The Forest

Chapter 24

    I could hardly see through the darkness. I had nothing to use as a light. I was trapped. I could still hear my mother wincing in pain from her wrist and now sobbing from her fear. I knew Jasper had disappeared and Sammy was somewhere hidden. Is this a trap? If I find Sammy, will he be right behind me waiting for me to make a mistake? Why not just kill me right when he had the chance? These questions seek deeper and depper into my head and then I finally realize it. Jasper is sick and he loves to play games. This is just another fun activity for him. He finds enjoyment out of making me horrified.

    "We need to get help-" my mother says, groaning.

    "No...that'll only make this more interesting to Jasper. This isn't a game we're supposed to win...besides..there's no one around for miles" I hear Suzanne whisper as she crawls off of the couch to us on the floor. She was right.

    "We have to find Sammy-" I say

    "What if he isn't even here? What if we're looking for nothing..for no one?" Suzanne asks, "What if this is just a goose chase? Jasper is known for being manipulative. He tricks you into thinking one thing, while he has you doing another"

    "You could be right..but I don't want to take the risk in believing that he's lying. I rather be safe than sorry..he wants me..if anyone is going to receive a backlash from this it's me. Not either one of you" I say and swallow hard.

    There is a gut wrenching silence.

    "Where do we look..? We don't have time.." Suzanne asks

    "The backyard" my mother says and I could feel the fear in her voice.

    I tried to pick myself up off of the floor. My foot stung, but I did not prolong my standing up. I simply tried to pretend it wasn't there. As I faced the direction of the back door I could feel Suzanne's breath on the back of my neck. She was so close. So was my mother.

    The room lay still and quiet. This sneaking in the dark reminded of when I sunk out into the backyard before, planning to meet face to face wih the stranger that threw the rock in my window. I remember the flashlight I used to see her with through the night that cast over the streets. I walked further and further till I reached the kitchen and I could feel the outside air escaping the slightly vented window. I tried not to fumble and gradually made my way to the kitchen counter top. As I reached for the drawer I heard my mother whisper,

    "Matthew? What are you doing?"

   I simply answered her by the flicker of the light as I retrieved it from the drawer and pointed it toward her face. She looked sick and her eyes looked alert. She shook and I saw something standing behind her shaking frame. I dropped the flashlight when the red eyes met with mine.

    "Matthew...Matthew...Matthew..come on, I think Sammy is waiting" I heard a voice say that felt like it was coming from right behind me and when I looked no one was there.

    I grabbed the flashlight from off the floor and flashed it across the room. I didn't see anything.

    "Matthew, we have to get out of here. Open the door, we have to go outside" Suzanne says, "He'll corner us in here where we are trapped"

    As I went to open the door..it was locked. I tried to twisting it over and over but not matter what I did it wouldn't open.

    "Stand back" I heard my mother say from behind me. She asked me to point my light towards the cabinets. She grabbed a frying pan and tried breaking the door handle. It wouldn't budge. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she hit it it wouldn't break. She began heaving out of lose of breath.

    "He trapped us" Suzanne said and I could hear he hyperventalating.

    "Suzanne?" I ask, as a thought pounds into my head.

    "Yes?" she answers, sounding as if she was about to cry. I didn't put the flashlight in her face in fear of exposing her tears. I couldn't stop them.

    "Remmeber when you told me Jasper tried to trap you away in this house?" I ask and her, what sounded like, tears stops abrupty.

    "Yes.."

    "Where did he try to lock you away?" I ask her and there was an uncomfortable silence.

    "Well Sammy's room used to be Jasper's room..he tried to lock me away under the floorboards.."

    "We have to go to Jasper's old room" I say and I suddenly hear footsteps over the top of my head. They're a soft tapping sound almost. Very similar to the sound Suzanne and I heard only hours ago.

   "I don't know if it's safe to go there.." I hear my mother say. This appears to be my mother's weakest moment. She looks like she had suffered the trauma of both a soldier in war and a victim of mind assault.

    "Do you honestly think it's safe anywhere?" I ask her

    "...No, not anymore"

    I start walking towards the staircase. My body feeling weighted and sluggish. I could almost fall to the ground right where I stood. With each step up the staircase, and the noise of those that followed, I felt like I could throw up all the things built up inside me from the past months.

    When we made our way up the steps I could hear a voice. A voice that was very familar, but felt so distant.

    "Help me Matthew! Please..." I could hear my brother say. I couldn't believe it, I could hear his voice. I could hear his real voice.

    "Don't worry hunny, we're coming to get you" my mother yelled back, and at the top of the staircase I could see that his door was open. My mother, enfused with delight at the sound of her son's voice, runs toward it. I try to grab her because something does not feel right, but she pulls away from me.

    As she runs into the doorway the door shuts behind her. Suzanne and I run towards it and try to set her free, but like the door down stairs, it didn't open. I could see the doornob shaking as my mother tried to open it from the other end.

    "We have to smash it..we have to get this door open, he can kill her!" Suzanne yells and I take my flashlight and slam it into the door over and over. Wood starts to chip and fall to the ground. I hit untill I feel splinters in my hand. I groaned in pain and continued to hit the door more and more.

    Suddenly we hear my mother yell,"Stop!"

    I was taken back by her words, "Please stop..it's no use" she whined and I could hear her crying.

    The door was weak and fraile now so Suzanne kicked it and it flew to the floor like a domino. My mother was curled up on the floor crying. The floor around her was dug up. Her fingers bleed as she must have used her hands to yank at the floor viciously.

    She mumbles something, but I don't understand what she says.

    "What? What mother, what?" I ask frantically.

    "He's not here..he's not here" she said

   My dream had come to life. The air started to become sucked through the window that bursts open. There was no light to be sucked off the walls and turned into darkness..we were already deep into a sea of black. I tried to breathe, but all I could hear was the suffication that I was suffering. As I looked around I was the only one being affected. Suzanne tried to grab hold of me. I hear her yelling at me, "Matthew breathe!", but I couldn't say anything. I tried to close the window, but before I could I saw something that made a chill roll through me. Jasper was outside the window and was holding Sammy's hand. My brother...he pulled him through the barbed wire, and then I knew there was nothing I could do. He took my brother into the forest and I had only one choice...I had to go after him.