Dear Diary | Proxies

xviii. x marks the spot

Dear Diary,
The woods are proving to be annoying. Like everything else seems to be.

Grumbling quietly to myself, I began to slowly pull myself to a standing position, almost falling over from how dizzy I got. I hunched over, pressing my hands to my knees as I tried to balance myself. I fumbled for my phone and pulled it out, letting out a sigh of relief that it still had power. I pressed Brian's contact and the speakerphone button before rising fully and looking at my surroundings. There was nothing to recognize, only trees for as far as I could see. In the distance, I could see a few deer that probably hadn't recognized that I was here yet eating something on the ground, and I watched them as the phone rang.

"Hello," Brian's voice was a deep grumble in the phone, as if he had just woken up.

"Hey, B, uh," I paused, coughing harshly into my fist, grimacing as something thick landed on my skin. I flexed my hand in front of me. Blood. Ew. "Hey, I don't, uh, I don't know where I am."

I wiped the blood on my pant leg and huffed. That skinny fucker really had a lot of bad side effects.

Brian made a noise of surprise. "June? Is it you?"

I smacked my lips, wiping my face. Where was all this blood coming from? I glanced at the black screen of my phone. My reflection showed blood dripping from my nose and a bit on my teeth. I could feel some stuck in the back of my throat that I knew I would have to hack up. "Yeah, baby. Why?"

"Fuck, doll, you disappeared for the last four fuckin' days. Toby practically lost his mind when you disappeared."

I turned back to watch the deer again. They looked so peaceful grazing. One turned to me as I responded to Brian. "Yeah, uh, your boss kinda stole me." I coughed again, spitting the viscous liquid onto the leaves below me. The deer tilted its head to the side. "I don't feel very good right now."

"Do you have any idea where you are?" There was shuffling on his end and the sound of someone groaning quietly.

I shook my head. "No, I'm just in the middle of the woods somewhere. Last time he did this, the fucker still led me home. This time, he just left me alone. This is like my dad all over again." I laughed at my bad joke only to cough, tears pricking my eyes. "Bad joke. I think I'm going to try to find a river to follow. I think I read somewhere that rivers lead to people, right?"

"You could end up getting even more lost, baby. Are you sure there's nothing around you that could indicate where you are?"

I glanced around the area again, trying to ignore the deer who were almost all turned to watch me now. There didn't really seem to be anything but one. "Uh, I mean, there's a carving in this tree," I chuckled, "it's an X inside an O."

Brian took a loud inhale and replied. "That's actually a start. Face the X and start walking that way."

"Huh?" I followed his instructions, letting my hand trail across the tree as I did so. I listened to the leaves crunch under my feet but paused when I noticed more footsteps. I turned, making eye contact with one of the deer as it began approaching. I stopped, letting it come up to me. I stuck my hand out, letting it sniff at me for a few seconds before it took another step forward, nose moving to my face, sniffing loudly. "Bit close there, bud," I mumbled, taking a step back. He followed, staying close. "Okay," I drawled out. "I'm going to walk this way, then."

I stepped away from it, continuing the way Brian had told me, but the deer stopped me, nipping at my shirt and holding it. I huffed and turned to it. "Alright, bud, this isn't going to work."

"What are you talking to?" Brian finally spoke again, bringing me back to the situation at hand.

"This deer just bit my shirt." While a little strange, it didn't seem crazy to me, but Brian didn't seem too happy. "Doesn't really want me to go." Brian said something, but I couldn't think of what he was saying as the deer's teeth suddenly seemed much too sharp, and its eyes began to change a deep red.