Trapped

"Unhinged"

Zane's P.O.V:

I could feel the weight of her head slowly get heavier on my arm and her sniffles stopping as she fell asleep. I hate hearing the sound of her crying, especially when I know there's nothing I can do to stop it or help. It broke my heart to watch her in so much pain. I know she wanted to be left alone, but I just couldn't do it. There was no way I could see her like that and just leave, so I desperately ran through every option in my head on what I could possibly do. Thankfully, after everything, it seems like I chose the right one. Even if I had to sit here quietly as she cried, I would've rather done that than to walk away when she clearly needed someone. I'm familiar with that feeling of wanting to shut everyone out when you're upset and wanting to push them away as a defense mechanism. When my mom died, I did that a lot. Saying the most hurtful things to people I loved, that I didn't mean, all so they would want to stop being around me and want to stop talking to me. I didn't want to burden everyone else with my problems, and I was simply tired of explaining it all to them. Being left completely alone at the time felt like the best idea for myself, and I thought I'd be better off if I shut everyone out. That way, I would never have to let them close to me, and I wouldn't have to care if anything happened to them. That way, I'd never again have to feel the pain I was feeling at the time. If I didn't care for anyone and they didn't care for me, then I couldn't be hurt. Danny was the first one who decided that no matter how mean I was to him, no matter how cruel, that he wasn't going to leave me. Part of me had felt relief every time he decided to stay after I said something awful to him, while the other part of me insisted on still trying to push him away. Danny was at my house a lot more often than the others because our fathers were best friends, so out of everyone, I've always been the closest to him. There was even one day that I still regretted so much, where I was so upset that I purposely broke this action figure that happened to be his favorite at the time. I expected him to get mad and run out of the room or get upset and want nothing to do with me after that, and I instantly regretted doing it as my brain cleared some as soon as I heard the snap of the toy, and the realization of what I had done hit me. My eyes quickly snapped over to him in a panic as I anxiously waited for him to react, but instead of doing what I thought he was going to do, he looked back at me and completely unaffected he genuinely asked, "did that make you feel better?"

In that moment, he was more concerned with whether or not it helped me feel better than the fact that I just broke his favorite toy. Even after I did that, he wouldn't leave my side. I started to cry from the heavy guilt I felt and shake my head no in reply to his question. After that, I saved up money from doing extra chores for 3 months so that I could buy him a new one, and I realized that nothing I said or did would be enough to push him away. So I thought maybe if I could show her that I'm not going anywhere, even if I don't know the right thing to say, then maybe I could still help her feel better in some little way at least as she goes through this. I slowly got up, picking her sleeping body up in my arms gently along the way, and I walked us back into the house and back up the stairs. She was so exhausted after crying so much that she didn't have the strength to stay awake any longer. After looking around to make sure no one else was nearby, I walked her into her room and layed her on her bed as softly as I could, in hopes of not waking her up. She continued to sleep peacefully, so I gently pulled the blankets out from under her legs and covered her up. As I went to walk back out of her bedroom, I suddenly imagined her waking up in the middle of the night and just sitting in here alone crying, and the thought caused my stomach to turn. So I quickly jogged to my room to grab a pillow, blanket, and my phone charger and ran back to her room, placing the blanket and pillow on the ground near her bed. Pretty soon after that, I got a text from Greyson saying, "Where are you guys? Dinners ready and no one can find you or Alethia." I texted back immediately and explained, "Alethia started to not feel well so I'm taking care of her." A couple minutes passed, and he texted again. "I hope she's okay. Eli and Noah are acting dramatically over joyed that she isn't down here. It's annoying." I rolled my eyes to myself. Greyson is easily annoyed anyway, but I have to agree with him this time. Their dislike for her is extremely irritating, but theres nothing I can do to change how they feel about her, so I try not to let it bother me too much. Though, if either one of them would quit being such babies about not getting their way and took even a minute to actually get to know her, I'm pretty sure they'd realize how easy it is to get along with her and I think they'd change their minds. I sat my phone down and looked at her, sleeping peacefully in her bed. The moonlight was shining in at just the right angle that it highlighted all of her feminine features. If moonlight was a color, I'd say it was the color that fit her best, but since it isn't, I would have to say that the red t-shirt she's wearing is a hard second. With her long black hair cascading down her neck and looking almost as if someone had taken the time to place each piece perfectly acrossed her pillow as she was laying on her side facing me, God, it was like looking at a painting that I swear I could stare at forever. It was almost painful to pull my eyes away the beautiful sight, but I finally managed to and rolled over so that I didn't continue to be tempted to open my eyes again and again. After a few minutes, I fell fast asleep.

Alethia's P. O. V:

I woke up to the sun's gorgeous golden hue shining softly into my bedroom, making me feel as if magic could actually exist. It distracts me from remembering the night before for a minute until I see Zane sleeping peacefully on my floor. Then my mind was filled with the memories of him carrying me outside and us laying in the grass together as we talked. How he held me as I cried. I smiled down at his sleeping form as I wondered to myself why he was sleeping on my floor. I quietly stand up and tiptoe out of my way out of the room. Although I'm still sad, I will feel worse if I just sulk about how I'm feeling, so instead, I go downstairs to the kitchen to start making breakfast for everyone. Taking care of everyone by doing something as simple as this just helps me to feel better and forget what's on my mind for a little while. I decided to make some egg sandwiches and coffee, and soon enough, Greyson made his way downstairs. He was still in his pajamas, too, as he rubbed his eyes and tried to wake up more as he sat at the island counter. "Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked sleepily. I looked at him confused. "Zane said you started not feeling well last night, and he was taking care of you?" He stated in the form of a question. I pretended to know what he was talking about, only assuming that Zane must have made an excuse to everyone why I didn't come back down stairs or something and said, "oh, I feel better today. Thank you for asking." I gave a genuine smile for him caring enough to ask. "Good, so whatcha makin?" He asked as his stomach growled loud enough for us to both hear. We both started laughing as Ty and Blayke joined us soon after. "That smells so good!" Ty exclaimed dramatically before I could answer Greyson's question. I giggled again at his dramatics and said, "I'm making egg sandwiches and coffee." They all looked satisfied by my answer as they then found their typical spots on the couch watching tv, occasionally looking back to see if i'm watching it as well and making a comment to me to look here and there so that I would feel included. It was a much nicer morning today than last night was. "I wonder if Zane is going to wake up soon." My thoughts wondered to him quite a few more times as I finished up cooking. Noah and Eli quietly came down stairs just long enough to grab their food, and then they scurried back up the stairs once again. "Geez, they could have at least thanked me." I thought to myself. I make them food all the time and the only time I have been thanked or acknowledged at all was that first day Noah was back and I made sure to make enough food for the two of them to eat as well, just like I usually do when I cook. Everyone made sure to thank me as they grabbed their food, and Ty even gave me a little side hug as he walked past me with his plate of food in his other hand. In the middle of us all eating, Zane finally walked down the stairs, and he was fully dressed. He clapped his hands together once he reached the bottom, and with a calm but happy smile on his face, he said, "I just got a call about another creature that needs to be captured. It's an Esincane, nothing serious, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring Alethia along. We're down one person anyway since Danny and Tara are visiting their parents, and it might not be a bad idea to show that she can even handle actually capturing the creatures with us. So after we eat, everyone needs to get ready to leave." He explained. An Esincane is a tiny creature who is mostly harmless, but their bite hurts a lot. They have strong jaws and have even broken the bones in at least one persons hand in the past by biting down hard enough. They can live in the water or on land, but they have stayed mostly underwater for a couple of generations now and usually run and swim in small packs. A mix of nervousness and excitement filled me as I hurried to finish my food and go get changed. I found something to wear that was form fitting but could still stretch, and then I pulled my hair up into a high ponytail. Once I was finished, I met everyone downstairs, and we all hopped into one of the cars. We had to drive about 15 minutes away, and then we hiked another 20 minutes or so to a campground further up in the forest. Keeping a close eye out, we finally spotted the creature hiding partially in a bush. Noah approached it slowly, and once it had realized we were there, it jumped out of the bush and tried to bite him. We were quick to circle around it, trying to prevent it from running away somewhere. It had seemed like it was going to be an easy capture until suddenly it began moving in a horrific way. Quickly it appeared to be popping its bones out of place, almost the same way a snake unhinged its jaw to make room for bigger pray, only the creature seemed to still have full function of each limb, and now its body was extended to a much larger length. The crunching and cracking of its bones made me feel sick to my stomach as we all stood there completely stunned. "It's not supposed to do that." Ty commented out loud as if to get reassurance that we were all seeing the same thing. "Nuh-uh," Greyson confirmed with wide eyes. It suddenly lunged for Ty and Greyson once they finished speaking, and the two of them did a jump and roll until they were back on their feet again in a different spot. Its tail began to move independently, as if it were an extra limb, striking towards Ty. Noah took his long taser baton and tased the creature before it could lunge out again. This only seemed to infuriated the thing, though, as it let out a noise that is probably best compared to a screech. While the four of them had its attention and were trying to lead it away from Eli and I, as Eli was checking the cloaking machine that he had kept in his pocket. We didn't realize until it was too late to react, that they werent leading the creature away, instead it was creating distance between all of us so that it could turn and quickly run towards Eli ready to strike. Eli was distracted, and the other four boys were too far to reach him in time, so I was left to be the only one who could try to help in time. Before my mind could finish thinking it through though, my body seemed to move on it's own and I jumped In front of Eli just as the creature used its tail to strike, hitting me in the back. It didn't go deep past my skin, but instead, I could feel a stinging and burning sensation where it had punctured my skin. Similar to when you get a shot and it burns or stings as they inject medicine into your body. Leaving me to believe it was injecting a venom into my body. I heard a collective of different voices gasp or yell something, but it all faded as my vision went black, and I completely lost consciousness.