tw: slight mentions of blood/injury
Cody's pov
I really don't know what I was thinking. Or maybe I wasn't thinking. All that I know is that I'm lost, running through this forest, alone...
Let's go back a little bit, before I ended up here. Now, from what I remember...
One moment, I was alone. Curled up in the corner, crying, all alone. The next moment, someone was next to me. They put their arm around me, and I kind of jumped, like a little movement, as I was surprised. Almost at once I realized that it must be Noah, and I felt stupid because he is the only person it could have been.
I placed my head on his shoulder, tears still streaming down my face. He was warm, and while I was too, the mistake I had made in putting that hoodie on, it still felt nice to have him there, by my side.
Soon enough, I had calmed down, or at least I had seemed to have, and we sat there in silence.
Then I think I heard some kind of knock on the door, which caused Noah to get up and walk over to the door, so I had returned back to my previous position of being curled up in the corner.
I may have heard some faint voices, but I wasn't paying much attention. I just really wanted to get out of there, it felt as if the walls were closing in on me, and...
One thing I remember is when Noah was standing by the door, listening, and then he randomly looked at me, and for that time we held eye contact, which was probably the best, and only good part about that time spent in the room. This only lasted for a second or two, until he turned back to the door and said something. I had assumed he was talking to someone on the other side of the room, so I didn't say anything.
Then there was some louder voice, probably shouting something. It wasn't loud enough for me to make out what it was, but it was loud enough to make me jump again.
For some reason, not that I'm surprised though, I was really jumpy and shaky. I guess that's just what being locked in a room one too many times does to you.
It's not like I haven't been in this situation before, and no, I don't mean the time at the sleepover, when me and Noah were locked in a closet. There have been multiple occasions where I'd been locked away somewhere, thought usually alone, and... I guess now's not a great time for that story.
Without any thoughts running through my head, or, well, with too many thoughts running through my head to be able to focus on anything in particular, I had found myself standing up. I'm kind of unsteady when I rise, but I'm almost perfectly fine with walking when I do.
I made my way over to Noah, and as soon as I had approached him, I hugged him, wrapping my arms around him tightly. He obviously must not have been expecting me to do that, but he had hugged me back anyways. I placed my head on his shoulder as we hugged.
A little while later, while we were still standing there, hugging, there was the same creaking noise as earlier on in the day, when me and Noah were first locked in the room.
A bit more light entered the room, and I could see someone pushing open the door.
"Hello? Are you two alright?" said Izzy, who was stood in the doorway.
That's when it hit me: she was the one who was up to this. She's the one who locked us in the room.
I lifted my head from Noah's shoulder and he loosened the grip he had on me, and so did I, stepping to the side as Noah turns around.
Then she had started to go on about being sorry and how it was 'all her fault', but I didn't get much of it. By that time, I was being overwhelmed by the fact that I had been locked in a room again, trying to understand why she had done it, and now also I was trying to listen to her apologize.
All of it was getting to me, and before I knew what I was doing, I sprinted out of the room, crying.
I may have heard someone say something, but that was at some point between me leaving the room and slamming the front door behind me.
From that point onwards, all I know was that I was running away from that house. I hadn't realized how dark it would have been outside, but it had seemed like the sun had only just fully set, as the moon wasn't very visible as of yet.
And then I ran. I couldn't have given two shits if anyone had seen me, I just ran.
The next thing I knew was that I had made my way to some forest where the trees were tall, and that's all I know, until now, that is.
Now I truly am alone. Running through the woods, alone.
I can hear my heartbeat, loud and fast when I suddenly stop and, with a jerking movement, I trip over. My arm is held up, caught by something, and with watery eyes, I try to see what has happened.
I go to rub my eyes clear with my other hand, causing me to wobble a bit. I also get a bit of dirt in my eyes from rubbing them with my hand, which as I now realize had been shoved into the muddy floor, which is covered also by twigs and leaves.
Then I can finally see a bit clearer, and I see that the sleeve of my hoodie is caught on a low-lying branch. I try to pull on it, but it's no use. I end up taking the hoodie off, scratching my arm in the process.
When I finally get the hoodie off, I realize that there is a much bigger scratch on the same arm, which I assume must be from when my hoodie had first gotten caught on the branch.
I can also see that my jeans now have holes in them, and the skin part of my knees have patches of red across them, and they suddenly ache.
And then when I get up again, I am unsteady, and I feel as though my knees may buckle underneath me, causing me to fall once again, but I keep on running.
I don't get very far before I fall again, and in doing this I hit my head on a rock. Not hard enough for me to pass out, but it still hurts.
I decide that I must stay where I am and rest. Everything hurts, and I've underestimated the temperature of tonight's air, as it is freezing cold, and I'm shivering.
All of a sudden, I can feel something vibrating in my pocket. In fact, I think it may have been going for a while now. I reach into my pocket with a shaky hand and I pull out my phone, which is now buzzing in my hand.
I read the caller ID and it says that it's Noah. This fills me with relief. I press the button to accept the call and hold my phone up to my ear to be able to hear anything on the other end of the call.
"Hello? Cody?" he says, and upon hearing his voice, I almost start to cry again.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." I say back quietly.
"Cody? Where are you?" he asks.
"I- I don't know..." I respond, only just now realizing that I am lost.
"What do you mean you don't know?" he asks, sounding panicked.
"I don't know where I am," I say.
"What's surrounding you? Anything significant?"
"I don't know, trees, I think? Really tall ones..." I'm honestly scared now. What's gonna happen? Will I be alright? Am I going to die?
"Which way did you go when you went out of the front door?" he asks.
"Left," I reply.
"Okay stay where you are. We're coming to get you, don't worry," he says.
Something from this sentence confuses me.
"Who's we?–" I start, but I'm cut off by the realization that there's no longer any sound coming from the other end.
I pull the phone away from my ear and, as it turns out, my phone is now dead. This increases how worried I am, and now I'm shaking even more.
small time skip
It's now been about ten minutes, and I'm still alone. I'm regretting everything and there's nothing I can do about it but sit here and wait, wait until I die. Like, what was I thinking? And when Noah called me, really tall trees? Am I really that dumb?
Now I am waiting for someone to come and take me away. And that would be better than staying here. I'd rather be kidnapped, tortured, anything like that, anythings better than this.
This is probably where I am going to die. I don't wanna die.
I look around.
It all looks weird, my vision is blurry.
I pull my knees to my chest, the same sitting position as when I was locked in that room.
I don't wanna die.
I don't wanna die.
I don't wanna die...
I can hear footsteps, the sound of people coming towards me. Through my own shaky breathing, I can make out two other people's breathing.
This is it for me. The people have come to take me away. I just sit there, waiting for it, until I hear a familiar voice.
"Cody? Is that you?" it asks, and as soon as that is said, I look up. The one face I wasn't expecting – Noahs.
There's a kind of relief stirring inside of me, but within that there's lots of regret and even maybe guilt. Guilt for what, I don't know, I'm just probably thinking about how this is all my fault and–
"Cody, it's really you!" he says, hugging me. I just let it happen. It's then that I realize that Eva has been behind him the entire time. She just looks at us, probably unsure what to do, and I don't blame her. I would be like that too.
Noah lets go of me and instantly he sees the cut that runs along my arm.
"God, Cody, what happened here? Are you okay? Hello? Earth to Cody...?" he says, speaking twice as fast as usual. I then realize that I must have been hearing what he was saying but not listening properly to what he was saying.
"Oh, sorry..." I say quietly.
"Oh, and I thought you might want this," hey says, handing me the hoodie I was wearing earlier. "I found it hanging on some branch. Now please tell me, are you okay?"
I feel like the answer to that question is clear, and he knows that too.
"I'm okay," I say, obviously lying.
"Okay, I'll contact the others, say that we've found you. Put the hoodie on, you seem like you're really cold. Can you stand?" He's speaking so quickly and I have no idea what's going on but the next thing I know I have the hoodie on and I am trying to stand.
I have to lean against the tree to stop me from falling over. For some reason my legs really hurt and I can't stand properly.
"Okay, well," Noah says, assessing the situation, "I'm not strong enough to carry you, could you Eva?" He turns to her, she nods.
He turns back to me.
"You okay with that?" he asks me. I nod.
Eva picks me up with ease and places me on her shoulders.
"Okay, lets go back then. I've told them to meet us back at the house," says Noah, starting to walk away. Eva follows him, and we make our way through the forest.
The rest of the walk back is silent. For some reason, I feel kind of embarrassed and I don't really know why. It just feels weird, you know. Like, to be the reason why something is happening.
When we get back, Izzy and Bridgette are there. I'm not surprised there're here before us, assuming tht they're who Noah was talking about when he said 'the others'.
As we enter, I'm placed down on the couch. Izzy and Bridgette come over to me, ask lots of basic questions like "are you okay?" and all of that shit, to which I answer these questions with either I simple nod or shake of the head.
Then Noah comes over, saying "Guys, give him some space, for fucks sake."
The two of them move away, and now it's even more awkward.
Everyone's just doing nothing, and for some reason every little thing is annoying me right now.
I could probably just burst into tears at any moment, and before I do, Noah says "Everybody should probably just go home now."
There's a sort of agreement and everyone starts to leave.
Me and Noah have to walk home, and my legs still really hurt, so when we're walking down the path it's really awkward because I've got my arm around his shoulders as I'm trying to walk. It sounds pathetic, I know, like 'just suck it up and walk', but at any moment my knees could just buckle and I would be on the ground. So now it's weird, and instead of just 10 minutes of strange silence, it increases to 15 minutes, as in this state I am slower, making him slower. It's a weird way of explaining it, but I don't know how else I could explain it.
When we get home, I just really want to go to sleep.
"I think we should do something about that cut on your arm..." Noah says, and I go and sit on the couch while he goes into the kitchen. He comes back seconds later with some bandages.
"I don't know what good this will do, but wrapping it up is all I can think to do about it right now," he says, sitting down next to me.
I take the hoodie off and he takes my arm and wraps it up with the bandages.
"Thanks," I say, again quietly. I don't feel like talking much.
"It's okay. And, I'm sorry," he says.
This confuses me – why is he sorry? For what reason should he be sorry?
"I'm sorry for not knowing how to react, and I probably just made it worse honestly..." he says, somehow knowing what I was thinking.
"It's not your fault," I say, and it seems as though I'm so quiet he doesn't hear me, but he does, I can just tell by how he looks at me. He probably knows what I'm thinking right now, about how this is my fault.
"And it's not your fault either."
"But I overreacted-" I start.
"You panicked. It happens to everyone."
"Sorry."
"It's okay."
I hate the awkward silence that we're left with, so I get up. My legs wobble a bit as I get up, but I manage as I walk out of the room.
"Goodnight," I say as I leave, making my way upstairs. I swear I can hear a faint 'goodnight' coming from behind me.
I get to my room, close the door and instantly flop onto my bed.
I am exhausted. Definitely emotionally, and physically. I just want to sleep, I couldn't care less if I'm still wearing the same clothes I've been wearing all day. I start to drift off to sleep, too tired to care.
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Half of this was already written cause I left it for so long 😪 I hate how it's sad but all I can write is sad idk why and also I don't want it to be sad 😰 this defo didn't go as planned but I'm gonna make sure these gays get together 😍 anyways toodles until next part in twelve million years 🦅 and there's probably gonna be more sad cause I'm a hoe 😪😈 anyways cya later 🤯
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