Chapter One
Gone With the Sin
A nasty throbbing at the back of her head is what first awoke Sara Anderson as she groaned while slowly opening her brown eyes to blink lazily and fight at the light that was seemingly glaring at her. Exhaling heavily, Sara moved to lift her head up to see where she was and what happened. As she did so, the pain become less dull and more intense as she moved herself so that her hands were pressed palms down and taking most of her weight as she pushed herself up into a sitting position on her knees. Sara sucked in a sharp breath as she sat back on her knees and placed both hand behind her head, pressing them to the spot where the pain was the most intense. Shutting her eyes as her body started to slowly block out the pain and regain some of her stability. This took a few minutes for the pain to finally pass on and subside to a dull throb that had moved from the back of her head to the center of her forehead. Both hands moved to the new spot of pain and massaged the area as she continued on with her fight against it.
Giving a small grunt, Sara opened her eyes and squinted as they were berated with rays of sunlight. Raising a hand up to shield her eyes something struck her that she hadn't realized until just now. Blinking once more, Sara looked around from where she sat on her knees still. Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong with where she was at. There wasn't any hospital, cars, parking lot, or street lights. No, there was only dirt and dead leaves under her, trees surrounding every direction about her, and the sounds of critters chattering away all around. "What in the hell is going on!" Sara whispered to herself while staggering to her feet and swayed slightly until she regained her balance.
Her brown eyes had taken on the famous 'Deer-caught-in-the-headlights' look from I Love Lucy as she whipped about on her feet trying to understand and make reason as to why she was located now in what seemed to be the middle of a forest and not the hospital parking lot she had been in not but…how long had it been since she blacked out? The reality of this fact struck her and caused the brunette to start searching frantically around the area of her left shoulder. I did get shot, didn't I? Or at least that's what I thought had happened. Her fingers found no trace of a hole in the fabric of her sweatshirt, but there was a rather tender spot she found while pressing on her shoulder. Wincing from the effect the applied pressure she had placed, Sara just groaned while dropping her hands back down to her sides. A panic started to set in on her as she started to search the pouch pocket of her sweatshirt and the pockets of her white scrub pants.
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no!" she repeated in a desperate tone of voice as she searched over and over again and even around the area she had had found her self. "Oh please god, no." Her voice became even more distressed than before. What she had been searching for was the simple accessory known as the cell phone. With a cruel bitch slap from reality, Sara's memory was jogged back to when she had bed been getting ready to leave the hospital parking lot. She had thrown her cell phone into the passenger seat of her car. Smacking herself in the forehead, Sara groaned loudly at her own foolish mistake. Seriously, how stupid can I be? Sara thought angrily to herself while stomping her foot once on the ground as she started to look about herself.
"Well, now what?" she asked loudly to no one in particular aside from her own self. "Now what was that dumb saying again?" she mused while stepping over to the nearest tree and stared at it while rubbing her chin. "Moss always grows on the side of the tree facing north?" Sara started to pace around the tree and near automatically found a patch of green colored fuzz growing off the bark. "Well, there ya go." She stated to herself while gesturing to the fungus that was now providing her with direction. "Okay, so north is…" she paused while turning on her heel to face the direction that had been behind her. "...is that a way."
Now set with her sense of direction and hope of finding someone to help her, Sara started to walk through the forest heading in the direction of north. Okay, so eventually I'm gonna come out of this place and hopefully find a road. I'm just hoping that when I do find a road that there will at least be someone driving by I can flag down. At this point Sara jumped over a fallen log and then continued on with her walk still rambling off various things within her mind to herself to keep some sort of sanity to this difficult situation she had come to find herself in. However, as she walked on that odd creepy feeling of being watched came over her. It started with just that little paranoid feeling one gets when being out somewhere alone and this caused her to look about herself while still walking towards her intended destination. Seeing nothing at first she just shrugged it off and tried not to think about it seemed to be persisting even now.
The next feeling of being watched came over her as a small chill running up her spine that caused her to shiver involuntarily. This time stopping in her tracks Sara turned a full 360 and tried to see if she was in fact being watched. When nothing fell into her line of sight, this had her feeling overly paranoid now as she started walking again in an even faster pace than before to leave the forest behind. As the paranoia was continuing to grow Sara's pace was quickening and soon had her going at an all out run dodging various forest litter as she went. I have no idea what the hell is watching me or if there is something even there! But I am not gonna wait around to find out what it is! For almost an hour Sara continued to run, slowing her pace here and there only to pick it right back up again. Oh what the hell! When is this place going to end!
Before she even realized it, Sara had broken passed the forest line and was now coming to a slow halt as she now realized there were no longer any trees around her but a small grassy field. Coming to a complete stop, Sara looked back behind herself at the forest and then glared at it in a mocking tease before looking around to see if in fact there was a road nearby. And as luck would have it, there was. Not even ten feet from where she was the field ended and a black asphalt road butted up against it with a dirt shoulder. "Oh thank god." Sara exhaled dramatically while jogging over to the road and stopped on the shoulder to catch her breath some more. Bent over with her hands on her knees Sara took in a few deep breathes and then stood back up to her full height. "Okay, now should I just wait to see if someone comes by or should I start walking north again following the road?"
It seemed the best idea to continue on north rather than turn around and head south from the amount of area she had already covered from walking and then running through the forest. Then again, who's to say that she had been coming from the south in the first place before knowing her direction? Whatever the case it seemed more reasonable to go ahead and continue on in the same direction as she had been walking. Settled on that, Sara started down the road headed north walking along the soft shoulder. Boy, wouldn't that just be ironic if the first person that comes by and I flag down turns out to be some psychopath? Ah man, come on! I just left that forest so why does it feel like I'm still being watched? Ignoring the creepy feeling the best she could and making due with that fact that there was a very slim chance someone would come by as it now occurred to her that a road like this might be one of the less traveled ones, Sara just put her best foot forward and shoved on.
From what she could estimate, Sara had come maybe a mile before a green metal road sign finally appeared listing approaching cities and how many more miles until she reached them. A sense of renewed hope and vigor came upon her as she neared the sign and read it while she walked towards it. The sign held three cities listed – Reefside 10, Turtle Beach 15, Blue Bay Harbor 50. Sara stopped before the sign and just stared at it. Not one of these names sounded familiar to her at all. They weren't ones she recognized as Californian cities or towns and she lived in California for the past 18 years. "Okay, what the hell!" she spat aloud to herself while throwing her hands up in the air. "Where am I?" And with that kicked the sign post nearest to her, scuffing her white VANS with some of the brown wood residue. Seeing as there really wasn't any other choice open to her and that she at least knew there was a city just ten miles ahead of her now, Sara started walking again.
What else can go wrong today? I mean first I'm shot, then I wake up in the middle of a forest that isn't anywhere near the hospital, I don't have my cell phone on me, and now I find out that there isn't one town name I recognize as being in California. I mean seriously, what else is there to punish me with? While fuming over the apparent bad fortune she was facing Sara had been staring mostly at the road ahead of her, but something was now drawing her attention. To her ears and mind it almost sounded as though someone were calling her name. Raising an eyebrow at this and looking off to her right as it seemed that her name was being called from that direction, she still continued to walk. There was only another piece of forest and a small field leading to it alongside the road on her right and this creped her out. Hearing her name again, it sounded like it was being carried on a wind that wasn't there or she was just hearing it her mind.
Again her name was called for a third time and it finally had her stopping…again. Staring at the forest from where she stood and feeling utterly confused, Sara heard it one last time before making up her mind to try and find out where her name was being called from, and it seemed like it was coming from the forest that she had just left. However, the curious side of the teenager got the better of her added along with a strange sense of being pulled along. Entering this new section of forest Sara shook her head at her own stupidity. "You know how dumb this is? It has kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder written all over it in big bold letters. But do I follow smart thinking and stick to the road while ignoring the voice? Hell no, I'm the total idiot I'm always yelling at in movies and TV shows who traverses into the creepy woods……alone." She spoke to herself while coming to a stop about fifteen feet in over the border and looking around.
Her name was called again and took her off a bit to the left and drew towards an odd looking tree. At the center of the tree trunk at about shoulder height, Sara stared at a hole that looked like it was in the shape of a razor-toothed mouth. Something pulled at her being and suggested that she look inside as it spoke in the deepest part of her mind and forced its will upon her unconsciously. Following the new instinct that had developed Sara stuck her hand inside the hole without a second thought and started rummaging through the dead leaf litter inside. Her fingers skimmed across something hard and smooth while digging through the foliage. Clasping her hand about it Sara pulled out of the tree trunk and opened her hand to see what it was that she had found. Flicking aside the dead leaves that she had also picked up her brown eyes came to rest upon a green stone sitting at the center of her palm. "Cool, kryptonite. Super Man watch out." She joked while fingering the stone in a studying manner.
It was small, about the size of a rock found at the bottom of a river, but it wasn't as round and smooth like that. No it was more oval shaped and held what could only be described and smooth cut edges. Sort of like those scribing crystals on a chain that psychics use but larger and without the chain. After looking over for a moment Sara just shrugged and pocketed the stone for some unknown reason other than it looked cool. With her curiosity satisfied, Sara headed back out of the forest and returned to walking the road once more. Well, at least it's the mid afternoon and I don't have to worry about walking in the night. Sara thought to herself in an attempt to keep herself in a lighter mood as about an hour and a half passed by without a single car passing. With no signs of help coming or even the slightest hint that she was nearing this place called Reefside Sara was starting to wonder if in fact there was a city coming up at all.
Some twenty minutes later Sara found herself singing a rather annoying song to herself as she tried to keep occupied during this walk of hers. Even if it was annoying it had a catchy little tune to it.
"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,
Everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves!
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,
And this is how it goes!
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,
Everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves!
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,
And this is how it goes!"
This continued on for about another half hour until she had annoyed herself and switched over to singing Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams a few times over. About half way through the second time a car finally appeared on the road coming up from behind the teenager. Hearing the approach, Sara turned around and got ready to flag them down only to have the car speed by without even slowing down to see if she was alright. Completely pissed off now, Sara watched the car disappear and then growled under her breath. "You could've at least acknowledged me with a puddle spray!" she yelled angrily while stomping on towards her destination that seemed rather impossible in reaching now. Another hour and a half passed with no other cars coming by and now had Sara completely and utterly aggravated to the point that if someone did stop to help her she'd more than likely bite their head off after spitting acid at them. That was, until she saw a blue colored road sign coming up on the same side of the road as her reading – WELCOME TO REEFSIDE.
"FINALLY!"
