The Calm before the Storm

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

    I tried calling back but it just went straight to voicemail. I tried two more times but to no avail, it was still just her voicemail. I was panicking on the inside, I am so confused by why she told me to get out of the cabin. Granted as I was thinking this, I heard loud screams coming from Sloan and Layklin's room. It startled me, those we screams of horror. I was slowly moving to my bedroom door, it was like everything was in slow motion. "WHO ARE YOU?!" Layk screamed, and then there was nothing. Both of their screams were cut off, like someone had stopped them. That made me freeze right at the door, my hand on the door knob, but I didn’t make a single sound or move to open the door any further. What kind of friend am I? Something was wrong and I just freeze, hell I am still frozen. I don’t know what to do.

     My breathing was coming out in quick breaths, I could feel the panic setting in. I could hear the intruders footsteps coming toward my door. This was it, I looked around me by the door for something to use as a weapon, when Tommy's voice rang out. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Tommy sounded so pissed. Tommy was a well-built guy and loved to slap box, so I know that he was trying his best to sound intimidating. Yelling at the man to leave, and that he was calling the cops. That must have pissed off the intruder, cause the next thing I hear is them scuffling in the lounge room. I didn’t hesitate this time, I snatched the door open with my lamp in hand that was on my night stand, and charged in. What I saw though made me stop abruptly. Tommy was underneath the man trying to stop him from shooting him. Tommy saw me, "WAVES GET OUT OF HERE!! GO GET HELP!!" Tommy yelled at me, the fear in his voice was evident. He wasn’t going to be alive by the time I got back. The man turned to look at me, giving me this sadistic look, with a creepy smile. I threw the lamp at the man in hopes that it would give Tommy some leverage and maybe he can subdue him. Then I took off down the stairs, grabbing my keys that were on the counter and literally jumping off of the porch instead of using the steps. I pulled open the door to my Terrain and just as I was getting in the sound of a gun going off made me freeze for split second as my side mirror shattered. I shook the shock off and jumped in and started it up. I looked up just in time to see the man running towards me with his gun drawn. He was yelling but I was in too much shock to hear what he was saying, I just need to get away and get help.

    I floored it into reverse while ducking down, so if he tried to shoot me through my windshield I was a little protected. Thank god for the reverse camera on my car, I was able to maneuver the vehicle without having to sit up straight. While I was wiping it around to head out the man came across the camera just in time to get hit by my right rear bumper, effectively knocking him off to the side. I threw it in drive and bolted out of there, I didn’t know where to go at first but I know we needed help. Halfway down the driveway I heard a loud explosion. I glanced into the rearview and all I could see was yellow and orange flames licking the tops of the trees, where my family cabin was. My friends were dead, the cabin was gone, that man did this. Why? Was all that came across my mind. Why? It took me a little bit to come to my senses, and headed to my parent's home. I had to know if they were ok and if not what happened to them. It would take me an hour to reach the nearest police station since we are so far out in the wilderness, but it was only thirty minutes in the same direction to get to them. I know I should probably just go to the police, but I had to know if they were ok. I had to know, it would eat me up on the inside if I didn't go to them. Her scream on the phone was playing over in my head along with Sloan and Layklin's. It's all my fault, if I had never invited them to the cabin they would still be here. I would've been at the cabin with my parents instead and we would at least be together one last time. Beating myself up about it wouldn’t help him me now. I will just have to live with this for the rest of my life. I was speeding down the highway, with blurred vision since I was crying. I don’t even know when the tears started but they would not be stopping any time soon. I wasn’t even making a sound the tears were just free falling like a river down my cheeks.

     I came to a screeching halt when I was inside my driveway, I didn’t care that I parked a little ways from the front, I just jumped out and started running to the house. The front door was wide open when I go to it. I tried to turn the lights on but the power seemed to be out, which couldn’t really be the cause. Someone probably cut the power, I bet they did the same at the cabin. I just didn’t try to turn the lights on there, with all the commotion it never dawned on me to turn the lights on to see better. Pushing the thoughts aside I slowly entered my home, taking each step slowly trying to be as quite as possible. I rounded the corner that leads to the living room, and stopped dead in my tracks. The scene in front of me made me almost scream, but I placed my hand over my mouth to muffle it. There laying on a broken coffee table that sits in the middle of the living room was Claire, my step-mother. The woman who could never replace my mom, but made me feel a little less hollow. She was laying on top of the broken coffee table with her arms spread out, her eyes staring off into the distance. The blood dripping down from her mouth, my heart ached looking at her like this. The moonlight poured into the living room from the floor to ceiling windows we had illuminating the scene in front of me. I looked up at the balcony from the second floor that overlooks the living room, and saw that the railing was broken. The scream I heard must have been from someone shoving her over the railing or more like through it. Her phone laid shattered just underneath her left hand. The tears never stopped but I was able to hold in the sobbing sounds, since I still didn’t know if the people who did this were still here. I walked closer to her and closed her eyes. I don’t know why I did that but it just felt like the right thing to do. She was gone, her skin cold to the touch when I closed her eyes. My heart in pain as I turned my back to her a started to slowly make my way towards the kitchen.

     I rounded the side of the island in the kitchen and took in a sharp breath. I know those shoes and that sports jacket, they were my dad's. He was laying on his stomach his head turned to the right with his right arm out stretched.  He looked like he was trying to get to something, so I crept closer to him. I looked under the cabinet that his hand was reaching to and it was a knife. He was trying to get defend himself, but they shot him in the back. He had two bullet holes in the wording on his jacket. I noticed it when I saw him, he never had a chance. I don’t know why I now decided to call the police, I should've done that already as soon as I saw the door open or when my friends screamed for their lives at the cabin. SO STUPID! I mentally yelled at myself. I reached for my phone and realized I didn’t have it and don’t remember what I did with it at the cabin. I felt my dad's pockets but his wasn't there either. I looked around him and noticed a few feet away by the back door his phone was laying there. I jumped to my feet and moved quickly to get it, but then something made me stop as I reached my hand out for it. A voice behind me made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. My brain was screaming danger, with my fight or flight senses kicking in. "Well, hello there little one." the way words rolled off the persons tongue made a shiver run down my spine.  I slowly stood up and turned to the voice, it was a man he looked a little like the man from the cabin, but this guy had a scar running down the left side of his cheek to the top of his eyebrow. He had short cut hair and dark brown eyes that were so cold as they bore through to my soul. I gulped and stood frozen in my place. "Sorry about mommy and daddy dearest there. They didn’t want to give you up. I will say she put up a hell of fight, while daddy wasn't as much fun." With each word he moved closer to me and I took another step back closing the gap between me and the backdoor. I had to get out of here, these people wanted me. It was all my fault, they killed my friends and my parents all because of me. I don’t understand and right now I don’t care to, I just need to get out. The man smirked at me while looking me over, it made me want to puke. The way he racked his eyes over me. He took another step and I moved quick to snatch the door open behind me and ran straight into the woods that is basically our backyard.

     I ran as fast as I could, all the while getting scraped by branches and almost tripping over logs and large tree roots. I knew these woods like the back of my hand so I know where the twist and turns are to stay on a path that my father and I always hiked together. I kept running even with the burning sensation in my legs and my face from where some branches scraped me. I knew they scratched my cheeks up a bit, but I couldn’t stop. Soon the I couldn’t take the burning in my legs anymore and I stopped just behind a tree to catch my breath. A rookie move, I thought to myself. Of all the horror movies I have watched, I stop when you should never stop. As these thoughts were running through my head and me mentally scolding myself, I heard a loud explosion. This one was a lot louder than the one at the cabin, it illuminated the forest behind me for a split second and I knew that they blew up the house too. They didn’t want anyone to be able to figure out what happened here. There was another explosion and with that one I took off again, but I could hear him behind me. He was yelling at someone else. "Marcus, over there. We can’t let her escape, don’t kill her just wound her the boss wants her alive!" the creepy man from the house was yelling this out to the man named Marcus. He made a grunting sound, I guess to acknowledge that he heard him. I didn’t look back I just kept running, I had to at least make it to the waterfall which is another mile into woods. It was a pretty big waterfall, dad would always dare me to jump off but I never did. I was too scared. That was during the season when it was pretty calm, but right now it would be raging. If it was their goal to capture me alive, that wouldn’t be happening. I had nothing to live for now, they took away my family and my best friends. I was going to go out on my own terms, they were not going to get what they wanted from me.

    As I was running I could hear them gaining on me, it sounded like three people. One I knew was right behind me and the other two seemed to be running at my left and right side. They were probably going to try and cut me off, but I knew there was a small hill or slope coming up. It was really steep and you had to go down it to get to the clearing right at the top of the waterfall. Just as I veered off to the try and go down the hill a loud popping sound could be heard and then I let out a small scream. Then another loud popping sound, they were shooting at me. I let out another scream and this time I couldn’t catch myself before I stumbled over the side of the hill and went tumbling and then rolling down. I was going too fast to stop myself, I thought it would never end until I hit the side of my head hard against something. It was probably a rock but I didn’t get a chance to move as darkness consumed me.

     I am not sure how long I was unconscious for, but when I started to come to I could hear those men looking for me. Their voices were muffled a little as my head was throbbing and a small ringing sound was in my ears. I slowly opened my eyes to see stars above me peeking through the forest canopy above.  I turned my head to where I thought the voices were coming from, I could see they were using a flash light but the light didn’t reach to where I was. I was still coved in the darkness of the forest for now. I let out a sigh of relief but that was short lived as I heard the next words coming from the guys. "Damn it, I can't see anything from up here. The light doesn’t go down far enough to see if she landed at the bottom or not." well Zane keep looking anyway or maybe go down and look instead of standing up here. "Well hell Charlie, I don’t see you making any moves to do that either!" the Zane guy sounded annoyed at his accomplice. "Shut up you two!" the other man's voice made me freeze in fear. That must be the Marcus guy, he was quite earlier but he sounds like he was the strongest of the three. His voice held authority and the others didn't say anything for a few moments. I laid in the same place holding my breath, my heart was pumping loudly in my ears. I was so scared he could hear it, I know that I can't do anything now but wait for a moment to run again. "Well Marcus, you going to use those wolf abilities or what?" the man called Zane said this in an annoyed tone. Wolf abilities, what was he talking about? I know I have read a lot of werewolf books so that is the only thing popping into my mind but they are real though. I looked up a little more making sure not to make a sound, I wanted to see where they were exactly or how close they were. My head started pounding the moment I moved, a wave a nausea came over me as well. I had to close my eyes to focus and push the horrible feeling away. When I opened my eyes I could see him, standing at the top of the slope, his eyes had a glowing ring on the outer edge making his bright gold eyes. He was scanning the area, but he wasn't looking at me yet. I took the opportunity and slide the rest of the way down. This made a rustling sound and I knew they saw me by the way the Marcus man growled out at me. I didn’t look back though I just ran, it was a lot harder this time though. My left side was killing and my breathing was rather shallow as it felt like someone crushed my chest stopping me from taking in full breathes. I pushed myself though, as my head throbbed harder with every step that I took, but I didn’t slow down. Not this time I had to keep going, I had to get the waterfall and jump. I couldn’t let them win, I couldn't let them get to me. I knew I would probably die when I jumped but I would rather die on my own terms then be tortured or whatever these people wanted me for.

     The pounding of feet and paws, I almost stopped to look at the sound of paws hitting the ground just behind me. I could feel hot breathe against my ankles, a loud snapping of a jaw as it tried to bit into my leg to stop me.   I am fairly certain that he was Marcus and that werewolves were real. This scared me more, he could get to me I know he was faster but I was now pushing myself harder and running on pure adrenaline. I couldn’t feel my legs or my feet anymore and my head was pounding making it harder to concentrate, until the most beautiful sound filled my ears.  The rushing water of the waterfall filled me ears, it was raging this time of year as the snow in this area was completely melted. I pushed myself harder as another sound of snapping jaws just missed my foot. I burst through the foliage at the end of the forest where it opens up to a small clearing at the top of the fall. I skidded to a stop as my fear of jumping has crept into my mind. "Stay there, don't move" the man called Marcus growled out to me. Snarling at me in warning to comply with what he said. I glanced over my shoulder to look at him since I had my back still to him. He was in human form but completely naked. He was tall and muscular with broad shoulders and short hair but it was still dark and I couldn’t tell what color it was. His eyes were still that weird glowing color, they were darker then when I saw him at the top of the slope. "Listen little one, just come with us and all will be alright." that was the other man. I didn’t bother to look to see if it was Zane or Charlie, I really didn’t care. I scoffed at his statement, everything will be alright. Nothing would ever be alright again. In once night I had lost everyone that meant the world to me and they were never coming back. I looked back at the werewolf Marcus, he lunged for me already knowing what I was going to do, but he was too late. I closed my eyes and jumped.

     The wind was wiping past me, blowing my hair from my face and the mist of water hitting me like daggers as I fell to the roaring bottom. I felt the air in my lungs get knocked out as I hit the water's surface below. I pushed me under and swirled me around as I was pulled downstream in the rapids. I tried to get to the surface to take in air but it was of no use, I was too tired and all my energy was exhausted.  At least now they wouldn’t be able to have me and I got to go out on my own terms not theirs. With that thought I gave completely into the darkness with a strange form of peacefulness surrounding me.