Hello, readers!
Here's an odd one, from Nichole's sister's point of view! I just thought it would be a neat addition, and it was pretty quick to write. I don't like to cheat and only release edited chapters every month, so I wanted to write at least one new chapter for one of my stories, and this one popped into my head so here it is. Been having a rough week, so I guess I'm kind of a day late, maybe? I don't know. Enjoy, anyway! It's a little rough around the edges but probably still entertaining maybe.
~ Crayola
Almost
Kristie and her friend try to sneak into the woods but are too late—and lucky. Rated T.
"Your mom was ok with you coming over for the night?"
"I mean, I'm here aren't I?"
Kristie's friend raised her hands defensively. "Just don't want a repeat of last month. I never want to get shouted at like that ever again. Shit was cray."
Shaking her head, Kristie said, "I learned my lesson and made sure to ask permission this time."
"Promise?"
"God, yes! Did you invite me over just to drill me?"
Allison rolled her eyes. "No, sorry. I just wanted to double check that no one would be calling my mom for you tonight," she said.
"Why?" Kristie asked, nearly dropping her phone on her face as she adjusted her grip.
After glancing at her door to her closed room, Allison inched closer to Kristie. Licking her lips, she grinned and opened her mouth to say something. Kristie, however, leaned away with her brow furrowed and said, "Okay, I do not swing that way."
"What? No! Shut up," Allison said, smacking Kristie's knee. Both girls were lounging on Allison's king-sized bed, gentle music playing from an expensive-looking stereo system on her dresser. "I heard from someone in my biology class that a whole bunch of upperclassmen are going to be sneaking into the park later tonight. At like midnight or something."
Her voice had dropped in pitch by a great margin, and she kept glancing at her door. It was as if she expected her parents to bust in at any moment.
When Kristie didn't immediately respond, Allison clicked her tongue against her teeth in irritation. "Well? I think we should totally go! Don't you agree? It'll be the perfect chance to get in with some of the senior boys!"
"How would we get out there?" Kristie asked skeptically, setting her phone on her chest.
"I'll drive us."
Kristie scoffed. "You only have a learner's permit, dumbass."
"I can drive just fine by myself. Besides, I'm going to get my actual license in like, three months or something," she countered. "None of that matters, anyway. No one's going to be on the street so it's not like I'll have to worry about hitting anyone. We're just driving to the park, not to like, the next town or out of state."
Sitting up, Kristie sighed and mulled it over for a moment. She had a couple senior friends already, but that was just because they shared a class with her, and there was one boy in particular that she had a crush on.
"What if we get caught?"
"We just won't be! It'll be fun. We'll root around the woods for a bit and maybe get to see a crashed plane. The boys will think we're cool and brave," her friend giggled.
Still, Kristie hesitated.
Allison took her by the shoulders and started whining. "Come on. It won't be that bad. We'll dress warm, and it'll be better than sitting on this bed all night looking stupid videos online or watching really bad horror movies. We can pretend we're in a horror movie!"
"What about your mom?" Kristie asked.
"What about her?"
"We'd have to sneak out, wouldn't we?"
Waving her hand, Allison dismissed the notion with a scoff. "We can just walk out the front door. I leave all the time after Mom goes to bed."
"You're terrible," Kristie snickered, tossing a stuffed bear at her friend.
Giggling, Allison grabbed it and hit Kristie back with the thing.
"No, but I mean like, didn't she want to watch the movie with us?"
"Ugh, you're right. We'll probably end up being late and we'll have to meet up with everyone afterward. . .they probably won't wait for us. Gah!" Allison sighed heavily and threw herself across the bed, lying on her stomach. "Maybe I could just tell her we're too tired and don't want to watch it anymore or something."
"She'll be pretty disappointed."
"I know. She bought all that popcorn. . . .Alright, well let's go see if she wants to start it now, then we won't be too late."
Shrugging, Kristie threw her legs over the side of the bed and hopped down. "Sure."
"So you're on board with going?"
Kristie nodded. "I mean, why not. There'll be a lot of people there, right?"
"I think so."
"Then if the cops or a bear show up we just gotta run faster than the slowest people," Kristie said with a mischievous grin.
Allison made a surprised sound and jumped down to chase after Kristie. "Now you're terrible!"
*:・゚✧
"God, that movie took forever to end!" Allison huffed.
"Yeah, for real. It wasn't even, like, any good. My sister always gets terrified by those movies but I don't understand how," Kristie said, leaning back in her seat. They were finally on the road, even if it was well past midnight.
Her friend glanced at her for a second. "I thought it was a little scary, at least. A couple of good jump scares, anyway. But yeah, it wasn't great."
"My mom and I just think they're hilarious. Alan won't watch them at all."
"Isn't he like, eight or something?"
"I mean—well he's 11. But yeah, never mind," she admitted, digging around in her bag for her car charger. She wanted to make sure her phone had a full battery before hiking. "Nichole loves horror movies but is such a scaredy cat about them."
Allison snickered but had nothing else to say.
Kristie dawdled on her phone for a few minutes, then groaned and caught Allison's attention. "It's going to snow tonight. I'm not dressed for this shit."
"Ah crap, me either."
The two shared a brief moment or two of lamenting, but overall decided to stay the course. After all, hiking through the woods would keep them warm. Allison, however, only knew a general direction of where to go from the park and that was it. She had no actual direct contact that would be relaying any information.
When Kristie tried one of her upperclassman acquaintances, they weren't part of the group either. Nor did they know anyone who was.
"So. . .we're on our own," Allison said after Kristie had relayed as much.
"Yup."
"Well, shit."
Setting down her phone to let it finish charging, Kristie asked, "Should we go home?"
"No way," Allison scoffed. "I jacked my mom's car for this whole thing. I ain't just going home after getting this far!"
Kristie rolled her eyes and smiled. "Your Texas is showing."
"Oh, shut up."
It was several minutes before either of the girls spoke again, content to sit and listen to the radio in relative silence. Eventually, Kristie pointed and flailed her arm across from Allison. "Wait, turn around! Go back!"
"What? No way. We said—"
"No! I mean go back to that parking lot real quick."
Even as she made the U-turn, Allison muttered, "Why? We're already running so late."
Sitting as tall as she could in her seat, Kristie craned her neck to see better. "I think I recognized the car that was sitting in there. I want to make sure."
"This one?" Allison asked, turning in.
"Yeah." Kristie had to bite back some sarcasm: there was only one parking lot with a single car in it so of course that was the right one.
She pulled her mom's car next to the one sitting in the dark. Kristie hopped out of the vehicle and circled the other, peering in the slightly tinted windows until finally returning to her seat. Her brow knit together in a mix of irritation and concern as she buckled back in.
Allison waited for her to say something before pressing the issue. "So? Is it the car you thought it was or what?"
"Yeah. It's my sister's friend's car. Michelle."
"And?" Allison urged, driving back toward the park.
"So she's probably out there, too! I can't believe this. . .she's such a freaking goody-two-shoes and she decides now to pull this shit?"
Shrugging, Allison said, "Maybe she didn't come."
"Maybe, but with my luck she totally did."
"So who cares? It's not like she can rat you out without ratting herself out. At this rate, we probably won't see anyone anyway! They're probably halfway up the mountain already."
Sighing, Kristie crossed her arms. "I guess."
A few miles later, Allison pulled the car off the side of the road and shut down the engine. "There's a couple cars pulled off here, so I guess we're walking the rest of the way."
All Kristie did was make a non-committal sound before climbing out.
"Oh my god, if you're going to be like this for the whole thing you may as well just stay in the car," Allison growled, shooting Kristie a glare.
"I'm fine."
Part of Allison wanted to argue, but she decided that it just wasn't worth it. Kristie would be able to work the steam off while they struggled to catch up with the main group. Hopefully, they would have been slowed down by how many people were in the group. They didn't know how many exactly, but Allison's friend had made it sound like a good portion of the juniors and seniors were going to show up for the hunt.
First, though, they had to make it past the cops.
Both girls spotted the cruisers at the same time and dove off the main path. Kristie was certainly feeling less grumpy after walking some distance, and now that they were faced with a bunch of police officers, she realized she had bigger problems than where her older sister was.
"How are we going to get around them?" Kristie asked in a hushed undertone.
Allison peered over the rock she was behind. A few of the cops were patrolling, sweeping flashlights over the trees and ground. "We'll probably just have to give them a wide berth."
"Okay, so which way?"
Her friend turned and peered around, trying to gain her bearings. Kristie offered, "The car is back that way. Which way did the thing crash?"
"Over that direction. So we'll have to head that way."
"Alright, well let's go."
With a nod, Allison crouched and scurried across the path to the other side. Kristie followed close behind her. The two wound their way through the trees and underbrush, trying to gauge how far the cops were from just the beams of their flashlights. Neither could guess how wide the perimeter they had set up was, so they kept going straight into the forest in the direction they thought the group was.
"Is this far enough? I want to get back on a path," Kristie complained.
"I don't have any idea. I suppose we can try to get a little closer."
The two teens cut a diagonal path through the tree line toward where they remembered the park's hiking path to be. Branches and brambles pulled at their clothes, but they were able to squeeze through and out onto a worn path. They waited, listening, but no one descended upon them.
Sighing with relief, Allison motioned for them to continue. "Alright, this way."
Kristie nodded and kept pace with her friend.
"How far in do you think they are?"
"Not sure," Allison said. Both were still speaking quietly. "Hopefully not so far that we can't catch up to them soon."
A few bends and turns into the hike, Kristie put her hand up to cut Allison off from whatever she was saying. In the new semi-silence, she could just barely make out the sound of someone speaking up ahead. At last!
"I think they're up there. You hear those voices?"
It took a second for Allison to catch on, but she nodded and grabbed Kristie's hand. "Yeah, I hear it. They didn't get very far at all! Maybe they started late."
"Maybe. Let's hurry."
Both took off at a jog down the path, struggling up the hill. Neither wanted to call out to them in case the cops down below heard them, but when they were within range, they tried their luck.
"Hey, guys," Allison softly shouted, as if she were on stage.
They were blinded by a sudden, bright shine of a flashlight and they stopped dead, shielding their eyes against the glare. Kristie's heart dropped as she realized that she and her friend had made a terrible mistake.
"What are you girls doing out here?" the first cop demanded.
"This area is off-limits!" the other added.
Allison gasped and tugged on Kristie, yanking her back down the hill. "Run!"
"Wait, what—"
But Kristie was already yanked toward her friend who had started running. The cops called after them, giving chase without a doubt. The two girls stumbled on the uneven ground, and the two officers were faster and more sure-footed than they. It wasn't long before they caught up and grabbed the teens by the scruff of their jackets, stopping them.
"Ow! Let me go," Allison harrumphed, trying to pry her arms out of the first cop's grip as he twisted them behind her back.
Kristie said nothing, just grunted as she was given the same treatment.
The third, slower cop caught up and shook her head. "How long have you two been out here? Do your parents know where you are?"
Neither said a word, just glowered at the ground.
All three cops sighed and shook their head. The female officer said, "I'll escort them back with Kincaid. You keep on patrol."
*:・゚✧
Two cruisers were moved next to each other so the two girls could sit across from each other, each in the back seat of one cruiser. The two officers that had caught them were standing in between, arms crossed or hands on hips. They weren't in cuffs.
"You two alone?" the woman, Officer Lopez, asked.
Not one of them had said anything yet, too scared and angry to trust themselves to speak. Kristie assumed they were asking because no one else had been caught, yet.
The two officers shared a look, and then Officer Kincaid said, "If you guys cooperate, we'll call your parents and have them come pick you up. If you don't, we'll have to book you and you'll spend the rest of the night in a cell until your parents can get you in the morning."
Allison and Kristie glanced up at each other from the tops of their eyes, gazes otherwise planted on the ground.
Kristie pursed her lips together.
"It'll go on your records, and the military might press further charges," Kincaid elaborated.
She thought back to Marie's car, sitting in the parking lot a few miles back. If Nichole was with her, she was going to get away Scott free while she was busted by her mom and dad or rot in jail for the rest of the night.
And that just wouldn't do.
"We were going to meet with a group of kids from school," she started, earning a wide-eyed and open-mouthed expression from Allison.
"What the fuck, Kristie?"
"I'm not going to jail for these people!" Kristie snapped back.
"There's more of you out there somewhere?" Lopez muttered, lifting her hand to grab her walkie. When Kristie nodded, she relayed the message to the others on patrol. "Be on the lookout for more high schoolers in those woods. Who knows how far in they are."
Her radio crackled to life. "How the hell did they slip past us?"
"I don't know. We might not have given them enough credit," Lopez sighed.
There was a pause before someone responded. "Roger. I'll send a party out to go looking for them. Stay safe."
Kincaid addressed Kristie. "Do you know who we're looking for? Names?"
"My sister Nichole might be out there, her friend Marie. Maybe Jessica, too. I'm not sure who else, it was a bunch of juniors and seniors, though. Maybe some other sophomores," Kristie replied, eyes locked on her shoes. "They wanted to find the crash."
"Of course they did. Never should have told them not to go in there," Lopez muttered more to herself than to the others.
"Anything to add there, missy?" Lopez asked Allison.
Lips thinned, Allison mulled it over for a moment and then sighed. "I don't know. They were supposed to start at midnight. We were late. Um, a guy named Nathan was supposed to come. That's all I know, though."
"Midnight? Jesus."
Lopez hopped back on the radio to transmit this new information, hoping that it would help that search party figure out how far to go looking for the other teens.
Pulling a pen and notepad out of his pocket, Kincaid first handed it to Kristie. "Alright, if you think of anything else, let us know. For now, just write down your full names, phone numbers, and home addresses so we can call your parents."
Allison shifted uncomfortably for a moment while Kristie jotted down the information on one of the pages. "I took my mom's car. She won't be able to get me."
"That's fine. We can take you home unless her parents want to take responsibility."
Kristie, without meeting Allison's face, handed the notepad over to her. She took it with more force than was necessary and angrily scribbled down her information. When she was done, she shoved it back in Kincaid's hands and turned so she was sitting fully inside the car, pouting with her arms crossed over her chest.
Quietly, Kincaid thanked the two girls and hopped into the front seat of the car Kristie was in to make the phone calls. Otherwise, everyone lounged about in silence, waiting for information from their parents or the search party.
Several minutes later, Lopez's radio blew up.
"Teens found. Terrified—babbling about their dead friends."
Both girls perked up, suddenly on the edge of their seats in the open doors. It hadn't even started snowing, yet. How could anyone have died?
"Repeat," Lopez demanded. "Who's dead?"
"I'm not sure, I can't make any sense out of these kids—what was that?"
Everyone was silent, waiting for the officer to come back on the radio and explain. Lopez impatiently brought the receiver to her lips. "Come in, report."
When next her radio clicked on, it was full of screaming and gunfire—startling everyone present. It soon echoed down the mountain, the screams faint but the gunshots like rolling thunder as the sound bounced off the peaks. Once again, all those present fell silent and merely listened, open-mouthed in shock and confusion.
"Backup! Send backup! There's something in the woods," came the voice of the officer from before, nearly washed out by all the screaming. "It got Jones. . .they got Jones! Took him into the trees—I don't know what it is!"
In the background, someone was telling the kids to run. The gunfire continued.
"What's going on?" Allison asked, leaning forward to clutch Kristie's hand, who squeezed back. Both girls were white as a sheet.
Lopez didn't pick up her walkie again and instead indicated for Kristie to scoot further into the car. "You, get in here. Kinkaid, take them back into the city and get them home as soon as you can. I'll drive as far into the park as I can and see what I can do."
Her radio kept crackling to life, catching glimpses of inhuman squeals, making the hairs on the back of Kristie's neck raise.
Allison dove into the cruiser with Kristie and Lopez slammed the door shut.
"Don't worry girls, you're alright," Kincaid muttered, throwing the vehicle into gear and tearing off down the gravel road.
All Kristie could do was stare at the seat in front of her. Allison was still holding her hand, trembling. The fact that Nichole could be out there somewhere crossed her mind, but that notion wasn't as loud as the one that wondered what would have become of her had they not been late.
And, above all, what in the hell was out in the woods.
