Haven Hill: Chapter 7

Author of The Widow in the Woods

Here’s where the story left off last time.

Kate decided their best route was to backtrack and then head to the neighbor’s place in a more roundabout way. She hoped it would be unpredictable enough to allow them to avoid a confrontation. She felt the bile rise up in her throat and fought it back. She had to keep it together for her daughter.

Ariel bravely followed her without a word, though frightened tears were slipping down her cheeks. The sight of those tears turned Kate’s fear into a quiet, icy rage. How dare Logan terrorize them like this? She silently pledged that she would die before letting him harm one hair on Ariel’s head.

The mud from last night’s rain made the forest floor slippery and more challenging to navigate than usual. They both slipped repeatedly in the steep terrain, and soon they were covered in cold, wet sludge. They trekked onward, though, stubbornly disregarding the slow pace that was forced upon them by the conditions.

It felt like a long time before they came upon a tree that was down, at the perfect height for a seat. Kate gestured and Ariel gratefully sat down and took off her backpack for a moment. They both took a long pull of their water and then spoke in whispers.

“Mom, how is Logan here?” Ariel frowned in confusion. “Isn’t he supposed to be in jail?”

“I guess not,” Kate replied. “Why doesn’t matter right now. How we’re going to avoid him is what’s important.”

Ariel nodded and waited as Kate wracked her brain to find a way around the dilemma of Logan’s sudden appearance in their haven. She patted the small of her back to confirm that her pistol was right where it should be and pulled a fresh magazine out of her backpack to slide into her front pocket, though she couldn’t imagine they’d exchange enough gunfire to require her to reload.

She was as ready as she’d ever be. They both tucked their water bottles back into their bags and headed up the mountain to go around the trail that Logan had already found. “We have trained for this ever since it happened,” she reminded Ariel in a voice that sounded far more confident than Kate felt.

Kate had always had an excellent sense of direction, so even without a path to lead them, she led them surely through the woods to the upper path. Since they didn’t want to give themselves away by talking, Kate used the time to reassure herself that she was not the same woman who had testified against Logan in court years ago.

She began to mentally reel off the skills she had learned and the courses she had taken over the past three years. It was a ritual she’d performed many times to calm herself, this accounting of the competence she had gained.

She wasn’t fond of camping, but she could create a shelter from next to nothing. She was a crack shot with both a pistol and a rifle. She knew how to effectively use a recumbent longbow. She’d taken more than one course on using knives for self-defense, had visited far away countries to rough it through survival courses in unfamiliar terrains, and worked out at the gym four times a week, keeping her lithe, fit, and quick. She could forage and find food where others saw nothing, she could move through the woods with stealth, and she had learned at a camp presented by a Native American instructor how to fade into the forest so silently and completely that she all but vanished. She had taken a weeklong course on conflict de-escalation, and she was confident in her ability to outrun and outsmart a bigger opponent.

What’s more, she’d taken Ariel with her to as many of these trainings as possible, and she knew that her daughter was one tough cookie, as long as she could keep control of her panic. After what Logan had put the girl through, though, that was the real question – could Ariel put all of it behind her and fight back now?

Learning skills and becoming fit had been her antidote. She hoped that now, all the time and money she had spent honing herself into a different woman than the one who had been terrorized would pay off in more ways than just improved mental health and confidence.

The other thing that Kate had spent time studying was the aftermath of trauma. She tried to think of that terrible time as infrequently as possible, but it naturally arose from time to time. She and Ariel had attended therapy, both separately and as a family. They were resilient, but some things were so terrifying, so awful, so downright unbelievable, that the events left scars which would be with them forever.

Kate called upon that hard work she’d done on the counselor’s couch now, as she refused to give into the fear that was dancing around the edges of her consciousness. Firmly, she pushed that emotion away, leaving room for nothing but determination. So focused was she on keeping her head clear that she was startled when Ariel silently grabbed Kate’s wrist.

There, ahead of them, tucked away into the thick trees, was a campsite that they’d almost stumbled into.

Instinctively, they both crouched behind a large boulder and fallen tree while they silently surveyed the situation, barely daring to breathe lest a loud inhale or sigh give them away.

It had been difficult to see. The site was small and hardly noticeable, just a tent of a color that blended into the forest surrounding it. As much as she wished it to be the case, it couldn’t be written off as something left behind by a former camper because it wasn’t covered in leaves and muck, nor was it tattered from the elements. It had been erected recently. A bag hoisted up into the trees, presumably filled with food, was more evidence that this was not an abandoned site.

Kate’s thoughts rapidly somersaulted over one another. Should they backtrack? Go around? Go back to the cabin and hunker down? The camp was empty, so where the heck was Logan? Was he right behind them? How, despite her best efforts, had she walked right into the lion’s den?

Clamping down on the racing thoughts and self-recrimination, Kate forced herself to go through the options dispassionately, searching for logic, simplicity, and the best odds possible. What they couldn’t do was sit there paralyzed, waiting to be found.

Before Kate could arrive at a decision, they both heard it – the footfalls in the crunchy leaves of someone or something near them. She pulled her Glock out of its holster and fervently prayed it was a bear and not the man from her nightmares.

About Daisy

She is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.