pull the trigger

12

"where're going?" troye asked with his eyebrows furrowed. "you probably shouldn't be moving too much, you know. you've lost a decent amount of blood."

"i'll be fine," jacob grumbled, climbing down the treehouse ladder. he didn't want to spend another minute with that annoying kid. if he did, he'd probably lose his mind.

"jacob! you're up! does that mean we can leave?" hari gasped. she and the rest were sitting on the grass in the shade the treehouse was providing. there were some blankets on the ground as if they'd slept there (which they had).

"i'm just going to go exploring for now, just to get an idea of how big these woods are before we leave," jacob sighed out, trudging farther away from the group.

he walked a few inches, taking every few moments to catch his breath. yes, losing that much blood was having an effect on him.

he kept walking, though, leaves crunching under his feet as he shoved his usable hand in his pocket as he continued trudging deeper into the woods.

it got darker the farther he'd walked, even though it was completely sunny out, the sun was blocked as the trees got thicker.

he was tempted to turn back at this point, being that he could barely see, when he heard a small giggle come from behind him.

he whipped around, groaning. troye, or one of his gang members, must've followed him.

"who's there?" jacob called out, squinting against the blackness.

"it's just me."

that was troye's voice.

jacob let out a sigh of relief. for some reason, he'd expected it to be a monster.

he felt someone grab his hand, troye, of course, and pull him out of the dark spot in the woods.

"c'mon, let's get back," troye said softly, and jacob couldn't still fully see him against the darkness. but damn, troye had cold hands.

troye continued to lead him into the light again, and jacob still hadn't taken a good look at him.

until they were back near troye's treehouse.

"how'd you know where i wa-" jacob started to say, but cut himself off in shock. he jerked his hand out of "troye's" as fast as he could, stumbling backwards slightly in fear.

this wasn't troye.

it looked similar, sure, with the skinny figure and the curly hair. it even had the same voice.

but no, this wasn't troye.

this thing had gray skin and black, soulless eyes. it was wearing all gray, from it's sweater to the pants. a large smirk spread across it's face as it sensed jacob's fear.

"what's the matter?" it said in troye's voice, tilting it's head slightly.

jacob was too shocked to say anything, he just started slowly inching his way to troye's house, as if he expected the thing to pounce on him.

now, jacob wasn't completely frightened at first, he wasn't one to scare easily. this just could've been troye playing a prank on him.

but when his back ran into something that was too soft to be a tree, he whipped around to see

himself.

only "he" looked exactly the way troye did, with the gray skin and black eyes.

"what's the matter, jacob?" his lookalike said sympathetically, and he took off running without looking back.

he listened to make sure there weren't footsteps following him, and there wasn't.

he didn't stop to catch his breath until he was in troye's treehouse.