The Survival

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It's just camping.

It's just camping.

It's just camping.

I repeat these words on my mind countless times as a lullaby hoping it will work and calm my shaky body and mess of a mind.

Ed was correct there are in fact tracks that we should follow, you can actually visit this place, but still I don't feel quite comfortable. Can you blame me? If nobody told me about this forest being haunted, I would most probably come here by my own will, yet now...

Nathan is walking side by side with me, there are times when his arm brushes with mine and sparks erupt from my body.

"You are shaking." A hoarsely voice affirms, breaking me from my deep thoughts. I keep walking not answering him. "It's rude to ignore someone when they are speaking to you." he continues.

"Don't worry about me. It's just chilly here."

"You didn't bring a jacket?"

"I'm wearing it right now, can't you see it?" I move my hands up and down to gesture my jacket covering my body and rise my eyebrows to make a point.

"You want mine?"

"What?"

"My jacket? Do you want it? It must be warmer than yours."

I freeze, my eyes must be huge and my mouth wide open.

"Close your mouth cupcake, you never know what can enter there" He sends me a smirk. Perverted bastard.

"I'm fine, thank you." I decide to ignore his last comment. We keep walking the others ahead of us and I try to gain courage for what I'm going to ask next. "Weren't you mad at me?"

He looks at me, his green eyes burning my owns, he looks intensely into them as if searching for something and I feel exposed, it's like he can see all my secrets, flaws and fears. Never breaking his gaze from mine he speaks "I was. Not anymore I think, I can't stay angry with you for long."

"Why not?" My voice is a mere whisper, he stops walking and faces me and I copy his actions, the others don't even notice that we halted our step and they continue without us.

"I don't know. I don't have the answer for that. It's something about you, it drives me mad. You are infuriating and at the same time so captivating." He is so close to me that I can feel his body heat, I can feel his breathing hitting my face and neck, and his voice a whisper, so small that I wouldn't be capable of hearing it if we weren't only one step to close the distance between us.

"The feeling is mutual."

"You find me captivating?" His nose is touching mine, his mouth so close to my own, his chest against mine, I can feel his heartbeat a steady beating, and oh his eyes. They look so green almost emerald.

I'm so close.

He is so close.

We are so close.

And then a scream.

My heart skips a beat this time for a different reason, a theorizing one. Me and Nathan split apart and run to the others. Everyone is standing there, stopped in their tracks, they seem fine.

"Sarah, are you kidding me? Don't scream like that again. My heart almost jumped from my chest." I see by the corner of my eye Nathan agreeing with me.

"It wasn't me."

What? I look at her, her eyes show how fearful she is, Beth is petrified, Lucy clinging into Ed's arm while the two boys in front of me are having a silent conversation with their eyes.

My body reacts quicker than my mind, one second I'm dead in the spot the other I'm grabbing Nathan's arm and hiding behind his tall frame. "Let's leave, please Nathan, I don't want to be here anymore."

I never wanted too, I want to add.

"It must be a prank." I hear Dylan's voice.

"A prank?" I put my free hand on Nathan's back, I can feel his strong muscles tense under my fingers.

"Yes, some f***s that think it's funny to mess with us."

"We should give them a lesson." Ed joins Nathan and Dylan conversation. "To see that they can't foul us."

You hear moans of pain echoing throw the forest. My body is now completely hidden behind Nathan and I'm gripping Nathan's shirt for dear life.

Please, please, please, we need to leave.

"C'mon, let's find them." With those simple words I broke from my state of shock, the same happens to the girls.

"What is wrong with you? We are not going. You don't know what's there." I point furiously to the forest, right deep inside.

"I know, some stupid kids that think this is funny." Dylan remarks.

"How do you know?" Lucy asks.

"There is no other valid reason."

"W-what about the s-stories?" I've never seen Beth like this, she looks like she is going to faint any minute now.

"They are only that, stories" Ed speaks with authority.

"Where there is smoke, there is fire. These stories wouldn't exist if it wasn't for something to be here, to walk around in this hideous forest."

"And that something are called smart asses."

Ed grabs Lucy's hand and leave the track with Dylan behind them and Sarah trailing along.

"I'm going back to the car." Beth voice is hardly heard.

"You can't" Ed says. "The only way out is to follow the tracks and you still have many miles to walk."

"I will go, I will go" She keeps saying, her small arms are around her waist like protecting herself. I leave Nathan and head towards her. She looks so fragile, so breakable, like she is made of thin glass.

"I'll go with her." My voice vibrates around the place, I hold Beth sideways, and she continues to mumble the same words 'I will go'.

"We can't separate from each other, its recipe for tragedy."

"And going into a forest isn't?" I lost my mind, my sanity, my logic, all of it left me, I can only see red. "Can't you see what you are getting yourselves into?" I shout at them. Nathan is by my side in a nanosecond, his hand lands on my shoulder and he gives a little squeeze to assure me that he is there.

"You have two choices. You come with us or you leave us. Choose." Dylan voice booms in the silence that only we are disturbing.

My eyes lock with Lucy and Sarah's then to Beth and Nathan's. What should I do?

"How do you plan to turn back here?" Nathan finally speaks.

"I have sandwiches, I can use the bread to make a trail back here." Ed responds, he searches in his backpack to find what he is looking for, he pauses and when his hands comes to our view it also comes a sandwich.

"That idea didn't work with Hansel and Gretel. Why would it work now?"

"Because that was a book, a story, like the ones I told you, nothing more."

Another moan of pain is heard deep inside the forest, I take a step back and collide with Nathan’s chest, his arm snakes around my waist holding me still. Beth is gripping my arm so firmly that I suspect that the blood can't circulate in my veins.

"How is it going to be? Are you coming or not?"

There are choices in life that are more than ‘should I wear this shirt today or tomorrow?’.

Some choices ask too much of yourself.

Some choices test your limits.

Others test your friendships.

And then you have the life and death choices.

I look at Lucy and Sarah they are nearly inside the forest, a forbidden place that minutes and hours ago I wouldn’t put a feet on. The choice of death.

By my side I have Beth and Nathan, ready to take me to the car and leave our friends behind. The choice of life.

But am I capable of leaving them, let my best friends risk their lives and go into the unknown? Can I be selfish enough and leave?

I know that the right path to follow is the tracks, the life saver that will take me to land, to a secure place, my mind is begging me to go.

Go, leave, while I have time.

Yet my heart...

I can’t leave my friends, even though what they are doing is stupid and I know deep inside that following them will only lead me to trouble I’m not selfish enough to leave them behind.

My mind is telling me to run. My heart is telling me to stay. Both showing me different directions, that will lead to different ends.

Can I go with them and escape the forest alive? After all Ed said that it was only stories, what if he is telling the truth? What if it’s only stupid kids fooling us?

“You don’t have to do it,” Nathan whispers by my side. He is wrong, he is so incredibly wrong. I have to do this, I have to make sure that my friends will be safe.

“Okay.” I say in defeat. “I will go.”

“Kate, what about Beth?” I look at her and once again I rethink my choice, what about her?

She looks at me but it’s like she is not there, she is somewhere else, prisoner of her own mind and thoughts.

“I can’t leave Lucy and Sarah.” I say to Nathan.

“And you can leave Beth?” He replies.

“Take her with you. Follow the tracks till the end and wait with her at the car.”

His intense gaze burns me from the inside out when he says, “I’m not leaving you.”

I can feel a headache starting to appear, I rub my fingers on my forehead before saying “She can come with us, never leaving our sight.”

“Is that your final decision?” His eyes borrow into mine, I’m unable to talk so I simply nod, he answers me with one of his own.

“Let’s go, and get this done with so we can leave,” Nathan says to the others, they start walking ahead of us, Ed leaving crumbs of bread as he said he would, Beth is still grabbing my arm I am sure that it’s going to leave a bruise but right now that is the least of my problems.

It’s dark inside the forest, only a few amounts of sunlight passes throw the thick trees, however it still provides us enough light to see where we are going and what we step foot in. Nathan never leaves my side, I’m sure that he can feel my insides shaking and how much I need comfort.

The moans of pain are getting louder and louder with each step we take, Beth keeps mumbling, this time it’s ‘no, no, no’ repeatedly.

I’m not stupid I know that this was a risked decision, a shot in the dark and right now I think that I shot the wrong way.

The moans cease and so does our steps and silence engulf us. The only sound being the wind and my heartbeat.

My mind keeps cursing at me like a sailor. You naive stupid girl, you should have run, god damn it, wrong, bad, terrible choice.

I feel like I’m going to faint, Beth looks like she is going to start hyperventilating soon and Nathan is tense as a rock.

Snap.

One sound, multiple emotions, multiple reactions.

It’s only a rabbit, only a rabbit, only a rabbit. It can’t be anything else.

“Got ya!” Ed whispers heading to where the sound came from, my feet are moving forward but wanting to go back. We walk and walk till I see the most horrible sigh ever, the trees are covered with blood.

“Oh my God.” My voice breaks at the end I can feel the tears burning at the back of my eyes and instinctively Nathan wraps his arms around me.

“Don’t stress” Dylan is the one who speaks “I’m sure this is a trick, it’s red ink but it’s supposed to seem like blood” He reaches the trunk of the tree which is smeared with hopefully ‘red ink’. Dylan touches it and guides his fingers to his face, inspecting it, he sniffs and his nose cringes. “It stinks,” He then guides his fingers to his mouth and licks the red liquid.

“So?” Ed asks, everyone is quiet waiting for Dylan to say something, but he doesn’t.

In a second he is fine on the other his face is losing colour, his mouth dropping open, and you can see his Adam apple moving. All of it bad signs. He turns to face us “It’s not ink... its blood.”

A piercing scream sounds making the hairs on the back of my neck raise, an involuntary scream leaves my lips while I turn around to face the noise and I’m greeted with a dark figure, wearing a brown rag and heading our way.

It was supposed to be a story, a factional thing, it wasn’t supposed to be real.

“Run!” Nathan is the one to shout the words and we bolt out of there, I order my legs to move to take me somewhere away.

The six of us, run as far as we can from the figure, from the creature, from the trees of blood, and from the sound of the woman, we run with the hopes of reaching an exit.

I see Lucy, Ed, Sarah and Dylan running in front of me as quickly as they can, Nathan is tugging at my arm and I force my legs to run faster and faster to match his quick step, his long legs not helping me, Beth also running as fast as the wind.

I can feel the burn on my muscles, my legs begging me to stop, to slow down, to rest, but I can’t, I will not allow it, I’m running for my life.

I’m running from that scary figure, however I’m also running from the way we came from, the way that would lead to the tracks, the way that would take me to the car, the way that would take us to an exit.

I’m running away from safety.