Windows

Paint It Black

I can't say I was proud of my current company's intrepid skills. However I, too, found myself gasping for breath and only narrowly avoiding the stray roots and logs that lay in my direction. We'd long since abandoned our schedule and, as far as we knew, were running for our lives.

"I think we've lost them," Tyler gasped, slowing to a halt and clutching his knees with pale white fingers, bent over in a tired slump.

"I don't know. Maybe we should keep going," I warned, peering suspicicously out at the darkness, but slowly letting down my instincts.

"Impossible," replied Alex, who promptly collapsed on the ground, groaning at the hard impact.
I finally took the time to properly assess my surroundings; a couple hunched over, lost looking trees with scrawny bare limbs, decomposing leaves scattered thickly among fallen tree trunks, sparing only tiny patches of grass daylight. Unfortunately, though, it was not daylight, but a few hours yet till dawn broke through the ebony canopy of night sky. I slouched lazily against a mossy boulder, past caring about getting bugs or dirt in my windswept hair.

"The mosquitoes are going to eat us alive," Alex mumbled, lifting his face from the soggy ground. "Why did I come with you?" he wondered aloud.

"Because you're a narcisstic idiot," I responded swiftly, still keeping a blank stare out into the woods.

"Oh, that's right."

Tyler remained silent in his corner of the cove, examining our footage, his face becoming clearly frustrated. I slowly crept over to him and we shared the tiny screen, which showed only a couple of dimly lit figures conversing about their destructive idea of entertainment. I winced as the present voice generating from the small contraption explained in menacing detail their remarkable plan. I hadn't even heard some of this information whilst filming; it must have escaped my attention when I got lost in my thoughts.

Always lost.

"Will they believe us?" Tyler said suddenly, sitting upright against a scratched, flaky tree trunk that could have fallen years ago - its current state so worn and feeble.

"Of course they will. They have to. We've got evidence," I pointed out determinedly.

"It could be anyone in this video. It's so dark, you can't tell..." he trailed off, shaking his head.

"Are you contradicting my filming skills?" I joked, trying to lighten up the situation. He looked at me and smiled unconvincingly.

"Your filming skills are, er, great. But I'm just being realistic here."

I sighed and pressed closer to him absent-mindedly, the proximity becoming a little awkward. Well, he was warmer than I was. 

"Half the time reality isn't real anyway," Alex scoffed, picking himself up from the dirty forest floor and dusting himself off. He paused a moment and looked down on us with an amused look on his face. "I mean, psychics? This is crazy. You're both absolutely... crazy. Is your insanity contagious? I don't want to become a nutjob." He furrowed his brow.

"You didn't have to come, Alex. We didn't even want you to," I said.

"I wanted to know what you were up to. Now I know, and my life is in danger," he complained.

"Shouldn't have followed us then."

"Thanks, Captain Hindsight!"

"Well, what the hell do you want me to say? I'm not going to comfort you like your precious mother never did. Deal with your own problems, like the rest of us!" I scolded, a boiling rage inflating inside me. Admittedly, I often let my temper get the better of me.

"You're my problem, Haylee! I was fine before you came along!"

"You hypocrite," I snarled, getting to my feet so we were the same level, a panther preparing to pounce, "if you'd have left me alone you wouldn't be in this mess!"

"What? Oh, a few teases, sure..." he rolled his eyes.

"You pushed me down a hill!"

"You punched my best friend!"

"Yeah, I did, didn't it?" I said, smiling.

"And then you go all psychic on me..."

I stopped, sucking air through my teeth sharply.

"Tell me about that." Alex nodded toward Tyler and I expectantly. "Tell me how you know stuff about people. About me."

"It's not that complex," Tyler said.

"Then tell me."

"Nah."

"Why not?"

"Can't be bothered."

I nodded in approval at Tyler, and sat back down again. "We're tired."

Alex scowled and walked a few feet away, acknowledging the distance, then sitting down too. "Fine."

So we waited in silence for the next few minutes, each one of us secretly straining to hear any unknown footsteps that could surprise us, but we heard nothing. Every now and then I wished that some luminous crevice of light would rip apart the darkness and engulf everything in sight with its radiance. I was so tired of seeing nothing but black. Eventually, it did get a little lighter, and that's when we decided we ought to go home.

"Come on," I yawned, gesturing out to the awaiting forest. "Let's get out of here."

"What if they're still there?"

"I guess you'll have to get your nunchucks out, Tyler. Get up," I coaxed.

He grumbled a monotone reply and then eventually caved in. "Alex..."

"I'm coming!"

"Okay, okay..."

He struggled to his feet, supporting himself on the ragged, decrepit old tree he'd been lounging against. Earlier, he'd pulled off a weak branch and waved it around stupidly, calling it a "budget lightsabre". That's how bored we were.

Apparently the tree had found a convenient vengeance against him for this act of defilement and a spiky twig snagged him on the arm. 

"Shit! I hate nature!" he said stroppily, letting his arm droop by his side. From only a small impact, the stick had made a large, throbbing line crossing his arm diagonally. There was something abnormally peculiar about it, from what I could perceive. "Let's go then," said Alex, getting irritated at my staring.

"Alex, oh my God, you're bleeding!" I cried abruptly.

"Of course I am, I just got... mutilated by a bloody stick!" he exclaimed sarcastically, not bothering to look at his arm.

"No, Alex, something's wrong," I said, backing away. I glanced around, but Tyler was too occupied scraping moss off a tree with a scrap of bark. "Alex," I began desperately, "you're bleeding black."

Sure enough, a thin line of inky fluid was seeping from the scratch, dripping onto the leaves below it.

"Oh crap!" Alex cried, shaking his outstretched hand frantically.

Tyler finally turned his head toward the commotion, and as if through some unknown connection, all three of us knew it was definitely time to get out of here.