Robyn Batch 4 - Vegan Lemon Wafer Cookies

124. No Time:  “Rob, I need you to listen to me very carefully.  Grab your hiking pack, your purse, and a jacket, then go to the most hidden part of the forest you know.  The boss of the people trying to take over the town are after you.  Don’t come back until one of us comes to get you.”

    “OK.  How long do you …” Robyn started to ask but Jericho interrupted her.

    “Robyn, I need you to go now.  I stashed a tent and a couple of sleeping bags there a couple of days ago.  Now go!”

    “OK.  Stay safe.”  Robyn’s heart pounded as she hung up her phone and she dashed into her room.  The Pacific Northwest was long overdue for an earthquake, or volcanic eruption, or tsunami, or similar natural disaster and so she and her family always had emergency bags packed with food, clothes, medical supplies, and other lightweight survival gear, and larger packs in their cars.  But how would she make this inconspicuous?   Improvising, she grabbed a dark, long haired wig from her closet, stuffing her hair underneath as best she could as she nearly tripped down the stairs.  From their front closet she took one of her dad’s beige coats, large on her but typical of a hiker visiting the town.  Checking that her hair was out of the way enough to pass a cursory inspection, she shoved her mother’s gardening hat on her head and her look was complete.  It wouldn’t fool anyone who knew her well, or even a close glance from someone who didn’t, but it would do.  She slipped out of her back door and made her way through the back streets until she reached the forest and disappeared.

     Once again, originally this ended after Jericho speaks the first time.  This will get worked into the rising conflict part of my story.

131. Flowers:  Beaming, the mayor took to the stage, resplendent in pink, white, and green, matching the colors of the blooms with which they shared the stage.  “Welcome to the Twenty-eighth annual Rhododendron Festival!” 

     In your head, is the mayor a man or a woman?  I can't decide.

138. Abandoned:  Near her sacred grove Robyn found an old trapper’s cabin.  The windows had long ago been broken or stolen and the door no longer latched well due to the shifting and settling of the old house but the rest of the structure was in remarkable shape.  Though the wood was weathered it was cedar and pine, and as such was resistant to insects.  It was also protected by legend.  According to the lore of Aurelia, a woodsman, an outcast of the Sterne family, had built the cabin so far from the town because he was surly and didn’t get along well with others, except for the physician’s daughter.  Eventually the two fell in love and were wed, she moving out to the desolately located cabin with her new husband.  A year, then two passed and the woodsman and physician’s daughter were going to have a child.  When the time came he rode to fetch his father in law but when they two returned she lay dead, the babe cut from her and all valuables stolen.  Understandably the woodsman was never the same after that.  He tracked down and killed his wife’s murderers but never found his child, a daughter.  Eventually he returned but none could ever speak to him again save the physician who had become the town drunk.  He had helped his son in law by torturing his daughter’s killers in the cabin to get all of the information out of them before killing them.  It was said that if you took anything from the cabin the woodsman and the drunken doctor would track you down, chop off your fingers, and, if you were lucky, kill you.  Teens left the cabin alone, except for sneaking off to hook up, and always left a flower as an offering to appease the love stricken pair. 

     This looks so much more impressive handwritten.  Probably one of the darkest/most horrific things I've written but sets up parts of the story nicely.  Based on an AU Once Upon a Time Rumbelle fanfic I read set in the wild west, mixed with years of watching Criminal Minds and Bones and recalling all the small town legends they faced that modern day killers used as cover.

     In my head Robyn will buy this house and rebuild it to live in or Henry will make it a gift shop/nature conservation center.

164. Multitasking:  Robyn found it difficult to study without music playing so she usually had her upcoming performance pieces playing in the background as she read her textbooks. 

175. Mirror:  To any imaginative theater buff mirrors had a very interesting connotation, just as they did to Robyn.  She could imagine herself as Sarah, summoning goblins and being seduced by the Goblin King through her bedroom mirror.  Or she could be Christine Daee, being watched and entrancing through her dressing room mirror the Angel of Music, the Phantom of the Opera.  Jareth.  Erik.  Mirrors were portals to other worlds, other identities.  When you looked in the mirror you could transform yourself into someone new or see yourself for what you truly were.  It was no wonder that she hid things important to her behind every mirror.

     Seriously, what is it with musical writers and mirrors?  And I love the idea that in her bedroom one of her mirrors swings out to reveal a cupboard or that taped to the back of her mirrors are pictures and notes that she doesn't want anyone else to see.  Can YOU think of any other important theatrical/cinematic/literary mirrors?