulled her tighter to his chest. Sweat streaked down his back, and he collapsed, trembling against the ground. His lap was suddenly wet as hot seed pumped against his underwear.
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