It's Just The Woods

17

Everything happened in slow motion.

Shawn noticed first. "Freddie!"

Rachel noticed the shouting and looked up. Her stomach dropped when she saw her brother running to Fredrick as his knees hit the ground. Her gaze ventured to Nicolas, who stopped laughing at how stupid the Shadowings were, watching his brother fall. His smile quickly dropped, shouting his brother's name.

Both shouts were broken. Rachel stared in horror, watching her friends all slowly crumble. She didn't even know how to react.

Rachel stood up, shaking in the knees. Multiple emotions ran through her body.

Anger: She walked towards the Shadowings, huffing as they howled with laughter. In a taunting way, they pointed their fingers at her and stuck out their tongues. This only managed to anger Rachel more.

Sadness: Hot tears streamed down her face, making the Shadowings laugh harder. They had tears running down their face, too. The only difference was that these tears were from laughter while Rachel's were from pain.

Distraught: She held her hand up, remembering how Fredrick would smile brightly just minutes ago. Now, he never would smile like that again.

Guilt: Letting out a heart wrenching scream, all of the Shadowings dispersed and exploded at once.

The room was painted with the blue blood that Rachel was already tired of seeing. It covered her body, her friends' bodies, Beatrice's dead body, the walls... Everywhere.

Rachel looked at her friends, black dust filling the air. She ran to Fredrick, holding his head. "Hey, you're going to be fine. Look at me."

Fredrick shook his head, blood falling from his mouth. "Rach, you can't save me this time. You and I both saw it coming. Everyone did."

Shawn took Fredrick's glasses off, wiping the tears from under his eyes.

"S-Shawn?" Fredrick whispered. He leaned into Shawn's touch. "I'm going to miss this." He whispered.

"Keep your eyes open, Freddie. I can't lose you, dumbass. You're apart of me." Shawn instructed. Nicolas couldn't say anything. His head was swarming with nothing but sadness. He wasn't mad or anything. He saw it coming.

Everyone did.

Fredrick's eyes slowly closed. "No, Fredrick, wake up!" He shook Fredrick, causing him to snap his eyes open. He whimpered in pain, holding his stomach. "Freddie, what do we do?!"

Then, blood started pouring out of Fredrick's mouth. He coughed, blood spurting onto Shawn's face. "Shawn, you can't do anything. I-I'm dead."

"Fredrick, don't fucking die on me!" Nicolas finally said. "You still have to graduate with me, remember?! W-We have to walk that stage together. I was going to flip the teachers off a-and you were gonna stop me and apologize because you're such a kiss-ass." The group laughed quietly. "We can still walk that stage together, just stay alive."

Fredrick smiled sadly. "I'll be there... I just won't," He grunted as he moved a bit. "Be there physically to stop you." He looked at Rachel. "Thank you for trying to save me. And I'm not a kiss-ass." He smiled painfully, the tears mixing in with the sweat dripping down his forehead.

Rachel smiled, tears still running down her face. "Thank us when we get you out of here, okay?" She said quietly.

Fredrick smiled back. "I'm not leaving." His voice dropped to a low whisper. Hailey sniffled, causing him to bring his attention to her. "How are you feeling, Hails?"

She shook her head quickly. "No, you can't fucking die! It's not fair. Y-You came here to save me and then you have to die?! That's bullshit! Fucking bullshit!! And don't ask me how I'm feeling! You're the one who's..." She stopped her own sentence. She felt ill trying to say it. "I should've done something."