Free SORROW WOODS by Beckie

sign that he’s lying to me.

    He smirks. “I wouldn’t dare after watching you in the woods. You can trust me, Serena.”

    I take a deep breath. “My Mother said we should never trust anyone other than ourselves.”

    “Your Mother hasn’t exactly been honest with you,” he says, matter-of-factly.

    I frown at him. I don’t like the tone he takes when he talks about Mamma. “Don’t talk about
    my Mother like that.”

    He huffs and pushes a bare hand through his floppy black hair. “Are you not the least bit
    curious? Don’t you want to know who I am and where I’ve come from and what it’s like there? If
    you’ve really been in this shack for your whole life, wouldn’t you like to know what it’s like in the city?”

    “It’s not a shack,” I remind him.
    He looks behind me and huffs. “Sorry.”

    I do want to know those things. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but why is he so intent in making
    me listen to him?
    “Even if I do want to know those things and you tell me, it won’t change anything, will it?” I
    ask.
    “That depends,” he replies, cryptically.

    “On what?”

    “You.”

    I sigh. “I really don’t understand any of this, Kaiden. I don’t know why you’re here. I don’t
    know why you wanna tell me about all this stuff, I don’t know why you tried to take me the other
    night, and I really don’t know why you bothered to bring me back here, when you were so intent on taking me away in the first place.”
    “You’re beautiful,” he blurts out.

    My eyes snap onto him and I blink. “Is that your answer? Is that the reason you tried to take
    me?”

    He shakes his head. “It has nothing to do with that.”

    I sigh, not fully understanding what he’s talking about. “Well, I’m still not letting you in.”
    “Please, Serena. I’m seriously cold. I will tell you everything else that you want to know, but
    please don’t ask me to tell you that yet. I’m not ready and neither are you.”

    I raise my eyebrows at him.

    “You’re just going to have to trust me, Serena. Just on this one thing.”

    I take a deep breath. “You scare me,” I confess, “and I really don’t understand why you’ve come back.”
    “I couldn’t just forget about you. You got stuck in my head and you were all I could see when I
    closed my eyes. I had to come back and see you again, just to make sure you were okay. That’s why I’m here. I’m not here to scare you or to take you, and I’m not lying to you. I’m here to be whatever you want me to be. I figured I owed you that much.”

    I look up into his eyes. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him either. I’ve replayed
    what happened that night over and over in my head. Yes, he tried to take me, but he claims he had a reason for it. I saved his life and he probably saved mine by bringing me back, but he wouldn’t have had to carry me all the way home with an injured shoulder if he hadn’t have dragged me into the
    woods in the first place. He’s promised he’s not going to hurt me and I think I believe him. Maybe I can learn to trust him. Maybe I can get all the information that I crave from him.
    I take another deep breath and step back, opening the door as wide as I dare. He blinks at me
    for a minute before slowly stepping forwards. He tries to smile at me as he passes, but he’s too cold and it just sort of slips off his face. I shut the door behind him and pull the piece of cloth across that keeps the draft out, directing him towards the sofa.

    I hover on the edge of the room, not daring to be near him now that I’ve let him in.
    “Do you want a drink?” I ask, trying to be hospitable.

    He nods. “Please. Can I have a hot one?”

    I grab the canister of water from under the sink and pour some of it into a pan to boil it. I
    glance over to where he’s sitting, but he hasn’t moved a muscle. He seems to be gently rocking in an attempt to warm himself.
    “I’ve only got tea bags. No milk or sugar,” I