Behind The Pages

Chapter Three: The Mysterious Cabin

The past three days had been a living hell.

No matter where I went, mockery followed. My face was plastered across the internet, stamped with the label of a bitter, delusional stalker. Employers turned me away, hotels refused me a room, and last night, a group of teenagers had pelted my car, my temporary home, with rotten tomatoes and eggs.

I sat on the rusted edge of the abandoned bridge just outside the city and stared down at the churning river below. This bridge had always been my sanctuary, the one place I went whenever the world grew too heavy. I had been sitting here for an hour, basking in the quiet hum of nature, the only hour of peace I’d had in days.

“Yuri! Oh god, Yuri, please don't!”

A sharp hysterical voice shattered the silence.

I spun my head around. Cara was rushing toward the bridge, her eyes wide with frantic and performative panic.

“Please step back!” Cara cried, her hands trembling in the air. “Don’t end your life over this! Just apologize! Just tell everyone you were wrong, and I promise I’ll forget all of this ever happened! Please, Yuri, I’m begging you!”

I stared at her in utter disbelief. Jumping had never even crossed my mind.

Then I caught the subtle flash of a camera lens through the trees near the edge of the road. Someone was recording us.

A bitter laugh escaped my throat. “Stay away from me, Cara. Stop pretending.”

“I can’t just walk away!” Cara pleaded, taking another step closer, her voice loud enough to carry to whoever was filming. “Despite everything you did to me, you were my best friend! I can’t let you die!”

“I don’t need your fake friendship,” I spat, standing up on the narrow ledge, my voice cold and hard.

Before I could step down onto the safe pavement, Cara lunged forward and threw her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry my success made you feel so small, Yuri,” she sobbed loudly into my shoulder.

“Get off me!” I gritted out, struggling against her grip and pushing her away.

Cara’s hold tightened like an iron. She leaned in, her cheek pressing against mine, and dropped her voice to a whisper meant only for me.

“All of this will never truly be mine with you around.”

With a sudden, violent burst of strength, Cara shoved me backward into empty air.

As she pushed me, she threw her own body backward onto the concrete bridge, tumbling dramatically to the ground as if I had been the one to attack her.

My foot slipped off the wet rusted iron.

“Yuri!” Cara shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Gravity yanked me down, but my instincts kicked in. I reached out and managed to slam my fingers around the lower steel railing. My arms jerked violently, pain shooting up my shoulders as I hung over the deadly drop.

A sharp pain bolted through my skull, flashing a scene into my mind.

I was standing before a massive gate, weighed down by heavy armor, a sword gripped in my right hand. Five of my men formed a circle ahead of me with shields locked above their heads.

“Remember—protect the Celestial Queen at all costs!” I roared.

My grip tightened on the hilt. I sprinted toward them, hit their shields, and launched into the air as they shoved me upward with all their strength. Mid-flight, a sword whipped past and planted itself deep into the stone wall right under my boot. A spear slammed into the rock just above my head. Using both as makeshift footholds, I kicked off them, throwing myself higher with everything I had.

It still wasn’t enough to reach the top.

“General!” my men screamed from below.

Just one more step.

Before gravity could drag me down, I slammed my blade deep into the stone an arm’s length above me. Hanging by a single hand, suspended twenty meters in the air, I held on.

“Yuri!” Cara’s squeal yanked me back to reality.

Seeing me catch myself, Cara’s sobbing instantly stopped. She rushed to the edge and grabbed my wrists, screaming for the hidden camera, “Hold on! Don’t let go! I’ve got you!”

I looked up, expecting to see panic in her eyes. Instead, her lips stretched into a slow, terrifying evil smirk.

Without hesitation, Cara dug her nails into my skin and pried my fingers off the cold iron, one by one.

“Let go,” she whispered sweetly.

“Cara, no!” I screamed, but her own fabricated shriek of horror completely drowned out my voice.

My last grip broke.

I plummeted into the abyss.

The icy water slammed into me like a brick wall, knocking the wind straight out of my lungs. The violent current pulled me under, twisting my body and dragging me through the roaring darkness. I fought back fiercely, kicking with everything I had until my head broke the surface. I gasped for air, fighting the crushing water, paddling toward the muddy riverbank just ahead.

I almost made it. My fingers brushed the wet earth—

CRACK.

A massive submerged rock smashed into the side of my head. The world instantly went black.

My eyes fluttered open to the smell of burning wood and dried herbs.

I was lying on a narrow cot inside a rustic wooden cabin. Weakly, I sat up, clutching my throbbing head, and walked out the open door.

Fresh, salty air whipped my hair across my face. I stepped outside and froze.

I wasn’t near the river anymore. I was standing near the peak of a high mountainous island. Below me, stretching out in every direction as far as the eye could see, was an endless deep blue ocean.

A sharp, stabbing pain spiked through my skull. My vision spun violently, and my knees buckled beneath me.

Before I could hit the ground, a pair of surprisingly strong hands caught me under the arms, steadying my weight.

“Easy child,” a raspy voice murmured.

I looked up to see an old woman with deep, weathered wrinkles, and silver hair tied back neatly. She guided me back inside the cabin, helped me onto a wooden chair, and set a warm bowl of soup in front of me.

“Rest,” she said quietly. “You’ve been unconscious for two days. I’ve bandaged your head and cleaned your wounds.”

I picked up the wooden spoon with trembling hands, swallowing a few bites of the hot broth. As I ate, the silence grew heavy. The old woman sat across from me, watching me with sharp unreadable eyes.

“Why did you come back here?” she asked softly.

I paused, lowering my spoon. “Come back? I’m sorry... I’ve never been to this place before.” I swallowed hard and looked around the small cabin. “I’m an orphan. I don’t know who you are, or where we are.”

The old woman didn’t answer. She only stared at me, a strange, heavy grief settling into her features.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” she whispered, standing up from the table.

I lowered my head, feeling an overwhelming wave of guilt and confusion. “I’m sorry...”

“You can stay here only until you’re healed,” she said coldly, gathering the empty utensils from the table. “By then, I’ll take you back to the city myself.”

She turned her back to me, her voice final and unyielding.

“Once you leave... never come back.”