Hopes Lie in Darkness

5

The soft crunching of dead leaves helped give Auriza some background noise to listen to while she re-gathered her thoughts. Alex still carried her as they neared the fence that marked the cut-off between the woods and the school yard. Much to Auriza's surprise, very little time seemed to have passed; even though she could have sworn they were gone for more then 5 minutes. She still felt strange after her blackout in the house, like something was missing almost. 

"Hey, how are you feeling now Aura? Do you think you can walk on your own again?" Alex muttered, glancing down at Auriza with worry in their tone. 

"Yeah. I should be able to. Besides, the fence isn't too high for me to climb over." Auriza spoke. She glanced down at the ground as Alex stopped to set her down; only speaking again once she told herself she was ready to hear about what happened inside the house. "Alex. How did I get onto the floor? It doesn't make any sense to me." 

Alex simply shrugged and let Auriza climb back over the school yard fence first while they kept watch for teachers. "I looed back behind me once I got up to the top of the stairs and you were on the ground unconsciousness. I rushed down the stairs and made sure your head wasn't cracked open." After they made sure Auriza was over top of the fence and safely on the other side, they almost bounded over the fence to quickly join her. "You should have told me that you had fainting problems. If I had known about that, I wouldn't have suggested going!" 

As Alex started to walk past Auriza and lead her back towards the school, Auriza tilted her head to the side with a look of pure confusion on her face. "I don't have a problem with fainting? I never have. Where did you get that idea from Alex." 

Alex turned around and paused for a moment, a look of annoyance now plastered on their face. "Don't lie to me Aura. Right before I turned around, I heard you mutter about fainting issues you have. You told me yourself right before you fainted!" Alex then turned back towards the school and kept walking. "Now let's hurry up before we completely miss our chance to eat lunch. I'm starving right now."

Auriza got a shiver down her spine as Alex kept walking away. She quickly turned back around to look at the woods. She didn't have any fainting problems, and she hadn't talked to Alex inside the house before she remembered waking up on the floor after blacking out. She couldn't shake the feeling of being watched either. Something had definitely gone wrong, and she had to find out what before paranoia caused her to go crazy. 

"Aura, you coming?" Alex called back, causing Auriza to turn back and look towards them. 

"In a second!" She yelled back, before quickly taking on last look at the woods. She took off to catch up with Alex. Even though she hadn't seen anything watching her in the woods, she didn't want to stay there and wait to notice what was watching her. She also didn't want to notice or pay any mind to the rustling sound of leaves coming from behind her as she ran. She was afraid if she acknowledged it, that it would notice that she knew it was there. 

And  that was the last thing she wanted.