Hidden Society by Denis Daniel (short story to read txt) 📕

at me, and the strangest thing happened, she seemed like she was looking in my soul with her unbreakable gaze, and I was completely trapped with it until she pulled away. It was strange and weird, I know; but that’s how it happened. I felt a pull and attraction towards her, like she was someone I was meant to meet. Like my future was with her, it’s crazy, and I knew it was. But I couldn’t help it, she activated something in me and I didn’t know what it was.

And even after letting her go, her gaze still lingered in my mind and the emotions I felt. I kept watching her heading to a random direction in the woods, Ryan tailing her. I followed her too, she walked elegantly and graciously and calmly while pulling up her wedding dress.

“I’m not sure if you know where you are going?” Ryan said as he was walking by her side.

“I don’t, everything is different here.” She admitted and pivoted to look at him shortly after a halt.

“Yah, that’s because you are not where you used to be, this is a different place; so you’ll have to follow us instead.” Ryan explained to her and started to head the different direction towards home which was east side of the forest.

We started our long journey back home. The girl kept walking with Ryan and not even once did she speak to me. I didn’t know why though or was it because she saw something in me when she looked at me! I couldn’t tell, but there was something strange about her.

When she was walking she seemed to be wondering, like she had never seen trees before, like that was the first time she was in the forest. She didn’t talk much maybe because we were strangers to her and she was still uncomfortable around us.

“Peter, you know we can’t take her to the village like this, right?” Ryan asked, and he had a point people would notice that she was a stranger.

“Yah, right. What should we do? We can’t tell her to take her clothes off.” I wondered in confusion.

“Of course not,” Ryan refused quickly.

As we were talking the girl was couple feet ahead of us, so she couldn’t hear what we were talking about. We stopped for a while thinking of a way we would use to conceal her from being recognized with people. If she had normal clothes it could have been so much easier, but she was wearing a white wedding dress; it’s hard for people to miss that.

So what were we going to do then? For a second we didn’t have an answer but then, an idea hit me. Because it was cold in the morning we came with cloaks and that was good enough to cover her, even though it wouldn’t cover her completely at least it was going to make her less suspicious. We followed her afterwards and I offered her mine. Without a word she took it and put it on, somehow I felt like I did something wrong to her, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

Soon after, we started moving on, and still the girl was cold towards me. She asked Ryan couple questions about us and our families, and in an instant they became friends. I felt envy of Ryan because the girl chose him over me, I wanted to be her friend too. I had lots of questions to ask her. But she preferred my friend instead; and after finishing questions we were quiet again. I couldn’t peel my eyes off of her, even though she was on the other side beside Ryan. And that made Ryan shoot me couple questioning looks, like he was asking, what are you doing? But I couldn’t help it, I wanted to figure her out; what she was doing in the forest. And if she was lost, how could she get there in the first place. Her whole presence in general didn’t make sense, it was completely random and I wanted to know why.

After a while of walking we finally came to a rough road leading to the kingdom and my home village. And meeting with the patrolling guards was an unavoidable because it was still morning. This was the time they were going home after a night long of patrolling the boarders, chances of us passing through safely, were light, very light; considering the kind of girl she was, her appearance could make it hard for the guards to ignore her.

We walked for couple miles and it was quiet almost like nothing was going to happen, and I almost thought like we were going to make it to the village safely. But all over sudden we started to hear horses approaching from a distance which was a sign of danger.

“Should we run?” Ryan asked.

Thinking about it, it could’ve been useful if we were close to home but we weren’t; and running now would only rise suspicions from them, so running was not an option. We needed to face them like we always did before we met her.

“No, we won’t.” I replied confidently.

We walked quietly alongside the road waiting for them to reach us, and in couple minutes later they did.

“Halt.” The captain shouted and I knew he was talking to us, so we stopped on our tracks.

“Morning captain.” I greeted him like any other day, proving to him that nothing was different today.

“Look, if it isn’t the son of the baker. What are you doing out here this early in the morning? And I see you have someone else with you today.” He said charmingly, seemed like today he had a good mood and that reduced the risk of us and the girl getting in trouble.

“Ryan is always with me.” I twisted his words a little while I knew he was talking about the girl, and that wasn’t a good idea at all.

“I’m talking about the girl, boy. Who is she? Or is she an outsider?” suddenly he was wearing a whole new expression on his face, rage.

“Oh no, she is Ryan’s sister-in-law. We were showing her around.” I said quickly, before things could blow up on my face.

He laughed with his heavy voice, I couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not but it didn’t matter, “that’s good news then, tell Ryan’s brother that’s quite a piece he got there; he should keep her. Come on let’s go boys.” He commanded his followers and in no time they were out of our sight.

All of us sighed loudly after they’d disappeared, that was a close one. It’s a good thing people respect marriages in our society, probably that’s why the captain and his people left right away after hearing she was already taken. It was a special occasion, sacred even, so no one tempered with a woman who’s already claimed, ever. There was even a rule for people who disrespected it. All in all we were safe, that’s all mattered; about lying to one of the captains of the king that was another matter I was going to deal with some other time.

“Sister-in-law, seriously Peter.” Ryan spouted, he seemed utterly annoyed by it and I had no idea why.

“I had no other choice. And you know that so just relax okay. It’s not even true.” I said calmly, knowing that he was going to calm down in matter of seconds. He had no strength to stay angry at me for long that was his nature.

“Whatever.” He pouted in defeat,

The girl didn’t show any reaction to what I said, I guess maybe she didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad; and we didn’t know where she came from maybe marriages weren’t as important as to our home or maybe she was a good actress; but still I couldn’t find the answer for her calmness. She was just too mysterious, and I couldn’t ask her anything.

I was very curious about her past and her life. Actually, I wanted to know everything about her, her family, her home, her life style; about the guy she was going to marry. I bet he must have been very handsome, not some ordinary looking guy like me; and he must have been very rich, probably one of the nobles. And I wanted to know why a girl as beautiful as her would be stranded in the forest like that, nobody would abandon a girl like that, at least that’s what I thought.

We walked silently for a while and all over sudden the girl collapsed to the ground, and both Ryan and I rushed to her side for help. She didn’t do anything and she didn’t want to be helped to get up; she sat there without moving and without saying anything. We started to worry what her problem was, a few minutes ago she was fine but now she wasn’t, and she wouldn’t say what the problem was.

“Are you okay?” I asked cautiously while hoping she will talk to me now, but she didn’t; she looked at me and shrugged then she turned the other side. And that was the sign that my approach wasn’t helping.

“Please tell us, so that we can help you.” Ryan said kindly, as if he was begging, and that took me by surprise; he had no reason to be that kind to her, she was a stranger whom we didn’t even know where she came from.

She was quiet for couple seconds and then abruptly she blurted out, “I’m tired okay! I don’t even know where I am. I don’t even know where I’m going, we’ve been walking for hours through these endless woods. Where are you taking me anyway? Is it true that I’m going to get married to your brother? I haven’t even seen him or at least I can’t remember him if he was my fiancé.” She looked at Ryan who was shooting daggers at me, which was not helping because the girl was waiting for answers.

“Look, Peter used that so that the guards could go away. You don’t know my brother because you have never seen him before, and you have never been in this place before, and we are taking you to our home because we thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to leave you alone in the forest.” Peter explained to her and she seemed a little confused by it.

“Where am I from then?” she asked completely shocked; it was obvious she didn’t remember where she came from.

“We were hoping for you to tell us!” I replied, despite knowing that she wouldn’t reply back.

“I don’t remember anything apart from my name.” she said and she was starting to get frustrated, like she was going cry or something; her eyes started to well up and tears almost started to drop until Ryan comforted her. Who would’ve thought my best friend could be so caring and sensitive. No wonder the girl chose him over me.

Ryan gently bent down and held her shoulder softly and said, “Hey, don’t worry we are going to figure out everything together. You are safe here with us, okay?” and the girl subconsciously took his hand and held it, like it was some kind of hope that everything was going to be fine. I’d known Ryan my entire life and that was the first time I saw him become so soft, I knew he was soft but not that much. Anyways, that move solved everything the girl was okay again and we kept on with our journey. We were close now, the large part was done, so there was just couple miles left until we arrive at the village, our home.

We walked quietly heading home, nobody wanted to touch the subject about the girl and her appearance. I didn’t ask anything because I knew I had to make sure the girl would be comfortable with me talking to her. To figure out what she saw in me back in the forest that made her extremely uncomfortable around