Silent Night

Chapter Nine

Chapter nine

Lainey let go of my shirt as soon as she dragged me down into the bush, it wasn't a huge bush, but it was big enough to hide us from anyone, unless they came up from behind us. I turned my head to look behind me, keeping an eye out for our enemies.

My heart was fragile and head was on edge for any movement around us, it always seemed too quiet in this wooded area, like noise was blocked from the forest.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I nearly yelled at her. "We need to get out of here." I tugged onto her shirt sleeve, but she seemed to be distracted by something else. She peered out over the bush then dropped her head a few seconds later. "What are you do-" I asked as I began to lift my head above the bush.

Lainey pushed my head down, quickly. "He'll see you." She whispered, seriousness filled her eyes.

Oh great. Just icing on top of the cake, we've already encountered one of them already.

"What are we gonna do?" The question echoed in my head, eventually making me blurt it out. "We can outrun him, right?" The look on her face told me otherwise. We didn't know what these people were capable of doing. Or how fast they were.

"Do you still have your blindfold?" She took her eyes away from the direction of where I assumed one of the guys were. I reached into my pocket, bringing out the dirtied, beige blindfold, handing it off to her. "Good. Now I need you to understand something." I began to feel somewhat nervous, having a feeling the next words out of her mouth weren't going to be good. I nodded my head, awaiting what she was going to say next. Her hand rested on my shoulder as she talked to me, "These people don't want us to get out. They want to kill us. We're going to have to.." She began to choke up. "Kill them."

"I.. I don't think I can hurt a person." I fumbled with my words, trying to take in what she was saying. "I'm not strong enough for that." I looked at the reflection of myself in Lainey's eyes. Could I take the life of someone even if they were out to get my friends and I? "I don't know.." I began to babble, hoping Lainey would stop me. And she did.

"You're going to have to be strong." She lifted my head, cupping my face with her hands. It was almost comforting.

"Can't we just wait for him to leave and not have to make this decision?"

Lainey sighed, rubbing her temples with her thumb and middle finger. "You're not understanding me. It's a kill or be killed situation."

She didn't look like she was going to change her mind about it and the guy seemed to be lurking around more, getting closer to where we were. Either die by the hands of these people or show them that we're going to fight back, no matter what it takes. I've made my decision.. "Okay, what do I have to do?"

"You're going to be the distraction, I'll be the one to take him out. You need to lure him over here, but don't be so obvious. Get what I mean?" I nodded my head at her words, ready to take on any action she wanted me to do. "On the count of three, get up." Adrenaline pumped into my veins, I felt like I could do this. In fact, I was excited to. "One." She counted, but she didn't count fast enough. "Two." She was so close, just one more number to go. "Three." I was ready, it was my time.

I jumped up from the bush. Not even five seconds later, his eyes found their way to me. It was Ken.

He smiled while I put on the best fake scared look I had, making my eyes grow two times its normal size. Ken started to run towards me and then I took off, waiting for Lainey to attack him. Looking back, I seen him running past the bush. My feet stopped themselves when Lainey jumped onto his back, legs around his waist, putting the blindfold around his neck. She tightened it and he grabbed at his neck, trying to take the blindfold off, but she only pulled tighter. He moved his body around vigorously, attempting to throw Lainey off of him.

When I thought he was finally going down, he ran his back into a tree with as much force as he could. Lainey fell off of his back. She let out a groan as her body crashed against the forest floor.

Ken wrapped his hands around her neck. I ran up from behind him, grabbing the blindfold that dropped on the ground after he threw her off of him. I was her only chance, I knew what I had to do.

As he choked her, I came up from behind him, sticking my fingers as deep into his eyes as deep as I could until he stopped harming Lainey. He screamed, taking his hands off of her, she backed away, coughing and catching her breath. That's when I took the blindfold and wrapped it around his neck, finishing what Lainey started. Anger took over my body, making the cloth squeeze farther into his neck.

He dropped to his knees. Squeeze harder. It was all I could think of, I wanted nothing more than to have him dead.

All the hatred and all the frustration I built up this weekend came out as I took the emotions, putting them into actions. In my head, I screamed, I cursed the man for what he and the others forced onto us. "We. Don't. Want. To. Play. Your. Stupid. Game." Words slipped through my gritted teeth.

He tried to breathe, only making it worse as I forced more pressure onto his windpipe. His hacks became less, fighting him became easier, and soon his body fell to the ground. Finally. A weight lifted off of my shoulders, but my mind ran crazy. The adrenaline was gone, it went away when the life left Ken's eyes. My mind bounced around, ricocheting off of every wall in my head. I killed someone. It was hard to grasp, but I had to do it.

"You okay?" Lainey asked, touching my shoulder cautiously as if I were about to snap on her.

"Yeah.." My voice drifted off, then I collected myself. "Uh yeah, fine. It's just weird. I killed that guy." I looked away from his dead body, focusing myself on my friend.

"He would of killed me if you weren't there." She reminded me.

"Are you okay?" I looked at her, she didn't look traumatized, but a little shaky in the eyes.

"I can check almost dying off of my bucket list." Lainey joked, taking a look at the guy. "I'm okay, just gotta shake it off." She walked towards the body, kneeling down next to him. "I'm checking him for anything useful." She answered my question before I could ask it. She reached into his pockets, pulling out nothing. "I need to flip him over, a little help?" I went to her aid and helped her flip his dead weight over. I didn't know if what we were doing was sick. In my mind, it was survival. In his back pocket, she pulled out a cloth wrapped around a bottle. "This could make it easier next time." She passed me the contents and I shoved it into my pocket. "That's it, I guess." She seemed a little disappointed.

"What are we going to do with him? Do we just leave him here?"

"Yes. It'll send a message to the other fucking psychos."

She started to walked off. I jogged my way next to her, looking around, scanning the area we were in, making sure no one was near. "What message?" I asked her, curious as to what she was up to.

Lainey didn't stop walking as she looked me in the eyes, the look she gave me was unnerving. "To let them know that we're not to be fucked with." She uttered aloud, like she was wanting one of them to hear her words. We walked on, keeping quiet as we could as we traveled through the forest. The longer we walked in the same direction, the more it became clear to me.. We were lost. Lainey didn't want to admit it, but it was true. The thought of being lost in a forest with people trying kill us wasn't my ideal weekend.

A scream boomed through the forest. "Is that.."

Lainey stopped me before I could say it. "It's not any of our friends." She sounded confident about her assumption.

Then a voice echoed through the forest, answering our question. It was Daniel. "I'll get you fuckers for what you did! You'll pay!" It sounded as if he was using a megaphone to project his voice through a big part of the forest. "You want to play, oh, we'll play!" Pangs of fear hit me in the chest.

"What does this mean for us?" I looked at Lainey for guidance.

"There's been a change in the game." She stated. "Meaning, they're going to make it their mission to hunt us down like animals and kill us."

"We're going to be leaving in body bags, aren't we?" My little hope of living disappeared.

"I won't let you get hurt." She put her arm around me, forcing me to walk. "Come on, let's go before they find us."