Mountain Devil

Raw pain coursed through Ella Emerson’s chest and emptied into the twisted knot that was her stomach. She had been so stupid. She was in over her head.

Agreeing to marry Brandon Andrews was probably the worst mistake of Ella’s life thus far. She lay awake in her bed and stared solemnly at the wedding dress hung on the closet door. In twelve hours, she would officially become Mrs. Ella Andrews. The thought of her own wedding brought fresh tears to her eyes. Stubbornly, she wiped the salty moisture away, determined to enjoy the last few hours before repeating marriage vows in front of three hundred wedding guests.

Heat lightning flashed outside, and Ella sat up to witness the wondrous display of light against the Catoctin Mountains. Her mind traveled back two weeks, to her solo hiking trip on those mountains. She’d explored every trail, some of them twice, until her legs had ached and burned. Brandon had scoffed when she’d invited him along. “Hiking is for tree huggers,” he’d said. No, she’d thought, hiking is for me. This is how I’ll escape you for a whole day.

The lightning flashed again, casting a brief wave of white over Ella’s closet—and the damned wedding dress that was too heavy to wear in this ungodly August heat. She’d picked the first design she’d liked back in January, without giving too much thought to anything else. But the wedding dress was the least of her problems right now.

Brandon Andrews was a pig. There was hardly a pretty girl left in Catoctin that hadn’t caught his eye, and he acted like he was above everyone, including Ella. But he was generally well liked because at the age of ten, he’d saved a small child from choking. Back then, it was all the local news talked about for a good week. Ella figured it was probably the only good deed of Brandon’s life.

Even before that episode, Ella’s and Brandon’s parents had conspired to get them together. Although Ella considered herself a strong person, she’d crumbled under pressure to allow Brandon to court her and accept his marriage proposal. Sure, he was attractive and successful, but Ella loathed him with her entire being, especially after his public marriage proposal.

At her college graduation party in May, Brandon had proposed on bended knee in front of two hundred guests. Ella had hesitated for only a moment, as the burn of all those eager eyes scorched her own desires away, before accepting with a quiet yes.

Since Brandon’s older sister was a wedding planner and Ella had finished school, a quick marriage at the end of summer only seemed natural. Three hundred guests would gather on the huge lawn behind the Andrews’ house at 3:00 p.m. to witness the long-anticipated union.
Again and again the lightning flashed. The mountains lit up. The wedding dress lit up. Again and again until Ella’s head spun with fatigue and dread, so much dread. How foolish I’ve been, she thought. She’d led Brandon on and on until there was no refusing his proposal. Her lips had said yes even though her mind screamed no.

For a fleeting moment, she wondered if she deserved this fate. Yes, she’d dug her own grave, so perhaps she should stop lingering in doubt and jump right in.

Another silent flash of white jarred her out of self-pity. Reason kicked in and her mind screamed NO with as much determination as she should have two months ago after Brandon’s proposal. No, I will not become Mrs. Ella Andrews!

Maybe the heat lightning was fated to coincide with the eve of her wedding, because the constant flashes against the mountains caused an idea to blossom. The mountains themselves called her name. She couldn’t escape via her car, not when the keys were downstairs hanging above the creaking floor. But she could pack up her hiking gear and hop out a window. She could spend a few days alone where no one would think to look. When all the out-of-town guests departed and Brandon was too humiliated to consider marrying her still, she could wander home.

The lightning flashed again. There were stabs of guilt from all directions, twisting harshly into Ella’s heart. Her parents would worry…no one deserved to be stood up at the altar…dozens and dozens of guests had been flown in from across the country…and…
Before those stabs of guilt pierced deeply enough to change her mind, Ella gathered her hiking gear and dressed. Before second thoughts overpowered her rashness, Ella scaled down the roof and jumped onto the soft lawn from a garage windowsill, quiet as the stillness of night. Before she’d thought of leaving a note, Ella was a mile through the woods on her personal path that led toward the welcome center of the Catoctin Mountains where a handful of hiking trails branched away. Up and down the hills she went until she reached the bridge, tiny flashlight in hand.

A snake slithered into the bushes, shimmering in the beam of her flashlight, and Ella shuddered. But her pace didn’t falter, even as a wild screech overpowered the shrilling pulse of locusts and chirping crickets. Some locals claimed bobcats and bears roamed the mountain, though Ella had never seen one herself. Don’t be scared, she told herself.

There were granola bars and two bottles of water in her pack. Enough to survive on for a little while, not to mention about a hundred dollars cash if she ventured near civilization. She wouldn’t dare use her debit or credit cards though, not while she wished to remain unfound. And as paranoid as she was about being tracked, she’d left her cell phone behind.

At the edge of the path before the bridge, Ella rested against a large tree, planning to huddle against it until sunrise. Despite her gallant effort to remain conscious, her heavy eyelids closed as she drifted off farther and farther, feeling a strange mix of worry, happiness, and foolishness as sleep flooded her senses.