Bound by Hellfire

Chapter 15

We all stood in silence as the boy's screams continued. Every second sounded more painful than the last. I closed my eyes, doing my best not to imagine what was happening to him, but Marcus's words caused the thoughts to slip in anyway.

"I bet that THING got to him," he whispered.

"Dude, shut up," Mason snapped back.

"What else makes someone scream like that? Y'all saw what that thing was doing to people."

"We don't know what we saw," I muttered. "We don't know anything about this place. We don't even know where we are."

"Not Earth," Mason remarked rolling his eyes.

Marcus shifted his hands toward Mason, agreeing with his opinion.

"I bet you that thing is some kind of alien, and--- and we've been abducted--- and now we are totally---" Marcus began raising his voice.

"Shhhhh," Mason and I responded in unison.

Marcus paused for a second as he covered his mouth with his hand before lowering it back down to his side.

"Totally fucked," Marcus mumbled.

"Shhh," I urged again.

"I am shushing! I was whispering!" Marcus replied in an angry whisper.

"No, wait" I replied as I held my hand up in a stopping motion.

We were all silent as we listened to the forest. The wind blew through the trunks and into our clearing like a mouse finishing its maze. The only sound now was the soft crackle of the leaves as they danced along the floor.

"The screaming stopped," Mason whispered.

This place was creepy the moment we arrived here. The second that we stepped into these woods. A feeling of being watched. That eeriness had returned as we stared into the darkness of the wood. The light from the planets above acting as a wall between life and death.

"I don't think we should stay here," Marcus shuddered.

Mason and I agreed as we slowly began to walk backward. Our eyes fixated on the forest in front of us. Something was out there. Just beyond our view. Waiting for us to turn our backs so it could get the jump on us.

We took another step, and then another. Slowly but surely putting some distance between us and the forest. We were in the middle of the clearing now. I tried to keep my eyes on the trees, but I couldn't resist peaking at the clouds above.

I stared into the sky as I backpedaled my way through the knee-high grass. The planets above cast a bluish-green light onto the glade.

The colors were beautiful. Like a barrage of hues never before discovered all rushing into me.

My gaze hung high in the air, mesmerized by the globes above, but before I knew it they were being shrouded by an ominous black smog.

I followed the trail of clouds back to the tree line where it poured relentlessly into the night sky. It was slithering through the treetops, blurring away the detail of the leaves at it flowed into the clearing, and at the ground below a faint light could be seen peering through the labyrinth of black trees.

All of us stopped moving. We watched as the light grew brighter and brighter. Stretching out from the darkness like a lighthouse calling us home.

Marcus squinted. His large brow almost covering all of the brownness in his eyes.

"What is that?" He mumbled to himself.

My breathing grew rapid. I could feel sweat begin to form on my head and hands, making myself colder as another gust of wind blew through the air.  A familiar scent of smoke and wood hung in the breeze.