Disclaimer: Blair Witch 1 and 2 are not mine, nor are the characters. I own only my original characters Sarah, Jamie, Mr. and Mrs. Neeley, Damien Dark, Cary Luther, Delaney Slade and Mellony Ware.
Chapter One
Sarah Neeley stared her brother, Jamie Neeley, down with stubborn navy blue eyes.
"I'm going with you." Sarah stated clearly. Jamie sneered at Sarah, and Jamie's eyes, a mirror image of Sarah's own, took on the appearance of chips of ice. The two siblings locked eyes in a staring contest. Jamie folded first.
"You don't even know where it is that I'm going!" Jamie cried out in an exsasperated whisper. At the same time Jamie shot a desperate glance at the ceiling, praying the siblings' parents wouldn't hear the two arguing and come investigate. After all, Jamie hadn't lived in his parents' home in two years. And the only thing that stood between Jamie and that sweet freedom now was his baby sister. Jamie would play dirty if he had to, anything to keep his heady liberation from his parents. "Goody two shoe!" Jamie spat. "Run along back to bed little sister. Maybe you can knock on ma's door on the way there and ask daddy to read you a bedtime story before you go to bed."
"Asshole!" Sarah said in a grated whisper. Jamie was right, Sarah should go back to bed and pretend she hadn't seen Jamie sneak in through the back door to steal the families' video camera, a couple sleeping bags, pillows and some cash. And tomorrow when her parents asked her if she knew where their missing property was Sarah should innocently shake her head no and go about her business. Just like Sarah'd done the last couple times she'd caught Jamie in the house thieving. Sarah's parents would believe anything Sarah said. Sarah normally didn't lie, she had no reason to. Mr. and Mrs. Neeley hardly let Sarah breath without their permission. And Sarah was looking into the eyes of the boy who'd caused her parents concerned overreaction.
When Jamie was sixteen years old he'd dropped out of all the sports and clubs he'd been participating in during high school, and his grades has plummeted from dean's list to barely passing. Jamie talked less and less to both family and friends, then stopped talking all together for a full two months before his parents insisted he stop being rediculuas or they'd send him to a psychiatrist. Jamie talked after that, but only when asked a direct question. Then Jamie began to hang out with a new crowd of friends, people Mr. and Mrs. Neeley called "the wrong kind of friends". The wrong kind of friends, Mrs. Neeley was fond of saying, would squeeze you for everything you've got then dump your souless body in the gutter to rot. However Jamie's grades improved greatly after his acceptance into said new circle of friends, so Mr. and Mrs. Neeley ignored the body piercings and tattoos, and turned a blind eye when Jamie dyed his brown hair black. However the Neeley's placed Sarah on lock down. Sarah could only wear the clothes her mother approved of, she could spend no time with boys and all Sarah's girlfriends had to come to the Neeley house if they wanted to hang out, no exceptions.
Time crept by slowly. The summer before the start of Sarah's junior year in high school were the worst three months of Sarah's life. The sixteen year old girl would lay awake until the early am listening to screaming matches between Jamie and her parents. Sometimes Sarah's parents and Jamie would fight about Sarah and her "lack of freedom", as Jamie called it. How Jamie knew about the restrictions on Sarah's social life Sarah didn't know. Jamie was hardly around anymore, and when he did deem it appropriet to come home Jamie would do so at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, another reason for the fighting. Other times the three fought about Jamie's use of dark eye and lip makeup, odd hair styles, and the books he'd bring home on death, religions Sarah's parents had never heard of and the occult.
"Do you want to bring that evil back into our house?" Mrs. Neeley had screamed one night. Sarah had shuddered and blocked her mother's words from her brain. Sarah didn't want to think about the evil...
The night Mrs. Neeley brought up the evil was the night Jamie left for good. Jamie had just graduated high school and was preparing for college. There was nothing holding Jamie back from leaving. Well, almost nothing. Jamie loved his little sister but their parents had distanced the two children after Jamie's "antics" had started and both siblings felt as though the other had abandoned them. And so eighteen year old Jamie left.
The two siblings, now 18 and 20, stood face to face, one resentful, one restless for escape.
"I don't care where you're going Jamie! I want to go with you! Please! I'll do what you tell me to do, I promise!"
"Sarah..." Jamie started.
"No, don't! Don't interrupt me Jamie!" Sarah stuttered. "Jamie I've never kissed a boy before, did you know that? I'm eighteen Jamie, and I've hardly even talked to a boy, let alone kissed one! I don't know anything about how girls my age are suppose to act! Mom and dad won't let me hang out with anyone outside our house which was fine freshmen year, but now no one can be bothered with me. Now people just call me weird and avoid me like I'm the plague. I'm desperate Jamie. I'm afraid I'm going to be alone living with our parents for the rest of my life, all because of my social ineptitude due to overprotective parents who put me under lock and key in order to avoid another rouge child. I want at least one adventure to hold on to. Please Jamie!" Sarah begged, tears clouding her vision.
"Jesus kiddo, they really did a number on you, huh?" Jamie whispered, capturing his little sisters shoulder in his hand to pull her into a one armed hug. "You can come. My friends, they're pretty unfriendly to strangers, so stay close to me at all times. I don't know if this is such a good idea Hare," Jamie said, fondly using his hated old nickname for Sarah, "the place we're going, I don't know how you'll react given our family's history..."
"I don't care!" Sarah said stubbornly, shaking long tendrils of wavy brown hair from her eyes. "I don't care." Jamie smiled at Sarah and reached to the floor with his free hand to pick up a pillow and a sleeping bag he'd abandoned during his battle of wits with his little sister.
"Here." Jamie said, shoving the objects into Sarah's unsuspecting arms. "Let's go. No school for you tomorrow. Lucky you. I always hated school Mondays." With those words the two siblings quietly made their way out the back door, through the gate, and into Jamie's waiting black pickup truck. Jamie started the engine and the two drove off into the night.