A Proscriptive Relationship

A Proscriptive Relationship: o9

I followed the three men for quite a while as they marched behind all the attractions. It was hard to keep up at times because of the cords on the ground that were masked by the darkness, causing me to stumble over them. When the three men in front of me stopped I stopped as well, hiding behind the edge of the Ferris wheel’s support frame.

Voices were carried back to me and I held my breath tightly, trying to distinguish what they were saying. I strained my ears, listening as hard as I could, but I still couldn’t make out a word. They started moving again, but this time into the woods.

For a second I debated whether or not I should go after them, but when I started to lose sight of them, I threw all caution to the wind and hurried to catch up to them. I matched my steps in time with theirs, so I could cover the sounds of crunching leaves I made with each footfall. There was this weird feeling in my stomach— just like the kind of nervous feeling I got before going on a terrifying ride.

We continued traversing through the forest for at least ten minutes. I began to grow uneasy and I kept looking all around me nervously. What if we ended up getting lost? Of if some animal came out of nowhere and attacked me? I swallowed, wanting to close the distance between the trio and myself, but knowing I couldn’t afford to do that. If I was caught… I didn’t want to think about what would happen. I had no idea who these people were.

The man with blonde hair looked over his shoulder and I froze, staring wide-eyed at him, holding my breath tightly. He made no sign of alarm, so I figured he hadn’t noticed me. He turned back to the front and shoved Mr. Heywood in front of him roughly. Then the same man put his head near the brunette’s head and I hazarded a guess he was saying something he didn’t want Mr. Heywood to hear.

The brunette nodded to the blonde and suddenly started going to the left, leaving Mr. Heywood alone with the blonde. The one leaving crashed through the forest, seemingly uncaring about the amount of noise he was making. My gaze stayed on him until he was out of sight. When he was, I returned my attention back to Mr. Heywood and the other guy, realizing they were almost out of sight. I hurried after them, going through the woods as fast as I could without tripping.

Mr. Heywood and the other man entered a large clearing, and I stopped at the edge of it, hiding behind a conveniently placed tree. Its’ trunk was big enough to cover me and it had Y-shaped branches, so if I stood on the tips of my toes I could just barely see through the small hole it made. My eyes widened when I realized there were now two other men in the clearing along with Mr. Heywood and the first. The other two men stood in rigid positions, as if ready to attack. One of the men was completely bald, and the other hand long, shaggy red hair.

The blonde one holding onto Mr. Heywood led him over to the other two, both of which were shooting daggers at Mr. Heywood. Mr. Heywood still looked calm however, his shoulders relaxed, a bored expression on his face. An idea suddenly hit me. Were these guys his old gang members? I took in a sharp inhale of breath. I thought he was joking when he said he was an ex-gangster! He had been telling the truth? He had seriously been in a gang?

“You can’t leave just like that!” the bald guy suddenly shouted, making me jump in fright.

I held my breath and shut my eyes, straining to hear everything that they were saying. Mr. Heywood’s voice was a lot quieter and harder to make out. Whatever he was saying was incoherent to me.

“The boss will be here soon, do you really want to deal with him?” the red head demanded, sounding amused.

I opened my eyes and stared in disbelief at him. The boss? Did that mean the gang leader? Were they going to attack Mr. Heywood in the woods? Is that why they brought him all the way out here?