Nowhere.

9 years ago Part 4

Nicole walked slowly behind Marcus and Tabitha. She noticed that as they got deeper into the woods, the darker it became. So she reached behind her and grabbed her flashlight from her pack. She turned on the light and it shone through all the dead branches and into the night sky. There was a rustling sound behind the group. Nicole quickly spun around and the flashlight began to flicker. Nicole banged the flashlight against her hand until it shone brightly once again, and they set off deeper into the woods. Tabitha was beginning to complain to Marcus about anything and everything "My feet hurt... I'm freezing... I'm thirsty... Did you bring beer?... " Nicole could tell that Marcus was getting extremely irritated, so he began to walk faster. Nicole got scared and sped by Tabitha and close to Marcus' side. Marcus glanced down to her and smiled.

"Scared, little one?" Marcus said through his chattering teeth. It was unbearably cold and wet in the deep woods. Nicole flashed her light at the ground to light her path. "No... I'm very tired... Can we stop somewhere?" Nicole pleaded. Marcus gave her a smile and looked ahead into the deep wood with Nicole's single beam of light shining their way.

They came upon a small clearing and Marcus ran to the middle of the large, circular patch of dirt. Nicole's flashlight shook in her hand as she was running behind Marcus. Her beam of light shone clearly past Marcus and on a small camp fire surrounded by logs lying on their sides as benches. Nicole plopped down on the log and watched Marcus pull a lighter from his back pocket. He flicked it open and lit it. As soon as he got the flames going, Nicole could feel a surge of energy rush through her body. She could feel the warmth enter her fingertips and she began to rub her hands and put them in her coat pockets.

As all three of the intruders sat around the fire, Tabitha began to get antsy and she began to complain even more. Nicole and Marcus began to get annoyed as each minute dragged on. Tabitha was moaning and groaning about how her stomach began to hurt, how she hated the girls at her school. Nicole would zone out and snap back into reality. Nicole gazed into the dancing flames, when she suddenly felt an extreme rush of pain hit her left temple. As if someone hit her in the head with a hammer. She fell off the log and slammed onto the cold dirt of the forest floor. As she was writhing in pain, her vision began to blur, her eyesight was whitening and she swept in and out of reality. Every time her vision would clear for a second, she felt as if she was looking through a view- master. She would close her eyes, open them, see Marcus and Tabitha over her. Close them, open them again, see Marcus kneeling beside her with Tabitha's hand over her forehead. Each blackout was worse off with pain each time. Then, suddenly, the pain disappeared, and she sat up with no force pressing on her head.