The Map That Leads to You

Chapter Five: Until I Find You

The storm continued to pass. Thunder rumbled loudly and lightning stroke. The sky was as black as the devil's soul, and it was as if the sky was about to collapse on me. The lightning was electrifying, the sight of it was painful to look at directly. It looked like there was someone zapping through the dark, frightening sky. It was pouring rain heavily. I heard the pitter patter everywhere around me. Puddles were scattered all over the floor, the grass was drowning. It almost felt like nature was attacking me. When I observed my surroundings, I realized I was in a gloomy forest. The trees towered over my body, the trees had branches that impersonated arms, and they swooshed from left to right, trapping me in the middle, swaying in every direction. I began to feel claustrophobic, and I was running out of breath. My breaths were short and rapid; my throat was beginning to rip in pain. It felt like hands were tightly wrapped around my cold neck. The wind was smacking me like a bat, moving me from left to right. I could hear the echoes of the wolves, of them growling. Although when I looked around there were no animals to be seen, nothing but the rain falling on the muddy floor.

Light from the lighthouse shone on a woman in front of me, she was standing on the tip of the cliff, wobbling around as if she was attempting suicide. I looked closely till I got a clear version of her face. Iris Peterson. She was standing and staring at me, tears were streaming down her wet cheeks, her hair was dripping wet from the rain, her green eyes looked as if they were black. She was frowning angrily. I ran towards her until I was in front of her, and I was staring into her sad eyes. It felt so surreal, I began to question everything. How did I get here? Why am I even here? She grabbed my hand and tightly pressed it until it felt numb. She had chipped black nail polish freshly painted onto her tiny fingernails. "Brendan," She whispered hoarsely. It seemed as if her voice was gone. "you have to hurry! They're coming for you." I was wondering what she was talking about, and who she meant, but before I could ask her further questions she was on her tip toes, centimeters away from jumping off the cliff. "Iris!" I worryingly screamed in fear as I grabbed her arm but my hands went right through as if she was a hologram. "Please, don't do it!" But before I could do anything to stop it, she was suddenly falling to her death in the large trees at the bottom of the cliff. I didn't see her fall, but I heard the leaves rustling loudly and I heard a loud thud a few seconds later.

I burst into tears, and sat on the edge of the cliff, shielding my face into my hands. And by then, I felt the rain fall on my shoulders. I kept crying continuously until I could feel an annoying pressing sensation on my forehead, a little over my right ear. It was painful and infuriating. Nothing I did could stop that sensation, but then I closed my eyes until I couldn't hear the rain anymore, until I couldn't hear the trees swooshing from side to side, until it felt like I was in a silent room, and I opened my eyes to find Iris pressing a wet cloth to my exposed wound. The one I got when I fell on the floor after the man punched me.

Iris's eyes were black and puffy, as if she had been crying for hours. Once she realized my eyes were open, she stopped cleaning my wound and ran her fingers through my hair. "Are you feeling better?" She soothingly asked. I was glad to see that she hadn't killed herself, that it was all just a terrifying nightmare. My back was in atrocious pain, and I felt tremendously painful and dead. But I didn't say a thing. "Yes, much better." I smirked calmly. "Where's Philip?"

"He's with Matthew." Iris sniffed. "He's explaining... everything." Her voice began cracking and tears built up in her eyes, she was about to cry. I got my head off her lap and sat down on the ground, feeling the warm and scratchy carpet beneath me. "Can you call him please?"

...

Philip was seated right in front of me on the couch. Iris was right next to him and I was still on the floor. "They weren't identified." Philip explained slowly to me. He was telling me everything I missed when I blacked out. "They had masks on, so no face recognition software could be used. They were also wearing gloves so no fingerprints were left behind." He held Iris's hand. "Ahmad was shot twice. One bullet to the head and the other to the chest." He said quietly. "By then, the men had run away but Ahmad was on the ground, his blood was flooding the ground. He had trouble breathing. He was crying." Philip stopped talking for a few seconds. "He was saying something in Arabic. It sounded kind of like a prayer." "I tried to help him but by the time I pressed my finger onto his neck to check for a pulse, I felt nothing. I tried to wake him up, he was cold and stiff." "As you know, I hate the sight of blood. The whole process was kind of difficult for me. Iris was sitting next to you." "When we realized we could do nothing more, Iris asked a woman to call the police and after she did, we dragged you home and ran away. We didn't want to risk being caught and taken back to the shelter." No wonder why my back was in pain, I thought. I was dragged.