currently writing: chapter two (of six)
current page: 110
today’s wordcount: 469
current total: 29,566
Helen lies on her bunk; her limbs tucked up and folded within her sleeping bag. From where her head rests on her right side on her pillow, she can just make out her brother opposite her, and somewhere on the top bunk – Hanna.
Thoughts prey on her mind. Somewhere, the man Gunnlaugr is out there. She recalls the stance he took earlier that night, the image of his weather-worn face haunts her mind. There is something now in his behaviour that she distrusts, and she feels a fear to sleep. Reaching a bare arm out from her sleeping bag she stuffs her hand into her rucksack and feels for the whale bone box.
Did he know that she had cheated him, she wonders. She allows her fingers stroke the edges of the carving as she wonders to herself why she felt she must keep back this. She finds herself at a loss, the only explanation being that there is no explanation. She just feels that she had to – that though she knew not what – that there was a reason.
Tired by these thoughts, she pushes the rucksack under her bed and pulls in the sleeping bag close around her, turning over and curling up into the foetal position, attempting sleep.
