Kill Me Sweetly

Chapter 23

            A half hour later I was looking at some pine trees considering taking my sketchbook out of my backpack when there was a twig snap a few yards into the woods off of the path. Pausing, I took a small step forward and saw a black shadow dart behind a tree. I glanced back over my shoulder at the group and saw that no one was watching me; making a quick decision I walked deeper into the woods looking around for the shadow. I mean maybe if I bring back a runaway student to Ms. Robin she’ll let me out of that room tonight.

            Fifteen yards in I called, “If anyone is out here they better get back to the group before Ms. Robin finds out and has both of our heads, and if I have to drag you back to the group myself two of us are going to be very unhappy.”  There was a creak ahead of me; common sense told me that this probably wasn’t someone from our group, but if there was a strange guy wandering the forest while my friends were in here, that is so not going to go over well with me.

            The sounds of a person running sounded as they started getting further and further away; well I didn’t have any weapons on me at the moment but I’m pretty good without them. With one last glance over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t being followed I started silently chasing the figure deeper into the woods. Leaves were whacking me in the face and arms but I paid them no heed as I followed the footsteps.

            I finally came to a stop at the edge of a creek that gurgled along over rocks happily. The quietness literally was pressing in around me as I scanned the area surrounding myself. I was just letting the tension leave my shoulders when there was a small step from behind me; without a second thought I whirled around about to throw a punch when I saw I recognized the face.

            Dropping my arm to my side I snarled, “Why the hell are you out here?” The new boy from about two weeks ago stared back at me; he was actually full out glaring at me.

            He crossed his arms over his chest and stated, “Well I could ask you the exact same question here huh Josey?” Okay, so he knew my name, and obviously didn’t trust me for some reason, this doesn’t seem suspicious in my mind at all.

            I mirrored his stance and the two of us stood there glaring at each other when I finally remembered that his name was Jason; Sam mentioned it a few days ago. This information didn’t really help me at all but I felt a little better that I knew something about Mr. Dark and Mysterious. Because he was literally dressed in a black shirt, jeans, and shoes with black hair; it was like he was going for some Goth look but was defiantly not Goth.

            There was a quick flash right behind Jason and I launched myself against him pushing him to the ground right when a knife flew over us. Even if he hated me and didn’t trust me for some reason I couldn’t just let him die. He gave a surprised shout and I pulled him away from the spot and behind a tree right when another knife pierced the ground where we just were. “What the hell is going on,” he whispered as we peered around the tree looking for the person who was trying to kill us.

            “I don’t understand why you expect me to know why I nearly just died to save your freaking life,” I hissed at him staring at the far trees. He muttered angrily under his breath right when a knife came flying at our tree and grazed the trunk right next to my fingers. I gave a startled yelp picking up the knife at my shoe, it was just any old knife, and no poison that I could see, the edge was super sharp though, so somebody was really trying to hurt us.

            While I was examining the knife I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me from Jason; glancing up I quickly pushed us back as no less than ten knives came flying at my face. “Shit, someone is dead set on scarring my precious face,” I muttered pushing Jason deeper in the woods; we both started running when there was a snapping sound right behind us.