Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Nothing.
I head to the bedroom to check in there. Opening the door, I hear the rain hammering against the window. It’s fierce. I wish Athena were as eager to get inside.
I dip down to check under the white, metal-framed bed, but it’s clear.
The rain is relentless.
Drip, drip, drip.
Wait. That’s not rain.
I try and silence my breathing so I can hear better.
Drip, drip, drip.
That sound is definitely coming from inside the cabin.
Just then, the sound of creaking wood splinters through the bedroom. Shit, is that the ceiling? I don’t know where I’m safe. And that’s when I see the pool of water on my bed. I glance up to a ceiling bulging downward, dripping a steady stream of water.
“Oh no!” I cry out.
I go into the kitchen and grab the biggest pot I can find to put under the leak. It won’t keep the ceiling from caving in, or save the mattress that’s probably already soaked, but I need to feel like I’m doing something. Anything.
I really need to move the bed and save it from any further damage. The room isn’t big though, and no amount of shifting left or right will escape the steadily worsening leak. I should call Beth and Mike.
And I need to find Athena.
“Athena,” I call out, my voice strained as I push the foot of the bed frame with all my body weight. Once the frame hits the far wall, my suspicions are confirmed—it’s not far enough to escape the leak.
Now the drips are hitting the edge of the bed and the creaking sounds louder. There’s so much water. I bet it got through to the mattress. Maybe I should just pull the mattress off the bed and put the pot on the bedframe.
I pull at the mattress, but it’s about a foot thick and feels like it’s full of bricks. How is it this heavy? When I manage to move it down to one end, it gets stuck at the other. Maybe I can pull it from the other side? I clamber over the bed, my pants getting soaked from the pool in the middle of the blankets.
I get to the other side of the bed, but realize I can’t get down between the wall and the frame.
Shit, I’m bad at this. I need to pull the bed back to where it was, or at least a couple of feet from the wall so I can get on the other side and push. I climb over the bed again, getting even wetter.
Is it me, or is the leak getting worse? Is the ceiling likely to cave in?
I start to pull the bed, first the head and then the foot.
A pounding at the door makes me screech in surprise.
Maybe someone found Athena and has brought her back? For a second I wonder if it’s Frank, swooping in to rescue me. I suppose that’s what his role was meant to be in my life—a man rescuing me from a future I didn’t want. But he was just offering a different future. Not a better one.
As I make it out of the bedroom, the cabin door opens and Byron appears in the doorway. His hair is slick with rain and he’s breathing hard.
“Rosey,” he says. I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my life. I want to leap into his arms and bury my head in his chest.
“Byron!” I say. “I’ve lost Athena and it’s raining in the bedroom and I shouldn’t have left the Club. I don’t know—”
He strides across the living space and holds me by the shoulders. “It’s going to be okay.”
I sigh with relief that he’s here. Thank god.
He releases me and stands tall. “Don’t leave my side,” he says, heading into my bedroom. I scurry in after him.
He moves quickly, pulling the bedding from the mattress, then pulling the mattress off the bedframe like it’s a pool float, rather than the heaviest thing I’ve ever had to move.
“Do you have a bucket?” he asks.
I hand him the pot I collected from the kitchen. He takes it from me and positions it under the leak.
The creak of wood sounds again and our gazes meet. “Is it the ceiling?” I ask. He grabs my hand and pulls me out of the bedroom.
“Get your coat on and let’s take any supplies we might need. Water. Food. I probably have enough, but it doesn’t hurt to have more.”
I don’t have a chance to ask him where we’re going because he pulls out his cell and dials a number while he opens the refrigerator and starts tossing stuff onto the counter. I gather it all up and put it into bags.
“Beth, it’s Byron. Cabin two has a leak in its roof.” He listens. “Yeah, Rosey… No, I don’t want either of you to come out in this. We’ve moved the furniture. Yeah… Agreed. No, that’s fine. Keep safe.”