Chapter Two: The Encounter (Molly Cassidy)

As Molly grows so, too, does her curiosity.

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July, 2008

            Life in the woods, in the little cabin, is all that I've ever known. At least, it is all that I can remember knowing. My very first memories are of waking up in a little bed and rushing out into the cabin's main living area to find my oldest brother, Christian, passed out on the couch. I'd climbed up onto the couch and cuddled up against his side. Without waking, he'd draped his arm protectively over me, and I'd snuggled closer to him with a contented sigh. I remember thinking that something about him felt familiar and safe, even though he was a stranger at the time.

            When he'd awoken sometime later, he'd explained to me that he and Jaden are my brothers, that they love me, and that they will always take care of me.

            Over the course of the following five years, I've rarely left the cabin. My brothers allow me to wander the forest and play in the trees, but they always keep a careful watch over me, and ensure I never stray too far, and never out of their sight.

            Sometimes, one of them takes the truck and they drive away. I won't see them for days afterward. They'll return with new clothes and food, and sometimes even books.

            Jaden taught me how to read and write, and during the cold winters when my brothers won't let me stay outside very long to play, I will spend my afternoons stretched out on the couch, or curled up in the chair, reading stories. When I run out of new ones to read, I reread my favorites. Each time I discover something new, even if the words remain the same.

            I long to see the world beyond the woods in which I live. When I was very young, I thought that myself and my brothers were it; that there was nothing else. It never occurred to me to wonder where the items my brothers acquire come from, or who wrote the words of the books I read.

            I am ten the first time I have a reason to contemplate the existence of the outside world. It begins late one summer afternoon, when Jaden brings home a rather unusual object...

...

            It is a strange contraption; a black, rectangular box. Jaden places it on the low table in front of the couch. He pulls up a long, shiny silver stick from its top, and fiddles with the dials on it. He presses his ear up against it. His lips purse and his eyes narrow in concentration.

            I inch my way toward him and the device, my eyes growing huge when a static voice comes from it. I gasp in amazement. Jaden continues to turn the dials until the voice, a man's, comes through clearer.

            My brother notices me watching, and smiles at me. "It's a radio." He tells me.

            "Is the man talking to us?" I whisper in fascination.

            Jaden laughs and shakes his head. "No." He says.

            Disappointment flows through me.

            "We can hear him, but he can't hear us." My brother explains.

            "Is he...real?" I inquire skeptically.

            "Yes, Molly, very much so." Jaden replies with an amused grin plastered on his face.

            "So all those stories in the books...Are they real, too?" I have to know.

            He starts to answer my question, but then a female's voice comes from the radio, joining the man's, and my eyes grow even wider. I stare at the radio, transfixed, and completely distracted from my previous train of thought.

            "Where are they?" I demand of the people to whom the voices belong.

            He sighs. "I don't know, Molly." He says.

            I grimace, unsatisfied with his response. That there are other people in the world is a revelation to me. That I want to find them is another.

...

            I become addicted to listening to the radio. It offers me insight into the larger world. I can't get enough of it.

            One day, I ask my brothers where they go when they take the truck and return with supplies, and if there are other people there.

            "We go into the nearest town." Christian tells me, sounding reluctant to divulge anything. "And yes, there are other people."

            "Can I go with you next time?" I plead eagerly. "I want to see them."

            His expression darkens instantly. "No." He says stiffly. "You can't."

            "Why not?" I whine plaintively.

            "You could get lost or into trouble." He replies feebly.

            "But I'd be with you." I insist.

            "Molly, no." He says more forcefully.

            "But-" I start.

            He groans. "If you agree to stay here like a good girl, then I'll bring you home something special." He tempts me.

            "What?" I ask him, pouting with my arms crossed.

            "It's a surprise." He says.

            "Alright." I sigh in reluctant agreement.

            He ruffles my hair affectionately as he leaves, and I watch him pull away, and the truck disappear into the trees, my heart sinking. To distract me, Jaden brings out some of our board games and sets them out on the cabin's floor. We spend the afternoon playing. I notice that he's letting me win, and I challenge him to actually try. It isn't any fun unless he does. He accepts my challenge, and soon he is crushing me.

            I'm having so much fun, however, that I start to forget about the mysterious town and the people who live there. My curiosity begins to slowly wane.

            When Christian returns home the next day, I pounce on him before he even has a chance to unload the truck, demanding to know what my surprise is. That I have not forgotten.

            He produces from his jacket pocket a light pink, leather bound journal, along with a pen of the same color. The journal is decorated with a flowery pattern.

            "You love to read, so I thought you could write a story of your own." He tells me.

            "Will you read it when I'm finished?" I ask him.

            "Of course." He promises me. "And there's something else, too, but it has to wait until tonight."

            The day passes by excruciatingly slow as I wait for my second surprise. I try to work on my story, but I keep changing my mind and scribbling out the words I've already written.

            After the sun has sunk below the horizon, we set out from the cabin and head into a nearby clearing. Christian and Jaden start a fire, and Christian pulls from his sack graham crackers, squares of chocolate, and fluffy white marshmallows.

            He helps me to spear my marshmallows on a stick, and we sit on a log my brothers drag over to the fire. We hold our sticks over the fire and watch as our marshmallows roast. When they are nice and crispy, Christian helps me to prepare my sweet sandwich. "A s'more." He calls it, and for some reason his voice catches as he says it.

            I bite into it, and happiness explodes in my mouth.

            Later, I end up falling asleep on the log, leaning heavily against Jaden, my head nestled in the crook of his shoulder. His arm is tight around my waist, propping me up.

            Every time after that I request to go into town with one of my brothers, they satisfy me with the promise of a surprise upon their return if I stay behind.

            That is enough to placate me until one late fall evening when I am twelve, and I stumble upon something my brothers had hoped I would never see...Other people.

...

November, 2010

            The sun is setting, and the air is bitterly cold. My brothers and I are out for a stroll in the woods. We are all bundled up, but we'll have to head back soon. I am skipping ahead of my brothers. Up ahead through the trees, I see a faint flicker of yellow-orange light. I feel instinctively drawn to it.

            I move toward it, my feet acting on their own accord. For once my brothers aren't monitoring me too closely; they are too absorbed in their own conversation.

            I come upon the clearing, which contains the source of light. I can hear voices and laughter, and I freeze, one foot in the clearing and one in the trees. I yank my foot back, and peer around the corner of a thick tree.

            The light comes from a camp fire, behind which, on a log, sits a young couple; a man and a woman, who look to be about Christian's age. Behind them is a flimsy tarp structure that serves as their shelter. They are wearing thin jackets and knit caps, but their hands are bare. They hold them over the fire for warmth. They are staring intently at each other. The woman is the one who laughed. She seems to find whatever the man is whispering hilarious. They are too preoccupied with each other to notice me. I watch as they lean in towards each other and their lips meet.

            I steel myself to move into the clearing and reveal myself to them. I am desperate to talk to them. They are outsiders, and they must know something about the greater world. Perhaps they'll take me there, since my brothers refuse to.

            A firm hand comes down on my shoulder, and slowly drags me back away from the edge of the clearing. I don't cry out, for I recognized the touch as Christian's.

            He spins me around to face him. He glowers down at me, and I quake. I hate when my eldest brother is upset with me.

            "No, Molly." He says firmly. "I know what you're thinking, but you can't talk to them. I don't even know what they're doing out here." He grumbles, sounding disgruntled.

            "Christian!" I whine.

            "No. Molly, you can't wander into some strangers' campsite. They could be dangerous!" He cries.

            I roll my eyes. "You say that about everything!"

            "Because it's true!" He snarls, and I flinch. "When will you understand that, Molly?" He is exasperated. It is a constant battle we wage; my desire to see more of the world, and his determination to keep me isolated...For my own safety. I long ago grew tired of listening to that excuse. The people in the clearing don't seem dangerous to me.

            "Christian Cassidy, is that you?" The woman's voice startles both my brother and I. We spin around to face her. Christian tightens his grip on me, half in protection and half to restrain me.

            The woman smiles at me, and I shiver. It isn't my brothers' warm smiles, but a cruel, cunning one. She is beautiful, with pale, luminous skin and light brown dots all over her face. She has delicate facial features, and a tangle of fiery red hair, offset by soft green eyes.

            "This must be your sister, Molly." She murmurs. "I'm Jordyn Lobo." She introduces herself. She holds out a hand, which I stare at, uncertain what to do. I've lost all of my bravado.

            The woman drops her hand. "He's never mentioned me to you, has he?" She asks. She c***s her head slightly to the side. As she does, her eyes flash yellow. 

            Christian snarls; the sound of it like a feral animal. It causes me to jump. I've never heard him make such a sound before, and it frightens me.

            I am afraid of my brother, I realize, and that startles me even more.

            "Stay the hell away from her!" He shoves me roughly backwards, and I lose my balance and fall onto my back onto the wet ground with an "Oomph!" He's never handled me like that before. His hands are always gentle.

            "Don't worry, Christian, I didn't come here for that." Jordyn reassures him in a silky voice.

            "Then what are you doing here? And who's your unfortunate companion?" My brother demands.

            I pull myself up onto my elbows, and struggle desperately to comprehend my brother and Jordyn's conversation.

            "How were you even...?" Christian trails off; not in a way that suggests he's lost his train of thought, but rather in a way that says he is acutely aware of my listening ears. There's something he doesn't want me to know. Something this stranger knows. Something they share. The thought pains me somehow. A feeling that I don't recognize fills me.

            "When were you...?" Again he stops himself from completing his question.

            "Before you, baby." She murmurs. "For most of my life.

            "They sent me out here to check up on your little family." She casts her eyes past him and down to me. "It was nice to meet you." She says sweetly. She returns her gaze to Christian, who is glowering at her.

            "You've nothing to worry about, Christian. I'll be leaving as soon as I've finished my supper..." She leans in and kisses him on his cheek. His body goes rigid. "It was good seeing you again." She turns and heads back into the clearing to rejoin her companion.

            Christian stares after her for a moment, then he turns back towards me. He helps me to my feet, and guides me away from the clearing. He's being even more careful with me than usual; treating me as he always does; as though I'm something fragile and precious. It makes his roughness only minutes ago all the stranger.

            I twist my neck to look back at the clearing, but I can't see Jordyn, only the faint glow of the fire.

            "Who was she? How do you know her?" I demand.

            "Shh," He shushes me. "Just...Forget what you saw and heard tonight, Molly." He tells me.

            "But-" I begin to object.

            "It never happened." He cuts me off. 

            I frown, but say nothing, knowing it is useless to argue with him, though I know what happened tonight is something I'm unlikely to forget.

            Jaden jogs up to us, giving Christian a meaningful look. Christian merely nods, and we walk back the rest of the way to the cabin in silence.

            My brother's interaction with the woman named Jordyn Lobo was strange and unsettling, and only served to pique my curiosity even more. Not even the voices on the radio seem as real as Jordyn.

            The encounter has fed my hunger, but now I am ravenous.

 

Reviews

[Christopher Miller]

The reading got easier here. I get the feeling you were, for the most part, anxious to get to this point in the story, and Molly's perspective. You seem much more in your element here. Although I'm still wondering what exactly 'the pack' means in this mythos, it seems fairer that we don't know, since Molly doesn't.