Silent Night

Chapter Eight

Chapter eight

What was I getting myself into? Daniel sent his men except for Jace to go retrieve our bags and throw them into the fire. This didn't seem like a good sign. "Why did you do that?" I asked, my hope of getting out of here alive slowly decreasing.

Jace still held the dagger to my throat. I could tell he was eager, probably wanting to dig it into my skin if his boss gave him the okay to do so.

"It's all part of the deal." Daniel watched the flames burn up our bags, some burned up quicker than others. "Any of you have cell phones on you?" My friends nodded their heads side to side.

Daniel looked over to me to which I responded, "My phone was in my bag." I said it as I watched my bag burning up, it was one of the bags that took forever to burn.

"Check them." He ordered Leo then turned to Jace. "You check her." His eyes found their way to mine. "I have trust that you wouldn't lie to me, but this is just in case. Say.. If you did lie, well I'll let my good friend Jace gut you like a fucking fish." His words were like a taser to my heart. Psychopaths. It was the only word to describe these people.

Leo went around to my friends, checking them for phones while Jace checked me. With one hand still holding onto the knife, very close to my throat, he used the other hand to check me. He checked my front pockets, feeling his hand around a little too much. "Watch it." I warned him. In response to my comment, he felt around my inner thighs, moving his hand up. Fear ran through my veins and tears were on the verge on my eyelids, but he didn't stop. His hands continued to venture, my lips couldn't utter a single word.

"Jace." Daniel yelled his name. Jace stopped and moved his hand away from me. Daniel started walking towards him with a expressionless look, it scared me more than smile. "I don't know what kind of show you think we're running, but we're not fucking pedophiles. Keep your hands to yourself, you hear me?" Jace's head fell, not being able to look into his leader's eyes. "Answer me." Daniel's veins popped out of neck and his eyes turned crazier than before.

"I hear you." Jace answered him, sounding defeated and embarrassed.

Daniel took me by the arm away from Jace and sat me on one of the logs. "You move, I'll kill you." I believed him, so I sat there afraid of making any movements.

My mind played with the thought of me running away. What would happen? My eyes stared out into the darkness, I knew the forest somewhat from what I remembered walking to the campsite, well enough to know the way out. I pulled my eyes away from the trees knowing I couldn't do it, there was too much at risk.

Leo was still checking my friends and I watched him. He was currently checking Ginger, her eyes were slightly wider than usual as he patted her down. Leo stopped and looked her in the eyes with a smile. What was going on? He reached under her pants leg and into her sock, pulling out a cellphone. My heart dropped, remembering the warning Daniel gave me when I lied to him. "Look what we have here." Leo chuckled, throwing the cellphone to Daniel. Shit.

Daniel caught it and opened the flip-phone. With one hand on the side with buttons and the other on the side with the screen, he snapped it in half and threw in into the fire. "Now to talk about the deal, Marla." I was confused, he didn't even seem remotely pissed that she lied, which I was thankful for. I didn't want any of my friends to get hurt. "I'll let you and your friends go on one condition."

"What is it?" I asked him. For each second he didn't respond, I felt more nervous than the second before.

"Me and my friends are going to place you all somewhere in this forest, away from each other. You'll have a watch that will go off in thirty seconds, when it does, you can take off your blind folds and run. Except for the liar over here." He pointed towards Ginger. "Your watch won't go off in thirty seconds, you have to wait for a minute and a half, that's your penalty for lying. I bet you wish you told the truth now, huh?" He laughed then got serious again. "Don't try to run before you're suppose to because I will know, I will make you regret it." He took a second to look us all in the eyes with a cold stare. He could freeze over Hell with a look like that. "If you find your way out of this forest, you're free. If you don't.. Well lets not think of that right now." He clapped his hands together, rubbing them against each other above the fire. "So how does that sound?" He looked over at me. "It'll be a fun game, I promise." A game? Is that what he thought this was? He really was a fucking psycho.

"What if we don't want to do that?" I was afraid of the answer, but my curiosity got the best of me.

"Jace over there will slaughter you like you're a pig then take you to my mother who will cook and prepare you for a nice dinner. We'll feast on you, save your friends for later days, and slowly kill them off, eating them too. You guys will just be another meal to us, so if you don't want to take the deal, it's fine by me." He shrugged his shoulders like it wasn't a big deal, then again to him, it probably wasn't.

I felt scared for my life and for my friends. Chills crawled up my spine, spreading through every joint of mine, making me feel uncomfortable, but I didn't want to move.

"We'll take your deal." I didn't look him in the eyes, but I knew he was staring at me. "But you have to give us our other friend back too."

"That's what I thought." He smiled. "Don't worry, we won't hurt your other friend.. What was his name?" He looked at me for the answer.

"Jackson." I clenched my jaw, biting my tongue from saying anything stupid.

"That's right.. We won't hurt your friend Jackson too much." My heart fell into my stomach. "But I'll make you another deal because I'm such an understanding guy, right?" He stared at me, as if he were waiting for a response. "Right?" He grabbed my neck, lifting me off of the log. I could feel his fingers squeeze into my skin. The longer I took to answer him, the more he put pressure and made it harder to breathe. I nodded my head, letting out a whimper. He let go and threw me back down on the log. "I knew I was right. But anyways, if you and your friends get out, I'll let Jackson free too. Deal?"

"Deal." I took the offer, feeling as if I a made a deal with the devil himself.

Daniel reached in his pocket, bringing out a cloth and bottle of some sort. As he opened the bottle, my nose took a waft of a distinct, pungent smell. He poured it onto the cloth. I seen this in too many movies to not know what it was. Chloroform. "What are you going to do with that?" The nervousness in my voice was clear. He didn't answer, just shook his head and let out a half-assed laugh.

"Now don't fight me." He stood me up, putting an arm around my neck as he brought up the cloth. I tried not to breathe it in, but it was more difficult than I anticipated as time went on. The more I fought it, the more I began to feel woozy. I had to have taken in more than six breaths while trying to fight him. "I said don't fight me." He tightened his arm around my neck even more, his voice become far away and distorted. Then I passed out.

I woke up, feeling a little bit dizzy only seeing darkness. That's when I realized I had a blindfold on. My hand reached up to take it off, but then everything came back to me. Jackson missing, friends tied up, psychos making us play their stupid game. I was stuck in the nightmare, only it wasn't something I could wake up from. I stood up, brushing the dirt off of me. Had the watch already gone off? Should I take off the blindfold? Something told me I should wait. Wouldn't want to get in trouble for taking my blindfold off before I was suppose to, who knows what they'd do.

Without warning, three beeps went off, making me jump and confused until I realized it was the watch. I yanked off the blindfold and put it in my pocket. I looked around as far as my eyes would let me see in the dark, nothing looked familiar. Just a bunch of trees and no trail. The sound of some sort of moving near me made me take off running, I wasn't risking it, it could of been one of the crazies.

The farther I ran, the more trees there appeared to be. I kept running, the thought or feeling of being tired was blocked from my brain and body. That wasn't an option.

In just a few seconds, I was being yanked into a bush by someone. I pulled away until I noticed it was one of my friends.

Question: Which friend do you think she encountered?