See How She Runs (The Chronicles of Izzy #1)(10)

I must have made some sort of noise, because Kennan looked over at me quickly with a look of someone battling themselves in his eyes. He reached for the towel again. I tried to reach for the door to leave, but my head hurt so badly I couldn’t do anything. He slowly placed the towel over my mouth, cursing in some foreign language and then there was nothing.





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I awakened again, slumped over in the front seat. At least this time I was not restrained. We were bumping along on some sort of gravel road in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. I realized my head no longer felt as though someone was trying to pry my brain out. As I woke up a little more, I started to realize I once again really had to pee. Half of me was afraid to tell Kennan, and the other half just really wanted to relieve my bladder of its current agony. I started to talk but my voice was hoarse.

“I really have to go to the bathroom,” I said, sounding as pitiful as I was afraid I might be.

To my surprise, he just stopped the car in the middle of whatever could be road we were driving down. He pulled out a roll of toilet paper from a bag in the back and handed it to me. I looked down at it like it held the answers to the mysteries of the universe.

“I thought you had to pee. Or are you afraid to go in the woods by yourself. I can come with you if you really need me to hold your hand,” he said gruffly and without a hint of his usual humor.

“No, that is fine. I will just go park it behind some tree in the middle of woods while it rains. Sounds like a great plan to me.” I sounded snarky even to my own ears, but I was irritated beyond belief. I had been kidnapped by my only friend. I had been taken to God knows where. And I didn’t know what in the hell was going on.

I climbed out of the car and headed to the nearest tree. I had to pee so badly I just ignored the embarrassing fact that he could probably still see me from the Jeep. I finished up and headed back to the car.

“Where to now? Or do you want to go ahead and suffocate me with your magic towel there again?" I snapped as I buckled myself back in.

“We will be where we are going to leave the Jeep in about an hour. You should eat something. You have been out for two days. I promise when we get where we are going I will explain everything." Yup, man of mystery over here. I was starting to think I did not like this new Kennan at all. While I was overly curious as to what in the world was happening to my seemingly normal life, I was also too stubborn to give him the satisfaction of asking.

I occupied my time looking out the window. I noticed that everything was really green here, and I did mean everything. It was as if any surface that stood still long enough was covered in moss. I was pretty sure if I went out there and stood still for an hour, I would turn green as well. Then there was the sky. It was an endless blanket of grey that leaked a fine spray of constant moisture. It was not enough to call rain, but it certainly was not dry. Then I noticed the ferns. Good God! I did not know that ferns could even get that big. By the time we finally came to a stop at the end of the gravel road, I was totally entranced by the beauty of the place.

“Alright, time to get out Izzy. You need to put on those hiking boots in the backseat. We will be walking from here," he said tiredly, as if he just knew I was going to give him problems.

I bit my tongue and put on the shoes in silence. They fit perfectly. Then I threw on the raincoat that was lying next to them. I didn’t need him to dress me as well. I got out and stood staring blankly at my former best friend. I felt as though I was looking at a complete stranger. I guess I could try and run, but first I needed to know where the hell I was. I could be patient. I would just go along with whatever Crazy Pants here had planned for me until I knew more about what special kind of hell I was in.

As I was getting ready in the car, Kennan was unloading supplies and filling up a giant hiking backpack. He had a second backpack that was loaded with barely anything. I knew which one I wanted to carry. He then proceeded to cover the vehicle so that no one would ever notice it was even there. He turned and grabbed the giant backpack as if it weighed nothing then handed me the lighter one.

“We will be walking for about four hours. We can stop and rest as much as you need to, but we need to try and make it where we are going by nightfall," he said to me before turning and disappearing into the tree line.

I stepped in after him noticing that there was no discernible trail. The trees were the biggest trees I had ever seen in my life. I could not even wrap my arms a quarter of the way around some of them. I was lost in a dreamland while blindly following him. As my mind wandered, I remembered the dream I had had of my mother warning me to hide. Could she have been warning me about him all along? Or was it just a coincidence? I stumbled on a root and a hand reached out to steady me lightning fast. Inhumanly fast. Without any explanation Kennan turned and kept walking.

I refused to ask for a break and after three hours of walking up what felt like a mountainside I was exhausted. Kennan did not look back at me but any time my steps faltered, he was there to steady me. By the time the fourth hour had passed I was about dead on my feet. We were steadily climbing when there was a sudden break in the endless trees and man-eating ferns.

There, standing in the small clearing with a rock face at its back, was a cabin. It was not a meager one room shack type cabin either. This was a huge, well-built structure. I marveled at how something like this could be built up here. There were no roads to bring supplies, so I had no clue how it would have been done. Just to clear a patch of forest to build it would have been a feat in itself.