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“There are no hunters in this area,” Josh said. “Not within walking distance, anyway. I would know—I fly them up.”
“So who was it, then?” she asked, confused. But more than that, she was angry. They didn’t believe her; that was clear. So either they thought she was lying, or insane.
A strange expression flitted across Davo’s face. He believed her!
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Carly swallow hard, and open her mouth as though she wanted to say something, but Davo shook his head subtly, perhaps warning her to stay silent.
What was going on? Something definitely was. Something that she wasn’t privy to.
“Did you have water with you?” Davo asked.
She shook her head.
“And you’d been out in the sun for hours?”
Irritation gnawed at Catherine’s insides. Maybe he didn’t believe her after all. She felt strangely betrayed at that realisation, but didn’t understand why.
“Well, yes, but—”
“After running for a long time?” Davo pressed.
Catherine looked down. She fiddled with the duvet, worrying the fabric with her fingers. Now she felt really stupid.
“I know what I saw,” she whispered. “I’m not crazy.”
The silence in the little stone hut was deafening. Not even Jason came to her defence. It was like they all fully expected her to just accept that she was wrong and she hadn’t actually seen what she knew she had seen.
“I saw something too, that night I got lost,” Carly mused quietly. “We didn’t know who that was, either. We put it down to my imagination. You know, dark. Cold. Frightened, and the mind playing tricks.” There was a tinge of doubt in her voice, like she was trying to convince herself that what she’d seen hadn’t been real.
Validation!
Catherine relaxed. Her hands gripping the duvet so tightly loosened. She wasn’t crazy. Carly had seen him, too.
“So who was he, then?” she murmured, without looking up.
“Well, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?” Carly spoke quietly, like this was a conversation she really didn’t want to be having, and all it did was confuse her more.
The tension in the little hut was thick enough to cut with a knife. Was it because of the unknown person, or because she ran away and required rescue? Or both? She wasn’t sure.
Trying to avoid everyone’s judgemental gaze, she reached forward and poked at her throbbing knee. It was a bit swollen, but she was pretty sure all it needed to heal was ice and time. She knew she hadn’t landed hard enough to break any bones.
“Do you need medical attention on that knee?” Josh asked. “You can fly back with us now if you do, and we’ll take you to the doctor. There’s no point staying up here in pain if you need that knee seen to.”
Catherine shook her head vehemently. “No.” She was adamant. “No, nothing’s broken. We booked the hut for the whole weekend. I’d like to keep the booking.”
“You can rebook,” Carly said.
“No.” She hadn’t figured out why this hut featured so prominently in her dreams yet, and she wasn’t willing to leave until she had. Especially not now, after seeing the unknown figure looking down on her; the man that nobody else had been able to see. The man that she knew deep inside herself wasn’t a figment of her imagination or a trick of the light, or a hallucination from too much sun and dehydration. Somehow, the vision she’d seen was related to her dreams.
If she left now, she knew she might never come back, and she’d likely never solve the mystery that was here. Her dreams would continue, maybe get worse. She’d always wonder. She felt it deep in her bones: she needed to stay.
Jason looked at her sternly, one eyebrow raised. “You sure?”
“Yes.” Catherine nodded firmly. “I’ll be fine. It’s nothing an icepack and a bit of time won’t fix, I’m sure. I want to stay out the weekend. Please.” Thepleasewasn’t a question, nor was it said in a pleading tone. It was more of a statement: athis is what I’m going to doand Jason obviously recognised it because he nodded to Josh.
“We’ll stay. Thanks,” he confirmed.
Josh nodded, and with one quick glance at Catherine, they all turned and left, Jason with them. They were judging her, she could tell.
