Sweet Revenge

ugh... my head hurts, what happened? As I lift my piercing head I realize leaves are all around me and my hand is throbbing worse than my head. I can see blood on my dress and under my nails along with dirt..... "Is anyone there? How did I get here? What happened? " I asked into the darkness, wondering if it had been a bad idea to say anything at all. No reply came and I wasn't really expecting one. My vision was starting to clear up and I could make out trees all around, there were no paths, just open land with shrubbery other than trees in my sight. I wasn't sure but I thought I heard water a little ways off, I couldn't see anything that would suggest water though. I couldn't stand at the moment and my hand needed to heal from whatever had happened to it so I laid there for a moment doing nothing. I could smell the morning dew that always came right before daylight and my long black hair had curled from the humidity of being outside. The last thing I remember is being in the hotel cafeteria, that the court house had set us up in, I was excited to leave having some soup with some of the witnesses talking about my mother and daughter before we all left. We had dressed up and gotten to know each other better after being kept separate for a month on a high level case, they had kept us on lock down and I was ready to go home just needed to change out of the dress I wore for dinner. That case had been really stressful for me and I just wanted out of there but I had to wait to talk to someone.... Who was I waiting for? I couldn't remember but I knew deep down it was something important. After laying on the ground for a good hour thinking of how this could have happened, with nothing to show for it. I rolled over on my good arm and shoved myself up against a tree to use it as a crutch of sorts and winsed from the pain. Once I was up on my feet the blood started leveling out in my body and some of the pain went away but I still wasn't sure if I should walk or not. I heard rustling in the leaves and leaned closer to the tree, almost as if trying to blend in, which with the blood on me and the colors I had chosen for my outfit really wasn't hard. I felt like someone had kicked me while I was passed out, why would I be in the middle of nowhere beaten and bloody? I couldn't think of any reason that I could be like this... unless... someone knew who I actually was. They were careful about releasing any information from the case though that way my testimony could be entered. There's no way I was snagged up right out of the hotel all of the jurors and witnesses were in, right? "I thought we were waiting until the hunt starts?" a loud voice came from almost no where, "Ma said not to touch any of them until the rules are clear for everyone!" he sounded nervous but also serious and some how familiar. You could hear them stammering around loudly but there was no way of seeing them, if I was going to stay hidden. I wasn't sure how close or far away they were but they sounded near by so better safe than sorry and I had a feeling they weren't the friendly type of people in the middle of the woods anyways. It sounded like the one was scared of someone traveling with him. "You gonna tell on me?" the other voice shouted and then a thud came and a whimper. "I'm sorry.... Ma scares me more than you do though and that hurt... she's going to notice you did that... it's already feeling it'll welt and there are cameras everywhere. " Their voices trailed off and sounded like a rustle in the wind for a moment and then all I could hear was crying from off in the distance, mixed with yelling and begging, them screams and gun shots. Ok, it's time to go.... I'm not sure what's going on but I'm not sticking around to find out. My ears started to ring and as I put my hands to my head I realized that there was a headset on my head that had started playing classical music in my ears. "Lady's and Gents, it seems that the party has been started off early and without the rules being made clear for everyone. Tisk tisk..." a musically sweet voice calmly said into my ear. "I'll make sure they're delt with but let's get started since I'm sure you're all waking up by now and trying to remove your headsets, which will explode." Us all? What's going on? She paused and I could hear chatter throughout the trees that showed there were other people around but not within sight. Change of plans, I was going to get comfortable and stay for a bit.... so I knew I wasn't visable at the moment but not knowing what was going on and all made this a worse situation now that it sounded like I wasn't the only one snagged up for this experiment. "I'll get straight to the point though.... you're all here because my brother was put to death this morning due to your testimony or involvement with his case. Some of you are more to blame than others and some of you are just here for my own fun. Also some of you are not part of the group that was kidnapped at all, there are murderers among you out for a payday. Only 1 of you gets to leave my forest alive and I have bets made on who that will be. There are weapons hidden throughout the woods and explosives along the areas that are fenced, my property goes much further than the fenced in the area you are inside right now so don't get any cute ideas." she paused for a moment and I could hear movement all around me but nothing came in my direction, "Saving people forfits the cash so it doesn't matter who is here if you save them you get no money if you get to the mansion, gates open in 48 hours so you must survive the contents of these woods and then make it through wilderness once you go through the gates." she had expectations on who would win? who was she talking about and why did she sound so familiar? "I'll be waiting in the mansion for whoever wins and we can discuss your future, don't disappoint me, I'm watching. Let the fun begin...." and she was gone as mysteriously as she had started talking. I hadn't actually seen anyone just yet and I really didn't want to, if I was going to get out of here alive and see my Mom and daughter again I'd have to make sure no one knew my true identity and kind of hide until I got to know the other participants. My mind wandered to what I could use to protect myself if I had to and then my hand automatically went to my thigh. They left it? But why? I guess there were weapons hidden around the land so why take mine since they had already beaten on me for who knows what reason and left me blood, plus did something to my memory. My holster was still attached to my legs and all my throwing stars and knives still accounted for, my boots still had the knives I had put in place when I got dressed that morning also. I was still concerned that they already knew who I was, I should have just left with my family and stayed out of that court case.. My head hurt so badly I wasn't dressed for this nor was I sure if I should try to use any weapons in my condition but it was good to know that they were there if I did end up needing them at some point. I decided to get down on the ground and drag myself to a large thick stick. I broke it down to the size of my leg and then ripped my dress so I could secure it to my leg before attempting to move myself in the direction of the water sound. I could hear what sounded like a waterfall or a stream that had a drop with rocks that the water was hitting, you know the bubble, splash mixture that you hear when you sit there and listen. After getting my leg to a point where I could put weight on it, I headed to another near by tree then the next one and so on until I saw a back pack so I headed there. It might be something useful since she had said weapons would be around here somewhere. The sound of rushing water was getting louder but the sound of someone in the distance stomping was getting louder also so I looked around to find a good spot to get comfortable for a bit, after grabbing the bag. There was a partial hole in the bottom of a tree that was filled with leaves near by so I hobbled to it and got inside covering myself with leaves and laying there for a moment, it was much bigger than it had looked, just listening and watching. I didn't hear anything anymore at first but the sound of feet and leaves rustling came right as I considered getting back out of my hiding place so I stayed put. "I know I saw him go this way, how did he vanish into thin air like that?" It was one of the voices I had heard the first time, when I had just come to, I hadn't seen or heard anyone go by before hearing them.. "If we don't catch him Ma is going to slit our throats, both of us. She's pissed that he got out of the mansion all together, if we come back without him she'll flip out...." "It was your fault he got out, why shouldn't I just tell and make you find him alone? It's your fault we're back out here at all, I told you not to do anything to that family." he whined," I'm tired of getting in trouble because of you not listening to me and I don't think he came this way anyways. This is pointless.... you should have locked that door. He knows this land better than any of us do." "I know, shut up and help me track him!" the other snapped at him. They were extremely loud and if whoever they were tracking was as smart as it sounded they would hear them coming miles away. I smiled and giggled a bit in silence before getting out of the hole, I was in, inside the tree and continuing my journey towards the water. When I finally found the sound I also found a cliff that was part of the water source I had been hearing, the cliff went as far as the eye could see either way and was at least 10 feet tall with a nice flow of water coming down in about a 7 foot span crashing down on rocks creating a small pond that continued on into a stream that disappeared into the woods. I took my boots off and soaked them for a bit, my feet were killing me and I still had no idea what had been done to me. When I started to hear coughing behind the falling water, I quickly smeared mud on my face and gathered my things to go over to a tree with leaves everywhere and buried myself right in time to see a very dirty male looking figure approach the falls from behind and blended into the cliff as if camouflaged.