Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 48 Why Me? pt.4

The room was glowing around Ava, with light from the fireplace countering off the silent morning's dew, the sky only just beginning to color from sleeping black. In the middle of the room now, steam rose from a brilliant copper claw-footed tub. Her body creaked stiffly and painfully as she sat up, and she waited a good dazed minute before trying to move again. Her sight moved side to side a couple times as if to see if the room was steady, without any unknowns lurking.

There was a washing stand in the corner also, a small comfy chair by the window, and on the table, now moved to the window, was a single rose in a vase, with a bag of take-out and a bowl of fruit next to it.

He'd been busy as she slept. And he probably didn't even know how to cook... Unless he ate BBQ human... She squashed the rose in her hand and threw it out the window. She observed that she was a floor or two above the ground, in yet another tower.

Out there in the vast expanse, shielded from any human eyes, were nameless strange things. If there was anything else out there, she wanted to know about it, and she was anxious to get out there. It was calling.

There was a note: Don't get lost. Stay on the path if you explore. But I will find you anywhere you go.

She took the pen to the note: Don't get lost! Stay on the path if you explore. But I will find you anywhere you go.

Her stomach was too queasy to eat. Ava dropped the towel and lowered into the tub slowly, her wounds feeling as though they were on fire. She raised herself back up and down a couple times until she was able to get comfortable, but when she did, her headache dimmed mercifully, and her body finally relaxed.

By the time she could get herself out, the sun was up — unabated. There were no clothes other than a cotton gown laid over a chair, which she pulled on. It hung off the shoulders, away from her harsh wound. She packed the butterfly knives in her boots and went out the door of the room.

At the bottom of the tower, there were four doors. After some serious hesitation, which may have been for no reason at all, she finally chose the door overgrown with weeds coming in from a greenhouse on the other side. Mostly everything was dead. What was left had grown wild and broken loose through the structure of its house, wafting with the smell of old earth and tarnished metal. Its pitiful abandonment filled her with a queer sense of sadness.

Ragweed popped up between the cracks of old flagstones that made up the path leading out from the tower and into the woods. The light trickling through the leaves played with her sight, sweeping over something in the trees that was gone the next. She realized that it was an owl, and each time she looked back, it would be sitting on the branch nearest her.

Finally, she stopped, and asked aggravatedly, "Are you following me?"

Of course it was a wild moment that she regretted, because she realized she didn't want it to answer her back. A move of the branch brought shade over the owl, and she could see him clearly, his exquisite markings and powerful, bright eyes that were almost hard to peer into. He hooted and swept down, hovering around the top of her head. Her fingers could nearly touch him when she reached up — for that second in which she was absorbed, Ava thought she could hear everything in the forest, as if it were more a feeling through her body, mind, and soul.

Then she heard a crack of a branch and glanced down to just barely see Freddy turn into the trees. He had grown. His coat was shinier and vibrant. She called after him, continuing down the path.

Ava wasn't sure whether or not she was seeing him or hallucinating, or even if it was something else entirely. And then he was gone, and so was the owl, leaving her alone, yet the woods didn't feel empty in the slightest. Maybe it would've been smarter to wait for Layton, because he did know this place and what was hidden... But, unfortunately, he didn't feel any safer.