Somewhere in the Trees

thirteen

Abe orders the crowd to disperse back to their sleeping quarters, and so they do, immediately, without a second to spare.

Scott and Elsie rush over to us and herd us away from the crowd and stage. I catch one last glimpse of Declan, who's still on the stage catching his breath, recovering from the pure horror he was just put through, before we're directed to turn around and walk back to our room.

Elsie leads the pack while Scott trails behind us, wielding the pistol.

I can't think straight. My bare feet sink into the wet grass as I walk. The chatter from the crowd starts growing distant as we plod closer to our isolated building.

Kiran keeps looking over his shoulder frantically towards the stage, but every time he does, Scott lifts the gun up and points it at him.

"Look ahead," Scott orders, voice stern.

"Is he going to be okay?" Kiran asks.

"Shut up." Scott shoves Kiran hard from behind, knocking him slightly off balance, but he catches himself and continues walking.

Elsie turns around and walks backwards, giving Scott a look. "Would you take it easy on them? It's not their fault," she defends.

The entire walk to our building, Scott continues to mumble angrily to himself with the gun still pointed at us. I worry he's going to snap and shoot us dead. I drift slightly to the side so my eyes can remain on him for the duration of the silent walk, watching his every move.

We finally arrive at our building, and Elsie stands by the side of the door. I look at her. Surely I look horrified, and so she gives me a small, sympathetic smile.

We enter the building and Scott rushes ahead of us to aggressively swing the bedroom door open. He gestures for us to enter, and we trudge into the dusty room single-file, heads down.

As we pile into the room, Kiran stays by the doorway. "Where's Declan?" he asks Scott, his angular face illuminated only by a single, buzzing bulb in the lamp behind him.

Scott sighs and shrugs. "I don't care."

Kiran takes a step towards him. "Okay, well, I do. Is he coming back?"

"I don't know what Abe plans to do with his new pet," Scott snaps. He turns to look at all of us, his beady eyes holding a sinister glimmer. I reach up to touch my neck again, a chill rushing through my body. "I will be back to give you all your work assignments," he says.

"Wait!" Kiran tries to stop him, but Scott slams the door shut in his face, and we hear him fumble with all of the locks on the other side of the door.

I sink into one of the beds, unable to calm my heart rate. I don't even feel alive right now.

Zoe sits next to me on the bed. She looks over her shoulder at Kiran, before she looks back at me. "Somebody's worried about their boyfriend," she says quietly with a small grin. Her placid demeanor sends a jolt through me.

My heart feels like it's climbing into my throat. "We al-almost just watched Declan get killed," I say quietly, trying to stop my voice from trembling.

Her eyes narrow, confused. "Okay... but we didn't. He's fine."

I stare at her, searching desperately for something in her eyes or any slight expression in her face that will tell me she is feeling as scared as I am, as we all are. But I don't see anything, and it frightens me.

I think back to when I learned about coping mechanisms, and I try to justify it with that. She is probably just in shock from all of this, it is still very new, and so she is trying to process it by using her twisted, mean humor.