The Book of Elements Read online

  The Book of Elements

  Written By:

  Cynthia Woods

  The Book of Elements is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, and events are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © August 2011 Cynthia Woods.

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN 978-0-9837798-1-0

  Printed in the United States of America

  This book is dedicated to my husband, Tim.

  Whatever the need, no matter the opinion of others, regardless of the place or time, when I reach out, he is always there for me.

  A special thank you to my sister, Crystal, for her honest opinions and commentary during the production process.

  CHAPTER 1

  Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating the room through the sheer curtains. Caeli witnessed the brilliant display through sad, brown eyes as she sat in an oversized recliner sipping a cup of hot cocoa while the storm raged outside. The rain, pouring down like darts being hurled at the earth from above, mirrored her tears. The nearly constant rumble of thunder echoed through her pounding head, and the periodic claps shook the house. The storm accurately portrayed the chaos of her emotional state. But the wind…the wind, more than anything else, stirred her fear.

  The wind was the one vivid detail Caeli remembered about the storm a few days ago. It was a storm, not unlike this one, which had been their nemesis the night Vin died. As the early evening frenzy continued outside, Caeli allowed herself to be drawn into her scattered memories of the event that devastated her.

  Caeli and Vin, her husband of ten years, had been excitedly looking forward to celebrating their anniversary by spending a romantic evening watching the comet pass overhead. It was the perfect reminder of their first date. Back then, Vin took her to see a meteor shower. It was the beginning of a spectacular show and a phenomenal relationship. They had married young and never once regretted it. They were incredibly happy together.

  They settled into the perfect viewing spot in a little known section of the forest to watch the rare display.

  "I remember the last time you brought me here to see a show. It was incredible," Caeli remarked as she recalled the meteor shower that was the backdrop for their first kiss. It seemed like only yesterday.

  The comet's passing was supposed to be quite a sight, an event they would not likely have the chance to see again in their lifetime. Reports said the best time to view the comet would be when it first crossed the horizon Monday evening. They arrived several hours early to make sure nobody else snatched their preferred location, which was only large enough for perhaps two cars, if they were squeezed very close together. Vin parked their car so that no one else could intrude on their privacy.

  "I remember it, too. This time, we won't have any childish interruptions, and I will have you all to myself. I still pinch myself to remind me that this is real; that I could be so lucky to have you in my life. I love you more every day that we're together. Happy anniversary, Honey." Vin smiled and kissed her.

  They intended to spend the late afternoon and evening out there. Caeli packed a picnic basket full of sandwiches and other snacks, and Vin handled icing down the drinks in the cooler. They brought a blanket in case the night became chilly. The final items in their adventure pack were binoculars and a camera so that they could see as much detail of the comet as possible and have some great photos to document the event.

  Unfortunately, the rain clouds rolled in about an hour after they arrived. A light drizzle was already falling. It was still three hours before they would be able to see the comet. Neither Vin nor Caeli were overly concerned. They were happy spending the time together, snuggled warm and dry inside their car.

  While they waited, the wind began to pick up, carrying bits of litter and debris across their field of view and swirling the raindrops as they fell. They watched in fascination as the wind seemed to change its focus. Caeli noticed their car beginning to sway lightly. Vin noticed the change, too, with concern. The gusts were getting stronger as if channeled through an unseen tunnel. The car began to shake violently as the wind continued to increase in fury.

  The strength of the unexpected storm, now in full force around them, was a fierceness of nature they had never before witnessed firsthand. The storm came up quite rapidly, out of nowhere. It seemed to settle right on top of them and was now tormenting the couple. It was ruining what they had hoped would be a lovely evening.

  Finally deciding the comet watching was beyond all hope, they gave up on their evening and would simply have to try again another night. After all, the comet would be visible in the night sky for a full week. Tonight, the weather was becoming too worrisome to risk staying any longer.

  Disappointed, but cautious of what else might develop in the turbulent winds, Vin started the car and turned toward the comforts of home. In his mind, he was already thinking that he could still salvage the evening. Perhaps he could turn their ruined picnic into a romantic dinner at home instead.

  Caeli's tension rose as the winds continued to build. Her nervousness became apparent as the rain hammered down harder. Large drops splattered against the windshield quicker than the wiper blades could clear them. Vin drove slowly along the unpaved road to compensate for the poor visibility. He could tell that Caeli was a little bit scared, so he reached out to hold her hand reassuringly. She smiled over at him. Vin could always read her mood at a glance; and he knew how to make her feel better, even with nothing more than a simple, comforting touch.

  The wind changed direction once again. Caeli reflexively grabbed Vin’s arm as the car was suddenly shoved sideways. It took every bit of Vin’s determination to keep them from careening off the edge of the road and into the woods beyond. The pounding of the wind was relentless. It propelled the car forward at greater speeds than Vin could safely maintain. Just when he thought the car was steady, another gust would slam into it from the side. It was as if the wind was determined to force the car off the road.

  Vin fought valiantly with every nuance of skill he could muster. Perhaps, if he could get them off this open road, then they would not be so exposed to the capricious will of the wind. Vin was sure that he could find shelter when they reached the town, if only he could get the car away from these windy woods. But fate, it seemed, had other plans.

  After fifteen minutes of constantly battling the thrashing of the wind, Vin managed to get the car off the muddy forest trails and onto the main road, but the air flow was not any better here. He was tiring from the exertion of fighting to keep the car on the road. Vin was not winning this battle. He looked over at Caeli with an abrupt calmness in his manner. With acceptance in his bright, blue eyes, he told her to make sure her seatbelt was pulled tight and to brace for a crash.

  "I love you," she replied.

  The wind finally overcame Vin's strength and pushed the car off the road. With the small amount of control he still maintained, Vin tried to guide the car as safely as he could and prayed they would survive the inevitable impact. Tree limbs slapped against the glass on all sides, making scratching sounds like fingernails running down a chalkboard. The rough terrain harshly bounced the vehicle and its occupants.

  Caeli was jostled with such force as the car sped down the bumpy slope that her head hit the side window, knocking her unconscious. When she came to, the car was no longer moving. The wind had died down, the rain was falling lightly, and an ominous silence encompassed the entire area. As her senses began to focus, Caeli was soon able to hear faint sounds through the densely packed trees.

  She listened carefully for several minutes. The rain pattered softly against the meta
l of the car and crickets chirped outside. Caeli looked over to see if Vin was hurt and was startled to discover his seat empty. Then she heard a different sound through the trees ahead. Was it voices? Maybe Vin had gone for help. The door on his side of the car was closed, the windshield appeared to be intact, and there was no blood in his seat or anywhere else that she could see. Granted, everything she saw was a little fuzzy, but the scene inside the car did not look too bad. Caeli decided that Vin must have gone in search of assistance, and the voices would be Vin talking to someone, trying to get that aid. As dizzy as she felt, Caeli thought it would be best if she waited for them to reach the car and give her a hand rather than trying to go to them. She closed her brown eyes to rest while she waited. Caeli was no longer scared. The worst was over, and they were both alive. She knew that Vin would never leave her.

  Caeli woke again, this time with somewhat of a start, not knowing how long she had been out. What startled her? Why did she feel a sudden panic? She glanced around and immediately felt a throbbing in her head as she turned. It was a painful reminder of what happened.

  By now, the rain was little more than a drizzle, but continued dripping from overhanging branches and plopping into the puddles that had overtaken much of the surrounding grass. Caeli wondered when Vin would return and if help would reach her soon. What was taking so long? Then she realized that the voices she heard previously were now very faint. They sounded as if they had moved away.

  Caeli tried to undo the latch on her seatbelt, but it was jammed. She tried to peer through the mud splattered windshield, but could barely glimpse anything more than shadowy outlines. Her heart beat a little faster as she considered that she might be trapped in the car. Maybe the rescuers found Vin injured or unconscious. Perhaps he was not able to tell them that she was still out here. Struggling to free herself from the car, Caeli leaned over and pressed firmly and desperately on the horn.

  A very loud response caused her head to throb even more, but she pressed the horn again and again. She persisted for several minutes, hoping someone would be close enough to hear. At last, exhaustion overcame her efforts. Caeli lay back against her seat to gather her remaining strength for another attempt and to try to calm the sense of dread rapidly welling inside.

  The uneasiness would not subside. Calmness was elusive. Caeli found enough reserve energy to call upon for one more attempt before being utterly spent. A few more moments passed before she rallied herself to try once more to get out of the seatbelt that held her prisoner. The effort cost her several broken fingernails and a jagged slice across her palm, courtesy of the broken edge of the plastic covering. Bright, red blood dripped from her palm and splattered onto her seat. Caeli, at last, gave up the useless attempt to escape the seatbelt in that manner. She took a moment to look around the car, and then stretch her arm over to the driver’s seat. From there, she was able to retrieve Vin’s utility knife from where it was wedged halfway into the crevice created by the joint of the back and bottom pieces of the seat. Caeli eventually extricated herself by sawing through the tough material of the seatbelt.

  Next, Caeli tried to open the door on her side of the car. She pulled on the door latch and pushed against the door with her shoulder. She shoved against it two or three times before her shoulder protested any further abuse. The door, which had not even budged, must have been wedged against an unseen tree trunk amidst all of the greenery-laden branches surrounding the car. Caeli climbed unsteadily across to the driver’s side and managed to open that door. She crawled out onto the wet and muddy ground. Her legs wobbled, and then Caeli slipped to land face down in a large mud puddle as a reward for her efforts.

  Caeli pulled herself to her feet with the assistance of a nearby tree branch and the open car door. She stumbled toward the woods in front of the car, the direction from which she thought the voices were coming. As she was drawing near, the wind rose again, though not nearly as strong as when it caused them to crash. The gusts whipped her long, brown hair across her face. Branches of the evergreen trees scraped her face and hands, the only exposed parts of her pale skin; but Caeli pushed forward through the maze of trees. The voices were definitely closer now.

  A mist began to form on the ground. It thickened and swirled as it worked its way between the lower branches of the surrounding trees. The frenzy of the wind kicked up another notch. Sappy pine needles and wet leaves began to stick to Caeli's clothes and hair, making a tangled mess. Her vision was obscured each time the wind caught the jumbled mass and blew it straight into her face. The clinging mud soon began to tug at her feet as if to prevent her from moving any further forward.

  With a sudden, urgent need to see what was transpiring in the clearing she glimpsed ahead, Caeli steeled her determination, let the rain help wash the leaves and mud spatter from her face, steadied her steps, and practically threw herself forward. Against the wind, heedless of the scraping and stinging of the pine needles, despite the thickening fog and clinging mud, she made it clumsily into the clearing.

  Almost immediately, Caeli tripped over an unseen tree root that rose up unexpectedly from the soggy ground. She stumbled and lost her footing. The right side of Caeli's head, already injured from the impact with the car window, struck sharply against a fist-sized rock as she landed on the ground. Her vision blurred even more. Bile rose in her throat and unpleasant waves of nausea swam in her stomach.

  As Caeli lay on the ground, stubbornly resisting the black wave of unconsciousness that once again threatened to claim her, she saw movement in the mist before her. It looked like Vin. The tall, dark-haired figure was wearing blue jeans and a blue polo shirt. It had to be Vin. Was he really there? Had she caught up with him? Between her blurred vision and the swirling winds, it was difficult to tell. Caeli tried to call out, but the tiny sound of her voice was lost in the sudden roaring of the wind. The haze parted briefly, and Caeli thought she saw Vin moving near her. He seemed to be protecting her from something that his body was blocking from her line of sight.

  "Naturally," Caeli said to herself with relief.

  Vin was always there when she needed him and was ever protective of her. Now that she could see him more clearly, Caeli felt less afraid and permitted the weariness to pull her down. In the next instant, the wind stirred wildly, thunder rumbled, the fog rippled, and Vin disappeared. Darkness overwhelmed Caeli just when she heard sirens approaching from the distance.

  A loud clap of thunder from the current storm recalled Caeli to the present where another type of darkness filled her home. The most recent lightning strike hit a nearby transformer, knocking out all of the electricity and pulling her out of the painful memory. Caeli’s head was still pounding. It had not quit since Salma dropped her off from the hospital earlier. It was all Caeli could do, at the time, to convince Salma to let her stay alone. She knew Salma was concerned for her, but she did not feel up to anyone's company just now.

  Caeli's heart ached as she reached through the darkness into the drawer of the small table beside her chair to find a box of matches. From it, she was able to light the octagonal oil lamp that sat on the tabletop awaiting exactly such a need. She carried the light up the stairs to her bedroom, which encompassed nearly the entire left half of the second floor. Caeli continued on into the adjacent bathroom that could only be accessed from its single door within her room. That door stood ajar a few feet to the right of the bedroom entrance. After finding a bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet and swallowing down two of the bitter pills with a sip of water, she moved into to the bedroom. Caeli placed the oil lamp on the bedside table, turned the wick down until the flame was doused, and climbed dejectedly beneath the gray-blue covers that matched her mood.

  Alone in her king-size bed, Caeli faced a fitful night ahead. She knew it would be full of unending tears and nightmarish images from her memory of what she saw in the woods when the only man she ever loved was ripped from her life. The loss was nearly unbearable, and Caeli missed Vin desperately.

  "Good nig
ht, Vin," she said out loud as the tears began to flow again.

  CHAPTER 2

  Vin strained against the buffeting winds in what he knew would be a losing battle. He was praying that this would end well. As he struggled, he distinctly heard the wind raging and saw lightning strikes flaring down into the woods from the tumultuous sky overhead. He could not remember the last time a storm this bad passed through the area. He looked over at Caeli in the passenger’s seat. She was nervous. Vin could see it in her soft brown eyes, though she tried bravely to conceal it. He could read her every mood and emotion in her face.

  Just then, the car hit an especially large hole in the ground and rebounded out of it was such force that it threw Caeli into the side window and knocked her unconscious. Vin maintained his grip on the steering wheel with one hand and used the other to help steady his wife in her seat while the car continued to careen down the hillside further and further into the darkening woods.

  Suddenly, the passenger’s side of the car was slammed into a huge pine tree bringing the vehicle to a bone-jarring stop. Vin lost his grip on Caeli and the steering wheel as he was pitched to his right, slamming his broad shoulder against the side of Caeli's seat. He tried to avoid getting thrown into her, but it was a wasted effort. They were both quickly slung forward from the force of the impact and concurrent, abrupt deceleration of the car. The seatbelts holding them back were all that prevented the two from being thrown through the windshield. Vin sat still for a minute to let the dizziness pass and determine if he had any serious injuries. He noted a jagged gash in his left forearm and a bruise beginning to swell across his chest where the seatbelt had restrained him. Otherwise, he seemed none too worse for the harrowing ride.