~Kristen's POV~
Alfire's expression betrayed confusion as he looked around the camp, checking to see if they'd pop up from anywhere. After seeing no one, I felt his arm quickly brush mine as he passed me and entered their tent. I frowned as he came back out holding folded piece of paper. Never really being fond of notes, I frowned as he passed it to me.
We're just going out for a bit. We'll be right back,
you kids take care of yourself.
I read out loud my mom's handwriting. I noticed something different about the second line, as though she had added more pressure onto the pen as she wrote it. Confusion filled me, never remembering a time when my parents decided to take a leisurely stroll. "Went out?" I voiced my thoughts. "Leaving the camp empty?"
I looked to Alfire, worry etched on my face. He only gave me a shrug.
"I guess they figured we'd be back soon. The fire was only recently put out." He said, looking towards the small campfire, its coals and wood lit with a bright orange encased inside their burnt shell. "They couldn't have left too long ago."
"Should we go look for them?" I wondered.
"And leave the camp too?" He scoffed. "No, I think it's better we just wait here. I'm sure they'll turn up soon."
Weariness still plagued my mind, but I saw he was right. I just woke up... I just need to calm down a bit. It was her handwriting. They'll be okay. I tried to reassure myself. Alfire kept looking at me questioningly. I just nodded. "Yeah. I guess we'll just wait for them."
He nodded in agreement and headed back into our tent, coming back out wearing a new pair of jeans and a gray t-shirt. "Let's stay inside." He told me. "It's cold out here, and if they come back, we'll still hear them."
I hesitated for a moment before nodding, and followed him back into the tent.
We ended up not really saying anything, and just sat on top of our sleeping bags. Alfire laid back, hands behinds his head, and stared at the roof. I stayed curled, my knees tucked tightly in as unease continued to make me feel slightly sick. Soon enough, I looked to my side and Alfire was asleep. I carefully crawled over and checked his watch that had still been around his outstretched arm.
It had been nearly two hours since we got back. Alfire had told me to stay calm and wait, but I couldn't stop the images of the dream I had the day before, or the memories of the last time I had been in the woods and someone disappeared from storming through my mind. Unable to stay still for any longer, I stood up and quickly exchanged my slippers for my converse sneakers and replaced the thick coat for my more comfortable cotton jacket. I tied my curly red-orange hair into a single pony-tail, and headed towards the tent exit. I looked back one last time at Alfire, watching him as his eyes stayed closed and stirred slightly.
I'll be back before he wakes up. I told myself. I just need to make sure. And if nothing, then I just need to go for a walk, take a breather. And left the tent, zipping the door back up.
I tried to look for footprints, and found faint shoeprints of my dad's size leading towards the opposite direction of which Alfire and I had returned from. I stood at the edge of the camp, staring into the forest, frozen. Just look around a bit, and come straight back if they're not there. I repeated to myself. Knowing I wouldn't be able to rest until I knew I at least tried, I gulped and entered the trees. My legs started to shiver again, and I began to regret forgetting to change into more suitable clothes. But if I went back, Alfire might stop me, or I might lose whatever courage or stupidity I had to come and look for them. So I kept going, ignoring the breeze as much as I could manage.
The forest looked a lot darker than it had the day before on our way to the lake. The sun was up, but I told myself the leaves above were just thicker on this side of the forest. My dad's footprints disappeared, but it was because it had lead up to a thin little path covered in rocks and moss. I followed the path, suddenly wishing I hadn't given my phone to my mom and told her to keep hers off. Suddenly a gust of wind blew against me, traveling through the trees and I froze in a fit of shivers.
"Damn it..." I muttered, digging my hands into my thick jacket and kept following the path.
My eyes widened when suddenly the path ended, but no shoe-prints had followed after it. I looked around for a sign of my parents possibly walking through, but the trees felt even closer than they did before. Anxiety still clouded my mind, but I sighed, deciding that Alfire was right. I turned around and started to walk back.
As the trees slowly grew further apart from each other, I froze at the sound of a rustle to my left. A spine-chilling wave of déjà vu came over me as I couldn't move my legs. I held my breath, attempting to stay as silent as I could as I held in a terrified whimper as I heard the rustling get louder and louder. The ground shook beneath me and I almost fell back as a giant mass of black fur jumped out from behind the bush. My eyes widened in shock as I saw a dog almost the size of a small car stand in-front of me. I could almost feel my face turn pale as it turned its red eyes to me. I frowned as it didn't move, it's eyes looking at me as if it knew me. Before I could do anything or run away, the large dog began moving again at a frightening speed. I tried to keep my eye on it but just as it passed behind a tree, it disappeared.
I almost figured it was just a hallucination as I regained my ability to move, and kept staring at the spot where the dog disappeared until I realized I ran into a tree. Damn it, this forest is confusing me. I shook my head, annoyance filling me until I looked in the direction I had moved in, only for my eyes to scale up not a tree, but a giant man, but from the waist up he became incredibly hairy. My eyes widened in disbelief as I saw what had replaced his head. A giant bull looked down at me, his eyes glaring and giant horns sticking out of his skull.
I stood stunned, but as it let out a loud huff, I stumbled to the floor, a scream escaping from my mouth as I scrambled back up and started running. The over-jolt of fear adrenalin pumped through my blood, my fear heightened as I remembered doing the same thing in my sleep. I could hear the large monster huffing, getting closer. I ran as fast as I could, attempting to run through smaller spaces to lose it, but it kept barging through the trees, breaking a few of the smaller ones as it knocked into them.
I looked back quickly to see the hideous creature still chasing me, standing over eight feet into the air. I realized it was a mistake when I suddenly tripped over a loose rock in the middle of the path and tumbled further. I was panting, tears escaping my eyes as I shook in panic. I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me up, dragging me forward. I blinked a few times to see Alfire's hand tightly gripping my wrist as he guided me away just as the giant monster smashed into the spot I had been only three seconds before.
"Al--"
"WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!" He interrupted me, his voice filled with outrage.
"I'M SORRY, I HAD TO CHECK FOR MYSELF!" I cried back, realizing full heartedly how stupid my plan was.
"YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!" He scolded me with just as much rage in his tone.
"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?! I'M SORRY." I screamed at him, my breath getting heavier and heavier.
"STOP TALKING, AND JUST RUN." He instructed me, not looking at me as he spoke. "IF I DIDN'T FIND YOU KRIS. IF YOU GOT KIL--" He shut his mouth before he finished his sentence, and did as he told me to do, and ran.
I pushed my legs as fast as they could go, soon Alfire let go of my hand and I managed to run in front of him.
"KRISTEN LOOK OUT!"
I heard behind me, but it was too late. I was blinking the tears out of my eyes and clearing my vision, but before I could react I found myself falling into a large hole. My scream echoed around me as I began to brace myself for a bone shattering impact. Seconds passed, and nothing. My scream got caught in my throat and fear building even more as I kept on falling. My eyes had stayed closed until I felt something grab hold of my arm, and then my waist. I let out a slight scream only to see from the dim light that I fell further and further away from, that Alfire had jumped in and engulfed me in a hug as though our lives depended on it. What terrified me the most then was the idea that it might.
As I waited for the end of the fall a sudden gust of cold air blasted from beneath us, and I felt myself quickly slip away from consciousness.
**************
I woke up once I felt my back slam against something hard. "Oww..." I whimpered in pain as I slowly sat up. I finally opened my eyes, and a dim light had revealed my surroundings. All around me there were smooth rock surfaces. I frowned and quickly looked up, confused to see a seemingly solid stone ceiling above me. I looked to the wall beside me and pushed me hand against it, leaning against it for support.
"What the hell was that thing?" I heard a groan come from behind a large rock that hid what was on the other side. I kept my hand on the wall, and made my way to the other side, my eyes widening when I saw Alfire lying on his back.
"You're bleeding!" I gasped, taking a quick step forward, only to lose my hold on the wall and trip forward. I gasped in pain as my knees folded and I fell to the ground, but the sight of Alfire's torn pants and blood-soaked left leg helped me ignore my pain as I crawled my way to him.
"I kinda' noticed." He winced. "It hurts like hell, too."
"God, what happened?" I frowned, looking at him questioningly.
"That thing, whatever it was, it fricken clawed my leg before I jumped in." He growled.
"You jumped in?!" I asked, bewildered.
"I couldn't just leave you to die alone, now could I?" He chuckled, but his laugh quickly changed into a groan. "Now if you don't mind... I'm dyin' over here." He said dramatically.
"What do I do?" I asked quickly.
"How much blood is coming out?" He asked urgently.
"A-A lot. Your entire leg's soaked." I stuttered.
"Is there any water around?" I looked around, and replied with a no. "We need to stop the bleeding somehow, I feel like I'm going to pass out."
I froze for a minute, until I quickly moved my arms and tore off my jacket. "What now?"
"Stop the bleeding." He repeated.
I lifted his leg slightly, trying to pull the jacket under until Alfire growled in pain.
"I'm sorry!" I squeaked, freezing again. "Keep going." He muttered through his gritted teeth. I took a deep breath and nodded. I wrapped my jacket around the large gash and tied it around, tightening it, trying to ignore the amout of pain that escaped Alfire's mouth.
Two minutes later we sat beside each other after Alfire had hoisted himself to sit beside me.
"You would be a terrible nurse, Kris. You showed no mercy, damn." He chuckled, smirking at me.
I shook my head at him in disbelief, wondering how he could be joking in the state he was in.
"You're in idiot for jumping down the hole." I scoffed.
"And you're an idiot for going out there by yourself." He shot back, and I looked away, realizing he was right. "But it doesn't matter. We're alive aren't we? And here." He frowned, looking around for the first time. "Where are we anyway?"
I shook my head again. "I don't know. It looks like a cave though. There's a light coming from that direction," I pointed straight ahead of us. "but it looks a bit far."
I heard a groan and I widened my eyes as I saw Alfire try to stand up. "What are you doing?!" I shrieked as I quickly pulled myself up to help him find his balance. His face distorted into a grimace as he accidentally stepped with his left leg.
"We need to get out of here." he gasped.
"You need to rest fir-" I was cut off as he almost fell forward, but I quickly stepped ahead and pushed him up from his chest. I stood beside him and he swung his arm over my shoulder, but he was easily a foot taller than I was, making it harder for me to be too effective a support.
"There's something..." He took deep breaths. "There's something in my leg, I can feel it. It's starting to burn and I need to clean it out before it gets infected or something, and I can't see anything here."
I frowned, but nodded. "Just take it slowly."
This time he didn't argue, and carefully hopped on his right leg as I did my best to avoid accidentally knocking into his left.
We got closer and closer to the light, I put my hand on my forehead as I shielded the bright light that suddenly hit my eyes. I blinked a few times, my sightreadjusting before I took in the outside. There was a large field in front of us, bright green grass decorated with small daisies. I helped Alfire step a little bit further until he suddenly felt really heavy. I almost fell forward as I realized his eyes shut closed and he stopped standing up on his own.
"Woah, woah woah!" I exclaimed, slowly helping him down until he laid back onto the ground, his face twisted in pain. I looked down at his leg, my stomach tightening when I took in the dark purple that started surrounding the part of his leg that got cut, still uncovered by the jacket. "God..." I cursed, suddenly scared.
I saw a shadow darken over Alfire's body, followed by a gruff voice as I turned to see what had loomed over us.
"Who are you?" it sneered. I looked up to see a large muscled man... or boy, around my age, looking down at me with a scowl on his face. I swallowed nervously when I saw him holding a large silver sword towards me. I began to back away, until suddenly the boy was pulled back by a girl, a lot smaller than him.
"Roose, calm down. Can't you see he's hurt?" she scolded.
She turned to me, concern written all over her face. I stepped to the side a bit more, making sure I was directly inbetween her and Alfire the moment I saw she was holding a bronze-coated dagger.
She looked confused when I looked at her warily, but then she looked down and saw what I was looking at. She lowered her knife, but still held it as she raised her other hand, approaching me slowly as one would towards a cornered animal.
"It's okay, we won't hurt you." She said soothingly, but I just narrowed my eyes, not sure whether or not to trust her. I frowned as I saw her eyes. The light did something weird to them, it looked like it had consisted of multiple colors. I looked to the small feather in her braided hair, then made eye-contact again.
I noticed a moment of confusion appear on her face, but just as quickly as it had appeared, it had been replaced with a warm smile.
"We're here to help." She nodded, her voice kind.
I wanted to trust her, but glancing at the five people including herself and seeing they all held a weapon of some sort, I kept my guard up.
"Who are you?" I asked cautiously.
"My name's Piper." She replied. "And you are?"
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A/N: And thus the end of Chapter 8. THE PLOT HAS OFFICIALLY TAKEN OFF. What are you guys thinking right now? PLEASE SHARE BELOW!!
Anyway I haven't started on Chapter 9 yet, but I'll get to it as soon as possible.
Thank you guys for reading!! I'm astonished at how many people apparently seem to like this little piece of work HAHAHA. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH <3 LET'S GET TO THE TOP OF THE "LEO VALDEZ" FANFIC LIST SHALL WE?! Please vote if you liked the chapter!! Hope you continue to like the story ^_^ Arigato Gozaimasu :3
*PEACE OUT GUYS
~Mari ~(^_^)~ (happy danceee)