The Woman in the Woods (Saul Silva x OC)

Chapter 4: Names

Saul stood in front of the tree outside the cabin, the one that hit him. It was possible that it was in fact the other way around, but given that he was losing blood and hallucinating at the time, it was always gonna be the tree's fault and no one will convince him otherwise. He tilted his head to the side, eyeing its trunk. It wasn't so tall as to be a giant but not so small for him to miss it.

Maja came around and stood next to him, also staring at the tree. "Pin oak," she nodded at it. "Here before I came."

He looked at her a second, surprised that she would volunteer talking to him when she had been spending more and more of her time in the shed. Apparently, she weaves and then sells them when she goes to the town every two weeks. Ever since that night with the dinner and the scars, she grew distant, which was amazing given that they were under the same roof and neither could simply up and leave. He suspected she still hadn't gotten back to her old routine, needing to check in on him and his general health, but each interaction was off, as though she actively tried not to laugh at his attempts to be funny and curbed the urge to give a witty response. Worse, the checkups were becoming less and less necessary. He wasn't on the IV anymore and his bedrest restriction had been lifted. He was getting better, no denying it now, which was good news really and he should be rejoicing.

"I must have been heading this way," he pointed to the side of the tree, "and just pivoted suddenly to this."

"Yeah, that must be it." She walked to the left and gestured to the ground. "I found you lying there."

He looked to where she gestured and then at the cabin behind him, a few feet from the tree. He didn't see that either, which didn't make sense. Either the tree was blocking his view (it wasn't) or the cabin should have been visible to him. It was also entirely possible that he was misremembering this or that his vision was failing him at the time that it happened. After all, he kept hearing a stream when there wasn't one, so it wasn't too extreme to think that he wasn't seeing things the way it should be.

But there were those two hikers the other day, coming straight at the cabin without once seeing it either...

Maybe it was just the angle. Coming from there, when you expected to see nothing but nature, maybe it was impossible to spot a cabin, one with solar panels on its roof, a flourishing vegetable garden beside it, and a shed behind.

Maja walked back to his side, looking much the same as the first time he saw her, blonde hair cascading down her shoulders, eyes unwavering and hypnotic. She wore a long dark blue dress today, reaching to her ankles, cinched at the waist. He realized it wasn't really the same way. She wasn't tangible then, just an echo of a fairy tale from his fevered brain. Here, she was flesh and blood, vividly human but a vision all the same. He turned away and looked again at the tree, unable to endure another of her politely reserved smiles when she caught him staring.

"How far away is this from town?" he asked.

"Not far. Three hours, depends how fast you walk."

He realized right away that this was the wrong question to ask because it led to the very thing he had been trying not to think about for days now and the reason why he was concentrating so hard on the tree. Except, she seemed to take to the same train of thought.

"There's a path over there," she pointed to their right, beyond a clump of trees where he saw those hikers walking that day. "When you're ready, I'll take you."

"Can't wait to get rid of me, huh?"

He expected her to laugh it off or happily agree, tease him about being a burden, but instead she blanched. "No, not at all. You can stay as long as you need."