Be Holden

Chapter 2: Fruit

The wooden floors in the cabin creak behind you. You pull away from your thoughts and turn around to see your sister in a white, lace sleeping gown standing by the bed. The poufy sleeves hug her wrists as she clenches her fists. "What is wrong?" You ask her. She glares at you with eyes that can burn a hole in a glass window.I am just fine. Although I barely got away from him, I thought of you and I know you cannot survive without me.She spoke to you without moving her lips. Her voice was audible but her lips did not move. "How are you doing that?" You ask her. I do not need to release words from my mouth to talk to you. We are the same breed. If we spoke loudly all the time it would be unnecessary and most of the things we speak about would get us in trouble. "What do you mean?"He does not like it when we talk about our memories or lives but we should not harp on his rules. We are almost off of his property. I can feel it. We should just run until we stop feeling his presence around us. "Does his presence make me reminisce about the life I had? Do you have those too?" I see that you are comfortable speaking to me, but I will talk to you through the transferring of my thoughts. No, I do not dream about my life in his presence. Thinking is really hard to do when he is near, for me. Maybe you experience things differently from me but that is not what I meant when I spoke of his presence. This cabin and the woods outside are not real. They are illusions to make it hard for us to leave him."Technically, we may be stuck in his home but we thought we got away!"Actually, it can be worse than that. We may be trapped in his head but the upside is... I can't think of an upside."What do you think we should do? I think we should stop walking and get our thoughts organized or at least have a clearer goal."We do not have time to waste. It will take too long and before we finish...He will be here."Okay, just tell me what he did to the others."Now, it is always sunny here but we experienced sixteen nights after getting out of the pods. Every night a pod would go missing and I assumed the worst happened to them. I am a curious girl. I asked him about the matter and his answer was strange. "It is nothing that you need to worry about." That is exactly what he said to me. He did something to them and we can only imagine what they went through. Oh, it is sending shivers down my spine. Come now, we must find our way out of this maze.

She grabs your wrist and pulls you along. Both of you exit the cabin and walk on a gravel road. This is like that time your father got angry and slapped your mother across the face because she dared to disagree with him. Your mom took your hand and ran out of the house with you following closely behind her. The road rises and your mother pulls you forward. When you two reach the top of the slope, you see the guy that owns the cabin. He just stands there as still as a mannequin in a store. His eyes are looking in your direction. They do not blink. Your mother leads you past his frozen frame and he does not move. You point at him. "That guy spoke to me. He is the one that led me to the cabin!" He did? Are you sure? He looks like a dummy, to me. The overseer's presence is getting weaker. I think we are going to get out of here really soon. Both of you take five more steps and your mom hugs you. We are out! You see it, right? The woods, cabins, and the gravel are no longer here. We are free! You look behind you and you see a warning sign that tells visitors to not go any further because the land is not open to the public. The paved road you are standing on stops where the sign is placed. Your mother pulls your arm and takes you into a quiet village. All the homes are empty. As you walk, you see open doors moving in the still air. You two go to the only home with lights on and the door is closed. You feel a choking sensation as your mother knocks on the door gently.

An old man opens the door with furrowed, thick and grey eyebrows. "What do you wan- Come in! I have been waiting for visitors such as yourselves to grace me with your company." He says in an unexpectedly boyish voice. His salt and pepper hair is cut like a toadstool. The hair shields you from seeing his eyes. He fastens the door after you two enter. "Is there anything you want before we begin?" He asks. "What exactly are we beginning, sir?" Your mother asks.