Goldilocks (2 page)

“We’ve got to unpack the car,” Paul startled his daughter from behind, grabbing her shoulder when she jumped. “Sam is pulling around ‘Big Red’, the jeep,” he explained. “Snow tires included, for when winter sets in,” he tried for a smile and was rewarded with an eye roll from Hannah.

It was a lot to process, he knew that, which is why he left her there to sulk for a moment while he went outside to start unloading the Audi on his own.

Hannah heard ‘Big Red’ before she saw it, a thick plum
e of gray black smoke trailing behind as it sputtered past the front door of the store towards their parked Audi. The jeep was one of those big box shaped ones, most of the red painted permanently rusted over with crusty brown splotches. She’d just exited the store when she heard Sam yelling over the rackety engine to her father.

“She runs better than she sounds! It’s been a bit before I started her up, but once you drive her for a few days, she won’
t let you down,” he promised, taking the keys -to the Audi- Paul handed him.

Hannah said nothing to her father as she gather
ed her belongings from the car, transferring them over to the worn seat of the Jeep, before climbing in the passenger side.

“It’s been a while since I’ve driven a stick,” Paul admitted when he finally climbed in beside her, eyeing the long gear shift sticking up out of the floor between them.

Hannah grabbed the door handle as he shook the gear shift gently, revving the engine as he slid it into first gear. They jerked forward roughly, thrown into the dash as ‘Big Red’ immediately coughed, sputtered and died. Hannah giggled as she looked at her father, his shaggy blond hair mused as he ran his hand through it in frustration. Determined to get the hang of it, they inched forward through two more failed attempts, before finally pulling back onto the asphalt of the road they’d come in on.

With the map Sam had given him, spread out across the dash, Paul drove slowly past the cluster of buildings that was considered ‘town’ and out towards nothingness. Once again they were surrounded by nothing but trees and hills, the mountains in front of them, tall and proud. Around the loop they circled slowly for what seemed like a good twenty minutes, before Paul suddenly spotted a dirt road on their right. There were no markers, and no signs, but it had been the only one they’d seen for miles, and according to the path Sam had drawn on the map, this was it.

“It might get bumpy,” Paul muttered out loud, even though Hannah’s grip had barely released its hold on the door since pulling away from the one stop shop.

Bumpy wasn’t the word for the road that wasn’t really a road at all. Trees grew where they grew ‘the road’ winding around them, and almost disappearing in some spots, only to appear again a few yards ahead. Despite it being only midday, the beaming sun now only shown down
on them in thin piercing rays through the lush tree tops overheard, darkening their surroundings, and casting the forest they were driving through into shadows.

“Are you sure this is the right…?” Hannah started and then
snapped her mouth closed as her father suddenly stopped where the road they were on ended, and another one veered sharply down into a small cove.

“I think that’s a cabin,” he pointed through the windshield of the jeep towards the top of a structure she hadn’t seen for the crowd of trees all around them.

“Dad…”

“Hannah…” he sighed, shifting roughly so that the jeep lurched forward onto what could have been considered more of a nature trail than a driveway.

She swallowed her complaint, staring straight ahead at what was to be their new home. Old man Jacobs’ place was a log cabin in its truest form, thick dark mahogany logs staggered and stacked so they formed a quaint little box like shape. It sat in the tiniest of clearings, the ground around it surprisingly clear of the plant life that seemed to carpet the forest around them. It didn’t look like the place had been abandoned for as long as Sam had said it was. A complex stack of firewood took up most of the covered porch that graced the front of the structure, an old ax still stuck in a sawed off stump just to the right of it. The moss green grass seemed as if had been recently cut, the blades as soft as new carpeting when Hannah slid from the jeep onto her feet.

“It’s not so bad, kind of charming
actually,” Paul pointed to the tiny square windows on the side of the house, and then up to the brick chimney jutting up from the top. “My parents used to have a wood stove when I was younger. Nothing like that smell in the winter to let you know you were truly home,” he smiled sadly, looking to Hannah who met his gaze from the other side of the car.

It was their first day in their new house, and she didn’t want to ruin it by arguing with him. She tried for a smile, which felt more like a grimace and so she turned away, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she reached into the back seat of the jeep for one of her bags.

“If you want me to look for something closer to town…” Paul started, but was surprised when Hannah shook her head.

“You said it was free right, a perk of the job and all that…”

“Well yeah, but I didn’t expect…” Paul trailed off, looking at the woods that surrounded them. “I mean I know you’ve never lived anywhere but the city, and I want you to be happy.”

“I am,” Hannah said a little too quickly. “Trying,” she added at his doubtful look. “I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it,” she nodded firmly as if to convince herself, but it brought a small sigh of relief from her father.

“I’ll get the bigger stuff, you grab the small stuff,” he offered, throwing her the set of keys that had come in the mail only a few days before they left.

Hannah walked slowly towards the log cabin, stopping at the first step of the porch as she looked back at her fat
her. She couldn’t help wondering what her Aunt Maggie was doing right now. It was Sunday, and every Sunday for the last five years they’d gone together to take fresh flowers to her mother’s grave, even when the weather demanded that they stay inside.

There would be no more Sunday’s like that, and her mother had never felt so far away from her in spirit as she did now. But at least she still had her father, Hannah reminded herself, climbing the three narrow steps up to the front door. Her fingers trembled as she slid the key into the lock with a sigh.

“Home Sweet Home…”

Chapter 2
:

Jake Bear watched from the shadows of the woods, just beyond the cabin
, as the girl and the older man climbed from the ugly red jeep. He’d recognize Big Red anywhere, and had smelled the fumes long before he’d seen the evidence that someone was this far out in the forest. There had been rumors that a new mine inspector had been assigned to Golden Wonder mine, but those rumors had circulated for about a week before dying off completely. That was months ago, and even still, if the rumor did happen to be true, Jake wondered why the new inspector would dare live in the cabin of the mysteriously missing old inspector. The forest wasn’t safe; everyone in Hinsdale knew that.

When old man Jacobs had disappeared two years
ago and never come back, the townspeople had blamed the mine closing on him. He’d ignored the problem of the collapsing tunnels, and had pushed the men on for gold, despite two people losing their lives. Some said that Jacobs had caught gold fever and run off, but Jake knew the truth behind the old man’s disappearance.

Jake’s father, Rone, had warned Jacobs about drilling deeper, and especially on his own. No one went into the mine at night, but Jacobs was an old school miner born and bred. Before there was a mine, his own father had panned for gold in the area, discovered the deposits that later l
ed to the mine being started. Jacobs hadn’t wanted to listen to Rone’s warning, and by the time Jake and his father had heard his screams coming from deep in the mine, it was already too late. There was no need to tell the townspeople what had really happened; they would’ve never believed them anyway. And so the rumors had spun their own tale of what had happened to the old man, his children only left with questions, and the few possessions he’d had in the cabin the girl and her father were moving into now.

Jake watche
d them, his curiosity piqued as to how long they would last. For starters, their dress was all wrong for these hills. The girl wore a strappy white tank top and shorts, the outfit clinging to her thin torso and hips, and covering none of her sun kissed arms and legs from the swarms of mosquitos that plagued Hinsdale during the summer months. Her hair swung loose and stick straight, un-styled and natural, saved the chopped bang across her forehead. He knew, even from a distance that she wasn’t going to fit in with all the other girls that lived around here, but then again, she didn’t look like all the other girls Jake went to school with over at Lake City High School. Even from where he watched, crouched against the massive trunk of an aged pine, he could see that her face was smooth and clear of makeup that most other girls he knew wore like it was going out of style. The thick bang across her forehead shadowed her eyes as she looked out and around at her surroundings, her long, straight, blonde hair swinging over her shoulder as she reached back into the jeep to pull out a bag. Jake’s breath caught and held as the scent of oranges and vanilla tickled his senses, the smell of her sticking to the cool breeze that came with the evening hours. Thin, tall and leggy, she seemed almost fragile to him, pale pink lips turned downward into a tiny frown as she spoke to the man.

He sniffed, but her scent had dissipated as suddenly as it had caught him, her feet carrying her further across the yard now.
She didn’t seem happy to be here, and appeared at best skeptical of the cabin in front of her. Keys jangled as they were thrown through the air, the girl catching them and then turning and walking slowly towards the porch. Jake bristled in annoyance as she stopped, regarding the old cabin as if she were anxious. The pair both had ‘city’ written all over them, from the unpractical strappy gold sandals she wore, down to the leather loafers the older man sported. There had been a few of ‘those’ in Hinsdale over the years, but none of them had stayed, the remote location of the county too much for any of them to handle. The rumored disappearances didn’t help either, but there hadn’t been a report in years. Everyone knew not to go into the woods, it was almost a golden rule around here.

The sound of the key turning in the rus
ty door lock of the cabin snapped Jake to attention, his view of the girl almost completely blocked now. He hoped he hadn’t left anything behind when he’d been there the night before last. The cabin had become the place where he’d go to sit and think, away from his parents, and away from the woods where his thoughts sometimes couldn’t find their bearings.

He heard the familiar creak of the front door being pushed open, and then
the hard bottoms of her shoes scuffing their way slowly across the worn hardwood oak floor boards inside. The man had both hands full of what looked to be expensive luggage, stumbling as he tried to grab the last piece off the ground.

“Hannah!” he called out
, and Jake’s head jerked around at the lone howl that came simultaneously from just beyond the pass he’d just crossed.

Where are you?!
Rone’s voice in Jake’s head was agitated, his thoughts broken by images of the attack that was taking place at this very moment.

Jake saw what his father allowed him to see, immediately guilty that he’d let the girl and her father distract him from what he was supposed to be doing.
Almost instantly, Jake threw up a block around the memory his mind had created of the girl and the man, turning on his heels in a burst of speed that carried him back up through the trees and over the rise of the steep hill.

Coming!

**********

Where were you!?
Rone demanded with a low growl, raising the hairs on the back of Jake’s neck the second he burst into the clearing.

The tone in his father’s voice was clear in his head, disapproving and annoyed that Jake hadn’t been there when he needed him.

Jake immediately halted his full on run, kicking up a spray of dead leaves and thick clumps of summer moss as the bulk of him settled just in front of his father’s massive frame. When he was younger, it had been impossible to hide even his most private thoughts from his parents, their telekinetic link a honed science that had taken Jake more than a decade to master. Even now, he couldn’t keep his eyes locked with his father’s, his gaze instead travelling to the hefty sized wolf that hung limply over his father’s shoulders.

That the only one?
Jake grunted in response, his ears piqued as a family of squirrels above them suddenly scattered through the tree tops.

If it hadn’t been…
Rone’s voice was still gruff, the menacing growl gone from his throat now as he regarded his son with a wary look.

I thought I’d take a look beyond the pass, just in case…

You’re always thinking too much. I told you to stay away from the pass!

You’re always treating me like a child!
Jake let the thought trail off, knowing that he would never win this battle.

His father was upset that he hadn’t been there during the attack, but Jake knew if he had been there, he would have been pushed back and not allowed to fight anyway. He didn’t see how it made a difference. The wolf had been caught, and would be dealt with.

You gonna be home in time for dinner?
Jake nodded to the North, much higher than the clearing they were standing in.

Gotta go back to the mine
Rone responded, dropping his shoulders so that the wolf’s head lolled forward and finally dragged its body down to the ground with its weight.

A
small one compared to last time
Jake nodded, turning the body over so that the gaping wound in its side was visible.
Nearly ripped this one to shreds…

Not th
at it would do any good
Rone cut him off, slamming his right paw down on the wolf’s heaving chest.
You think you can get him back before he starts to heal? Don’t waste any time! This wasn’t an easy…

I got it
dad
Jake shook his head, clamping the wolf’s neck tightly in his teeth, just below the jowls.

Warm blood squirted into his mouth, dripping from the sides and back down onto the ground as he maneuvered the massive body underneath his. He could feel the animal
’s pulse, its plea low and agonizing, pushing through his thoughts, but he ignored it, just like his father had taught him. Jake resented the approving nod his father gave him before turning and heading back the way he’d come, towards the mine.

Rone had taken a chance on leaving today, his person probably reported as missing since the tunnel they’d been working in collapsed over an hour ago. He’d seen to it that as many men as he could reach made it free of the falling debris, before charging off after the escaped wolf. Calling Jake from patrol hadn’t been necessary, but when the thing had attacked him from behind, Rone had let his fear show for just a moment, his worry for his family translated as anger when he realized that he had no idea of Jake’s whereabouts. He’d only seen one wolf escape through the gap in the rocks, but the collapse had happened so fast, he wasn’t sure.
With no leader, the miners had taken it upon themselves to follow old man Jacobs plan and continue drilling deeper. The town had suffered during the two years the mine had been closed, and everyone was anxious to start providing for their families again. They wouldn’t listen to him, and so he worked with them, while at the same time working against them, collapsing the tunnels when necessary, and praying for forgiveness when his fellow man was injured in the process.
If only they knew…

Jake heard the
tail end of his father’s thought and immediately felt guiltier for not being there during the attack. To Jake and his mother, his father wasn’t head of the council, keeper of the woods; he was just Rone, loving, caring father and husband. Jake knew that, and he knew his father’s anger was for his own protection, but when did he get his chance to grow up? Even though he had a few more months before his eighteenth year, Jake had already chosen the shifter life. He’d never taint the waning council blood with one of ‘them’. He didn’t need the humans, and his fight was with Creed and his pack, not his own family.
I do know…

Jake willed the thought through
with a heavy sigh, dropping the still panting wolf at his feet, so that the blood running from its neck dripped over the rim of the cursed abyss. His breath held as he repeated the ancient spell.

Bound, not broken, spirit born, cursed in life, death and beyond the living grave in which you sha
ll live throughout all eternity. Council given, council taken, unto this world you are no more…

Jake didn’t look as he shoved the body over the edge just as a last ditch yelp echoed free towards the quickly darkening sky. He’d looked plenty of times before, and knew that his ears saw
far better than his eyes ever would into the thick inky blackness below. The sound of the wolf’s bones snapping and breaking, crunching with every thud against the sharp jagged rocks that made up the cyclone shaped vortex he stood over, clenched his spine and tensed his body as he forced the thing’s fading thoughts from his head. Even still it would live, and heal slowly, but painfully, until it had fully regenerated enough to be sent out to search for an escape again. Forged by nature, and cursed by the council upon Creed’s betrayal, there
was
no way out, except through the deep dark tunnels the miners were creating on a daily basis.

The man had called the girl ‘Hannah’. Jake breathed the name past his human lips, shivering against the shift that left his bare skin chilled withou
t the covering of his fur. The mouth of the abyss was situated on the highest peak, furthest from the base of the nearest mountain to his home. From there he could see all of the lights that made up Lake City, the few twinkling dots that made Hinsdale an official town, and then off in the distance, just below the pass, in his forest, a lone glow of yellow, so dim that he had to strain to know that it was really there. He couldn’t hide it from his father forever. By morning the whole town would know about the girl and man living in old man Jacobs’ cabin. A few more weeks, struggling on their own, the miners would have given up like that had so many times before, oblivious to the danger that they were in. But if there really was a new inspector, it could only mean one thing. The mine wouldn’t be closing any time soon, and that wasn’t good.