Geff and Jerald

The Awakening

Jane POV

As I was sitting quietly in my chair, Mom called me down for dinner. "Coming!" I slid down the steps with pleasure. Smells nice, I muttered to myself. Cool! There was chicken salad. While I was eating, I couldn't help but notice the empty chair right next to me. "Did you call your cousin down to eat?" Mom asked me. "I don't know where he is . I haven't seen him all morning."

"Well, check on him! He might be playing with his device again." I swallowed a chunk of lettuce. "Y'know, that might actually be a possibility."

Geff POV

"So, uh, yeah. We'll be there as soon as we can. Although since we already went to see you guys on Monday, we might not be able to go today. But I promise we'll try to. Okay. Bye." I closed the small phone. "Works like a charm! It's so easy  to use." I put it on our table. There wasn't any need to keep it a secret.

"Yo, it's your turn to wash the dishes." I sighed. "Yeah, I know." I went downstairs. Mom was at the kitchen table scribbling on a notebook. "Hey. You know how you made some new friends that you hung out with recently?"

"Yeah. I know. If you're gonna say something about Jane--"

"No, I'm just here to say that seeing you communicate with others inspired me to do something special. It gave me just enough courage so I could boost my confidence. So now I'm writing stories again."

"Really? I hope it turns out well. I'm really grateful you went back to writing. What's it about, anyway?" She gave me a sneak-peek of what would later become a full on book. "Cool! The start is great. Even if it's been a long time that you've written, you still have the same good talent."

She nodded and continued to jot things down. I took the sponge and grabbed a small bowl. I filled it with water and squirted a little bit of soap in there. After washing all the dishes, it was already time to sleep. But the work I just did took away the whole 'I'm sleepy' vibe. I felt indecisive, so in the end my social side won out, and I got Jerald to come with me so we could meet up with Gabe and T.J.

"Nice, you guys actually came! Did ya bring the flashlights that I told you to bring?" I sure did. I clicked it on and off. "Perfect. Come in here. The ops don't wanna see people wander in here after the disappearance." The two were sitting a few feet into the cornfield. Jerald shuddered, but T.J took action. "Nah, don't worry. Them monsters ain't gonna getcha if you sit just a few feet away from th' exit." Jerald and I crept inside. The corn stalks hid our bodies. A while later, some 'ops', which in slang is the police, showed up. "Looks like they're on patrol," Gabe whispered. "Sure are, and they're not gonna hit th' wheel and scram till' some minutes crunch by." I said to the others. "I know the schedule. Dudes don't look like they want to leave. They got all sorts of things to busy themselves with while they're at it. We better go in deeper if we wanna discuss the plan."

All of us slowly crawled around each stalk, which took some time, because we wanted to be stealthy. T.J accidentally bumped into me and he swerved off. He lost his balance and crashed into a cornstalk. The leaves waved, making quite a bit of noise. The officers that were once chatting on the hood of their car turned around and turned on their flashlights. "Could've sworn I saw something in there."

"Let it go, Bill. It was probably just an animal or something." The man named Bill slowly walked towards the stalks. He opened them, flashing his light in all directions. Soon he went back and turned it off. "Dang. I was kinda expecting something more than a bug." The other guy rolled his eyes. "Hey, I wasn't reassured."

"So, tell me. What exactly did you think it was?" The other guy asked. "I dunno, Henry. Groups of teenagers used to hide in there and ambush the patrol crew. Buncha vandalized cars coming to the station after that week." Henry lit a cigarette. "Want one?"

"Nah, I quit smoking over a month back." The two men continued to chat, then argue. But to the four boys the conversation didn't matter to them. "So my plan was to break into the man's house and see what he's hiding. Most kidnappers keep kids and/or drugs in their basement; People say that if you get close enough, you might hear suspicious sounds below your own two feet." Gabe stood up and tried to get a glimpse of the house, not too far away from the cornfield. We all did the same technique to get to the house. This time, a little bit faster. T.J quickly turned around and signaled the whole group in another direction. Unfortunately, the way he signaled them was an old-fashioned way, so most of us thought that was the signal to run. So we panicked and did. The man sitting on his porch sniffed a little. A dog came running out. He barked at his owner, letting him know that there were intruders on the perimeter. The man was infuriated. He immediately got up, put on his coat, and grabbed a shotgun leaning towards the wall. That meant he was gonna hunt us down. "Go, Buster! Sniff out the beast. I know what I'm having for dinner. Weird. This guy ate dinner at night? But there was no time to think. We picked up speed. "Darn raccoons. Hopefully I got me a squirrel!" A bullet shot by us, hitting a corn stalk. It barely missed me. Eventually we scampered away successfully. But by then we were lost. "Anybody know the way back?" Gabe asked meekly. T.J and Jerald said nothing. I had no response, either. "We've gotta find a tree. Staying here for too long might just let the beast find us."

"Please tell me you're talking about the dog and not the Corn Boy."

"You know  what I'm talking about," T.J added. Jerald shivered and clutched his shoulders. "So! Anybody bring tents?" I said, laughing nervously. "I don't think being humorous betters our situation." I looked around. We were on an empty patch of dirt, where the stalks wouldn't be slapping us in the wind and making us insanely itchy. I scratched my ear. "Hey. Th' forest is over there, not too far. The moon seems to be shinin' right on that spot. Must mean that the cornfield ends there."

"You sure? We trusted you the first time. And all that  got us into was us getting lost in a literal CURSED CORNFIELD--" T.J quickly smacked his hand on top of Jerald's mouth. "Shut your trap! You want the fuzz to find us?" He shook his head and T.J let go. We slowly advanced. "Make sure no one gets left behind. We can't risk another  guy." We didn't even care about the noise anymore. The two other guys were long gone. The trees seemed to get bigger and bigger. Then, we hit a pothole. No, literally. Gabe was walking by and suddenly his foot sunk into the ground. "Agh! Gopher holes."

I stopped. "Wait. I don't think gophers eat corn. They don't like to eat grains." Gabe stopped trying to pull his foot out. He raised a finger. He was wheezing, as if he was trying to say something, but couldn't. I turn around as quickly as I can, immediately spotting a figure with black eyes. My flashlight flickers, and when it comes back on, the figure is gone. "GUYS! WE'VE GOTTA LEAVE! NOW!" We all started to run, until T.J reminded me about Gabe. "HELP!" Someone was PULLING HIM INSIDE. I sprinted and yanked on his arm, fiercely fighting to get him away. The tug-of-war breaks up, and we go flying a few feet away. I hear a distorted screech behind me, and both Gabe and I dashed away from there real quick. We caught up with the other guys and raced out of the place as fast as we could. There wasn't even time to point the flashlights in the right direction, so there were a bunch of light beams everywhere. Constantly somebody would look behind them, and sometimes the other would smack the guy looking behind. We tumbled down a hill, and we saw a big fence before us. Barbed wire was hooked around it like crazy. Stacks of boards were attached on top for extra protection. And as for last, an iron finish. I shook the fence. "What?!? How are we gonna get through this?" Gabe crouched and touched the wire. Then he sucked on his finger."Sharp. There's no way we're gonna be able to open a gap. The stuff's way too thick." So we went under. T.J and Jerald dug the hole and me and Gabe scooped away the loose dirt left. Eventually, when they thought it looked big enough, T.J tried to fit through. "Hey, it actually worked!" It was kinda a tight squeeze, but we all made it through. But afterwards we had to go around the whole forest. Me and Jerald still got our sleep, but he said that we were NEVER going more than six feet into the cornfield. That was fine by me, as long as we could still go in. Man, I was hungry. Running really chews away at that meal you ate a while back. There wasn't any processed foods in our house, so chomping down on a carrot was my only midnight snack. But that didn't matter. I'd take carrots over broccoli any day.