My eyes flickered open from yet another dreamless night. I pushed myself up in my bed and rubbed my eyes, looking over to my side and sighing under my breath. It was early in the morning again—about 2:30 AM. This had been happening for a while now, and I started to grow a bit concerned. No matter what time I went to sleep the night before, I always woke up in the 2 AM – 3 AM timeframe. Even if I slept at 1:00, I woke up at like 2:43 AM. I guessed this had been happening for about a week and a half…I figured I should probably start a calendar and mark it.

With a jolt I felt that creeping sensation again. Fuck. The sensation that…well, to put it blankly, that I was being watched. I quickly swiveled my head towards my window and narrowed my eyes, slowly sliding out of bed, my bare feet hitting the wooden floor with a soft thunk. Walking over to the thinly veiled window, I ripped away the thin curtain, jumping back a bit as I saw two red circles and a red colored frown staring right back at me. I yelped and shook my head, rubbing at my eyes furiously before I opened them again to look in the exact same space.

Whatever that was wasn't there anymore. A ball of concern started to twist in my stomach. It's like a deal with spiders—when they disappear, that's when you should really be fucking scared, rather than one being right in front of you. Same thing with any other creepy-crawly insect you despise and may so fear with all your being.

But like everything else, I shrugged it off and walked back to my bed, sitting down on the edge and rubbing at my aching reddened eyes with a grunt of discomfort. Why couldn't I just sleep anymore?

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The rest of my morning went pretty easily. No coughing attacks yet, which is always a good thing to relish in, and the cold I seemed to have last week is gone. How I got it though, I have no clue. Neither Jay or Alex were sick when I last got in touch with them, and I was around no one else, so there was really no excuse as to why I got it. Another mystery that no one gives a shit about.

I pulled on my regular tannish-colored jacket over a plain black T-shirt, shoving my lighter and cigarette pack into one of the pockets. Pushing on a pair of shoes onto my feet, I grabbed my house key and placed it in my back jeans pocket, making sure I turned off everything—especially the stove, considering a past incident—before I left the house, securely locking up behind me as I stepped out into the crisp January morning. The forecast said to be expecting snow soon sometime today, and I had mixed feelings about it. One part of me wanted to throw myself into the snow later and roll around like a child in a pile of recently raked dead leaves in the fall, but the other part of me told me that snow was a nuisance and that I shouldn't really try driving my car today. I was fine walking too, since I had no real destination.

Being bored and having nothing better to do, as well as needing to get out of the house, I decided to go down to the local park to see if I can possibly catch Jay there. He was almost always there. There was a chance Alex would be too, but I wasn't too excited to see him after his few "episodes". Jay seemed…safer, whatever that word meant anymore. Due to recent events, I had basically made it a personal taboo to ever step near that park again, but out of sheer boredom, boldness, and will, I decided to throw that one in the trash for today, because why not?

Oh, I don't know Timothy, maybe it's because you'll fucking die in there.

Fuck you too, inner conscience. I don't care right now. I'll deal with that later.

Fine. I'm only giving you advice. Advice that will keep you from drowning in the river again.

Shut up, asshole.

I paused, shaking my head at myself. Was I really that lonely now? I was fighting with my inner conscience, which was basically, myself. Sometimes I wondered if I should go see a psychologist sometime to add on with my regular and frequent checkups with my general practitioner. There've been still, after so many years, no real diagnosis as to why I kept having my "attacks", which included seizures and coughing up blood, as well as the occasional bleeding from my mouth or nose. This had been happening since I was a kid, and I've learned to slowly live with it...sort of. It's a nuisance, and hard to explain on a job application. Why do you have these attacks? I don't fucking know. Why should I hire you if this could be happening and wasting my precious time? I still don't know.

Nonetheless to say, it made it a bit harder to live my life.

Without much preamble, I walked to the park, eyes almost never leaving my feet as they trudged along the sidewalk, passing very few people as I went along on my own way, hands pushed into the pockets of my jacket, fingers fiddling with the lighter idly in my right pocket. What could I do in the park? Nothing, except for walk along the trails in the woods, and of course, stray off of them.

As expected, I didn't spot Jay's car or anything in the parking lot nearest to the park and the woods. In fact, it was pretty barren, but I guess that could only be expected. Only extremely bored people, such as myself, or crazies would be out here at the moment, especially around the woods. Rumors had been spreading unbeknownst to me and the others about what's been happening in those woods…not that I could remember such rumors word by word. I just knew it wasn't too smart, but who said I was the smartest person alive?

My feet crunched against fallen leaves and dead grass as I trampled over them in my steady walking pace, a lit cigarette between my lips. I, of course, had no clear destination, so I was just aimlessly walking around in these woods, wondering what I could find in here this time. I had found weird things in this forest, I'll say that.

With a pause I stopped, digging into all of my pockets rather panickedly before I came to my frustrating conclusion; I had forgotten my medication bottle at home. Shit! I glanced behind me, swallowing hard. I had no idea on how to get back. It had been an hour since entering the woods, so I was pretty deep inside, and unknowing of which way could be out. I knew to myself that if I kept walking, I'd exit eventually, but which way home was what I was looking for…something I was now clueless of.

I scolded my carelessness and my forgetfulness. How dare I ever leave the house without that! Sure, I hadn't had an attack for a while, but that didn't mean it went away. It never meant that. Whether it was the next day or years from now, it would come back. I knew that for an earth-shattering fact.

I began to remember more things that I had left behind as I began walking again, head bowed a bit as I watched where my feet stepped, traversing the uneven terrain. I had forgotten my wallet, my medication, my I.D., basically everything a man should carry on his person besides his house key. I didn't even need to bring my cigarettes, but I did anyway. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Now that I thought about it, the cigarettes, probably didn't help my condition at all. Oh well.

After a clear while of endless walking, I stopped again and glanced behind me, narrowing my eyes slightly as I heard something softly snap behind me, like a twig being crushed underfoot. Was I hearing things again, I wondered to myself as I turned my head back to the front and hesitantly began walking again. I could have sworn I heard another pair of feet hitting the ground other than my own even before that. I couldn't have been going crazy.

Once again I stopped after a minute or so and looked around in a paranoid fashion, doing a full three-sixty before I called, "Who's there?"

Again, probably not the smartest decision, I couldn't help but think as I heard movement behind me, and I turned quickly on my heel, looking around frantically. But all I saw was a stream before me, as I had walked in its direction, planning to cross it with the stepping stones to see if I could get a shortcut out of here. I clenched my fists at my sides in frustration and growled softly to myself. Was I going crazy? Maybe it was just a passing animal. You're not crazy. You can't be.

Of course, with my luck, I couldn't complete that single thought as I heard quick footsteps charge up behind me, and I turned my head, only to get caught in the side of my head with something hard, like a handle or a hilt of a weapon. I started to see spots in my vision as I fell to the ground, finding it hard to breathe as I felt my lungs constrict.

Soon enough, I started coughing raggedly again, grasping my stomach as I heaved and practically threw up my lungs as I felt blood spatter from my lips and stain the dry leaves under me. Sinking to my side, my cigarette dropped from my mouth and onto the ground next to me, eyes shutting tightly as I tried to hold in my coughing rampage. It only made it worse, however, and I started hacking again.

Static started to fill my ears with horrifying intensities, and I let out a pained yell, squinting open my eyes just in time to see an all-too familiar black and white figure a bit of a distance away, maybe a hundred feet or so, but it was still clear as day, and just the sight filled my rushing veins with fear and adrenaline.

On instinct, I began to push myself up again, wanting to get away and flee, but I cringed as I felt something press down on my leg, more particularly, the leg that had once been broken, and strangely enough, in the exact same spot, as if whoever—or whatever—was pressing down on it knew precisely where it was.

I dared to look up and saw a figure that didn't look familiar to me. Before I could truly distinguish any features, they bent down, and wide yellow-tinted goggles stared back my way, the faintest outlines of eyes underneath. Some sort of mask covered their mouth and lower, and a hood was pulled up over their head, brown mangled locks framing their face, seeming kept but unkempt at the same time. I didn't feel so good just looking at them, and at the close proximity, I heard the static noise rise, and I grimaced.

"You look weird without your mask on." I heard them speak, and I rolled to my side, narrowly avoiding another strike to the head as I pushed myself up on my hands and knees, scrabbling for the river with my hands digging furiously into the ground as I tried to regain my footing. I heard a clicking noise behind me, which soon ceased, and I furrowed my brow as I heaved one final push, getting on my feet and breaking into a panicked run, coughing all the way, vision starting to falter.

"Get the—fuck—away—from me!" I managed to shout between my wheezing and hacking, my feet catching into the water unintentionally. Fuck, I meant to get onto the stepping stones. The river was moving too quickly.

Glancing behind me, I saw the figure who had attacked me more clearly, and they just seemed to be standing there, watching my last-attempt clambering. A worn out looking hatchet was clutched in his hand, another newer looking one hanging on what looked like a carpenter's belt, and upon seeing the weapons, I grew even more uneasy and desperate to escape.

"C'mon now, don't be so difficult." I heard them call out to me, and I didn't bother working out a reply as I started to wade through the water, struggling against the current, wanting to get to the other side and away. My hands and arm tore at the water's surface as I went through, legs kicking and dragging through the water around me. Strangled gasps and grunts escaped my lips as I went at it, nearly to the other side.

Shutting my eyes tightly to pull the final few stretches, I accomplished my goal and pulled myself up out of the river, crawling for a few paces before I made my move to get up, but I paused, feeling a shadow loom over me. I looked up only to be greeted by the same round goggles and smiling mask staring down at me, eyes curved upward beneath the yellow opticals in a sadistic grin. I flinched.

"Hello there~" I heard them hum, and he pulled me up by the collar of my jacket, my feet unsteadily making contact with the ground as I tried to stand. My movements were becoming extremely sluggish from exhaustion, I noticed, as I tried to swing my fist at the figure holding me, but they just blocked it easily with the palm of their free hand. "Now, now, don't struggle..."

I growled, and with one final surge of energy, I shoved them away from me and swung my fist out at them again, catching them in the jaw. The blunt force, as well as the shock factor, sent the other sprawling, temporarily distracted for the few seconds I had for escape. Then I broke for it, not caring where I ran. The static began to grow painfully heavy again, and eventually I sank to my wet knees, clutching the sides of my head as I let out a shout, eyebrows tightly knitted together as my eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenching to where my teeth ached.

I heard their voice cut through the heavy white noise: "Time to wake up."

I was pushed down by the force of what I supposed was their body being flung at mine, pinning me under their weight with the handle of their hatchet pressed down on my neck to hold me down. In a swift movement, I was seeing stars again as my vision slowly zoned out to blackness.

Just before everything went dark, I heard someone cackling, as if they found my predicament amusing, the laughter higher pitched, long, and a bit psychotic, but mostly filled with some sort of humor.

That was all I could make out before I slipped into unconsciousness, its cold, dark, but forgiving hold wrapping itself around me and cradling me in comfort as I went slack.

And then…he started to wake up.

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In retrospect, this could have been better written on many scales, but I've grown weary of looking at this thing and trying to fix it. xD I know it could be longer too, but again, I grew kinda tired of looking at it in a folder for a while. Decided to might as well upload it.

Hope you enjoy…wherever this horrid thing is leading off to, even I'm not sure. xD Hopefully I won't abandon this thing! Expect another chapter soon, I suppose!

EDIT: This is a newer version of the original chapter one. Not much of a change, I think it just bothered me how it was short. xD Probably added in much unneeded dribble, but oh well. :P