Truth or Dare... and Die

Chapter 9

I believe I have never run this much at once in my entire life. Every rustle in the foreboding brush alongside me, each stray twig crunching like brittle bones under my feet, causes my head to swivel back and forth, like a bobble head or broken toy. Paranoia, fear, anxiety, and the very real danger of my 'crazed murderer' of a best friend leave me suffocating and swimming in layers upon layers of unanswered and unthinkable questions.

This night is worse than any terrible nightmare or news story- it's a horror story if anything. What makes it more unbearable is that I cannot just walk out of the room or stop the movie- I have to live it and see how everything plays out. There is no spoiler alert, and if there was I wouldn't want to hear it. For all I know, this could end in my brutal demise. That may sound more like an exaggeration than reality, but if you've ever been in any situation like the one I've stumbled ignorantly into, you too are a witness to the unwanted and intolerable nightmarish memories that become ingrained into your very existence. I have the dreadful feeling that they will never dissipate, nor leave the corners of my mind. That is where nightmares hide, in the corners just like the monsters of my childhood. Under my bed, in my closet, on the other side of the mirror... they are everywhere, if one only knows well enough to look for them.

There I go, getting distracted again. Anyway, here I am, running for my life, from my best friend, with no idea where I need to go. Cody's smart enough not to follow me to the police station, and I highly doubt he would act like this if I ran to his house. After all, if he fooled me, ME- his BEST FRIEND for crying out loud- he would be able to fool them. I feel sick to my stomach, as if every fiber of my being is trembling uncontrollably. You know those times where you're so upset you actually get sick? That's what is happening to me, at quite possibly the worst time ever. I can't be sick now, I can't be weak, weakness means death.

Honestly, I almost feel like I'm stuck in a poorly planned remake of the Hunger Games ( yes, I did just make that reference). Maybe there's a more rational explanation, but I'm not waiting around for one. I'm not staying in one place for more than a second, literally. Gotta keep moving, I just have to get away. No if, and, or but about it.

Wait... I have an idea! Maybe I can confuse him... he isn't exactly in his right mind anyway, and if he is... well, for sanity's sake I'll stick with ' he's not '. Maybe I can circle around, back to the abandoned penitentiary. At the moment, even creepy, possibly murderous men sound better than falling into Cody's insane clutches.

The smallest inkling of a thought tugs as the back of my brain; what if Cody was never really my friend? What if he has always been... like this... and just thought it fun to play some twisted game with us, and me especially...? I know there's a word for that... antisocial personality? or psychopathic? I can't remember at the moment due to my fight or flight response system taking up most of my energy. To think that I have always been so blind to the truth, naive to the obvious- it fills me with terror.

TO BE CONTINUED...