Page 54 of Teach Me How To Fly

“This place is old, but gold,” she said as she approached the fireplace and ran her fingers over the metallic fence that separated the place where the fire was made from the lacquered floor.

“It really is. It’s not what I was expecting but it’s going to be perfect for how long we’ll be staying here,” I replied, leading my feet towards her.

She turned around and looked up at me, and I felt tingles around my entire body.

I didn’t know why the fuck I was reacting like that to everything that she did, but I couldn’t stop it. I was just waiting for any other new reaction my body had for her.

“Is it Lydia’s cabin? What do you think?”

“It might be,” I replied and put my hands on each side of my hips, analyzing the entire room attentively. “It seems like it was arranged by a woman, and it resembles way too much with how her own house looks like.”

“We should tidy up the place a bit. I can’t stay somewhere with so much dust.”

The corner of my mouth lifted and I pinned her with my gaze. “What do you say about me making the fire in the fireplace, and you cleaning a little and maybe finding a blanket for us to cover ourselves at night?”

She smiled back at me, and I saw a glimpse of happiness mirroring me in her beautiful eyes. I knew she was still processing the last twenty four hours, but she seemed like she wanted to think about anything other than what happened. And I was eager to offer her that.

Before I turned on my heels and led my feet to the outside of the cabin, I subtly threw a look at her and smiled as I saw herbrows furrowing because she couldn’t find any piece of material to wipe the dust.

Once I left the cabin I saw the driver already sleeping in his seat, then I turned right and reached a little wooden building with a metallic door. I analyzed the lock and smirked when I saw that it wasn’t locked. I opened it, and I couldn't be happier when I saw the chopped dry wood pieces.

I grabbed a load of them, then went back into the cabin and literally bumped into Annalise who was smiling at the piece of red material she found somewhere in the cabin.

“Finally! I was losing my hope and almost started to convince myself that we were going to sleep in a bath of dust,” she chirped as she came back with me to the living room.

I smiled at her, and the moment we got to the living room, I got down to my knees in front of the fireplace. I put the wood in it in a pyramid-like shape, then lit some matches and put them slowly under the wood. I blew gently towards the lit flame, and it turned into an even bigger one, encompassing every piece of wood in its strong heat.

“Didn’t know you knew how to light a fire,” Annalise said as she came closer to me.

“It isn’t such a big deal. You just put a match on a dry piece of wood and you’re done. You have a fire.”

I looked up at her and noticed she put her hair up in a ponytail. Maybe she was over the messy bun she kept all this time, and I was sure that she maybe wanted to take a shower too. I wanted to, and if I wasn’t able to take one, I was going to be very angry.

“Do you think we have a bathroom here?” I asked, curious.

She frowned and shrugged, putting her hands on each side of her hips. “We should have one,” she said, turning around to look towards the stairs. “Let’s check upstairs.”

I nodded, then I took a last look at the fire. I stood up and Annalise went in front of me, stepping with caution on each stair.

Under each step we took, the stairs creaked and the sound filled the entire cabin. We reached the floor and stood still as we analyzed the hallway that had three different locked doors.

“Which one should we check first?”

“Let’s check all of them together,” I replied, and she turned around, giving me that soft smile I fucking loved.

We turned to the left and headed towards one of the doors. When we reached it, I pressed the doorknob and was surprised that the door was not closed. I pushed it forward, and the moment we went over the threshold, the sound of a window swinging open and hitting the wall welcomed us.

A king size bed was disposed on the right wall and it was covered by a burgundy bed linen, which of course, was covered by dust and lots of spiderwebs.

“Well, looks like we also have a bedroom. Although, I’d rather use the floor downstairs than this room,” Anna said, scrunching her nose and walking towards the bed.

“At least we know now that the cabin was abandoned. There’s no chance that anyone lived here in the last couple of years,” I replied, moving my feet to the window.

I closed it so that it wouldn’t break because of the wind, then I turned on my heels and looked for Anna, but she wasn’t there anymore.

“Anna?” I exclaimed, but I didn’t get an answer. Where did she go?

I walked out of the room and exhaled with ease when I saw the other door opened. I walked to it and as soon as I entered the room, I noticed it was actually the bathroom we were both looking for.

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