Silent Night

Chapter Ten

Chapter ten

Lainey stayed close to me as we ran through the forest, away as far as possible from the man we killed and the people we've majorly pissed off. My mind couldn't concentrate on anything except for the image of the psychos bashing in our faces or doing something even worse.

Nothing seemed distinctively familiar so we traveled in the same direction. My feet felt sore, legs felt like jello, and my knees were bound to give out at any moment.

"Lainey." I called out for her, nearly out of breath. I stopped, making her do the the same. My knees gave away, hitting the ground along with the rest of me tumbling down with it. She rushed to my side to try to help me up. My hands waved hers away from me. "I'm fine. I just need a break."

"They're going to catc-"

"Catch up to us, I know. Just a few minutes, please." I cursed myself for not taking physical education more seriously. Slim didn't mean fit. I rested my head against the leaves scattered across the ground. My eyes spotted something through the trees as I laid down. It looked like a wooden well. I squinted my eyes to try to get a better look at it. The thought of water was welcoming to my lips and dry mouth. "Lain." My voice came out scratchy.

She looked in my direction. "Yeah?"

"There's a well, go see if there's water." My hand reached out to point towards where my eyes had been looking.

She nodded her head and walked towards the well. I sat myself up, suddenly having the urgency to get up and go with her. As she walked farther away from me, my ears were on high alert, listening to the sounds around me.

Snap!

A twig broke not far from behind me. I knew what it was, but I didn't want to admit it. More snaps of twigs and crunches of leaves came from behind me. I got up, trying to take refuge behind a tree. It wasn't a good spot to hide, but it was all I had. My heart felt as if it were trying to beat it's way out of my chest. My mind concentrated on the footsteps as I tried to count how many people were near me, guessing how much of a chance Lainey and I had from getting away.

Lainey turned around, looking around, trying to spot me. When her eyes landed on mine, confusion covered her face. She was about to open her mouth to speak until I held my index finger to my lips. Hide. I mouthed the words, hoping she would understand. She hid behind a fallen tree, out of sight of anyone, I could barely even see her unless she raised her head.

The sky started to lighten up. How long have we been out here in the forest?

A bad feeling pierced through my heart, I wanted to run, but that'd screw up any chance I had left. All I could do is stand there in the silence, the footsteps had stopped, not a sound within a ten mile radius, it seemed like. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for the worst.

As my eyes shut tight, I took my imagination to another reality, one without people hunting my friends and I down like wild animals, one where we were free and happy. I could see my friends running through a bright field, chasing each other as if we were playing tag. Suddenly in my imagination, things went wrong, my friends began to drop to ground without reason. I walked over to them to see them dead, blood covering them and my screams filling the once nice imagination world I created.

"You didn't think you were that sneaky?" The voice of Daniel sliced through the silence and brought me back to the reality we were in. My eyes snapped open, looking directly at Lainey. In my peripheral vision, I could see Leo and Daniel. She slowly got out, in plain sight. Luckily, Daniel and his partner Leo had not seen her. Slyly, I nodded my head, signaling to stay where she was. When she got back into her hiding spot, my attention turned to Leo and Daniel.

Anger wasn't a word to describe how they looked, it was more as if they were on the verge of losing their sanity.. Again. In my mind, these people must of have lost their minds at least a few times to do something this screwed up.

Run! My mind screamed, but my feet wouldn't abide.

Once I found movement in my legs, I tried to run from the people as they watched me like a hungry tiger. "Now where do you think you're going?" Leo used his palm to push me into the tree. My back slammed into the bark, making me arch my back in pain. "Did you do it?" His dark eyes watched me like a hawk.

"Do what?" The question fell easily off of my lips with no hesitation.

As he swallowed his saliva, I watched his Adam's apple bobble. "You know what I'm talking about." His hand grabbed the front of my shirt, pulling me close to him, his other hand was reaching behind me, quickly grabbing what was in my back pocket before I could stop him. My expression dropped. I was caught. "Huh.. Well isn't this interesting?" Leo laughed, looking at the bottle of chloroform and cloth Lainey and I took from Ken.

"Don't think we didn't recognize your little friend either." Daniel purposely yelled, looking over where Lainey was hiding. "Get up, sweetie." His hushed tone got creepier every time I heard it. Lainey started to get up slowly, eyes like a deer in the headlights. "Now get the fuck out of here before we get you too." His soft voice turned ugly and filled with hatred.

"Marla?" She frowned, not moving a muscle.

"Go." I said with a placid tone. My eyes looked away from her, not having the heart to look at her while telling her to leave.

"You heard her. Leave before we change our minds." Daniel spoke staring at me, but talking to Lainey.

She ran away, waiting a good distance away before looking back at me.

"Back to busin-" Leo started to speak. My foot went flying straight to his groin with force I didn't know I even had. He fell to the ground, holding his precious jewels. Daniel went to hit me, I ducked, his fist flying straight into the tree. Grabbing his head, I smashed it into the tree, running off in any direction I decided to run in. The direction happened to be opposite of where Lainey ran. I wanted to lead them away from her, not to her.

It wasn't long until I started to hear the pounding against the ground. I turned, thinking it was a smart choice to go. Then I was cut off by Leo, not sure of how he got there so quickly. I rammed right into him, knocking him to the ground, sending me down with him. A pocket knife fell from out of his pocket. Picking it up then opening it, I shoved it into his shoulder blade as far as I could before I got up to run away. Leo grabbed my foot, jerking me back to him. Dirt got caught up in my mouth as my face hit the ground. Looking back, I seen Daniel shortly behind us. Leo had ahold of my leg, holding on as if his life counted on it, also trying to get the knife out of his shoulder. Blood seeped through the wound, covering the knife and his shaky hand, making it difficult to pull out. With a swift kick to his face, it loosened his grip enough for me to slip away from his hand.

Running off once again, I wiped the dirt from my tongue, then focused on where to run.

My body went crashing to the ground as Daniel tackled me with him on top. Pain shot through my body, stunning me for a couple of seconds as he punched me, and punched me, and punched me some more. My face became numb, only able to feel the warm liquid of blood leaving my nose and wounds he caused. "You helped us a lot, darling." Another punch. I tried to block the blows to my face, but he always found his away around it. Eventually I became too weak to fight him off anymore. "You ran right to our base." He smiled, grabbing ahold of my hair, yanking me towards him. "And I thank you for that, but you've lost. Time to find out what your prize is." His ragged breath tickled my neck.

He dragged me by the hair across the ground. I watched him, shutting my mind off, trying not to think of the horrible things they'd do to me. He stopped, moving leaves out of the way to reveal a hidden wooden door leading underground. He opened it, all I saw was concrete stairs leading down to darkness.

Daniel grabbed me, pulling me close to him. He put his arm around me, forcing it down over my mouth. My body went into panic mode as I tried to fight for breath. His hand brushed my hair, shushing my screams into his arm. "Goodnight." My eyes opened and closed, vision slowly began to get fuzzy as I slowly fell into unconsciousness.