A Silent Voice

By Max St. John

The premise of the trip was that her parents were going to fix their broken marriage.

 

Anne knew better, nothing would fix this and a burning in her chest told her tragedy was on the horizon. This would go from worse to hell and she along with her brother, Tom, would be caught in the middle.

 

As they arrive at the cabin surrounded by dense woodland a pair of eyes await her between the trees, a declaration of the chaos to come. Soon she would lose everything.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Max St. John
• Release date: Jun 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201690205

Book preview

Chapter 1

The drive was insufferable. It was silence from the moment they left the house right up until they reached the cabin’s driveway. There had been several disgruntled sighs from behind the wheel but as their father’s annoyance spilled everywhere their mother would look over her shoulder, smile, and then reach for the bottle of pills in the purse she clutched on her lap. Anne could already see the argument coming, it was just looking for a place to explode and when it did it would go the kind of wrong there would be no coming back from. That it hadn’t happened yet was one of those wonders that no one could explain. Like cancer going into sudden remission, but then there was no telling if it was gone for good.  This cancer, the cancer wafting through the car was one of those that went away and came back, and went away and came back and then one day it comes back and it is worse than it had ever been. Over time the sixteen-year-old had learned how to smell this cancer and keep away from it. One of the ways she had learned to keep away from it was to dig the earphones into her ears as deep as she could and turn up the volume. Treating this cancer was not on the table and no morphine or drug combination would cure this. The reason for the trip was treatment, it was a new combination to fight the old cancer, but the treatment was assigned as a topical ointment. Some cancers can’t be beaten.

Halfway through the four-hour drive their father had an outburst, something they knew would be the first of many. Damian Mortimer was not a patient man. The overweight forty-year-old had a temper and that temper set into words. The outburst had been on account of someone keeping to the speed limit and the volume of the outburst had cut through the music and made Anne jump. The moment the first ‘f’ was dropped she leaped up and the first thing her eyes went to was her brother.

Tomas had his head buried in his sketchbook and tried to ignore the atmosphere and the ‘mannerisms’ that went with their little family. The twelve-year-old knew what was happening, he understood the dynamic and he knew as well as his sister that nothing good would come of this. When she looked down at him she saw how close to tears he was. No child should ever fear the words of a parent, no boy should fear his father’s next outburst. There should be no outburst, not aimed at the children. Anger filled her chest as she looked over at her mother. Where she should have been comforting her children and addressing her husband’s anger all she did was reach for the orange bottle.

As she had always done, Anne turned her anger into the instinct to protect her brother. Popping the earphones out she slid them onto his sketchbook and as the boy looked up with big blue eyes she smiled down at him. Tears threatened and she could see the flush over his cheeks. She didn’t have to say anything but then what could she say? There was no way of concealing the situation.

As the boy popped the earphones into his ears she put an arm around his shoulders and ruffled his hair a little. What would become of them? Their father would live on forever, their mother would probably not make five more years. Not at the rate she was emptying orange bottle. Then, how could she blame her mother? It was survival.

One outburst down and several more immanent she steadied herself in the thought that at least Tom wouldn’t have to listen to any more of it. You could strike a match and the car would catch fire with the atmosphere that hung over them. In an attempt to keep sane Anne ran her thumb over the band-aid on her palm, the side effect of a broken plate. She kept harassing the cut until she found a crayon poking against her left. As she looked down her brother shook his head. She didn’t realize it but she had been digging her thumb into the wound and a growing red dot was forming in its center.

When the Honda Fit pulled up to the cabin Anne gently rubbed the boy’s shoulder to stir him from his art.

You can’t be serious.

Her father was not happy with the place and it was very obvious in the atmosphere that was turning all the more flammable. The three in the car stiffened and for the first time, probably, in their lives, Sandra, their mother, tried to do something other than get something into her bloodstream.

Oh, I don’t know.

Anne felt cold when she heard her mother’s voice slur and as she dared look into the front seat she saw her eyes were grey.

I think it looks lovely.

You’re delusional woman. You’re always delusional, you let me drive all this fucking way for this? Wasting my fucking time.

Damian was furious but her mother was too high to realize it. She simply got out of the car, stumbled her way to the cabin and the four steps to the front door, and dung in her purse for the key she didn’t have.

Now where did I...

She was cut off when her husband pushed her to the side and dug a key out of his pocket.

Get out of the way. You know you can’t hold on to anything.

As he unlocked the door Sandra laughed behind him.

Of course, silly me. Come children.

Back at the car, Anne got out first. As she did a breeze made the mammoth trees around her sing and reach for one another. Something in it terrified her. It was ominous and promised calamity, a calamity she already knew was coming. As for the cabin, had their situation been different it would have been lovely. It wasn’t all that big, but it wasn’t small either. The log cabin was stow stories high, with a solid wooden door and big windows. Off to the side, she could just make out a table and chairs, perfect for the family meals they would never have together. It was easy to see why someone would find a nice little getaway.

Do you think there are fairies in the woods?

Anne jumped just a little when Tom appeared next to her. The boy stared in between the trees and she could see he was already working this out in his head. His imagination was reaching for things that she had long forgotten, and others she never had the chance to know.

Probably.

She smiled as he turned his head to the side and clutched the sketchbook, his whole life in imagination form, even tighter.

You think they steal children?

He was reaching for the pencil in his pocket. Tom told her he would be a writer. He would tell stories and create worlds that would be a place for the ‘sad’ people to hide. It broke her heart but offered sufficient distraction that he would not be as involved in the cancer and its supposed treatment. It wasn’t something their parents would understand or allow. Something she would die to keep alive. There was a way things were done in Damian Mortimer’s house and his son being a writer was not one of them. She knew it and the boy’s affinity to hide his notes and sketches was proof that he knew it too. She knew she was in denial, and that he understood their father’s temper and cruel words, their mother’s addiction and the situation they were in. Perhaps a part of him even knew how it would end, just like she did. The one thing she was unwilling to admit to, that he knew beyond everything else was how tired she was.

Don’t worry, I think you’re a little old.

She smiled and Tom looked up at her with offense. The look on his face made her forget everything and for a moment there was bliss.

Come on. No one else is going to unpack that car.

As Anne headed back to the car Tom looked into the trees for a moment longer before he turned his head to the side, as if he saw something no one else could.

From the trunk Anne watched him working something out in his mind and it made her smile even more. One at a time she unleaded bags and hauled them to the door, not a step further. She was not going to leave the boy outside alone for as much as a second. As she got back to the car she pulled his backpack from the back seat and as she did she saw him frantically dig the pencil from his pocket. He was going back and forth in front of the tree line like something that had rabies. She knew this strange behavior, it was the author in a state of enlightenment. He scribbled something on one of the pages in his sketchbook and the smoke practically come out of his ears as he worked feverishly not to miss a single detail.

I got it!

He finally announced but there was no celebration. There was no time for questions or even a high five. A monster had made its way to the door of the cabin.

Does this look like inside?

Their father pointed at the five bags on the porch and Tom quickly retreated into his shell. He wanted to run to his sister and hide behind her, much like he would hide in her room when their parents argue at night.

Why is it not possible for you to do a single thing right. You were raised better, so what is the excuse?

He was waiting for an answer but Anne knew there would be none that were correct. Still, she had to give a reply and so she ran all the ones she had through her mind and by way of mental roulette picked one and hoped the chamber wasn’t loaded.

I didn’t want to leave the car unlocked. We don’t know if there is anyone here that might try and steal something.

This was not the right answer.

Do you think I'm some kind of idiot? There is no one here!

He shouted and his voice boomed over the trees as he waved his hand about him like a preacher on a soapbox.

You’re just lazy, you have always been lazy. No character, no enthusiasm, no initiative. Nothing.

Ask yourself why that is dad. She shouted in her head but she knew anything she said now would only make it worse.

You know what, I’ll do it. That way you don’t have to strain your feeble little mind.

He grabbed two of the bags in one hand in a move that made Anne think one might just be launched their way. Instead, he dug into his pocket pulled out his wallet and threw it at the car. It hit the bonnet with a bang that made Tom stifle a jump. Something like that from his son would send the man over the edge, as he cared for the boy at all.

Just make yourself useful and go to the store. Much like you your mother is incompetent and decided that it would not be necessary for us to eat.

Her heart landed in her shoes. Of all the things he could say to her, of all the things he could tell her to do, this was the worse.

Dad, please. I don’t have a license.

She could feel her voice shake. She had been behind the wheel only twice before and both nearly ended in an accident. Once had been her father and a bar and the first had been her mother and a socalled prescription.  Again what she had landed on was a bullet in the chamber.

You always fucking complain. Always!

Damian yelled and it echoed through the trees, but unlike her, they would not bow. Not seven feet from her Tom was fighting tears and doing all he could to not show his father how upset he was.

You piss and moan. Just do as you’re told.

He grabbed the other two bags and hauled them inside before slamming the door with such force it was yet another of those miracles that it did not shatter. Once inside they heard him remind their mother of his distaste for her as well and her ignorantly offering to help carry the load as if he had said nothing.

Anne stood with her hand frozen on the Honda’s back door feeling like she would snap at any moment. She wasn’t even sure where the closest store was. She had no idea where this place was or which way they had to go. Then something occurred to her. A set of blue eyes were burning into her shoulder.

Close by Tom stared at her with pleading eyes, but she couldn’t do it.

No Tom, you have to stay.

She closed the door and took a step back. Then came the first tear.

Tom please, I can’t drive it’s too dangerous. Please tell me you understand that I can’t put you in that kind of danger.

Slowly the boy looked down and nodded. They had their own rules for survival and number one was that they don’t leave one another. It was sacred to them but the risk was too great to think of, but then a little worm started making its way into her mind. What if something happened to her? What was left for him? If something happened wouldn’t it be better if it happened to the both of them?

She hadn’t realized she was crying. What was she thinking? Nothing came above Tom’s safety, nothing. That meant the drive as much as leaving him alone at the house.

She watched his chest rise and fall both in anxiety and heartache before she finally relented. No matter which she chose, they wouldn’t be safe.

Ok.

Opening the passenger side door Tom ran to the car and leaped in. Fastening his seatbelt the moment he sat down. Anne retrieved the wallet from the dirt as a breeze drifted through the trees again. Again she looked up to follow it but this time she got more than she bargained for. Between the mammoth trees reaching into the overcast skies, deep down where the dark and the imagination played with the eyes, there was something staring back at her. Two icy blue eyes. They seemed to be curious at first and then they seemed to be smiling.

Hello Anne.

The voice was deep, hollow almost and the shape of whatever lay hidden beyond her sight was massive. Its size was rivaled only by that of the trees and its eyes piercing. It was smiling at her and it scarred her but somehow she did not find it threatening.  Part of her wanted to reply, but her voice didn’t agree. She wanted to walk to the tree line and see what else would be hiding there, a friend? Something she didn’t know. Locking eyes with whatever was looming not far from her and Tom she slowly found her resolve fading. Surely nothing like that could be a friend and thinking otherwise was nothing but the result of a nasty childhood. So instead she backed away and around the car where a new fear took hold.

Her leg was shaking as it hovered over the clutch and she put the car in reverse.

She was shaking as she made it back out onto the road, for more than one reason. She didn’t know what was going through her head. She had no idea where she was going, she just drove down the road and prayed. Prayed for no cops, no obstructions, and no accidents. She kept her eyes on the road as the voice ran through her head again. Hello Anne.

How did it know her name? There were other things to worry about, the fact that she was behind the wheel with Tom next to her for one but somehow all she could think off were those eyes. She was lost in the color of them, the sound of that voice that stirred emotions in her she didn’t understand.  She tried thinking of what exactly it was she felt but came up empty. What was it, what did it feel like, what did it sound like...

Anne look.

Tom’s voice dragged her back to the car and her hands gripped the wheel so tight there was a moment she was sure she would snap it right off. She had let her mind wander and there had been no attention on the road, no attention on her poor driving ability and she had all but forgotten the boy was in the car. Now he was