Chapter 3:

I walked through the woods in search of the woman. I was stupid. I had no idea what was hiding in that woods, who could be there in the darkness.

"Hello?! Hello?"

I kept calling out. I didn't know what could be worse than not finding her, alive, at least.

But, I would soon find out, because the first thing that caught my eye in the distance was a dim, orangish light, as if it came from fire. The smell of burning wood hit my nose, and it led me to keep walking, following the sight until it grew bigger. The smell of burning wood turned into something more disgusting, like rotting flesh or burnt pork. I also heard a distant voice. It was that of a woman.

"I am the queen of every hive…"

I noticed an accent. English, Scottish…I don't even know.

"I am the spear of battle…"

I inched closer, hiding behind a tree trunk as I was petrified by the sight of a huge bonfire, some tens of people surrounding it, all dressed rather strangely. As though they were not from this time period. I took a peek to see someone being strung up like a pig on a spit, but even more disturbing were these, I don't know, structures around the fire, around the people, with…God, I don't even know now. I think I've repressed a lot of this.

I think…there were…uh, a few pig's heads, severed, still bloody, impaled on the structures with these little creepy doll-like things attached. I was shaking, but still petrified by my fear. I couldn't let these people know I was there. All I knew at that moment, was how I was going to survive.

"This deserter was found at the edge of the wood with our provisions stolen from the storehouse," the woman's voice said in the strange English accent. I could only make out some of her appearance. She had gray, stringy hair, and wore what looked to be a corset-bodice thingy over a white shift and…a dark brown skirt…i-it looked like the woman I hit. There was NO WAY she could've gotten up that fast.

I heard whining coming from a man, the man who was tied to the spit-roast, the fire just beneath him. He was in pain, and it took me a few moments to recognize his face – it was Martin.

Martin was the uncle of Sarah and Barbi.

Why would they have wanted him? What betrayal was she talking about? I just watched, feeling my stomach about to explode from anxiety.

"Justice demands penance for his betrayal," the woman announced.

"OW! AHH!" the man on the spit cried out.

I was queasy; it looked like one of the people was sodomizing him with something. He just kept screaming, begging for mercy.

"Don't kill me! PLEASE!" Martin screamed out. "Barbi and Sarah need me! PLEASE! Ow…t-this hurts!"

I didn't know what to do. He had been actually a nice person knowing him. But…I risked my own life if I went in there and untied him from the spit, and pulled whatever was stuck up his ass out of it.

"You are but a cloven beast," the woman said, "rotting in the mire and muck, as unclean as your festering soul."

Then I watched in horror as Martin screamed, his head being covered by what looked to be a severed pig's head. His cries were muffled by the insides of the pig head, and I just cowered behind the tree trunk a bit more, nearly throwing up.

"Speak, pig! SPEAK!" I heard the woman shout. "You shall be purified!"

I watched a few others in the group of savages feed the fire with more wood, but then I got a clear view of the woman's face. She was definitely older, in her 60s at least, with a slight lazy eye, tan-colored teeth, dirt on her aged face, and her hair was back, but stringy and gray. The woman behind her would have been beautiful had she brushed her hair or taken care of her teeth…or whatever she was.

"SIEZE HIM!"

That meant me. It also meant I needed to book it out of there, Martin's life aside if I wanted to save my own. I didn't look behind me when I ran, I tried to stop myself from tripping, but I tripped twice on my way back from the road. I was no longer lost in the woods, a relief, but still scared shitless. I got in my truck, started the ignition and before I could get the truck in gear, I saw someone standing in front of my vehicle. They fainted to the ground.

I got out, once again, going to the front of my pickup truck to see that it was a young woman who had blacked out on the road ahead of me. I moved the hair out of her face, and recognized her as Barbi.

Barbi – why the HELL was she out at this time of night?

"Barbi?!" I shouted, picking her up and shaking her, trying to get her to wake up. No success.

If I took one person to the hospital that night, it was her. So I drove out of dodge and to the nearest hospital. It took about 25 minutes to drive there. It was the medical center in Manteo. I stuck with the story of her fainting in front of my truck. Not much else.

They wheeled her in, set up an IV, and when she woke up about 15 minutes after being checked in, I was the first person she looked at.

"Barbi," I said, reaching my arms out toward her to hold her. She was expressionless, and then I let her go, lecturing her like a father would his daughter. "Why the hell were you out at this time of night?! It ain't safe out there!"

All she responded with was: "w-why were you out there?"

"Because someone, or…some people...broke into my house."

"Yeah? Well my uncle went missing!" Barbi wailed.

I bit my lip and looked down, nodding. "I-I know."

Her almond-shaped, dark eyes looked at me, widening. "What?"

"Y-You saw what I saw?" I questioned.

"I saw…" Barbi frowned, tears filling her eyes, "the…the butcher…"

"Tell me," I begged, holding her hand, "what did you see?"

She looked down for a few moments, and then up at me. I waited patiently for her to gather herself. Whatever she saw must have been really bad.

"I…saw…A-Ambrose…" I heard her say, "a-and his mother…t-they were…t-tying someone up…"

Ambrose. Who the hell was that? Did she know something I didn't? If so, why hadn't she told me? Did she know why all those teeth feel outside my house?

"H-His mother…ordered they…t-that they seize 'him', whoever he was…b-but…." She was stammering. I could feel her emotions as my own for a moment. It was so distressing.

"It was me," I blurted silently. Her eyes just widened. I saw her shake her head.

"I-It can't be," she told me. "My uncle went missing! It was my uncle they were…"

Then she stopped. How odd.

"I…I…" was speechless, in all honestly.

"No…no, no, no, please say it ain't so!" she whined frantically.

"I…I can't remember," I fibbed. Obviously she was in distress. Last thing she wanted to hear was, 'oh, your uncle had somethin' poked up his ass and was spit-roasted over a fire.'

"W-We gotta look for him! NOW!" she shrieked.

"Shh, shh…" She was right though. If he was missing, we would need to find out where he was.

I dialed the phone and gave it to Barbi – it was the police station, same one who said I was lying about having seen Scout's throat all slit up on my porch. She got someone, and I could hear everything she said.

"I…I saw him last night…before I went to bed…"

"I…don't remember what he was wearing…"

Next, chilled me to the bone.

"I…I think he may have been taken…I saw him in the woods…"

Before I knew it, she gave me my phone back, and sighed.

"T-The police are on their way to question me."

"Well, I…hope it helps," I said, still stammering.

Within fifteen minutes, two police officers came to the door. Lo and behold, they were the same who claimed I lied about the incident with my dog. They looked me up and down and passed me, entering the hospital room with one sitting in the chair I had been in and the other in a swivel chair he needed to pull up. They introduced themselves to Barbi, and one of the cops just sneered at me.

"You can leave."

I did, but the door was open. I heard everything. It was only then that I knew that Barbi had known full well it was her uncle who was sodomized and spit-roasted in that weird hell of a sacrifice, or whatever it was. I heard her crying, only to feel my chest hurt a little bit. I empathized with her. What I saw was traumatizing.

I looked down the hall, and past nurses and rotating gurneys I saw a redhead with familiar ghost white skin and piercing eyes that darted like knives—Sarah. She was dressed in dark gray jeans, a black cardigan, and a gray top beneath it. I could hear her boots hitting the linoleum. She was a heavy walker, which only added to her scary persona. I found it weird she wasn't out looking for their uncle as well.

As she approached the door where Barbi was being interviewed by police, I mustered my bravest face and put my hand out: "s-she's with police right now."

I'll never forget the look her sister gave me. It was one of disgust, and as she peeked into the room, I found her stepping in there. I dared not interfere. If looks could kill, I'd have been dead right then and there.

"Sarah!" I heard Barbie exclaimed.

"Young lady," a cop said as I stood in the doorway. "I'm questioning Miss MacLean."

"I'm Miss MacLean, too," she said. "I'm her sister."

"S-She is," I heard Barbi say with a heavy nod.

I saw the policemen look up at the intimidating older sister and begin to bring her in as well on the questioning.

"When did you first know your uncle Martin MacLean disappeared?" one asked Sarah, who just folded her arms.

"Just now," she replied.

"Do you have an idea where he might be?" the other cop asked.

"I don't know," Sarah said. "He likes taking nighttime walks."

I couldn't help but notice the weird expression on Barbi's face toward her sister. It was almost like she was saying, in her head, 'no he isn't, are you freakin' crazy?' All I knew, aside from that, was the creepy factor kicking in once again. Sarah was creepy on her own, but her responses…I don't know…it's like she knew something we didn't. Yet I could also say the same about Barbi. Why else would she be out in the middle of the woods in the dead of night like this? See, I've always had a bad habit of giving people the benefit of the doubt, but…I didn't quite know at the time. I was too trusting for my good, even though I had my doubts about Sarah.

I don't remember what else was said. It was just rambling between her and the police. Barbi didn't even attempt to get a word in. I felt her pain. Sarah was pretty scary. I can't even imagine being afraid of my little sister like that. Rebecca was always good though.

Then I heard something rather odd before the police thanked the girls and left: "sure he ain't hog-tied somewhere? You haven't even gone to look, have you?"

This was the icing on the cake, okay? Her flat affect was creeping the living daylights out of me. But her casual approach…it was unreal. He'd taken them in, he told me himself. How could she have been numb to the disappearance…well, death, of her uncle?

"We are going to start investigatin' at the crack o'dawn," one policeman said, shaking her hand. "Thank you both for your time."

"P-Please…f-find him…" Barbi begged.

"Yes, sweetheart. We will."

The police officers passed me, and one of them even gave me a stink-eye before leaving my sight. I looked into the hospital room, going back in. As soon as I tried to sit, however, I heard Sarah being viciously abusive to Barbi. I was genuinely afraid of her, too afraid to say something, but…

"You dumb bitch!" the redhead grunted.

Barbi gasped: "what?! Where did you-"

"Out in the middle of the night all by yourself," Sarah said through gritted teeth, stomping her foot and putting her fists to her head. It looked like she was gripping huge chunks of her hair. "GOD DAMN IT!"

I felt every bone in my body shake with fear, and not because she took God's name in vain.

"S-Sarah," I finally said. "We're in a hospital room."

She glared at me, but said nothing. Better it be nothing than something.

"For all you know, you could'a been hog-tied with the rest of 'em!" Sarah exclaimed to her sister.

"I…I didn't know what to do!" Barbi cried, holding her hands palm-up to Sarah. "You know we don't got a phone!"

I looked at Barbi strangely. No phone? Why? I turned and walked toward the two young women, but before I could make a comment, Sarah spoke again.

"We're getting you out of here, right now," she stated, turning to me, "and you are takin' us back."

I did just that. Call me light in the loafers or a sissy, but…I will admit, as I have countless times in this interview, I WAS SCARED of this girl. I did as she said. When Barbi was released finally and deemed fine, just before the crack of dawn, I drove them back in my truck. Barbi was right up next to me, and Sarah was nearest the passenger seat door. I could smell a very light scent coming off her. It added to the fact that even though her hair was straight and mangled from the night, she was still beautiful. She actually distracted me a bit while driving.

I keep my eyes as focused on the road ahead as possible, until I hear this scream out of nowhere.

"BAH!"

Barbi jumped, and right when I slammed on the brakes, I looked around and felt my heart about to beat out of my chest. Then I heard a light snickering, very creepy and sinister.

"W-What was that?" I asked with a bit of a heavy breath.

"Me." It was Sarah, opening the car door faster than I could hit the Lock feature on the pickup truck. "We can walk from here."

"Uh, Sarah, are you-" Barbi was cut off.

"C'mon, let's go!" she exclaimed.

I watched the two girls leave my truck, and I didn't even close the passenger door. I just watched them. They looked to be going in the woods. The same woods I saw Martin tied up and sodomized in, burnt alive amongst those…those savages.

Being from the South, it's not a lie that we're gentleman. We don't let a lady go alone someplace, especially a place like this. The woods, even at this hour, probably 6 in the morning, could've still been dangerous. So I let that, you know, 'Southern gentleman' side out right then and there. I got out of the truck and walked toward the threshold of the road and the grass.

"Uh…S-Sarah…Barbi?" I asked. "L-Let me take you there."

"Why?" Sarah asked.

"W-Well, it's still kinda dark," I told her. "Y-You won't be safe in there."

She giggled sarcastically, taking Barbi's arm in both of her hands. The prettier, softer-faced one looked at me. Barbi was clearly uncomfortable, but Sarah was the one speaking: "we're always safe."

I went to my truck to close the passenger seat door, and once I did, I looked in the side mirror to see no one there. I couldn't believe my eyes. I felt, once again, I was going insane. I turned around and…objects were not closer than they appeared. There was no one there. Barbi and Sarah had vanished.

"Not a trace?" the interviewer questioned after his perpetual silence during the interview.

No. Not a trace.

"Did you see them at all after this?" the interviewer asked. He saw Cole sigh and lean forward, stroking his clean-shaven shin while nodding.

I did, actually.

"When?" The interviewer took out a notepad and paper, preparing to jot down anything relevant.

A week later. See, I found something weird on my property – a storm cellar.

A/N:

Okay so one of you were curious about the actors/face canons of the characters so far. I'd be happy to answer, as I have this also in the Wattpad version of this story.

Cole Paterson - Jeremy Sumpter (he starred in such films as Peter Pan, Cyber Seduction, Soul Surfer and more recently, Into the Storm)

Barbi MacLean - Bella Thorne (she starred in Disney Channel's Shake It Up as well as the more recent film, The Duff)

Sarah MacLean - Katherine McNamara (she is best known for her role in The Scorch Trials)

These are the 3 main OCs as of this point in the story! Please Review, Favorite and Follow! Your support drives me to write even more! Thank you always!