Welcome To Hell, Dear Wife-Chapter 64: Knives

Chapter 64: Knives
A few minutes after freshening up and eating, Mira was standing in the massive and silent kitchen with a big drawer full of cutlery that was all gleaming and sharp.
Okay, so let’s see. What works for like, ’I’m a serious explorer’ but also... ’I might need to carve a roast’?
She picked up a long carving knife and it felt heavy and quite dangerous in her hand.
Hmm, good for stabbing, probably.
She wrapped the blade in a kitchen towel, just kinda bundled it up. Next, she grabbed the serrated bread knife.
In case the wolf is particularly crusty,
she thought, and then grimaced at her own stupid joke.
Finally, she added a little paring knife.
Just, you know, just in case. In case she needed to do some detailed work on a monster.
And then she shoved them all into her big leather tote bag.
The bag felt so heavy now. So suspiciously heavy as it clinked when she walked. She literally looked like a woman on her way to a really,
really
aggressive picnic.
She slipped out the side door with her heart kinda pounding as if half expecting an alarm to just blare everywhere.
The sun outside was so bright that it felt like an accusation as she hurried across the huge, perfect lawn with her eyes glued to the dark line of trees up ahead.
Every second she expected to hear Lucas’s voice, just roaring from the house.
But she made it and stepped from the perfect manicured grass onto the soft, uneven ground of the estate woods.
The air seemed to immediately change.
Just like that.
It turned cooler and it smelled of damp earth and pine.
All the sounds from the estate had vanished only to be replaced by this deep, watchful quiet.
And then this weird feeling instantly washed over her.
Like a strong sense of déjà vu.
She looked at the path ahead and immediately realized that knew that twisted tree root, the one that looked like a bony hand. She knew she had to step over it right there. In exactly that spot.
A little further on and she also saw a big moss-covered rock that was sitting exactly where she somehow knew it would be.
Her steps slowed.
This was the path. From her dream. The one where the giant wolf with the
red
eyes had stared right through her.
Her breath caught in her throat.
This was real. It wasn’t a dream at all!
The thought was terrifying and electrifying. All at once.
Her pulse kicked up a notch and started hammering in her ears.
If the path was real... then what about the wol
ves
?
She crept forward even when her senses kept screaming on high alert.
Her hand on the other hand stayed inside her bag as her fingers wrapped tight around the handle of the carving knife.
She was so focused on the path ahead and on the memory of those glowing eyes, that the rustle to her left made her jump.
As in li
terally jump out of her skin.
It was a soft crunching sound. Something moving.
This was it.
Her blood ran cold, or probably even turned to ice.
It was here. The wolf was here.
She yanked the knife from her bag letting the towel just fall to the ground. The long blade gleamed in the dappled sunlight.
And even though her hands were shaking so badly that the knife wobbled all over the place, she still held it out in front of her.
The bushes parted, but it wasn’t a wolf.
A little boy walked out instead. He couldn’t have been more than six years old.
His brown hair was all messy and he even had a few leaves stuck in it. A smudge of dirt was right on his cheek and in one hand, he was carefully holding a little wooden bird, all messily carved.
He looked at her then his bright blue eyes dropped down to the huge, shaking knife in her hand.
He didn’t even look the littlest bit scared.
Just... curious.
"Hello," he said in a voice so calm for a child his age. "Are you lost?"
Mira just stared because for a second, her brain just couldn’t... process it.
The switch from monster she was expecting... to child.
A hysterical laugh threatened to bubble up in her throat but she choked it down. She then slowly and so carefully lowered the knife even though her hand was still shaking.
"Not exactly lost," she managed to let out. "I was just... looking around."
She finally took a proper look at him. "Should you... should you be out here all by yourself?"
The boy merely shrugged. Lorena wondered why he had this gesture of pure and unshakable confidence. Like a little king.
"I know these woods." He looked her up and down with a gaze so thoughtful. "You’re pretty. Like the princesses in my storybook."
The simple and honest compliment was like a splash of cold water thrown right in her face.
It shocked her out of the fear she had been feeling and so, for a single, dizzying moment, she wasn’t a disgraced heiress. She was just a princess to this little boy.
"Do you live in the big house?" he asked, his eyes wide.
She nodded as if already knowing the big house he meant was Lucas mansion, it was the biggest in the estate after all.
"You’re not supposed to be here," he stated like he wasn’t trying to be mean at all but was merely telling her a rule. Like ’the sky is blue’.
"Big house people don’t come to these woods in the afternoons."
Mira found a real smile tugging at her lips. This kid. He had no filter. "I guess I didn’t get the memo. Is this your woods?"
He puffed out his small chest. "Not really but I’m the scout. I know all the secret paths. My name’s Leo."
"I’m... Lorena," she said even though the name still felt like a costume to her. Like clothes that didn’t quite fit yet.
His whole face suddenly lit up. "Do you want to see the best spot?" he asked with his eyes sparkling with excitement. "It’s where the water talks to the stones."
He didn’t wait for a yes or no, he just turned and started down a narrow path, this tiny path she hadn’t even noticed. Mira followed without a second thought. Her mission to find the wolves, her bag of stupid knives, all of it just faded away.
As they walked, he glanced up at her.
"You look sad," he said.
The words were a direct hit right to the chest.
"Did someone in the big house be mean to you?" he asked.
Her throat felt tight. "The big house is just quite ... complicated," she said.
Leo nodded like a wise old man. "My mama says complicated is just a word grown-ups use when they’re scared to say they’re sad or mad."
Mira had no answer to that.
Nothing
. The kid had seen right through her after all.
He led her to a small stream. The water chattered as it flowed over these smooth, grey stones. "Listen," he commanded, putting a finger to his lips.
She listened. The water gurgled and whispered.
"Hear that?" Leo whispered, his eyes wide with seriousness. "The shushing sound? That’s the water telling the stones all the secrets it’s carried from the mountains."
"What kind of secrets?" Mira asked. And she found that she wasn’t even just humoring him anymore. She was genuinely curious now.
"Secrets about the sky, and the fish, and the roots of the trees. It knows everything." He looked right at her. "If you’re quiet enough, it might tell you something you need to hear."
"Hm, and what do you need to hear, Leo?" she asked softly.
He shrugged. "Mostly if there’s any frogs nearby. But for you..." He thought about it, his little forehead wrinkling. "Maybe it will say that not all houses are bad. Ours isn’t. It’s small and it’s full of love."
That statement hit her than she expected.
How was such little adorable boy that able to say things like these?
"That sounds like a very good kind of house," she said, and her voice was thick with an emotion she couldn’t even name.
"It is! And my grandma bakes. Do you like gingerbread? She makes it into men with raisin eyes. I always eat the leg first."
Mira laughed. "That seems like the proper way to eat a gingerbread man."
"It is!" he insisted, his face completely serious. "You have to start with the leg. So he can’t run away." He looked up at her, his big blue eyes just full of hope. "You should come. Grandma always makes extra for friends."
The word "
friends
" made her heart just squeeze.
"I wouldn’t want to intrude."
"You’re not ’truding," he declared and just like that, he was already reaching out to grab Mira’s hand with his small, slightly sticky one. "I’m inviting you. It’s the scout’s rules. When you find a sad person in the woods, you have to take them home for cookies. It’s basically the law."
And with that unbreakable logic, he just tugged her gently down the path.
She didn’t resist. How could you? How could you argue with scout law?
The trees soon opened up. And there it was. A little cottage stood there, just like something from a storybook.
White walls, a smoking chimney, and this garden just packed with colorful flowers. Leo stopped at a short, white picket fence.
"That’s my house!" he said, pointing so proudly. "And that’s my grandma’s garden! She grows the biggest sunflowers."
An old woman was kneeling in the dirt, carefully pulling weeds. She wore a simple dress and a faded apron. She looked up at the sound of Leo’s voice.
And as soon as she saw Leo, her smile was just instant. "Leo! There you are, my little fox."
_______
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