A figure shrouded in darkness leaned up against a tree, hands shoved in his coat pockets, and hood draped securely over his head. A soft laughter emanated throughout the forest, causing a wave of goose bumps to crawl across the boy's skin. His head snapped up, started by the sudden noise.
"Is…someone there?" He hesitantly asked the empty air. Not long after and the emptiness was filled once again with that eerie, almost child-like laughter.
"Hello?" The boy asked, pushing himself from the tree. Dull grey eyes became slits as they scanned the woods before them. Nothing could be seen but the dark silhouettes of many mangled trees. The laughter came again, ripping through the dark. At first it was a low, slow almost moan that gradually built up to a high pitched, ear shattering laughter that left an uncanny echo trailing behind it.
"Who…who's there!" The boy demanded, a fear like no other starting in the pit of his stomach. Despite the fear slowly creeping up his arms, and the sweat collecting in tiny dew drops on his forehead, the boy remained his composure. He stood tall among the tangled mess of trees with his shoulders upright, eyes attentive and lips pressed into a thin, hard line. His stance was fearless, but the sporadic beat of his heart begged to differ.
"Elliot, if this is another one of your sick jokes, it's not funny!" He yelled, his voice as strong and steady as his unwavering stance. Only the soft rustle and crunch of leaves could be heard in response.
"Come one man, quit messing with me!" He called out, hoping to get some kind of response, the familiar voice of his older brother preferably. Instead, out of the corner of his eye he spotted something white dart across the woods, then disappear out of site. It was far too quick to be his brother, too quick to follow.
"What the hell?" The boy hissed under his breath. Behind him at a short distance appeared a figure, who just as quickly ducked behind a tree. The ghastly laugh came again, enveloping the boy with it's icy fingers. The sound was so close, but it was everywhere, coming from not one direction, but every.
The boy sheilded his ears from the overwhelming sound and spun around, bewildered eyes desperatly searching for the source of the laughter.
Then it happened.
From behind him a twig snapped under pressure. The boy cautiosly turned, his ears ringing and heart pounding in his chest. His breath caught in his throat and all rational thinking left him when he came face to face with a young girl. His throat became dry, his palms moist with sweat,and his heart nearly stopped as his world slowly turned upside down as he starred at this girl.
Widened, fearful grey eyes took in the child's long, stark white gown which hugged at her milky white skin and flowed elegantly to the ground. He also took in her mouse brown hair and watched as it danced in the soft wind. His eyes slowly grew wider, his expression even more bewildered and un-believing as his eyes found her thin, pale pink lips, petite nose and finally her soft green eyes which seemed to almost glow. He looked her up and down a few times, drinking in her child-ish innocense.
The child starred with unflinching eyes which seemed to hold a world of pain. The boy's lips moved numbly but no sound followed; he was incapable of words. The girl smiled tenderly, then turned and began walking away without a word. The boy stood stock still, paralyzed with shock. After a moment, he blinked and the paralysis seemed to melt away.
"... who are you?" The boy asked in almost a whisper, not quite believing what he'd just seen. He couldn't understand the overwhelming feeling that washed over him. Why did she look so much like him? Who was this girl?
The boy looked up to find that the girl was now feet away from him.
"Wait!" He called after her, but the girl didn't seem to hear him and she continued to walk away.
"Where are you going?" He tried to ask but again he got no answer.
"Come back!" He yelled, and began began to run after her. In a matter of minutes he was sprinting to try and catch up with her, but some how she managed to stay one step ahead of him. As he followed her he tried again and again to get her attention, but each time he recieved silence in reply.
Before he knew it the girl stopped dead in her tracks, and he nearly ran into her when he skidded to a stop. Panting, the boy looked about himself only to find that he was no longer in the woods. Everywhere around him was grass' black, charred, dead grass.
"Where are...?" He started to ask but stopped short when out of the corner of his eye he spotted a building engulfed in red hot flames. Smoke as black as night rose from the house and spread it's lethal tenticles across the sky.
"What ... is this?" He asked but when he turned around the gril was nowhere in sight.
"Where did you go?" He asked aloud. The girl did not reply but deafening screams filled in for her. The boy's head snapped toward the house as the fear filled screams peirced his ears. A roller coaster of emotions washed through him as he cautiously stepped toward the house, not entirely sure of what to do.
Should he get help? Should he try and help himself, risk his life for people he doesn't even know?
"Help!" The shrill cry of a young girl ripped through the air and tugged at his heart strings. Without a second thought he tore down the hill that seperated him from the house, but stopped when he spotted a group of silhouetted figures gathered around the house.
Where they trying to help? Could they be the one's that got out? Wait a second... were they laughing?
His eyes grew wide as he stepped closer and began to realize what was happening. The shadowed figures surrounding the building were the cause of the fire. Woops and hollars filled the air as the unknown figures rushed around the house, dumbing whole containers of gasoline onto the house.
Wait! Look there!
On the far side of the building someone was trying to climb out of a window. The boy's heart filled with hope, then quickly lost it when gun fire ripped through the air and the person collapsed to the ground in a bloody heap. He gasped in shock and a new kind of fear enveloped him.
"Please help me!" The helpless plea of a young girl could be heard over the roaring fire. His heart clenched and he found himself running toward the building. Just as he was about to kick down the door a shout from his right stopped him. He spun on his heel to find a man that looked to be in his twenties with mangled dark brown hair, tossing an empty jug of gasoline into the burning inferno. His heart stopped as he starred at the man, sure that he would kill him... only the man didn't seem to see him.
"Make sure none of them escape!" He bellowed, then jogged right past the boy to the other side of the house. The boy let out a long breath as the man past, then went for the door again. The door crumbled under the force of the kick and fell to peices. Wasting no time, he rushed into the house, dodging debris and searching frantically for the little girl, but the smoke was already thick and it was becoming increasingly hard for the boy to see, let alone breathe.
"Where are you?" He called out, his eyes shifting from their dull grey color to the feirce yellow eyes of the hunter in an attempt to see through the thickening smoke. The screams of an unpset baby caught his attention, followed shortly after the determined voice of the young girl.
"Delvin! Don't worry, I'm coming! I'm gonna get us out of here baby brother!" Her voice eminated from down the hall. The boy followed the voice down the hall and repeatedly called out for the girl, and that's when it caught his attention. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the cradle that held the screaming infant, and the little girl fighting her way toward it.
She was no less than two or three feet away from the cradle when a loud defeaning crack echoed through house, and seemed to shake it's walls. The boy watched as a bullet propelled through the air at speeds no human could follow. The bullet seemed to move in slow motion, and the boy tried to lunge toward the girl, to shove her out of the way or even take the bullet for her, but he found that he couldn't move. He tried to shout, to scream to do anything, but to no avail. He was forced to stand and helplessly watch as the bullet ripped through her back and erupt from her chest.
The girl stood open mouthed, gaging on her own blood, in shock of what had just happened. Smoke started to rise from the bullet hole and the skin around it began to sizzle with black smoke. Her mind had finally caught up with her body and a strangled scream burst from her lungs and her body began to fall to the ground, but before it even touched it's surface it had been reduced to ash.
In horror the boy realized he had collapsed to the ground. The smoke had taken it's wiry arms, reached out and snatched the boy by the throat. He fought the smoke, but it was far too strong, and he far too weak, and it had forced him flat to the ground. With tears standing in his eyes and a scream caught in his throat he watched as a large man holding a smoking gun stepped toward the cradle.
A large hand reached into the cradle and yanked the screaming baby out, ready to snap it's neck. The blanket it was wrapped in fell away from it's head to reveal silvery-white hair and sad grey eyes.
A shock ran up the boy's spine as he laid eyes on the infant, instantly making a connection.
The hand latched around the baby's neck released itself, and the owner of the hands; a large bulky figure carried the screaming child out of the house.
"No!" The boy on the ground tried to scream but it came out as more of a hoarse croak. He tried to move but still he could not. Soon the fire began to over take the whole house, and no sooner was the boy enguled in firey hot pain. His world soon became dark and all coherence was gone, with the exception of a constant pressure on his shoulder.
Moments later the boy's eyes snapped open and he found himself lying on his side on the forest floor, with the little girl hovering over him protectivly, her small hand placed firmly on his shoulder.
"Why?" The boy's voice came out as more of a whisper. He looked up at the girl and waited for an answer but she only shook her head and looked to the ground. Abruptly the boy snatched the girl's tiny hand off his shoulder and shoved it away.
"Why are you showing this to me? I already know what they did, so what's the point!" He shouted, his voice laced with anger. He stood up, and knocked the little girl over by accident when he did, and she fell to the ground.
"Why are you doing this? Why make me relive this? You don't understand how guilty I already feel! They killed you because of me, I understand this! and I'm sorry!If I could go back and fix this I would, but I can't! I'm sorry." He yelled angrily. He sighed heavily digging his nails into his scalp, fighting the lump in his throat, then he turned around.
The little girl starred up at the boy with sad green eyes, and a tear stained face. She shook her head and the next thing the boy knew she had dissapeared.
"Wait!" He tried to call out, but she could no longer hear him. Without warning the boy collapsed to his hands and knees and dug his nails into the soft dirt underneath him. A sad, low howl ripped from the boy's chest before he burst into tears. The silent tears racked his body violently as he beat the ground with his fist to let out all of the anger, sadness and frustration he had been holding in for a long time. Soon the tears had died down and the boy was left breathing heavily
After letting out what he had bottled up inside he had managed to calm himself down enough and was able to stand. He pulled his hood over his head once more and began his trudge back to his new apartment in Beacon Hills.