"Listen, I know this isn't an ideal situation, and I know that hearing this from a total stranger isn't going to make any of it better, but you have to come with me and get out of here!" I screeched at the beach blonde teenager in front of me. The tears were gathering in the corners of each of her emerald eyes, but she was holding them back. She wouldn't let me tell her what to do.
"I told you, I'm not in any danger! I don't know what you're on, but my parents are just in the back getting some milk. They'll be back any second now. Besides, why should I listen to you?!" She confronted me loudly. Rain and thunder had turned from drizzle to domination and I, keeping a distance from the scared girl on the front porch of a convenience store on the side of the road, was getting soaked. I didn't mind, because being wet or dry was the last concern I had at this point.
I need to find a way to make her come with me, I thought to myself. She was standing on her ground, and rightfully so. If I was standing alone in the middle of the rainstorm after waiting for my parents for half an hour to get a small bottle of milk, and a random teenage girl was telling me that I needed to come with her in order to stay alive, I'd be confused too. I'd stick to what I know; I'd play it safe. I wouldn't have listened to me either.
"What'd you say your name was?" I asked, now calm.
"Denise," the blonde girl replied, almost whispering. She crossed her hands at her chest and looked down at her boots as they soaked the rain that had breached from the wooden ceiling above the porch. She noticed I was standing on the bottom stair. She didn't move.
"Look Denise, do you honestly think it would take your parents more than half an hour to get milk? Are you not suspicious? I know this is a lot to take, but I really think tha-"
"My parents aren't dead, if that's what you're suggesting! I don't know who the hell you think you are, coming here out of nowhere and trying to kidnap me and trick me into thinking my parents are dead, but I will not fall for this! I'm going to call the police if you don't drop it!" She raged. I knew that hitting dead ends was inevitable, but I didn't know how to make a K-turn and go in the right direction.
I was soaking wet now. My hair was uncomfortably damp, and water kept getting in my eyes, smearing my view of the girl's outline. I didn't have time to waste, but I wasn't going to let this girl stay here and die helplessly.
"Denise, listen to me. I know it sounds crazy, and I don't have time to explain, but you need to come with me! I'm trying to save your life! I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, and to tell you like this, but your parents are dead! As unrealistic as this sounds, there's some unhuman monster roaming around the area and I'm trying to spare your life. I know because it got my family too." I paused to see how she'd react. She didn't say anything, and although I was looking at her, she couldn't look me in the eyes. "please, come with me. I'm begging you." I finished. Denise finally looked at me, in what I thought was a sympathetic and understanding manner. Only a few moments later, though, she looked at her shoes one last time before erupting once again.
"Go away! Leave me alone! I'm not coming with you, how long is it going to take for you to understand that?! I'm staying here and waiting for my parents, because they will come back!"
I didn't try to convince her to come with me again. I didn't say anything, and neither did she. Denise looked into my eyes and I looked back in hers, knowing I'm the last person she'll see, and this is the last conversation she'll have. I didn't know what to do. What would a normal seventeen-year-old girl do or say when she was faced with a complete stranger who wanted to be left alone to die? This certainly wasn't taught in school. Even though I didn't know what to do, I knew I couldn't do nothing. I couldn't stand there and waste time, risking my own life. I now had to convince myself that I had done everything in my power to save her life, and it was ultimately her choice. I had to walk away.
"I'm sorry we had to meet this way, Denise." I confessed. Looking down at my own soaking, muddy sneakers now, I realized why Denise did it before. "You have beautiful eyes, you know. " I added peacefully before looking at her one more, meaningful time. After a few seconds of complete silence except for the weather's fury vent, I turned around and walked into the colder and harsher rain, away from any human life and towards a hotel of trees. Before I got too far away from the wooden cottage-esque store, I turned to look at the skeptical blonde one last time. She was sitting down on a chair on the porch, thumbing her fingers' skin; and couldn't see me. No time to waste.
The forest I was entering was no longer the home of plants and insects, because something had taken over. A great unity of fear had formed in the atmosphere of the photosynthetic beings, for a monster was here. A tractor grazing and torturing these roots and branches, not killing or bulldozing just yet; only teasing and taunting and poking until the trees will give out. I couldn't help them either. I kept walking.
Just as I reached the third row of helpless barks, I heard a shrieking scream of a teenage girl; a scream that sounded more bitter than painful. I looked behind me warily, and in the not-so-far-off distance saw a blur teenaged figure lying on the timber porch in a puddle of blood. Two big, broad men stood behind the body, giggling and looking around for more humans to prey on. I quickly hopped behind a tree nearby, eager not to be seen. The guys went back inside the store, and once I was sure they wouldn't come back outside, I returned to my path and continued walking. I swallowed all of my pride, and whispered to myself 'you did everything you could. There was nothing to be done. You did everything you could. ' The rain wasn't clearing up, so I hurried along. Denise wasn't the first, and she won't be the last.