Chapter 9 -Stepping Out Of The Shadows
The sunrise was exquisite this morning. My eyes closed as the suns rays hit my face, temporarily making me forget where I was -and all the horrible things that had happened. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. My throat was insanely dry, and my stomach growled.
There was a light breeze, which made my hair sway around my face. It had to be at least eighty degrees already, and it was only seven. Ricky had buried Adrian about an hour ago. We had been walking for a good thirty minutes, already. It didn't seem like we had made any sort of progress, there was no road in sight.
Derek, Jason, and Brandon were walking with us again. They were pretty quiet, the loudest one being Derek.
Derek wore dark blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a leather jacket, even though it was hot out. Jason was wearing jean shorts, a red t-shirt, and black sunglasses. While Brandon wore black swimming trunks, and a white tank.
They were all good looking; Derek being the one to catch my eye. He had dark brown hair, blue eyes, and had to be about six feet tall. He was kind of the bad boy out of the group.
Jason had dirty blond hair, brown eyes, and was the shortest out of the three men. He kind of reminded me of Ben. Jason seemed like a total sweetheart, from what I could tell. He is very polite and soft spoken.
Brandon had curly, dirty blond hair, green eyes, and was only about and inch or two shorter than Derek. He didn't talk much, he was very reserved. I had caught him checking out Amy a couple times, though. Ricky had caught him once and threw him a dirty look, while wrapping his arm around Amy possessively.
My thoughts wandered to Ben, tears threatening to fall. I couldn't help but think this was god's fault. If he would have been looking out for us, none of this would have happened. Ben and Adrian would still be alive, and we would all be enjoying our summer vacation.
I slowly opened my eyes, automatically shielding my eyes from the glaring sun. I turned so my back was to the sun, and looked back up to the sky. I shook my head, a stray tear falling down my cheek.
Why? Why us? Why Ben? Why Adrian? What had they done to deserve such a horrible fate? What did we do to make you so angry? Why were you doing this to us? If you were real you would help us. Protect us. If you were real we wouldn't even be in this situation. I thought you loved us? This isn't love. This is not how you show your children love. Help us. How can you just turn your back on us, when we need you? Did I do something wrong? If I did I'm sorry, very sorry. I didn't mean to make you angry. Just please help us. Dear lord, help us.
I always believed in God, but right now my faith was hanging in the balance. I mean if he was real, then why was he punishing us like this? Ben was a good person. He definitely didn't deserve to die the way he did. Adrian was also a good person, who had made her fair share of mistakes, sure. But, she didn't deserve to die, either. They where both so young, they had their whole lives ahead of them. And now, they were gone.
Plus, we still haven't made it out of these godforsaken woods. And from the looks of it, we wouldn't be out of here for a while.
I massaged my left shoulder-blade; which was now burning slightly. I let a small groan escape my lips as I pivoted my head from side to side, trying to loosen up my neck muscles. My eyes were wide open in anticipation but I was extremely tired. I didn't know how long I could keep going before I fainted from fatigue. I couldn't even remember the last time I slept.
My eyes gazed around me lazily, spotting Amy and Ricky two feet in front of me. Ricky's arm was wrapped around her shoulder, holding her close to his body. Amy's head leaned against his shoulder, as she dragged her feet, trying to keep up with him.
My own legs felt heavy as I, too, dragged myself along. Each step was harder than the last. Every muscle in my body was tense, but that was to be expected. Especially in this situation. I longed for a hot bath, or even a shower at this point. I'd take what I could get.
I thought about my loving, caring mother. My sometimes annoying, nagging but loving, father. My crazy brother, Tom. And my ex-boyfriend, Jack. I still cared for him deeply. I mean how could I not? I thought I was going to marry him at one point. Well, that is until I met Ben. But still, a part of my heart would always belong to him, and that same part of me would always love him.
I wondered what they where doing at this moment; probably still sleeping. I miss them all terribly.
My heart went out to Leo Boykewich, Ben's father. He had lost his wife and now his son, both who were brutally murdered. My heart also went out to Cindy Lee and Ruben Enriquez, Adrian's parents. Ruben had just been introduced into her life, he had missed her first sixteen years. And now he wasn't going to get the chance to try and have a relationship with her. And they would never have a proper goodbye with them. I mean of course they will get to say goodbye, but it won't be a proper one without their bodies. There was no way we'd be able to find Adrian's body again. And well, the remainder of Ben's body will probably be eaten by an animal or animals. That was the sad, but true reality.
I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat. I didn't need to be slowing everyone down by puking. If we kept walking we would eventually make it out of this hell on earth.
I kept walking in silence, trying to gather my thoughts. I really needed to pee, but I was to scared to leave the group. I tried to advert my attention to something else, anything else but the pressure in my bladder. I tried thinking of music lyrics, math problems, bible scriptures, lines in movies, everything. But, I could not get my mind off the building pressure on my bladder. I threw my head back and sighed before I coughed to get someones attention.
Ricky's turned his head around slightly and glanced at me. "Do you need something, Grace?" He asked curiously. I nodded my head vigorously.
"I really have to pee." I said, my face blushing with embarrassment. Ricky nodded his head quickly. Pointing to a spot beyond the tree's.
"Don't go to far, make sure we can hear you." Ricky replied, his eyes quickly looking through the tree's. Making sure the coast was clear.
"Um," I started, my cheeks flushing more. "Amy?" I asked quietly. She picked her head up at me and looked at me with tired eyes. "I don't want to go alone." I finished, hanging my head in shame. To my surprise she agreed and we walked to a secluded part of the woods, far enough so they couldn't see us, but close enough that they could hear us.
"Thanks, Amy." I replied kindly. She gave me a small, sheepish smile before turning around so her back was facing me. Giving me privacy.
I looked around, making sure no one could see me before I finally was able to empty my bladder. I wasn't too thrilled with having to use a leaf as a substitute to toilet paper, leaves weren't the most sanitary things in the world. I pulled my pants back up and wiped my hands on my jeans. "Alright, I'm done." I said, while blowing a piece of hair out of face.
We walked back to the group, I looked around and noticed someone was missing. Jason. "Where's Jason?" I asked, looking around thinking I may have looked over him.
"He's doing the same thing you were just doing." Brandon replied, leaning against the tree nearest to him. I nodded my head, breathing a sigh of relief.
We all pretty much stayed quiet for the next couple of minutes, while we waited for Jason to return. After about five minutes, Ricky looked down at his watch. His eyebrows furrowing.
"It's taking an awful long time for him to piss." Ricky said, worry clouding his voice. Derek shrugged his leather jacket off.
"I'll go check on him." Derek replied, taking off in the direction Jason had went.
Two minutes later Derek re-emerged out of the woods, his face contorted in worry. "I can't find him." He said, looking terrified. Ricky sighed, throwing his head back, rubbing his temples gently. "If something was wrong he would have yelled, right?" Derek asked, looking at Ricky and Brandon.
"Yeah," Brandon started, calmly. "You know Jason, he's probably just messing with us." He finished, his eyes roaming the area in-front of us.
There was a hint of doubt in Brandon's voice. I couldn't shake the feeling that he had fallen prey to the crazed lunatic stalking us.
After about a couple more minutes of waiting, Derek, Brandon and Ricky took off into the woods to look for him. Leaving me and Amy alone.
Amy sat down, putting her hands in her head. I stood still in shock as I looked behind her. A man stood behind her, wearing a red and black flannel jacket, an off-white, dirty, thermal underneath. His face was disfigured. His left eye had been sewed shut. He had a long, dirty grey beard. And long, dark, greasy hair; hair that reached down to his shoulders. He looked at me, tilted his head to the side and smiled at me. It was a cruel, ugly smile. He pointed his axe towards me and then turned around, walking back into the woods.
I wanted to scream and I opened my mouth to but nothing came out. My eyes were pretty much bulging out of my head. I closed my eyes, and all I could see was that cruel smile. I gulped as I snapped open my eyes. I knew he was in the woods, hidden by the tree's. I took a deep breath looking around as my heart pounded against my ribcage.
My eyes flickered across something silver. I focused my eyes on it, and noticed it was Derek's hunting knife. I don't know why it wasn't on him but I didn't care. I walked over to it quietly picking it up. I let my eyes fall over the tree's again, and I made a decision. One that would most likely send me to hell. But, at that moment I didn't care. Hell seemed like a better option than being here.
I walked over to the closest tree and sat down next to it. I looked at Amy and saw her head was still in her hands. I took a shaky breath as I turned over my hand, palm facing up. I put the knife close to the deep blue vein running through my arm, applying pressure as I slid it across my wrist. I gasped as I was overcome with pain, and nausea as blood started to pour out of the cut.
I put the knife into my injured hand and flipped my other hand, palm facing up. Put the bloody knife to my wrist, applying pressure and slicing into my wrist. I became numb to the pain as I watched the blood rapidly run out of the cut. I looked up to the sky with tears falling down my cheeks. "I'm sorry, Jesus." I whispered.
My heart took its last beats as the blood ran out my wrists. I kept my eyes open, still looking at the sky as I took my final breaths.
This chapter was incredibly hard to write! It came out longer than I imagined, too. I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, it really was extremely difficult for me to write. So i'm hoping I didn't disappoint!
So a lot of stuff went down in this chapter, Jason going missing, the killer revealing himself and Grace dying. Next Chapter will be back in Amy's Pov!
