“I’mgoingto help you!” I cleared my throat, surprised by how intense the words had boomed out. “I’dliketo help you.”
She grinned dreamily past me into the rain. “So, you build cabins?”
“I can make you something nice.” I had zero experience, but she didn’t need to know that.
“I’ve never had my own home, Theo,” she exhaled, her eyes fixated on the glittering droplets reflecting light from our small fire in the dark of early evening. “I’d like one. But you don’toweme anything. And I don’t want to oweyouanything for it. I don’t have anything to repay you with.”
“Understood.”
“You haven’t asked my name yet.”
I was hesitant to ask her anything personal. I didn’t want to encourage her talking to strangers. She was far too eager to connect, and that was a dangerous thing to entertain. The less she told me, the better.
Or maybe I feared how badly I wanted to know her name, her story, who she was.
“It’s Vivian,” she offered when I didn’t respond.
“I’ll help you however I can, Vivian.” The name was sweet on my tongue.
It meant “life”.
Befitting of a goddess.
Vivian
He wasn’t dead. He did not die because of me.
The thought repeated in my mind as I stared down at the hulk of a man sleeping on the hard dirt of the ground. Tears welled in my eyes with gratitude as I watched his chest rise and fall with heavy breaths.The breaths of a living person.I didn’t want to look away.
It took him stirring for me to realize what I was doing wasincredibly fucking creepyand snap out of my fixation on his vitals. I blinked away the wetness in my eyes. I needed to stop fixating on whatcouldhave happened to him. It didn’t. We were even now. Everyone was alive.
Thinking he was squirming because he was uncomfortable, I gently lay my blanket over him. The square barely covered his upper body, but was hopefully alittle comfier. Small things made a world of difference when scrounging to get by.
The rising daytime stars had started to illuminate my field, chasing away the navy shadows of the nocturnal forest. The slight turquoise glow that was visible through the trees every night dimmed.
I’d been woken up by the undead creatures howling in the distance some time ago, but my guest seemed undisturbed by the noises. He must’ve been exhausted. How long had he been traveling? And with a sprained ankle. I struggled to wrap my head around why he cared what happened to me. His offers felt too good to be true, but I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Ghoulish night critters aside, I hadn’t slept well. There was a lot to think about.
I understood now why Ida acted strangely about me venturing into town—I’d stand out. Did she know anything about the energy situation? At the very least, she knew everything about me was strange.Different. How I looked. The fact that I told her my mommy in heaven had zapped me into the woods. My healing powers. Maybe, like Theo, she didn’t want me drawing attention to myself and oversharing.
I was a valuable resource. A rare product. A prize to hunt. And based on what Theo had told me, the hunt was always on.
That wasn’t the worst part.
Not only wasIin danger, but my fuckingfieldwas. I couldn’t lose another home, especially not to some dumb corporate shit like an energy factory. It might as well have been New York all over again! There was no Adverse Possession case to plea over this land, but it wasmine.It was ingrained in my fucking DNA.They can rip it from my cold, dead hands. My fists tightened at the thought.
The rain began to let up, the smell of wet earth was pleasant in the morning mist. Nurghle prowled around the dewy field, occasionally having bouts of energy that sent his dark form bolting in a blur through the clover-like grass. I smiled. He’d adjusted so well to living here.
My only regret about bringing him along was taking away the savory taste of cat food from him. Theo had offered him plenty of meat scraps while we ate—maybe too many for his own good. If cats could smile, Nurghle did. The generosity paid off. By the end of the evening Nurghle was purring and rubbing on Theo’s thick outer thigh. Apparently, they no longer saw each other as a threat to my safety.
I stood in front of the cool waterfall running down the column of my little alcove, my feet in the warm ground stream. A slight fog surrounded my ankles where the temperatures mixed. I needed to do this quickly, before Theo woke up and saw me butt-ass naked. It was a risk, but I wasn’t about to ruin my dresses with this little experiment.
I had mashed up blackberries with the stone mortar and pestle Ida gifted me. They made a dark paste with a hint of a deep, cool-toned red. I added a little warm spring water into the mix and scooped it onto my pale blonde head, quickly getting to work scrubbing it through the home-razored layers.
I held a strand in front of my face, pleasantly surprised the “dye” seemed to be taking. My locks were tinted a muted wine-red. I rubbed what was left on my fingers into my brows. I’d always wanted fun-colored hair, but it was well out of my budget.
I dunked my head into the waterfall and wrung my locks in my fists until they dripped clear. The tint remained. Problem solved.
