The Woman in the Woods (Saul Silva x OC)

Chapter 5: The Tree

A/N: End of Part 1. Andreas finds the cabin. Saul and Maja deal with the discoveries they've made. This is definitely the most serious and longest chapter of the bunch (so far), but I mean, it's the end of Part 1, so...

"They're not getting in," Maja said.

The soldiers and specialists congregated just a few feet from the tree. They should be rushing toward the cabin, but instead they just stood there, looking around, scrutinizing the grass and the trees. Andreas knelt down and studied the ground where, a week ago, Saul stared at the sky above him waiting for death. His eyes skidded toward the boundary of the property and then frowned, confused.

Suddenly, it was clear to Saul: the cabin was hidden. His insistence that the tree came out of nowhere was right all along, he didn't see because it wasn't there, not until he was past it—the barrier or just something that tricked the eye. But then, that meant—

"I got in," he said. "What do you mean they can't get in?"

"There's a barrier. It repels people. It makes them turn the other way."

"I'm people and I got in."

"You weren't in the proper state of mind at the time."

"But you are. How come you can get in?"

"Because I know I should."

At this, they exchanged looks. If awareness was all it took, then the barrier won't be able to help them. As it was, they watched Andreas remark to his colleagues on the drag marks on the soil that, from his point of view, must have ended abruptly, disappearing without a trace. This, Saul surmised from the way the man indicated the edge of the property and the frustrated look on his face. He finally stood up and looked away from the ground to stare straight ahead, to whatever view was shown to him.

Then he was following the drag marks, walking toward the barrier.

"They're coming in," Saul said.

He closed the curtains just as Andreas stopped and pushed a hand forward. The barrier sparkled with red veins, radiating outward from where his hand pierced it, different from the blue wavelike lights the one in Alfea emitted when disturbed.

Saul went to the study to close the curtains there too. There was only one door out the cabin, which was fully visible from where the group will be coming in. But there were windows. Without pause, he went back to Maja—he couldn't think of her as Sasha, and that was probably something he needed to unpack later on—and took her hand, intending to go toward the farthest window from the door which was the one above the sofa. But she pulled her hand away and frantically took out a knife from the drawer instead, as though it would help in anything.

"Bathroom," she told him.

"No. Window." He pointed to it for emphasis.

He was then made immediately aware that the knife wasn't for the intruders. It was for her, as she pressed the sharp edge against her left palm and ran it through, making a clean and deep cut that blossomed red.

"What the hell?"

She glared at him and, with her bleeding hand, dragged him to the other side of the cabin toward the bathroom, which happened to be the same direction as the sofa. He stopped in front of it, letting her hand go so he could open the window, but because there was so little time—they could already hear their footsteps, boots crushing the grass just outside the door—she just pulled him back and, without explaining what she was doing, stained his brow with her blood. He recoiled but there was already a good smear there, which he instinctively tried to wipe off.