Chapter Four
"What?!" Chloe and Alisa exclaim at the same time. They already knew the story.
5 years ago, when I was 12, I went to London with my friend Laura for summer vacation. While we were there, I met this guy named David in a coffee shop. He was 16 at the time. He was friendly and nice, and became friends. But for some reason, David thought we were in a 'relationship'. He wouldn't stop texting and calling me, and he even found out where Laura and I were staying. He had this delusion that we were madly in love, but Laura was keeping us from being together. One night, David snapped. He came to our hotel and kidnapped Laura. We called the police, but they couldn't find David or Laura.
Finally, after a few weeks, David came back for me, but I refused him. The police came before David could do anything, and he was arrested. He refused to tell anyone where Laura was, though, and after months of searching, the police gave up.
But David should be in prison. He was given a life sentence. How did he get out without anyone notifying us?
"Then how is David here?" Chloe asks. I shrug.
"I don't know. He must've escaped prison or something, I don't know. Ugh, why did this have to happen to me? I wish I had never gone to London…"
"Well, we can't change the past now." Alisa says.
"Let's find some shelter so we can hide from David when he wakes up." Chloe and I nod. We slow down a little so we can look around for shelter. I look for a cave, an old house, anything, but I don't see anything. As the minutes tick down, I get more and more tired. It is like 3 in the morning, after all.
Suddenly, Alisa slips on a rock and falls. Chloe and I rush over to her to make sure she's alright.
"Are you alright?" I ask. Alisa groans in response.
"Juliette, Alisa's leg is bleeding pretty heavily." Chloe says urgently.
"We need to find shelter now."
"But where?" I ask. We both look around frantically for somewhere to go. I notice a small opening in the trunk of a nearby tree and walk towards it. I brush the leaves and grass aside to reveal a small cave.
"Chloe look over here!" I say.
"It's a cave! We should all be able to fit in here!"
"Oh, thank God! Alisa, can you walk?"
"I should be able to walk with a little bit of support." Chloe and I half walk half drag Alisa to the hole and ease her in slowly.
"Alisa, will we all fit?" I ask into the darkness.
"It's a little small, but we it'll work for now." She calls after a few seconds of silence. Chloe and I pile in the cave and I cover the entrance with leaves and such. Chloe starts to rip her shirt sleeve off and wrap it around Alisa's leg.
"It's all we can do for now," Chloe says, "but this is better than nothing." I suddenly remember I have my phone in my pocket. I take it out of my pocket and turn it on.
"No signal." I groan.
"Mine too."
"Same here."
"Then I guess we'll just have to wait." And we did.
We all slowly start to drift off to sleep. You really can't blame us, seeing as we were just running away from a crazy maniac at 3 in the as I'm falling asleep, I hear Alisa mumble something.
"I love you guys. You are the best friends I could've ever asked for. I'm glad you were in my life." I didn't think much of what she said then. Now I wish I had.
I wake up and check my phone for the time. 3:50 AM. I grumble and shake Chloe.
"Chloe, wake up." Once I see her eyes fluttering, I turn my attention to Alisa. She looked worse than she did when I fell asleep. Her face was deathly pale and her leg was covered in blood. And her eyes, her eyes are wide open. I crawl over to her and shake her, trying to wake her up.
"Alisa." I mumble.
"Alisa, wake up." No response.
Now I was starting to get nervous. Alisa is usually a really light sleeper, she should've woken up by now.
"Alisa, wake up, please." I say, suddenly alarmed. I check for her pulse, but I can't find it.
"Alisa, wake up! Alisa!" I say, practically screaming now. I put my head to her chest. She's not breathing.
"No, Alisa! You can't be dead! You can't!" I scream, pounding my fists on the ground.
"Alisa, please. Please don't be dead!" I say, still refusing to look up.
"Alisa?" I whisper, finally looking up into Alisa's dull, bloodshot eyes. And that's when I knew. Alisa's dead.
By now, Chloe's fully awake.
"Is Alisa ok?" I look from Alisa to Chloe and shake my head.
"No, Alisa's not ok. She's dead." I say, holding back sobs.
"What?" Chloe asks in disbelief. Then she looks at Alisa's eyes and she realizes what has happened.
"Oh no." She says just above a whisper.
"Oh no, indeed." A voice says from the entrance. I whip my head around and see David smiling at us triumphantly.
"Hello, Love." David grabs Chloe's arm and drags her out, Chloe screaming her head off. I hear Chloe screaming outside for a few seconds, and then there is silence. David pops back in and pulls me out of the hole. Once he has me out of the cave, I notice Chloe's limp body on the ground. I immediately run over to her.
"What did you do to hear?!" I scream at David.
"Relax, love, it's just chloroform. She'll wake up in a few ours. Now let's go." He puts Chloe over his shoulder and starts to walk away.
"Wait!" I scream. David turns around and raises his eyebrow.
"Wait! Please! My other friend is still in there. She's….. she's…."
"Dead?" David asks. I nod my head silently.
"Hm. Maybe I should burn the body…"
"No!" I yell, walking up to David.
"Please, let me have closure. Let me say goodbye."
"Why would I do that?" David asks.
"Please. I'll do anything, just let me say goodbye."
"Anything?" David asks wickedly, his eyes glinting with mischief. I gulp.
"Anything." David sets Chloe down on the ground and sets his eyes on me.
"You have to swear you will never try to escape. Ever. You can't even talk about it. One sign of rebellion, and I might just take my anger out on your little friend…" His eyes glance at Chloe and then back at me.
I hesitate. If I agree, I'll be selling my freedom to a delusional creep. But if I don't, I'll never have closure. I'll never get to say goodbye. I need this. I need to have at least a little closure.
I swallow my fear and say, "Deal."
"Now swear on it…" David says expectantly.
"I swear I will never try to escape for as long as I live."
"Marvelous!" David exclaims, clapping his hands.
"Now, hurry along! We wouldn't want to be out and about when the sun comes up, now would we?" I walk back to the tree and crawl into the cave. I crawl to Alisa's lifeless body and bow my head.
"I'll miss you, Alisa. I'll miss you so much. I miss you already. I don't know how I'm going to live without you." I wipe my tears and continue.
"I will avenge you. I don't care if it takes five days or five years, I will do it. I will never forget you, Alisa Carolina Buttermaker. Never." I close Alisa's eyes gently and crawl out of the cave. I walk away from the tree as David crosses me.
"You done?" I nod my head sadly. I stand back and watch as David silently takes out his lighter and lights the tree on fire. We stare as the fire slowly climbs up the tree, consuming every branch in its path. Soon, the entire tree is on fire. I watch as the tree and Alisa's body burn up into ashes.
"Well that was fun." David says cheerfully.
"Now let's get going." I turn around confused.
"Shouldn't we stop the fire before it spreads?" I ask and David shrugs.
"Nah, Someone else will take care of it. Now let's go." He puts Chloe over his shoulder and looks at me.
"I can walk."
"Good. Stay in front of me at all times, and don't wander off. Oh, and welcome to the rest of your life, Love." I shed a single tear when David says that, because it's true.
I walk in front of David, just as he said to do, and listen to the sound of our footsteps and the fire behind us. We walk into the never ending darkness and don't look back.
