Violet

17| Lost

"Are you sure?" Emmett's voice echoes in my head.

The wind rustles the leaves, a single monotone, sounding similar to the ocean and its waves crashing on the shore. I have not been to the beach in a very long time, probably since I was ten years old. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

My family, two cousins and grandparents included, celebrated my birthday that day. My younger brother Elijah was not born yet, in fact, mum was in the early stages of pregnancy with him at that time. Grayson and Jack, 15 and 12 years old, swam most of the day out in the deeper water, whereas I kept to the shallows with my cousins Bella and Audria. We spent the day searching for dried-up cuttlefish and pippies along the shore and playing mermaids in the water. That was a big highlight of my childhood.

I miss them. And soon I am brought back down by the fact I may never see them again.

We are lost. My dreams could come true. The ones where Laurie is the one to kill me. Maybe he led us astray on purpose. No. My thoughts fight back. He could not have. We asked him to take us here. We are probably closer to the castle than we think.

Not everyone we meet is bad.

"Yes, I am so sorry. I have no idea where we are." Apple huffs from under me, and I reach a hand out to stroke her fur on her neck. I do this without realising I am doing it; I find myself doing this often.

"We will continue trying, it is fine. Let us just see if we can get back by the afternoon." I say this, but I do not believe it. I do not want to spend the night in the woods. We have no supplies.

Well, we do have water and a bit of leftover food from lunch.

Nevertheless, we continue down the same path for at least over an hour, and nothing looks familiar.

I shake. This was not the plan. It starts in my hands and works its way up to my shoulders and chest. At first, I ignore it, telling myself it is just because of the cold, but it is not the cold at all. I am sweating and now have been shivering for a while. Being lost in the endless woods, possibly even in dark soon too, is a thought stuck in the front of my brain.

But I still keep my eyes forward and attempt to numb myself from everything else.

"You, okay?" I hear a whisper from my left. I glance over beside me to Emmett biting the inside of his cheek again, then up at Laurie who is a couple of meters in front.

"Not really," I whisper back, "are you not worried?"

He shakes his head. "Oh, no I am, it is just...do you think this was planned?"

I look back ahead towards Laurie. He looks genuinely worried himself, face in a frown, brushing his face with his hands and once in a while standing up in the stirrups to get a better look around.

My mouth puckers like I have just drunk lemon juice. "I do not know." And that is all I can say.

"You are shaking."

I tilt my head back. "Thank you for noticing." But that is not all that is happening in my body now. Throat pinching, there is no space left to even breathe. "What do we do?"

Disappointingly, Emmett just shrugs and looks forward again. So that is what I do also.

It is like this for a while. It gets worse but I cannot say anything, I have no control over this situation as I am positive that the information Emmett and I have together on where we could be is less than one fifth of the information Laurie holds.

Hours go by. I talk with Emmett a few times, but most of what we say cannot hold into an ongoing conversation.

By late afternoon, it has been hours and my breathing still worsens, but I still try to keep it down as I silently shift around on my saddle, knotting the reins in my fingers until they go white. I can feel the fear that has settled into the pit of my stomach grow and grow with every passing minute.