Third person's POV
In the distance, Tabitha was chasing after someone.
Derek quickly descended the stairs, following the direction of the noise.
Along the way, he fell several times but, as if impervious to pain, he picked himself up each time and continued to run.
The sound seemed to beckon him, now near, now far. Worried for Tabitha's safety, Derek shouted her name, "Tabitha, where are you? Are you alright?"
Tabitha jolted awake from her dream. Had she just heard Derek calling her name? Was it a dream?
For some reason, unease began to creep into her heart. She decided to check on Derek despite wanting to go back to sleep.
After ensuring Hedwig was snug under the covers, Tabitha got out of bed. As she came downstairs, she noticed Derek's door was wide open. What was he doing up at such a late hour?
Tabitha swiftly entered Derek's room. The only light came from a flickering candle, and the single bed appeared empty except for the rumpled sheets.
"Derek?" she called out, but there was no response.
Anxiety began to gnaw at her.
Derek was blind—he couldn't have gone far. She had warned him about the dangers lurking in the vicinity. Where could he have gone?
After searching the lower floor without success, Tabitha's worry intensified.
The village had no mobile phones, let alone surveillance. She heard a noise from the shed at the back and found Spike there.
"Instead of watching over Derek, what are you doing here?" Tabitha demanded, her voice trembling despite her efforts to remain calm.
"It was Mrs. Atkinson who assigned me this task. It's so late. I assumed Derek would be fast asleep by now," Spike explained.
Tabitha was exasperated. Spike's rigid adherence to instructions was driving her mad.
She had once considered introducing him to Joanna, but he had spent all his time with her without winning her affections. Tabitha stamped her foot in frustration. "You deserve to be single forever!"
"What's going on? What's happened?" Spike asked, clearly confused.
"Your boss is missing!" Tabitha snapped.
Spike shook his head. "That's impossible. He can't see a thing. Where could he have gone?"
"I don't know! Just look for him!" Tabitha urged, her voice rising with desperation.
"Where could Derek have gone?"
That was the least of her concerns now. What mattered was finding him.
The north led to cliffs— a fall would be fatal. The south harbored snake pits, even locals avoided them. To the east and west lay jungles filled with miasma and venomous creatures.
Did he have no sense of his limitations as a blind person?
Tabitha chased after Derek for what felt like ages but found no trace of him.
How could a blind person run so fast? Was he a sprinter?
As they approached a fork in the road, Spike anxiously asked, "Which way?"
Tabitha was furious and indecisive.
Suddenly, she spotted a shoe not far down the southern path.
"What's that?" she asked.
"It's Derek's slipper!"
The path was strewn with gravel. With a flashlight in hand, Tabitha noticed not only the slipper but also a few drops of blood.
It seemed Derek had fallen here but had pressed on despite the injury.
"Derek must have taken this path. Where does this lead?"
Spike asked, still oblivious to the danger.
The cold wind bit through Tabitha's clothes, sending a shiver down her spine. She stared down the dark, winding path ahead—a path that seemed to vanish into nothingness—and spoke each word deliberately, "The snake pits."
Spike's back broke out in a cold sweat, and his fingers instinctively tightened around the Army knife at his waist.
He recalled a conversation with Alma in the stable last week. With her oat-stained fingers, she had sketched in the air, "Last month, someone found a rattlesnake shedding its skin in the southern depression. The scales were larger than a coin." The night wind now whipped pebbles against his trousers, and Spike couldn't help but imagine the rustling sounds as snakes slithering through the grass.
Tabitha's flashlight beam trembled as she scanned the road ahead. When the light fell on the second slipper, she spotted several strands of silver hair entwined in the shoelaces— identical to the temples Derek had asked her to trim yesterday.
Blood droplets meandered along the gravel path, some splattered on the leaves of poison ivy, staining their serrated edges a dark red.
"Alpha Derek! Stop!" Spike's shout echoed off the mountainside, startling a flock of night herons into flight.
The moonlight stretched his shadow into a monstrous shape behind him.
Derek's white cane lay at a slant in the shrubs ten paces ahead, its rubber tip still quivering as if its master had just released it.
Tabitha's heart swelled with questions. What could possibly be drawing Derek forward so desperately that he kept running despite repeated falls?
Was he unaware of the dangers here?
Clearly, he knew the risks but still pressed on. Whatever he was chasing must be more precious to him than his own life.
"We need to hurry!" Tabitha urged.
Meanwhile, Hedwig was fast asleep when she felt something nudging her arm.
She rubbed her sleepy eyes and saw the little deer she often played with had entered her room.
A pigeon had flown in too, perching on the bedside table and cooing.
Hedwig turned her head and realized her mother, Tabitha, was nowhere to be found.
She instantly knew something was wrong.