Finding Winter

Chapter 3

Three hours I waited in the forest.

Three hours I waited alone- with the exception of occasionally being accompanied by a few annoying gnats, a persistent bunch of flies, and a mosquito intent on sucking me dry. They, unfortunately, were the only things keeping me occupied while I waited for the blue orb.

At first, I was nervous, paranoid as hell, and afraid for my life, but the more I waited the more I seemed to accept whatever fate I had in store. I started thinking about other things, like how my phone must have dropped out of my pocket on the way here and how there was no paper to draw on because my backpack was stuffed away in the gym locker room.

There was a lanky and diseased looking stick by my foot that I could have drawn on the dirt with, but I didn't have enough inspiration to get my hands dirty.

So instead, I continued sitting there in absolute silence, staring at the precise location I found the blue orb. More than anything I wanted to leave, but I was afraid that the moment I got up would be the moment I am struck with inexplicable pain and die. After every odd occurrence, I would seem to undergo a series of traumatizing pain, so I was not leaving until I felt something.

"Matthew, why the hell are you here?"

Settled into the silence and not used to another presence by my side, I made a frantic scuttle down the hill and through the littered debris of tree bark, broken pieces of wood, and young aspen saplings. Once I managed to gain a grip on some solid and flat ground, I spun on my heels and faced my sister with absolute bewilderment.

Somehow, deep and buried within the forest, Autumn managed to find me. Either she managed to plant a tracker on me or activated a mysterious twin ability that I had no knowledge of.

"What the hell? How did you find me?" I exclaimed in awe while I watched her trot her way down the hill with ease.

"No, first off, you have some major explaining to do." She continued with her eyes blazing in anger and frustration.

Then slinging her backpack down on the ground, pacing back and forth, and swaying her hands out to the sides as if she was talking with them, I braced myself for what was about to come. When Autumn was mad, you don't even bother talking back. You run for cover.

"I heard what happened in your P.E. class today. Seriously, Matthew. I asked you to stop back talking Julian, but not only do you back talk him you decide to freaking punt him? How the hell did you do that anyway?" Autumn yelled and glared at me, our French ancestry making her death glare twice as more frightening.

Thunder crackled across the sky as she continued her fiery rant.

"And to make it the perfect cherry on top, you decide to piss me off even further by stealing the computer from my room when it's my week to have it. You're my freaking brother, not a little sister that takes stuff from my room!"

A chilly gust from the pass swept by and tussled through her blonde hair, making it seem like a stream of fire blazing out from her hot-tempered head.

"That leads me to the other thing. What were you even trying to look up?" She asked as she stopped her wild pacing and reached for the laptop in her pink backpack.

My eyes shot open in alarm, and I leaped forward to stop her from pulling out the laptop, however Autumn managed to yank the computer back up. All I could do now was prepare myself by cringing in embarrassment; all my search results would sound odd if taken out of context.

And one by one she read them out loud, looking up at me after each one- examining my behavior to see if my body language would give way to anything I was secretly hiding.