Jeffery's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Jeffery wanted one thing in these dark woods: my promise under the oldest tree, sealed forever. He told me so every day, smiling, carving a wooden ring by the fire. The ring was beautiful. His smile was not what it seemed. He lived in a broken camper, a rusted shell with torn panels and junk heaped around the wheels. He called it our home. I had not chosen it. I woke there each morning because he decided I should. "You can't leave today," he said, pressing the wooden ring into my palm. His white cat watched from the hood, green eyes steady. "The paths shift out there. People lie. Remember the man who tried to take you last week?" There was no man. I knew that now. Jeffery invented him, the way he invented everyone. He built stories to make me afraid, to make me jealous, to make me stay. He was smart. He taught me false things with a gentle voice. "That never happened," I said. His smile thinned. "You're confused. I protect you. You'd be lost without me." I closed my hand around the ring. For months I had believed his woods were endless and his love was real. But I had started counting. The same tree. The same bent path. He had walked me in circles to keep me trapped. I set the ring on the camper step. "I'm not wearing this." He went still. The cat jumped down and crossed to me, as if choosing a side. Jeffery's voice dropped low. "You don't mean that. You love me." "You told me a hundred lies," I said. "I'm done believing them." Then I saw them at the treeline. Two girls, pale and glowing, their forms soft as mist. I had glimpsed them before. Jeffery always said they were dangerous, that they stole people who wandered off. One of them raised a hand and pointed past the camper, down a path I had never been allowed to take. "Don't look at them," Jeffery snapped. He grabbed my wrist. His grip hurt. "They'll ruin everything. They want to pull us apart." That was when I understood. The dangerous thing was the hand on my arm. I pulled free. He lunged, but the cat hissed and darted between his feet. He stumbled against the junk pile. Tools clattered down around him. I ran for the glowing girls. They did not vanish. They waited. Behind me, Jeffery screamed my name, then softened it, pleading, promising, lying all at once. I did not turn back. The girls led me onto the true path, and the trees opened in a direction the camper had always hidden. Behind me, Jeffery's voice faded. Ahead, the woods were real for the first time. I was out of his circle. But I did not know these paths, and night was coming fast.