Restless

Back Home

We were almost home when the sun had finally set. We all walked through the darkness with a single flashlight to guide us.

"Hey, we need to get more flashlights, next time we're out. Some batteries, too." Zach said from behind me. They tried to stay close to me because I was the only one with a flashlight. I held the flashlight in my right hand and the pack of toilet paper under my left arm. It was mostly quiet, besides the peaceful songs of distant crickets and frogs. I could hear every step we took. I really didn't like the dark. My cousin, Ty, told me that I had Nictophobia. The fear of things in the dark. I never could get used to the dark but, I tried not to show it in front of people.

"Zach, do you have something in your backpack?" Ben asked from the back of the group. I stopped and turned towards where they were standing. I shined the light at Zach and looked at his bag.

"No, I didn't have to carry anything because I won the race." He said.

"I've been hearing a bunch of shuffling coming from your bag when you walk." Ben said, poking at Zach's bag. Zach turned his back away from Ben.

"Can we get going? I'm tired and hungry." Zach said pushing past me. I agreed and we kept walking. Then I heard something. I stopped without warning and Ben ran into me.

"What?" Zach asked looking at me.

"I thought... Nevermind." I stopped myself. We took a few more steps and I heard the noise again. It sounded like something walking through dry leaves. I held out my arm that was holding the flashlight to stop my friends. They started to protest but I shushed them. We listened for a moment and the noise continued. I slowly set the package of toilet paper on the ground next to my feet and stood back up. Then reached into my back pocket and grasped my revolver. I could feel the thread design on the grip. I pulled it out and took it off safety. I moved the light around us, searching for any threat in the area. The sound stopped and we stood in silence. Waiting for the noise to start again. Then a person jumped out in front of me. I jumped back and collided with Zach. We fell to the ground and the flashlight hit the road, hard. The impact broke the front of it and I aimed my gun if front of us. Then a voice called out.

"Hold your fire, it's them." A girl's voice said aloud. I didn't lower my gun until a light clicked on and blinded our vision. I squinted to look past the light to find three more of my friends. Emilie, Tim, and Parker stood side by side, in front of us. Tim and Parker were aiming assault rifles at us.

"Where have you guys been? I told you to be home before sundown." Emilie said helping me up.

"You gave us a time to be back? You didn't tell me." Ben said standing up. I didn't remember anyone telling me a time either.

"I told Zach to tell you guys. That's probably why you don't know." Emilie said looking over at Zach. He just smiled and shrugged. I walked over to Parker and patted his shoulder.

"You guys really scared us. I almost put a bullet in your chest. I thought you were going to shoot me." I said, feeling a lot better.

"I almost did shoot you. We should get back home. We don't want to get caught out in the open like this." He replied. We all continued to head back home. We were quiet again as we walked in a single file line behind Emilie. Emilie was a girl you didn't want to get in a fight with. She had long blonde hair, that she usually kept up in a ponytail. She was several inches shorter than me and had beautiful blue eyes. She was better with a blade than anyone I had ever seen. She had once taken an entire enemy squad out, single handedly. She was a natural born assassin. You could get lost in her beauty as fast as she could stick her knife through your chest. I put my revolver back in my pocket and started to mess with the wrapping on the pack of toilet paper.