Page 11 of Forever Bound

Because I'm knee deep in the remains of something that used to be human.

Now it's a pile of shredded meat and blood and bone. A sharp edge cuts my hand as blood seeps into my clothes and stains my skin.

Acid coats my throat.

The smell gags me, and I scramble back, my mind shutting down as instinct and survival takes over.

I can't get away. The entrails follow me, stuck to my clothes.

And then other shouts. Commands in harsh, staccato Russian.

Three women emerge from the shadows of the forest carrying swords or spears, and all the pointy bits are aimed at me.

I hold my hands up, a bit of intestine dangling from my ring finger.

"Pomogite!" I say. "Help!"

They make gestures and say things I don't understand. "Pozhaluysta!" My tongue feels swollen and my skin is crawling. "Pozhaluysta, pomogite." Help, please. I'm begging, but they are not persuaded. I try to explain in broken Russian that I don't understand. That I didn't do this. One of the women pokes me with a spear and forces me to stand and begin walking into the village, but we are stopped by the woman I've been looking for. The woman who seemed to speak up for me last night.

She studies me with shrewd eyes. "You are still alive. How surprising."

"You speak English?" I say with visible relief.

"I do. How is it you survived a night with our god? No others have."

So my suspicions were correct. I was meant to be dinner. Why did he spare me? "I honestly have no idea. He healed me. Now I'm just trying to find a way out of here. I need to get to the US Embassy. Can you help me?"

She looks to the women holding their weapons at me, and at her sharp command, they drop them. "Come with me but be quick. Others will not be so kind."

I scramble to follow her as she leads me behind the village and into her house through a back door. Once inside, her guards disappear into other rooms, and the woman hands me a rough towel and a basin of water. "Clean yourself. I will bring you clothes."

Her home is simple, with tapestries hanging on the wall, a fireplace with a pot over it, a kitchen and living room all in one space, and a bedroom upstairs. I do my best to clean up, then at her insistence I undress and put on the skirt and blouse she hands me.

"I am Varvara," she says. "But friends call me Vara."

"I'm Evangeline." I don't know that I have friends here, so I leave it at that.

She offers me a seat in front of the fire, and I take it and accept a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits from her. "Thank you," I say. "I'm starving."

I'm amazed I have an appetite after what I've seen, but I eat anyways, knowing I need strength. When I've finished, which only takes a few minutes, I turn to her. "Who killed that person?" I ask.

She frowns. "Our village is cursed," she says. "A creature of the night hunts us at night, killing our friends and family."

I freeze with my tea cup halfway to my lips. "The god? The creature you gave me to? Is he doing this?"

She nods. "We have appeased him for centuries with the blood of the guilty, to satiate his hunger, but it is not enough. Now he attacks during the day. We do not know why or how this has changed, but it will be the end of us if he is not stopped."

"So… my plane crashes, and instead of helping me, you tie me up and offer me as sacrifice to the creature killing you? What the hell is wrong with you people?" I ask, forgetting any manners.

She sighs deeply. "It is not what I would have done, were I in charge. But I am not. We are at the whims of a power-hungry dictator who rules our village with cruelty and bloodlust."

My head is spinning from all this. "What about the others in the plane? My friend? Were there any other survivors?"

She shakes her head. "You are the only one we found. We didn't even find the plane. Just you."

"But that doesn't make sense. There has to be wreckage. Bodies or survivors. Something?"

She stands and walks to a corner, then returns with a familiar backpack. "We found this by your body."

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