A large stone, a bit bigger than my fist, lay near me on the stream bank. I reached for it as a weapon. My hand pulled on the stone, loosening it from the frozen earth. When I tried to grab hold of it, though, my fingers were too slick with blood to grab on. The cold was too much. My fingers tensed, hard and clumsy, unable to lock around the stone, and my teeth chattered like machine gun rapid fire. My hand slipped on the surface and I tried again to get purchase, but it fell from my grip once more.
Come on, Brynn. I reached again for the stone and grasped it in both of my hands, lifting it up carefully. A shadow fell on me from behind and I twisted around, holding the stone up in defense. My eyes blurred with snow and tears, and for a second I did not know who stood before me. Then I blinked away the fog and saw that it was Eliot.
“My god, Brynn, you’re soaked,” he said, kneeling down. I clutched the stone to my chest and sobbed as he balanced me with his arms.
“It’s alright,” I heard him say as though from a distance. “It’s going to be alright.” The hunter lay a few meters away, not moving. I let the stone tumble from my hand and back into the icy water. A ringing in my ears made his words unintelligible. As his hands moved over me to check for injuries, I let myself lean into his strong body, looking down at the ground to keep my balance steady. I saw something strange, and my addled mind seized onto it as my body began to shut itself down.
“Eliot,” I said. “You’re not wearing any shoes.”
Those were the last words I said before passing into darkness.
I saw the world going back to the house in slow, distinct flashes. The white of the snow on the branches above me, the scarlet drops on the snow—blood? From the deer?—and the tightness of Eliot’s arms around me, carrying me as though I were the most precious thing in the world. My dress was hard, frozen to my skin, and I heard the ice crack in the seams as Eliot clutched me closer. I lay my head against his chest. A terrible thunder made my eyes rise to the sky to look for clouds, but it was Eliot’s heart I heard, the heavy beating as he stumbled through the trail toward the house.
“Brynn,” I heard him say. “Brynn, my Brynn.”
Dark again, and I woke to blankets surrounding me. My body felt heavy, numbed. Eliot stood not far from the couch where I lay, his ear pressed to his phone.
“Yes,” he said in Hungarian, and then his words lost themselves, floating upward in the air and out of my hearing.
Dark again. Complete darkness and complete peace. I heard singing, the soft notes of Satie’s Gymnopedies, and then Eliot’s voice in my ear.
“Brynn, wake up,” he said. “Wake up.” My eyes opened to his worried face. He pulled off my blankets and picked me up as though I weighed nothing, walking down the hall to a stairway I had never seen. It led downward, lit dimly by a soft orange glow that reminded me of candles.
“Where are we going?” I murmured. My head lolled against his arm.
“We have to get you in warm water,” he said, stepping down carefully to avoid knocking my head against the wall. “We have to get you into the baths.”
“I’m not cold,” I said, and I wasn’t.
“You’re nearly frozen,” he said. “Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”
As he said the word, we stepped out of the stairwell and down onto a platform. My breath caught in my throat, and the air, hot and wet, burned my lungs. I gasped at the sensation, and at the sight before me.
The room was huge, five times as large as the bedroom I had stayed in on my first night here. The walls shimmered gold, and at first I thought they were made out of gold itself. The dimmed lanterns hanging over the room reflected golden light, and marble columns and statues lined the walls, leading the way down to the center of the room, where the floor seemed to be made entirely out of mirrors.
Eliot walked down the stairs, still holding me. When he stepped down I realized that what I had thought were mirrors was actually water, and his steps sent ripples across the entire golden floor. He stepped down the submerged stairs until his pants were soaked, and then lowered his arms slowly until my body touched the water. I cried out in pain and clutched at Eliot’s arms. My feet and arms felt as though they were being stabbed with sharp needles, the pain wrenching my body. Eliot let me grip him but stepped down further so that my whole body was under water, and only my head above.
The pain sent tears to my eyes even as I began to shiver in Eliot’s arms. My dress loosened and flowed in the hot water, and steam rose from the glassy surface. My lungs struggled to breathe in the humid air and everything hurt all at once. My toes and fingers burned with the heat. Molten, I thought, with the golden light bouncing off of shined surfaces all around me. Molten like the sun. Too close to the sun. My head spun.