Reckless

Reckless - Chapter Eighteen

Howdy hey. Go check out the song at the side. Thanks to xxmiatiaraxx for recommending Falling in Reverse to me, because they're actually awesome.  <3 

R E C K L E S S . . . 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN -

The full moon hung in the sky, a glistening orb that taunted me and my bad luck. Why did I have to be the one to do this? Why did it have to be the full moon on the one night that it really counted? Really, someone up there must’ve really hated me.

I swung the rake round so it rested on my shoulder and without any more hesitation walked straight into the foreboding woods.

It was eerily quiet. Now Darren had scared any living creature within a mile radius – excluding me, it seemed – with his howl, everything had gone silent. There was no rustling in the undergrowth as animals scampered about or sounds of birds chirping to one another. The silence was suffocating, more enclosing and restrictive than the close trees, and I had to stop for a second before I could walk onwards into the deeper part of the woods where the trees drew tightly together.

The trees were like skeletons, slowly waving their thin branches in the silent wind. The muddy ground squelched underneath my feet and leaves crackled at even the slightest brush of my hand.

Stop being so scared, I told myself. Sam needed me. There was nothing to be scared of in the woods – except for maybe a werewolf, three vampires, a shape shifter and a fire elemental.

Great, that made nothing to be scared of at all.

I started to walk quicker, knowing that every second that Darren was in the woods Sam was in more and more danger. She needed me, and whatever stupid fight we’d had wasn’t going to change that.

For the first few minutes nothing happened. I saw nothing but the looming forms of trees and I heard nothing except for my footsteps on the ground.

Then, I heard an unmistakable sound. The pounding of feet against the ground, but they weren’t mine; they were someone else’s.

I whipped around and started edging through the trees towards the sound, certain that it was my friend. “Sam?” I called as loudly as I dared.

I found myself stumbling into a small clearing, about three meters wide each way. The moonlight flooded through the tiny opening in the canopy of trees and lit up the area in an unearthly white glow.

“Sam?” I called again.

The sound stopped, hearing my call, and then resumed in another direction. Whoever or whatever it was heading straight towards me. Then, silence.

I stood routed to the spot, trying to calm my hitched up breathing. The rake that had been propped up on my shoulder fell limply by my side; I gripped it like it was my lifeline.

“Wrong,” a voice whispered from behind me, icy breath tickling my neck. From that moment I knew that it wasn’t Sam – it was someone much worse. I would’ve recognized that voice anywhere, and upon hearing it I normally would’ve bolted. It was Chris.

“Ah shit,” I muttered, turning around resignedly to face him.

“Indeed,” he said, stepping out of the shadows and closer towards me.

I stepped back. “Where’s Sam?”

He strode forwards again so he was pressed right up to me. He was so close that I could smell the mint that perfumed the air around him. “Who’s Sam?”  he asked.

“You know who Sam is.” I took a step back again, and my back hit a tree. “She’s my friend, and she’s out here in the woods right now.”

Chris paused. “How would you know that?”