The Forest

Chapter 34

    When I awoken I jumped and felt a strange sting throughout my body. My skin was a dark, sickly green color now. I felt cold, very cold. My eyes did not burn anymore, but they felt different - like they weren't mine...like they weren't my eyes to see with.

    When I turned over Suzanne was lying next to a tree. Her head against the stump and her eyes fixated on me. She caught me off guard so dramatically I felt my heart jump out of my chest. Was that what I looked like too..dead?

    "Matthew, I feel very strange" she groans and places her hand on her head. "What has she done to us?"

    "I see the transformation went well" I hear a voice say before I could respond to Suzanne. It was Kimberly, and she was standing over us so happily with what she had accomplished.

    "Now" she continues, "You too fit right in" she chuckles a little and I immediately turn to look at my surroundings.

    We were back in the forest, sitting on its death infested ground. The same gas or smoke that had sicken both Suzanne and I the first time we came in filled the air, but did not have the same effect. It was uncomfortably quiet, but if you stared closely you'd see a creature crawling around the floor letting out painful groans. It's like these eyes allowed me to see different things I never could before. It was almost like a shield of protection to the gas, it was like my body was immune.

    "Kimberly, is this how you fell - so cold inside?" Suzanne asked with sorrow in her eyes.

    "Yes. You'll only feel it temporarily, but for us..it's forever" she replies with cold in her voice. I was beginning to feel sick, but nothing would come up.

"We need to get out of here.." I say grumpily, "I don't like being in this fog, it's drowning me"

"Follow me" she said and we both watched her sluggishly walk forward toward the other end of the forest. We both looked at each other and stood up, holding our hands up against the trees to keep steady. I felt dizzy. To keep from falling Suzanne grabs hold of my hand. Despite how dead I felt, her hand felt alive. It made me feel alive.

"No wonder Jasper wants to live again.." I heard Suzanne say, but I did not see her lips move.

    For a second I ignored the random comment, but I heard someone else speak and it was not Suzanne's voice or Kimberly's.

    "Help me..I don't want to live in darkness anymore" I heard a person..well, I wasn't really sure it was a person, groan sadly. This was strange as I did not see where the voice was coming from. Suddenly, a frantic of voices filled my head all at once.

    "Jasper seeks life" they yelled, "The boys soul is what he needs" they moan

    I cover my ears to get the noises to stop, but they don't. What's happening I thought.

    "You're hearing their thoughts" Kimberly said, and I got uncomfortable. How could she hear what I was thinking? Did I hear what Suzanne was thinking too?

    "What? I don't understand" I reply

    "We can hear each other's thoughts here..it's a part of the death sentence we have here. We are trapped within each other like a fly in a spiders web" she tells me

    "How can I make it stop?" I ask her, pleading 

    "You don't" she says coldly, "You just learn to ignore it"

    I shook my head at her words. Suzanne squeezed my hand as a way of saying, "It'll be okay". I doubted that, in fact I didn't believe it at all, but I pretended that I did.

    As we roamed we stayed close behind her. This seemed too easy..I didn't like the fact that I could walk out of here no problem. It didn't feel right. I just knew it didn't.

    As the cold feeling continued to drown us, Kimberly hardly saddened by it, I started to see these ghost like figures appear in front of us. 

    "What is that?" Suzanne asked, stopping mid step to glance at it.

    "Take a closer look" Kimberly says without stopping and without turning around to look at us.

    I was hesitant..was this a trick of some kind? We moved closer toward the figures and Suzanne fell back in horror and fright.

    "Is that - is that us?!" she asked, staring in disbelief

    There were ghost like figures of us staring right back at us. They smiled and laughed at our faces. I was so taken back I couldn't move.

    "What is going on?" I finally asked, helping Suzanne up off the floor.

    "They're your reminders" Kimberly says in a distant voice

    "Our what?" Suzanne asked, clearly frustrated

    "The dead souls here are forced to look at their living selves. It's a reminder of who they used to be before they died. However, they would tend to take on a mind of their own. It's like your own personal form of torture" Kimberly says

    "So, where's yours?" I ask and she frowns

    "Trust me..she's near" Kimberly says and I feel so horrid. This is sick and unfair. Why must this happen? Why do they deserve to be tortured?

    I could feel Suzanne tap my shoulder and when I looked over to see what she wanted her eyes were as huge as skyscrapers.

    "What is it?" I ask

    "Look to your right" she says, without making eye contact with me. I had a feeling I wouldn't like what I was about to see.

    When I did as I was told I saw something that made me cringe. It was Sammy, but in ghost form. He waved to me and I could feel my heart racing. He had a wicked smile and I tried to grab him knowing full well my hands would go right through him.

    "Save me, before I'm stuck like this" Sammy whines