Jonah [Discontinuing]

Chapter 2

Within five minutes, I managed to pass through all the stages of shock. First, hyperventilation; then pacing around the front porch of the shop. Skip into a few minutes, I'm wheezing in the fetal position on the ground, practically sucking my thumb.

After a while, I broke out of my anxiety attack with fear. "Oh God, this really is happening," I whispered to myself, "I've been abandoned. I'll have to go to therapy. If I ever live, I mean. Oh God. No one will come for me. I'll die here all by myself. Or worse, I'll be eaten alive by a werewolf or something."

 As soon as I mentioned that, I heard a rustling of leaves from l somewhere. This can't be happening to me right now. Shaking, I hopped off the porch and peered into the dead-end street. It felt like the entire forest stared back. Walking closer to the trees, I put my hand with the bottle in front of me, as if it could shield me. Who am I kidding, I ain't Captain America.

My foot hesitantly entered the world of the woods. "Hello? Is anyone out there?" Almost as a response, a strong breeze caught me from behind. It caused my long hair to lash out and whip my face. Pulling a hair tie off my wrist, I pulled back the ebony-colored wisps into a tight ponytail.

I began my journey deeper into the forest, and I don't even know why. Something in me wants to go further. I inhaled deeply, and slowly placed my feet over branches and leaves, careful not to make any noise. This is going well so far...

***~~***~~***

I felt like I've been walking for a lifetime. The sun is slowly drifting away, farther and farther from me. I peered into the sky and saw that the moon was taking the night shift. At this point, I really didn't care about making noise. My long legs crunched tree debris with every step. I am losing hope little by little.

"I give up." I admit to myself. Stopping, I sat on the dirt path and relaxed my aching feet, which have carried me a long way from home. My right hand still clenched the perfume bottle, but not as tightly as before. More like a relaxed "I give up, so I don't care" kinda grasp.

I hugged my legs tightly, wishing my dad was here. He'd know just what to do, the weirdo he is. I can imagine him now, smiling and saying something like," Don't lose hope, kiddo. Listen to Bill Nye, he has all the answers." Just remembering him and his goofy face made me begin to tear up. "I wanna go home." I muttered to myself.

Something moved by me, because I could clearly feel the eyes of someone on my back. I wiped away my incoming tears from my eyes to see better. I sniffed and quickly stood up, hiccuping from my recent sobs. "Who's there?" I hoarsely called out. The moon lit the path ahead of me, helping me find my way. That was when I noticed something in some bushes. A pair of eyes.

In the pale light, the olive-green eyes glared at me, burning holes through my face. Whatever it was, it wasn't happy. I also doubt it was a person, because it was looking up at me. This is not good.

"Uh, nice doggy? Kitty? Rodent species?" I began to panic, trying to remember what my dad said about animals with rabies. Was it to stop, drop, and roll? No, I think that's another one...

The shrubs began to rustle, and the "thing" let out a low moan, into a growl. Oh jeez, was it hungry? I wonder how big it is... Snapping out of my reverie, I realized the eyes disappeared. Maybe I'm going crazy, thinking to myself. Maybe Dad drugged me for one of his extreme science experiments.

Well, whatever this thing was, I don't think it really liked me. I slowly began to stand up cautiously, not to make any sudden movements. However, my luck had other ideas when I tripped over a pebble, which caused a clumsy chain of events of me stumbling to the ground.

Hearing my thud, the beast howled. I think that's my cue to run. I scrambled on the ground, desperately getting onto my feet. Without looking at where I was going, I ran like there was no tomorrow.

~~~**~~~**~~~

After a while, I waited to hear the stomps of him chasing me, but everything was quiet. I heaved a sigh, hoping that my intuition was right and he was gone. I eyed the bottle in my hand, surprised I didn't throw it at him. I managed to chuckle a bit at the thought of that. Though I had trouble containing my breaths, I didn't really care. As long as I'm alone, I'm fine.

However, of course too early to be dawdling around, because sure enough, I heard a low growling in the bushes behind me. Yay.

Carefully, I began to push myself upwards. I attempted to control my breathing as much as I could without being heard. And thank the heavens, I managed to stand up. And thank my horrible luck, my first step was in some kind of wild animal crap, which resulted in me falling. From behind, there was the noise of leaves being crushed to oblivion by paws. I'm dead. That thought gave me a brilliant idea.

I closed my eyes and pretended to be dead. I slowed my breathing to my chest didn't rise, and I stopped moving.

Suddenly, there was a stomping sound, and I felt the ground shake. The next thing that came astonished me. I heard a soft whimpering, like a little puppy. Opening me eyes, I quietly turned to the bushes where the eyes had disappeared. Curiosity got the best of me, and I positioned myself into a crouch, crawling stealthily to the noise. It was the bear. Sitting on the ground. Crying.

Okay, I am definitely going crazy. I don't think bears can cry...I don't mean howling and whining. It was legitimately tearing up and sniffing and hiccuping, like me just a few minutes ago. It's sobs were quiet, yet I could see its body shaking. I didn't know whether to feel sad or take pity on the poor thing.

Why was it crying though? Was it crying because I ran away? Surely not...right? Something probably took over me, because without realizing it, I crawled into the bear's view. Coming to know what I've done, I quickly started to turn around, but it was too late. I heard the hiccups stop, and then no sounds. Was he still there?

I lost the feeling of the moonlight on my back, slowly being covered in shadow. Hesitantly, I turned my head and saw the beast standing over me on its hind legs, dangling its paws in the air. A ferocious sound echoed through the air as saliva dripped from his jaw.

"Crap," I muttered. I tried to get up, but then was pushed back down when the weight of the bear collapsed onto me. I could feel its warm, heavy breath on my face, fogging up my glasses. I  pulled my knees up against my chest, trying to appear as small as possible. When the bear ducked his head, ready to rip off mine, I swung my arms to protect my face, showing the bottle. A few seconds passed by, then a minute. Squinting my eyes to see, I noticed his green eyes widen at my hand. It closed its mouth and sniffed the bottle, then surprised me. It licked my fingers.

With a sudden jolt, the bear squished his snout to my nose and presumed to lick me entire face. Slobs of spit were painted from my forehead to my chin and into my ears. I wiggled and giggled nervously and tried to escape its grasp. "Stop it!" I yelled with frustration. To my surprise, he listened.

Lying down, he stared at me and bared his sharp teeth, as if he was smiling, his tiny tail wagging. I heard a voice from somewhere. "You've really come for me?"