Chronophobia: the fear of time
“Can you tell me why we’re here again?” Echo twisted her thin mousy brown hair as she leaned against the hood of the SUV. She stretched her jaw, releasing the growing tension she was carrying high up in her mouth. Her face was pale as she looked over the cabin before her. It felt eerie in a way she could not place.
Isaac was speaking as he rooted through the trunk, throwing duffle bags onto the crunchy leaves of the forest floor. Echo thought she heard him say Because you said you were bored.
She narrowed her eyes at the cabin and sighed loudly. This was Isaac’s idea of significant change since Echo remained absent in their life. Truthfully, Echo wanted to argue with Isaac over that comment but could not find the fire. She was bored, and she may have misheard him anyways. Echo could not say she was looking for him to answer the question anyway.
Isaac wanted to make things work, while Echo was six steps out the door. Instead of him pulling her back into their home, this cabin was his answer. He was going to run out the door with her and bring her to this new start. A three-month vacation away from what they knew, and then come back to their normal life. Their normal life with a different perspective was the hope. So far, Echo had learned she was not well suited for the ride through the mountains.
The road up to the cabin was winding and treacherous. It was rugged and cut harshly around the high peaks. It was unpaved dirt and gravel path up the mountain. The road wrapped around the sloping sides as it climbed up the mountain. It bounced their cheap SUV up the high Appalachian mountain road like a rickety wooden roller coaster. The nearest store they had passed by was back at the foot of the mountain, about four hours of nerve-rattling descent. The hospital was six hours after that. She had timed these locations in her head, but it was useless trivia as she looked over the cabin. They had driven themselves to the edge of the world without a way back from it.
Echo listened to the stillness surrounding them. She did not hear any birds chirping, or bugs buzzing about the trees. She heard no rustling of leaves or even the whistling of deer. The only sound she heard was the light breeze playing through the leaves, and Isaac grunting from pulling the bags out of the car. She smelled the faint exhaust lingering around the car and muddied the fresh air. Her eyes traveled back to the cabin. Their new home for the foreseeable future. Around the property, she saw fresh tendrils of ferns and young vines curling about the porch of the cabin. The wood cabin was two stories, with a porch that jutted out over the edge of the mountain. Echo eyed over the high peaked windows, meeting up against the green metal roof. The stone chimney climbed high up the side of the wall with oddly marbled stone. The stone’s marbling spiraled and pulled ridges downwards. It was odd how modern this building was in such a remote place. Like the cabin was accidentally dropped into the wilderness. Another tidal wave of nausea crashed into her as her vision blurred from staring at the chimney.
Echo’s skin crawled when she felt Isaac’s smooth hand glide over her shoulder. “You feeling okay?”
“No. I just want to lay down.” Echo mumbled as she spat on the ground. A coppery acid lingered in the back of her throat. Her stomach felt like a crushed can. Her stomach spasmed as pull into itself into a fist. She had nothing left in her from the car ride up. The little stomach acid burned at the back of her throat.
“I’m sorry,” Isaac pushed her long hair away from her face. “It’s been a long day. Let’s get you inside.”
Echo leaned against him. Isaac’s warm body felt uncomfortable against her clammy skin. Her hair felt damp from the cold sweat on her brow and back. The nausea turned over violently in her stomach without anything in it. “This isn’t motion sickness is it?”
“I don’t know,” I love you was in his eyes. Isaac carried her up the steps of the cabin’s porch. Echo’s blurry eyes caught the spiraled wood grain on the porch and squeezed them shut. The repetitive spinning only made her feel more off-balance in his arms.
Isaac laid her gently onto the bed and sat quietly with her for a few moments. She could feel the bed sink down from his weight and felt his warmth radiate uncomfortably from him. He felt like a furnace next to her as Echo rolled away from him. Echo felt a stiffness enter her bones as her back felt sore. Like she had been twisted around like barbed wire as the flannel sheets scratched at her skin. She curled into a ball and knitted her brow. Her eyes hurt from forcing her eyes closed. She felt the bed spin like a wobbling top, as she gripped onto the sheets. She forced herself to sleep as she clung to the mattress. The last soft feeling she felt was Isaac kissing her forehead. He threw a thin white sheet over her.
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