Blackwood

Her ribs constricted tightly around her lungs, making her breathing more than difficult to perform quietly. Her heart was a pounding like two rabbits during mating season, unforgiving and harsh. She took one deep breath, wincing as the bruises stabbed her with daggers of ice. When she released the much-needed air, she knew that it was now or never. Johnna was sound asleep in his bedroom after his argument with Lucas. William was at work downtown. Alexander was passed out in the driveway, most likely with a bottle of Fireball in his grasp. Lucas was out buying groceries. She was alone. This was her only chance.      Forcing her swollen legs to move, she descended the grand staircase silently. She made sure to miss the creaky step, knowing how lightly Johnna slept. She kept her gaze toward the front door, not watching her steps. Gooey warmth encases the bottom of her left foot. Had it been any other day, any other situation, she would have screamed and fallen to the ground in fear of the sight. But she was used to the occasional scare. When she looked down at her feet, she was not surprised to see that she had stepped in a large pool of browning blood. Jessica.      She had warned Jessica not to do it. Jessica should have known not to prod a pissed off boy. You do not decide to try something new when the one person keeping you alive is not in the best of moods. She didn't have to see the incident happen, but she knew what the sequence of events entailed. These boys worked in a very specific way. They had a routine that they kept up with. Jessica should have seen the warning signs.      When she got to the bottom of the steps, she looked down the pair of halls siding the stairs. When she took in the emptiness of the halls, she took off for the front door. Her first clue was that it was completely unlocked.      She opened the door with ease and stormed down the front steps and took off in a painful sprint down the main lawn. The grass cut into her bloody feet harshly, making the blood that belonged to her and her most beloved friend. She got to the front gate in one piece.      "Hah!" She laughs to herself, closing her eyes and laying her face on the cool metal bars. "Those b*tches were always there at every turn I took, but now...now I finally got there first!" She smiled to herself and pulled away from the cooling metal. She looked up toward the sky and her world crashed down around her.      Sitting on top of the fence, he watched her with the darkest smirk she had ever seen. He balanced his half-full glass on his knee and began to clap lazily. "And here I thought Willy chose a smart one,"     And a blinding pain went through the back of her head, "How dare you try and leave us!" And all she saw was black.