The Dark

Morning Frost

Matt's POV:
The air is cold. I must be getting near.
I travel along the old, unused train tracks, hoping to find her, since that's the direction the fat man went. He's probably beating her right now, I have to find her. You can see the cold Winter frost upon the unevenly trimmed grass. Each time I take a breath, a puff of water vapour spreads into the air and my dirty shoes dampen as I trek through the grass. No clouds are in the sky as the Sun slowly stretches across the horizon, illuminating each droplet of dew on the grass. There's rustling in the trees, but I'm assuming it's just the birds since the Sun had only rose a few minutes ago.

I realise I have been mistaken.

When I turn around I see a large dog with drool falling from its big scary teeth. It's ears point into the sky and it's tail does the same. When he licks his lips I know I have to make a choice quick; stay here and be killed or run and probably still be killed. The size of the dog is most likely twice the size of me, it's eyes glare into my own as I take one last look before sprinting in the opposite direction. My damp shoes and socks aren't an advantage as I run and run back off the train tracks and into the bush again. Sticks and twigs poke me in the face, arms, legs and torso as I race into the bush, but since I'm fast I break the sticks and twigs as I run past. Not far behind the dog bounds and rushes through the bushland, desperate to find me and probably eat me. Everything's always hiding in the Winter, he probably hasn't had a decent meal in months. I stop worrying about the dog's meal plans and instead glance around, as I'm running, for a safe spot to hide. Under those leaves, no, behind that tree, no. I spot a tree with climbable branches and brace for impact. l leap onto the tree with gripping hands when I realise the dog is so close behind me that it's nipping at my heels. I carefully but smoothly get up to a branch that the dog can't reach. After about half an hour of worthless attempts to jump into the tree, the dog gives up and moves on, but I wait at least fifteen minutes to make sure it's gone. I push myself off of the branch and slowly climb down, checking the ground around me with every movement I make. When I get to the floor of the bushland I look around one more time before jogging towards the train tracks again.

"And just where do you think you're going?" A short girl with blonde hair appears out of nowhere. Her posh accent already makes me dislike her. I turn around to get a better look at her. Her eyes are oceans of blue and her face is something of a porcelain doll's. Her blonde hair has twigs and leaves poking out at strange angles and her large, dirt-stained, jumper is clearly too big for her as it goes over her little porcelain hands.

"Are you deaf?" she asks with a little more tone.
"Um, I-"
"Well obviously not then, c'mon, you going to the train tracks?" she continues to ask questions,
"How did you-" I'm interrupted again,
"Your names Matt, you shot your best friend, but you're searching for her, which means you didn't want to shoot her...oh this is exciting!" she exclaims,
"What?" I ask when I realise I don't know this person and they know a lot about me.
"I'm Sally, Sally Gashdon, nice to meet you Matt," she says, making absolutely no sense to me.
"How do you know all of this?" I finally get the chance to put in a sentence,
"Wasn't it obvious?" she pauses, waiting for me to understand,"Well you see I know your name, it's on your backpack, your shirt collar and your grubby old shoes. It's obvious you're searching for something isn't it? Why would anyone be out here if they weren't searching, but you've been out here for a while....oh yes you're searching for a someone, it couldn't be a family member judging by the rebellious uncut curly hair and it couldn't be a girlfriend...or boyfriend, not with that nasty posture, no...it's a friend, but not any friend or you wouldn't be searching, it's your best friend, and I know it's a her because her names written on your backpack with that cute rounded handwriting. And it's obvious you shot someone, look you've got a gun, and you're hiding from the police in this huge bush." she takes a deep breath at the end,
"That's...it's all right?" I say,
"Precisely." she says back.
With that the crazy conversation is over and we begin to trek back towards the train tracks. I do wonder how she got here so fast but I don't ask.
Jordan's POV:
My eyes dart around in the morning light, as I slowly lift my head and sit up. There's sounds of snoring and sleep scattered around the room. I realise I'm the first awake. My eyes continue to search the room for any strange happenings when I remember the horrid dream I had last night.
Those eyes.
I am unsure of whether or not it was a dream, it seemed so real, but it couldn't have been. I'm not hurt, my eyes find my arms and legs, searching them for strange wounds.
There's nothing.
I catch a difference in the room from last night. There's a small folded note sitting on the bar across the room. From here I can tell it has little writing on it. I carefully place my feet where (hopefully) no one is under and I stand slowly, making sure I don't wake anyone. I step over the guys laying around the couch and make my way to the bar. Dust coats the edges of the wood like it hasn't been washed in years, I grab the small paper and sit on the floor. I open the folded note and it says:

She's found him...

Who's found who? Him? Matt? Who found Matt? Is he trying to find me? A million questions roll through my mind as I screw up the note and shove it into my left side pocket of my pants. I sit in silence until a hear a boy cough.

"Was dat you?" Daz whispers to another boy,
"Yeah sorry, where's Jordie?" A voice that sounds like Fletch's says back loudly,
"Shhhhhh!" The rest of the boys join in, waking Crabs in the process,
"Would you guys shut up before you wake up Kash!" he covers his mouth instantly, realising he spoke out loud instead of whispering. A muffled groan come from a bed next to Crabs.
"Oh no..." Crabs says slowly,
"You guys wake me up every morning, too early," he pauses, "Well I'm up now, will some-one please get me a beer!" Kash shouts, waking up probably half the neighbourhood. Fletch notices me sitting next to the bar, hugging my knees because of the cold and he instantly races over to comfort me. Within eight seconds I am wrapped in Paul's sweater and Fletch has his arm around me too. I shrug him off, put Paul's sweater to the side and stand, leaving Fletch to quickly follow me.
"Oh will you stop it!" I shout and everyone stares,"All of you, please," they look around and then hurry to continue what they were doing. I sit at a stool at the bar while Sam makes me a hot chocolate. When did he get up?
"I'm guessing you didn't sleep all that much last night?" Sam asks,
"No I guess I didn't, not after the courts and everything," I say back,
"Don't worry, look I know, the dreams, they won't go away now trust me, soon enough you'll know..." he mumbles the rest of his sentence,
"Soon enough I'll know what?" I ask loudly,
"Shh it's still morning!" he whisper- shouts,
"What will I know soon?" I ask, this time, whispering,
"They aren't dreams," he says as he looks down on his arm. There's a grid pattern of red going all the way up his arm, I can tell it's not his fault, it was someone else, something else...
I sip the hot chocolate slowly. What does he mean? Last night was definitely a dream...Wait did Sam see the Mad Woman too? He couldn't have...
I rub my eyes as an attempt to wake up, but I'm too tired and there's too many questions to be answered. I look around the bar, most of the boys are trying to get the extra sleep that they forgot about last night and most of the men are up and chatting away to each other. I need questions answered, and the answers aren't here. I need Matt.