Chapter Seven: Prison

After spending a week at the cabin with Griffin, it had been some of the best times of my life getting to spend each day with him. Once we had the deep talk in the garden the first night, I could see firsthand how at ease Griffin was. It was as though a huge weight was lifted from his shoulder and he himself could finally relax.

The only thing he still would not agree to do is for either of us to step foot in the surrounding woods, he kept repeating that it was probably miles of trees, and we shouldn’t waste our time. After the outburst he had the first time I pushed the matter too far, I have simply held back and watched what he does.

Every couple of hours, I spot him looking outside of the windows into the trees as though he’s waiting for some enemy attacker to reveal themselves. But whenever he senses that I joined the room with him, he simply snaps out of his trance and ensures I don’t get a single chance to look outside of the window.

After eating breakfast together, we were both stood by the sink washing up our plates laughing and joking about the weirdest of matters. But as soon as he looked outside of the window to the side, he freezes in place and whatever laughter that could erupt from his lips faded into nothing.

“Are you okay Griffin?” I ask once I had watched him for a second as he didn’t go to move an inch, but once my voice filled the room, he jumped so high as like I had scared him in some way.

“Uh- y-yeah I’m okay, do you mind if you finish off the dishes alone, I’ve just got to run outside for a minute?” He asks turning back to look at me, but the look on his face was a mixture of worry and surprise, but not wishing to cause him anymore worry, I simply nod my head with a smile telling him it was okay.

He smiled placing a kiss on my head whilst telling me to stay in the cabin, before I could utter a single word to him, he was already out of the door and seemed to lock it behind him. I stood at the sink a little confused after he left, Griffin was his same silly self all up to looking out of the window, the windows he has been looking out of each day and growing increasingly more worried.

I knew what Griffin had told me, but with all the strange circumstances stacking up, I cannot just stand here doing the dishes and not see what he was getting up to. So, placing the plate I was holding back in the sink, I slowly begin to make my way through the little cabin, the floors of the old wooden board's creek under my step as I draw closer to the biggest bay window in the cabin.

I was unsure what I was going to see when I looked out and if Griffin were really standing outside to get air, but I knew I couldn’t sit back and allow whatever is happening with Griffin to go over my head. After carefully, walking towards the window as though I was being watched and would be reprimanded for going against what I was told, but something kept screaming inside of me telling how it is what I needed to do.

Placing my hands on the little wooden windowsill, I look out at the many trees that blew in the frigid wind. He was not standing by the cabin door like I thought it would, but as I look around even more in hopes of finding him, that’s when I spot him. He stood in a nervous kind of manner using his hands to speak, he kept looking towards the cabin as though he was checking it was all well and good whilst he only stood a few feet away.

From where I was standing, I couldn’t see who he was talking to or in my mind, if he were talking with anyone. Griffin had been acting so sporadic lately, I was slowly beginning to fear the worst. But as though something heard me having this little worried thought with myself, the two men he was speaking with move forward a little more so I could make them out.

They were not standing in a nervous manner as like Griffin, but the tallest and older looking of the pair seemed to be angry in a sense, or rather inpatient. Whilst the other man stood behind him slightly and nodded along to whatever the first was saying, as I watched, I began to attempt to make out their faces in case I knew them from somewhere. But the longer I watched them, the more confused I became.

My moment of spying on who Griffin was speaking with soon came to a halt when strange noises began to sound behind me. I turn my head around in a shocked sort of manner but find no source of what could be making the sound. So, with a shrug off my shoulders, I turn back to the window to see Griffin once again but instead, I found him and whoever he was speaking to was gone.

A little shocked and worried for Griffin, I get closer to the window and frantically, look around in hopes he had simply finished his conversation and was making his way back to the cabin. But the longer I stood by that window and looked, the lonelier and lost I felt.

My heart begins to pound in my chest at the thought of being left behind and alone in this cabin, hours away from my home swirled around my head. I move away from the window and look around in hopes of finding a plan, I knew Griffin would never leave me or put me in danger, but I couldn’t see him in this moment so reminding myself of that fact was proving to be a challenge.

“Just calm down Rose, you trust Griffin, he told you to wait in the cabin which means he’s going to come back.” I say to myself hoping my little pep talk was going to aid me in calming down, taking a deep breath I walk back over to the sink and finish the dishes, hoping my friend would return soon.

But that little hope of mine was soon snatched away when the hours began to tick by, I paced the living area of the cabin waiting for him to walk through the door once again, but he never came. I even sat on the bed and waited knowing looking out of the window and seeing nothing, but trees was only making me that much more terrified, but when the minutes ticked by ever so slowly, I couldn’t help but feel abandoned.