Chapter One

The rain was falling heavily outside her cabin, and she was sitting near the window listening to the music the rain on the roof created.

She had always loved her alone time in the cabin, it allowed her to think, vent and processed things. She closed her eyes and hummed with the rain, and then she smiled.

Something disrupted the sound from the rain, something that wasn’t there a few seconds ago. She opened her eyes and that was when she noticed a creature coming towards it. It was more like staggering towards it.

She frowned.

Sidney Morgan had always came to Bradford ever since her father had died.

The cabin was on the west side of Bradford among the woods, so it was far from any road, people knew it was private property and she had never been bothered before, until now.

She heard a knock, well, more like a pound on the cabin front door. "Open the door." the voice said behind the door.

Her hands began to shake, and her heart jumped to her throat in fear.

Who could that be, and what were they looking for on her property? She considered dialing 911 but there was no reception, not in this weather.

Her father was a hunter when he was alive, and he had always kept the hunting weapons in the cabin. If the man had came to harm her, then she sure wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Quickly Sidney ran into the weapon room and picked the wolverine among the other guns. Breathing heavily, she ran back to the front living room, approached the door slowly, and opened the door a crack, and pointed the gun through it.

A man pushed himself through the half opened door, and he leaned across the cabin wall, water all over his body.

He raised his hand as if in surrender, then he pointed behind him so she looked towards the direction he had pointed to across the woods to see a bear running down towards the cabin.

Without wasting any more time, she ran back into the weapon room, her hands fumbling in search for a bear spray. It was always there, but the fear that gripped her heart made her brain scrambled, shut down, and all rational thoughts of where it could be disappeared. She finally saw a Mace bear spray in one side of the cabinet and grabbed it, and ran back to the front room.

When she got back from the room, the bear was already in front of the front porch. The bear muzzle is lighter than its body, she could tell by the look of it. It was a black bear, and it stood about two to two point three feet, sixty to ten centimeter tall to the shoulder, four point seven feet, one point two to two point one meter tall, when it stood on its back leg. 

She sprayed the Mace bear spray in it eyes to blind it for some minutes, but it wasn’t really effective because bear spray don’t work well in windy or wet weather like this one.

She grabbed the wolverine she carried earlier, and fired. It gave a loud sound, and it slowed a bit but the animal bared it’s teeth at her, as if ready to attack.

Her eyes widened in horror and fear, but she had to be brave or they both wouldn't survive the attack.

She rushed back into the weapon room. She took her father's best crossbow and the arrows she could grab, ran back into the front room with shaky legs.

She was right, the bear wasn't even dead yet, it’s teeth were not only bared but it stood with all its remaining strength, and was aiming at the man across the cabin wall.

Aimed against the bear, Sidney shot the arrows into the animal's flesh and it went down, with an agonizing sound as it dropped, and this time she was sure it was dead.

She turned back to the man across the wall and assisted him in sitting down on the couch closest to the fireplace.

After she had gotten him on his back, she went in search of a rope, and tied it to the animal's neck, and dragged it unto the front porch with all the strength she had left so that she could close the door to preserve the heated room that was now turning cold.

She went into the kitchen to bring out the first aid box from the cabinet. 

Tending to his injuries weren’t easy as she wasn’t a nurse or anything.

Settled on the chair with bandage around his bleeding head, which was sustained when he was knocked down by the bear when he was running toward the cabin, he muttered something and closed his eyes.

Sidney began to clean up the mess the water, blood and dirt had created all over the floor.

She wondered who this man was and how he got into Bradford woods, let alone her property in the first place. 

The rain had stopped into a drizzle before she was done with cleaning.

She went into the kitchen to prepare whatever she could find available for a hot soup. That was exactly what the man needed at the moment.

With the coffee maker set, she glanced at him through a space in the kitchen wall to be sure he was still sleeping.

After making a reasonable amount of coffee, she went to the fireplace, it was already burning down so she placed in more firewood into the grate to rekindle the fire. She switched on one of the smaller lamps, but most of the lights came from the flame from the fireplace. He needed to be in a warm cozy place to enhance his nursing.

She turned from the grate and she froze.

The man had woken from his sleep, and he was staring at her. Even in the semi dark room, she could see the discomfort plastered on his face. 

"I'll bring you coffee as soon as it's ready." she said when she found her voice.

"My name's Bradley Humphrey." he said as a sat up on the couch. Brad had not only been grateful to the woman standing before her, he was also glad that he was alive, with the help of this beautiful young lady.

She nodded. "Okay, Brad. I’ll bring you coffee when its ready." She repeated and left the room.

She wasn't comfortable under his watchful eyes. It was as if he was screening her, or doing some kind of x-ray, and she couldn’t stand his scrutinized gaze. She only returned when the coffee was ready. She came back with two cups of coffee in hand.

Bradley took a sip from the coffee as she sat down in front of him. The coffee was very good unlike the one he had had in a long time. He guessed she ground her own beans, because she made coffee tastes great in his opinion.

Sidney looked at him as he sipped from the cup, and swallowed.

He knew he had to offer an explanation even though she hadn’t asked, he could see it in her eyes. “I had came to Bradford for a meeting and I was going back to the city when the rain began. The rain became so heavy that I couldn’t see clearly. I saw a tree blocking the road too late and I had to swerve the car which landed me in a ditch.”

He sipped his coffee, staring at the fireplace as if he had to keep watch. “I knew I had to walk if I was to survive the night, but I knew it was a long way. I started to walk west when suddenly I saw it, I started to run as fast as I could, and I thought I had lost it for a moment there, but it jumped out of nowhere and attacked me. I managed to free my self, and ran without stopping again, until I came across your cabin. The rain didn’t help at all, though.” He finished.

“I’m sorry about that.” She said.

“It’s fine. All I sustained were mere bruises here, a scratch there and body pain.” He chuckled.

Sidney nodded. She stood up to bring him the soup she had prepared. He can use painkiller after that, she thought.

“Thanks.” He muttered, and dug in. The soup tasted great, and it helped with his dry throat.

They didn’t say much, as she gave him space to eat. He even asked for more soup, which she gladly gave before she ate in the kitchen.

Much later, they both sat down, with another cup of coffee in hands, staring into the fire, enjoying the silence and each other’s company.

“So, who are you?” Brad asked, breaking the silence around them. It was nice to ask about her after being fed, right?

Sidney slanted her eyes over his long frame, as he sat back against the couch staring right back at her. She now had the time to look at him, really look at him.

He was a very attractive man. No, scratch that. He was gorgeous. His eyes were blue, and his jaw seemed to be cut out of rock.

“My father loved to hunt when he was alive, and he was killed during a hunt years back. His name was Allen Morgan.”

She loved talking about her father so much. He was her hero in every way possible. But since what he asked was who she was, she told him her name.

They talked about so many things but themselves, without saying much, they both understood the fact that they didn’t want to talk about themselves.  For a man of that caliber, he was down to earth.

He was a good company to have; maybe not to everyone as he had said, but he was good company right now.

It was midnight when the rain stopped finally. Sidney had given Brad one of her father’s cloth to change into, he had earned that courtesy.

He insisted that he would sleep in the living room, so he just requested for a blanket, which she provided with a pillow.

She went towards the window and pulled the blind shut, she then went into the room she used as bedroom and took a shower. It was a good thing that their was a bathroom attached to the room.

After her bath, she wore her pajamas, that consisted of her father's old t-shirt and a short, prayed, and went to bed.