Retreat into Darkness

chapter 5

Now I understand why us women love waking up to men in the morning.

I fumble with my pocket of my jacket and pull out my phone to check the time, "we- you slept for two hours." I quickly correct myself.

He nods to me and turns tears his eyes from mine to look out the window. I look around the bus again to see more students now waking up and looking out the windows. Curious, I look out the same window Landon is looking out of and notice all the trees were passing by. I grow slightly colder and feel the color drain from my face as I stare out the window. The forest looks never-ending. There looks to be no light seeping through the branches of the ginormous trees. It looks slightly peaceful, but deadly.
I continue to stare into the trees with wide eyes. As I'm about to turn away I see a faint golden light dance along with the trees. I snap my eyes back towards the window and squint my eyes while leaning forward to get a better view of the trees. I notice how the wind picks up along the trees and as my eyes dance along with the wind, I see something move along the trees. A small gasp escapes my mouth and Landon turns his head around back towards me. I look between his eyes and the trees trying to come up with a sentence but I feel as if I'm not able to speak. He sends me a confused glance and I shut my eyes shaking my head. I keep my eyes closed and that's when I hear a woman's voice whisper,
"Allaura."
I snap my eyes back open looking frantically along the bus. My breaths slowly become heavier as I bring my hands to cover my ears. I let out a shuddering breath and close my eyes repeating to myself it was just my imagination. I get deja vu as I feel a hand on my right shoulder. I jerk against the warmth of this hand and look to see Landon scanning over me with a confused glare. He removes his hand from my shoulder and opens his mouth to say something but quickly shuts it while still scanning my features.
"I'm going to the bathroom," I say breaking the awkward tension.
He nods once and pursues his lips shut and I get up and walk towards the back of the bus to see a small bathroom. I quickly step inside and lock it shut. There's a small mirror along the wall, I take the time to scan along my features. My cheeks and nose a tinted with a light shade of pink due to the cold, but I feel hot all over. I look along the bathroom and notice a small faucet. I turn the knob and splash my face with water. I shiver at the sudden cold water hitting my face but I continue to splash my face with the cold water. I take a moment to realize the bathroom is barely lit and is extremely small. I now suddenly feel like the air in the room is being sucked out. Everything is happening to fast, I have no time to think, all I feel is panicked. I quickly turn off the faucet and push open the door. Some heads snap towards me as the door slightly slams against the back of the bus. I send a sheepish smile towards them and they just shake their head and go back to conversing. I walk back to my seat and notice how Landon has his eyes closed and is in the same position he was in while sleeping. I drop down into my seat and let out a breath through my nose, thanking my body for calming down when I returned to my seat. I see Landon open one eye to acknowledge my return. I avoid his gaze as I start to play my music again and fearfully shut my eyes hoping I don't hear another whisper.

-

Another hour passes by. It was quick considering I was lost in my own thoughts, drowned in them.
I hear the tires of the bus reach gravel and come to a slow stop. This whole hour, Landon has been in and out of sleep. And I have been staring at my fingers, letting my thoughts fight against each other.
As I finally take my eyes off my fingers I see the two other busses in front of us, and in front of those busses, I see the beautiful cabins. This place overall looks gorgeous. It's still bright outside but it looks darker here. And the reason for that is because the huge trees are surrounding us. When Dominic said close, I wasn't expecting this.
The trees line up at the end of the gravel on both sides. When you look into the forest, all you see is darkness, no light can seep through the beaches of the trees.