Alone, Together

Chapter Five

The wind circled the leaves across the ground, creating a small tornado of late green and orange. My brother, Zach, took his long stick and poked the whirling tornado, causing the leaves to sprawl away from each other.

"That's so cool!" Adam exclaimed, staring at the orange leaves on the ground with wide, dull-blue eyes.

"Everything in this forest is so cool," I comment, but of course, they don't listen. Zach has somehow managed to 'accidentally' whack Adam with the stick, and they're now tackling and wrestling each other on the forest floor. Groaning, I roll my eyes and throw a small pebble on Zach's shoulder. The young boy squeals in a short, stingy pain and steps away from Adam. "Let's continue playing hide and seek. Grandma has almost caught up with us!"

As I spoke, I could hear leaves and twigs being trampled. The trio lets out squeals of excitement and surprise, dashing deeper into the depths of the forest. I ran past hues of green and orange, feeling Adam speed ahead of me and Zach slowly trample behind me. But, behind the noises of the noisy children, I could hear the roar of my grandmother's feet along with young Xia's.

"We're gonna get caught!" Zach yelled, stumbling over a large twig. I grabbed his large hand and pulled him to his feet. The boy nodded in a quick acknowledgment before speeding beside his brother. I grunted in annoyance, feeling the breath burn in my lungs and throat. Finally, after moments of breath burning within my lungs and my legs weakening, I collapsed.

"Jamie!" Adam twisted his body around, hearing me thump onto the ground. I wheeze, embarrassed and exhausted, crawling to my knees. Zach and Adam dashed toward me, gripping my arms and dragging me to my feet. I coughed a few times, before hearing the 'thump, thump, thump' behind me. A sacred breath caught in my throat as Adam yanked me from the ground and dragged me into a clearing.

The whole clearing was surrounded by large, thick oaks, that swayed peacefully in the breeze. Juniper bushes surrounded the oaks, covering the spiraling ivy that climbed the oaks. In the middle there was a unmoving shadow, hidden poorly by the long grass that scraped my legs, making them itch.

The trio, completely forgetting the game of hide and seek, crept toward the shadow. As they brushed away the grass and trampled a path, I strained my eyes and saw it was covered with fur, despite a few patches ripped off. Its snout was ripped and long, with dirty, yellow fangs peeking underneath its ugly lip. Long whiskers poked from its cheek and maw. Dirty, matted brown fur covered its whole body, except for its back legs and snout.

"Ew.." I hiss under my breath.

"Cool!" Zach squealed, poking its eye. The eye made a squishing noise before popping out of its socket. I could hear Zach and Adam yell in a disgusted surprise, while I turned away and swallowed my vomit. I could taste it; bitterly gross, leaving a trail of bad taste on my tongue. After ridding of the taste, I turned around at the what I could only assume to be a drowned rat.

Its eye socket was a dull pink, showing it had been dead for a long time. Its spine was horribly twisted, probably what killed it, with part of the spine poking out from the skin. Slowly, I crept forward with a stick, poking its shoulder.

As I felt my stick touch the rotting flesh, I felt my vision flash. Instead of poking a rat, my stick was a hand pressing against a slightly tanned, young girl, with dusty brown hair. Her clothes were ragged and patched with dirty blood. The lower part of the girl's leg had been coated in a crusted blood, along with her throat, which had a deep slit across it. The girl's face was just so utterly dull, her eyes were removed with life. And as my hand pressed against the girl's shoulder, I could feel the death within her.