Chapter too close
Zai
"Hhhh… ngh… haahh… deep inhale …hhhhh…"
Donna
"Ahh… hh… mmh… shaky breath …haaa…"
"Jes...Jesus, Zai. You're gone for 2 weeks, and you come back bringing hell at my door."
"Well technically, Donna…"
"Ahem."
"It's my old man's cabin, so it really is mine."
"Ha... after all this, you still have to argue?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever ah shit, my shoulder…"
"Hold on, Zai. Don't move."
Donna is a small woman, about 5'1, 120 lb, very small to say the least. But somehow, she had enough grown man strength to roll me over onto my stomach to check out what's wrong with me.
"Damn, Zai… you've been stabbed."
"That must have been that sharp pain I felt before you dragged me in here. How's the wound looking?"
"Judging by how it's embedded, it was thrown precisely between the infraspinatus and the minor tendon. It's deep enough to be embedded in you, but it didn't slash any major vessels, which suggests this was purposeful."
"You think the knife was poisoned or something?"
"I can check it later, but I doubt it. There's no color change in the metal or in your flesh which would indicate a poison affecting your body. There's also no smell coming from it, but I'll check it later after I patch you up, just to be safe."
"Ahh, I see… they probably just wanted to make me suffer. How much you wanna bet it was 1-11?"
"No, no. That boy's a sweetheart."
"My money is on 64-64. That girl always did give me the creeps."
"Or maybe it could have been… you know, the named one. Or at least that's what the kids at that place called her."
"It's impossible for it to be her."
"How so...?"
"Because you wouldn't have lived long enough to see even the lights of this cabin if it was her."
"You don't have to worry about it now. Even she can't get in this cabin. I'll get the kit."
"Oh no."
"What? You scream for joy every time we have our little patch-up sessions."
"Oh fuck you. Only one of those things are true, and it's definitely not the joy."
"Ha ha. Right."
I watched Donna walk upstairs to get the med kit by the security camera.
I screamed, "Hey, get me a beer from the fridge while you're at it!"
Donna screamed back, "You're in luck! I was just about to finish the last beer today!"
After a couple of minutes, she eventually came back with two wine glasses and a bottle of Budweiser. Just seeing that made everything I went through worth it, I tell you.
She sat down and poured me and herself a glass before getting to work with the stitches.
"Oh yeah, Zai. You've never told me how you and your dad got this cabin in the first place."
"I don't really want to talk about that. It's a long story."
"Of course I want to talk about it."
"This is more like a military bunker than a cabin."
"Reinforced tungsten walls that can tank shots from tanks without leaving a scratch, infrared ultraviolet light motion detection, high-security cameras scattered not only all across in and out of the cabin, but all across the forest, level nine reinforced glass with built-in air conditioner internet, and to top it all off, a fucking hand cannon of an automated sniper on the roof."
"Just what the hell was your dad up to?"
"It's a long story, but my dad was a very paranoid man. Surprise, surprise."
"He used to work as a soldier in the Bulgarian People's Army in 1982. At that time, there was a severe restriction of movement under the Communist Party at the Bulgarian government. He was tasked with hunting people who left the country and executing them. Who and what they were didn't matter... how old they were didn't matter either."
"He always talked about how the souls of the dead would send someone to hunt him and his men down and take the lives of everyone he held dear, just like he did to others."
"Ahhh ah shit, Donna, take it easy."
"Oh, man up. If you wore armor, you wouldn't need me putting stitches in you anyway. Going with the story?"
"Whatever…"
"Often people ran into the forest on the track hoping to get caught by Turkey, which would be their only way of being protected. My father was a bold man though. No one would get as close to the border of Turkey as he would to follow someone."
"But one day, something was following him and his men."
"Awww, your dad traumatized you with little campfire stories, did he?"
"IT'S NOT A STORY, DONNA..."
"Oh…"
"What I'm telling you is real. Father wasn't trying to scare me or get some laughs off my fear. I looked into his eyes and saw the fear of God himself in them when he told me this."
"Oh... okay. Well, I'm sorry. What happened?"
"My father, my uncle, and his men were tracking this one defector who was getting really, really close to the Turkish border."
"He was probably about 500 or 700 meters from Malko Tarnovo, close to the Black Sea."
"They knew this soldier. He was like a brother to them, my father said, but he was also a spy for the Turks, so eliminating him was top priority. The soldier did have asthma, and with the long travel and chase, they knew that man didn't have much left in the tank."
"As my father and my uncle and the dogs were closing in, they heard a loud scream from that man far off in the distance, followed by gunfire."
"My dad described the scream…"
"That's a broken echo. That was louder than gunfire. The type of sound someone makes when their nails are getting pulled out one by one, piece by piece, and you can't do nothing but just watch."
"The gunfire and horrible screams eventually stopped, and then there was just silence… deep, eerie silence."
"Dear God… was he attacked by an animal or something? Or maybe someone else got to him first?"
"My father and his men probably thought the same thing."
"But when they caught up to him, he was gone."
"Completely vanished."
"His tracks were still there, and so were his guns and the bullet casings, but every part of him was just gone, with no signs of a bear, gray wolf, or lynx the only animals that could have caused this."
"My uncle, not wanting to stay any longer, decided to report back to base."
"But then he heard it…"
"Šḵẅëëëëë…"
"They heard whistling?"
"They did. Far off in the distance."
"The dogs were growling low at first. Their hair was high, their ears were back, and their expressions were stiff, all towards that sound."
"But it was getting closer, little by little."
1,000 m
990 m
878 m
652 m
"And after the 500-meter mark, those whistles transformed…"
"Into a singing lullaby. The most beautiful chanting voice ever. A voice that drew my father toward it."
"But my uncle opened fire into the air to snap everyone out of it. He screamed at the men to release the five dogs they had, and as they did, the dogs ran toward the sound, growling, barking, and snarling off into the darkness."
"Michael grabbed my father and yelled at him to run to the nearest base and call for reinforcement. Tell them it's a Sama Diva situation."
"After telling my father this, he pushed him and told him to run now while the rest of the men stayed to fight."
"My father ran toward the base as fast as he could while having to listen to what they went through with that thing."
"The dogs were the first to go. All their barking and growling turned into whimpers and yelps before the sounds disappeared."
"All the men opened fully automatic fire, followed by the sound of a woman screaming, but not in pain or horror."
"A scream that sounded like rage and anger."
"My father distinctly knew the difference, because after that, the sounds and screams of the soldiers that followed were true sounds of horror."
"And after that… there was nothing but silence."
"At this point, my father eventually got to the base and immediately called for backup. He explained the situation, and the way he described it to me, the operator sounded almost dismissive at first."
"But until he said it was a Sama Diva."
"The operator went silent for a couple of moments before telling him they'd send backup immediately and to sit tight and hold that thing off until backup was mobilized."
"After hearing that, my father dared to have even a shred of relief."
"That relief was drowned out when he heard it again…"
"T̶we̵e̶… T̷w̷e̸e…"
"My father spun around and pointed his gun."
"At what was supposed to be the monster that took the soldiers… the monster that took the dogs… the monster that took my uncle away from my father."
"But it was no monster."
"It was a woman…"
"Eyes hollow like the eyes of a dead dog. No light and no sight in them."
"A beautiful woman that looked to be about her mid-to-late twenties."
"She looked Asian somehow. Chinese, maybe."
"Just standing 300 meters away, somehow staring at my father."
"She had two things in her hands. A shotgun in one hand, and the severed head of my uncle in the other."
"My father screamed in agony and held his gun up, ready to release the whole clip into that woman, but he was too scared."
"His hands didn't listen to him."
"His hands couldn't put even five pounds of pressure onto that trigger."
"So he just stood there trembling."
"The woman seemed amused and held up the severed head of my uncle in front of my father, pointing at my father before wiggling her fingers and clicking her tongue before turning around and singing that same lovely tune, walking back into the forest again."
"Finally, reinforcement arrived, but it was already too late."
"The woman was gone, and so was her singing."
"They looked for the other missing soldiers, but none were found."
"Not even a dog."
"Well, that's not completely true."
"One thing remained."
"The headless body of my uncle was still there, leaning against a rock, his blood spelling out on the boulder…"
Too close.
"After that, the message was clear."
"No matter how close the soldiers were to catching someone leaving the country, they would never get close to the Turkish border again."
"My father believed he got cursed because he still sees her."
"He still hears her."
"Now it's probably the product of trauma, and that's what I would assume…"
"But after he told me that story, sometimes when I'm out in the forest alone, I hear that whistle."
"I feel like something's following me."
"Watching me."
"And I dread the day those whistles turn into a woman singing…"
"Okay, I think I'm done with the stitches. I don't think I'm getting any sleep tonight because of that wonderful story of yours."
"Yeah, yeah, my bad."
"It's just that when I was out there, it's almost like I heard those whistles once again."
"More clear than I usually hear them."
"Maybe it's nothing."
"Probably just going insane because of all that's happened."
"My semi-professional advice and common sense is just to get some rest."
"You had a long night."
"I'll have to take you up on that offer."
"And what about you?"
"Those foundation children are prowling around this cabin. I don't care how secure it is, I'm keeping watch."
"I'll play some of that soothing music on the music disc to help you sleep."
"I've always done it. I appreciate you."
"Yeah, you better."
"Tomorrow we'll make the video exposing the foundation's secrets."
"Sounds like a good idea."
"Good night. See you tomorrow, Donna."
"See you tomorrow, Zai."
As I snuggled up in bed, I heard Donna play "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."
No, I don't know what that woman considers soothing, but that song definitely wasn't it. But I was too tired to complain.
She got on her computer and played her games sitting in the corner room. It was hard to sleep because of all the lights on, but we would both be more anxious if they ever cut off.
As I felt my body tense and drift off into the world of slumber, I saw a tiny red light blinking.
My eyes opened, and I saw the cause of it.
It was the knife.
The hilt of the knife, to be specific.
It had a red light on it blinking on and off… on and off…
Before I could get up and investigate, the light turned green, and a loud electrical pulse burst from it.
I fell onto the bed clutching my ears.
My gaze was dizzy and disoriented.
I couldn't see nothing.
Wait…
I couldn't see nothing not because I was dizzy or disoriented.
It's because there was no light.
Not just in my room.
No light in the cabin in general.
It was completely lights out…
End of chapter