Haven Hill: Chapter 25

by the Author of The Widow in the Woods

Here’s where the story left off last time.

Kate didn’t remember leaving the cup in the sink or locking the cabin door behind them, but somehow they were back outside in the dusky light, mist clinging to their hair, the mountain utterly still. Even the birds were eerily quiet.

The air smelled of rain. She took one last look at the truck, the half-open door, then turned Ariel toward the trail.

“We’re going home.”

The walk back to Haven Hill was silent except for their boots crunching through wet leaves. Ariel carried her pack like a soldier, eyes straight ahead. No questions, no jokes. Just the quiet weight of grief and understanding between them.

By the time the metal roof of their own cabin came into view, the fog had lifted enough to see the shape of their beloved cabin.

But the cabin wasn’t the only thing she could see clearly. She also knew what had to be done, and she was fully prepared to do it. Kate felt the shift inside her, the way she sometimes felt the weather changing in her bones.

The front door had been left unlocked.

Inside, she cleared each room again: great room, bedrooms, behind the shower curtain, and in the kitchen. Kate had to choke back a mildly hysterical giggle when she mused that she should contact the purveyors of that room-clearing course and give them a bonus, considering how many times she had used those techniques on this trip up to the cabin.

She was not going back down into the basement. There was no way to keep that room secure because of the window they had broken when they made their earlier escape. Kate put the Molly bar in place across the basement door, and together, they pushed the heavy kitchen table back in  front of it for added security.

The cabin was empty of threats.

They were safe for now.

Quickly, Kate built a small fire in the woodstove to take the autumn chill off the cabin.

“I don’t know about you, but I am desperate for a shower,” she said to Ariel, surprised by that perfectly normal urge in this anything-but-normal situation.

“SAME,” Ariel agreed, dramatically sniffing her armpits and making a disgusted face.

Kate smiled, the expression on her face catching her by surprise. It was crazy how a world this normal could exist alongside a world where her deranged ex-boyfriend was stalking them in the Appalachian forest.

“Let’s take turns standing watch. I want you to move from window to window, looking outside. But stay behind the wall and glance out the windows at an angle so you aren’t giving Logan a clear view,” she explained. “Got it? Show me.”

Ariel sidled along the wall and stood beside the window, her back to the room, looking out toward one side of the yard. Then, getting low, she crouched under the window to make her way to the other side for a different angle.

Kate nodded in approval. “Change one thing. Put your back against the wall of the cabin. It gives you a smaller profile.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” Ariel saluted her smartly.

Kate turned her  Glock around to give it butt first to Ariel. She paused before extending the firearm. The weight of the gun was nothing compared to the emotional weight of what she was about to instruct Ariel to do. “If he comes through that door, shoot him. Keep shooting until he is down and not getting back up. You have no option. It’s self-defense, do you understand me?”

Ariel nodded solemnly, and reluctantly, Kate handed her the gun.

Kate grabbed some clean clothes from her room, then hurried into the bathroom, eager to wash off the grime of the past two days. She stripped off her clothes while the water was getting hot. The pile of dirty laundry was stained, telling a story of dirt, leaves, sweat, and blood.

The moment the hot water hit her, Kate surprised herself by starting to cry. The tears flowed as she sobbed silently. She slid down to sit on the floor of the bathtub while the water from the shower head pelted her. After a few minutes, the tears passed. She scrubbed herself from head to toe with fresh-smelling soap and a pink pouf, then washed and conditioned her hair. What a weird thing to do, she thought, but it was habits taking control of a body and brain that had been through too much.

She stood for a final rinse, then stepped out of the shower and put on her fresh clothing. She’d chosen cozy black sweatpants, underwear, a comfy sports bra,  and a long-sleeved black t-shirt. She wanted something she could wear napping on the couch or wandering through the woods, and this solemn ensemble fit the bill.

While Ariel showered, Kate kept watch. She combed out her hair and put it in two tight French braids that she clipped together in the back and rolled under for a tight, no-nonsense hairstyle with nothing to grab.

Ariel rejoined her, clean and fresh smelling. “You look like a commando chick from a movie,” she observed.

Kate smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I guess movies are right about some things.”

“Are you hungry? I can make some sandwiches,” Ariel offered.

Kate hadn’t been hungry until she thought about sinking her teeth into a roast beef and Swiss cheese sandwich, but suddenly she was ravenous. While Ariel made the sandwiches, she pushed the heavy armoire in front of the door again and secured the doors to the bedrooms. It was easier, she had learned, to defend just one room.

They ate at the kitchen table without a word, gobbling down the food like they had been starved for weeks. Wordlessly, Ariel made a second round of sandwiches, which they polished off at a more leisurely pace.

Once she had eaten the last crumb from her paper plate, Kate pushed her chair back from the table and stretched her arms over her head. The big stretch felt good after the past two days of hiding in the forest and making herself as small as possible.

“I have to go downstairs and get a few supplies. Can you keep watch up here?”

Ariel nodded and helped Kate move the heavy kitchen table away from the basement door. Kate knew exactly what she needed and returned in a flash with a plastic tub labeled “XMAS” and a couple of spools of fishing line on top of it. Ariel looked at her curiously as they moved the big table back into place in front of the basement door, legs shrieking across the kitchen floor.  Then, they stacked the dining chairs to form a barricade in front of the back door.

“We’re going to set a perimeter so we don’t have to watch quite as closely,” Kate explained. “I need you out there with the other gun while I put this up.” She put her own Glock into a holster and handed an additional holster to Ariel.

They moved the heavy armoire together and went outside, cautiously looking around before stepping off the porch.

Then Kate started setting up the perimeter. She stretched a fishing line low across the entry paths, threading them with little bells from the Christmas box. At each end, she added a few empty cans from their recycling bin and filled them with pebbles. If Logan were to stumble over one of the trip wires, it would all make a heck of a noise.

“A redneck burglar alarm,” proclaimed Ariel. She sat on the porch step, keeping a watchful eye on the forest around them.

Kate forced a laugh, trying to act like she wasn’t scared to death.

“Mom?” she asked quietly. “If he comes here, what do we do?”

Kate tied the last knot and pulled the string taut. “We let him know he picked the wrong house.”

She debated for a moment whether to install similar alarms at the bottom of the steps leading up to the front and back porches. She decided against it for just one reason: if they had to flee, she didn’t want herself or Ariel to be slowed down by tripwires.

She didn’t know yet what came after the traps, whether she’d go after him or make him come to her. Both options were ugly. Leaving Ariel alone felt like standing on the edge of a cliff. Taking her along might be worse. But one thing was certain — she couldn’t risk him finding them unprepared again.

She took a deep breath of the cool mountain air, the scent of wet pine and chimney smoke curling into her lungs, and made herself a silent promise:

They would not be victims.

About Daisy

She is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.