What Not To Do In The Valley

Jay

Sometimes, there would be blood in his mouth when he woke up or fidgeted too much. He'd gotten used to picking at the exposed skin between the bandages. 

Every time he held a dripping clump of snot and flesh in his hands he felt like he was going to be taken away and locked in a hospital until they saw what he was doing that made him so sick. 

Jay didn't want to leave. He hid the parts that fell out behind the couch and under the carpets.

He was freshly fourteen and he'd only just been sent here after something that happened on his birthday. The way Will Spoke about the village resonated with him so much. It didn't make sense back there. 

As a new arrival, he was assigned a buddy to make sure he was settling in okay. Their name was Dart and they smiled endlessly.

They looked like a jester that became an assassin. He couldn't tell what they thought of him behind their simplistic smiling mask. At least he could hear them coming from the bells on their hat and coattails. 

He wasn't very sure of them but felt worse when they were away. There was a strange little girl who would look at him through the windows. She never came inside.

Jay could tell the others thought he was skittish and sickly, and it really upset him. He was clueless how to prove himself otherwise, but the household moved at such a breakneck pace that he felt he had to do something.

He was in the bathroom when they came to get him. Sitting on the counter by the sink and looking at his face in the mirror. It was itchy under the bandages. 

Dart knocked on the door, leading him to catch up with the small group outside in the overgrown garden. Micheal and Will weren't around.

Jay was underprepared. Trudging through the bushes in an oversized hoodie and slippers, watching the others hushedly chatter as Dart skipped beside them. Jay could overhear the conversation. Campfire smoke was seen over the treeline. Spotted by Kimber, who climbs roofs to feel alive. 

He tried to get Dart's attention, to make them remember he hadn't spoken with Mrs Hive about what to do to people who entered her forest. He was uneasily pulling at the wrappings on his arm.

He stayed by a tree as the others ran into the campground, rifling through the tent and scattered litter. Dart saw him and ripped a packet of stale marshmallows from a close tug of war, holding it out to him.

Jay realised he was being pitied again. 

"Don't do that." He looked away and walked into the woods. 

There was a rotting wooden fence by a small stream of water. The noise at the old campsite was barely audible. It was dark from the thick leaves and the crack of old wood echoed around them. 

The quick ones had already gotten what they wanted from the campsite and come here to beat up the path back to town.

Jay sat by Kimber on a large rock. She was laughing at Benny failing to break the fence. She flipped a pocket knife and reached up to continue carving ragged words on an ancient stump. 

KEEP OUT

She looked at Jay like she had to watch her words around him. They didn't know each other that well and a heavy silence threatened the three of them.

"Are you making sure they don't come back?" Jay asked, looking between them. 

"Don't tell Hive what we're doing to the trees."

"I'm not a snitch."

Kimber jammed the dull blade into the thick bark. Hacking at it. "Then what are you?"

Jay eyed Benny and jumped over the remaining fence. The river ate away at the ground underneath. He stepped into the shallow water and felt his socks get cold. Short wooden posts held part of the path up, but they weren't much newer than the fence. 

Benny came to investigate as Jay lifted a rock and threw it hard at the weaker support, snapping it. 

Benny nodded and started searching for his own rock as Jay went to the thicker beam and started kicking it. Harder and harder as Kimber realised and stood on top of the stump.

It broke and Jay poked at the dirt and fence until enough of it caved in to be satisfying. 

Roots held up so much of the dirt that Kimber hadn't needed to move so much, but she liked the effort he put in. 

They got him caught up in building traps and destroying old structures. Kimber lent him her boots and he never gave them back. 

Dart wasn't a good mentor. They encouraged it, lending their own tools. 

Two weeks after finding the campsite, Jay witnessed the first victim fall into a trap. The farmer's neighbor. An isolated type. 

He'd been actively luring them in, a melon and a rake snatched from their garden.

They broke through the fake floor and sharpened stakes burst through their body. 

Jay's jaw dropped. Sloughing off his upper skull and landing by his feet with a wet thump. He was too fixated on the trap to do anything about it. 

The farmer's neighbour wasn't dead. Gurgling and yelling. The house lights came on. Distantly, a second voice called out in concern. 

"Bleeding hell, Jay." Benny jumped out of the tree to pick up his jaw. "You coulda just run around or something." He pocketed the jaw and pulled Jay up the tree for a better vantage point. 

In the house was a woman's silhouette. Looking out an open window before making her way to the back door with a bat and calling out shakily. Following the pained voice.

The door was left open for a contorted body to crawl out and onto the rooftop. Clawing its way out of sight as Jay decided to get out the tree and go. 

Benny held him back right before the woman started shrieking at the sight of the pit. It would take a lot of climbing to get down far enough from the humans. 

Dart met up with them in the branches on their way out. Benny looked at them with expectation but they shook their head. Jay was deeply annoyed.

Jay kept an eye on Dart, who followed behind them on the way home, stretching their back after crawling around for so long. They kept at least one arm on their back while reattaching their bells. Leaves crunched underfoot. 

"I'm the distraction from now on," Benny ordered, holding the jaw again after realising the blood soaked through his pocket. "I'll actually give them time to look."

Jay didn't take his eyes off Dart. They walked peacefully behind the duo. He turned around and reached for their arm. Struggling and grasping for their hand until he pulls the pack into view.

"You lied!" Benny yelled before Dart could pull the pack of cigarettes back out of sight. "You were gonna share them with Micheal, weren't you? Traitor."

Jay glared at the clown. This was the first time they tried to get something secret for the three of us and now he regretted including them.

He reckoned he could have stolen a lot more than a pack of cigarettes if he'd gone into that house. 

When he got his jaw back on, he'd tell them how unfair this was. 

He reached back to try and steal it from them, but they passed it around themself far quicker. A nearby boulder gave him enough height to jump up and catch it, pushing into their body and sending them stumbling backwards. 

Jay looked to Benny desperately, but he knew better than to fight with such sensitive arms. 

Dart dropped the pack to catch themself on a low branch and Jay football kicked the little box as far as he could into the distant bushes. 

They straightened themself and stared at him. A soft wind blew through the leaves as they caught their breath.

"What the hell did that accomplish?"