Towards the Winter Cabin of Serenity and Madness, Cinderella Runs - Chapter 9
As the door closed tightly, the howling wind quieted, and warmth enveloped her body. Roel clutched the hem of her dress, standing still with a troubled expression.
The cabin interior was as spacious as the living room of the house she had lived in and open without any separate rooms. The ceiling formed a sharp triangle, following the tilt of the logs. A fireplace, made of haphazardly stacked large stones, was against one wall. Not far from it, a bed was placed.
The floor was covered with a carpet, but beyond that, there were no special decorations. It looked like a storage room with items and clothes scattered around. The cabin’s spaciousness was a relief; otherwise, it might have looked like a pigsty.
The man threw some logs into the fireplace. His hunched back looked like a massive boulder. The bulging muscles under his clothes looked menacing. Should she run away now? She was conflicted.
He gestured for Roel to come closer after ensuring the fire was burning well.
“Come closer.”
His deep voice made Roel’s shoulders twitch. She stood still, and he urged her again.
“Hurry.”
His gaze with those amber eyes seemed dry. He appeared utterly uninterested in Roel.
He didn’t ask why she was wandering in the woods at night or why she had entered the forest. His stark and indifferent look was somehow reassuring.
Roel slowly moved her feet. It wasn’t that she felt at ease.
It was as if she was mesmerized by the warm heat. After shivering in the cold for so long, the warm air emanating from the fireplace was enticing.
Her fingers hardly bent, as if she had been doing laundry in cold water for too long and almost frostbitten. Roel cautiously sat in front of the crackling fire.
“Haah.”
A sigh escaped her as she warmed herself by the fire. Her frozen body slowly thawed, making her fingertips buzz and her toes tingle.
Even as she warmed up, she couldn’t bring herself to look at the man. He was still too frightening and strange.
The man moved away as Roel warmed herself, then indifferently picked logs while attending to his own business.
Only when he moved away did Roel finally feel at ease. She blankly stared at the dancing flames, feeling relaxed.
Watching the flickering flames brought back long-buried memories.
When the bone-chilling winter approached, her father would chop wood. Young Roel helped by carrying logs. Seeing the woodpile in the storage filled her heart. Thus, preparing for winter began with chopping wood.
As winter set in earnest, her father would not take on any work. Like a bear hibernating, they would stay indoors, slowly consuming the food they had prepared, aimlessly spending the winter together.
Her father would add logs to the fireplace and cook soup over the flames. The soup, made haphazardly with various ingredients, would warm their bellies so well they hardly noticed the cold of winter.
That was how Roel’s childhood winters were spent: preparing for winter with her father, enduring it, and warming herself in front of the cozy fireplace.
She longed for those winters that would never return.
‘What should I do now?’
Recalling those warm memories made the reality she faced all the more terrifying. She felt as if she was standing on the edge of a steep cliff, overwhelmingly lonely and uncertain of her ability to overcome this challenge.
It felt like she was sinking deeper into an abyss.
As she was gradually succumbing to despair, the man snapped her back to reality.
“Are you rested?”
“Ah, yes…”
Roel lifted her head. Her cheeks were flushed red from the heat of the fireplace, thawing her frozen body, making her look as if she’d had a bit too much to drink.
Her lips, once a pale shade of blue from shivering in the cold, now showed a hint of color, making her look alive.
In hindsight, she always seemed like a sickly chicken whenever they crossed paths in the village. Emaciated like a wilted flower with a gloomy expression, and walking unsteadily as if barely able to hold herself up. She was like a walking corpse, catching his eye every time.
The lively appearance of such a woman was quite a change. Anyway, it seemed she had revived, so that was that. She wouldn’t die on her way down the mountain. The man thought so as he got up.
“Alright.”
He opened the door. As soon as it was opened, a sharp wind rushed into the cabin, making her warmed body feel cold again.
Roel stared blankly at the man standing by the open door looking at her.
“Ah.”
It was time to leave. It was natural to go after benefiting from the man’s kindness, but she felt oddly unsettled.
She hadn’t yet decided what to do next. Even though she had planned to leave immediately upon entering the cabin, now the thought of stepping back into the cold wind was daunting. Yet, she had no reason to stay in the cabin.
Roel got up from her seat. The thought of wandering through the cold forest again filled her with dread.
‘I have to go. I need to run far away.’
