by Teresa Grabs
The tree line grew thicker and eventually turned into a small forest. A proper forest with a small river that cut a path gently through the landscape. Fish and berries became their staple diet, and she camped for days on end in the same spot before moving on. Always forward but packing up became more difficult each time.
“We could stay here,” she told Scout before each move. “We could make a nice little cabin of our own.”
Scout wasn’t ready to settle down though. Nature told him to constantly move forward. So, together the pair wandered through the woods aimlessly, never sure where they were going, but Echo followed the river upstream to find where it started. Perhaps once she did that, she would find a place to call home.
She hadn’t dreamed about anything since Premier Steiner’s death, or at least she hadn’t remembered any of her dreams. It was sad thinking that their story had finished, or that she learned enough to finally survive on her own, and that she would never hear from them again. Henry and Mary, Tobias and Kyle, had become like a family to her. She couldn’t explain it, but she missed them. She wanted to know what happened to Tobias in Bakerton, and Kyle after Mary returned to Henry’s grave. Every day in the woods, as the trees grew thicker, Echo wondered if these were Henry’s woods. There was no way to really tell if anything in her dreams were real, but they did make sense. She passed her days making up stories about their lives in the woods and created a new fantasy world for her and Scout to live in.
One warm afternoon in mid-summer, while they walked next to the lazy creek, Echo stopped and stared in disbelief. She knew this area. It was Henry’s camp. Oh, his tent was not there, and the undergrowth reclaimed his campfire, but this was it. This was her dream. She was sure of it.
“Oh Scout, can you believe it? It’s real! It was really real!”
Darting through the camp, across the small stream, and up the hill, Echo stood looking down on the house she had dreamed about her entire life.
“I can’t believe it!” She repeated, spinning in circles until she was quite dizzy. “I just can’t.”
Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the house. She ran down the hill shouting. Scout didn’t see what all the fuss was about, but he was happy to mosey down the hill after her and lay in the tall grass by the stone well. The house was exactly like her dream. Unlike everything else she had found so far since she left Bakerton, the house seemed like it had been cared for. All the glass windows were intact, the door’s hinges didn’t squeak when she opened it, and the inside of the house smelled like fresh apples. How was this possible? Henry and Mary, Tobias and Kyle, must have lived at least two hundred years ago, didn’t they? She stood in the entryway laughing.
Everything in the house was exactly as her dream, even down to the crocheted afghan draped across the living room sofa. Echo laid on the bed smiling, laughing, happy, free. Life in the little house in the woods would provide everything Echo ever wanted. Water from the well, wild berries, fish, and the occasional small animal. For weeks, she never knew hunger, or fear, or tiredness. Together, Scout and Echo settled into a calm, relaxing, well-deserved life. She always expected someone to come down the path, or through the door, but no one did. The only thing missing in the house, and her life was clothing. She wished she had a change of clothes.
Scout would lumber off for days on end and eventually stopped coming home altogether. She knew it was eventually going to happen. The cavers in Hope were solitary most of their life. Fall had come to their woods, and it was time for Scout to find a winter home. During the day, Echo would fish and watch the leaves turn from green to light amber, yellow, and orange. At night, she would sit by the fireplace on the sofa and make up stories to go along with the shadows on the wall. If only she could get a message to Johnny. They could live in the house together for the rest of their lives.
Some nights she tried to piece together what time it was. She knew she left in the spring of her fifteenth year. Summer at the oasis and Michael’s cave. I forgot my sixteenth birthday. Winter at the library. Spring in Hope. I missed Johnny’s second year in school. Summer at the cabin and house. I forgot my seventeenth birthday. Fall at the house. Almost two years of solitude. Some nights she wondered what would have happened if she had returned with Premier Steiner to Bakerton. Those thoughts were never nice, and she tried to keep them from her mind, but they crept in regardless.
One fall morning she went to the river to fish, but there were none. She understood why everyone wanted to leave and move to the city. Having food was a necessity, but she also understood why Henry was reluctant to leave his woods. It was beautiful and peaceful. That peace was shattered when she opened the door to her home.
“Good morning, Echo.” Premier Steiner sat on the sofa and grinned. “Did you miss me?”
Echo gasped and tried to catch her breath, but she couldn’t. She fainted. When she came to, she was on the sofa, and Premier Steiner stood by the window looking out at the trees.
“Very lovely here isn’t it,” he said. “I can see why you like it here.”
Echo’s heart pounded in her chest. “I…I…I thought—”
“I was dead?”
Echo sat up and nodded.
“Silly girl. Your little pets cost me a good agent and caused a fair amount of grief,” he said.
Echo stifled a scream as Premier Steiner stepped closer to her. Scars ran down his face. She could only imagine what other scars he bears now because of her action. There was no pity to be found, however, as he would have been unharmed if he had not come to collect her.
“How did you know I was here?”
Premier Steiner grunted and shook his head. “You really are a silly girl, aren’t you? It’s easy to find someone who leaves a fire burning in their fireplace all day and night.”
Echo looked at the fireplace. How could I be so stupid? “What do you want?”
“I’ve thought about that since our last meeting, Echo.”
Stop using my name! “I’m not going back. Why would you even want a silly girl? I’m not good for anything.”
Premier Steiner chuckled, shook his head, and sat down next to her. “You are not a silly girl, forgive me.”
His smile sent shivers up her spine. She would jump through the window if she had to just to get away from him.
“I’m afraid we started off on the wrong foot, you and me. This is not at all the way I intended it to go. I had rather thought you …” he took a deep breath and looked around the room. “This is a nice, comfortable house isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” What do you want!
“Everything I said at the city hall was true. I swear it. Everything I said at the cabin was true, as well. I have been watching…” he paused and looked at her and smiled. “Your hair’s grown out.”
“Time will do that.”
Premier Steiner cleared his throat. “As I was saying, you are very resourceful. And have proven your skills.” He chuckled lightly as if he had thought something funny. “You are cunning, smart, determined, and, well, if you’ll permit me to say so, very pretty.”
What! No way! Oh, hell no!
“I’m curious, though,” he said, looking around the room. “How did you find this house?”
Wait! You don’t know! I know about things you don’t? “I just found it one day while walking.”
“Show me around.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her off the sofa before she could object.
She needed time to think. Needed time to figure a way out of this one. As she slowly walked from room to room, showing him everything in the two-story house, she looked out the windows but didn’t see anyone waiting outside for him. Had he really been looking for her alone? He asked questions about the things in the rooms. Things they didn’t have in Bakerton. She got the impression that he had never really been away from Bakerton before. His test was the first time he had ever stepped foot out of their city.
“This really is a remarkable home, Echo,” he said, sitting down at the kitchen
table.
Echo worked up the courage to ask a question that had been building since he arrived. “Why did you track me, Premier Steiner?”
“Ah, that,” he blushed. “I meant what I said in the cabin.”
Echo raised her eyebrows and tried to remember exactly what he had said.
“Echo,” he grabbed hold of her hands, “I want us to be partners. I have waited for someone like you, and here you are. Someone who likes to be in charge. Someone who won’t take no for an answer. Someone just like me.”
Um…WHAT! “You think too much about me, Premier Steiner.”
“Paul.”
“Excuse me?”
“Paul,” he said. “My name is Paul.”
Where’s an anghenbeast when you need one? Echo took a deep breath and scooted back from him. “Premiere Steiner, I’m seventeen years old, and you’re well—”
“Age doesn’t matter. Besides I’m the Premier and can do – and have – whatever I want.”
Oh, hell no! “Premier Steiner,” Echo said, pausing long enough to inch toward the door, “that’s very kind of you, but no.”
The smile faded from his face and was replaced by a scowl that would have made an anghenbeast whimper. “No? No! How do you say no to me! I am Premier Steiner, and no one says no to me!”
Echo fled from the kitchen and made it to the living room before he tackled her. A quick right hook caught him off guard, and he released his grip on her. She ran up the stairs, but he caught her ankle and pulled her off her feet. She screamed as her head hit the stair and blood trickled down her forehead.
“You, stupid girl,” he said, flinging Echo over his shoulder. He took her back down to the bedroom and tossed her on the bed. “You will learn your place.”
Her world was fading in and out as Premier Steiner tore his shirt into strips and tied it around her head. The pain was too much, and she passed out.
It was dark when she opened her eyes. The crackling of the fire was soothing as her head throbbed. The moment she touched the cloth on her head, she remembered everything. Snoring coming from the sofa told her it wasn’t over yet. Slowly and quietly, she slid off the bed and crept into the living room. Premier Steiner stretched out asleep on the sofa. For a moment, he didn’t look like the evil man he was. She inched past him.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Echo screamed and ran for the door, but he grabbed her from behind. This time, it was he who stumbled and crushed his foot against the fireplace. His screams of pain filled the house, and something snapped in Echo. She grabbed a piece of firewood and beat him with it. He screamed louder, but her retaliation only spurred his anger more, and soon he was in a rage.
“YOU!” he screamed as he shoved Echo into the wall by the fireplace.
“MURDERER!” Echo screamed back as she hit him with her fists.
He slammed her into the sofa, and it cracked the wall as it hit. Echo kicked his chest as he lunged toward her. He tripped backward over the table, slammed his head on the floor, and his arm landed in the fireplace. Premier Steiner roared in pain and stumbled around the living room waving his flaming arm around as blood poured from his head. He tried striking Echo but lit the sofa on fire instead. Soon the entire living room was on fire as Premier Steiner fell to the floor dead.
Echo coughed and ran to the bedroom with flames raging behind her. She broke the window and climbed out just in time to see a group of people running toward the house. Her head pounded, and she was in utter pain from where Premiere Steiner attacked her. She collapsed on the ground. The group of people ran to her, but she didn’t have the will to fight them off.
“Anyone else in the house?” a man’s voice asked.
What? Why don’t you know? Echo shook her head and passed out.
Sounds of laughter and clanging woke her. She groaned as she reached for her head.
“It lives,” one voice said.
Others laughed.
“Go away!” Echo screamed sitting up, then regretting that as the world spun around her.
“Don’t do that,” a soothing voice said. “Lay back down. You’re safe.”
Echo laid back down as someone tucked the blanket around her again. She opened her eyes and saw a young man about her age with straight, blonde hair and the bluest eyes she had ever seen. “Thanks,” she whispered.
“Just rest. You’re safe. I’m watching over you.”
Twenty One
She didn’t know how long she had been unconscious, but it was late in the afternoon when she became aware of her surroundings. Four young men sat by a campfire. They were laughing and joking with each other. She remembered all the days she and her friends spent around the library table. She smiled. A boy with deep brown hair tapped the blond one and pointed over to her.
“Hi,” he said, tilting his head to meet Echo’s eyes, “I’m Toby, they’re Jack, Mason, and London.”
“Hi.” Echo sat up and, with his help, walked over to their campfire. “I’m Echo.”
London laughed. “And I thought my name was bad.”
She laughed as his friends harassed him. The group of young men looked around her age and reminded her of Megan, Ansel, and Jodi. Tears streamed down her cheeks. It had been so long since she had company that wasn’t trying to kill her that she forgot how much she missed her friends and talking to others.
“Are you okay? Echo?” Toby held her hand.
Echo looked at Toby’s hand, then at his face. She smiled at he concerned expression. “It’s been so long.”
“Sorry? What’s been so long?”
“Since I’ve seen people—well, people that didn’t want to lie to me or try to kill me.”
“What! Who would try to kill you?” Mason asked.
“Shut up,” Toby said.
“Yeah,” Jack said, slapping Mason’s shoulder.
“We’ll help,” London said, puffing out his chest.
Echo chuckled and took a deep breath. Everyone sat in stunned silence as they listened to her tale of life in Bakerton and of being exiled. She kept many things secret. The young men listened with great rapture as gasps filled the room into early evening.
“I think I would’ve died the first night,” Jack said, sweeping his long, brown hair out of his eyes. “Did you ever find out why Andrew was such a jerk?”
“He died! Who would she have asked? His ghost?” London quipped.
Echo laughed. She never thought about all the unanswered questions she still had. She may never be able to solve the mystery of Matthew, why Andrew was exiled, where Michael really came from or what he did, and, more importantly, why Bakerton attacked the City of Hope.
She sighed. “I guess, there’s a lot of things I’ll never know.”
“Maybe Mr. Hampton can help,” Toby said. “Come with us and ask him.”
“Go where? Who is Mr. Hampton?” Echo asked. “There’s nothing left in Hope—”
“I don’t know where that city is, but I do know Mirror Lake, where I was born and lived my whole life, and Mr. Hampton runs the town,” Toby said, holding Echo’s hand. “Trust me. Living there with all of us is better than living here alone.”
“I don’t know about that, man,” Mason said. “Spending two weeks on the road with you lot makes this place seem like a palace.”
Everyone except Echo laughed. “Two weeks? I didn’t see you before.”
Toby looked confused. “The trail is miles from here. The only reason we came into the woods was because of the smoke.”
“Oh.” Echo nodded, and she wondered what else she had missed that whole time.
“We’ll stay here tonight,” Toby said, handing Echo a plate of food, “then you can decide in the morning. Okay?”
Echo nodded. While they ate around the campfire, they told stories of Mirror Lake and of other places they had been to. She had never heard of anything like their stories. If they were able to come and go from the city as they pleased, she should be able to as well. Thoughts of Matthew
and Edward, Michael and even Andrew, flashed in her mind. Even if Mr. Hampton knew nothing of Bakerton or the City of Hope, she would at least be able to share what she knew of their story. Their deaths would not have been in vain. As the group camped for the night, she grew excited for whatever would come. She knew, finally, that she was free. No one could ever take that away now.
It was a six-day walk filled with talking, laughing, and sharing. Their journey took them through the woods, away from the plains and barren landscapes and into a world filled with birds, greeners, cavers, and all sorts of animals and plants that Echo had never dreamed existed. They often poked fun at Echo’s ignorance and naivety, but she didn’t mind. It made her feel at home among friends.
“Why do you call deer, greeners, and bears, cavers?” London asked as they got closer to Mirror Lake.
Echo chuckled. “Well, greeners eat green plants, and Scout lived in caves made by the collapsed buildings in Hope.”
“Oh,” London said, nodding his head.
“Makes sense when you put it that way,” Mason added.
“Didn’t you learn about them in school?” Toby asked, curious about her lack of knowledge of things he considered common sense.
She shook her head. “No. All we learned about were the anghenbeast and how they will attack you if you disobey.”
The young men stopped in their tracks. “The what?” they said in unison.
“The anghenbeast,” Echo said, looking confused. “You know, the things that live in the plains that hunt in packs.”
“Yeah, you said that name the other night, but we didn’t know what you were talking about,” Mason said.
“Still don’t,” Jack added.
“Lots of things live out there, but we never got that close to your city to know about them.” Toby clarified when Echo started looking like she had done something wrong.
They continued walking for a few more hours, then the air filled with a variety of aromas and sounds.