Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 11

Trigger Warning! Mentions of m@n!pul@t!on

When I opened my eyes the next morning, I was greeted with the sun beaming down on my face. I groaned and shut my eyes again. My whole body was aching, and I could feel muscles I didn't even know existed burning. I may have run cross country in high school but even with my jogging this year I wasn't in nearly as good of shape. Also, we practically sprinted the whole time we were escaping the cabin. I took a deep breath and forced myself to open my eyes. I sighed all I wanted to do was go back to sleep but I knew I shouldn't. We had to figure out what to do next. Heaving myself up from where I lay, I surveyed my surroundings. Anna, Ella, and Leo were still fast asleep, Jack was awake, leaning up against one of the trees and staring off into space. "Morning," I greeted. Jack tense and snapped his head in my direction, his pulps were dialated, and I could see the panic in his eyes. "Sorry," I apologized, "I didn't mean to startle you." Jack's body relaxed and he let out a sigh of relief, "It's okay, I thought you were someone else." Standing up from where I sat, I walked over to Jack and sat down next to him. As I sat down, I could feel my thighs tighten, and I grimaced. "You sore too?" Jack asked, his eyes still looking off into the distance. I nodded, "Yeah, it's been a while since I've run that hard." Jack just nodded and I could tell his mind was elsewhere. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. "Talk about what?" Jack replied still not looking at me. "Whatever is bothering you," I said. "Oh, it's nothing," he muttered. I rolled my eyes, "I know something is bothering you, it'll help if you talk about it." Jack didn't say anything for a while, we just sat there in silence for a while.

Finally, Jack responded. "We almost died," he whispered, "It was right there, and I just froze up. I couldn't move and when we had to run away you had to drag me." I sat there for a while, thinking about what Jack had told me before saying anything. "You know it's normal to freeze up in scary situations, right?" I asked. Jack didn't say anything. "It happens all the time," I told him, "Your brain just gets stuck, it happens to everyone at one time or another. I don't know why it happens, but I think it's because your fight or flight instincts just don't kick in and then your brain just doesn't know what to do." "But it didn't happen to anyone else," Jack muttered. "Not at that moment no," I said, "But it has happened to me before." "Really?" He asked. I nodded, "Yep, in fifth grade before I met you guys. One of the older kids was teasing me pushing me around and I just froze I didn't know what to do. Logically I should have either run away or shoved back but I didn't. It was like my body was stuck in place and if I moved any of my limbs they would just snap off. It also happened that time I fell off the rock wall in eighth grade and when I walked into the wrong locker room sophomore year." "Seriously?" Jack asked dumbfounded. "Yeah," I replied, "I bet if you asked Anna or Ella, they could tell you about a time when it happened to them." Jack grinned, "Oh I would love to hear those stories." I laughed, "I bet they're embarrassing." "Then we would have blackmail on them," Jack smiled. "And we could use it to make them do our bidding," I chuckled. "Until they get blackmail on us," Jack pointed out. "True, true," I replied, "Then we would be doing things for them." "I would hate to find out what they would make us do," he shuddered. "I doubt it would be anything pleasant," I said. "You're probably right," Jack agreed. I leaned up against the tree and grinned, things may not be going as planned but I'm not going to let it affect my friend's moods. If we're going to be chased by murderers or demons or whatever those things are we're going to have fun doing it.

Jack and I sat there for a while basking in the silence. Occasionally one of us would start a short conversation and after we would go back to contently sitting in silence. I have no idea what time it was but at some point, my stomach began to growl. That's when I realized two very important things. One I was hungry, and two I was thirsty. These realizations brought two problems with them, we didn't have food or water. In all honesty, the food part wasn't a big deal, you can last a week or more without it, but you can only last three days without water and that could become a problem. I shook those thoughts to the back of my head; we'll figure something out. I know we will. I glanced around the clearing once more. Ella and Anna hadn't woken up yet neither had Leo. I was about to ask Jack a question when I noticed something odd. There was a massive red spot on Leo's leg. I frowned, what in the world was that? Standing up from where I sat, I walked over to where Leo lay. As I crouched down next to him I realized his left calf was bleeding. Apparently, at some point, Leo had wrapped it up with some of the fabric from his hoodie but throughout the night, the blood had seeped through. My eyes widened, that's not good. Depending on how deep the wound is and how quickly it's bleeding, Leo could die from blood loss. "Jack," I called, looking back at him, "Come over here." "Is something wrong?" Jack asked, concerned. I nodded, "Yeah." Quickly standing up, Jack rushed over to where I crouched. Kneeling next to me, Jack looked over Leo's body until he found exactly what I was worried about. "That's not good," Jack muttered. "Yeah, that's what I thought," I told him. "What do we do?" Jack asked. "I have no idea," I replied, "It feels wrong to mess with a sleeping person we don't know." "But he could be bleeding out," Jack pointed out.

"True," I said, "You know what, screw it. Let's just check the wound." Jack shrugged, "Okay, but if he wakes up, I'm telling him it was your idea because it is." I rolled my eyes, "Thanks." Carefully unwrapping the fabric from around Leo's calf, I got a better look at his leg. Once I saw the state of his leg, I couldn't help but gag. Someone or something had racked its claws down his leg. The cuts were deep, and some of the bone was visible. I winced, when did he get that and how did he run with it? "Uh, so what do we do now?" Jack asked, "We don't have anything to clean or bandage it with." "You're right," I muttered, "I didn't think about that." Jack rolled his eyes, "Of course, you didn't." "You didn't happen to grab anything when we were running out of the cabin, did you?" I asked sheepishly. Jack stared at me with an unimpressed expression, "What do you think?" "I'll take that as a no," I murmured. We both sat there in awkward silence, trying to figure out what to do. "What if we just rewrapped it with the cloth he already used?" I suggested. Jack turned and stared at me like I had grown two heads. "Do what?" He asked in disbelief. "Rewrap it with the cloth he already used?" I said unsure of why he was acting like this. "You can't do that!" Jack cried, "He'll get an infection!" "He might not?" I said even though it was more of a question. Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, "It probably will, we'll find something else to use." "What are you two doing?" Leo asked groggily. "We're trying to figure out what to wrap your leg in," I told him. "Wrap my leg? He asked confused, "I already wrapped it." Jack rolled his eyes, "It needs to be rewrapped so you don't get an infection." "That's why you woke me up?" Leo asked annoyed, "It could have waited, it was fine." "Your makeshift bandage was soaked in blood," Jack deadpanned. "It still could have waited," Leo said. "Well, it looks like it will have to because we can't find anything to wrap it in," I pointed out. Leo rolled his eyes, "Just check the backpack."

"Backpack? What backpack?" Jack and I asked now confused. "I'm surrounded by idiots," Leo muttered, sitting up from where he lay, "The backpack right there." We looked in the direction Leo was pointing and that's when I saw it. Under one of the trees, sat my backpack. One of the side pockets had been ripped off but other than that it was in good shape. "When did you get the chance to grab that!?" I asked in shock. "After I kicked that thing in the face for trying to rip my leg open," Leo stated, "It was lying next to the door, so I grabbed it. I figure there might be something useful in there." Jack scoffed, "I highly doubt it considering it was Luke's bag you grabbed but I might be wrong." "Let's check," I said standing up from where I knelt and dashing over to the bag. Quickly unzipping my backpack, I began to tear through it. I threw out my sketchbook and pencils those weren't going to help us. I took out all of the junk or useless items until I found what I needed. I had found two bottles of water, five different granola bars, and a jacket. Picking up the jacket, I walked back over to where Jack and Leo were and showed it to them. "Will this work?" I asked. Jack nodded, "Yes, it's perfect." "Great," I said, "Because it's the only thing I have." Jack chuckled, "If it's the only thing you have don't make it sound like I have an option." "I found if you let people think they have a choice they're more likely to agree with you," I told him. "Wow, manipulation, and here I thought you were my friend," Jack said, "Maybe you aren't as trustworthy as I thought you were." "Maybe I'm not," I said smiling. "Do you two need to talk about something?" Leo asked concerned, "Do I need to leave?" Jack laughed. "No, we're just joking around." "Manipulation isn't a funny thing to joke about," Leo said. "You're right it's not something we should joke around about," I agreed, "Sorry." Leo shrugged, "It's fine, it's not like you offended me or anything I was just saying that it's not something to joke about."

I nodded, "If you say so, now I think we have a more pressing matter to worry about." "Like what?" Leo asked. "Your leg," I told him, "We still need to rebandage it." Leo sighed and held his hand out, "Give it to me I can wrap my leg I'm not a little kid." "Even if you are capable of wrapping your leg, Jack has done it before, so he probably has more experience," I said. Leo rolled his eyes, "I've wrapped things before too, and I bet you I have more experience than he does. Now give." I frowned, "What did you have to wrap?" "None of your business," Leo said, "Now give me the jacket." "Okay," I said handing Leo the jacket. I watched as Leo rewrapped his leg perfectly and I couldn't help but wonder where he learned to do it.