The Cabin (The Cabin Novellas (Book One)) by Natalie Stark Read Free Book Online

expecting to see the priest running after me. Nathan looked startled and confused.
    “Mia?” he gasped. “What happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
    “I just spooked myself,” I lied, straightening up, still sucking in air.
    “Spooked yourself? How?” he asked, wrapping his arm about my shoulder and pulling me close.
    “Just shadows,” I said, breathing deeply, trying to catch my breath. “That place is kinda creepy.”
    “Creepy?” Nathan smiled, looking back at the church. “I don’t think it looks creepy.”
    “Well, you never took a look inside,” I said, tugging at his sleeve. “ Can we just go now? It’s starting to rain.” I just wanted to get away from that church in case the priest came in search of me, wondering why I had balked so violently from his confessional.
    Looking curiously at me, Nathan said, “Sure, we can get going. No problem.”
    “Good,” I tried to smile, turning my back on the church and setting off towards the mountain.
     
    The climb wasn’t as steep as it looked from the bottom, and we didn’t have to go right to the top. There was a path we could follow. It branched left, then right, and several times we came upon a small crossroad. We’d been walking in silence for about two hours or more, our heads tilted down against the driving rain. It had started to get dark, and the pale daylight was fading fast.
    Nathan stopped suddenly ahead of me and looked back. “I think we’re lost, Mia,” he yelled over the roaring wind. “We should’ve reached the cabin by now. It said in the brochure the cabin was only an hour’s walk from the foot of the mountain. We’ve been walking for nearly two hours.”
    “How can we be lost?” I shouted over the sound of the roaring wind. “We’ve been following the path.”
    “Maybe we took a wrong turn back at one of those crossroads,” he yelled, pulling the hood of his coat up over his head to beat off the driving rain. “Have a look at that brochure. I’m sure I saw a map on it.”
    I reached into my coat pocket, but it wasn’t there. I checked the other, then the pockets of my jeans. “I haven’t got it anymore,” I hollered at him. “I might’ve left it in the car.”
    “I saw you put it in your pocket,” he told me.
    “I must’ve dropped it then,” I said, feeling useless. “Perhaps it fell out in the pub when I put the keys to the cabin in my pocket.”
    Nathan looked ahead, then back down the mountain as if trying to figure out the best course of action to take. I followed his gaze and could see a wall of fog creeping slowly towards us.
    “We head back down the mountain,” he said, taking me by the arm and leading me away. “We’ll check out one of those other paths.”
    I went with him, as the fog curled around our heels. The temperature had suddenly dropped. My nose, hands, and ears started to grow numb with cold. We reached a fork in the path that we had passed earlier.
    “Which way?” I shouted at Nathan, the wind blowing icy droplets of rain into my face.
    “Down here,” he yelled , setting off down the path.
    “Are you sure?” I hollered, turning to inspect the other route. A thick blanket of fog had suddenly swept in. I span around in search of Nathan, but I was met by a wall of dense, impenetrable fog. I had lost sight of him. Was I even facing the right way? I couldn’t be sure, so I turned around again.
    “Nathan!” I shouted over the roaring wind, which slammed into the mountainside. “Nathan!”
    I bent low against the wind and listened intently, hoping I would hear Nathan calling out to me. But it was impossible. All I could hear was the wild roar of the wind. Raising my hands over my eyes, I strained to see through the fog, but I couldn’t see anything more than a foot ahead. I staggered forward, my arms outstretched before me like the blind. Was I even heading in the direction that Nathan had set off in? I was scared at how quickly I had become disorientated and lost. I