Chapter 10: 10. Natasha: Silence Through the Mountains

Natasha woke up with a start, jolted up when someone knocked on the door. She rubbed her eyes working out the blurriness. With some effort she pulled herself up and peered over the seat to see that her family were outside looking in. Another knock and Natasha came completely to and realized that the car had been locked. She crawled into the passenger seat and reached over and unlocked it.

“Morning sleepy head,” Stephen said, opening the driver door with a smile. “I was worried there for a moment that we’d be stuck here.”

Natasha managed a smile and gave her dad a weak ‘mhm’ in reply. The twins piled in the back of the car. None of them looked like they’d just fought off a hoard of monsters to get there. Natasha sighed as she looked each of them over. Mindlessly she rubbed the palms of her hands.

“How’re you feeling there kiddo?” Stephen strapped himself in. “Have a good nap?”

“Hmmm—oh yeah, yeah, good,” Natasha said then turned to her brothers in the back. “You guys have fun on the top deck?”

“It was way too cold to go outside,” Damon said, shaking his head. “We just hung out in the café.”

“I took a walk around the boat and poked my head out.” Aiden flipped over his own phone to Natasha showing her a photo of the front of the boat as they were approaching foggy pine covered mountains. “I think there were some seals at some point but I didn’t get a picture.”

“Cool, ah… that’s a pretty good view.” Natasha swiped through the previous pictures. Rapidly darkening skies, choppy waves as he took a photo over the rail, and a stupid selfie of Aiden with his jacket hood whipping into his face. A bright flare of red took over the corner of the last photo. “What happened here?”

She handed the phone back to him. He scrutinized the image confused. Damon looked over at the phone as well and shrugged.

“Uh, I dunno. There was a weird flash of light, I figured it was a car light or something down below.” Aiden said with his nose scrunched.

“Oh, right, guess that makes sense.”

That told her more than just asking. Nothing happened to them. She was somewhat relieved, but now anxious that whatever or whoever they were, they were coming for her. Natasha bit at her cheek.

The car out front turned on and started pulling away. “Well, here we go! Get ready kids, your first time on the mainland.” Stephen turned the car’s key and the engine sputtered to life and followed the car at a slow roll.

Natasha turned to see if the car behind them, what she could only assume to be Benjamin’s car, was going to follow. Maybe she could wave back at him or get dad to stop. That was their uncle right? Shouldn’t they all talk about what was happening?

However, the car stood there still, lights dead, driver seat empty. Another vehicle behind it honked but there was nothing inside to react. The dogs were gone too. As they pulled completely off the ferry a staff member walked over to the car to see what was the fuss.

He was gone.

What did he mean that he would find them again? Natasha had a million questions for the man and felt a bubble of annoyance that he wasn’t there. There was so much going on and so many things that were wrong with all of this. Why did she suddenly remember things about her childhood that she’d long forgotten, why did her mom not tell her at all about this whole magic thing. It seemed like an important thing to tell your kids. That was what it was right—magic?

Magic.

Her mind rushed to a thousand conclusions but all of them opened more doors to more questions. She was too tired to consider any of them. Tired down to her bones.

They pulled onto a complicated system of roads that led up and down back onto the ground. They’d landed in a town called Horseshoe bay. A small town that had a cute little shopping neighbourhood on the beach. They saw nothing of it as they drove through and onto the trans-Canada highway which hugged a sharp cliff that dropped off on the right. Below was more forest spilling into the Salish Sea. On the other side of them were the coastal mountains that were partially blocked with low hanging, grey clouds.

“This might be a weird question, dad…” Natasha said. He replied with a distracted ‘yah’. “Have you ever met any of mom’s family? Like do we have any uncles or aunts on her side?”

“Oh– uh, yeah.” He was completely caught off guard by the sudden choice in topic. “No, I’ve never met them. Mom’s from the UK, and she never really brought them up. Some people are just not that close with family. She has mentioned once or twice she had a sister and that her mom died when they were younger. So I guess you have an aunt?”

“Mom never said why she wasn’t close with them?” She asked, her brows knitting.

“No, hon, she keeps that kind of stuff pretty close. Plus, anyway, your grandparents basically adopted her as soon as I brought her home, so I guess she didn’t feel the need to.”

“Right, I guess that makes sense.”

It didn’t though. There must've been more to it than that. Did mom never actually mention the whole magic thing to dad, could she do magic? Natasha couldn’t remember a time when her mother seemed any more than the plain, good natured woman she’d known all her life. It was almost laughable thinking of her as some kind of witch. Then again, she’d always been interested in Natasha’s dreams, always seemed to know when any of the kids felt off, and she’d caught her mom scrutinizing the twins in an odd way.

The drive was silent for the most part for the next hour. The family were all stuck by the scenery that zoomed by them as they continued down a long stretch of highway. Stephen said that he’d take a bit of a detour through the actual city of Vancouver to let the kids see what it was like. To get there they took an exit and worked their way through some pre-dusk traffic. Passing malls and houses that were set up on a steep hill that sloped up into the mountains.

The road eventually turned into a bridge labelled “Lion’s Gate” which was guarded by two huge stone lions perched on art nouveau styled pedestals. Even though the clouds hung so low they obscured the top of even shorter buildings, Natasha peered out and saw a large bay and a varying array of glass skyscrapers. An odd building sat on the water, just out into the bay, that looked like some kind of sailing ship which was lit up with red lights. With the fog it nearly looked real.

Natasha and her brothers had seen pictures of the mainland, of course. Visits that their friends often did, history class, or in their own research dreaming of the day they themselves could escape to the big city. Those were nothing like being there. Their eyes lapped up the various sights hungry for the eccentricity of it all compared to their small city on the Island. Here and there one of them would point out a landmark no matter how bland. A bronze bull, bear statues that were scattered about the different office buildings, the old historic hotel next to the roman styled building of the art gallery, a beautiful skyscraper that had trees growing on top of it.

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The entire city rushed by and then only after a 30 minute drive it was gone. The traffic got heavier as they drove through historic neighbourhoods with a mix of old houses and new apartment buildings and soon it was back to driving on the Number One.

As soon as they were away from the coast the snow began to flutter down. The trees and high-rise buildings quickly gave way to flat valleys and long farms dotted with various livestock. Bordering the highway, small neighbourhoods cropped up. The road stretched off into the mountains that they crept closer to as the minutes ticked by. The snow also picked up into a flurry that slowly began sticking to the plants on either side of the highway.

Natasha felt sudden pangs of hunger and remembered the scone and drink that she still hadn’t touched. The coffee was already cold but Natasha still nibbled on the scone as she drank it down. It hit the spot, though after so much activity earlier she still could do with more.

The car was quiet, except for the radio station that Stephen had put on. Static would make it hard to hear the music every so often until he eventually put it off. An hour then drifted away in complete silence.

“Dad, there’s a town coming up,” Aiden said, finally breaking the silence. “Could we get out for a bit before the sun goes down?”

Stephen looked from the road to the rearview mirror at the two in the back. Damon was craning his eyes to see a mountain they were rounding. The snow outside was now beginning to pile up outside making it harder to see the landscape around them.

“We’ve only been diving for a couple hours,” Stephen replied. “Do you think you could hold on till–”

“Please dad?” Aiden said his face scrunched in displeasure. “There’s gotta be a place we can stretch our legs a moment.”

Their dad sighed. “Alright, just for a bit though, I’m a little worried about the build up of snow.”

Natasha looked at her dad. She had kept quiet during the drive, staring out at the drifting snow, but something in Stephen’s voice was on edge. His brows were knitted, and knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. The roads hadn’t been so bad that he should be that worried.

“You okay dad?” She asked.

His eyes flicked over to her. He must’ve realized the tense sound in his voice and forced his face and hands to relax. Stephen managed a weak smirk at Natasha.

“‘Course, kiddo,” He said, his voice tense. “There’s just much more snow than I was hoping for.”

There were another few moments of silence. A sign passed by saying a rest stop was coming up. Without saying anything Stephen pulled the car into the it, down a short road and parked nearby some larger SUV type cars. Natasha unconsciously scanned the area for anything unusual and, though she didn’t have any hope he’d be there, for the man who she had now ran into twice. Not to her surprise and much to her relief there was nothing out of the ordinary there she could see.

Stephen turned around to face the three in the back. “Alright, no more than fifteen minutes. Then we’re back on the road till we get there.”

Aiden got out of the car. Damon looked a little out of it for a moment, blinking back to reality. Aiden reached and tugged on his sleeve.

“Come on, let’s get out for a bit.” He said, stepping away from the door.

Damon followed after him on the other side. Natasha went for the handle to exit as well but stopped for a moment.

“You coming as well?” She asked her dad.

“You go ahead, I’ll keep the car warm,” he replied, sliding his hands down the wheel.

Natasha nodded and got out. She looked back once to her dad who’d slipped his phone out and was checking it before snapping the door.

The parking lot of the rest stop hadn’t been cleared yet and a layer of fresh snow had piled up. It crunched under her feet as she walked after her brothers. Damon had gone ahead to the washrooms and Aiden had made his way to a picnic table that was under a stand of trees protected from the snow. Still completely exhausted Natasha shivered a little and pulled her coat collar up to her chin. It certainly was winter here up in the mountains.

“My legs are so numb,” Aiden groaned as he stretched down to reach his toes.

“We’re gonna have to get used to it.” Natasha walked up and grimaced. She was also very stiff. “We’ve got, what, another four hours? Then we’re gonna have to make this trip back.”

This earned her groan from Aiden. The wind picked up slightly and worked its way through the seams of her jacket. Aiden frowned and stuck his hands into his pockets. Natasha wasn’t used to being cold, she never got cold. To try and get warm she crossed her arms, wincing as she touched the deepening bruise. She’d nearly forgotten.

“Hey– you guys really didn’t see anything weird while we were on the ferry right?” Natasha probed.

Aiden frowned with an unspoken question written on his face.

Natasha continued before he answered, “we were talking at the terminal about this morning…”

“Yeah, and?” Aiden piped up. “What, did you see something else on the car deck?”

The question was serious, no hint of teasing in his voice. He grabbed his phone and swiped through the photos he’d taken. Natasha bit her cheek thinking of the best way to explain what had happened without sounding like she’d gone mad. Aiden finally turned his phone towards her, the same picture as Natasha had pointed to before.

“Was it about this?” He asked. “You sounded really worried when you asked about this.”

“Hmm yeah—yeah. It is. Could you just listen for a sec and not freak out at me?” Natasha paced for a moment and then thought it better to show them the only evidence she had. “Let me show you first.”

She unbuttoned her outer layer and took the injured arm out and gingerly rolled up the sleeve. The bruise had already turned a deep black, in the exact shape of an enormous paw, and the skin around it blistered like a piece of dry ice had scorched her. Aiden winced in reaction and went to say something when Natasha held her hands up.

“It’s hard to explain.” She quickly replaced her arm and buttoned her coat back up. “I fell asleep in the car and when I woke up the entire deck had gone dark. Like…unnaturally dark. Then some creatures, dog-ish like things, showed up and they started shaking the car like they were trying to sniff me out.”

Natasha explained the entire experience she had before they got to the car. She faltered several times just trying to come up with the right words. Aiden’s face dropped with disbelief, then with concern and finally as she ended her tale his expressions were a mix of both. Natasha flailed her arms up to indicate that she was done.

Behind her Damon spoke, having showed up halfway through her tale, “You’re really pulling our legs here. Are you really saying you can do magic?”

He burst into laughter. “I knew you were weird but man, Natasha, are you on something?”

Natasha whipped around to stare at Damon, her face beet red with embarrassment.

“Hey, this isn’t a joke! You weren’t there. I thought I was going to die. Seriously..”

“Right, right. Maybe you’ve got the flu or something, which would explain feeling like you have a fever. Probably the hallucinations too.”

“I’m not sick, I feel fine—except for what happened!” Natasha turned to her other brother. “Come on you saw the bruise, even my phone is busted. You can’t think I’m making this up, Aiden.”

Aiden sighed and shrugged. “I dunno, Natasha, that’s a lot to really believe. Can you… you know–”

“Could you make fire?” Damon finished Aiden’s sentence.

Natasha thought about it. Maybe she could, though she was really panicked before, and didn’t know how she’d done it. After thinking for a moment, she nodded.

“Fine, I’ll try,” Natasha said, frustrated. “Probably not a good idea to do it where people can see, though.”

As Natasha led them further away from the parking lot and any prying eyes she thought of how it’d felt to make that fire. It was like she’d released something she’d kept so tightly bound within her. Every muscle in Natasha’s body was still sore. It reminded her of when she’d run a marathon, but also felt like she was carrying a thousand pounds. If she could manage to replicate what it had felt like maybe she could pull it off again.

Reaching the inside the tree line Natasha looked back at her brothers. Damon was holding back his teasing, barely, and Aiden looked worried.

It was almost time for the sun to set. The sky increasingly darkened and the forest became more grey. None of the snow falling had managed to penetrate the canopy and the thick smell of mulch and pine needles wafted around the three of them. Their breaths streamed out in thick clouds of mist.

“Alright, here goes nothing.”