The Last Pureblood Erde

17. Bitter turn (✔)

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I tried to take it out but my sweaty palms failed to grip it. I was a mess. With a sigh, I took it out gradually after deep breaths. Mom's face flashed on the screen. I slide the green button and pressed the phone to my ear. Half of me did not want to pick up. After almost a day, they were calling me back.

"Hey, Mum," I said.

"Hi, sweetheart. I hope I am not calling you too late," she said with doubt.

'Yes, you are. You're a day late and everything's wrong here.' "No, I wasn't anywhere near sleeping," I replied. How could I sleep when my friends were on a suicide mission?

"So, what have you seen till now"" she asked.

'Not much; only murders, hallucinations and poisonous river.'

"Err..." I battled between telling her the truth and lie. After few moments, I settled with the half-truth. "Not many things. Honestly, I did not go out today. I and Eric enjoyed the solitude and peace at home. There is a lake river here. It's unique in its own way." I looked out of the window.

"Hmm. How are those three doing?" She asked. Dad said something in the background and mum hushed him.

"They are all out," I blurted out before I could stop.

"Out? At night?" Her voice rose with alarm.

"No, no, no! I mean, they are out of the room. They are downstairs playing with Cash," I said a little too fast. It was difficult to lie to them. I rarely lied to them and most of the times, they caught me. I was filled with guilt until I remembered how they hadn't picked my calls the entire day.

"Are you sure?" I could imagine her standing with narrow eyes, her one hand holding the phone-if it wasn't on speaker, which I guessed it wasn't not as Dad did not interrupt - and the other hand on her hip.

"Yes. Why would I lie?" I said in a high-pitched voice.

She was going to say something when the line went dead. I checked my phone. What happened? Did I lose the connection? Maybe her phone's battery died.

I kept the phone back in my pocket. It stabbed me in the heart to lie to her but I had no choice. It would have driven her mad if I told her about the hallucination, my strange encounters and stepping out of the house at the night.

I checked the time on my wristwatch. It had been only five minutes since the three of them left yet my throat tightened as I imagined the worst possible scenarios. I got up and drank some water. It was of no use. It did not go past my throat. Slowly gulping it, I started pacing around the room.

"They're fine. They're all fine. Brody will bring them back," I told myself. Instead of calming me, it increased the panic. Brody had taken his phone but I wasn't sure if I should call him or not. I hoped they were on their way. I looked out of the window. In the dark, I could not make any figures out there. Why did I let them go in the first place? This seemed like a bad idea all of the sudden. I should have raised objection when Erin proposed the thought of coming here. Wallflower's Deck was a bad idea. Talking to Rodrigo was a bad idea. Helping Anacia was a bad idea. And telling about it to my friends was a bad idea. Maybe I should have told Mom after all. Maybe she had a solution.

I decided not to waste any more time and went down to Ms. Millers. I knocked on their door, my knuckles turning white. They did not reply. I turned the door knob. The room was unlocked. At the moment, I didn't give two shits if I was invading someone's privacy.

"Ms. Millers," I called out. The room was empty. "Mr. Millers" I went back in the living room and yelled loudly to see if they were somewhere else. They weren't at the house.

Where did they go now? Why did everyone disappear when I needed them the most?

Having no choice, I decided to find them myself. They were out there because of me. It was my fault, after all. When I went back to my room, something caught my eye. The can of Oeskas was lying on my bed. I remembered stuffing it in my pocket when Anacia gave it to me. For some reason, I took it. If those men were dangerously, like she had said and if it was their weakness, it was a smart move to take it with me. I hoped it wouldn't come into use. They should be safe.

I went down the stairs, hurrying through each step. The wood creaked loudly beneath my feet and I cared less. At the end of the stairs, Cash stood, waggling his tail. I had completely forgotten about it. I patted him on the head and tried to move past him. He didn't budge, not even an inch. I tried to make my way from the other side but he deliberately blocked my route. I sighed. I did not want to leave him alone but I did not have much choice. I wished he had stopped Erin in this manner.

"I'm sorry buddy," I whispered to him, "But I had to go, for those stupid fools who ventured out at night."

He growled in a very low tone but let me walk past him this time. The numbness was back in my body as my throat tightened. I wanted to scream; I had no idea why. A bundle of negative energy collected itself in the pit of my stomach. Something bad was going to happen; I knew that as I stood at the head of the forest. I checked the lock of the door twice to make sure it was tightly locked. Through the window, I saw Cash looking at me. He had disappointment all over his face. I gestured him to stay quiet and go back to sleep. Giving him one last smile, I left.

The forest appeared completely different at night than it was in the morning, earlier today. The forest that looked beautiful and spoke for its beauty in the morning, now seemed to be one of the most dreadful things. It reminded me of the day we came here. It sent chills down my spine as I thought of the shadow I saw among the bushes.

There was complete silence. Unlike the forest at Madesville Town, there was no voice at all; not even the cooing of the owls which was the most-common night animal one would find in the wild. All I could hear were my shallow, deep breaths, my thumping heartbeat and the undergrowth that was being crushed under my feet. It was nerve-wrecking.

I had been walking for two minutes and they were nowhere in sight. How can they go so deep in the forest in such a short time? I should have stopped Brody, at least. I was about to call their names when I heard something rustle. I realized then that I had heard it before when I was returning after meeting Anacia. I was too tense to notice it then. I looked around, trying to find the source. It grew louder as the seconds passed. I failed to find the direction of it. It was like a manipulative sound trying to control me, coming from all the directions. What was happening? The lump in my throat which had vanished for few minutes returned, and I unleashed it along with my scream. The rustling stopped. My breathing grew uneven. My eyes burnt with tears that threatened to spill. I gathered all my courage continued with my search. Where had they gone? I fished out my phone and tried to call them. It was useless calling Erin so I tried with Eric's phone.

"The number you are trying to call is unreac-" I cut the line.

What were they all doing? Neither Brody's nor Eric's phone could be reached. They went to bring Erin back and they themselves had not returned. In this enormous covering of trees, I did not know where to find them.

I felt that someone was watching me. I turned back but there was no one. The events reminded me of New Year's Eve. I just prayed that tonight nobody would die. Cautiously, I stepped forward to look behind the bushes. Somebody ran behind me. I turned around. There was no trace of anything. After a minute, I heard footsteps again. They were fast, as if somebody was sprinting. To avoid taking any risk, I took out the can of oeskas from my pocket and held it tight in my wrist. I steadily moved forward and tried to make as less noise as possible. I gulped after reaching the bushes. My hand was shaking as it went through them. There was nothing there. I tried to look over them and all of the sudden, out of nowhere birds flew.