Credence

Much calmer.

Trees loom over us, clusters of firs and spruces dressed with snow, and I hear the water. Rock walls surround the glen, which is about half the size of a football field, the only entrance I see is the one we just came through. The area is shielded by rocks and trees, but the weather still swoops in from above, open to the sky and bringing in the cold, snow, and wind, albeit not as fierce.

Looking up, I see the cabin on the hill.

“Oh, thank you, God!” Noah cries out behind me.

My heart leaps, and I close my eyes, smiling.

“Kaleb!” Noah shouts.

He runs, and I race after him, up the small hill and toward the cabin. I let my pack fall off me, and I drag it up onto the small porch.

Noah drops his, too, our rifles strapped to the packs and both of us kicking our snow-caked boots against the little house. “At least, I’m not going to die now,” he grumbles, “because if I’d gotten you killed, they would’ve killed me.”

I laugh, leaving my pack and throwing open the door.

“Kaleb!” I call, entering the house.

But even before I can get my bearings, my smile falls.

He’s not here.

Liquid heat pumps through my body, and I don’t think I breathe. Jake was right when he said this place wasn’t for me. It’s one room with a stove, a fireplace, and two beds. There are three windows, no other doors, and no bathroom. It’s a place to cook and sleep when they fish, nothing more.

The wet air permeates, and I look around, grasping onto anything to give me hope this wasn’t all for nothing.

“He’s not here,” Noah says, squeezing past me.

“Has he been, though?” I ask. “He could be out hunting.”

He walks to the stove, picking up a pot. From here, I can see the remnants of something inside it.

“It’s frozen.” He shakes his head. “He was here, I think. The dishes aren’t dusty, so they’ve been washed recently, but it’s been a couple days, at least.”

Walking over to the rumpled bed, I lift the sheet to my nose. The cold and the cabin are the only scents I find, though.

“Where else would he go?” I drop the sheet. “Could he be heading back to the house and we missed him?”

“He wouldn’t have left these guns.” Noah pulls out a rifle, and I see others tucked in the corner.

The guns.

You left yourself unprotected.

Noah’s words come back to me, and I walk over, seeing three rifles standing in the corner, one I know Kaleb uses a lot. If he’s out, he would have it. Why doesn’t he have it?

I back away, a sob lodged in my throat. Where the fuck is he?

The dishes, the dirty pot, the guns…he was here. Where did he go and when?

I breathe hard, unable to control where my fears are going as tears fill my eyes.

Noah approaches, taking my shoulders. “Let’s take it slow. We don’t know anything.”

I twist away fr

om him, though, pulling one of the rifles out of the corner and checking to make sure it’s loaded. Thunder cracks outside again, and snow pummels the windows.