ELOISE The journey was long. Long in the sense that I was now certain it wasn't going to take place in Ashlake. The path he took implied we were leaving town. Most probably, another one way ticket to Marblefay but Matthan surprised me when he took a completely different route from the one sure to take us to Marblefay. The path his vehicle waltzed into was almost narrow and crooked. It implied it was old and barely used. But there was a definite set of tracks he followed. This wasn't his first time here but the further the car went, the more obvious the signs became that this was not a shortcut to Marblefay. My theory didn't linger on the fact that the road had probably been abandoned for decades at least. As the freeway started to thin out, thick and broad trees began to appear, some stil

