Beating hearts

Chapter 25

Mud, branches, thorns, wind made of needles, how did she talk herself into coming here? What was the point? She knew she wasn't going to find anything. She hated herself, she hated what she had become.
But she still continued on her pointless journey through the wilderness to find an imaginary cabin and a fallacy witch. She wasn't fully sure why, but  she needed to go, she needs to this, something inside her told her she had to, like she was being drawn there. All more reason not to go, but she couldn't shake the feeling of determination to go anyway.

She thought to herself as the wind gnawed at her pale skin, the Thorn bushes and Limbs scratched at her through her blue jeans.

"I could be at home right now with Zac, warm and safe, trying to be normal and forgetting this stupid theory."

But again, what was the point? Every time she's tried to move on with her life, something stops her and strips it all away from her, it never fails going wrong and blowing up in her face.
She has almost lost all hope for happiness. She felt like her life had become adepressing song stuck on a continuous loop, skipping and replaying unable to move on to the next track. She convinced herself, that if she could find out what is going on, stop whomever it is that's doing this to her, and finally put an end to the insanity and the constant pounding going on in her brain, then maybe she could move on and be happy for more than a day without something bad happening.
She hast to believe in it, because if none of its real, then she really is crazy.

So that's her solution, find the witch and it will all stop.
But soon she starts to highly regret her decision as the wind grows colder and the forest deepens

"What person in their right mind hikes through the freezing cold woods alone?" she asks herself glancing up at a night owl perched and cooing up in the bare and slightly frozen tree limbs.
It looked down at her with those wide and judging eyes, watching her as if she was talking to it and it was carefully listening.

"Well obviously I'm not in my right mind, I am rapidly losing all of my brain cells looking for a witch that supposedly lives in a cabin out in the woods, just so I can knock on her door and ask her to stop haunting me or stop whatever the hell it is she's doing, yes that's a wonderful and well thought out plan," she says aloud while dogging low, stringy tree limbs and climbing over fallen logs.

"Yep, I am defiantly insane, but might as well amuse it," she sighs
"Embrace your mental issues that's a great theory." She scoffs at herself.

Talking out loud and hearing her voice, somehow made her feel better and less scared that she was all alone and helpless. It didn't help to much, every noise she heard made her jump and skip a heartbeat, every tree shadow and animal call made her skin shiver with fear. She felt brave for coming all the way out here for answers, but all she wanted to do was run back home and hide in her bed under the covers.

She stops and looked around her, pausing to catch a breath, water runs in the distance from a small creak that was left unfrozen, the icy limbs on the trees sing as the wind blows them back and forth, it was almost night time, the falling sun left the turning sky full of different colors. If Ara wasn't so frightened and cold, it would have been a beautiful spot to be.

She starts to continue on her way but the forming frost bite on her nose and her trembling legs finally makes her realize its time to head back the way she came before she gets seriously lost or worse.

Once out of the woods, it's not a far walk to the center of the town which is just a few blocks from where Ara and Zac live, she usually didn't mind walking but for some reason she felt very scared and uneasy, it was probably because she had just wandered the woods by herself for an hour looking for a murderous witch.
She picks up her pace and keeps her face to the ground.
She could hear the same wolf call echoing and growing louder behind her as she walks alongside the road by the forest she had just came out of. It continues to howl and grow closer, like the wolf was following her, calling her back into the woods.

"Homes not too far," she says aloud to herself, "almost there."

She stops in her tracks, a sick and rolling feeling came to her stomach. She knew as soon as she saw them, things were going to go bad, and she was right. She let out a sigh of regret as the 4 strange men surrounded her.