Ariel Irene
Thaddeus mentioned something about his harebrained blackmail scheme today that made my blood run cold: he said that the government official he was trying to scare was meddling with the affairs of an organization that he (Thaddeus) had more or less helped fund through some previous harebrained attempt at money laundering. The hoops this man went through to try and spice up his life after his wife left him just make me want to smash my head into a rock because how the ever-loving hell could he think that any of it was a good idea? He’s at least come to realize how truly insane it all was, but he talks like he really believed he could win his wife back if he just became the right kind of man.
Wealthy and unemployed. You know, a man who’s very openly involved in white collar crime and on a fast track to a prison sentence. The ideal husband and father.
But back to his comments: there were just a few things he said that sounded too familiar, too much like the gang that Marcus was involved in. The odds are so slim of it being the same organization—right?—but I can’t shake a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. What if Thaddeus was providing the funds that allowed Marcus to keep operating? Could Thaddeus be the enemy after all? And just when I was beginning to like him.
But surely not. We’d got into an argument earlier about where to go next, so it’s not like I was going into the conversation with goodwill toward him. It’s probably just that anger messing with my head. There’s no way I’d end up in here with someone who was helping enable Esther’s killers.
There’s just no way.
Lilo Talei
I’m definitely certain that Ariel is a murderer, and I want out. The thought keeps swirling through my mind, stuck on repeat. I can’t believe I fell for it and trusted her—I can’t believe she didn’t just come out and say it at the very beginning. I’ll never see her the same way again, and I wish she’d’ve just kept her distance after she ran off that first day.
Thaddeus should have just let her die in that muddy ditch.
Does he know? Does he know and he didn’t tell me? Can I even trust him anymore?
This is what you get, Lilo. You know it’s best to stay on your own. Everyone else will let you down.
As we get further and further from the trees and creeks and grasslands, I’m terrified: what lengths would Ariel go to if she thought we were out of food? If she disagreed with one of us about which way to go next?
Is Ariel the reason this place is dangerous? Is she some kind of executioner? Or is it just inevitable that we’ll set her off, so the Powers That Be sent her in here with us to do their dirty work? Is she going to survive when the rest of us die? Living to see another day, rewarded for her atrocities while we pay the ultimate price for our petty crimes?
I know she has that knife in her pack. I can’t let her keep it. I can’t take that risk. I’m going to get out of here. I will not die on some lonely mountain surrounded by a murderer and an absentee father.
With any luck, she won’t notice it’s gone until she tries to turn on me.
Thaddeus Diggory
We’re continuing up the foothills today, leaving the grassy prairies behind us. The trees are sparser here, the grass scragglier. I’m seeing evidence of predatory animals, just one more thing to look out for. In many ways, these last two weeks have felt too easy, so perhaps it’s time for things to get challenging.
How does the wide-open sky of the foothills make me feel more trapped? Something’s wrong with Lilo, and I don’t know how to bring it up with her. She’s been shifty-eyed all day. On edge. She’s got me checking over my shoulder for some unknown threat. After a few hours of it, I slowed my pace a little to walk beside Ariel. Lilo may just be wrestling with something personal—I certainly have been over the last few days—but I admit that I couldn’t take anymore of her anxiety.
Ariel and I talked logistics for some time, trying to decide whether to trek due east over the mountains, risky as it may be, or to take a detour around the range, even though it would take us off course by days or weeks. The question is far from settled in my mind, but Ariel seems determined to take us directly over the mountains. She latched onto some phrase Lilo rattled off, “the ravens roost in the east”. Lilo said it was written on the wall of the cave on our first day, but I’m not convinced she didn’t make it up.
Our conversation eventually veered to less stressful topics, and we discovered that we had some mutual friends before ending up in the prison. When Lilo and I were discussing our favorite artists recently, I pieced together that she knew Marcus Cecchini, although in what capacity I couldn’t quite make out. I’m startling to realize that we were all three living our lives in parallel to one another, unaware of the others’ existence, only to end up here together. Such a small world.
It is wearying to remember that those mutual friends are still living their lives, likely blissfully unaware of our absences, let alone of the fact that we have now met and are struggling through this forsaken wilderness in a fight for our lives.
You’re reading The Ravenswing Report, a rapid-fire, limited-run serial from Sara Dietz at Blinking Blue Line. To learn more and access the Table of Contents, click here.
> Such a small world.
"It's a small world but I'd hate to have to paint it" as somebody said.
Somebody is doing psych experiments without informed consent or IRB review (like it was robbers' cave days) and I am here for it.
I KNEW THEY WERE CONNECTED. I can’t wait to see Lilo’s connection to Marcus.