It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 10

A stuffed animal.  She’d refused to give him one of her stuffed animals? My eyes snapped to the small crate in the corner of the room filled with her unused beanie babies and another stuffed things that she owned.  Maria hadn’t touched anything in the crate in years.  “You are probably—no definitely—the most spoiled girl in the planet!” I seethed.

I turned on my heel and ran out of the room before she could reply.

I sped-walked to the kitchen and checked the time on the small clock on the oven.  It was almost eight in the morning.  Where could he possibly go at almost eight in the morning?  “Aunt Jill!” I shouted, jogging to the living room area.  “Aunty!  Where’s Uncle Rick and Uncle Dorner?”

Aunt Jill sat on one of the couches, crying into her hands.  My mom sat beside her, hugging her tightly and whispering comforting things in her ear.  Aunt Jill looked up as I entered, her face tear-stained.  “They went out to look for Vincent,” she mumbled, her voice thick with tears.  “They told me to stay here, but—”

“Are they checking the woods?” I interjected.

“Vincent wouldn’t go in there,” Aunt Jill said immediately, shaking her head.  “He’s terrified of the woods.”

“If he’s crying would he really care where he was going?” I froze as the words escaped from my mouth.  What if he had seriously gone in the woods?  The woods weren’t huge, but they were big enough to get lost in.  And if Vincent had gone in there, we could be looking for hours.

Aunt Jill’s eyes widened in shock.  “Oh my—”

“I’ll go look for him,” I assured before Aunt Jill could think to ask someone else.  I gulped down my fear of the woods in the backyard and nodded.  “I’ll be back!”

I spun, pelting it toward the front door.

“Brianne, wait!”

I didn’t stop.

“You shouldn’t go in there alone!”

Even then I didn’t stop.

I threw open the front door and hurried down the front stairs, taking them to steps at a time.  I skidded in the mud as I veered onto the lawn.  Had it rained last night?  From the damp grass getting my pants wet, I was guessing so.

“Vincent!” I hollered, dodging the toy trucks Peter and Gracie had been playing with yesterday.  The lawn was littered with different toys that no one had bothered to clean up.  Trucks, bouncy balls, action figures, shovels and pails.  I hopped over a toy ball before shouting out his name again.  “Vincent!”

I tripped over a water gun, cursing as I fell into the grass.  Pain shot up my arm.  I shook it off, scrambling up and running faster toward my destination that was growing ever-closer.

“Vincent!”

The edge of the woods had an ominous aura.  I paused—barely—before hurrying into the woods, shaking off my fear.  Finding Vincent was more important than my stupid fear of forest animals.  It was . . . yeah.  It was.

I pushed branches away from my face as I ran.  I probably shouldn’t have been running while frantically searching, but I was too scared to stop.  If I stopped, I would be more likely to hear leaves crunching and branches snapping.

I whirled around, thinking I heard something.

Great, Brianne.  Nice work.  Get yourself all worked up over a squirrel. 

There was something wrong with me.  There really was.

“Vincent!” I called out, my hands going to the sides of my mouth.  Wasn’t that supposed to make your voice bigger or whatever?  Like a megaphone?  Or was it actually muffling it?  My eyes narrowed as I thought it over.  After a moment I let my hands drop, deciding to chance just having my voice alone to rely on.