The Wrong Direction

Chapter Thirty-Nine Part Two

A/N: Again, this isn't edited yet, so parts may not make sense.  If that happens, please tell me and I'll fix it. :)

Sienna

Chapter Thirty-Nine  Part Two

I could feel a lump forming at the back of my throat.  It coated my mouth in a sour taste from the uncomfortable pain, while a few tears prickled in my eyes.  I sucked in a deep breath of air between clenched teeth to calm myself down.  Everything was getting to me.  I couldn't even think of anything other than a stupid 'I'm sorry' to say to Louis, the boy I've never had a problem saying what I wanted to.  He watched me with his haunting blue eyes, a look of gloom cast over them.  It was like he was staring right through my soul - it made me wonder if he could even see me.

"I'm so, so sorry for ever bothering you," I choked out.  I sniffled and brushed a stray tear off of my cheek.  "I'm so sorry for annoying you these past few days.  It was stupid of me."

I couldn't meet Louis's fierce gaze.  His intense eyes stared me down as I stumbled past him.  When I was only feet away from him, my name slipped out of his mouth.  His tone almost sounded surprised by it himself.  I didn't falter, though.  Instead, my pace increased.  I scrambled away from him and headed back to camp.  Tree branches whipped in my face from the wind picking up, my dark brown curly hair flowing in the wind like tangled leaves.

The tears threatened to spill out of my eyes, but I held them back.  I had to be strong.  I couldn't breakdown any longer - not over something silly like a boy.  But eventually, I started to tell myself I was crying over the thin trails of blood trailing down my cheeks from the fierce tree branches that continued to scratch me as I tore my way through the forest.

I crashed into the familiar atmosphere of camp.  I stumbled forward, only to collapse on my knees several steps ahead.  I could sense the figures of several other people watching me, but I couldn't bring myself to look up at them.  I fell backwards and sat on the ground, pressing my palms to my face in dismay.  Nothing was making sense.  Everything I had worked so hard for was slipping between my fingers like water.

My crying slowly subsided, but the aching feeling inside of me didn't go away.  A scorching smell slowly started to drift through my nostrils and cling to the back of my throat.  At first, I thought nothing of it - I assumed it was the horrible side effects of my endless sobbing.  But soon enough, I realized something else was going on.

I pulled my head up from my hands and stared around camp.  Nothing was out of the ordinary, besides the fact that Zayn was running around in only his boxers.  As he moved, one or two Frosted Flakes would tumble out of the piece of clothing and onto the dirt, as if he was leaving a trail of everywhere he went.  Ben was sitting on a rock nearby and staring at a semi-nude Zayn.  Drool was trickling out of the corner of his mouth in a steady stream of saliva.  Besides those two creepers, Harry, Liam, and Samacha were the only other people in camp.  While Samacha was spread out across the ground and snoring, Harry was cuddling with Carrot and Liam was sitting next to him, doing nothing in particular.  I was a little surprised to see Harry holding Carrot in his lap.  She hadn't been hanging around camp lately - I hadn't seen her in days.  I figured Ben had scared her off, which would have been pretty logical.

Everything looked normal, and I was about to bury my head in my arms when I saw a big wisps of gray smoke travel past the tops of the trees in the distance.  I sat up straighter and tipped my head to the side, staring at the billows of dark haze.  For some reason, it reminded me of the mushroom clouds created by bombs in action movies.

I didn't realize something else had to be going on to create smoke.  I wasn't thinking clearly.  Only moments later, flickers of fiery flames were visible in the distance.  A shaky gasp escaped my dry lips and I blinked multiple times in utter astonishment, wondering if closing my eyes and opening them would make the disaster unfolding around me disappear in a flash.