Adirondack Defenders

Silvie's POV

"Nice choice Silvie, Tom Wahl's". I scoffed, "Yea, I know, I make great choices"

Jake stared, "You sure about that? What about yesterday?" My eyes widened, "We....we dont talk about yesterday".

"Coward"

My blood boiled, why does he offer to hang out if all he does is taunt me? "Oh great, is this what you brought me here to do? Call me weak again?"

"I never said that. But yeah you are"

I tried to avoid eye contact and stared up at the tv the size of a pug. "What's that about?" I pointed at the news. A waiter walked by, "Oh the mountain disappearances? Yeah, it's been the talk of the town for about a year." Mountain disappearances? The more being said on tv, the more interested I was.

"Hey, you still think I'm a coward?" My eyes were set on Jake, I smirked. "What if I hiked bald mountain and came back without a scratch?" Jacob laughed, "You, Silvie, lasting a whole night on a dangerous mountain?"

"Yep, but let's get to the other side of the deal, if I make it back, you try." He laughed, "You're on."

.........................................................................

It was morning and Jake drove me to the base of the mountain. He took his camera out and I flipped it off. He shouted out the window with a taunting voice, "Good luck!"

I started marching up with one heavy backpack, my heart was pounding but I wasn't going to let him see it.

As Jake faded away from view the more rough terrain went into view. I used to climb this mountain when I was little, it was much busier then...

I'm not used to being this alone. Since I'm the only one here, my thoughts are the only thing keeping me going. If I decided to take a break, I would either not be able to get up from a lack of sleep, or fall asleep. We were at that diner for the whole night and now a mountain hike?! What did I get myself into.

The trail felt neverending, I saw a rock to rest on, should I stay or should I go? That's a good song.... Nope I'm getting sidetracked again, on I go.

The sun started to set, I was only halfway up! Curse my slow, tired legs. Suddenly I heard a noise, I saw a flash of gray in the corner of my eye. "Hello?"

I stood with my pocket knife in my left hand, searching in every direction. After a couple minutes, nothing happened. "Oh"

I folded the pocket knife, put it in the huge pocket of my cargo pants, and continued my journey.

There wasn't anyone hiking, especially now that there's little daylight. More thoughts flooded my head, 'why am I here?' 'What's the point of this' 'Maybe I am a coward, too scared to say no to Jake'.

When I was starring off into space, my legs couldn't stop, or so I thought. A creature as tall as the boulder behind me growled. It was vicious, it had a tail with spikes looking like barbed wire. Its tusks were long and curved. Thankfully it didn't have any other scary features to it, it just looked like a panther besides that.

It lunged for its dinner, I jumped to the side as my heart was racing. The only thing I brought for self defense was a pocket knife because of Jake's stupid deal.

I ran for my life back down the mountain, I don't think uphill would cut it in this situation. My foot tripped on a rock hidden in the leaves and I tumbled down doing somersaults. When I got to the bottom my knee hit a large rock and formed a huge bruise.

The panther-like creature was still chasing after me while I struggled to stand. Great. This is how I'm going to die. At least it's not a boring way to go.

My last instinct before death was to throw the pocket knife, I closed my eyes and I heard a wailing noise. I did it, I hit the knife with so much force it stopped the creature's heart!

Wait....

"That should keep it busy... what the hell are you doing out here in the middle of the night? Have you seen the news?! There's even a sign at the base of the mountain telling you to stay there. Why are people like this." He went on and on, I don't even know who this guy is.

"Sir, thank you for saving me but I had it covered." He turned slowly with a look, "what." I corrected myself, "Ah, um. Sorry, and thank you I would've died."

He looked relieved, "Your knee is busted, with all this blood I can't tell who's is who's" He continued to talk, this guy never stops...

I tried to stand but my legs were shaking. The man noticed and quickly ran over, stopping his train of thought. My vision turned blurry and the last thing I saw was the man's worried expression as the world fell.