The Woman in the Woods
She stumbled over a stack of soggy cardboard boxes in the corner with heavy rain pouring down on her as dark clouds rumbled above her. Running towards the main road to catch the red bus that glistened with vibrant color as its engine sputtered.
She said, “Wait!” and the driver pressed his foot on the brakes, and the bus halted.
The two-door gates swung open with the sound of hiss, as she placed her hands on the handrails and entered the red bus.
She said “Thank You” to the middle-aged driver. He nodded.
She pressed her Oyster card on the scanning machine with the sound of beep and moved forward, gripping the yellow stand rail, and settled into a window seat. She thought to herself, “I should be careful with the timings. I almost missed this bus and would have had to wait in the heavy rain for more than an hour. I wonder if Damian was able to reach Raventhorpe High School on time.” With a heavy sigh, she dug into her bag, pulled out her headphones and a tissue, dabbing rain off her purse. She took out her cell phone and entered the passcode “4621”. Her phone unlocked with a soft click, and a wallpaper emerged in front of her with her mother, smiling.
“What a pleasant memory,” Elise whispered to herself.
She placed the headphones in her ears and clicked on Spotify, and played the music Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift. She then placed her cell phone on her lap and looked slowly outside, watching the faded lights passing through and disappearing in the heavy rain.
Rain droplets raced past each other on the window shield as the red bus moved forward and stopped in between to pick up and drop off passengers. Elise, a red-wavy-haired girl with fair peach skin, eyes that speak volumes about how curious she is, her slim, pointed nose with those perfect, arched, full lips colored with reddish rust lip color. As she brushed her hair strand behind her ear, looking at the other passengers busy with their cell phones, some younger like her of age in their 20s, and some elderly around 70s or above, silently watching the rain outside. While there was a man who caught her attention more standing in a finely pressed gray suit and brown shoes who had chocolate-brown curly hair smartly combed to the side of the face, with broad shoulders, and holding a black brief case, looking at his watch and carrying on with the call with someone with his back again the main walkway. Elise changed her music to Shower by Becky G. She looked at the time on her watch; it was still 10 minutes away from Ravensthorpe High School.
The seat beside her got empty as the bus halted at another stop. The man in a gray suit faced towards the main walkway and saw an empty seat beside her. He went forward, and she saw him removing one of her headphones. He was fair and handsome with those dark, deep blue eyes, chiseled jaws, and slight mustache strands on upper pink lips.
He said, “Excuse me, Miss. Is this seat taken?”
Elise hesitated, removed her gaze and looked down, and then up, and said, “No, not at all”.
The gray-suited man said, “Thank you”.
As he sat down and placed his briefcase on his lap. A wave of fragrance rushed through Elise, warm ocean breeze, fresh and aquatic fragrance.
She whispered with a heavy sigh, “Nice fragrance”.
The man looked at her with and slight grin on his lips.
“Oh! Thanks”.
Elise got spooked and realized.
“Oh, I am so sorry… I didn’t mean to…”.
He replied, “It’s okay, no worries, dear. Let me introduce myself. My name’s Henry. Henry Cooper.”
He moved his right hand forward to shake hands with Elise.
Elise shook his hand and replied, “Nice to meet you. I’m Elise. Elise Carlisle”.
Henry responded back “Nice to meet you too, Miss Elise Carlisle”.
Elise took off her headphones and placed them in her bag, and looked outside the window. She felt his warm shoulders brush her gentle shoulders. Her phone rang. Elise picked up her phone to see who it was. Damian. She slides the button to answer the call.
“Damian, where are you? Have you reached Ravensthorpe?”.
Damian responded, “Yes, I have, and you only have 2 minutes till the biology class is about to start. I’ve heard from our classmates that we might have a new teacher. Who knows what he or she might be like. Let’s hope we don’t get one like our old Miss Janice. Ugh! She always crept up on her students and gave loads of homework. Her class was not fun at all. Thank God, she left for whatever reason”.
Elise responded, “Yeah, I know I am on my way and almost there. Would you save me a seat, buddy? I am on my way. The stop is here. Meet you soon”.
She hangs up the call and places her cell phone back in her purse. She gets restless. As the bus stopped, she quickly made her way out towards the bus stop and saw that the rain had almost stopped. She ran towards Raventhorpe High School, her dark blue ruffled small skirt swaying as she ran with a white half-sleeved blouse, dark blue waistcoat, and her red-wavy-hair bouncing on her back.
She quickly made her way towards the main hallway, saying:
“Morning, Mr. Reynolds!”
Waving at him and moving forward. Mr. Reynold responded quickly, trying to match her pace.
“Late again, Miss Carlisle!” with a smirk on his face.
She just waved backwards and rushed towards the biology class, opened the door, got a quick glimpse of the surroundings, and made her way to the empty seat next to Damian. A sigh of relief.
“Oh, thank God, the teacher is not here yet”.
Elise placed her bag down and took out a water bottle, and drank some water, making a puffer face and gulping the water down her throat. Damian saw her and smiled at the face she was making.
Elise said, “What? What’s so funny?” while holding the water bottle in her hand.
Damian replied, “Hahaha…the face that you were making LOL”.
Elise hit his shoulder lightly with the back of her palm and said sarcastically, “Haha… very funny”.
Damian said, “What?... you were looking funny”.
He then brushed his black hair upwards and leaned back on the chair with both arms covering the back of his head, stretching out.
Damian, tall and muscular fair skin with black hair. Elise’s best friend. He then started clicking his ballpoint pen and moving his restless legs. A man in a gray suit entered the room.
Damian said, “Hey, look, what do we have today?” nudging Elise.
She looked upwards and whispered, “Henry. Henry Cooper?”
Damian raised one of his eyebrows, looking at Elise.
“What? You know him?”
She tilted sideways and whispered in his ear, “I just met him on the bus”.
“Good morning, students! My name is Sir Henry Cooper, and I am your new Biology teacher.”
“I will try my best not to bore you guys and bring something productive. Okay (Claps hands), why don’t we start introducing ourselves? Just keep it short and crisp. Okay? Good.”.
Each of the students talks about themselves, and then it comes Elise’s turn. Mr. Henry is amazed to see Elise as her student whom he just met on the bus a few minutes ago. But he did not show that he had met her.
Elise said, “Sir Henry”.
He replies, “Please, guys, just call me Henry. No need to add, Sir. We can be casual and informal with each other. But maintaining the boundaries of having respect for each other. Let’s just say you guys give me respect, and I give you respect. Okay. Yes. Miss Elise. Continue.”
Elise said, “Henry, I’m Elise. Elise Carlisle, I love sketching, spending time in nature, and listening to songs. This is my second semester.”
Henry nodded, and everyone gave their short bio in turn. When the introduction was finished.
He said, “I am going to give you a fun activity today. You are to list 5 things that you love doing and might be helpful for you in this subject. This helps you to identify your key traits. Take out your notebook or a piece of paper and pen and jot it down. Then link those things with certain professions and name down any influential person or famous people who are in those fields. Come on! Let’s start, shall we?”.
Everyone started taking out their notebooks, while some students grabbed a piece of paper. Elise began writing:
5 Things That I Love Doing
1.Sketching
2.Listening to Music
3.Nature Lover
4.Love to Travel
5.Spending time with my beloved African parrot, Cashew
Elise thought to herself, “I don’t know how this will help me in this subject, but it sure does contain the main elements: Nature, Animals, Sounds, Movement, and Visual Imagery.”
She then began doodling and flipped to a new page. A sudden flash of light hit her, and she looked up at the ceiling. It was a bright white light, and then she felt as if she was in some place else, and unconsciously she quickly began sketching. Her fingers gripped the pen tightly, and a surge of energy rushed through her hand like lightning. She drew rapidly, unaware of what was happening around her.
Damian noticed her strange behavior and whispered, “Elise. Elise. Snap out of it. What are you doing?”
Elise didn’t respond. She was unaware of her current surroundings. Damian’s voice seemed to be faded.
He turned around and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly. “Elise!”
The entire class fell silent — even Henry stopped speaking. They all looked back towards them.
Elise blinked and returned from the trance-like state, confused, and her pen dropped on her notebook.
“What… what happened?” she asked, pressing her palm to her forehead as if she had a headache.
Damian leaned in. “Are you okay? What got into you?”
“I… I don’t know,” she replied, then looked down at the page.
“Wait… did I draw that?”
She was shocked to see a sketch: a woman standing in the middle of a forest, facing an old wooden cabin. A raven perched on her shoulder. In her left hand — a sword.
Henry’s voice cut through the silence, startling her. “What’s happening, guys? What’s wrong?”
Damian quickly covered. “Nothing, Mr. Henry. She just got a little too excited about her drawing.”
Damian looked at her and encouraged her to play along with a facial expression. Elise understood and looked at Mr. Henry and nodded, and Henry shrugged it off.
Henry said to the whole class, “Get back to your work, guys.”
When everyone completed the task, the bell rang. Class was over. As students packed up to leave, Henry stopped Elise.
“Wait, Miss Elise. I need to talk to you about something.”
Damian lingered, but Henry added, “I believe I only asked Miss Elise to stay behind. She’ll join you in a few minutes. Please.”
Gesturing with his hand towards the door for Damian to leave the class. Damian looked at him and then at Elise.
Elise saw him and gave Damian a small nod to let him know she’d be fine. He blinked in agreement.
“I’ll wait for you outside.” And leaves the classroom, closing the door behind him.
Henry gestured for her to sit down.
“Miss Elise, are you okay? Back there, you seemed a bit… lost.”
Elise looked up from her notebook, hesitantly. “Yes, sir. I’m fine. I just got… caught up in the drawing.”
“Could you show me the sketch that you made earlier?”
She handed the notebook to him.
Henry examined it closely. His gaze narrowed at a particular symbol on the woman’s hand — a circle, with a crescent inside.
He leaned back slowly, sitting straight, looking at Elise with an intriguing look.
Elise shifted on her chair. “Umm… I can explain—”
Henry cut her off calmly. “No need. Your sketch is… beautiful. Here, take this. You may leave now.”
He handed her the notebook back.
Elise smiled faintly, took the notebook, and walked out of the classroom towards the garden outside where Damian was waiting for her.
Henry quietly pulled out his phone and sent a message to an unlisted contact: “I’ve found her.”
He locked the screen of his cellphone with a tap and gazed outside the blurred classroom window, with his eyes turning from brown to yellow, watching closely as Elise spoke to Damian outside.
Damian and Elise were outside.
Damian asked, “What happened? Are you okay?”
Elise replied, “Yeah… umm… I’m fine. I just don’t understand why Henry stopped me after class. It felt like he wanted to ask something, but just looked at my drawing and then gave it back.”
Damian looked at Elise and was about to say something, but then he got an eerie feeling that someone was watching them closely.
Damian said to Elise, “We have to go.”
Elise responded, “ Umm… Ok” with a confused look.
He looked around and then something clicked. His eyes turned from blue to green, and he watched the blurred glass window as if he could see that Henry was watching him.
The moment paused. As thunder clouds began to rumble and light rain started.
